I’ve been thinking about my language and travel plans for this year and have decided to spend a few weeks in Russia – probably in July – at a Russian language school. Every year for the past ten years I’ve gone to Ireland to do courses in Irish language, singing and music in July, but this year I fancy a change. I plan to learn as much Russian as I can before going to Russia and to focus mainly on Russian throughout this year, while keeping my other languages ticking over.
Apart from the trip to Russia, I’m going to the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin at the beginning of May, and on a choir trip to Oloron Sainte Marie in the south west of France at the end of May. I also plan to do a course in Scottish Gaelic song in Scotland in August and will probably go to the Polyglot Conference in New York in October.
Can any of you recommend a Russian language school?
When is the best time of year to visit Russia?
What are you language/travel plans for this year?
I’m no expert on this, but as no one else has answered I’ll try.
Language school: sorry, no idea.
Best time. As Russia is so huge that depends very much on where you plan to go. If you go to St Petersburg then I would strongly recommend late June, whether the weather should be pleasant and you will have the benefit of the “white nights”, as at that time of year it barely gets dark. I suspect that in August you’d encounter lots of mosquitos, but we didn’t find that a problem when we were there in early July. Further inland you can expect intolerable heat in the summer, and intolerable cold in the winter.
I’d strongly recommend the Center for International Education at MGU. Their website is cie.ru. Really great teachers. Lots of non-native-English-speaking students in your classes that you can befriend in Russian only and share Russian friends with. In the summer they have neat elective seminars that you can choose as you please: history, literature, diminutives, verbs of motion, etc.
Summer in Moscow can be pretty fun. Fall is also pretty.