Working professionals can brush up on their Russian by taking one of two evening courses offered online.
The deadline to enroll in Professional Language Training courses for Spring 2022 is January 10, 2022.
The Center for Language Studies is offering Russian courses designed for professionals who want to continue working while strengthening their Russian in the evenings.
Students earn four undergraduate credits for each course, which covers the full curriculum of a college semester and includes five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural awareness. Classes meet online in three one-hour sessions each week and the homework helps students prepare for each class.
In the advanced class, thought-provoking discussions are conducted primarily in Russian.
Courses, Spring 2022
14 week courses: January 31 - May 4
Weekly schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 7 - 8 p.m. Central Time
Russian
This course introduces students to the essentials of Russian language and culture through a variety of communicative practices aimed at developing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students also begin to develop intercultural competency by engaging with cultural idioms and contemporary and classic Russian texts.
The course takes students on a journey through traditional folk tales, preparing them to understand The Tale of Fedot the Strelets by Leonid Filatov, a modern social and political satire based on the contemporary realities of life in Russia.
Eligibility
Participants must:
hold an undergraduate degree or be 25 years of age or older
not currently be enrolled in an undergraduate program
Cost
$1,600
Credit
Four U.S. undergraduate semester credits. Participants will receive a transcript upon completion.
I am so thrilled CLS is offering this [Professional Language Training] course. I was nervous to enroll because I hadn’t spoken Russian in years, but it has come back with Olga’s guidance and emphasis on speaking in Russian.
After two semesters, I feel a lot more confident in my Russian comprehension, speaking, and writing ability. I often refer to class as “Russian book club,” as it is more than simply a language course. We have read two completely engrossing Russian novellas, which serve as gateways to Russian history, culture, social nuances, and more.
This couldn’t happen without Olga’s deep understanding of both cultures - she astutely knows when her American students require cultural context, and facilitates discourse on these topics, and many more. I am already looking forward to next semester.
Many of us fell in love with language learning during our time at Beloit and beyond. The evening professional programs offered by CLS have allowed me to fulfill the desire to practice and continue learning years later for both personal pleasure and professional opportunities.
The classes this year reflected the level where the students in the group were at the outset, which for some of us was quite rusty, and then blended cultural history, current events, and language lessons to clear away the cobwebs. Our culture and literature class was conducted almost entirely in Russian, but it only took a few sessions to get up to speed and to begin feeling comfortable interacting in the virtual classroom.
If you want a refresher course that not only reviews crucial grammar and usage, but also provides you a comfortable space in which to use the language in a natural way, these classes are a great option.
