Extending Your Russian

We study for hours and hours to learn a foreign language, to engrain in our memories the words and grammar that seem odd and strange to our way of thinking.  We work and slave for that moment in which all our struggles are made worth it.  When we are able to go to another place another country, be approached by a stranger and speak with full recognition on both sides.  That moment in which you feel like a native speaker is what it is all about, the chance to be a part of another world than your own as a friend and not an outsider. 

Once we take the classes or serve the mission, how do we maintain our skills?  Without the opportunity to speak regularly in a non-native tongue we quickly begin to lose what we have learned.  However the German and Slavic Department have given Russian speakers another option.  There is a program called EYR, Extending Your Russian, that allows students to practice their skills in a two phase process.  In phase one, students are concentrating on reading and speaking.  In phase two, users speak and practice their listening skills.  This is through a free online program: http://eyr.byu.edu.