Knowing good Russian is important in Armenia, especially for medical students, as a lot of textbooks are in Russian. Medical student Nelli Matevosyan says, “Students of the Medical university need to learn Russian. We don’t speak fluent Russian.” She asked, “Does AMVN organize Russian classes?”.

AMVN Country Director Hasmik Torosyan immediately contacted professor Liza Kobzar of the St. Petersburg Pedagogical University. Liza was familiar with AMVN’s work and had participated in a recent AMVN Educators Forum.

Liza introduced us to one of her students, Darina Andreeva. Darina is currently studying foreign languages at St. Petersburg Herzen Pedagogical University. She speaks Russian, English, and German.

Darina signed up to volunteer with AMVN and began teaching Russian language classes to a group of young medical students. Darina is an intelligent and skillful teacher. She makes her clases interesting by encouraging students to study Russian literature and engage in discussions. The students from the Yerevan State Medical University love her methods of teaching. Darina enjoys teaching and says, “Thanks a lot! It is such a blast for me to give these classes”.

Along with volunteering for AMVN, Darina takes English conversation classes organized by AMVN with native speaker, Sophia Terian. Sophia says, “Darina’s English is so good! I like having her in my group.”

AMVN is happy to bring together students from all over the world and promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas.