Marina Mogilko reviews of the consultation. How much does Marina Mogilko earn?

At the age of 29, Marina Mogilko is a co-founder and head of the popular portal LinguaTrip, which allows everyone to study foreign languages ​​of interest abroad. The girl works and lives in Silicon Valley, which is located in the United States. In one of the interviews, Marina spoke in detail about how she was able to create her first project and ended up in one of the largest business incubators.

Education and the path to success

The published biography and personal life of Marina Mogilko contains many interesting facts that are worthy of attention. A girl was born on March 13, 1990 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Since childhood, Marina dreamed that in the future she would work abroad.

The girl studied well in order to be able to get the profession of a translator in the future. But at one time, her parents insisted that Marina study as an economist-mathematician. At the same time, the girl studied English in order to expand her abilities in the future. All her undertakings were supported and financed by a loving father, as he believed that his daughter would become a real star in any business. And if you do not know English and you need an urgent translation of an important document, then we advise you to contact The Words translation agency for notarized translation of documents.

In 2011, Marina graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a degree in economics and mathematics. She studied at the Faculty of Mathematics for more than six months, and also participated in a student exchange at the Technical University of Dresden.

While studying in Russia, in early May 2011, Marina's classmate Dmitry Pistolyako suggested that the purposeful girl jointly establish an agency for the selection of educational courses outside her native country. The new project was named "MP Education". After 3 years, Igor and Marina were able to get into the SumlT startup school, which was created on the basis of ITMO.

At the end of the educational process, talented and entrepreneurial students were invited to an important start-up meeting with John Remay. After this event, John told his business colleagues in detail about the privileges of the new company, after which he connected Marina with the mentor of the 500 Startups startup accelerator so that they could eventually get into their accelerator. Despite the fact that the recruitment was already closed at that time, the management agreed to watch the presentation of their company.

The very next day, Dmitry and Marina received an official invitation to 500 Startups. Thanks to this, new opportunities opened up for successful young people, and they moved to Silicon Valley, where they began to develop their business more intensively. Seeing the huge prospect of making a good profit, the accelerator invested $100,000 in the company in exchange for its shares. The rapid growth of the business made it possible to officially register the LinguaTrip Inc corporation in 2015. The headquarters is located in Mountain View.

Personal achievements

Among all the honorary titles of Marina Dmitrievna Mogilko, at least 3 interesting and quite profitable professions can be distinguished: entrepreneur, founder and commercial director of a large-scale platform called Lingua Trip. Today, the girl owns three personal channels, which are closely related to the specifics of her work. On YouTube, you can find many interesting videos on completely different topics. According to Forbes, the girl was among the sixteen most famous business women and innovators in the field of high innovative technologies.

Fans will be interested to know the following facts from Marina's biography:

1. She currently lives in San Francisco.
2. Marina started working actively on YouTube video hosting in 2014.
3. The address of the personal site is linguatrip.com.
4. On the main channel, the number of subscribers reached 898,000 people.
5. The specifics of professional activity is a blogger.

Marina has several aliases, but most often she uses her real name. The girl leads a rich and active life, which is associated with professional activities in the educational industry. The caring parents of Marina Mogilko always support their daughter, as they believe in her success.

Youtube channel

Blogging is not Marina's only hobby. In an interview, the girl repeatedly admitted to reporters that before she could not even think that she could achieve tremendous success in this industry. When Marina created her first video, which was dedicated to the benefits of foreign languages, she did not even imagine that her work would gain a whole million views and many likes. Marina prefers to write advice to budding startups on Instagram and VKontakte. Every day, dozens of people interested in her work subscribe to the social networks of this girl.

Recently, the girl has become more active in the field of blogging:

1. How the British live. In the video, Marina tells true life stories in detail and conducts an overview of the average house.
2. American life. The principle of constructing a video is almost the same as in the first case.
3. Houses in the USA and Russia. In the video, Marina compares the types of housing in America and the largest country in the world. The blogger talks about all the advantages and disadvantages of living in both states.
4. Marina teaches how to speak English correctly in order to look like a native speaker.

Of course, the girl actively shoots not only informative and educational videos, but also captures various life hacks on camera, and also gives recommendations. The real inspiration for Marina is her numerous subscribers who leave positive comments and likes under the video. Recently, Marina Mogilko and Dmitry Pistolyako got married, thanks to which they began to work together on their common project.

Today Marina Mogilko lives in Silicon Valley. The girl is proud of her education and the fact that she has many creative business ideas. In an interview, Marina told reporters that officially her position is called "commercial director". A team of talented professionals is developing a platform for finding educational courses abroad.

The girl admitted that she had already forgotten about the last time she went on a good rest. Marina believes that the education received plays an important role in shaping the personality, but in order to achieve the desired result, it is necessary to have a sense of purpose. The value lies not only in the acquired knowledge, but also in the ability to think, to understand a particular topic. She believes that the secret of her success is that she is too passionate about her own business.

Purposeful Marina Mogilko and her husband devote a lot of time to their work. They are ready to work on their favorite project for more than 13 hours a day without feeling tired. That is why they place high demands on their colleagues. The essence of Marina's workflow is that she must contact her clients and partners by mail in a timely manner.

The girl conducts correspondence, advises people, and also gives detailed answers to their questions. Only a well-designed time management allows her to do everything and feel confident in the future. The ABBYY Lingvo program, which helps to translate and learn foreign languages, is in great demand today. A similar service is LinguaLeo (LinguaLeo).

Monthly income

All fans of Marina's work are interested in how much a talented blogger and self-confident business woman earns. The girl receives income not only from her YouTube channel. The main source of finance is own business. But the income from this type of activity is unknown to the press. But as for the channel, we can conclude that Marina receives up to $ 1000 per month. But if we take into account the profitability and relevance of the topic of the video uploaded to YouTube, then we can assume that this amount will gradually increase.

The trend includes Marina's webinars. This trend is directly related to the fact that in 2 weeks everyone can master all the necessary techniques and working tools to launch their YouTube channel. At her webinars, Marina regularly performs a kind of "exposure" of her success so that everyone can start their own business.

To achieve the desired result it is extremely important to choose the right management. Marina says that their team abandoned many interesting ideas halfway through, as they did not have the desired infrastructure, but they plan to return to them. If the established company is growing rapidly and its founders can not cope with reinvestment, then you should not chase venture stories.

The thing is that this process takes a lot of money and time. We need to focus on promoting the company and increasing capital. It is worth going to accelerators only if there is a need to quickly promote your business, but there are not enough funds for this.

To achieve the desired results, Marina recommends studying the book by Tim Ferriss called "The Four-Hour Workweek". In America, all businessmen are actively discussing this work of a famous author. The book is filled with effective advice. For example, during the week a person makes many calls and meetings.

In order to save time and achieve results, you need to reschedule all important cases so that they can be completed in two days with breaks of 20 minutes. This time is enough to give the body a rest and avoid overlays. The whole book contains a large number of useful tips that increase the efficiency of the working week several times over.

Opening a professional office

At one time, Marina, together with her classmate, opened a company for 16,000 rubles and shared her achievement with close friends and family. The first client was their classmate, who asked to arrange a trip abroad for her. The guys invested all their savings in their business. For 8 thousand, they rented a table in a huge office of Peter's multi-storey building. This move was made on purpose so that clients perceive the picture presented in front of them as a single office.

Applications appeared immediately, as people sent their children to England for 100-200 thousand rubles. Money was always brought in cash, which made everything look serious and professional. The site for the company was created by hired workers. We were looking for a professional developer for six months, but it was worth it.

The result of the efforts

Dmitry Pistolyako and Marina Mogilko, graduates of the St Petersburg University Faculty of Economics, managed to launch their first LinguaTrip service in 2015, and a year later their business turnover amounted to $5 million. At the heart of their business is that they are looking for suitable courses in international language schools. Clients can also book accommodation near the place of study. Marina and Dmitry got into the focus of the American media, which write about talented young entrepreneurs. The rapid career rise of this business was preceded by years of work offline.

The 500 Startups Fund allocated $100,000 to develop Marina and Dmitry's company, so they set about scaling up their business. Now their clients can study ten languages ​​in 300 of the most popular schools in the world. The average amount for accommodation of one participant of the program is 1.5 thousand dollars. Entrepreneurs get acquainted with foreign language schools at thematic international exhibitions. LinguaTrip offices are located in two countries where qualified managers are engaged in customer service:

1. Russia.

The project team includes four people: in addition to Marina and Dmitry, there is also Dmitry Kravchuk, as well as Daria Starikova. Now the talented girl is married, thanks to which she is engaged not only in her business, but also in her family. She plans to give birth to two kids who will definitely inherit all the talents of their star parents.

Blogger and businesswoman Marina Mogilko told us about her recent travels and favorite cosmetics, and also revealed the secret of a successful business.

Marina, tell us a little about yourself and your business.
I am an entrepreneur and blogger, born in St. Petersburg, and now I live in San Francisco. Together with the team, we came up with two cool projects - an online platform for booking language courses abroad LinguaTrip.com and a service for correcting English text by native speakers fluent.express. I have three channels on YouTube - Marina Mogilko, LinguaMarina and Silicon Valley Girl.

What did you dream of becoming as a child?
I imagined myself as a singer performing a duet with Valery Meladze, or an entrepreneur who works in a skyscraper.

You recently hosted a big event - LinguaFest in Moscow. Tell us how you chose what to wear?
I was lucky because my good friend, fashion designer Maya Zaboshta, worked on the outfit. She lives and works in St. Petersburg. I just asked her to design a dress for the festival for me, and she agreed.

Tell me about the festival. How did everything go?
The event turned out to be fire! I was happy to meet subscribers, blogger speakers and the LinguaTrip team. We have gathered in one place people from different fields who are interested in traveling, learning languages ​​and just constantly developing. It's inspiring. We will definitely organize LinguaFest in other cities and countries.

You often attend business meetings. What makeup do you do for such events?
At meetings, I do a minimal make-up - in America it is not customary to make up brightly. Usually this is Clé de Peau Beauté concealer, Trish McEvoy mascara, Benefit brow product and some blush.

You moved to Silicon Valley and it seems like everything is there. Maybe there are things or people that you miss?
Certainly! I really miss my parents who live in St. Petersburg. And from the food there is not enough village cottage cheese, cream and sour cream. When I get home, I make sure to check out the market.

As far as I know, you sing and do ballet. Recently, she even sang a duet with Valery Meladze. Is it possible to combine business and hobby?
It doesn't work out very well. It's good if I go to the gym a couple of times a week. I have a lot of flights for work, so I want to devote all my free time to sleep and personal projects. In winter, I will return to sports and singing again.

Can you share your coolest travel experience?
Any Four Seasons room is a delight, and the most enjoyable flight I've ever had was to Harvard in business class. We were given a tour of the plane, handed a travel kit and delicious food. Internet on board was faster than at home. I record many moments in my life on video for a blog, I also recorded that flight, see link.

What are you taking on board?
Moisturizing face mask, toothbrush, paste, lip balm and hand cream, laptop and portable phone charger.

What express means help you recover after a flight?
Hypnotic. Sleep and come to your senses. What you need after the flight! A good substitute for sleeping pills is magnesium.

Let's go back to your last trip to South Korea. Did you buy any cosmetics?
Locals confided to me that Korean luxury brands are not much different from budget brands. I bought AHC and AmorePacific. The Chinese export this cosmetics from Korea for millions of dollars every year because they really like it. I'll try soon too.

What surprised you the most about Korea?
I fell in love with this country. Very kind people, literally everyone helped us, they tried to explain the way in English. I liked the food, it's a bit spicy, but I like that. Everything is clean and technical. Korea turned out to be "my" country.

You live in San Francisco. Tell me, where are the best views?
Be sure to climb the Coit Tower - a tower with a very beautiful view of the whole city and the ocean, walk along the Embarcadero, eat my favorite oysters from Washington State and clam chowder, crab and scallop soup. You can also walk along Russian Hill (the best photos are obtained there), take a coltrain (local train), get to Stanford in 40 minutes. Walk around Palo Alto, get to Mountain View, take a free bike and ride around the Google office.

What advice would you give to girls who dream of owning their own business?
I always say that if you want to start your own business, you must be ready to work for free for two years. If not, then it's not for you. When you do your thing, people and opportunities always come because you have the strength to keep going no matter what. I think this will be my advice - to open a business not for the sake of business, but for the sake of immersing yourself in your favorite business.

It is easier to raise investments in the USA if you have already gone through the school of real business in the Russian market. If there is no corny money, you just have to earn it. Investors from Silicon Valley are interested in projects with revenue and real customers. The founders of the LinguaTrip service (search for language courses and higher schools around the world) Marina Mogilko and Dmitry Pistolyako at the Dumb Startup webinar told why you should not chase venture capital, how to launch a startup for 16 thousand rubles and why sometimes you need to abandon a brilliant idea in time .

What is LinguaTrip

We studied at the Faculty of Economics of St. Petersburg State University. Marina spoke English very cool - from the age of 14 she went to England to learn the language. It was very expensive, but she corresponded with schools and managed to reduce the cost of travel. We saw that it was possible to build a business on this: many of our friends also wanted to go to learn English.

We started in 2011 - at first we cooperated with the schools where Marina studied. We opened an office in Moscow, in Stavropol (we had a manager from there, it was her idea), but we quickly realized that we couldn’t do without control, we had to constantly travel to Stavropol ourselves. This did not suit us, and the Stavropol office closed after 3 months - and we realized that the only real way to develop is online. There was nothing like this on the Russian-language Internet then, in Europe and America everything was just beginning.

In 2013, we slowly started coding LinguaTrip, and in 2015 we registered a company. It was not so simple: we worked for hire. Dima had to take loans from the CEO of his company (7 million rubles in total). When the crisis hit in 2014 and the dollar rose, the CEO hinted that it was time to stop. And in general, when we tried to raise money in Russia, many people told us that the best thing to do is to close the company. Good thing we didn't listen to them.

Paphos office for 8 thousand

With 16 thousand rubles that our parents gave us for pocket money, we opened a company and told all our friends and acquaintances about it. Our classmate became the first client: she asked to arrange a trip for her. We invested everything we earned. In St. Petersburg, it was profitable (for 8 thousand rubles) to rent a table in a huge office. The office, where there are many, many tables, was chosen specifically to make it seem that this is all - our office. People sent their children to England for 100-200 thousand rubles, the money was brought to us in cash - everything had to look pathetic.

The site was made for us by third-party developers - we ourselves do not know how to code. They were looking for a developer for six months, but they found it by chance - on a kart. Dima is seriously involved in sports, he saw a guy in the locker room who looked like a developer, went up to him and asked: “Listen, are you a developer?”. He says: "Yes, developer" - "DotNet developer?" - "DotNet developer". That's how we met. He himself did not pull our project, but he brought a very cool colleague to us.

How to raise money

At the start, we understood that we could not develop as quickly as we would like. All our classmates already worked at Sberbank, Pricewaterhouse with good salaries - but we did not have a financial result, and we decided to raise venture capital money.

We watched videos, read articles about investments online. I was very impressed by the history of the Ostrovok company (a Russian hotel booking service around the world; in 2012 he became a resident of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, the co-founders of VKontakte invested $ 12 million in the company - Inc.). They lived in the Valley, they had all the garters with investors there. This was ignored and they only heard that two simple 30-year-old guys raised investments in Russian Booking - in my opinion, this was a failed idea from the very beginning. And yet they succeeded. We thought, "Damn, if they did it, we'll definitely do it."

We began to go to meetups in Moscow and St. Petersburg, make our way, ended up in the SumIT school at ITMO. John Ramey, an entrepreneur, mentor and investor from the USA, was brought to Russia for one of the meetups. There was a line of start-ups who pitched their projects to him, but when Marina started telling him about our project, he was clearly interested - firstly, we already had revenue, this is rare. Secondly, it helped that Marina really speaks English very well and almost without an accent - that is, she is the ideal “face of the product”. Marina told him that we want to get into and. He says: “Listen, I have an ex-girlfriend who works at 500 Startups, I can introduce you.” The next day he checked every dot and comma in our app and made an intro the same evening with his ex-girlfriend, Purnima. In California it was a Friday afternoon, and we had a night from Friday to Saturday and we had an interview at 3 am - it lasted five to seven minutes. Purnima also immediately appreciated our idea - she herself had previously studied Spanish in Chile and had difficulty finding a school based on reviews. "It's cool," he says, "that you're doing this." She said that she would consult with the director, and on Tuesday we woke up with an investment proposal for $100,000. In seven hours, we packed two large suitcases and went to California. 500 Startups has become just a game changer for us.

At the time of joining the accelerator, we already had an MVP, it was possible to buy through our website, and we already had a revenue of $20,000. Looking for an investor without a product or revenue is not very profitable. In Russia, we could not help but think about making money. We went through the school of real business, so in the Valley, where there were 10 startups in front of an investor and 9 of them had only an idea with a far-fetched problem, it was easy for us. We just said: “We have such a revenue”, - this immediately set us apart from the general background.

Why YouTube is better for business than an MBA

The most popular video on the channel for a year and a half after the launch was a video about standardized GMAT and TOEFL tests, and Marina recorded an English version of this video. For a month, 100 thousand people watched it. It is now the first YouTube video for "TOEFL" worldwide. The channel helped the business a lot: from there people go directly to our site.

Then we began to actively cooperate with top bloggers such as Amiran Sardarov or Regina Todorenko.

our team

We have a very cool team now - we have no vacancies, sometimes they just write to us that they want to work with us (and you write). Our head of sales started with SMM: in our VKontakte group, he answered everyone's questions, although he did not work for us then. We noticed this and started paying him. Then we advised him to try sales as he knew the whole product. In three years, he has grown into the head of sales of our project.

I don’t want to hire people with a corporate background: there is such a culture that you came at 10 o’clock, handed out tasks, left at 5 and during this time created the appearance of work, discussed something. And they are all very expensive.

"The Four-Hour Work Week". In America, everyone is talking about her. It's all practical advice. For example, during the week you probably have a lot of calls, meetings, and so on. Reschedule everything for only two days a week, with breaks of 20 minutes. This is enough to rest and avoid overlays. The entire book consists of tips to increase the efficiency of the work week.

Marina Mogilko and Dmitry Pistolyako (both 25 years old) created the LinguaTrip online service, which looks for foreign language courses and accommodation in another country. The St. Petersburg startup was noticed by investors from Silicon Valley and invested more than $100,000 in it.

Marina Mogilko and Dmitry Pistolyako, graduates of the Faculty of Economics, launched their service LinguaTrip in 2015, and already in 2016, according to their calculations, the business turnover should be $5 million.

Right now young people are in the US and are negotiating with a potential investor. If everything works out, this will not be the first American money in the company of Petersburgers.

Sent a friend to London

LinguaTrip is an online service to search for courses in international language schools, through which you can also book accommodation near the place of study. It's like Booking.com, but only for language schools, or Airbnb, but for student residences and local host families.

Founders of LinguaTrip this year were the focus of American media writing about young entrepreneurs. Marina was named one of 16 Women Founders Making Moves in Tech by tech.co.

The meteoric rise of this online business was preceded by years of work offline.

Even while studying Dmitry invited Marina to open an agency for the selection of educational courses abroad. Marina already had experience in this: she studied languages ​​in England and Germany.

In May 2011 it was officially the MP Education agency was registered, on the same day Marina and Dmitry found their first client - a classmate who was looking for English courses in London. After 3 weeks, Olga was already in London, and the agency was dealing with a new client. To date, there are more than 2 thousand people. The company's turnover in 2014 amounted to $1.3 million. The company earns from educational institutions, which give it an average of 25% of the cost of training from each client (a trip costs an average of $3,000). Meanwhile, the company's starting capital in 2011 barely exceeded $300.

It's OK

“In 2013, we realized that our customers are already ready to book and pay for language courses abroad via the Internet,” says Marina. With this idea in 2014, young businessmen got into the St. Petersburg startup accelerator SumIT. After graduating from SumIT, the accelerator invited Marina and Dmitry to a big startup meeting with John Remay, who is on the Forbes list of young entrepreneurs. Marina used her time to the maximum advantage: in 20 minutes she convinced the businessman that LinguaTrip had great prospects.

Back in Silicon Olina, John told his colleagues about the Russian project and connected Marina with another American mentor - Purnima Vijayashanker. It was about the opportunity to get into the well-known international accelerator 500Startups, founded by ex-PayPal marketing director Dave McClure.

Marina the next morning and Dmitry received an invitation to the accelerator. “We got ready in 8 hours and left for the USA for 5 months,” says Dmitry. - The first thing we felt when we arrived was how fast the project was developing. Almost everyone is ready to help you, and the number of acquaintances useful for business and the speed with which you acquire these contacts is simply breathtaking. What struck me the most was the number of investors and start-ups per square kilometer.”

Having received $100 thousand from the fund 500Startups, Dmitry and Marina began to scale their business. Now clients can study 10 languages ​​in 300 schools in 140 cities around the world. The average check for a course and accommodation is $1.5 thousand. Entrepreneurs get acquainted with foreign language schools at thematic international exhibitions. “Now the schools themselves are contacting us, and our job is to check them,” says Marina.

LinguaTrip offices are open Petersburg and the USA. There are four people in the project team: in addition to Dmitry and Marina, there is also Dmitry Kravchuk (the third co-owner of the startup), who took over the technical part of the project, and Daria Starikova. They all know each other for a long time.

After completing the program in accelerator, young people stayed for another 2 months in the US because they found a potential investor. Now negotiations are underway with him, experts estimate the possible amount of the transaction at $1.6 million.

70% of service clients- Russian-speaking users. More than $24 billion is spent annually on the purchase of language courses abroad in the world. The main competitors of LinguaTrip are large offline agencies that exist in almost every country. As well as international search engines for language courses and universities: Coursefinders, Masterstudies, PhDstudies, LanguageLearningPortal and others. There are also search engines made in Russia, such as StudyQA. LinguaTrip differs from them in that you can pay for tuition and accommodation immediately on the Internet.

Number of clients, those seeking language courses abroad fell by 13% with the crisis, the founders of LinguaTrip say, but competitors and experts believe that the market has fallen even more.

"The number of parents sending their children to study abroad will grow. However, this applies only to long-term educational programs - bachelor's and master's programs. The number of parents sending their children to study under vacation programs has now dropped sharply. As for the choice of an educational institution for children, online services are gaining popularity that give parents the opportunity to resolve all issues remotely,” says Olga Gozman, CEO of Begin Group.

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Marina, tell us in a nutshell what your company does, what is your role in it?

LinguaTrip.com is a booking platform for language courses abroad. We wanted to give students the opportunity to book English classes at language schools in London or, for example, New York in one click. And we did it!

Officially, my position is called COO (Chief Operating Officer), but this is more of a formality. I am the co-founder of LinguaTrip.com and have long since forgotten when I am working and when I am relaxing, business has become a huge part of my life.

LInguaTrip helps to enter foreign educational institutions. What experience of entering, studying abroad do you have? Are you currently studying somewhere?

In addition to language courses, you can order accompaniment from us for applicants to universities in the United States and Canada. We help students in all aspects of admission: from choosing a university and program to writing motivation letters and resolving visa issues. The team was formed in such a way that everyone was personally familiar with the admission process, and of course I am no exception.

Coincidentally, in 2015, I was accepted to several fully funded American universities (Johns Hopkins and the University of Florida), and LinguaTrip.com was invited to the 500 Startups accelerator. I had to choose, and I began to think: I can enter the university again, the place is reserved for me, even if I do not come to study this year. It was not clear when the chance to get into the accelerator for the second time would be given and whether it would be given out. So I decided! I moved to the USA with the company in 2015, LinguaTrip.com began to develop even more rapidly, and in addition to work, I shot videos for my Youtube channel, which started back in Russia.

As a result, in 2017, I returned to the idea of ​​studying in the USA, but in a completely different specialty. I'm currently studying directing at the Los Angeles Film Academy.

How do you rate your level of English? Do you know other languages?

My English is at Advanced level (I passed the TOEFL exam with 117 out of 120 points), but I don't stop learning every day while communicating. This is the biggest plus of living in an English-speaking country: you are constantly improving your knowledge. I speak German, which I learned in Germany, and Italian. Just recently returned from a trip to a language school in Italy with LinguaTrip.com.

What is the minimum level of English required to study abroad?

If you are going to go to language courses - absolutely anyone. Even zero. Here it is rather about your personal comfort: you need to be prepared for the fact that for the first week you will not understand anyone and no one will understand you either. Even if it seems to you that you are the best in a Russian school, this does not mean anything for sure - my story. In 7-10 days you will notice that you already communicate in English, even with mistakes, but you manage to convey your idea. When you return home, you will understand that there have been dramatic changes not only in the language itself, but also in your attitude towards it.

If you are going to study at the university, then the required level of English will help determine the international exam. It's simple: the higher the score, the greater the likelihood of admission. Imagine, all lectures and homework will be in English, you need to be well prepared to join your studies.

What is the advantage of language courses abroad compared to learning a language in your own country?

The opportunity to practice the language every second and communicate with native speakers. School lessons will never replace such classes, because a Russian teacher, even the best, cannot know all the subtleties that a native Englishman or American knows. Abroad, the format of education is more free: dialogues, excursions, creative tasks. Of course, there are textbooks with workbooks - you still have to learn grammar, but you don’t feel obliged to memorize something, the process itself is much more fun.

I understand that not everyone has the opportunity to simply take and buy a course. I suggest other options for the guys: watch films in the original language, Youtube bloggers, read magazines, books, translate your phone into English. You need maximum immersion in the environment. For example, when I drive, I listen to podcasts in iTunes, and new words are remembered by themselves.

Is it possible to just go abroad as a tourist and learn the language without taking courses? The fact is that there is a popular opinion that if you live in the USA for a month or two, you will speak English without any classes. This is true?

The problem with this idea is that very often we travel with a Russian-speaking group. In this case, you can not even expect to improve the level of the language: the guide himself talks with the locals and solves all problems. Even guys who emigrated to the US often end up in Russian communities.Of course, when you arrive in an unfamiliar country, it is more comfortable to communicate with a Russian person who has been here for a long time and has explored everything, but in the end it turns out that your entire social circle consists of Russians.

I usually advise you to study English at a language school for a few weeks and then go to short courses in a specialty that is interesting. Another option is that you can only book homestay accommodation on LinguaTrip, which is a great opportunity to connect with the locals. Upon arrival, I advise you to go to meetup.com, there are announcements of various events in the USA, be sure to visit several to make friends and practice communication. The most important thing in travel is new people.

You live and work in the USA. In your experience, is English in the US different from what we learn?

Yes, definitely! It differs in many ways: we learn “Russian” English at school. For example, not every schoolchild or student will immediately understand that the Russian word "variant" is better translated into English as "option" and not "variant". For example, in the sentence "Which option suits you best?". Here is the "option".

At school, we often learn British English, they are very different from the American version - from the difference in words to the rules for conducting business correspondence. American is more relaxed, but emotional, in England a more strict, restrained language. Many words are different: movie - film, underground - tube, apartment - flat.

What do you think, is it possible to fully learn English without going abroad? Is it possible to somehow compensate for the lack of a language environment?

I have already talked about some of the methods, I will add that you can study English with a native speaker via Skype. This is a suitable option for those who do not have the opportunity to just break away abroad. We ourselves are also recruiting a base of teachers, and I like to take the first lesson from them myself. It is important that a person be able to present information via video link, not everyone is good at this.

As someone with a busy schedule, what advice would you give to someone who doesn't have enough time to learn a language?

Listen. While cleaning the house, playing sports, walking or driving somewhere, standing in line - put on your headphones and turn on any movie or radio. Now there are so many options for practicing the language that it has become difficult to come up with excuses.

To sum up your entire experience of learning foreign languages, what are the main tips you would give to our readers?

I'll start with the most important advice: it's better to practice for 15-20 minutes daily than one hour once a week. Language loves regularity. Also try to find every opportunity to talk with a native speaker, so progress will go much faster. Choose only those ways of studying that you like. If you don’t want a book, don’t, turn on online lessons. Tired of lessons? Go to word cards. Always like this.

Marina, thank you for sharing your experience! In conclusion, one more question. It is said that Russians abroad are always easy to recognize, even if they are silent. What do you think makes our compatriots so special?

We are all different, from the style of clothing and facial expressions to the mentality. Russian people are not very open at first contact. I often see how our guys avoid eye contact with the interlocutor, and in the USA - eye contact is almost more important than the meaning of the conversation. We love to chat, but we also love to turn around and see how others are doing. In Russia, the rule works: "they are met by clothes, but ..."- there are native (and non-native) teachers there👅 for all occasions and for every pocket😄 I recommend this site because I myself have gone through more than 80 lessons with the teachers I found there - and I advise you to try it!