Blog

Finally we  managed to visit Siberia! Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk impressed us deeply. Our travel participant Darja kept a trip diary and  shared her notes with us.

July 26th. Today we got to know Ekaterinburg. We were on a 4-hour city tour. The sun was shining, the information was very interesting. Afterwards we enjoyed a cool beer until we visited the Yeltsin centre, which illuminated the history of Yeltsin from his perspective.

Learning Russian isn't easy!  But if you are forced on a journey to speak Russian all the time, then you achieve success ! Our students experienced it on their trip to Belarus. During 5 days we visited the Belarusian village Radoschkovichi and the capital Minsk. Our participant of the trip Raphael Rutar reports.

March 8th is a popular public holiday in Russia. Originally, the holiday was about equality, women's right to vote and the emancipation of women workers. Today, this day has taken on a different meaning in Russia, namely a celebration of femininity, love and motherhood. Russian women and girls are treated like queens on that day, flowers and other gifts are presented to them, the household is laid down and compliments are generously distributed.

What could be better than to visit the enchanting cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow in their entire winter splendor? In December 2018 we drove to Russia with a group of students. We had chosen the time well, since we were there before the Christmas time, but the cities were already shining in the most beautiful Christmas lights and everything was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

And once again we are welcoming at our school Yulia Savchenko, a journalist of the Voice of America. She has been working in Washington for the past 8 years and her weekly show “Current time. Itogi ” features politicians, human rights activists, reporters and experts. We were really lucky that Yulia, while traveling in Switzerland, agreed to come and talk to our students in person. In 2016, we talked to Yulia via Skype right before the US president’s inauguration in Washington.

We began this summer with a Russian celebration. Indeed, we did not miss any opportunity to practice "applied linguistics". Of course, with a lot of fun and enjoyment.

We always tend to offer diverse travel and study programs. That is why this year we decided to show our students something different from the glamorous life in the Russian metropolises. Our goal was the Russian province, more precisely the settlement of Balakirevo, which is located 130 km northeast of Moscow, directly on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Balakirevo has around 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom work in heavy industry. We designed a special program for our students.

The year 2018 has started at the Russian Language School sensationally with a great fabulous celebration of the Russian New Year! As it is customary in Russia, traditional festive dishes and drinks have been served: Russian salads, cabbage rolls with meat, pancakes with curd cheese and Russian vodka and Ukrainian horilka, which kept us warm at the party.