Alla Smyslova

so sad it's her last semester, she will be missed

This course is absolutely fantastic for anyone who wants to improve their Russian language skills - particularly their speaking ability. Because of the small class size, you have plenty of opportunities to speak, and a lot to speak about. The class includes reading short stories, writing essays, working on the finer grammatical points, speaking frequently about your life and experiences, as well as reading the news in Russian and discussing the headlines. Alla Smyslova is an incredible professor - she is constantly energized and passionate, but she is also very caring and considerate to her students needs and abilities. She has a real methodology for teaching grammar that works really well, particularly for difficult topics like verbs of motion. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to improve their Russian Language over the summer -- it will be a challenging class, certainly, but it will also be immensely rewarding.

I absolutely loved this class! First of all, Alla manages to be both warm, kind, and encouraging, as well as quick, sharp, and no-nonsense. Alla will give you 110% as long as she knows that you're giving her everything you have in return. I never left a class feeling like I wasted my time, on the contrary, I felt like I walked away from class having learned something new every time (which is no easy feat when you have her every day). And trust me, if you're in her class you will learn Russian whether you're ready for it or not. Alla likes as much in-class participation as possible and that means lots of practice for listening to and speaking Russian on a daily basis. She has no problem posing a question to the class and then suddenly pointing to you with a smile and an expectation of the answer in grammatically correct Russian. I'd say about 25%-50% of class time was spent with pure grammatical instruction, going over homework, questions, and the like, with the rest of it being devoted to pairing up and being forced into practicing our spoken Russian, with Alla bustling around, eavesdropping on our conversations and swooping in to offer the correct case or aspect. As the other reviewers have said she's always extremely prepared when she comes to class, with handouts, charts, pictures, anything to get us engaged and learning. She's also very approachable and willing to meet you…

I would recommend this to any student who grew up in a Russian-speaking household, and would like to build upon they're skills. It really encourages you to do your won development! 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: RUSSUN3430_001_2021_3-RUSSIANFORHERITAGESPEAKERS : RUSSUN3430_001_2021_3 - RUSSIAN FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS Instructor: Alla Smyslova

Alla Smyslova is one of the best professors, and likely the best language professor, that I have had at Columbia. Alla Aleksandrovna uses a distinct teaching style: it is highly methodological, students constantly are engaged in small- or large-group discussion, and she provides comprehensive feedback targeted to each individual student. Expect her to quickly see and recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Although this may seem intimidating, it is not. She is always there to help students with problems they have with the Russian language. The class is high-energy and engaging as a result of her enthusiasm. The material of Alla Aleksandrovna’s Third-Year Russian course does follow along with parts of the textbook, but she often goes into greater depth than the textbook and more often than not utilizes her own exercises rather than those in the book. In this sense, the course and its materials are obviously designed by her, while the textbook is simply a supplement. Although you will read a lot and write a lot, in my opinion the greatest strength of the course is the emphasis placed on speaking. Perhaps the quantity of new vocabulary terms will be less than in first- and second-year Russian, but the depth of understanding of the lexical topics covered (including vocabulary and phrase retention) and, especially, the grammar is greater. If you had problems with topics like motio…

This class was fantastic. Alla incorporated the lecture material with grammar instruction seamlessly. She was always super-prepared for class with handouts and power points. Her lectures were really engaging and she constantly interacted with students in the class so that no one could escape without participating at least once. I actually really loved going to this class... even though it meant climbing the 7 flights of stairs in Hamilton. Alla is an extraordinary professor. She has an amazing way of motivating the students in her class and keeping everyone engaged. I'm always nervous about using my Russian but Alla conducted the class in a really non-threatening way. So, by the end, my spoken Russian had improved dramatically. She even managed to resurrect my grasp of Russian grammar; something I had thought was long-dead. Alla is a credit to the Slavic Department and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to study with her!

I learned how to communicate what I am studying, where my family and I live, geography of Russia, how to say what I do and don't have. Basic communication skills to have conversations with people. Learned how to write essay's that communicate present and past tense about myself and my family. Cultural aspects of Russia and the language.

Alla Smyslova is one of the greatest professors I have had at Columbia. Coming into the class, my Russian grammar was horrible and I felt as though I was behind everyone in the class. After taking two semesters of her class, I can confidently say that I definitely communicate with family members much better. I can even write essays in Russian. This is all because Alla really cares about her students and is an expert in her field. She knows that everyone comes into the class at different levels and she tweaks the curriculum in such a way that everyone learns as much as possible. She gives a very reasonable amount of work and keeps her lessons interesting. In addition to assigning interesting readings including works of Chekhov, Alla engages students to share information about their backgrounds and their pursuits at Columbia. At the start of every class, everyone had a chance to talk about their day and anything else they wished to discuss. I really enjoyed this and feel like I got to know a lot of people because of it. I encourage any Russian speaker to take this class. As someone who grew up with Russian parents but no formal Russian language education, I really benefitted from this class. Alla is amazing, kind, and will help you go the extra mile to make sure you are learning.

The workload is quite heavy - not only do you have class four times a week for four hours each session (with a thirty minute break), but you also have on average 2 hours of homework an evening. Furthermore, you have to come to class ready to participate, with prepared speeches and written homework. While the workload is certainly intense, Professor Smyslova is very understanding and supportive if you need extra help or support with the workload.

I learned so much in this course! This course gave me a firm foundation for learning Russian. I learned how to write, speak, and read Russian and learned many important grammatical concepts.