Our Team
Sergei Zviagin
Sergei has worked for our language school since 2001, he is our Manager and accompanies guests on tours and excursions.
Sergei read Geography at the Taurida National University of Simferopol and is an experienced orienteering athlete (in 2001 he was Ukrainian National Champion in this sport). He is passionately interested in the history, ethnography and socio-political issues of Eastern Europe. Thanks to this broad background he is able to make complex historical processes comprehensible to those partaking in his tours and can discuss with them, in depth, the current affairs of the region. Excursions with Sergei are a fascinating and unforgettable experience; not least on account of his great sense of humour and amiable nature!
Elena Zviagina
Elena is responsible for our academic programme and for sourcing up-to-date and stimulating teaching resources. First and fore most she delivers high-quality training in Russian to students of all levels, according to tailor-made schemes of work compiled to suit their needs and interests.
Having graduated in Maths and Geography, Elena subsequently immersed herself in the subject of Russian and Russian literature and studied methodologies for teaching Russian as a foreign language at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. She has worked for our school since 1998 with great success and excellent feedback from clients.
Mariia Zaborovska
Mariia worked for us as an assistant throughout her student years. In 2011 she completed her education at the Taurida National University with a doctorate in Foreign Commerce. Since 2013 she has worked regularly at our school. Mariia speaks fluent English and French. She teaches business Russian.
Daria Mihailyuk
Daria gained an M.A. from the Philological Institute of the National Shevchenko University in Kiev. She has been working as an assistant at our school since 2011 and as a teacher of Russian and Ukrainian since 2012. Her interests lie in Ukrainian folklore and contemporary Ukrainian folk music. She speaks English and German.
Valentina Mushynska
A historian by training, Valentina Mushynska is founder and Director of our school. In 1991 she left a turbulent Moscow to return to her beloved homeland, the Crimea, in order to realise her idea of tourism with an educational twist. From small beginnings in tricky times followed by twenty-five years of persistent work, the current concept was forged: language courses as part of culturally enriching journeys embedded in a unique and supportive family atmosphere of openness and intimacy.
Despite the often difficult circumstances – which lately have forced our school to migrate to Odessa – we have remained faithful to our original optimism and belief in our ideals.