What to do

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Ploshchad' Lenina, St Petersburg

When planning the year abroad, students are often made to feel that their only real option is a language course for foreigners; that anything else will be difficult to arrange or prohibitively expensive. This is not the case, however, in the past students have done various jobs including teaching English, translation and various kinds of charity work. You can also enrol on a university course for Russian students, studying almost any subject you like and going to lectures with Russians.

Working in Russia

This can be a great experience; students often say how much they enjoyed being treated like a 'real person' for a year. For things like charity work or teaching English wages are not high, but accommodation is often included, either in your own flat or with a family. You can also work for international companies in Russia, but people sometimes find that English is the predominant language and it's difficult to meet any Russians. This can also be a problem with teaching English because you're being paid to speak your own language rather than practise your Russian. However, this does give you a chance to meet people; click here to read one student's account of teaching English in St Petersburg for a year (in Russian).

Translation, working as a guide or in an office can provide more of a chance to practise your Russian; many charities will take on foreign students to do this type of job. See the useful links page for a few of these organisations' websites.

Read what students thought about working in Russia here.

Many students go on courses designed specifically to teach Russian to foreigners; some enjoy them, some find them an invaluable preparation for working in Russia and others do not find them so useful. One company organising such courses is RLUS; courses are available in St Petersburg, Moscow, Yaroslavl and Voronezh and the company will arrange your visa and travel. However, semester dates can be inconvenient (i.e. leaving you in Russia over Christmas) and there can be problems extending your visa if you want to stay on after the end of the course. It is possible to contact these universities individually and organise your own programme with much greater flexibility; look at the useful links page for some university websites. The organisation can be done by e-mail and fax; don't be afraid of organising things yourself because it's easier than you think.

These courses for foreigners tend to include classes in conversation, grammar and translation, as well as some optional courses such as history, politics and history of art. Lessons are all one and half hours long and this can be difficult for British students at first! They can be very useful for students who started Russian ab initio because they help to consolidate what you've learned and give you a chance to practise, but the lessons can get monotonous and the teachers often teach to the lowest standard in the group. You also don't meet very many Russian students this way, although it is sometimes possible to join their lectures.

Read what students thought of these courses here.

A lake in the palace grounds at Pushkin