School during the winter holidays? Sounds crazy but for me it was a great option. Great for meeting new people from around the world while studying a subject, for what I wouldn’t have time during the semester. And since I had no exams in January… Tallinn Winter School 2016? Why not! From the 4th till the 22nd of January 2016 I participated in the programme of Tallinn Winter School. I took the Russian Language course on beginner’s level. I have never had the opportunity (well actually the time) to start with this useful, exotic, and beautiful language. So when I found out about Tallinn Winter School I signed up without hesitating. Actually Tallinn is a good place for learning Russian, as around 40 % of it’s citizens are Russian speakers. Most of the products are labelled in at least both, Russian and Estonian, and if you are already on a higher level, then you won’t have problems to purchase Russian books and newspapers. Other courses, that were offered in the Winter School were the Estonian Language course, Experimental Interaction Design and Effective Communication and Education (the last course was held fully in Russian). Especially the Estonian Language course is pretty popular among students of every age. [caption id="attachment_8287" align="alignleft" width="300"] Learning Russian (Tobias in the middle)[/caption] Learning Russian- the beginning The beginning was tough, very tough to be honest. The participants who already had some knowledge had to take part in a test, to find out their actual language level so that they could join the course that fits them best. For me of course, that wasn’t the case and we started right away from the very first basics. The course lasted from 10 AM till 2 PM every day, including a half an hour lunch break. The university provided us with copies of a text- and a workbook. So all the learning materials are already included in the price (even candy!). Although the textbook is already a bit old, it teaches the basics in a very good and structured way. Our teacher Natalia almost knows it by heart. It’s a very solid thing without useless details. I am very happy, that I can keep it, because I will probably use it a lot for looking up things in the future. The progress makes up all the efforts But it’s not all about the textbook- starting with Russian is hard. I studied a couple of languages in school, but so far I have never had to learn a new alphabet. Everybody keeps on telling me, that the alphabet was the easiest part of the language, but for me it was still difficult enough. An “H” is suddenly a “N”, a “P” is pronounced as an “R”, then the new letters like “ф”, “д”… things that let you feel like being back in a primary school. BUT the good news is: give it a week, and it is suddenly working. You get used to it as long as you try really hard and don’t give up! On the first day we covered almost all the letters in both ways, handwriting and printed. On the second day we started building first sentences. On the third day we had a first dialog and by the end of the week already a half-page of text. As you can see the pace is fast! In general one chapter before lunch and one chapter in the afternoon was the work to be done to call it a day. After that the homework took me approximately another 2-3 hours. As you can see, it is possible to learn a language that fast, but it means hard work and a lot of studying. But the progress makes up all the efforts. In our group there were only five participants. That made it possible for the teacher to focus on individual difficulties and train the participants personally on their needs. The teaching was highly interactive. However, bear in mind, that Tallinn Winter School means a lot of self-discipline. The level of teaching is exceedingly high. So don’t bring work or other commitments to Tallinn! You won’t have time for it anyway. Keep focused Week two and three were a little bit easier than week one. Part of it was because I got used to the new alphabet, on the other side Natalia kept the pace a bit slower so that we could understand the grammar better. By the end of the School we would have covered all the basic grammatical rules in the Russian language. Starting from building plural, all the tenses, later conjugations, until imperfective and perfective form of verbs and finally we covered every of the six cases. Apart of this we even had time to learn two Russian songs and watch a popular children’s cartoon called Маша и Медведь (Masha and The Bear). Only in three weeks… I really think that I got an intense impression how the language works. However, lack of vocabulary is still a big problem. But that’s a do-it-yourself thing now. But… [caption id="attachment_8271" align="alignright" width="300"] International Evening[/caption] Tallinn Winter School is not just about studying It’s also about getting in touch with new people. Our Russian group consisted out of students from England, the US, Austria, Germany and India. It’s easy to get in contact with the people as there are very cool events organized. Almost every day was a free film-screening, open lecture about Estonia or different tours through Tallinn. There was a welcome evening, an International Evening to get to know each other and finally the big closing-party (with lots of good food and wine;)). The programme coordinators spare no efforts to offer you a great time here! My personal highlight was the celebration of Russian Christmas on the 7^th of January with Russian candy and music! All in all, I look back on three great weeks. I met interesting people from around the world, learned the basics of a beautiful language and learned a lot about the Russian culture. But it has been three weeks of hard work as well, which wasn’t easy all the time. Eventually, of course I am glad about the high academic level in my group. I will definitely go on with Russian and hope I am able to visit the country as soon as possible. In case you have any question, please don’t hesitate to email me: tobmayr@tlu.ee До свидания, Тобиас (Erasmus student)  

Tallinn Winter School has a seasonal counterpart Tallinn Summer School that offers a lot more courses (this year it takes place from 11th of July until 29th of July). The registration will be opened soon, meanwhile you can already choose a course of your liking from TSS webpage!

Read also about our degree programmes and admission requirements from our webpage.