The better part of my life has been connected with St. Petersburg University: I studied there, defended my dissertation there, and for several years now have worked in the Russian Department there.

I love learning and helping others learn. Since I also love to travel, I've taught in several countries: Germany, Norway, and the United States. I've helped all kinds of students learn to speak Russian: Germans, Norwegians, Japanese, Finns, Koreans, Swedes, and, of course, Americans.

Recently I branched out beyond humans and have begun teaching computers. I'm working on getting them to read Russian classics (but not only classics) out loud and to understand spoken Russian. I'm not doing this alone, of course, but as part of a speech recognition and synthesis research team. Computers are turning out to be the worst students I've ever had, but I keep plugging along the information superhighway.