Learn Russian in St Petersburg pre Uni

Claire Jones  
10 weeks   
Intensive Russian course  

I expected to get basic grounding in the Russian language, understand more about grammar, and be able to speak conversationally. I hoped to experience various aspects of Russian culture, Russian history etc. to set me up prior to reading Russian at Uni.

The amount of language I learnt, and the spoken level I achieved definitely exceeded my expectations. Also I did many interesting cultural activities and felt sufficiently immersed and comfortable in the host cultures, and met Russian people.

The lessons were very good, there were a good variety of activities and various skills, very good student / teacher interaction. The teachers were lovely, friendly and very good at their job! I can’t think of any improvements on the Russian language school at all.
All the staff were very friendly and approachable. It was a very good location, central but not so central as to be noisy and there were great transport links from the accommodation.

The course offered a good pace of learning, but all aspects were covered in-depth, and were fun.  I was also surprised at how great the teachers offering the Russian language courses were and in fact my fellow students were. The first couple of weeks seemed slightly slow, but everything got better, and it was good to go over things carefully to ensure full understanding of all basic concepts.

The other students were very friendly, interesting, varied ages and nationalities. Nice to meet people who I might not necessarily mix with at home. Students in the class were good, motivated to learn, had a positive attitude and were cooperative -so everyone benefited.

Social activities (especially the vodka parties) were always enjoyable, especially nice to meet Russians studying other languages at the school; I made some (hopefully) lasting links there. Cultural programme and excursions looked interesting; I could have taken more advantage of it, but never quite got around to it (ran out of time)! But still succeeded in seeing plenty.

Loved St Petersburg, a great place to study and live in. I thought food etc was very cheap, most expensive stuff was clothes and western type products. I spoke with local people outside class, haggled successfully at markets, spoke with new people when out socially etc, and obviously with my host family. Generally felt safe, even late at night, helped that the accommodation was still fairly central.  Frankly it felt safer than London. Definitely plenty to do in the day, too many places to recommend, loved everything.

Really pleased with my accommodation. The host family were very nice people. Welcoming on the first day, great Russian food, good practice of language, good outings to theatre etc, suggestion of things to do, information about the city, culture etc. It was useful in the first few days that the son had some English! Would definitely recommend them to others. Also, was nice having fellow students staying with me for my first 6 weeks, but time alone was also good, nice combination, both worked for me.

A great 10 weeks and a lot of Russian learnt.
Thanks CESA!