Published: 30 April, 2008, 03:23
Edited: 30 April, 2008, 03:23
Even though it's six years away, locals in Sochi are taking preparations for the Olympics very seriously. One popular TV programme, hosted by a six-year-old girl, is teaching residents how to speak English.
Six-year-old Sasha, who hosts the show, is a true celebrity in the resort city. She tells her audience the latest news from the city from her point of view.
Several months ago, when Sochi won the Olympic bid, the makers of the show decided to go international, by helping their audience study foreign languages. From that moment a spot was given on each show to teach the city’s citizens, both young and old, how to speak English.
Last week Sochi passed its first serious exam as the host city for the 2014 Winter games. When members of the IOC visited the future Olympic venues, they received a warm welcome from the organising committee and a guided tour in English. The Russians are proud of their plans and are certain the construction will go as planned.
However, if you walk away from the Olympic facilities, things probably wouldn’t look quite as familiar to the average foreigner. Most street signs, ads and descriptions are in Cyrillic only.
Nevertheless, foreign expats living in Sochi are seeing positive changes.
Eve Glendanning is co-host of the show. She’s been living in Sochi for more than a year now and, besides her TV job, she also teaches English at the local university.
“I think Sochi has already started to become this Olympic capital. As soon as I arrived in October and started to work at the University I realised that they were very keen to get ready for the games. All my students are studying very hard to learn English”, she said.
While Sochi’s image as an international resort is yet to be built, its popularity at home is enormous. This year the volume of domestic tour sales has grown by 70% in comparison with last year’s figures, and the city’s newly-achieved Olympic status is playing a key role.