{"id":104575,"date":"2020-11-13T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//?p=104575"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:46:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T20:46:39","slug":"ucf-russian-professor-celebrates-culture-beyond-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//ucf-russian-professor-celebrates-culture-beyond-classroom/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Russian Professor Celebrates Culture Beyond Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Alla Kourova was a fifth grader in Moscow when she heard a song that sparked her love for languages /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u00ad/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u2013 Yesterday by the Beatles./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u201cFrom then I wanted to learn English so I could learn to sing it and play on the piano,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u201d says Kourova, who grew up in Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hungary./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/n

Now a speaker of five languages /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u2014 English, French, German, Russian and Ukrainian /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u2014 Kourova has been an associate professor of Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at UCF for 13 years. She also has been teaching Russian for the past decade./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u201cI really love teaching and my students. Teaching is in my blood since my mom was a home economics teacher,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u201d says Kourova, who received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Central Association of Russian Teachers of America./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/n

As International Education Week takes place Nov. 16 to 20, she reflects on her passion and profession for the past 30 years. While the general focus of Kourova/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/u2019s courses is language, she incorporates culture into her lesson plans because she knows it is essential for retention of the language./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/104575/n