Michal (27 years old) from Czech Republic (studied in Multilingua from January to July 2022)

In 5 months I took 440 lessons of individual Russian courses.

Why Estonia?

Well, neither me, nor my wife felt like traveling to Russia or Belarus. Also, as EU citizens, administratively it was simply much easier for us to stay in EU, which meant the Baltics. And we just liked Tallinn the most of the Baltic capitals :-).

I took 20 individual lessons a week with two teachers taking turn, so the learning is quite intensive. However, I enjoy it very much, both Lukasz and Ksenia are great teachers, though with very different approaches. It´s hard for me to judge, but it seems to me I´ve made quite a good progress so far (although it´s probably a claim for them more than me to make). I´m capable of watching Russian movies or news now without the need of subtitles, and read for example articles on the internet without constant looking up unknown words in a dictionary. I´m usually quite shy and have a hard time talking to strangers, but we managed to get past that very soon and though we see each other every day for a couple of hours, we never seem to run out of things to talk about (hats down to their preparation and ability to keep the lessons interesting, I know as a former teacher, how much time and energy it can take sometimes).

Why do I study Russian?

I´m a historian by training (master´s degree). I worked several years as a primary school teacher. It started as a temporary job, just because the opportunity came up, but I stuck with that. Nevertheless, I got tired of all the restrictions and difficulties at school due to coronavirus and last summer decided I need a change and possibly return to my original field of study. Since I was always interested in the history of 20th century and the eastern bloc in particular, I decided to focus on this topic and get a job in some research institute such as the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Czech Republic.

To get an advantage in applying for a job and to understand the relevant sources and literature, I wanted to improve my Russian. I took some lessons in high school and during my university studies, so I wasn´t starting from scratch. First, I took some private lessons in Czechia, but that didn´t feel like enough, so I decided to take an intensive course abroad. I discussed it with my wife, who was on a maternity leave anyway, agreed with my director to quit by midyear and found a course at Multilingua.