Learn Russian at ILI

Register now for our 2025 winter term!

  • Multiple levels
  • Small class size – max. 12 students
  • Native-speaking & experienced instructors
  • Affordable tuition – $380 per level
  • 4 terms per year – each 10 weeks long
  • Convenient downtown location or online

Learn Russian at the International Language Institute in Washington, DC, or online.

The Russian Language Program at ILI consists of four 10-week terms throughout the year. We offer 8 different levels from beginner to advanced. Our Russian classes take place once a week in the evenings or on Saturday mornings. Our teachers are all native-speaking and experienced. The Russian Language Program integrates speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We maintain small class sizes to enable adequate time for conversation in every class. To find your level, please refer to the level description or use our self-evaluation guide. If you have further questions, please call Jane Edwards, ILI’s Foreign Language Coordinator, at 202-686-5610 extension 105. Enroll now!

Live, Instructor-led In-Person or Online Russian Classes 

Learn Russian in person or online from a live instructor using Zoom. All online classes are instructor-led, in real-time, allowing for the same live interaction as our in-person classes. Some of our classes are a combination of in-person and online students. We have 360-degree cameras in the rooms enabling online participants to feel part of the class. This hybrid class environment allows students to engage with each other and the instructor and to practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking the Russian Language.

Schedule              Register Now!

2025 Term:Session Dates:Registration Deadline:
WinterJan. 13-Mar. 22, 2025Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024
SpringApr. 7-Jun. 14, 2025Monday, Mar. 24, 2025
SummerJun. 30-Sep. 6, 2025Monday, Jun. 16, 2025
FallSep. 22-Dec. 6, 2025Monday, Sep. 8, 2025

Russian Level Description

The emphasis of this introductory class is on pronunciation, vocabulary building, basic grammar, and basic conversation. This course is for those students with little or no ability in the language. Introduction to basic listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course. Dialogues, readings, and cultural notes will be introduced in class, in what life is like in Russia today. Previous Russian not required.

Offered on: Mondays: 6:15 - 8:45 pm; or Tuesdays: 6:15-8:45 pm; or Saturdays: 10 am - 12:30 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: To introduce Russian to students who never took the language at school or had Russian in their lives at all. This course aims to provide beginning students with a practical basic command of the language.

Learning Outcome: At the end of this course, students will be able to engage in basic conversations about most common everyday situations and write simple notes and phrases. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to conduct basic conversations and write simple paragraphs about everyday topics.

Topics: Introduction of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, pronunciation, transliteration, regular and irregular verbs in the present tense, gender, personal pronouns, prepositional case, indeclinable nouns, possession, the accusative case, masculine/feminine/neuter adjectives, plurals, the genitive case, numbers, quantities, roubles and dollars and genitive pronouns and adjectives.

Textbook: "Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook, 2nd edition", $45

Lessons: Introduction to the Russian alphabet and chapters 1-6. Supplementary material provided by the teacher.
This course is the continuation of the Basic 1 level and for students who have taken formal instruction a while ago, or have previous informal exposure to the language. Building of the basic foundation provided in the introductory level, students will learn to introduce themselves and conduct simple conversations on a range of everyday subjects. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course.

Offered on: Tuesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm; or Saturdays: 10 am - 12:30 pm.Enroll now!

Objective: Upon completing this level, students will be able to converse comfortably on most everyday routine situations speaking in the present, future and past tenses. They will be able to say or express their ideas, sentences and desires easily at a basic beginner’s level. They will learn enough vocabulary to continue with Russian Basic 3.

Learning Outcome: Future, past and conditional verb tenses, reflexive verbs, the dative case, imperfective and perfective, prepositional Plural, the infinitive, reported speech, impersonal constructions, the instrumental case, declension of surnames, time, date, age, ordinal numbers, superlative & relative clauses, obligation prefixes, and verbs of motion. Listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills will continue to be addressed throughout the course.

Topics: Time words; adverbial phrase – you yi dianr; particle - le; numbers 1 – 100; adjective –shi – adjective; minor sentences – no subject required sentences; verb-object compounds; resultative complements

Textbook: "Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook, 2nd edition", $45

Lessons: Chapters 7-12. Supplementary material provided by the teacher.
This course is ideal for those who studied Russian a while ago and need a refresher. At this level students will continue to build upon the foundation of the language that they acquired in Basic 2. Students will continue to improve on their listening and speaking skills through structured dialogues and other practical activities. This level continues to build up necessary grammar skills that will enable students to understand, read, write and translate sentences and paragraphs. This course is well-suited for students that have completed at least one semester of college-level Russian or the equivalent at a language institute. Students will learn to easily use the more complex verb tenses, along with more complex vocabulary and grammar. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will continue to be addressed throughout the course.

Offered on: Wednesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: Continuing to build upon the previously learned skills, students will acquire additional vocabulary which will enable them to converse in more complex conversations about their Russian history, culture, art, and familiar relationships. Students will learn grammar in a clear and concise format while being introduced to contemporary life and culture in today’s Russia.

Learning Outcome: By the end of this course, students will be able to have a basic conversation based on daily routine activities. They will be able to say or express their ideas with a full command of adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. They will be able to understand and be understood in most major tenses with some combinations of imperative and conditional as well as the passive voice. The average student will have acquired an active vocabulary of approximately 1,200 words together with many more words in speech and writing. The student is ready for intermediate level courses.

Topics: Review of the more complex verb tenses, possession and purpose, declension of numbers, collective numerals, fractions, time expressions, negations, diminutives, proper names, politeness, indefinite pronouns, word order, writing letters, participles, verbal adverbs, “bookish” style, punctuation, short-term adjectives, abbreviations, names of Russian letters, and particles. Listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills will continue to be addressed throughout the course.

Textbook: "Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook, 2nd edition", $45

Lessons: Chapters 13-18. Supplementary material provided by the teacher.
At this level students will continue to build upon the skills of the language that they acquired in Basic 3. Students will continue to improve on their listening and speaking skills through structured dialogues and other practical activities. This level continues to build up necessary grammar skills as well as the expansion of cultural knowledge. This course is well-suited for students that have completed at least two semesters of college-level Russian or the equivalent at a language institute. This course provides comprehensive explanations of Russian grammar along with the structural practice students need to build accuracy. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will continue to be addressed throughout the course.

Offered on: Thursdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: Continuing to build upon the previously learned skills, students will acquire additional vocabulary which will enable them to converse in more complex conversations about their Russian history, culture, art, and familiar relationships. Students will learn grammar in a clear and concise format while being introduced to contemporary life and culture in today’s Russia.

Learning Outcome: By the end of this course, students will have acquired a solid foundation of the Russian language. They will be able to say or express their ideas with a full command of adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. The students will be able to express immediate needs and interests using complete sentences, and discuss likes and dislikes in literature and the arts. The average student will have acquired an active vocabulary of well over 1,200 words together with many more words in speech and writing. The student is now at a low intermediate level.

Topics: Review of the more complex verb tenses, such as the third person-plural for passive/impersonal meaning, declension of last names, instrumental cases, speaking in generalities, verbs of asking, structures of holidays greetings, invitations and toasts, review of verbal adjectives and adverbs. Listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills will continue to be addressed throughout the course.

Textbook: "Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook, 2nd edition", $45

Lessons: Chapters 19-24. Supplementary material provided by the teacher.
This low Intermediate level course starts with a conversational grammar review which presupposes a basic knowledge of Russian. Emphasis will be placed on using this grammar in conversation. This class is ideal for those who studied Russian a long time ago and need a refresher. This class is also meant for those students who have studied basic grammar but don't feel as though they can adequately use it in conversation. Also, this course is appropriate for some students who grew up in Russian-speaking families. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course. Students will review vocabulary, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs and names.

Offered on: Mondays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: To introduce students to a variety of strategies for learning Russian at home or office and practice at the institute. They will use common expressions and will learn much more, altogether idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs. This program will focus in the development of all four language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing; together with a fifth skill, culture, which is an integral part of this program.

Learning Outcome: Students will be able to have a normal conversation based on daily events and express their ideas in written and orally ways. This level will refresh the previous knowledge about simple present and past tenses and strengthen all grammatical structures learned. It will also master infinitive and imperative tenses and use them properly when explaining past events in conversation.

Topics: Composing and responding to formal and informal letters, verb conjugations, prepositional case forms, time expressions, direct and indirect objects, plural forms, infinitive, internet terminology, dialogs on telephone conversations, hotels, banks, family, and several readings about everyday topics.

Textbook: V Puti Russian Grammar in Context and Student Activities Manual, $95 incl. tax

Lessons: Chapters 1-4 and supplementary material.
This course is for the student who is at a mid-intermediate level. Students at this level need to have a solid basic foundation of the language and are looking to expand their knowledge of the more complex forms of Russian. This level will teach students the difference between the future and past tenses and will complete study of the simple tenses. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course.

Offered on: Mondays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: To become much more comfortable understanding and using the proper verb tenses as they relate to moods while speaking Russian. This program will continue to focus in the development of all four language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing; together with a fifth skill, culture, which is an integral part of this program.

Learning Outcome: Students will be able to comfortably explain past events in both past tenses during routine conversations and plan activities in future tenses. Students will acquire a wider use of idiomatic expressions using phrasal verbs and using instrumental case forms. Students will become more comfortable navigating Russian internet sites.

Topics: Various uses of the reflexive verb forms, future, formation and use of the passive participles, personal infinitive, present and past participles, describing where you live, vacations, dating, relationships, customs, reading about music, arts, ballet, etc.

Textbook: V Puti Russian Grammar in Context and Student Activities Manual, $95 incl. tax

Lessons: Chapters 5-8 and supplementary material.
This is the final conversational review grammar based course. This course is for students who are at a high intermediate level and don’t feel ready for the more advanced levels. Students at this level are able to handle everyday conversations with ease but are eager to expand their cultural and idiomatic knowledge of Russian, as well as wrap-up their learning of advanced grammar. Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course.

Offered on: Wednesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: This level will end covering all the grammatical structures needed to send the student into real-life situations speaking Russian and to get them ready for the more advanced courses. To have full command of the language most important verb tenses. This program will continue to focus in the development of all four language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing; together with a fifth skill, culture, which is an integral part of this program.

Learning Outcome: Students will be able have a conversation with native speakers about different subjects using the right conjugation and right words when talking or expressing specific points of view. They will become familiar and comfortable using the more compound verb tenses. We will expand their knowledge of idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs together with the use of the imperative forms.

Topics: Introduction to compound verb tenses such as, prefixed verbs of motion, dependent clause vs. personal infinitive, declensions, comparatives, superlatives, adjective and adverb clauses, proverbs, impersonal expressions, imperatives, points of view, automobiles, modern life, pastimes, and several readings about everyday life topics.

Textbook: V Puti Russian Grammar in Context and Student Activities Manual, $95 incl. tax

Lessons: Chapters 9-12 and supplemental material.
This course is devoted to reading different articles from various Russian media about political/economic/business/criminal/cultural events. Discussion of related topics will follow reading articles and elaborating on new vocabulary from them (Russian journalistic style consist of a combination of written and conversational speech). Articles or new items will be analyzed in content.

Offered on: Thursdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!

Objective: Through a mixture of media in Russian, students will be able to analyze current events, converse and think critically about them in Russian. Reading articles which will be organized in a specific way to help students gain and remember new, useful vocabulary which will allow them to discuss different serious topics in Russian.

Learning Outcome: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to hold a very complex conversation about the news in Russia in all forms of media. They will also be able to write a résumé of news happening in Russia.

Topics: Rigorous use of multi-media vocabulary; idiomatic expressions; news vocabulary; analytic style of writing in Russian.

Textbook: Various sources of newspapers from the internet.

Program Details

$380 ($400 in 2025) for a 10-week one level class per student. Au-Pairs can receive a 10% discount on tuition with proof of their status. Enroll now!
May be purchased at the time of registration or at the Institute before or on the first day of class. All prices quoted include a 6% DC sales tax and all prices are subject to change at any time. Tax-exempt organizations or individuals need to provide proof of sales tax exemption before being charged. No retroactive refunds of sales tax. Once received by the student, books and other materials are the property of the student and are non-refundable.
Regarding placement, we recommend that you go to our self-evaluation guide on our website. Kindly read through each description of each level. If you feel that you are able to fulfill all the tasks described in one level, then move on to the next level and so on, until you reach a description of tasks that you are unable to fulfill. That would correspond to the level of classes in which you should enroll. If, once enrolled, you should not feel comfortable at that level, you can transfer to another level, availability permitting.

We do not offer placement tests.
Regular group classes meet once weekly in the evening (6:15-8:45 pm ET) or on Saturday mornings (10 am-12:30 pm ET) for 10 weeks. Each session is 2.5 hours. All class hours are U.S. Eastern Time (Standard or Daylight Saving). Classes cancelled due to holidays, instructors’ sickness, or other unforeseen circumstances are made up at the end of the regular term unless the entire class can arrange for a make-up on another day of the week.
In-person at ILI and online via Zoom. Our classes are usually held in person at Rhode Island Ave NW, Suite 100, Washington, DC 20036. Classes are also offered online via Zoom. We are within walking distance from the Metro's Dupont Circle (South exit) and Farragut North stations. Parking garages are close by and parking on the street is available after 6:30 pm.
Minimum 3, maximum 12 students. We recommend signing up as early as possible so we can adequately plan for all classes. If the minimum enrollment of at least 3 students per class is not met, we will have to cancel that class after the registration deadline has passed. In case of a cancellation, students will be given the opportunity to change classes, postpone their enrollment or request a full refund.
Our program requires each student to participate in weekly quizzes, which will be graded, based on a “Pass” or “Fail” system. There will be a final quiz that will measure the sum of the instructional objectives for the course. Grades are verbally communicated to students at the end of each class/course, and are marked on the attendance/performance sheet. Students must have completed and passed at least 70% of the quizzes to move to the next level.
It is important for students to attend every class meeting. It is also important that they arrive on time for class. We cover a lot of material in each class. The instructor cannot repeat material for students who are absent or come late. Students will be marked absent when they do not come to class. Missed group classes may only be made up if the same level is being offered on another day and the class is not at full capacity. Students who arrive 15 minutes after the advertised starting time will be marked late. For every 3 times that the student is marked as late, it will count as a missed hour. If we notice that a student’s attendance is in danger of falling below 70%, we will issue an attendance report to the student.
Per request, we can issue certificates of completion after the term has ended. The certificate can be ordered at the front desk. In order to be eligible to receive a certificate or pass to the next level, you are required to attend a minimum of 70% of the classes and have a “Passing” grade. We will need a couple of days in order to verify your attendance and passing grade before issuing the certificate.
ILI’s foreign language group programs are accredited by ACCET (Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training), and we also offer 2.5 Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) per every successfully completed course, 5.0 for the accelerated courses. Upon request, our Certificates of Completion can include the CEU’s earned per semester.
No refunds are issued for any reason after the registration deadline for the term (see Schedule above). Classes cancelled due to holidays, instructors’ sickness, or other unforeseen circumstances are made up at the end of the regular term unless the entire class can arrange for a make-up on another day of the week. Individually missed group classes may only be made up if the same level is being offered on another day and the class is not at full capacity. Otherwise there is no make-up for individually missed classes.
The International Language Institute reserves the right to cancel any class if deemed necessary. Prior to commencement of class, students will be given a full refund. In the event of cancellation after the commencement of class, the pro-rata portion of the unexpended tuition will be refunded. The prorated amount of refundable monies will be determined by the ratio of classes completed to the total number of classes in the scheduled program. The International Language Institute reserves the right to assign substitute instructors whenever necessary.
Classes are cancelled in accordance with federal government closures for the entire day due to inclement weather. Please check public announcements on radio, TV and the internet; or call ILI at (202) 362-2505. Closures are also posted on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ILIinDC. We rarely follow early dismissals.

ILI is closed for the following holidays: Martin Luther King Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day. Group classes will not meet on these holidays and the missed class(es) will be made up at the end of the term.
Please contact our Foreign Language Coordinator, Jane Edwards, at (202) 686-5610 ext. 105 or at [email protected].