Russian-English Conversation on Zoom

This is a recent initiative, available to members of CamRuSS and local subscribers to CamRuSS newsletter free of charge during the period of lockdown and social distancing (from spring 2020).

Currently runs on alternate Mondays (7pm) and Wednesdays (6pm) (or earlier) for one hour, on Zoom.
The first meeting took place on Friday 8th May 2020.
If you wish to join, please email us on info@camruss.com.

The Waterstones Group

The Waterstones face-to-face group (a.k.a. “Kruzhok“) was running since 2012 under the auspices of CamRuSS, and flourished for many years, but has recently dwindled and has been put on hold, due to a change of circumstances of many members and, more recently, due to the lockdown in 2020.

History of the group:

The group used to meet every Tuesday morning, at 10am, on the second floor of Waterstone’s Bookshop (22 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HG) at the table up the stairs at the back.

Map: click here.

The meetings ran from 10 am until 12 noon, but people were welcome to arrive or leave at any time during the two hours.

There were roughly equal numbers of Russian- and English-speakers, who would speak each of the two languages in turns, and help each other.

Some conversations flowed around people’s life experiences, especially during the period when neither country had known much about the other, but discussions could digress freely in any direction, whether connected with matters English-Russian or not.

There was no subscription – you could simply come to one of the meetings, and would always feel very welcome. It was warm, friendly and informal, with people of different age, gender and ethnicity.

The group was originally run by Susanne Burbridge, then John Farrington, and in more recent years by Beverley Dear, whom you can contact on dear_beverley@hotmail.com, should you have any questions.

The members of Kruzhok used to hold Christmas parties that were always jolly and delicious occasions: