Hey everyone and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
So, it has been a few weeks since I last recorded an episode of this podcast and...
Let me tell you, a lot has happened since.
In this episode I'm going to talk about some of my experiences so far in the last month and some of the difficulties I had in Russia so far.
I'm also going to talk about some differences between Moscow and the UK in summer, including weather and what people like to do.
So first off, I've been in Russia now for about one month.
When I first arrived, I had to sit in quarantine, so I had to isolate myself, be alone for about two weeks.
During this time, I stayed in my apartment and I couldn't go anywhere.
I also had to use this time to look for a new apartment, or as we call it in the UK, a new flat.
So the word flat is simply apartment in the UK.
During this time, I was also working online.
I started my job and I began to teach business English and English to different business professionals and managers in Moscow and other areas of Russia.
It has been a great experience so far.
It has been very challenging so quite difficult but very enjoyable.
So I finally found a new apartment.
I signed the agreement and I moved there.
It had a very good price, it was quite clean inside and really not too bad.
The area was not the best area well, it isn't the best area in Moscow but because it was very cheap, it allows me to save quite a lot of money every month.
You may know this, but every foreigner that moves to Russia needs to register.
So they have to do a temporary registration.
This lets the government know where they are living, that they are here, and it really notifies them.
So it tells them about my arrival in Russia.
The difficulty is that I can't do this myself.
So I am not allowed to do this process myself.
The landlord or landlady, so that is the owner of the apartment has to do this registration for you.
Before I signed the agreement and moved into my apartment, my landlady, so the owner of this apartment told me that she would register me.
But when i moved in she was refusing to do it.
So she was making lots of excuses saying, for example, i'm not in moscow today or i'm sorry, i can't do it, i'm busy, and the problem of this is that i have to register within seven working days.
So I was already very close to the deadline.
So the end of this time period
Eventually, I finally got her to come with me to the migration centre, so to the location where you do registration.
But it was already past the deadline.
So, it was at a stage where I could get in trouble.
During the process, I was told that they couldn't give me a registration.
Because it was past the deadline, I had to first spend some time with the police and pay a fine.
So, a fine is a penalty, a штраф in Russian.
And it was about 5000 rubles.
I wasn't very happy about this because it wasn't my fault.
I had tried to register, I had been trying, but it was my landlady who was refusing to help me.
But I decided, okay, I'm better to agree with it, to pay the fine and to not have any more problems.
They told me to return next week, so the week after, on a Wednesday at 2pm, to organise the fine and then complete registration.
I thought, okay, great, I'll finally have it sorted and I will get my registration.
But the next morning I woke up and I read the news.
I saw that Sovyanin.
So the mayor of Moscow had declared so.
He had said that there would be a no working week in Moscow.
So everyone had to stay at home and work from home.
This meant that the service at the migration centers had changed.
So on Wednesday I went with my girlfriend to the migration center at the time I was told.
The ladies there told me that it had moved to the police station, so the services for foreigners.
We're now at the police station.
So we went to the police station and they told us that they were closed for the day.
So they had decided to close early on the Wednesday.
So you might think, great, that means you will just come back the next day.
But the problem was my girlfriend was going to St.
Petersburg, which meant I would have to return all alone and try and use my Russian, because no one there speaks English.
This was also a huge problem because I need the registration to sign my work documents, so to finish my work documents and even to receive my salary.
I also needed it to extend my visa, so to make my visa longer for up to one year.
Then on the Friday, I thought, I'm going to go.
So I'm going to go on my own try and find the people that I saw the week before and organize it myself.
So I got up early, I went to the police station on my own, and I spent about four hours there.
Four hours.
It was a very difficult process and I had to push myself, speak a lot in Russian.
And to be honest, it was quite stressful.
So it was quite a difficult process.
They issued me a fine, so a penalty.
I paid it.
They took my fingerprints and they even took photos of me and made a file, so a document or a report.
But finally, at last, I received the registration.
The reason I'm telling you this story is that it really proved to me that I can use Russian very well.
So in times of stress or times when you really need to use your language abilities, you may find that you know a lot more than you think.
When I was on the way to the police station, I remember thinking to myself oh my goodness, how am I going to communicate with these people?
It is going to be so difficult.
But when I arrived and I went through the process, of course, it wasn't easy.
But I was able to use simple words, simple explanations.
And even if I really needed to, I could use a translator or a translation app, I mean, like Google Translator or Yandex Translate.
These sorts of stressful and often necessary experiences, in which we have to use the language which we are studying, is so beneficial for our learning.
They are moments which really push us outside of our comfort zone.
So that's our comfort zone, the area and the sort of the areas of ability that we feel comfortable in, the situations in which we feel comfortable.
And of course I don't want to say to you get in problems with the police or get in problems with the British police and this will help your language.
But what I mean is don't be afraid to put yourself in uncomfortable situations to use your language.
Whether that is ordering at a restaurant or starting a conversation at a shop, or even if, for example, you hear someone speaking English in Russia, don't be scared or afraid to walk up and start speaking to them.
These experiences will be some of the most helpful and enriching, which means an experience that will benefit you in the future.
It will really help your language.
And although it may look like a very negative experience, I can guarantee that there will always be some positives from it.
So I've realized I've talked for quite a while and I'm going to separate the second topic.
So the topic about weather and summer in Moscow and Russia versus the UK into a separate podcast episode.
So we'll have two separate topics.
I hope that this was helpful for you and I hope it maybe inspires you or encourages you to go out and use your English in any situation that you can.
If I can go to a police station and organise a fine and be in a very stressful situation with my Russian, I really believe that you can do anything too.
That you can definitely survive with English and really use these difficult situations to improve.
I hope you have a fantastic weekend.
Or if you're listening to this during the week, I hope you have a wonderful day.
I will see you all in the next episode of the podcast.
Remember, you can message me on Instagram or leave a comment on TikTok, maybe about a topic you would like to see on the podcast or any questions that you have.
And I will try to answer them in another episode of the podcast.
Thank you for listening and goodbye.
