I learned a language through a lucky encounter

I enjoyed a remarkable meeting during my first visit in Ukraine in Kiev last year. I was just starting to learn Russian so I was eager to practice it. Well, I first visited Western Ukraine and to my astonishment, nobody wanted to speak Russian there. The interesting thing is that everyone speaks and understands it but most people just do not like Russia. And almost nobody spoke English, German, French or Spanish so I was really not getting much of the culture. And I was really upset that my Russian was very bad as I thought that nobody understood me.

I went to Kiev to meet with several friends. And they wanted to practice their English with me so my ambition to show my Russian skills was fruitless again. Plus I hit pretty bad weather. And then, I was walking to the Lavra in Kiev when I was “ambushed” by a young girl (she blocked me several times when I tried to turn left or right) who was trying to sell me a set of knives and in a while a set of razor blades. Well, the product was highly overpriced and not very useful but she was amazingly good (and quite good-looking) – a natural born promoter and seller. I have worked in sales and negotiation for years and also have a BS in Marketing and an MBA so I get really impressed by such things. I had a chat with her for about 30 minutes (in Russian!) and she told me almost everything about herself. And she was able to understand me so she just made my day.

I actually learned the language very quickly after that. And I got much more self-confident when speaking Russian. I reached C1 after 3-4 months serious studying; I plan to get a C2 certificate in the winter. Who knows if I had not been attacked by this young promoter, I might have lost my motivation to improve my Russian. Otherwise, Ukraine is a very beautiful country. I liked my stay there very much and I visited many more places on my next trip there.