I am 71 years old, a retired lecturer in photographic theories at the University of Technology in Cape Town, where I served for over 40 years. I reside in Cape Town, South Africa. I was born in South Africa and schooled in smallish towns and Durban city in the province of Kwazulu-Natal.
My hobbies are photography and its related trends, reading, image archiving, cooking, woodworking, gardening, hiking, probably in that order. I have read a lot of Russian authors in English, including Bulgakov (my favourite), Chekhov, Dostoyevsky Gogol, Gorky, Grossman, Pilnyak, Solzhenitsyn, and Tolstoy.
I have been married to my wife Marina for 23 years — she is a Russian from Omsk. In the beginning it was very important for her to learn English, so my desire to learn Russian was always a very low priority and my attempts to learn by myself have been sporadic and very slow indeed.
I have been to Russia, firstly in 2000, visiting Omsk, Listvyanka at Lake Baikal, and Moscow, then again in 2011 and 2016. My next trip will be this year, to Omsk, Moscow, and St Petersburg, which I am really looking forward to, to practice my language skills to raise my confidence.
Therefore: I grabbed the opportunity to enrol in the online course when I saw it mentioned in a social media post by the Russian Embassy in South Africa. I was not made aware until it started by whom the course would be conducted, so it turned out quite serendipitously to be SPbU.
The learning process has been wonderful, and the levels of growth took massive steps. I have not done the level A1 exam yet but hope to do that in September this year. Starting the course was quite intimidating, with about 100 students online simultaneously, but that number declined rapidly over a month or two. My lecturer Mariya Maksimovna Zhukova was quite saintly in her patient teachings, with occasional injections of humour. At the beginnings of most classes I was rather intimidated, but that disappeared with the group interactions in the learning process. At the end of each lesson, I felt a bit exhausted, but eager to tackle the homework assignment. Mastering the mysteries of cursive writing has also been tremendous fun.
The main problems I encountered were in getting my decrepit brain to memorise anything. The most difficult has been the six cases and the related changes to nouns and verbs. I frequently resorted to other online sources for emphasis or clarity. The pace of the learning meant to me that I could not become highly proficient after any class to feel comfortable. Another problem was the absence of a textbook. We were given excerpts as the lessons progressed, but not a single unified text for referencing. My attempts at combining the pages provided were frustrating and so I gave up. I understand that the text is still being revised and not yet available in a published version, though. I would be very happy to purchase a copy when it is concluded.
I learned that every language has a myriad of peculiarities and exceptions, so I am more patient with my wife’s learning of English. Regarding the Russian course I have embarked on the learning process and now understand a great deal more than when I started: vocabulary, rudimentary sentence structure, and probably most important, a feeling of confidence in my learning ability. In these regards, the course superseded my expectations.
I will keep on studying Russian, and if I am given the opportunity through the SPbU online programme I will be delighted. If not, I will practice more and access the online resources available.