Why I chose this profession.

In my childhood, I dreamt of becoming a teacher. I wanted to work with children. However, life took a different turn. I spent many years working as a corporate lawyer. I enjoyed this work and thought it was my path forever. But no, fate caught up with me and gave me a chance to start over. I love my job. It’s incredibly creative. Every day is unpredictable and unlike the previous one. Children grow and change with unimaginable speed. I would like to be the perfect teacher. What does that mean for me? It means being intelligent, knowledgeable, kind, understanding, respectful, appreciative, and capable of teaching and engaging.

Why I love this subject specifically.

And what else could it be? I have loved reading since childhood. Once I started at the age of three, I couldn’t stop. My mom used to lock the bookshelves away from me because I could read until morning. Then there was the wonderful A.T. Tvardovsky School. Every year, we staged school plays and held literary evenings. This was a very important and valuable period of my life. I cannot imagine my life without good literature. I dream of instilling a love for books in children. After all, it’s a wonderful and endless world!

How it can be useful in life.

For most of our students, Russian is the language of their parents, grandparents, and other family members. Without knowledge of the Russian language, it’s impossible to have close and deep communication with Russian-speaking relatives. It’s important to preserve the language of our ancestors.

The Russian language is very rich and beautiful. Knowledge of Russian will allow children to read works by Russian authors in the original. Many works lose their authenticity in translation.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov said, “The more languages you know, the more times you are a human being.” This is a chance to give our children a richer and more interesting life. Language is a way of transmitting information, and those who possess information possess the world.

According to statistics, bilinguals have better cognitive abilities, socialize more easily, perceive the world more comprehensively (they have the ability to consider objects and events from different perspectives), have a more flexible mind, find it easier to learn new languages, and have more opportunities to find employment.

Education:

★ Moscow State University (MSU) – Faculty of Law.

★ Moscow State University (MSU) – Russian as a Foreign Language Instructor for Children.

★ Kingsborough Community College – General Humanities Education.

★ Since 2019 – Judge at the ACTR Russian Language Olympiad.

★ From  2017 – member of ACTR (American Council of Teachers of Russian).

★ From 2020 – proctor of the National Examinations in World Languages (NEWL) (AP Russian for High school students).

★ Since 2020 – Responsible for conducting the Russian language exam for high school students (NEWL) (AP Russian for High School Students).