Hi, I'm Rosti

Hi! I’m Rosti.

My Russian name is Rostislav, but most of my students call me Rosti. I’m originally from Moscow, and since 2021 I’ve been living in Bangkok.

I’ve been teaching for more than eight years — but my first classroom wasn’t a language classroom at all. For eight years I worked in the coffee industry, training managers, waiters and baristas in service and management. Long before I taught anyone a single Russian word, I was already teaching people how to communicate well under pressure — which, it turns out, is most of what language teaching is too.

A few years ago, I decided to try working remotely and started as a community tutor. I was teaching Russian, my native language, to people from different countries. And something unexpected happened: my students made me look at my own language from a completely different perspective.

I started paying much more attention to how Russian actually works — not just what is correct, but why it is correct. I became fascinated by the logic behind grammar, words, expressions and the way native speakers communicate. The more I explored, the more I fell in love with my own language.

Today, I’m a professional teacher of both Russian and English, with more than six years of experience teaching languages. I’ve worked with students from more than 35 countries, from teenagers to adults in their seventies. I also still teach English to children in a kindergarten, so every age group teaches me something different about how people learn.

So, what are my lessons like?

I don’t see myself as the kind of teacher who sits with a textbook and spends an hour going through grammar presentations.

I see myself as your Russian-speaking friend who knows how to teach.

Of course, my lessons are structured and there is a clear path from one step to the next. But the way we get there depends on you.

During our first lesson, I ask a lot of questions. I want to understand your goals, interests and personality. If you are passionate about economics, for example, I’m much more likely to build our conversations around economics than around music — because learning becomes much more effective when you are actually interested in what you are talking about.

I believe that some parts of learning a language can be done independently. Vocabulary review, repetition and certain parts of the routine do not always need to take up valuable lesson time.

Our time together is for communication.

We talk. We practice. We make mistakes. I explain the logic behind the language and grammar instead of simply telling you to memorize a rule.

And don’t be afraid of making mistakes. I adapt my approach depending on the student. Sometimes I correct you immediately, and sometimes I let you finish your thought first. There is no single method that works perfectly for everyone.

Most importantly, I want my students to leave a lesson thinking:

“Yes. I can actually speak Russian.”

Russian is a difficult language, and learning it takes time. I don’t promise miracles in three months. But I do want you to feel progress, confidence and curiosity every step of the way.

And honestly, that is why I still love teaching.

Every week, I look forward to meeting my students again — hearing their new stories, discovering their perspectives, and seeing that moment when their eyes light up because they suddenly understand something they couldn’t understand before.

That’s the part of teaching I’ll never get tired of.