Once upon a time there was a girl, Alyona, who worked as a lawyer in Kyiv and studied English at a local language school. There she met Sarah and they became friends. Sarah was from the UK and really wanted to learn Russian but couldn’t find a good teacher. So Sarah offered Alyona to help her study. Alyona reluctantly agreed.
Having done a massive research on the subject, Alyona started teaching Russian to Sarah. Good news spread fast and quite soon a bunch of other foreigners joined the club. They, too, had previously failed to find a decent place to learn Russian.
Meanwhile, there was another girl, Maria, who was a university professor working on her thesis and keen on improving the language teaching style in Ukraine. A common friend introduced Alyona and Maria at a party and they quickly became good friends, and that’s when the story of ALMA School truly began.
The lack of quality teaching, professionalism and friendly attitude in educational services really bothered the girls so they eventually came up with a solution: Opening a language school of their own (a place of modern and fresh look at teaching Ukrainian and Russian as foreign — a process that had had quite a reputation of being a boring, rough and endless endeavour. The name of the school didn’t come at once but seemed so logical and perfect when it finally dawned on the girls:
AL + MA = ALyona + MAria
And when we looked for the meaning and the origin of the word itself, the decision to choose it only solidified. It is Spanish for ‘soul’ and Latin for "kind", "fostering", or "nourishing" — which is exactly what ALMA School stands for! And now, seven years later, we still remember why we started and believe in everything we do. We teach and we care!