Your first week at a Russian language school: what to expect

What actually happens in your first week at a Russian language school in St Petersburg: placement, the 10:15 start, small-group lessons, homework and the city.

You booked the course, the flight and the room. Now the real question: what happens when you walk in on Monday morning? Here is how the first week at EducaCentre actually goes.

Before you arrive: placement

If you already speak some Russian, you take our 30-minute online placement test before the course: grammar and vocabulary, from beginner to advanced questions. It is not an exam you can fail; it decides which group you start in. Complete beginners skip it. If anything is unclear, the level is checked again in conversation on the first day.

Monday, 10:15

Arrive at 10:15 on your first day. The reception team and your teacher meet you, and if your level needs a second look, you get a short check on the spot. Bring three things: your passport with visa and migration card, a passport-sized photo for your student card, and a pen and notebook. Then you go to class.

The classroom

Groups at EducaCentre have up to 4 students, often fewer. That number changes everything about the first week: there is no back row. You speak in the first lesson, get corrected in the first lesson, and by Friday the teacher knows your specific mistakes, not just your name.

Beginners start with the alphabet, pronunciation and survival phrases. By the end of day one you can introduce yourself. Higher levels work mostly in Russian from the start; you will miss some of it in week one, and that is normal and temporary.

The daily rhythm

Standard course: 20 lessons a week, Monday to Friday, 10:15-13:30 with a break: grammar in context, speaking practice, vocabulary, reading and listening. Intensive students continue into the afternoon, usually until 15:30. Afternoons on the standard course are yours: homework, the city, or extra private lessons.

Homework that uses the city

Expect daily homework, and not only exercises: order a coffee in Russian, read the signs on your way home, tell your host family what you did today. Saint Petersburg is the other half of the course. Lessons give you language; the city makes you use it.

Your classmates

Students come to the school from 50+ countries, from gap-year travellers to retirees. With groups this small, the common language in the room is Russian, not by rule, but because it is the only language everyone shares.

By Friday

The first week does not make you fluent. It does something more useful: the alphabet stops looking like code, you have said real sentences to real people, and you know exactly what to work on next week. That is what correct placement and a group of four give you.