Language lessons Barricade meeting incites passion

2 • December 8, 2010 SAMMAMISH REVIEW
Max
Continued from Page 1
the council’s meetings, polishing
his English skills by carefully
paying attention to hours upon
hours of arcane policy debates on
development regulations, the city
budget and cell phone towers.
Armed with a laptop open to
an online Russian-English translator,
it’s just another in a series
of learning opportunities for
Safonov, who took every available
English as a Foreign
Language class at Bellevue
College but remains thirsty for
any opportunity to expand his
vocabulary and improve his command
of the language.
It’s that sort of initiative that
got Safonov from living with an
aunt and riding his bike to work a
cashier’s job to owning a Toyota
Prius and landing an assistant job
at Washington Federal Savings
here in Sammamish.
“If you work hard and set
goals, you can accomplish anything
you want,” Safonov said.
Leaving home
Safonov’s path to America was
less than smooth.
He grew up in the Krasnodar
region of Russia, an ethnically
diverse and sometimes-volatile
area in the far southern end of
the country, near the Black Sea,
Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.
At the tender age of 21,
Safonov was the pastor of a small
congregation of Seventh Day
Adventists – the youngest of any
pastor in the regional conference.
While on his way back from the
church’s regional office, Safonov
was robbed by a group of men,
who took his laptop, passport,
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wallet, cell phone and other
important items.
“It was all of my assets,”
Safonov explains. “All I had left
were the clothes I was wearing.”
Police caught and arrested one
of the men, who belonged to the
Adygea, a Muslim-based ethnic
minority group that controlled
many of the government institutions
in that area. Safonov said
the man was released several
days later and the courts, made
of mostly Adygean administrators,
promptly found the man
innocent despite eye-witness
accounts that he had stolen the
items. Max said their reasoning
was that the man was drunk at
“If you work hard and
set goals, you can
accomplish anything
you want.”
– Max Safonov,
Emigre –
the time.
Safonov said the police interviewed
him on multiple occasions
but seemed to be asking for
bribes if Safonov wanted to see
justice done and get his belongings
back – something that permeates
everything about Russian
society.
“If you’re not related to someone,
you have to pay,” he said.
“They try to prosecute it but it is
everywhere in the system. It’s
hard to change a whole generation.”
Safonov said his sister, who is
still in Russia studying to become
a lawyer, continues to tell stories
of the rampant corruption. Of the
30 people in one of her classes,
only three did not pay a bribe in
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said.
“It’s not official – it’s not like
there is a price on the door,” he
said. “But the students talk to
each other and figure out that
you have to do it. If someone didn’t
pass an exam it probably
means they didn’t pay.”
Safonov said he’s also been
stopped for traffic violations by
police officers who threatened to
bring him to jail if he didn’t pay
them a bribe. Safonov was forced
to pay up with the only money
he had – all of his church’s weekly
tithes.
Heartsick over what he had
done, Safonov later confronted
the same police officer and
explained where the money had
come from. The officer handed
back the money and told him
never to speak of the incident.
Following the theft of his laptop
and passport, Safonov said he
fasted for three days and prayed
to God for the issue to be
resolved. Though Safonov never
got his things back, the incident
would prove a blessing in the
end.
Hard work
Frustrated by the rampant corruption,
Safonov began thinking
about his aunt, who lived in a
place called Bellevue in the
United States.
After making his case to the
United States embassy in
Moscow, Safonov was granted
refugee status based on his treatment
following the mugging.
Along with his mother, father
and younger brother, Safonov
came to the United States in fall
of 2007 and lived with his aunt
and her family.
Though he had been taught
some basic English in school,
he’d never had to use it in Russia.
With few marketable skills and
only a few words of English,
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Safonov’s job options were limited.
He enrolled in English as a
Second Language classes at
Bellevue College, which cost only
$25 for Bellevue residents and
refugees. Slowly but surely, his
vocabulary grew.
After months of applying and
multiple rejections, he got two
jobs in one day – as a cashier in
the cafeteria on Microsoft’s campus
and in the deli of the Top
Food and Drug in Bellevue.
Strapped for cash, he took both.
For several months he lived a
schedule that would burn out
most people. English class was
“I read biographies of
millionaires and it is
always the same way to
success. You have to
work hard – there is no
easy way.”
– Max Safonov,
Emigre –
from 7:30 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. Then
there was a bus ride to Microsoft,
where he stood on his feet from
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. After that he
worked from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30
p.m. (and all day Sunday) at the
grocery store, weighing and tagging
cold cuts and salads for customers.
Unable to afford a car, Safonov
often biked multiple miles
between the jobs and his home.
He spent some of the money he
was saving on additional
Bellevue College classes – how to
write resumes, how to communicate
on the job.
And every minute of every
day was a learning opportunity –
while working the cash register
at Microsoft, Safonov would keep
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his iPhone handy, which had a
Russian translation application. If
he heard a word he didn’t know,
he’d take a moment to look it up.
He brought a pocket full of
English flashcards to work. Once
a word was memorized it went in
the left pocket; if he got it wrong
it went back into the right pocket.
“There is no bad job,” Safonov
said. “To get a better job you need
certain skills – if you don’t have
them you have to find somewhere
you can get them …
Whenever you get a new job it is
an opportunity to grow.”
He eventually decided he
needed to quit the Top Foods job
when he fell asleep on the bus
ride home from work and woke
up 15 blocks from home.
“I thought I’d just rest my eyes
for a minute,” Safonov said.
Safonov’s hard work led to an
interview with Washington
Federal Savings, in front of
Eastlake High School in
Sammamish. One of his Bellevue
College professors suggested he
apply.
Branch Manager Sharon
Sentena said anything Max
lacked in English skills he more
than made up for in initiative. He
assists around the bank, helping
write loan offers and answering
phones.
“He’s a man of high character,”
she said. “It’s pretty amazing that
he came here basically not being
able to speak any English at all …
He’s a very hard worker.”
A new home
Max said America feels like
home now. He still keeps in
touch with his sisters in Russia
via Skype and often thinks of
them, but says the sorts of opportunities
he’s seen in America
wouldn’t have presented themselves
in Russia, where who you
Correction
See MAX, Page 5
“Teenagers sleep in boxes to
understand homelessness,” in the
Dec. 1 Sammamish Review, misspelled
Director of Youth
Ministries Robert Seybold’s
name.
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