Keeping it fresh...

I suddenly feel like September is a long way away. Since returning to the UK I've done my best to surround myself with Russian, whether that be DVD's, radio or self-study. I just feel like if I'm going to carry on developing in the interim period before my return I need to maintain the same sort of condusive 'environment' I achieved in St Petersburg.

Part of it is longing to be back in what was such a enjoyable and invaluable experience, both in terms in the language and the social and cultural elements of the trip. For all the book learning I can do back in England I know I can't emulate that.

This post could just develop as another endorsement of the school and program that has facilitated this study (and blog) in the first place, but to be honest I have no problem with that. It is, in a slightly more negative sense, also my realisation and acknowledgement of the difficulty and disappointment I maintain with the way language in general is taught in this country. As an Englishman learning a foreign language I appear to be something of an anomoly. Not that I'm the only one doing it, but I'm certainly within a minority. Furthermore the difficulty I have in understanding my own language and its structure and grammatical foundations only compounds the problem when dealing with alternative languages.

Ah well, I can only move foreward with the tools I have been provided with while in St Petersburg. If this proves to be my final post for the time being - the idea of trying to think retrospectively of the two weeks as they already feel like they've begun to morph and distort into a collective whole seeming impossible - then I would like to end on a positive note. My time spent with non native English speakers has only reinforced my desire to reach a level of understanding and expression with a foreign language that is on par with that of my own first language. In other words I want to speak Russian, to think Russian and understand Russian eventually, as my colleagues on this course have demonstrated with their understanding of English. It has been a humbling experience but a highly motivational one. I would like to think I've not started too late.