summer russian language

Quick Info

By Term

• Summer 2013
• Summer 2014

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Program Overview

Come experience the splendor that is St. Petersburg in summer. Spend eight weeks advancing your Russian language skills through an intensive and immersive academic and cultural study abroad program.

Whether you’re a intermediate or advanced level language student you’ll enjoy rigorous coursework and an enriching cultural program of lectures and local excursions in and around one of the world’s most culturally and historically rich cities. And with homestays, peer language partners, volunteer opportunities, and a variety of cultural activities and excursions, studying abroad in Russia offers you a uniquely immersive international experience.

Study abroad in Russia and you will:

• Experience the longest running study abroad program in Russia in spectacular St. Petersburg, where the entire downtown is a protected UNESCO heritage site
• Improve your Russian through intensive Russian language training for intermediate and advanced students
• Live in a homestay with a Russian family for cultural and linguistic immersion
• Explore Russian culture on excursions in and outside of the city, and participate in a rich program of extracurricular activities

The CIEE Difference

Coursework

Improve your grammar, phonetics, and conversational skills through advanced language study, while exploring Russian culture through close analysis of verbal and visual texts and a series of lectures on history, literature, art, and contemporary life.

Cultural Activities

Explore the city through a series of museum visits, boat tours, a group cooking class in Russian cuisine, visits to the Russian bathhouse, and tickets to concerts, ballets, and sporting events.

The study abroad program offers two overnight field trips each summer to Moscow, Russia’s vibrant capital, and Novgorod, Russia’s oldest city. Both trips include excursions to places of educational, cultural, and historic significance, while still allowing time for you to explore the sites on your own.

Immersion

Take part in the Sobesedniki (Peer Language Partner) program and you’ll be paired with local students for a variety of language and cultural exchange activities. These students provide you with additional language support and insight into the lifestyles of your Russian peers.

Dates, Deadlines & Fees

We want to make sure you get the most out of your experience when you study abroad with CIEE, which is why we offer the most inclusions in our fees.

• Tuition and housing
• Pre-departure advising and optional on-site airport meet and greet
• Full-time program leadership and support
• Field trips and cultural activities
• CIEE iNext travel card which provides insurance and other travel benefits

Please note, program dates are subject to change. Please contact your CIEE Study Abroad Advisor before purchasing airfare. Click the button to view more detailed information about dates and fees as well as estimated additional costs. Please talk with your University Study Abroad Advisor about additional fees that may be charged by your home institution when participating in a program abroad.

Program

Application Due

Start Date

End Date

Costs

Summer 2013 (8 wks)

03/15/2013

06/15/2013

08/11/2013

$7,350

Program Date Notes

These program dates are tentative. Please contact your CIEE Study Abroad Advisor prior to purchasing an airline ticket.

Program Fees

In addition to the items outlined below, the CIEE program fee includes an optional on-site airport meet and greet, full-time leadership and support, orientation, cultural activities, local excursions, field trips, pre-departure advising, and a CIEE iNext travel card which provides insurance and other travel benefits.

Participation Confirmation *

$300

Educational Costs **

$5,005

Housing ***

$1,700

Insurance

$102

Visa Fees

$243

This breakdown has been prepared from the program budget for the purpose of calculating eligibility for financial aid. During the course of program operations, actual figures may vary. It should not, therefore, be used as a basis for calculation of refunds. CIEE reserves the right to adjust fees at any time.

Students required to study on CIEE programs through a School of Record will be charged a $340 administrative fee in addition to the Program Fees listed.

* non-refundable

** direct cost of education charged uniformly to all students

*** includes most meals

Estimated Additional Costs

Meals not included in program fee *

$600

International Airfare **

$1,250

Local Transportation

$200

Books & Supplies

$100

Personal expenses

$1,000

The estimated additional costs indicated are intended to assist students and parents in budgeting for those additional living and discretionary expenses not included in the program fee. Actual expenses will vary according to student interests and spending habits.

* for weekday lunches

** round-trip based on U.S. East Coast departure

Summer 2014

03/15/2014

TBA

TBA

Program Date Notes

Program Fees

This breakdown has been prepared from the program budget for the purpose of calculating eligibility for financial aid. During the course of program operations, actual figures may vary. It should not, therefore, be used as a basis for calculation of refunds. CIEE reserves the right to adjust fees at any time.

Students required to study on CIEE programs through a School of Record will be charged a $340 administrative fee in addition to the Program Fees listed.

Estimated Additional Costs

The estimated additional costs indicated are intended to assist students and parents in budgeting for those additional living and discretionary expenses not included in the program fee. Actual expenses will vary according to student interests and spending habits.

Eligibility

• Overall GPA 2.75
• 4 semesters of college-level Russian or equivalent
• Due to the length of the Russian visa process, CIEE requires students to have a valid passport in order to be accepted. Russian immigration requires that this passport is valid for 18 months beyond the end date of the program.

Recommended Credit

Recommended credit for the summer semester is 9 semester/13.5 quarter hours

This program averages 2 22 hours per week of language instruction. Russian language instruction covers grammar, phonetics, conversation, and Russian culture.

Total recommended credit for the summer is 9 semester/13.5 quarter hours and the number of contact hours is 154.

Recommendations for contact hours not only take into consideration actual class time, but also required excursions and trips.

Program Requirements

Study abroad students are required to take the three required language courses (Russian Grammar, Phonetics, and Conversation) and the two required content courses.

About The City

Envisioned by Peter the Great as the “Window to the West” and created by French and Italian architects, St. Petersburg became a testimony to opulence with golden palaces, pastel-colored mansions, and landscaped parks, gardens, and canals. Having endured the horrors of World War II and Stalinist repression, the people now cope with a new political and economic reality. Known as Leningrad from 1924 to 1991, the city of nearly five million is easily navigated by foot, bus, trolley, and an efficient metro system.

Meet The Staff

Irina Makoveeva

A native of Moscow, Irina Makoveeva received her Master’s in Russian Philology and Comparative Linguistics from the Moscow Lomonosov State University and her Doctoral Degree in Slavic and Film Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Her dissertation Visualizing Lev Tolstoi’s Anna Karenina reveals her interest in popular-culture adaptations of canonical literary texts. While her first publications focus on problems of translation and methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language, her recent articles explore various aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet culture. Throughout her long academic career, she has taught various courses on Russian literature, culture, cinema, and all levels of Russian language at such schools as Moscow State Mining University, the Moscow Lomonosov State University, Virginia Tech, the University of Pittsburgh, and Vanderbilt University.

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Though Dostoevsky’s novels are commonly associated with a dark and cold St. Petersburg, one must not forget that Crime and Punishment was set in the sweltering heat of the city’s white nights. People call it the Venice of the North, the Cultural Capital. The best time for St. Petersburg to prove its status as one of the most beautiful cities in the world is in the summer when it transforms into a city of innumerable rivers and canals, parks and gardens, tulips and lilac, white nights and drawbridges. St. Petersburg truly comes alive in summer: its canals are filled with pleasure boats and the Neva embankment is host to impromptu concerts and parties. The city’s numerous parks gush with flowing fountains and the sky remains a pale periwinkle from dusk till dawn. Here you will uncover the genius of Pushkin, spend time strolling along the Romanovs’ lanes, and fall in love with the city that will never let you go.

— Irina Makoveeva, Resident Director

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Katya Rubtsova

Student Services Assistant Katya Rubtsova joined the CIEE Study Center in 2009. A graduate of Tula Lev Tolstoy State Pedagogical University with a degree in teaching foreign languages, she assists CIEE students in their everyday endeavors. In addition, Katya has coordinated such projects as the Smolny Spring Ball, Stilyagi and Leningradsky Rock. In 2007-2008, as an administrator of a Russian-German NGO in Tula, Katya participated in many youth leadership conferences which included social and theatrical projects in Izhevsk, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities in Russia and Ukraine. She participated twice in the CIEE Work and Travel USA program.

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Where You'll Study

Founded in the 18th century, St. Petersburg State University is one of Russia’s leading institutions of higher education. The campus has expanded from its original site on the Neva River, and now includes over 400 buildings around the city center. CIEE students study at the University’s stunning Smolny campus—on the territory of the renowned school for noble ladies founded in 1764—in a quiet neighborhood on the east side of downtown St. Petersburg.

Housing & Meals

All study abroad students live in Russian homestays. Participants have their own room with a Russian family in a private apartment. Housing and most meals (two meals daily and three on weekends) are included in the program fee. Students are responsible for weekday lunches. The University cafeteria offers reasonably priced meals.

Orientations

You'll begin your study abroad experience in St. Petersburg even before leaving home by participating in a CIEE online pre-departure orientation. Meeting with students online, the resident director shares information about the program and site, highlighting issues that alumni have said are important, and giving you time to ask questions. The online orientation allows you to connect with others in the group, reflect on what you want to get out of the program, and learn what others in the group would like to accomplish. CIEE’s aim for the pre-departure orientation is simple—to help you understand more about the program, and identify your objectives so that you arrive well-informed and return home having made significant progress towards your goals.

At the beginning of the program, you will participate in an intensive three-day introduction to Russian everyday culture and customs, health and safety issues, and the academic program. The orientation, held in a St. Petersburg hotel, is supported by Russian student assistants in order to facilitate your entry into your new culture. After the initial three-day orientation, you'll move to your homestay. For the remainder of the orientation, you'll take part in a variety of exercises, excursions, and meetings as you become familiar with your new home.

Internet

You are encouraged to bring a wireless-enabled laptop. Internet access in homestays is not guaranteed; however, limited, but free, wireless is available at the CIEE Study Center. Wireless Internet is also available through local cell phone providers, 4G Internet providers, and many Internet cafés throughout St. Petersburg. Additionally, there is a fee-for-service Internet classroom maintained by the University.

Culture

The academic program is supplemented with excursions, study tours, and field trips. Although the schedule changes somewhat from year to year, typical excursions include a city bus tour, the Hermitage, the Peter and Paul Fortress, Pavlovsk, Peterhof, a walking tour of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and Pushkin’s Apartment Museum. Additionally, CIEE staff arranges boat tours, a group cooking class in Russian cuisine, visits to the Russian bathhouse, and tickets to soccer games. Weekends are mostly free with the exception of overnight weekend field trips and possible Saturday excursions.

The study abroad program offers two overnight field trips each summer to Moscow, Russia’s vibrant capital, and Novgorod, Russia’s oldest city. Both trips include excursions to places of educational, cultural, and historic significance, while still allowing some time for you to explore the sites on your own. Some group meals are included during these group excursions.

Immersion

Sobesedniki—Peer Language Partners

If you choose to take part in the Sobesedniki program you'll be paired with local students for a variety of language and cultural exchange activities. These students will provide you with additional language support and give you a firsthand look at their lifestyle.

Film and Music

You can enjoy Russian cinema individually by checking out films from the Study Center DVD library or collectively in group screenings through the CIEE Film Club. The choir practice is included in the course on Russian culture.

Academics

In 2013, the CIEE Study Center marks its 46th year in St. Petersburg. CIEE began its close relationship with St. Petersburg State University when the Summer Russian Language Program began there in 1967.

The program includes seven weeks of language study at the School of Political Science, St. Petersburg State University. The curriculum includes courses in grammar, phonetics, conversation, and Russian culture. During the program, students visit places of historical and cultural significance in and around St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Novgorod.

Academic Culture

Study abroad students attend classes five days a week with one afternoon reserved for cultural activities. Classes are 90 minutes in length.

All courses are taught in Russian and students are grouped by language level based on the results of a placement test. In-class participation often accounts for a large percentage of students’ grades as Russian teaching methodology emphasizes in-class learning.

Nature of Classes

CIEE participants take classes with CIEE students only.

CIEE Community Language Commitment

Students take part in the CIEE Community Language Commitment by speaking Russian at all times (except in emergencies). This fosters a learning community that contributes to both Russian language proficiency and understanding of Russian society.

Grading System

Grades are assigned using the Russian grading scale of one to five, which are converted to U.S. letter grade equivalents. Plus and minus grades are also assigned. Grades are determined by a combination of in-class participation, short quizzes, written assignments, and exams.

Language of Instruction

Russian

Faculty

All courses are taught by faculty from St. Petersburg State University.

Course Description

Program Blog

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