Learning a foreign language can be both fun and useful activity. We discover completely new cultures, begin to better understand how other people think and perceive the world around them, learn about their history.
Depending on what we love ourselves, we can focus on one or another aspect of the language we learn. A music enthusiast could listen to the music in that language and expand their musical culture and a historian could read books and articles on the country in question and make connections with their main area of specialization.
However, the difficult question that all language learners have to face is what tongue should they actually learn? As there are thousands of languages in the world, each related to a particular culture and vision of the world, choosing one of them instead of the others may not be obvious.
In this article, you will find out why Russian can be an especially good option for Australian students, as well as the best ways to learn it in Sydney. We will have a look at different class formats with their strong and weak points and suggest some tips that could help you progress much faster. So, poekhali!
Find out about the best way to learn Russian in Australia.
Why do so many students learn Russian?
People may use different criteria when deciding on the language they are going to learn. Some want to pick up the idiom of their ancestors, others are attracted by a culture. We can learn languages as a hobby or because we need them for our work.
Nevertheless, there is one particularly good criterion that can be used to evaluate how useful a language can be and it is the number of speakers it has.
From that point of view, Russian is a quite promising language. It is spoken by over 260 million people around the world and has official status in three countries: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Some other widely spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish or Arabic.
Whether you decide to work or travel in these countries or would simply learn more about them, Russian will be extremely useful to you. Additionally, it can be very useful in the other former Soviet Republics where it is still spoken by many people.
The Russian language is associated with a rich culture. Once you've reached a good level in it, you can discover Russian literature, cinema and music. It will allow you to learn new expressions and make the learning process more interesting and inspiring.
There are a lot of possibilities to learn Russian in Brisbane.
Is Russian a difficult language to learn?
Another important criterion when students decide on learning a foreign language is its difficulty. When we take courses, we want to see progress or otherwise, we might give up on them very quickly.
Russian is often thought to be a very difficult language to learn for an English speaker. It uses a different alphabet, has complex grammar and its pronunciation can sometimes be challenging.
Nevertheless, the difficulty of Russian is relative. Despite all the aforementioned hurdles, it is still an Indo-European language and has much more in common with English than, say, Chinese or Arabic.
What's more, throughout history, Russia was culturally very close to other European countries and, in particular, France. As a result, the language has a lot of Latin root words in its vocabulary that are also present in English. This means you will pick up a lot of expressions very quickly and can speak quite easily on a variety of topics.
So, Russian may not be the easiest language to learn but if you find a good teacher to take a course with, you will certainly make steady progress. So let's find out where to find such a teacher in Sydney.
There are excellent Russian schools in Melbourne.
Learning Russian at school
Learning a language is possible at any age, but doing it as a child can have plenty of advantages. Children can easily imitate new sounds, which allows them to acquire the right accent and helps them learn new words. As a result, they can advance very quickly, especially if they have opportunities to practice.
What's more, following a language course can be very beneficial for a kid's mental skills. As they learn Russian grammar, they'll discover logical structures that are different from English and gradually become able to understand them. This can be a great exercise and be useful in their studies in general.
But where can a child follow Russian courses? In reality, this is not really a problem. As a huge Russian community lives in Sydney, the city has numerous educational institutions and you can easily find something convenient for your kid. Here are some of the best locations.
Saint Seraphim Russian School
This school offers Russian courses to kids and teenagers from 4 to 18 years old. It can be a great place to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, pick up new vocabulary and meet friends with whom they can practice the language. The classes at the school include various games and activities to make the learning process as enjoyable as possible.
In addition to their Russian classes for children, the school also offers courses for adults. They are divided into two levels: for beginners and advanced learners and are meant to start speaking the language quickly.
Harmony Russian School of Sydney
Learning a language is closely connected with discovering its culture. It is precisely the cultural aspect that Harmony Russian School of Sydney is focused on.
Aside from after-school Russian language courses for kids from 4 to 16 years old, it organizes various cultural activities, such as theatre or dance classes. The objective of the school is to provide an all-around education for its students and allow them to cultivate their talents.
Russian course at university
After school, a lot of students in Australia go to university. This can also be a great moment to take a Russian course, whether you are a beginner or an advanced speaker. As languages are a very important part of our education, universities in Australia offer a good choice of courses to students to develop their linguistic skills.
Sydney has some of the best universities in Australia, including the University of Sydney, UNSW Sydney and Macquarie University. Students can enrol in a Russian course in addition to their main specialisation or do a degree in Russian studies if they want to work with the language itself later on.
Another great opportunity for students can be to spend a semester in Russia on a student exchange programme. Russia has a lot of good universities and it can be an inspiring experience from a cultural point of view.
Russian privates lessons
Even though Russian lessons are offered in numerous language schools and you can take a course at a university in Sydney, not everyone actually has had this opportunity. A great alternative that can suit not only children, teenagers and university students but also working adults is private lessons.
Their great advantage is that by studying with private tutors, you can have much more flexibility. You can program your lessons directly with them, choose a time and place convenient for you and determine the rhythm at which you'll study. Depending on how quickly you want to advance, you can take from 1 to several hours of classes per week with one or several tutors.
You can also find a lot of qualified Russian tutors in Adelaide.
At the same time, private lessons can be very effective. As you'll study one-to-one with your tutor, you can ask them all the questions you want and choose topics you'd like to focus on. This will inspire you to study more to achieve better results.
Studying Russian online
Even if there are a lot of great Russian tutors in Sydney, another great option is to study it online. Thanks to the Web, you can get in touch with an even bigger number of teachers and even study with native speakers from outside Australia.
This last possibility can be especially good for advanced students. If you meet someone who doesn't speak English, you'll have no other choice than to use your Russian and so you'll improve even faster.
Additionally, online tutoring is often less expensive than studying in class because it takes tutors much less time, as a tutor working online doesn't need to commute and can work from the comforts of their home.
Find the perfect tutor on Superprof
Private tutoring can be an excellent option for any student. All they need to get started is to find a good tutor. This may seem like a difficult task because you need to contact people, ask them about the type of courses they offer and make a decision without having enough information. Indeed, this is how things could be if Superprof did not exist.
Superprof is an online platform that every day helps thousands of learners around the world find a good tutor for them. On our website, you can look for teachers by location, subject or other criteria, view their profiles and read comments from other students.
With Superprof, you can find a great tutor in Perth.
Once you've come across a profile that looks good, you can contact them directly via chat and program your first lesson with them. You can start your lessons almost in no time and achieve great results with the qualified tutor you'll have found.
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