Samn J.
- Portage, MI 49024 ( 26 mi )
- Experienced Russian Tutor
- Male Age 33
- Member since: 04/2014
- Will travel up to 30 miles
- Rates from $15 to $25 /hr
-
On-line
In-Home
- Also Tutors: Latin, German
My comments on tutoring Russian : I learned Russian through 3 years of Russian courses at the University of Michigan, and although I am not completely fluent, I am certainly proficient. In addition to these classes, I have been fortunate to have ample exposure to the language as spoken by native speakers. One of my closest friends is the daughter of emigrants from the former Soviet Union, and I have had many opportunities to practice my Russian with her and her family. Any time I have found myself in need of conversing with a Russian speaker who does not speak English, I have been able to communicate with little difficulty. Although my pronunciation of Russian is admittedly not perfect, it is also doubtlessly comprehensible to native speakers. My strongest asset, however, is a deep understand of grammar and the structure of language. I have long been passionate about linguistics, and am pursuing an academic career as a linguist, focusing on the Indo-European languages. This gives me the perspective to not only understand how Russian works today, but how and why it got that way. As a Slavic language, Russian can initially seem very daunting and unfamiliar to English speakers, however I am very confident that I can use my knowledge to succinctly break down and explain the most confusing features of the language, guaranteeing rapid progress in speaking built on a firm foundation of grammar and bringing this beautiful and rewarding language within reach of any student.
I recently graduated from the University of Michigan where I received a degree in music composition. I also have a long standing fascination with language that I nurtured by studying 6 languages at the University; those being German, Russian, Polish, Old English, French, and Hittite. I have also independently studied Gothic, Old Norse, Norwegian, Danish, Sanskrit, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic. I intend to use these skills to pursue a doctorate in Indo-European studies, a field of linguistics focused on the development of the Indo-European family of languages, to which all of the above languages belong. Although my degree is not in Linguistics, I have taught myself the technical jargon necessary to read specialist texts, and have recently benefited from the mentorship of Benjamin Fortson, an Indo-Europeanist who wrote the standard introductory textbook for the field. The success of ... read more
