Please contact Matt Sundakov,
ProZcom profile: http://www.proz.com/profile/21120
Emails: matt.sundakov@gmail.com and matt@bookwebtranslation.com
Skype/MSN: matt.sundakov
English consulting for Russian speakers and
Russian consulting for English speakers on Skype
In addition to
English>Russian and Russian>English translations, I provide English consulting for Russian speakers and Russian
consulting for English speakers. This service is associated with various aspects of life: language, history, culture, travel, business, etc. You ask
your question through Skype by typing it or by means of a Skype telephone call
– and I will do my best to provide the answer as soon as I can (wherever
possible - in real time). In addition, I can help you with writing a letter,
resume, a short story or even a poem. And, it goes without saying, you
are welcome not only to ask some specific questions but also enjoy my Russian
lessons (please read below my approach to language teaching)
My hourly rates depend
on a total number of hours you wish to have during a week, namely:
1 hour = 50
2 hrs – $45 p/h (week total = $90)
3 hrs - $40 p/h (week total = $120)
4 hrs - $35 p/h (week total = $140)
5 hrs - $30 p/h (week total = $150)
To develop the mutual trust, you are expected to pay via PayPal or MoneyBookers immediately after
completion of each communication session to matt.sundakov@gmail.com.
(Australian residents can simply transfer the payment to my Australian bank
with no transaction fee for any of 2 parties)
If my basic terms and conditions are not acceptable to you,
I would be willing to consider your own suggestions. So, please do talk to me,
and we might well find a solution suitable for both parties.
MY APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TEACHING
My lessons are for anyone who is interested in the
Russian language and life. First and foremost, the lessons are aimed
at people who are going to
Most people, I presume, begin to study a foreign
language not only because, for one reason or another, they want to be able to
read, write, speak and understand this language. They are also
interested in the culture, traditions, customs and habits of the people
speaking the language. My lessons will try to satisfy such curious
people. Introducing them to various sides of life in
I anticipate your questions: "How about the
grammar? Will we study Russian Grammar? And if not, is it possible to learn a
foreign language without knowing grammar?"
May be it is indeed possible to avoid learning
grammar. When you speak or write your own language, you don't think about the
grammar. You may not know that English verbs have 26 tenses and perhaps will be
very surprised when you hear about this for the first time in your life. And
how are all these tenses formed? I doubt if many of you have even thought about
it. For you it is just natural: English language was with you from your birth.
You just know how to speak. And to speak correctly, you do not need to know the
structure and rules of your language.
However, for a foreign student (unless he/she is a
child), the process of learning is far from automatic and natural. You may
learn by heart many words and some phrases of another language. But to use this
language more or less properly, you need to know some grammar in order to build
sentences which can be understood and appreciated by a native speaker.
The grammar is certainly important. But one should
not overestimate it. When I was a school boy, one of the subjects we studied at
school was foreign language. It was a compulsory subject ‑ as every other
subject studied in Soviet Schools. In our school the foreign
language was German. We studied this language for 8 years in a row (2 one‑hour
lessons a week).
Still, in the end, even our best students could not
boast that they could speak German. We knew German grammar, we could read
German texts and translate them into Russian, but none of us could speak even
limited German or understand it by ear.
And the same system existed in nearly all Soviet
schools (certainly, there were some exceptions: in a big city (such as
Leningrad) among several hundred ordinary schools for ordinary children you
could find a dozen or two of so called Special Schools where at least some
subjects were taught in a foreign language).
You can rightfully ask, why so obviously an
ineffective system of learning foreign languages existed in so many schools for
so many years. The answer will sound for you as an anecdote, but it was true.
Until 1956, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin's personality cult, any foreign
language textbook in its introduction emphasized the greatness of Stalin's
works in the sphere of linguistics. They cited the famous words
of comrade Stalin about Grammar, where he said that Grammar is
the essence and the most important part of any language, and therefore students
learning a foreign language should first and foremost master the Grammar. And
we did it, but still never managed to master the language itself.
When in January 1980 I arrived in
Talking over the phone was for a long time my most
depressing experience. Actually I began to shake uncontrollably each time when
the telephone rang, and the aftershocks still continued for a long time after I
hung up.
Sure, I would have felt myself much more secure and
comfortable studying at some intensive course of English language. But, apart
from the obvious necessity to work in order to support myself and my family, I
wanted to adjust to my new life as quickly as possible. I wanted to feel myself
independent in everything. And there was only one way to achieve this: to try
to do everything by myself, while overcoming the difficulties of a new language
and solving numerous problems of everyday practical situations.
And I think my determination paid off: soon I was
able to do a job which required good communication skills, especially in
writing. I was also able to teach English as a second language in Community
Evening Classes. And the fact that I am writing this course now, hopefully,
speaks for itself.
I hope you have been persuaded by my own
experience, and will agree, that the best way of studying a foreign language is
to make the emphasis on practical situations. Therefore, I will tell you in the
beginning of this course only the basic principles of Russian Grammar in
comparison with English ones. And then lesson by lesson (which are called here
Subjects), using our creative imagination, we will put ourselves in different
practical situations, as though we were living in
Thus, your study of the language will not be
passive. On the contrary, it will be very active, because I want you to be
involved as much as possible: you should read and write, listen to Russian
language broadcasts, and try to talk in Russian loudly with yourself or even
better with somebody else. Do not worry about mistakes. Step by step, depending
on your determination and time involved, you will increase your vocabulary, you
will improve your spelling and pronunciation, and you will become more and more
fluent in Russian which, as I hope you will find by yourself, is a difficult
but at the same time a very rich and fascinating language.
Obviously, all our imagined practical situations
will serve not only the purpose of learning the language, but also will give
you an opportunity to become familiar with the every day life, culture and
traditions of people living in Russia. Engrossing ourselves in these
situations, we will not reject the grammar completely. But we will not study
grammar for the sake of grammar. We will come back to grammar time and again, when
we feel that we need it to explain the origin of a word, its spelling or the
sentence structure ‑ in general terms, wherever it can help us in our
study. This approach is not only practical, but it will also save us a lot of
time for much more exciting, colorful and useful discussions.
To make your
study most productive, I would recommend you in addition to our sessions, which
will make emphasis on practical situations, to do some homework as well. For the latter purpose, in the end of each
session I would refer you to some grammar rules that you will need to read at
home and perform a few relevant grammar
exercises afterwards. Later (during our next session) we can dedicate part of
the lesson to discussion of your problems related to learning that particular
part of the Grammar.
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