In Soviet Russia, language learns you.

January 6, 2011 6:48 PM

What is the best russian language school for english speakers in St. Petersburg?

I'd prefer it to offer at least four levels of russian, starting from no experience. I studied a year of russian in university, but it's been so long, I'm pretty sure I should restart from scratch.

Sub-question: how difficult is it to find english-teaching positions in St. Petersburg?

posted by mnemonic to writing & language (3 answers total)

I was there eight years ago, so this may be out of date, but the Smolniy Institute was fantastic. All instruction was in Russian, which is scary, but good.

I found teaching positions very easily, but the pay was extremely low ($4 an hour, or thereabouts). But again, that was a long time ago.
posted by kitcat at 10:14 PM on January 6, 2011

Seconding kitcat's suggestion. That's the school I did my semester abroad at...in 1999. YMMV.
posted by Zoyashka at 8:28 AM on January 7, 2011

I saw this program (http://russian4foreigners.com/), which is affiliated with St.Petersburg State University. I have no personal experience it (can anyone else shed some light on this program?) but it does seem to offer flexible and tiered programs.
posted by zhang.chuck at 4:24 PM on September 8, 2011