Background
Helen Bates-Yakobson was born as Helen Zhemchuzhnaia on May 21, 1913, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation (then Russian Empire). Her father was a physician.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course
(This book is intended to help students of Russian develop...)
This book is intended to help students of Russian develop ease in the conversational use of the language and at the same time gain an insight into traditional and contemporary Russian cultural values.
https://www.amazon.com/Conversational-Russian-Intermediate-Helen-Yakobson/dp/0938920596
1985
Crossing Borders: From Revolutionary Russia to China to America
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155779071X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
1994
Helen Bates-Yakobson
Edit ProfileEducation
When Helen Yakobson was a young girl, her parents fled Russia during the 1917 revolution and ended up in China, where Yakobson attended school. She graduated with a bachelor of laws degree from a university in Harbin in 1934.
Career
Helen Yakobson, after graduation from university, taught Russian language and literature in China for two years. The Japanese invasion of China led her to immigrate to the United States in 1937. During World War II she worked for the Voice of America and during the late 1940s was a scriptwriter and announcer for Russian programs for the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C.
In 1951 she joined the faculty at the George Washington University, where she immediately was the founder of the Slavic Languages Department. In her Russian classes, Yakobson used Russian scientific and technical journals, newspapers, and books, not only to teach the language but also to keep track of twists and turns in the Soviet hierarchy. From 1958 till 1969 she was chair of the Russian Department. During her time at the George Washington University, she became a professor of Russian, the position she held till 1983.
In 1987 she created the Helen and Sergius Yakobson Scholarship. She also taught Russian classes at various government agencies and on television. In addition, she was the president of the Academy Group of Russian Studies and helped find finances for new writers.
Yakobson wrote several Russian language study guidebooks, including Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course (1985), and was also the author of the autobiography Crossing Borders: From Revolutionary Russia to China to America (1994).
Achievements
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Helen Yakobson was known as an outstanding educator. She is particulary remembered as a professor of Russian at the George Washington University. In 1966, she was an outstanding professor of the year. She received several awards for her teaching, including a 1995 award from the Russian Embassy for the preservation and development of Russian cultural and spiritual values.
Works
book
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Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course
(This book is intended to help students of Russian develop...)
1985 - Crossing Borders: From Revolutionary Russia to China to America 1994
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Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course
Views
Quotations: "My "Americanization" took place at all levels of my existence; in one sweep I had lost not only my family and my familiar surroundings, but also my ethnic, cultural, and class identity."
Membership
Yakobson was former president of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, the Greater Washington Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages, the National Slavic Honor Society, and the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies.
Personality
Physical Characteristics: The cause of Yakobson's death was cardiopulmonary arrest.
Connections
Helen Yakobson was married twice. The marriage with her first husband, Abraham Bates, produced a daughter, Natalia. Then the couple divorced and she married Sergius Yakobson. The marriage produced a son, Dennis. Her husband died in 1979.
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Born
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Died
December 4, 2002 (aged 89) -
Resting place
Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, United States -
Nationality
United States -
Ethnicity
Career
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1951 - 1983