Today is the second class of our current four class set. We will begin with a casual conversation. Our reading today is a letter to Airbnb employees. Our reading is to expand your vocabulary. Underline any words or phrases that are not familiar with you and be prepared to share at least three with me in class. Our listening is about Russian fast-food. Don’t worry about accuracy- please follow the transcript with the audio at the same time. Do not listen more than two times. Please check the google doc for your writing assignment.
Click HERE for the reading
CHERYL W THOMPSON, HOST:
Amid the monthslong war in Ukraine, thousands of foreign companies have departed Russia in protest over the invasion. Among the largest and most symbolic exits was McDonald's with more than 800 restaurants across the country. Yet the franchise is now back under new Russian ownership and a new name, as NPR's Charles Maynes reports from Moscow.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: In 1990, thousands lined up in central Moscow for a first taste of a McDonald's hamburger in what came to symbolize a thaw in Cold War tensions and a Soviet embrace of American culture.
(CROSSTALK)
MAYNES: Fast forward to today, and certainly, hundreds showed up to check out McDonald's replacement, a newly christened burger empire called Vkusno & Tochka, which translates from Russian as something like delicious, that's all.
(APPLAUSE)
MAYNES: Anna Patrunina, one of the first McDonald's hires in the Soviet Union and now vice president of operations for the new spinoff, says the difference between then and now is Russian confidence.
ANNA PATRUNINA: (Through interpreter) Thirty-two years ago, we were so worried because we didn't know how it would go. But today, we know exactly what we're doing.
MAYNES: Indeed, the new delicious franchise, which will soon launch across the country, is built mostly, if not entirely, on the old McDonald's model. Sure, gone are the golden arches, replaced by an abstract letter M forged from two giant French fries and what appears to be a flattened bun. But the suppliers of Russian beef, chicken and potatoes are the same. Even the staff is the old McDonald's crew. All 62,000 employees will remain under an acquisition deal that guarantees their jobs for the next two years. The franchise's new owner, Russian businessman Alexander Govor, says there's simply no reason to reinvent the wheel when McDonald's had all but perfected it.
ALEXANDER GOVOR: (Through interpreter) The system they developed is world-famous. I've learned lots from it, and it's even come to influence my other businesses.
MAYNES: The opening, of course, comes amid Western sanctions and a boycott by McDonald's and hundreds of other foreign companies over Russia's actions in Ukraine. That fact wasn't lost on Svetlana Vivitsky, who said the relaunch under new ownership showed Russia was now quite capable of making its own hamburgers, thank you very much.
SVETLANA VIVITSKY: (Through interpreter) McDonald's left, but we didn't panic. We opened our own restaurant under a new name with food that's just as good - certainly no worse.
MAYNES: And about that food...
ILYA KONSENBERG: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: ...Ilya Konsenberg, a local university student, says the burgers, the fries taste basically the same. "It's just different packaging," says Konsenberg. But there are some noticeable differences. The Big Mac is no more - its secret sauce still a secret. McNuggets are now just nuggets. In fact, all Mc references are gone under a deal with McDonald's to de-arch Russia completely. It's a purging of the past that at least some found depressing.
LUDMILLA RUDENKO: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Outside the restaurant, Ludmilla Rudenko clutched an empty hamburger wrapper and said she felt like she was at a funeral. Rudenko fears that under new Russian ownership, old Soviet practices might come back and destroy a restaurant she and her family had come to love over the past three decades.
RUDENKO: (Speaking Russian).
RUDENKO: "Have you ever eaten in a Soviet restaurant?" she asked. "You never knew if the meat you were getting was lamb, pork or your neighbor's cat."
RUDENKO: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Was she kidding? Probably. But neither she nor the cat relish those times. Charles Maynes, NPR News, Moscow.