Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication by HSE University

This is an excellent course for anyone interested in Russian culture, working with Russians, or wishing to understand Russians better. However, it does require patience and persistence as the course is very thorough in covering academic and practical information. The course will not provide a simple do's and don'ts list, but you can certainly make your own list after having gone through all materials. I see great value in the contents of the course for both my work and my private life, which both include Russians.

I'm glad to be a part of such a great course. I recommend this course for anyone interested in the Russian culture in particular or in intercultural communication in general. This course is a mix of sociology, culture, social psychology, history, linguistics, communication and more. The content of the course is very diverse and rich. I highly recommend it for those who want to learn something valuable not only to get grades or certificates.

I truly enjoyed the high quality of this course, any video of Professor Mira Bergelson was clear and gave the opportunity to overcome cultural biais. The teachers are reactive to resolve any difficulties on the forum and encourage us with kindness. I will promote this course to any people that could be interested about Russia.

It was a great course, and I gained such a beautiful perspective of the Russian people, their history, the struggles - that I feel closer to them, and my understanding is all the better for it. Thank you for this beautiful and excellent course Mira Bergelson!

Excellent course! Well structured and the instructor keeps the class interesting and applicable! I highly recommend it!

Excellent course, thank you.

Great and eye-opening

This course was a complete disappointment. I was MADE to go the course because of my univerity (I don't no WHY exactly they made me do this). Like the lecturer hesitated (постеснялся, если всё же кто-то из создателей это прочтёт) to ask someone knowing english to revise his teksts. The 'english' of the course is NOT understandable. Lots of grammar and 'choose the correct word of a number of synonyms' mistakes. How am i supposed to pass the tests and write the essays? I should empasise the most common fault - the construction of russian sentense is fully transfered into english, as if the author had no idea of general principles of translation. Being russian i understud the major part of the informaton. I wonder how much foreigners could grasp. Please, think of the impression you've made. "Russians are savage, they don't understand how to speak international language". Look, the course should be rewrited or delated for the sake of.. whatever. Thank you for wasting your time to waste my time. (я не злюка, но курс действительно ужасен и вывел меня из себя, показывать такое иностранцам категорически нельзя (кстати, нынешнее правительство таки подняло пенсионный возраст, ваш тест устарел)

As a student of the Russian language, this course is the perfect complement! It provides the theoretical basis for many conclusions that one, as a foreigner to the Russian culture, sees and feels when interacting with Russians. Its main strengths are, in the first place, the richness of the views provided by the Instructor, and her vast knowledge and experience in terms of intercultural relations. Secondly, the interviews with foreigners living in Russia and articles about the Russian life writen for foreigners, al of which with different backgrounds, give us a sense of "the foreigner eye", a type of attitude which we might see in ourselves when judging situations that happen in Russia. This all implies a critical posture that I believe is fundamental for any person wishing to fully understand any culture which happens to be foreign to her.

I greatly enjoyed the course, and learned a lot both about Russian culture and intercultural communication theory, and I even got up to date with value-dimensions theory, which was unexpected and is something I'm greatly interested in. That said, I felt that at the end the course lacked a bit of critical thinking with regards to gender rolls and sexual identity, both as someone that knows non-cis and non-straight Russian people and as someone that comes from a very patriarchal society, I think I think it can be very harmful to present certain ideas as "just the way things are" in Russia.

As a language instructor, this course helped me immensely with my professional development and ability to relate to Russian business clients. This course content was thoroughly prepared, superb regarding strategies in video lectures and duo interviews, as well as readings. With the challenging geopolitics, I highly recommend that Coursera continue to offer this course. With better knowledge and understanding comes a better world!

I have enjoyed every lecture :) The community in this course is friendly and peer evaluation has been smooth. I have learnt so much about intercommunications from the wholesome lecture contents, amazing interviews with professionals and sharing by Professor Bergelson! Cheers!

Professor Mira is clear in explaining each week's topic and it is accurate to say she is passionate in her teaching. I truly enjoyed her lectures and this course - the assignments were of relevance and further enhanced the learning, instead of being a source of stress.

This is a fantastic course. I really appreciate everyone who has created this course. This is a very intriguing course.

I am still taking it, but I'm leaving a review now so I don't forget later.

An outstanding course i learnt to survive in a foreign country meanchile i am working, Thank you professors. I hope to meet you soon at HSE.

Excellent instructor with in depth analysis and presentation of this particular topic. I fully recommend it.

It's a little slow getting going in the beginning but toward the end, what you will learn is pure gold.

Thank you for the course. I really enjoyed it and learn a lot of new things.

An excellent course! Subject matter was interesting and well-presented!

An important subject presented in a sincere and engaging manner.

Very informative and diversified

Interesting contents

Can tell that the lecturer was struggling a little with English since it's not her first language, but overall she still managed to give a decent presentation. Learnt a lot about the Russian culture and the resources given were useful.

(ps: I would say, try it if you have the time and energy to process what the lecturer is saying half the time.)

Very good course. Lot of practical information after first 2-3 weeks. If only the method would have had tiny bit more variation, such as animations, video analysis, case studies, maybe more expert visitors etc. it would have been even better and more durable in long run. But all in all, highly recomended.

Very interesting course, provides a lot of insight into Russian cultural perspectives.