For attaining advanced proficiency in any language, there is no substitute for living in a country where it is spoken. For this reason, you are encouraged to consider a summer, semester, or year abroad. There are opportunities to study in St. Petersburg, Prague, Riga, and other exciting locations in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. The Global Education Oregon (GEO) Study Abroad office can help you apply for and arrange study abroad through a variety of programs. For information about the programs supported by GEO, visit https://geo.uoregon.edu/programs or talk with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Katya Hokanson, who can be reached at hokanson@uoregon.edu.
You may also want to consider Eugene’s sister city, Irkutsk, as a possible location for study abroad. Located in Siberia, near beautiful Lake Baikal, Irkutsk offers the attractions of a large city as well as proximity to wilderness. (It has also been observed that students have an easier time socializing with Russians outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.) In part because of these advantages, and in part because of its affordability and instructional quality, Russian Language Coordinator Dr. Yelaina Kripkov has frequently helped students make arrangements to study at the Irkutsk State Linguistic University. Even without a formal UO-IGLU exchange program, students can make arrangements themselves and simply apply for transfer credits.
Study abroad is important in a language program, but you cannot plan on getting a degree at the UO with most of your courses for the major or minor taken somewhere else. However, REEES does allow you to count any language study toward the three years required for the major and minor, as well as up to four other courses on Russian or Eastern European themes toward the major and two courses toward the minor. Additional courses taken abroad cannot be counted toward your REEES degree, but they should still count toward the total credits needed for graduation from the UO.
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