Wish for Ability to Connect With Any Human – Eric from California

Yesterday it was my honour to conduct an interview with our student Eric from the United States who wants to be able to connect with every human being. The 27 year old music-lover told me a lot exciting stuff about himself, foreign languages, Russia and Liden & Denz.

Eric, thank you for taking your time! So for beginning, tell me a little bit about yourself. You’re from California, right?

Yes that’s correct. I’m originally from La Verne, it’s a small suburb of Los Angeles. It takes about 45 minutes by car to the city – 20 minutes if you drive fast (laughs). I grew up there and I live with my family in a house in the foothills. I have one elder brother and three cats, which are named: Cake, Azrael and Oliver. Currently, I am studying languages and music.

Wow that’s pretty cool. I’d love to see Los Angeles one day. So, what about your past. What did you do and what brought you to Russia?

Well, after finishing High School I served as a marine for 4 years. It was a very interesting time in my life, I’ve visited many countries like Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Romania, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. The two most interesting experiences I had would be: in Japan, when the tsunami happened, I did relief work. The second was in Afghanistan, where I was in combat.
However, after these 4 years, I realized that it would behove a person of my particular disposition to pursue a career outside of the military. So I went back to school and started studying music and German. Recently I decided to add Russian and connect with this culture.

I see, you’ve already made a lot of formative experiences in your life. Concerning your studies – why Russian and German?

In general, one of my life goals is to be able to speak 10 languages by the time I reach age of 35. In order to be able to connect with people and be comfortable speaking with people in their mother tongues and I’d like to be able to connect with almost every human being. Concerning German, I decided to study it because of my family roots. My great grandfather is German, so therefore my full name is Eric John Wagner. And why Russian…well, my favourite composer is Russian – Sergei Rachmaninov, and I also have two friends who are Russian.

So you’re almost two months here in Saint Petersburg. Why did you choose Liden & Denz? And what can you tell about the city, people and favourite places?

To be honest, I looked it up on the internet. Due to the good reviews and the fact that one of my Russian friends is from here (St. Petersburg).

Concerning the city…I really like the clouds and the way the sun sets, I have a really nice view because my apartment is high up. I live with a Russian roommate whose the same age as me, which is cool as he helps with homework and we sometimes hang out. One of my favourite places in Saint Petersburg is the “Dead Poets Bar”, it’s not far from metro station Spasskaya and they have  good food and a piano.

What do you think about your Russian language course at Liden & Denz and do you think you’ve already improved your Russian skills?

Absolutely! They get better from day to day. I’ve enjoyed the course and the people I’ve met. I think the studying techniques are very effective and I like all of my teachers. I’m very glad that I also booked an intensive course!

Do you want return?

Definitely! I’d love to do another course. I would like to reach at least a B2 level in Russian!

That’s good to hear! Well, we’re already at the end of our interview. Thank you very much for this nice interview, Eric!

This interview was conducted by Jessica Pillinger, student and intern at Liden & Denz