I’m a teacher who raised the level of Russian education. And I enjoy it.

When I first started teaching online way back in 2014, I had no idea how to make my classes enjoyable, so students would never drop my classes. School and online education are entirely different things. I can’t just force people to study Russian and call their parents if they don’t… Almost by accident, I found a method that’s become the best thing I’ve ever done. It helped many students to study Russian and remember it almost forever. It’s literally transformed the way you think, and nobody’s going to teach this at school. And it’s also helped me keep 90% of students motivated.

Here’s how it happened..

 

When I started, I had two students from Taiwan and America

My mother, with 25 years of experience in teaching, told me: “never go to university if you want to teach people. Just read these books and ask me anything”. Russian education is pretty terrible (still), so I took her advice and spent much time the books before beginning my teaching path..

I lived in Taiwan, where I accidentally found my first online students from Taiwan and America. I’m grateful to these patient souls..

---

I’ll never forget how nervous I was the first time I started teaching online.

I was scared and excited at the same time. But I always was good at explanation (make it simple), so students loved me. 

But the problem was – not all of them.. because some students dropped the classes.

I knew I needed to change something, but I kept teaching the same program because it was ready, and I didn’t know how to improve it.

Until the day I met a student from England.

---

And that’s when I knew I was onto something..

How just one person can change all your life.. My new student from London – Lux. He was just a regular student, but he told me one thing in a lesson:

– “I definitely need to add this word to my flashcards..”

– “what flashcards??”

I realized that after every lesson, he made flashcards for every Russian rule and word.. I was so thrilled that I started making flashcards for him and all my students afterward. The results were incredible..

---

The biggest challenge with “lazy” students

Let’s be honest – teaching lazy students is almost useless because they don’t use their knowledge and forget all the material in 2-3 months.

But what was a surprise for me when I met strong students who had successfully graduated from a Russian university and still had basic mistakes

“something’s wrong”– I never got away from the idea. How can I simplify Russian for my students? 

We needed to change the perception completely..

---

There are no “lazy” students.

After five years of teaching and I’ve realized – laziness is a lack of motivation. Mostly it means – the student is not motivated to learn the subject with YOUR method.

Remember your math teacher? I believe she was really strict, maybe even rude (my teacher was). Did she have a bachelor’s degree? Yes. Was she an experienced teacher? Yes! But why mostly everyone hates the math teacher?

Because 99% of such teachers just push.. they don’t know how to make classes enjoyable or help students with complex topics and rules.

Thanks to all my lazy students, who opened my eyes. I’d never found the power of long-term memory..

---

There are a lot of things that have changed in my life since that very first student.

Now I show students how to enjoy learning. Don’t have much time? Fine. Don’t understand grammar? Okay 🙂

If you know, the right approach to studying becomes triple faster and easier. You don’t need to study for hours and still thrive in Russian!

---