The Griffon News

Western is offering Conversational Russian, a course provided by the Western Institute for those planning to travel to Russia or those who just need it as a conversational tool.

Russian is the most frequently spoken language of the Slavic languages. It is mainly spoken in Russia but continues to be widely spoken, as well as an important way of communication between other nations of the former Soviet Union.

“This course was set up to help people that will be traveling to Russia and to teach the verbal communication,” said Peggy Ellis, Western Institute’s director of non-credit programs/business.

Finding a teacher for this course was easy; there was talk about a lady from Russia in town who had plenty of experience in teaching and would enjoy taking on a new course at Western.

“Missouri Western asked me to teach the course when they needed a teacher,” said Elena Buehler, the professor of the class.

Buehler is greatly qualified for the position; she got her master’s degree in the Russian language and literature in 1999 from Volgograd State University in Volgograd, Russia. Plus, she has teaching experience.

“I taught before at a grade school in Russia and used to be a private tutor of the Russian Language,” she said. “I taught conversational Russian courses before to groups of Americans in Russia.”

Western Institute was able to pitch the idea of the Russian class and then bring it to Western due to the request.

“When people want a program or need to learn something, they call Western Institute and we see what we can do,” Ellis said. “It was a request from the community for us to offer the Russian course. It was nice that we could respond to the people’s needs for this course.”

The focus of this class is to teach the students enrolled how to communicate when taking the trip to Russia, as well as learning about some basic history. Buehler hopes to encourage the students to further their skills even after the trip.

“The main focus of this class is how to read and speak basic Russian enough to get by on the trip,” Buehler said. “My goal is to teach and motivate the students so that they get enough knowledge of Russian and curiosity for the language to desire to continue studying on their own or in a group on a higher level.”

This course is being offered on Thursday evenings from 6-8 p.m. The classes began on March 29 and will go through May 31. The class meets in Murphy Hall, in room 104. The course cost is $141.25 and includes the needed materials.