While working as marketing director on a unique project — the Vsplesk sports and leisure complex in Rostov-on-Don — I worked with many European colleagues, because nothing like it existed in Russia at the time.
The United Kingdom has several successful indoor ski slopes, so for questions of construction and later operation I turned to my British colleagues. During one of those meetings I ended up on the pages of the local tabloid and gave an interview on BBC radio.
In the photograph I am with my British colleague Jim Carroll in Ipswich, learning how the local SnOasis complex was being built.
Sadly, the Rostov project was later closed because of sanctions, but the experience is unforgettable.
Why I tell my students about it
English has never been a school subject for me. It is negotiations where one phrase decides a contract; a live interview where you cannot ask them to repeat; a foreign country where people understand you. That is exactly why we talk so much in my lessons — and memorise so little for the sake of memorising.
