No, you can pay as you go. We do not "lock" our students into doing a set number of lessons. We normally ask our clients to pay after each lesson, or book a block of hours if that is more convenient.
Yes, we have no extras, no hidden charges and currently, we do not charge VAT.
Our business operates from Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, but we do not have a school office. Just Russian is an agency that hires freelance tutors living in different parts of London to deliver Russian courses. All the tutors are happy to travel to our students' homes and offices. Some teachers, including Vlada, can do lessons on their own premises. Occasionally, we do lessons in public venues.
Definitely, if you are based in London. If you are outside London, it depends on the transport links.
We do not charge travel expenses if you are based in London. Outside London, we may ask you to compensate the tutor's travel time and fare.
Lessons cancelled or rescheduled less than 24 hours in advance will be counted as taught and charged for.
That varies greatly from person to person and depends on a lot of factors. An average learner needs about 20 hours to master the basics, and another 20 to start speaking at an intermediate level. But this is a very rough estimate. For more information please see - Link to a blog article (levels of language proficiency).
A definite no. Unless you just want to learn a limited set of phrases.
Russian is a European language, so anyone who has ever learned Latin or German or another European language, will find exactly the same concepts and similar rules. However, Russian grammar is rich and often complex, and Russian vocabulary is completely different from any Western European language, including English.
Look at it this way: learning Russian gives you a great sense of achievement!
Yes, they are. They are not only Russian native speakers but also professional linguists with many years of teaching experience behind them. All our teachers are either from Russia or Ukraine.
Yes, they are. We only work with professionals who have a university degree in linguistics and language teaching. Some of our teachers have a PhD in linguistics. We take our job serously!
No, Russian is very uniform in the whole of the Russian speaking world. We do not have any striking dialects or regional accents. Which makes understanding Russian speakers easier!
Yes, you certainly can in a 1:1 course, which will be scheduled to suit your availability. But please remember the 24 hour late cancellation rule.
A typical lesson lasts 1.5 hours. It's just enough for doing enough revision, practice, new material, covering all the language skills - speaking, reading, listening. However, 1 hour and 2 hour lessons are a popular option as well.
Doing homework is important, but you don't have to dedicate hours and hours to it. Doing an hour or two every week is already a good effort. But of course the more homework you do, the faster you progress.
For long term courses, yes. We will recommend the best book for you and will send you a link online, so that you could order it.
We will happily refund the money up to one year from receipt of your payment. Just let us know.
You can pay by bank transfer on line, in cash or by cheque. We always provide invoices and receipt notifications for all payments.
If it's a large block - yes. Also, if you are doing a lot of hours per week or long lessons, we can give you a discount.
You can do a 1 hour trial lesson, but if you carry on with the course with the same teacher, we will count this lesson as part of your course and will charge for it. If you do not carry on with the lessons, we will not charge. But we have never had a situation when a client did not carry on because they did not like the trial lesson!
