Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced Russian Courses
Learning Russian in a supportive and inclusive environment
Online Russian language courses for Beginner, Intermediate, Lower Advanced, and Advanced levels
Express your views and ideas in Russian in a more efficient way via discussions, interviews, presentations, and problem-solving activities
Expand your vocabulary in current, popular topics
Improve your understanding of sentence structure and grammatical constructions with the help of engaging listening, reading, and writing activities
Polish up your grammar
Refresh your existing knowledge of Russian
Courses
Each course is individually hand-crafted. I put a considerable number of hours into developing the courses and I keep optimising them using student feedback. There is no agency or another teacher involved. I will work directly with you. To me, each student is an individual who has stories and experiences to share. I always bear this in mind when I prepare the lessons. Read more.
How do I know if the course is right for me?
Please read the description of the course you are interested in and leave a message, or chat with me using the dark green live chat icon at the bottom right. I would be happy to answer any questions or arrange an informal Zoom chat with you to help you decide.
If you would like a free trial session, just contact me to arrange!
Lessons
- My lessons are conducted in Russian to maximise students’ exposure to the language. English is only used for clarification.
- Handouts are emailed to students one week in advance of the relevant class.
- Course materials are the result of 17 years worth of teaching experience and student feedback.
- A good mixture of written, visual and audio material that holds students’ interest and challenges them to think.
- Engaging activities encourage students to express themselves in Russian and work as a team.
- On group courses, I use breakout rooms for pair work to maximise speaking time as I would do in a face-to-face lesson.
- Students receive a copy of Zoom chat + lesson notes after each class.
- Efficient teacher-student communication between the classes.
TESTIMONIALS
Hi, I am Adele. I took my Russian “O” level at school in 1960 and then forgot all about it. Aged 72 and well and truly retired I picked up again in an evening class with Tatiana and have been studying with her ever since. Now in my mid 70’s I look forward to every class and have managed to make herself understood on a trip to St Petersburg. The next challenge is to tackle some Russian literature.
Group courses: What the papers say (2020), Living grammar (2020-21), Coffee with Tatiana (Lower Advanced-Advanced level 2021), Let’s watch and discuss (2021-ongoing).
Hi, I’m Olivia. I’m currently studying languages at university, and this year should have been my year abroad, but because of Covid-19, I couldn’t go to Russia, so I had classes with Tatiana instead. This was honestly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my lessons with her, and I cannot recommend her enough. If you’re interested in starting to learn Russian, or you’re already studying it and want to brush up or improve your knowledge, Tatiana is the one to go to!
One-to-one courses: Coffee with Tatiana (Intermediate level), Read and Discuss, Living Grammar and What the papers say (spring – summer 2021).
Jeremy practiced as a lawyer in London for over 30 years, specialising in finance and bankruptcy law. He was a partner and Head of Banking at an international law firm in the City, prior to retirement in 2017. Since then Jeremy has completed a Masters degree in History at University College London (School of Slavonic and East European Studies) and has been learning Russian language as a hobby and to keep his mind active. He enjoys travelling and has visited Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Highlights include a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway and watching the launch of a Soyuz rocket.
Group courses: What the papers say (2020), Living grammar (2020-21), Coffee with Tatiana (Lower Advanced level 2021), Let’s watch and discuss (2021-ongoing).
Maya is a third year student at the University of Nottingham, where she started studying Russian in her first year. Maya chose to do an online course with Tatiana because her travel plans were cancelled for her Year Abroad.
One-to-one courses: Coffee with Tatiana (Intermediate), spring-summer 2021
Michael is from London.He has been studying Russian for around 12 years. He taught Russia in Tomsk for two years and studied at the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. As well as having lessons with Tatiana, he tries to keep my Russian fresh by listening to an audiobook of Chekhov short stories, watching Yuri Dud and Redaktsiya, and listening to Russian hip hop.
Group courses: Let’s watch and discuss (2020-ongoing)
Gary started to learn Russian as a hobby when he retired. In the last five years, this snow-balled into him taking a master’s degree at UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies and he is now conducting research for a PhD on the history of healthcare during the early years of the USSR. Gary has been able to use the Russian learnt with Tatiana in a variety of situations: on holidays in Russia, Georgia and the Baltic states, in teaching undergraduates at UCL, to correspond with contacts in Russia, and when visiting research archives in Moscow.
Group courses: Living grammar (2020-2021), What the papers say (summer course, 2020), Let’s watch and discuss (2021)
A high school French and German teacher for 28 years, Mary works as Education Manager for the Moodle learning platform.She started learning Russian five years ago when her son moved to Russia, intially teaching herself and then with a private teacher. Having tried face to face group classes in St Petersburg, Mary realised she enjoyed learning in a group, and so when the pandemic forced people to rethink their routines, she signed up with Tatiana online. The group classes enable Mary to gain familiarity with modern Russian and current issues, and improve her Russian from home, and when she does travel, she is still able to participate. Mary travels regularly to visit her son, and the classes have also helped her professionally, as she has presented several times in Russian at Education conferences in Moscow and St Petersburg. Mary passed the B2 level TORFL ( ТРКИ) exam in March, and is looking forward to her retirement in 3 years so she can focus on reaching C1!
Group courses: Let’s watch and discuss (2020-ongoing)
Holly enjoys learning Russian in her free time. She has studied the language for nearly six years through her university degree and also Learn Russian Together, which Holly has participated in for the past year.
Group courses: Living Grammar (2021-2022), Let’s watch and discuss (starting in October)
“The best thing about being on Tatiana’s group courses is the high standard of teaching and Tatiana’s ability to confidently and accurately answer a range of questions about Russian grammar, etc. In my experience, there is not a lot of sense in trying to look for logic when learning a language, but Tatiana’s explanations are always very clear and helpful, and she is very willing to answer emails about additional questions. I also appreciate how Tatiana remembers little things about her students and ask us about our lives at the beginning of each class! Having to talk about everyday things is important in language learning but hard to teach, and I think this really helps.”
“The one-to-one lessons were an exceptionally effective way of rapidly improving my Russian reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Tatiana is warm, friendly, approachable, and she doesn’t make you feel bad if you don’t know something or if you make a mistake. She is very encouraging and lets you know when she thinks you have done a good job or worked hard during the lesson. Everything was very clearly laid out and easy to understand, while also increasing in difficulty throughout the course. Even the more difficult aspects of Russian grammar, like participles for example, were clearly explained, and all the exercises in each course were very helpful in terms of putting everything into practice and enabling me to understand how things worked and in what context. I particularly liked the fact that the documents were all on Google Drive and in Word Document format, because it meant I could see changes made by myself and Tatiana, and I could easily download all the documents onto my computer as well. I know some courses put things into PDF documents, and as I do not have a PDF editing programme on my computer, I find this extremely frustrating. So it was a nice surprise to see how easily accessible all the teaching materials were.”
“Excellent – varied activities, a nice mix of larger and smaller group discussions and time to work on exercises off-screen and brilliant quick responses to students’ questions. I also found the zoom chat vocabulary lists very helpful.”
“This was a very comprehensive revision of what I have learned this far in Russian. Much of what I learned is returning and I like that we take the time to go through everything diligently. It is a relaxed environment and the course mates with whom I have engaged thus far are sympathetic.”
“The structure of the class, the variety of the topics, the grammar, the quick revision of the previous class, getting us to talk as much as possible. It’s good to get the chat in an email afterwards.”
“Materials and teaching style both very well adapted to online teaching, by a teacher who has fully mastered not only how to use the technology but how to use it seamlessly and effectively – and is very helpful, engaging and motivating.”
“I really enjoyed the group scale – I feel much more comfortable with fewer people. I also liked the materials and the dynamic, specially because Tatiana would always ensure that everyone participates – which is very encouraging.”
“Over the course of the 2020-2021 academic year, Tatiana has been tutoring University of Nottingham students who could not travel to Russia as part of their degree. Her courses offer a wide range of grammatical and cultural topics. Each course is tailored to the individual needs of each student which maximises their learning results, as well as making her courses fun and enjoyable. The feedback we received from our students has been exclusively positive and students would sign up for Tatiana’s courses through word of mouth. We wholeheartedly recommend Tatiana’s courses for anyone who wants to improve their overall language skills, practice before exams or simply learn Russian for fun!” Olga Grinchenko, Teaching associate, Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham
“Tatiana is endlessly patient, meticulously well-prepared, flexible, interesting and interested. Her lessons incorporate a good amount of different media and lesson activities, and homework is well-judged for difficulty and time. I loved working with her.”
“Tatiana is a star. So helpful, patient and understanding as a teacher. Her lesson plans were excellent as were her pre-prepared lesson materials (I still use these now!) but she was also happy to be flexible in the lessons if I was having a problem or had a specific area of interest. I would describe her teaching approach as collaborative. She was willing to take feedback about topics and was always willing to go over and beyond what was necessary to help me.”
“Careful selection of interesting topics and of a core vocabulary that is widely applicable, and a very well-prepared process of sending out material in advance, handling the lesson itself through a mixture of whole class and breakout room discussion, recording all wording (and grammatical points) used in ‘chat’ and sharing it at the end, and then providing homework and correcting it very swiftly.“
“Tatiana is very enthusiastic and encourages all her students to speak. She also varies her tools / pace.“