Hi there!
This is Chiara from Italy and I have just arrived in Saint Petersburg as a new intern at Liden & Denz. This isn’t my first time in Russia – I have already studied Russian for a few weeks in Siberia and I can still remember the fear the first time I saw -28 on the thermometer. I chose the come here to improve my Russian during my gap year and I will be around for five weeks, trying to survive the Russian winter again. So far I have travelled around Europe plus Russia and Japan and travelling has allowed me to do two thing that I enjoy very much: learning a foreign language and eating weird foreign food as if it were my last meal. Then when I am at home I am just a Netflix junkie .
After getting my Applied Linguistics degree in English, French and Russian, it seemed like a wise decision to have a taste of the true русская разговорная речь (daily conversational Russian), so I will be attending lessons at Liden & Denz in the morning, discovering the city during the day & memorizing Russian words at night (or at least I will try to).
First walk in Saint Petersburg
What surprised me the most when I arrived here is the incredible mixture of architectural styles – from Baroque till Modern – and architects who came here and left their mark in the city (Italians, French etc..). I was even able to feel at home during the free walking tour offered by Liden & Denz when I saw the Kazan Cathedral and noticed how it looks similar to Saint Peter’s Basilica. Furthermore, being around during Christmas time, there is not a single palace in the city which is not covered in lights and there’s basically no need right now for public lighting- at least in the city center.
But…why Russian?
I started learning Russian at university three years ago because it sounded peculiar and quite different and it is indeed a challenging and interesting language. Sometimes it is just challenging, but eventually the chance to read all that wonderful literature in original Russian is totally worth it! To fully understand a culture, in my opinion it is mandatory first understand how people talk and think. And finally, after having taken I don’t know how many exams about Russian culture and history, here I am!
Getting ready for this street has been easy, I got all the support from Liden & Denz to find what I needed right after I arrived, then I just had to figure out what clothes would have been useful to avoid freezing. The biggest challenge comes now when everyday my Russian is on trial, but as Jules Verne once said:
“Man, a mere inhabitant of the earth, cannot overstep its boundaries! But though he is confined to its crust, he may penetrate into all its secrets.” Jules Verne