The educational needs of members of the international business community in Riga are quite different from those of other language students. While students who do not have the constraints of a hectic career may happily spend their days in the classroom, the situation is not so straightforward for a foreign specialist with a tight schedule. For expatriates, it can be difficult to devote enough resources to their Russian language training before and after working hours.
A working knowledge of Russian is quite important for a professional living and working in Riga. That’s why we have developed courses for expats which focus less on grammar, instead emphasising speaking and understanding the language.
Foreign specialists arriving in Riga will often use the language teaching services of a private teacher, most of the time “inherited” by the specialist’s predecessor through their job. We strongly believe that learning Russian at a specialised language centre has several advantages over finding a private teacher:
While all our courses are open to expatriates, we strongly recommend the following programmes, which are designed to help students balance both work and study:
This is an open mini-group course with either four morning or six evening lessons per week on two days, either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. These courses focus on conversation and vocabulary, and participants can join in after taking our assessment test at any time. This course is available only for expatriates living in Latvia!
When speaking Russian, expats share particular strengths and weaknesses. This makes it very difficult for Russian teachers to use a classical textbook approach to gradually build up all four aspects of language learning (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Unless they received solid training in Russian pre-assignment, expatriates tend to score well in listening and are operational in speaking, but struggle with reading, writing, and grammar. This asymmetrical pattern is taken into account in Liden & Denz’s Russian learning programme for expats.
For these courses, we operate several levels and students may join or leave the groups at any week. This ensures that expats learn Russian in small, open groups with their peers. The course content is organised in biweekly modules, which is why we recommend that students stay with their group for at least two weeks.
Learning in a small group is more enjoyable, more interactive, and helps to maintain motivation. Having lessons twice a week is the perfect frequency for effective learning, and allows you to keep weekends and other evenings free.
These courses are organised at the client’s place of work either individually or in closed groups, which are formed according to the results of an assessment test. In-company sessions can be a sequence of individual or group lessons with changing participants. A session may consist of one or several lessons.
I was very impressed with the quality, service and professionalism of Liden & Denz and its instructors. The teachers individualized approach was just what I needed to help me move past a plateau and start making noticeable progress in Russian!
Robert Beddies General Manager Russia and CIS, Lufthansa Technik AG
As a diplomat I have had my language training at Liden & Denz and I always enjoyed their study methods as well as the helpfulness in practical matters. I have followed an intensive programme with Liden&Denz and now I can say that I feel very comfortable speaking Russian. I had various teachers which were taught me different aspects of the Russian language.
Achraf Bouali Dutch Ministry of Defense
The management team is very professional and the teachers have proved to be a true dedicated specialists with very deep knowledge of the subject; they are extremely adaptable to all needs and expectations of the students, bright, diligent and well organized with a gift for creative thinking. The whole team’s positive attitude and optimism make it a very pleasant experience to work with them. It’s been a pleasure for us to work with Liden &Denz both professionally and personally. In summary, I recommend this company without any reservations; we plan to continue using their services.
Anna Kurakova Director of the Mission Russia Post Language Program, US Embassy, Moscow
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