Most challenging: The language part of theprogram was the most challenging. There werehuge lists of vocabulary every week that we hadto memorize. 

Funniest: Sometimes, I would try to saysomething in Russian while using an Englishidiom. It sounded weird, and the word made nosense.

Bryan

Computer Science

Navy

My Beginner level Russian classwould entail two hours of morningclasses, lunch with fellow students,and another two hours in theafternoon. One of my favorite partsof the program was everyWednesday we would have lunchwith the Intermediate level Russianstudents. This was a greatopportunity to learn about moreadvanced Russian as well as Russianculture. We also had the amazingopportunity to speak with studentsfrom Kazakhstan and learn theculture of other Russian speakingcountries.

Memorable Moments The Madison Experience

New Perspective

New favorite dish: All of the Russian food wetried, I liked. But, I loved Borsch. It's a cold soupmade from whatever is found in the kitchen!Must see/do: If you're entering Beginner Russian,I would suggest trying to get a basicunderstanding of the language before class starts.Before traveling, I wish I would haveknown... how expensive it is to park your car inMadison. 

I was surprised to learn... How intense theRussian language is. There was a lot moregrammar to learn than I expected.

Advice to students considering this program: When they say it's an intensive language program,they're not lying. It's much more intensive than it seems, so make sure you really want it. 

How this experience will help me in my future career: I hope to work in intelligence using mylanguage skills to better understand pertinent adversary information. 

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Favorite: By the end of the program, I was ableto hold a basic conversation in Russian. It was sorewarding.