Elena Ovtcharenko

I was born in Leningrad and spent my childhood in Donetsk, Ukraine. I later returned to Saint Petersburg, where I graduated from Leningrad State University (LSU) and subsequently worked at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) — the former and current name of the same institution — in the Department of Phonetics and Teaching Methodology. There, I also obtained my doctoral degree in linguistics. My academic specialization is applied linguistics and computer speech recognition.

At Saint Petersburg State University, I taught theoretical phonetics and morphology, as well as Russian as a foreign language to students from the United States, Germany, France, Korea, and other countries.

I have been living in the United States since 1994. I came at the invitation of Oberlin College and the Special School of Foreign Languages for Journalists, choosing the latter because the position seemed especially engaging and intellectually stimulating. Since then, I have been teaching Russian language and culture, with a particular focus on Russia and post-Soviet countries, at the World Bank, as well as Russian language at various levels and Russian literature in the Department of Romance, German, and Slavic Studies at George Washington University.

In my work with students, I strive not only to teach the Russian language, but also to share my deep knowledge of it and my love for it. I find particular joy in helping students discover the beauty and richness of Russian, its internal logic, and its clarity.