Russian language schools in St. Petersburg

[sbgskl.livejournal.com]

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. I'd take one in the US, but I'd like to live in Russia, having traveled the country a bit after college (Moscow, and towns on the trans-siberian rail).

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

Comments

[sergan7.livejournal.com]

For example http://languagelink.ru/e/
to teach & to learn

[xxblackxsatinxx.livejournal.com]

Hiya! I went to the State University of St-Pete's. They have what they call the "Institute for Russian Language and Culture for Foreigners".

They make you write a test when you show up so they can gauge what level you should be put in. If you feel it's too easy, you tell your prof and they'll bump you up. Same goes the other way, if you feel it's too hard, they'll bump you down.

I studied there for 2 months. Greatly improved my Russian! :)

[joshthewriter.livejournal.com]

A related question, does anyone know of a good online school for Russian? Where I live there are no courses taught nearby and I'm unable to move for study =/

[awelon.livejournal.com]

I second the State University of St Petersburg! I was there for two months this summer and really enjoyed it. I also did a homestay through them and lived with an absolutely lovely woman about 30 minutes away from the university. She still considers herself to be my mother, and I've been back home since August! :)
The uni organized different trips that you could sign up (the cost varied depending on the trip) - I had friends who went to Novgorod, for example. I had classes in film, literature, newspaper reading, grammar, conversation and "lexical difficulties", although the course offerings depend on what level you end up in. As the other poster mentioned, just because they put you in a group doesn't mean you're stuck there - I knew one girl who had been there for 3 months and the professor recommended that she be moved up a level, which she was. They also administer the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language if you're interested in taking it. I met a Chinese girl who had decided to do her university degree at the State University, but didn't speak any Russiann. She took a year of intensive language training through the special faculty, and then wrote the test and entered the school as a proper student.

Not sure about teaching in Piter, but you might want to check out a meetup group there for Russians learning English. If you go to meetup.com and look for groups in St Petersburg, you'll find it. They have, as far as I can remember, fairly regular meetings that are free if you're a native English speaker. You might be able to find somebody willing to pay for a tutor, plus make some Russian friends. I get the sense that they don't see too many non-Russians in that group, as I was treated as a minor celebrity when I showed up! :)

[awelon.livejournal.com]

I should add that, while everything that I experienced at the State University was in Russian, there were quite a few people in my group who spoke English if the need arose. Also, I went through a program with the School of Asian and Russian Studies (SRAS, http://sras.org/). They're American, so all the coordinators and contacts in Russia spoke English. If I was going just for the language aspect, I would probably have gone directly through the State University, but as I was actually in an art history program, I went through SRAS.

[joho07.livejournal.com]

I went here: http://www.derzhavin.com/en/

It's not particular for English speakers, but they all spoke English there.

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest ILA school http://www.ilanew.spb.ru/. They surely will have an interesting job offer for you as they run English kindergarten and English school apart from corporate and in-house language courses. The location is beautiful too, in the very centre. They used to pay a little better than other schools, hope they still do. They also have a btilliant teacher of Russian as a foreign language, she used to teach at Lidenz from the first comment and is really excellent, you'll be lucky to get her.

[o-rus.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in sth more exotic than Moscow or Sait-Pete, I'd suggest to move further to the East. Have a look at this Novosibirsk school http://www.russianinsiberia.com/en

[zvs.livejournal.com]

Also http://educalanguageschool.com is a nice school with friendly staff where you can teach and learn.