Irina

I was born in the east of Ukraine. Russian is my native language, although I speak Ukrainian, French and English. I have been teaching online for more than 15 years. Experience in travelling (more than 20 countries), living in different countries (Ukraine, Austria, India) and communicating with people of different cultures allow me to quickly find a common language with students and establish good contact with different people. Sport experience participating in bike tours in different countries (The Carpathians, Crimea, Sri Lanka, Israel) helped me develop patience and endurance, so I know that I can patiently and steadily go with my students to their goals. One of my hobbies now is dancing, and I know that in order for muscle memory to kick in, you need to repeat the movement many times, the same thing in learning a language, we will repeat many times so that the body, tongue, head get used to new sounds, pronunciation and speaking in a new language.

Tutoring Experience

5000 individual sessions for more than 10 years with children and adults of different nationalities and cultures I graduated from Donetsk National University with a degree in English Language and Literature, and also completed the course “Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language.” at Moscow State University. I have helped students to successfully prepare for exams and interviews (25 people) and I also passed the CAE, DELF (French A2) language exams, in addition to exams at the university. Over the years of work, I have realised how important it is to have a structured lesson and a variety of oral exercises to achieve fluency. I have organised 10 intensive programmes with excursions in Kiev, Odessa and Lviv for foreigners, so I know what difficulties they face. I always follow the structure of the lesson - a brief warm-up, revising new vocabulary, explaining some new rules and practising dialogues. I have experience working in a kindergarten with small children. It was always important to make lessons fun, to select different activities so that it is not boring and to teach through play (“Odd one out”, “Missing object”, “Marcian”, etc.) I am kind and understanding towards students. I understand that they are very busy, and I do not require homework for each lesson, but, of course, I recommend it. If you have not worked on something on your own, we will do it together in the lesson and move on. Experience in travelling (more than 20 countries), living in different countries (Ukraine, Austria, India) and communicating with people of different cultures allow me to quickly find a common language with students and establish good contact with different people. Sport experience participating in bike tours in different countries (The Carpathians, Crimea, Sri Lanka, Israel) helped me develop patience and endurance, so I know that I can patiently and steadily go with my students to their goals. One of my hobbies now is dancing, and I know that in order for muscle memory to kick in, you need to repeat the movement many times, the same thing in learning a language, we will repeat many times so that the body, tongue, head get used to new sounds, pronunciation and speaking in a new language.

Tutoring Approach

I help Foreigners travelling to Russian-speaking countries gain the skills needed to speak Russian fluently and confidently in just 6 months (over 48 lessons) and impress their colleagues. At the end of the course “Essential Russian for Work in a Russian-speaking Country” (48 online classes) you will be confident and comfortable to have a meaningful conversation with your Russian speaking friend or a colleague. Being able to speak Russian you will feel on a level playing field as your colleagues have learnt English and can communicate in their 2nd language, so you can do, too. You will be able to express yourself either on a day-to-day level like “In the Shop” or “Around the City”, or on a professional topic as acting out dialogues will be an essential part of each lesson from the very beginning of the course. Your confidence to speak Russian will be built on regular role-playing at the lessons, additional sessions with native speakers and exciting language practice with AI, and membership “English-Russian Language Exchange Club” (which “heps to overcome language barrier” as my students say). You will get a set of tools “Russian Language Tool Box” (Tables with Essential Grammar, Online Dictionary, Conjugator of the Verbs, Tools to Overcome Language Barrier) in case you need to refresh some rules, or look up a new word, or prepare mentally before your conversation in Russian. You will have exactly the topics you need for your first trip to a Russian-speaking country. Thanks to different methods (working with Mind Maps, using Flash Cards) and constant spaced repetitions, you will remember most of the materials at the classes, and build a habit to learn and speak Russian.