Russian

Russian is hard to learn. I really do enjoy learning it, though. Matisse is a wonderful teacher. She is the best because of how much she absolutely loves the language, the people, the culture––everything about the the language and the country, Russia.

It’s interesting to think about when she became interested with the Russian culture and language: in high school, during her senior year, she read Crime and Punishment, by the Russian author Dostoevsky and absolutely loved it. It was because of her love for the author Dostoevsky that she decided to take Russian.

Then, during her freshman year in college, she met Mark Purves, a Russian professor at BYU. She was taking the Dostoevsky class from him and, I think she also took Russian from him, too, that year. Because of their common love for all things Russia, they became good friends. Still today, she and the Purvess (Mark and his family) have a strong friendship.

Oh man, just thinking about the different opportunities she was able to have in Russia is amazing. She has gone on a study abroad twice and also did an internship there for a semester. She interned at a little graphic design studio called Just Be Nice. She was interested in working there because they never designed for any tobacco or alcohol companies just because none of them liked those industries––so cool! Especially since the consumption of alcohol is so big in Russia.

The more I am learning Russian, the more I am loving it. I hope I will be able to do something fun like go on a study abroad to Russia…yeah, that would be cool.