Meet Lena from Germany, a current student at Liden & Denz in Moscow
Just out of school, 18 year old Lena Handt from Germany decided to do something different during her gap year instead of the usual travelling the world. Despite never being to Russia before and without any previous studies of the Russian language she found courage and went to Moscow for 9 weeks of Russian studies. Not only is she a fellow student at school, I was lucky enough to have her as my flat mate. I decided to ask her a little about her studies and what she thinks about Russia and Liden & Denz. Let’s see what she answered!
The reason to learn Russian was, as mentioned above, partly a wish to do something out of the ordinary but it is not the only reason. Having her parents growing up in, what was then, the Soviet part of Germany she is having many relatives that know Russian. And with a Bulgarian mother, she always felt this drawing towards the East. Sum it all together and Russia no longer seems so random. Lena was recommended Liden & Denz through the agency that helped her organize her trip. The school had good reviews from former students and she chose the one in Moscow. Now from personal experience she agrees with former students and is very pleased with the school. She finds the method of learning Russian without using intermediary language to be effective and that the teachers are very good and committed to their work. Smaller groups also give all the students the possibility to speak a lot.
Already being in Moscow for six weeks she has had time to explore the city and she is particularly fond of the beautiful buildings, the large amount of museums and the easy access to parks and green areas. In the beginning she felt a bit lonely being by herself in a new city but after a few weeks here and after getting to know other students that feeling is no more.
She definitely recommends others to come to Russia if they are interested in studying Russian. It is the best way to learn the language since you are exposed to it from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed again. She advice people to learn the alphabet in advance though since it was for her quite tough the first day not being able to even read the signs around her.
Finally I asked Lena which her favorite Russian word is and she answered “достопримечательность” which means landmark/attraction. The motivation was that it is a hard word for beginners to pronounce and once she managed to, she felt that she reached a new level of Russian. I know what she mean, I felt exactly the same after learning how to say that word correctly.
