Expat content creator in love with Greece with Alina Churikova 📲 💙

🇷🇺🇬🇷 Join us as we talk to Alina Churikova, aka @lingua.alina, an expat in Athens for 8 years. Alina shares her language teaching experiences, her current journey learning German, and how she creates engaging language content on social media. Tune in for language tips, cultural insights, and expat stories from the vibrant city of Athens!

Follow Alina on 📲:
https://www.instagram.com/lingua.alina
https://www.tiktok.com/@lingua.alina
https://www.youtube.com/@lingua.alina_

Transcript

[Music]
This is Expat Experts.
[Music]
Welcome to this new episode of Expat Experts, today recording from Athens, from Pangrati.
I'm really happy to have Alina today here with me. She's a social media creator but also like a coach on Russian language. You are an EdTech entrepreneur as far as I saw also in there.
But mainly you generate content online about learning languages, not only from a perspective
of teaching Russian, which is what you studied at the end, or like Serbian languages, but also
from the perspective of learning new languages as far as I saw. You're starting with German
randomly right now also. Yes, to encourage people to learn languages and for cultural exchange
and in general to connect people from different cultures. So nice. Thank you, Mark, for inviting.
Our pleasure to have you here and to hear your experience on both social media and
language-wise. We will go probably in the second part of the episode a little bit deeper into that
and then the first part a little bit more why you are in Greece, living and all this part more like
the Expat. Before starting, just remembering as always the promotion part which is a
little bit boring but needs to be done. Follow us on all the social media accounts and also
especially in Spotify and YouTube where the content is uploaded but also in any other
streaming platform of audio and video where you can find the episodes. And with that said,
let's talk about you, not about the podcast. The X-PAT, Episode 3 with Alina Churikova.
So you're originally from Russia? Yes, I'm originally from Russia. Which part of Russia?
Central Russia, like I would say Moscow. Part of my family is in Moscow, apart is another small town
but it's still close to Moscow. Okay, nice. And you are in Greece since quite some time or just...
Eight years. Eight years already? Yes. Okay, well. But it feels like I came yesterday, like time passed
very quickly. Yes, and it's already eight years. Okay, and you went... you have a special guest.
You decided to come to Greece for a specific reason or...? Actually, it was I would say maybe
random decision. I mean, I never... I never felt like living in Greece. I never dreamed about it,
which is just... I came first time just for a vacation. Just why not Greece? It was like
cheap tickets and I had vacation and I thought, okay, I will visit Greece. And when I came,
it was like love from the first sight. Okay. Yes, I didn't expect. And it was like Thessaloniki,
it was beginning of April, not the season yet, it was cold, not the beach time. But I really
liked so much the culture, vibes, I don't know, lifestyle, the food. So I started to come again
and again, like almost every vacation. In Thessaloniki or...? I started to explore the country,
yes. And then I felt like I want to try like living here. Yes. Nice. And it was the first time
that you were leaving your country at the end, like for leaving? For leaving, yes. Because before
I was just traveling to different countries in Europe. Discovering the world. Yes. But
living abroad, yes, Greece is my first experience. And the first I came, like for six months, summer
season job. Yes. In Chalkidiki, Thessaloniki again, yes. First summer, then second summer,
I spent again, like summer season working there. And then I felt, okay, I want to try living like
all year round. Yes, because I thought if I like the summer, then I try something more. So I started
with holidays, then I started this summer job, six months. And then I said, okay, I want to like
full experience, like trying to leave all year. Yeah, because it's different in the summer here,
and especially if you're coming from a summer job, normally they are quite demanding schedule wise,
that you're like always there and everything. And I think a lot of Greeks also live like this, like
they have their jobs in their islands, and then they just like go there and do their jobs for six
or eight months, and then come back to Athens and relax and like take it a little bit easier.
That's true. So at the end, it was a love for the country, start coming and coming, and then
deciding to come. Yes, like people don't believe me, they say, "No, you came for like a man," or like,
they don't believe I came just for pure love to the country. But it's happened that I really didn't
know initially anybody. Okay. Yes, so really like love to the country. Yes. Nice. I mean, it's
something that you get here as a foreigner a lot of times, like an expert. The Greeks are surprised
that you're coming here. I get it a lot, like also like, why are you leaving Barcelona to come here?
Like, why the hell you would do that? Just like, yeah, I mean life brings you to multiple places.
It's not just about, like, and I think it's an experience, you learn a lot when you go out. I think maybe
it's more surprising like to come from Spain to Greece, because I think like the climate,
food is quite similar. But I think Greeks are not so surprised that they come from Moscow,
because like they understand the climate. It's cold. Yes, we don't have the sea, so they understand
like some reasons why I came. There is quite some big population of Russian people here in Greece.
Yeah. It's a big Russian speaking community. It's rather big. I mean, of course, it's what
you're saying. There is not that many Spanish. There is a little bit, but it's not very common.
And then you decided to stay out of also love or you like met someone or like you decided that
your job was fitting here better than in Russia, for example? Again, yes, I decided by myself.
Yes, I decided to try living all year. Yes, and it was a difficult decision to come to Thessalonica
or Athens because in Thessalonica, I had already like a job, some friends. I already made some
connections. Yes, but to live all year around, like to move here as a student. I came. I thought like
Athens can be a better option for me with capital, more opportunities. Yes. And yeah, I decided to
come to Athens again, like alone. I didn't know anybody. I just had, I passed to the university.
Yes, and came here quite adventurous. But I thought like, if I don't like, I can come back anytime.
This was my intention, like, okay, I like Greece so far. I want to have this experience living abroad,
living in Greece. Yes, and if I don't like, I just come back. Yes. And my parents were telling like,
why don't you choose countries with like better economy? Like, why Greece? Why don't you go to
Germany, for example, like, why Greece? And I came, it was still in the middle of the crisis 2016.
Okay. So totally crazy decision. Even my parents, they said, okay, if you want to like, it's your
life, no? But yes, but they couldn't really understand the logic. Yeah, I can imagine. For
parents, it's always a different perspective when you're living somewhere. Like, I mean, I did
literally the opposite, no? I lived from Spain in a moment that it was not that good economically
wise to go to Germany to work there. So I suppose I did what the parents were happy that I did.
But I completely understand it. At the end, also like, for me, for a person who I'm very
Mediterranean in my lifestyle, I like to talk, I like to go out to go to the coffee shops in
the squares, like have this vibrant city life a little bit. That's what moves me. When I came
here from Germany, I noticed it like 100 percent how my quality life improved. Again, like, yeah.
I mean, it also true that the last two years in Germany were during COVID, so life was not so
social anyway, no? But I think it's a very Mediterranean style, the life here in Greece.
I've never been to Thessaloniki actually, so it's one of the pending things that I need to do and I
don't know how life is there. Like, it's similar to Athens or it's more calm? It's similar, but yeah, more calm.
People are like more friendly, more calm also. So... The cars stop and let you pass and these kind of things, no?
Like in Athens, good luck for a car to stop and... Yes, exactly. Cars first, persons last afterwards.
But in general, you feel attracted by the Greece lifestyle and you're like... Yes, this is what
still keeps me here, I think lifestyle. Even like when I go to Russia, to Moscow, I love visiting my
country, spending time there, but still lifestyle. Yes, I feel like I fit more here, yes. What are
the biggest differences would you say like from our life in Russia versus a life here in Greece?
I think people really know how to enjoy life here. Like in Russia, okay, it's just my experience. Of course, of course.
It's the achiever they all want to achieve and following the goals all the time, like work,
homework, home. Especially in Moscow, big city, a lot of traffic. Like when I was living in Moscow,
spending like two hours driving to work, two hours back, yes. So here it's more like easy. Yes, and
smaller city lifestyle, yes. And people really know how to enjoy life like going out, going for a coffee.
Yes. Life comes on top of job most most of the times here and it's... Yes, and I don't know, if it's
Sunday people relax like no matter what you offer them, like Sunday, Sunday. I mean, yes, yes. And what's
weather and the food? Yes, is the food very very different? Like I mean, I assume it's very different, like
but I think I tried Russian food, but probably in restaurants where they're not doing so much
traditional pure like authentic Russian food. So I know that there is a lot of differences between
Greece and Russia culinary-wise. You prefer one or the other or it's like... I prefer definitely like
Mediterranean Greek food, yes, cuisine. In Russia you can find now everything, like all kind of food,
but just you need to pay much more for the same quality. Let's say, because here it's the good
weather all year around. The farmers, like you go to the Sly Quay, you get everything you want. Yes,
in Russia I think you need to make like some kind of effort. Yes, actually, but the restaurants are
great. The quality of service may be even may be better than here, yes. But still you need to pay
much more in order like for the ingredients probably. It's more difficult to get like vegetables
or certain ingredients in Russia. Yes, I think to have the good experience, yes. So maybe it's strange
like that to stay in the country for food like, but for me it's important and also like seafood.
Yes, I think it's kind of normal at the end if you like eating and drinking and being like in cafes
or whatever, having good quality of food and restaurants and everything or even like quality
of ingredients to cook at home. It's very relevant because at home you can still do your own
Russian food or my own Spanish dishes, but if the ingredients that you buy here are better quality
and cheaper, you're still cooking your own traditional things. So it's still nice. I mean, I think
from Germany I still miss some small dishes. It's not that the whole German culinary thing
it needs to be I don't touch it anymore. It's just like these two or three dishes that I still like
would like to replicate here and I can replicate here, most of them the other way around. It's
much more complex like cooking Greek food in Russia. And it must be very difficult because the
ingredients that you're getting from the earth are not the same. True, yes. I tried it. It was difficult,
yes. And the habit to go out, like in Russia people go out of course, but not as much as here,
I believe. Because here they live outside. It's like if they don't have homes, they spend more
time outside of their home than in their own part. Even when I go to Russia, I want to see my friends,
my schoolmates and I said like, let's go out like for a coffee, for food. And they like, why to go
out, come to my home. Because for them it's like more comfortable atmosphere. It's in our culture
to sit in like a kitchen and cooking together, eating here. It's more about going out, yes.
Having a coffee for seven hours in a platia, no? I'm always fascinated. Is Russia a coffee country at all?
We drink coffee, but no, I don't think we are so crazy about it as like Greeks or Turkish. And
we don't drink it for hours. Yes. Now, I already like used to drink it for hours.
Yes, but when for example, I go to Russia, like for me it's difficult because when I go out,
like friends may drink like 15 minutes coffee and they're done. Let's go. Yes, let's go. But I want
like to enjoy the process already in Greek way to sit like an hour to talk, not to drink fast.
Yeah, excellent. I think here there is something very curious that is always like funny for me.
Generically in a lot of countries when you order a coffee to go, it's cheap, it's more expensive than
taking the coffee in the place because they need to put the cupboards and the things and everything.
In here is the other way around because they don't want the people to sit down for so long
taking the space on the table. So then normally if you take, if you pay attention to some of the
coffees in the center, the coffee it's more expensive to sit down and stay in the place than
to take away, which I find like surprising but I understand. Maybe for the service. It's a part of
the service and I think it's also a matter of like if you have like four tables or five tables and
someone sits down for a Fredo Espresso for four hours, taking one of your four tables, then you
don't regenerate more. So you put a little bit more expensive the price of the coffee so the
person grab it to go and sit in the platia in a bench and that drink it there instead of in your
table. It might be something like this. It's just curious. So yeah, like what you said like eight
years in Greece it's quite a long time. Do you miss any, have you ever like considered going back
to Russia at some point? Well, until last maybe years I never thought about
moving somewhere. Yes, last years it started to be complicated but I would say I don't consider my
going to Russia. I consider to go to other European countries, yes to move. Okay, nice. Anything in
mind? Any place in mind? Germany. Oh really? That's why you are starting to learn German. Yes. Okay.
Yes, our Switzerland. Yes, I have friends there and but it's more complicated to like move there.
If I have an opportunity like I would like to... Visa-wise or... Yes, visa-wise. Yes, job know if you
have a visa it's easier to find the job in Switzerland but yes, it's more difficult to
get in Germany, it's easier and also they made now quite loyal law for immigrants. Yes, easier
than in Greece. Okay, really? That's why yes I'm considering that I really love Greece but since I'm
like immigrant and outside of Europe, yes I think about this bureaucratic part and Greece cannot
fulfill my needs. Let's say yes and that's why I started to think about moving. Yes, it's not like
final decision, yes but because I see that what are my options here in Greece, I understood that
another like 20 years probably I will not get citizenship in Greece like despite the fact I'm
here, I have I speak language, I finished university like still it's quite complicated. Okay. So I
started to think but maybe not going back to Russia but still there can be good life there
despite all this political situation. Yes, there are quite more a lot of opportunities yes quality
of life can be really better than here. Yes, maybe it's surprising but yes the quality of life, the
services like everything is digital like banking, you can order in Moscow anything at night.
If you're planning to move to Germany you go from one bad digital country to a very bad digital
country also because Germany it's not that good either with digital services. Switzerland is really
nice. I was surprised like I knew Greece might be complex digitally wise and it is it's a fucking
nightmare there is nothing digitalized everything goes through like email and posts and everything
like banks opening a bank account in this country. Only last year they start to prefer. They start slowly to get there
in Germany I was extremely surprised by the fact that everything was paper required to have papers
to go you they're in person to do things and this whole bureaucratics are complex if you just speak
German it's even worse because you have this idea of Germany of being like this developed country
rich whatever like you know and then you arrive there and just like why do I need to apply this
it's just a picture like I need to bring a CD with a picture inside like who has CDs anymore like
and these things happen but yes I suppose you get used to these kind of things and at the end
it's more relevant than you are good in a good environment and you have opportunities in a
country than how the bureaucratical services are. I agree. In your case it's more important if you
can arrive to have a citizenship for example at the end or that you can have opportunities visa wise
and it's easier than other things. So maybe just the last topic about you being an expert
or being an immigrant here you said you studied here? Yes I finished university in Moscow first
law school yes but then I thought like studying again yes because I made my research how to move to
Greece and what do I want to do yes and finally I get the decision that I will study again like and
it's a Slavic Studies department in Kapadistra. It's like Athens National University. Nice so it's
it wasn't really it wasn't studied in Russian or it's in Greek yes it's in Greek just some
some lessons was in Russian like Russian language because it's like Slavic Studies we
it's good that Russian is in Russian yes yes and everybody all foreigners had to
take the first language like Russian and we could choose the second Slavic language like
Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Polish like Serbian yes but all other lessons like history I don't know
IT, pedagogy, I already forgot philosophy and all these lessons was in Greek yes and how was that?
It was quite like demanding yes first years but good thing that in Greece if you are a foreigner
and you pass to the university they give you one extra year okay to learn the language so they keep
the space like for you for university in university but they give you one extra year
so it's also one of the reason why I came to Greece because other countries you need first to
like learn the language to be at quite a good level and then you can apply to the university
in Greece no they made it like easier for foreigners that you first apply to university you get the
spot there and then they give one year to learn the language that's really nice yes I mean it's
not an easy language that's for sure yes and it was quite relaxing in the same time because like
the bachelor's four years I was studying six years I thought like no way I will get all the
six years to use for studies I thought like I will finish much earlier okay but when you come to
Greece all this relaxing environment you think why to rush why to rush like you become greek
I become greek yes and this diploma actually will not change my life okay I got a diploma but I
felt like it's not something that's okay I get it and then I have like much more opportunities or
something okay just another diploma for me so I was I took my time to to finish it yes yeah nice
and you learned how much time did it take to you to learn Greek then I started in Moscow yes because
I started before coming yeah I started in Moscow yes and when I came I thought my greek is quite
good yes but until you come here and you realize it then I failed the first exam okay yes and I
was like stressed I thought oh my god yes I needed to really study more to pass exams in the second
try yes and then I spent like all summer learning greek and then I passed an exam yes and then
I think it's come naturally I speak with friends yes for work I speak in Greek like
I don't know so it's like you cannot say that okay now I finished I'm perfect like language it's
always that it's a process and you need to practice if you don't practice like you lose some skills so
it's always like there it's been gone like way yeah I mean that happens with every language at the end
like I'm starting to lose German due to the fact of learning Greek you know like I don't practice
German at all and then I'm just losing German I win in Greek so it's a little bit like okay
should I put effort again well but I don't like like doing two languages in parallel which we can
talk about it later which is as far as I know you are doing or like or not with with German now
focus on German like Greek it's already like um I don't focus so much like I already speak on it
yes so I don't learn it actively because I already like use it every every day yes yeah that what is
your environment here in Greece because I know I mean Athens if you compare it to other cities in
Europe it's not the most international place that's for sure like the the expat community or the
immigrant community it's it's rather limited let's say like this you have a mixture of like
uh friends who are international versus friends who are Greek or you are like fully integrated
with a group of friends Greek group of friends I think it's it's a mix like Russian speaking uh
Greek speaking and also some expats like uh from France uh like um yes so I tried to keep a balance
when I came here I felt like I don't want to um like to talk with Russians I mean not intend
like intentionally I don't have anything against my culture but I think like I want this experience
living abroad and I felt like I want to learn language to integrate to learn the culture so
I had an intention to hang out more with the Greeks yes so after um yes I got more Russian
speaking friends so when you also miss home and you miss speaking your own languages I think
yes and we have the same like uh goals same interest there's still mentality yes it's the
same so now because I already have like greek friends I don't uh yes focus so much like to keep
like only Greek because I already got this experience now like I'm um and it's important
I think to have like a Greek group of people even if it's like three four persons that you can at
least practice the language with that's very relevant because that's when you really start
improving I mean in your case you were more or less in the university so you were forced to to speak
Greek or at least to understand the lessons in Greek but when you come here like an expert who
is directly working and probably working in English majority of us you don't have any contact with
Greek people you don't practice like the language at all like it's you are just like closed and there
is a lot of experts right now really closed in this English only environment bubbles thingy
I find it a little bit sad to be honest like if you come here yes me too and I find sad that people
who don't learn language like they live here for 10 years and they never like try even learning
Greek this them maybe and bad and a good part I don't know that Greeks speak very good English
and sometimes even if you like learn Greek and you try you want to practice Greek they
switch to English like it was my problem in the beginning like everybody was speaking English to
me and they thought like to do it better for me but they said no guys please I want like to learn
to learn yes I don't know if you go maybe to some villages islands we will be speaking more in Greek
but in Athens yes it's so like they know so good English that even sometimes I go to the coffee
shop I start to tell in Greek like ordering they answer me in English again I tell in Greek
they answer in English yes so you need to like make an effort yes and to make your Greek friends
know that you really want to speak Greek yeah it's an effort from another side it's nice
for some expats digital nomads who don't really want to speak maybe Greek to spend time and they
can feel comfortable living here without learning Greek because like I visited Madrid last year and
it was difficult like even taxi drivers Uber like they couldn't understand English Spanish level of
English it's way way below them here in Greece even like a cashier at airport she couldn't understand
and they felt like oh my god I got spoiled in Greece that everybody but everyone's speaking
English no no definitely in Spain it's not the case and if you've noticed this in big cities
you don't even imagine how it is in small towns nobody would speak English absolutely in the
big cities I think there is a generational thing that it's starting to improve much better English
slowly it's a lot of years to come I think here they have the very advantage of like having the
tv shows and the films and everything in the cinema in English or in the original language
and then subtitled it we translate absolutely everything to Spanish or to Catalan and that makes
that you don't you don't hear English if you don't work in the tourism you don't hear English for
anything I see yeah make it difficult so yeah I would say that if now that we were already
talking about the languages we jump to the second part of the of the episode okay yeah
the expert creating languages content so yeah at the end you're like a content creator all related
to languages at the end and I suppose this all started due to the to the studies you started
here in Greece or or how did it came the idea of like transforming something like more like
teaching related into social media content yes yeah I finished like linguistics slavic studies
department yes and I thought why not to try like really use my skills yes because I was
many years in real estate yes and now the market is not going well yes and I thought maybe to try
doing something yes in parallel yes and especially because I spent so much time studying like
linguistic to be a teacher tutor so that and I started to with social media to start to kind of
create a content yes and went to really really well I didn't get I didn't expect so much attention
especially like I started now during the war and like it's so like difficult political environment
to start promoting like Russian language I started with Russian I thought like totally crazy idea but
then it went very well yes and I was surprised that people are actually friendly still people
actually are interested in Russian culture Russian language and they thought okay my like social
media it will be like a small oasis like where I will just still connect people because now because
of the political situation also many like cultural exchanges all this like it's cancelled and I thought
like um yes I will continue to do social media also like to connect to people until better times
yes because also I show that um there's a lot of propaganda like I want to keep my social media
so people see that Russians are not so terrible I don't know if there are normal people so and also
like yeah connect to people like culture language yes and um I start with Russian language but then
I thought like I start to make videos like um uh English versus Russian Russian versus um Greek
yes and it took a lot of attention so I thought like why not to this comparison yes to create more
videos with a comparison like comparison part yes because it's really interesting I think and
it's connect people and some people they get a lot of insight they sometimes they even didn't expect
that so many like uh Greek words are in Russian okay Greek words are in everywhere for whatever
reason yes but it's from one side it's so obvious that so many greek words like uh Russian words
is greek roots yes but making so obvious videos make them yeah of course if you don't know
Greek at all you don't have this connection and you don't make this mental connection anyway because
you don't know this word in Greek I think I saw a couple of videos where uh you're with a very tall
guy where he speaks Greek and you're speaking Russian and of course and you find a lot of
words that are coming from the same root do you think it's like your audience is right now
more Russians trying to learn Greek or more other people trying to learn Russian in your account
and Greeks who are like or trying or they are just curious okay yes and also yeah many for
many Greeks it was also surprising how many common words yeah because sometimes like I
hear from Greek people like Russian alphabet it's like looks like Chinese totally unfamiliar
for them and the same from Russians I hear about Greek but actually there are a lot of common things
our languages and I want to to show it also in my social media yes so mainly I see a majority of
followers they are Greek who are interested in Russian language yes and does these people tend
to contact you after seeing these videos and like trying to get you as a tutor or as a thing or they
are just like following more in like more relaxed way of learning I think more relaxed I don't think
if they are like interested to take some maybe lessons some of them they contacted me but not
like massively that's why I think to create like some digital products more easy like because
picking a private tutor like like to do every week every two weeks is quite demanding but to create a
like digital program products some recorded videos it's I think it's better and I have an idea
because many Greeks contacted me because they want Russian-speaking girlfriend or wife oh wow okay
yes so I understood that okay that was not where my question was going but okay if it's not if we can
talk about it no no definitely definitely I didn't know it was a profile like I'm searching for a
Russian-speaking person yes in Greeks and they are not trying like approach me they are just
generally telling that they would like to learn Russian to have a Russian girlfriend yes or
Russian-speaking like she can be from Ukraine she speaks like like um Belarus and I thought also to
create like a romantic course okay maybe it's very like a weird funny but there is a demand I see that
the demand that majority followers are men who are interested in um Russian-speaking girls I'm sorry
I'm just in front of maybe Greek girls I thought okay but I thought why why not you know to create
such a course just some phrases you know maybe some like cultural differences to explain also
yes and because if there is a demand like why not because yeah majority also my friends
Greek-speaking friends who are learning Russian they have already like Russian-speaking wife or
like um I mean it's a pattern if you have a partner who speaks a completely different
languages at the end you try to learn the language yes and it's motivation yes to learn the language
out of nowhere like it's difficult to keep motivation if you have a partner who speaks this
language like um yes so building a tandem Greek Russian-speaking thingy blind dates between
Russians and well I don't I don't I don't plan to like to be like marriage so official
become Tinder yes I don't want to be a competitor of Tinder I just want to help
Tinder to prepare some scripts for Greeks how to communicate in Tinder with Russian-speaking girls
crazy I think you said something that is also interesting because at the end when you're
teaching like a language from a perspective of comparison for example which you do in your social
medias of like Greek how to say this in Greek how to do that in in in Russian for example you also
enter to to show the cultural part of it not only the strict linguistic approach to it so you just
like I think I saw a couple of contents where you explained a little bit more how how is like
things culturally wise in in Russia for example versus how it's in Greece and I think that's it's
part of the process you're just saying like someone who's interested in meeting Russian-speaking well
for example a guy from here from Greece needs to understand where are the barriers for example
know what culturally will attract this person more than the other or what it would be the cultural
differences are you proactively creating content in that sense yeah I I want to create more content
like this for example because many like Greeks are asking how to say kukla in in Russian you
know kukla it's like a compliment yes like a doll but in Russian we don't you really use it as a
compliment so in in Greek it's really something like common to say this to the girl but in Russia
it's can be the girl may not even understand because kukla the doll we used to call some
girls who are quite not so smart you know maybe superficial superficial maybe smart but not
beautiful but not smart so like in Greece saying kukla to the woman it's fine but in Russia it can
be like so yes I would like to explain more things like this maybe not specifically for dating but
in general I think it's uh it's interesting and as I said it's still to be this small connection
between like Russian-speaking world and uh Western until things get get better yes you said like the
I mean you started already probably with the social media accounts when the war started or
it was before the war did you notice during the war yes it was um scary to be honest because I was
afraid how will it go will I get some attention or no yes did you have the but the hard the
bad part of it like haters are always there at the end like yeah I have haters but not so much
probably yes and also because I I'm not like talking about politics actually so I try to keep
like more my account just more culture to focus on languages culture so I don't do propaganda
any side yes you didn't explain any political situation yes if I would try to explain maybe
I get more haters but now because um yeah people see that I'm I'm like friendly yes I think I get
just a few hate comments like who even yeah who even like cares about the Russian language
nowadays but it's okay like fame you already had that with any language you know fame doesn't
come out exactly yes yes and some videos got like half of the million million views
yeah so of course out of so many views some people will um exactly so after technical
interruption because my phone decided to stop recording um we were just talking about haters
in general like at the end fame for becoming more popular attracts people who are trolls and that
they complain about things in your in your channels you are saying that that it's not affecting you
too much in the sense that you know that it comes with that yeah I believe it's part of the journey
yes and all these haters and at the end they um make your statistics better I mean if they
comment they comment yes they're like social media doesn't understand it's a hate uh I mean
but they increase their engagement yes so I think there was some kind of like comments around
lately about accents like for people who are not 100 like native and they have an accent while
speaking there was people in your accounts talking about your accent while speaking greeks
yeah they have a very Russian accent speaking English speaking Greek yes it was the recent hate
comments yes okay by the end it's just like part of it as you were saying like I really don't
get how people go to these kind of things I mean perfecting an accent comes with talking
and experience and like whatever but you never lose 100% out of your mother tongue base accent
most of the times in any case you are right now already like it's normal that you're mixing
languages you're becoming a polyglot soon you're you're learning German now you have three alphabets
in your in your skill set let's say like this like Cyrillic alphabet Greek and then the Latin
alphabet for for English or for for German now how is the journey with German going yes I think
like accent is not something that you should be like feel shame about as far as people really
understand you so you can reduce it with practice yes but it shouldn't stop people really like
learning and practice the language if they have accent yes German yes it's quite hard I just
started like a1 like half another level yes and the grammar is becoming more and more complicated
yes but I think since I already learned Greek like nothing can stop me I think okay I think
the most difficult maybe like Chinese they're totally different that they have Chinese or Arabic
I think that's yes yes most difficult but since I already learned Greek yeah I think German shouldn't
be like it should be possible for me I mean if I put effort and and time yes and at the end you
have an objective you were saying before that it's one of the counters that maybe you might end going
and then they reduce this they have introduced laws a little bit more flexible for immigrants
to to go there and that there is a motivation behind learning yeah I have a motivation yes
because I'm quite like a tyrant of Greek bureaucracy yes and I'm really like in the
German one but still I have friends and they really go through it I mean if there is a law
they really follow here no no that's for sure in Greece there is like no deadline even if it is law
you can wait for years a document and it's very frustrating so and I have friends who live in
Greece less years than I who live in Germany less years than I live in Greece but they already have
citizenship yeah so I think yeah in any case like there are in any country there are advantages and
disadvantages yes and yeah it motivates me to learn German because potentially I think I may
move there like or Germany or German parts and German speaking part of Switzerland yes makes sense
um you talk also about before like you teaching um so teaching digitally but
at the same time like going to German lessons in person I think you're going to yeah my German
lessons are offline and that is really I really like that uh um because all my life is like online
yes and um I really like to go like in the evening to interact with people after all this also COVID
time yes and I was studying in university but still it's not the same when just one teacher and
everybody's listening about in German lesson classes we really interact with each other and
it's really nice feeling after you stay all day at home like working or doing something online to go
to somewhere where you really interact with the people and not just waste time I mean not like
fun for fun not just you know really learning something but really doing something meaningful
valuable yes really nice um I think you said to me before like that you also teach
like offline in your experience like Russian before and it was not really your thing
you were teaching in a school in a Russian school yes yes continuing there talking about like
online and offline all this education yes uh despite the fact that I really like my offline
German lessons I myself um I want to create digital products to teach online to to people
their Russian uh Russian language yes um because um I would like to be more flexible not to be
connected to like one location because if I open the school here or like give lessons online here
because people are really asking to give lessons like offline private lessons but um I don't want
yes so um I would like to focus more on um online yes but you did teach in presence
like in person before yes I had experience teaching at school like every Saturday it was
Russian school for kids in Athens yes and um yeah I was combining this other all my other
activities and studies every Saturday I was teaching but I understood that I don't really want
teach to kids because um sometimes they don't really understand why they're aware because
it's like motivation of their parents yes uh yes so I think um I would like to focus more on
teaching um adults because they really have motivation even even if they learn just for
fun they really understand it's their own decision there is a goal they pay their own money but when
kids like their parents send them to school especially on Saturday yes it's really hard
for teacher to find motivation for them to really like encourage them to to learn the language or to
read some uh rational literature yes so it was I really liked and appreciated this experience yes
but I don't want to go offline again and I don't want to teach uh kids yeah it's difficult for me
I mean some people some teachers really like to teach kids uh just I think um it's it's not
mine it needs to be vocational like yeah teaching to kids it's you really really need to like it I
think yes yes nice um so yeah just to close the episode maybe like uh reminding the audience a
little bit what are your channels and where they can find you at the end like where the
a little bit of promotion if you want to call it um yes it's like lingva.alina in TikTok, YouTube and
Instagram you're welcome to follow to see my content yes and in Russian maybe yes to be
friends online yes because I don't really say like to say followers because I really consider
is my online friends the group of people yes my um community nice yes so yeah just uh you know
where to find Alina just follow her follow us and thank you so much for for today's time and for
for taking this interview with with us and thank you Mark it was really nice I like to share my
experience yes that's really nice talk I really appreciate it see you in the next episode then
and thanks thank you bye this is expat experts support this podcast by listening us in potamo
and subscribe in Spotify and YouTube
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