My name is Robert Jillo, I am 32 years old. I am from Tana River County in Kenya, a graduate from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa having pursued a Master of Arts in Philosophy and graduated last year, 2023. For my undergraduate studies I pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, and a diploma in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Consolata Institute of Philosophy in Nairobi, Kenya. My pursuit of philosophy is my greatest motivation towards an understanding of society and the human condition, to propagate sound social development policy and practice, and cultural awareness.
I like reading, listening to music, watching movies, playing football and sometimes go swimming at the beach, but I most often spend my free time indoors rather than outside, which means reading and music are my most favourite pastime activities.
It is from my reading habits that I came to know about SPbU, and about the course I learned through the Russian Embassy in Kenya’s social media, where they advertised an opportunity for Kenyan youth to learn Russian language online through SPbU. I did not know much about Russia apart from the political image Russia portrays through president Putin, and I must admit that I love what Mr. Putin stands for; the authenticity of the Russian culture, values, and respect for the Russian History. The opportunity to learn Russian was a chance I wouldn’t miss, I have never heard of Russian language being taught in Kenya, and if there are any language schools teaching Russian then they must be very few and highly costly. SPbU was offering to learn Russian language for free, how could I miss it? For me it wasn’t just about learning the language, it was an opportunity to understand the Russian culture and worldviews. With this opportunity I hoped that at the end of it I will have an opportunity to get a scholarship to study in Russia and to live and work there.
After going through the registration process, I was excited to have been admitted to the program. Our classes were conducted online, two days a week. Trust me, it was quite difficult to grasp the basics during our first few months of classes. I almost quit. Everything was completely new. It is only after coming almost to the end of the A1 level that I finally had a clear understanding of the basic structure of the language. The whole course content was structured to introduce the six Russian cases and the type of verbs, and their usage in a sentence. I must say that the methodology used by our teacher — Mikhail Dovgolyk, was the best; not forgetting to mention that he made himself available to us students any time we had questions and needed clarification. After every session we had assignments to complete before the next, and it was mandatory for students to submit their homework in time, we also had continuous assessment tests.
Learning Russian has been an enriching experience, but not without its difficulties. Internet connection, though beyond our ability to manage, sometimes resulted in missed sessions, however, this was easily dealt with by downloading and watching a recording of the class session. In my experience the lack of supplementary study materials such as dictionaries to use during exams was a bit of a setback. I personally relied on online dictionaries whose translations were not always appropriate depending on the context in which the terms were used. Most challenging is the fact that it is difficult to find Russian language texts in Kenyan bookstores. It is my hope that such material can be made available at the Russian embassy in Nairobi and be dispatched to respective students.
I also find it worthy to mention the fact that the time allocated for a candidate to familiarize with the Russian language exam system is minimal. Having to strictly familiarize with the "Proctor" system on the eve of the exam is not adequate enough especially if one experiences technical issues with a device on the eve of the exam, it gives such a one little to no time to address and fix such a matter in due time. It is my opinion that the familiarisation link should be sent two to three days before the exam date to allow sufficient time to address and resolve any technical issues that may have arisen during the proctoring session. On the same note, I would like to highlight that there should be plans made to have prompt feedback from those managing the system so as to resolve matters arising from students in due time.
Without any bias, I appreciate the opportunity I have had to learn the Russian language for free. Having completed the A2 level, I welcome the opportunity to proceed with the B1 level as soon as possible to advance my knowledge and mastery of Russian language. I hope that this review will be helpful to future students and aid in bettering the course.