Maílin from Cuba: ‘Cases are the most difficult thing in Russian!’
A girl from a distant, hot island came to cold Russia all alone. But now, she has a Russian husband, a Russian family and she's learning Russian at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow.
Why Russian?
Cuban Maílin Rivas Rodriguez is a very brave girl. She came to Russia in 2022 in search of another life. All alone and without any knowledge of the language.
She admits that the first thing she felt when she arrived was freedom, although, at first, it was cold and scary. Since then, Maílin really started to enjoy her life in Moscow, where she also found love and married a Russian.
After living in Russia for a while, Maílin realized that she needed to learn Russian, in order to communicate with her husband and his family. At first, she tried to learn the language by herself, primarily watching YouTube videos. But, in September 2024, she decided to enroll in the preparatory faculty of the Pushkin Institute of the Russian Language in Moscow.
“The Russian language has given me the opportunity to communicate with Russians. This is very important, because I live here now. And I want to continue studying, get a higher education and study linguistics at the Pushkin Institute,” Maílin says.
What’s the most difficult part of learning Russian?
Maílin believes that the most difficult thing in the Russian language is cases, as well as motion verbs.
“And, of course, it’s very difficult for a foreigner to determine the imperfective and perfective form of verbs.”
Despite this, in just less than a year, Maílin has already learned the language very well. At first, she and her husband spoke in Spanish, as he knows a little of her native language, but now they have completely switched to Russian.
Maílin does not particularly like to talk about her personal life. And she says that her favorite Russian word is ‘короче’ (‘koroche’, which means ‘in short’). Moreover, she uses it correctly, just like the Russians – in the sense of “let's get right to the point”.
“I love the Russian language: on the one hand, it is very complex, but, on the other, it has many shades of meaning,” says the Cuban.
‘Gateway to Russia’ is grateful to the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute for its help in preparing this interview.
In order to get free education at leading Russian universities, foreigners can fill out a questionnaire and submit an application at education-in-russia.com.
You can study at the Pushkin Institute for free in the Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate programs. Read more about how to enroll at the Pushkin Institute at pushkin.institute.
Moreover, the Pushkin Institute offers additional programs for those who want to learn Russian and for professional development of teachers. In particular, the institute holds an annual Summer School for foreign citizens. Detailed information is available here: clck.ru/3DmTTq.
For questions about candidate selection in your country, please contact Rossotrudnichestvo's representative offices or diplomatic missions of the Russian Federation.
