Modern Russia decoded — the exams teenagers actually sit, the music in their headphones, the breakfast they grab on the way out the door. Every feature comes with bite-sized vocabulary you can take straight into a lesson.
OGE, EGE, Knowledge Day and how Russian schooling really compares.
The artists teenagers are streaming, and the slang in the lyrics.
Syrniki, curd bars, canteen queues and café Russian.
Yandex, superapps and how AI is reshaping everyday Russian.
School & Exams
If your child sits GCSEs at 16 and A-levels at 18, Russia has a near-mirror system — the OGE and the EGE — with one enormous difference: a single set of exam results decides university admission nationwide. Plus why many Russian pupils arrive on 1st September carrying flowers.
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Music & Pop Culture
Forget the balalaika. The Russian a teenager actually hears is reflected in rap, chart hooks and bedroom-pop guitars — and the lyrics are some of the best listening practice you'll find anywhere.
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Food & Student Life
Russian food vocabulary is where beginners make the fastest visible progress — because you use it three times a day. Start with syrniki for breakfast, a glazed curd bar in your bag, and the six phrases that get you served in any Moscow café.
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Modern Tech & AI
Taxis, deliveries, banking and voice assistants all live in one or two apps in Russia — and they've generated a whole layer of everyday vocabulary that textbooks haven't caught up with. This feature is being written now.
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School & Exams
Marina has prepared students for the Russian GCSE for over two decades. This feature breaks down the speaking paper honestly — where marks are quietly lost, and the handful of habits that lift a grade.
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Food & Student Life
Third-wave coffee culture has landed in Russia — and with it a curious hybrid vocabulary of borrowed English and stubbornly Russian grammar. Here's how to hold your own at the counter.
Ask about conversation lessonsBook a private tuition session with Marina — a native speaker with 25+ years' experience teaching everyone from absolute beginners to Cambridge degree students.
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