Russian Language for Adults

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При школе с 9 утра по субботам работают курсы по русскому как иностранному для бизнесменов, студентов и родителей RUSSIAN CONVERSATION. Иностранные студенты данного курса успешно -на высший балл – сдают госэкзамены по русскому языку. 

RUSSIAN CONVERSATION COURSE DETAILS (Adult Group Sessions)Conversational Russian Course includes the teaching of Russian Grammar. The course is an equivalent to LCCI – FLIC (Foreign Languages for International Communications), and is taught by a highly qualified and experienced native Russian teachers. Small groups/individual tuition. Flexible, tailor-made courses. Fees include all tuition, homework, reports, certificates and handouts.

Conversation beginners ___Conversation Intermediate ___ Conversation Advanced ___ GCSE ___ A-level ___

Lessons are held on Saturday mornings during school hours (9 a.m. – 3 p.m.). Students can start on any week, provided there is a class of suitable level or take individual lessons. 

Individual tuition. Flexible, tailor-made courses. Teacher satisfaction is guaranteed. (If not satisfied after the first lesson, a new teacher will be supplied, or the remaining fee refunded.)

 

Dates and Timetable

Autumn term: 5 September – 19 December 2020 (Excluding 24 October, 15 weeks).

Winter term: 9 January – 27 March  2021 (Excl. 13 February, 12 weeks).

Summer term: 17 April – 10 July 2021 (Excl. 29 May, 12 weeks).

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The school has taken part in an interesting Gruntwig Partnership project:

„Art: a basic human need: Neurodidactic answers to increasing social challenges”

 

Under this title the representatives of pedagogic institutions from London, Strasbourg, Ankara, Prague and Lithuania met 23^rd until 25^th October in Tübingen in Germany pursuing questions of brain adapted learning. It was the kick-off-meeting of a two years project funded by the EU agencies for culture and education with the aim to support educational progress in Europe by practically oriented contributions based on scientific research. The cooperation of pedagogy and science Sigune-Maria-Lorenz, initiator of the project, sees as a demand of our time: “If amok runner endanger the school-environment while scientists discover how many cm³ of neuronal tissue currently necrotizes in children’s brains, there is no time to loose!”

 

The following topics were discussed at the seminar:

 

• The brain is eager to learn: let’s not get in its way!

The CPH (critical-period-hypothesis) states that any connection (axon) not frequently used at its myelination period will disappear and the relevant “capacities will not be learned for the rest of the life”. In brief: Use it or loose it. [1] Spitzer ibid. 240. Absence of expert or inexpert use of cognitive functions causes respectively either atrophy,[1] growth[2] or deformity[3] of neuronal tissue.

 

The basic equation on the cited studies is the statement that afferent electrical impulse activity (appropriate sensory stimulus) is for neuronal tissue as indispensable as nutrients for metabolic organs and that during critical periods the myelinating areas therefore express their need for nurture by driving the individual towards external releases for the relevant electrical circuits.

 

• Boys’/girls’ success at school: the development of the brain specific to gender

 

It has been suggested that phenomena such as attention-deficite-disorder might be no illness to be treated with Methylphenidate (Ritalin) but “only transcribes the fact, that a pupil is concentrating on something different”[4] in coherence with neuro-developmental needs. These “disorders” are mainly pertaining to boys. As for boys 40% of their body is muscle fibre compared to only 24% for girls, boys have almost the double amount of neuronal connections concerned to myelinate and accordingly start pre-central  myelination later.[5] According to the current syllabus during primary school addressing mainly precentral areas, which for boys at that time are not available yet, “80% of all learning-disabled children in Germany are boys”[6]. They would need a maximum activation of primero-motorcortical areas in order to not loose those during their critical period. Vera F. Birkenbihl concludes that therefore parts of the current curricular programmes legally “may have to be seen as children’s mutilation,”[7] as a fully developed motor area is the basis needed for extensive intellectual development after puberty.

The better the motor skills are developed and refined before puberty, the quicker and easier intellectual content will be assimilated after puberty. It also has been established that, due to the amount of testosterone present at specific moments during foetal development, cortical structures can be more or less ‘male’ or ‘female’ biased, independently of the person’s actual gender.[8] This could explain the fact that not all boys or girls uniformly comply with the described characteristics.

 

• Learning languages and brain activity during sleep

At night, while we sleep, the brain repeats continuously the exact patterns of the neuronal activity which took place during the last hours before going to sleep. Hereby the relevant synapses grow, which means, that what has been done or learned before going to sleep, will be mastered better at breakfast already.

 

• The origin of blackouts and how to avoid them

A neuron, when activated, inhibits other more distant neurons by the emission of neuronal blockers while activating close neurons by emission of electrical impulses. Hereby the content stored in close neurons (within the “Mexican Hat”) automatically comes to mind, whereas the content of neurons outside the Mexican-Hat’s circle does not come to mind, as they are inhibited by blockers. This mechanism enables us to concentrate.

Starting explanations with the details of a context, the different details risk to be stored randomly and therefore too far away form each other, which means that they inhibit each other by the emission of blockers outside their Mexican-Hats. Trying to then sum-up all these scattered details in order to obtain a final general overview might therefore become very difficult or even impossible.

Starting with the entirety before going into the details will organize the storage of the details within the circle of one Mexican-Hat and hereby programme the automatic activation of all the details in coherence with the context.

 

• The effect of priming

Thinking or telling bad things reduces intelligence as it inhibits cortical functions.

Thinking or telling something positive and enjoyable increases intelligence as it promotes the neuronal connectivity.

 

Even a smile already enhances the neuronal connectivity. Advice from Vera F. Birkenbihl: should nobody give you a smile, lifting the corners of your own mouth for about 3 minutes continuously will emit already the neuronal connector you need (worth while trying!).

 

It is advisable when coming home from school to first free the body from neuronal blockers possibly emitted while experiencing stress at school and to stimulate instead the emission of natural dopamine which will enhance neuronal connectivity. This can be done by sympathizing, by some chocolate, some music, physical activity such as dance or sport, a nice experience or a beautiful or funny film etc. After conditioning the brain by such positive priming, the homework will be achieved faster and better.

 

Expressing their appreciation of the scientific presentations, the hospitality and the simultaneous translation into 5 different languages, the partners send their feedback: “The importance of movement for intellectual development especially for boys left its mark on our minds! Yesterday we already transferred the information about the neurodidactic seminar to 1000 language teachers in the UK and to 150 language school directors” (London); “The memnotechnical effect when synchronising movement and emotions with the intellectual content is astonishing! We are impressed by the positive effect the hereby experienced success can have on other domains of life” (Prague); facing dropouts, violence and social exclusion increasingly in the daily life of our schools, we are grateful for discovering neurodidactic means, which allow children as well as adults to benefit from the socio-cultural and rehabilitating value of innovative musical activities” (Lithuania); “fascinated by the needs of the hippocampus – place of memory, will and the desire to learn – we are looking forward to realizing what we learned about  the functions of our cerebral lobes” (Ankara); “Isn’t Europe marvellous, enabling such rich exchange of mentalities, approaches and ideas working together towards an inspired and strong European Culture in the future?!” (Germany); We have been starting for a real adventure. The mountain to clime is huge, but the back-pack is packed and summits in sight.” (Strasbourg)

 

The partners will present the result of their common work in May 2011 in the Euro-District Strassbourg-Kehl by conferences as well as a show of local young amateurs together with the participants from the other countries. The European partners hereby wish to contribute to the “decade of the mind 2010 – 2019, landmark at the beginning of this millennium.

 

Partners impressions of the seminar:

 

GB

We are very pleased to be part of this exciting project. We learnt many things about the current neurodidactic research. Of particular interest were the differences that should be applied in the girls and boys education, e.g. the importance of movement for further intelligence development in boys. It was great to hear of the best practises used by our partners. We were happy, that our partners found interest in our method of providing audio-support in homework. We thank our main partner for the excellent organisation of the seminar.

The London School of Russian has already distributed the information about the Grundtvig Neurodidactics seminar in the Russian Language to 150 Russian Language School Directors around the world, and over 1000 Russian Language Teachers in the UK. We are looking forward to receive our German partner at the Round Table on Teaching the Russian Language on 14, November 2009 in London at the Royal Overseas House.

Olga Bramley, Maria Zheleznikova

 

CZ

Textile workshop Gawain:
We came home with these ideas: Artistic activity is the realm where everyone can be successful, because artistic expression is authentic. The success experienced through art can then be transferred to other domains in life. The synchronisation of movement experience and emotions promotes significantly the learning and memory process.

Jiri Paul

 

LT

With great interest we followed the contributions of all the partners and the local institutions as well as the discussions. The educational institutions in Lithuania see themselves as vocational training community facing the increasing social challenges. Therefore the diversity of experiences and the exchange of views around our subject “Art: a basic human need” was very topical for our school

We have to admit that unfortunately the number of children and adults needing further help in Lithuania is growing. We, the teachers are meeting every day dropouts, violence and social exclusion. Therefore we are happy about the possibility of making the benefits of current neurological research available to musical education in a way which proves to have sociocultural value not only for children’s education but equally for a life long learning process.

Daiva

TR

HIPPOCAMPUS is the magical place!
Hippocampus is in our brain where there is the memory ,will and desire to learn. We should always keep our hippocampus active. Also to have a fresh memory which makes learning easier we should apply every type of art in education. Neurodidactic approach shows us how to use the lobes of our brain. The art kinds like music, drama, drawing etc. are the most important activities which makes us use our brain efficiently.
Best Regards, TÜRKİYE     

Pinar Erdinc

FR

 

 

   

DE

Most impressed I was by this rich and most colourful variety of Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western mentalities, approaches, faces, concerns, appreciations etc. and the fact that, in spite of the need to communicate in 6 different languages, we were able to meet and understand each other immediately through our dedication to future generations we are sharing with each other. I just thought: Isn’t Europe wonderful having all this so close together and being able to complement each other!

 

When crossing Switzerland or other high mountains I always have to stop, once imagining how it must have felt when building the first pathway along these steep rocky walls, where it is possible to now pass within minutes via bridges and tunnels etc. That is how I feel about education in this century: Doing steps where nobody has passed yet, new educational dimensions become accessible allowing to pass with ease where currently young people are still struggling to find their way.

 

Maria