Russian.

There were five of us: one retired woman with a daughter in Ukraine, an elderly man with a passion for lighthouses, a woman who owns cottages and a house in Florida, a banker who spent six months at MGU and me. The teacher was typically Russian: blonde, blue-eyed and mismatching clothes. And she was very, very nice.

We will meet every Monday-night to speak Russian.

Yesterday my Russian was a bit rusty, but still OK. And I remembered why I love that language – maybe that was the most important thing that happened yesterday.

 

Now. There are a couple of language learning tips that I would like to share with you language learners out there.

 

1)       Know your strengths – and accept them. If you know what kind of person you are, you can take advantage of this knowledge when learning a language. For instance, I can be extremely competitive when it comes to certain things that I feel passionate about. Therefore, when learning a language I make it a competition: I choose a person in the group to compete with (usually the one who knows the language best) and continue until I’m better than said person (or at the same level). This sounds horrible (maybe), but it’s who I am, so why not make the best of it?

2)       There are no shortcuts. It’s hard work but well worth it.