Learn Russian? That should be fun I thought. Initially, I only wanted conversational Russian, not thinking it would be necessary to read, write or understand the grammar. This, I was told was not the way to learn a language! How very true, I now realise!
Learning the Cyrillic alphabet and beginning to read and write in Russian within the first few weeks was incredibly satisfying. Learning should be, and is, fun, varied and rewarding.
To be a good language teacher requires many skills, not least of which is the mastery of two languages. Vlada’s depth of knowledge in both Russian and English is, I think, exceptional. Fifteen months and two visits to Russia later, I have never enjoyed it more!