Craig's book Excuse Me, I’m a Foreigner 

Alumnus pens book about life in Russia

Craig Ashton (German and Russian, 2005) has published a book in Russian about his experiences living and working in St Petersburg since graduation.

Craig works as a language coach and translator, as well as occasionally acting for Russian TV programmes. Recently he’s also added author to his CV, with a collection of his blog posts being turned into a popular book Excuse Me, I’m a Foreigner.

Craig says: “I studied Russian as well as German at university because I’d always been interested in Russian history and literature, and I also thought that Russian wasn’t such a common language to learn so it might give me a bit of an advantage when it came to work.

“I first went to St Petersburg as a student at Exeter. It was a bit of a shock at first, Russia was just coming out of a pretty terrible time in the 1990s and it was noticeably poor. Half the cars on the street were battered old Ladas and Skodas and a lot of buildings were in a poor state of repair. However I had a great time. I started to get to know people and the culture and had a really positive experience.”

Craig had such an enjoyable time in St Petersburg during his degree that he ended up making it his home for the next 15 years, meeting his wife and building a successful career.

He says: “I thought when I graduated that I would be a translator in the UK but I loved my time in St Petersburg so much I decided to go back and try and improve my language and find work there. I’ve been here ever since! It’s changed quite a lot over the years, the buildings have been restored, there are a lot of expensive cars now instead of Ladas, and the atmosphere is more relaxed.

“Off the back of my teaching work I started writing a few stories on Facebook to help Russians learn English. Sometimes people can be afraid to learn so I would post stories about my own experiences of learning Russian - how many mistakes I made and embarrassing incidents that happened – to show that it is the same for everyone at the start but that it gets better.

“Then I started to expand these stories to start writing about my other experiences in Russia and these were even more popular with lots of comments and interaction. Then one day I suddenly got an email from AST who are this massive publishing house here, wanting to turn my stories into a book. It was slightly unreal!”

Excuse Me, I’m a Foreigner has got quite a bit of media attention and very positive reviews since launch.

Craig says: “The reaction to the book has been amazing. I have had people sending me photos and videos of themselves and family reading it and somebody actually thanked me for writing it.

“There is quite a lot of negativity written about Russia in the West and although it’s directed at the government, people can feel like it is being aimed at them personally and how they live. My book is generally pretty positive, my life here has been great, so I’m sharing fun anecdotes about everyday life and things that have happened to me.”

At the moment the book is only available in Russian and Craig says many elements are almost untranslatable, however one day he’d like to try and create an English version to increase knowledge and help get more people interested in Russia. 

Date: 28 June 2021