Hacker News Reader

Good point -- I was implicitly talking about serious instruction on advanced levels. There was no shortage of classes where you got to listen to French music and read some easy books; but nothing that would bring you to fluency.

An exchange program with Manchester, though? That must have been late in the 80s?

View on HN

Understood, that's true, to do any serious study people had to apply to and enter a formal program, day, evening, or remote. The other option was private tutoring.

The exchange program ran in early 80s.

That would be in Moscow, correct? Because it would be unheard in a small industrial town I am from.

In St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the whole thing went away by 1984-85. It only lasted for a few years.

> In St. Petersburg

Makes sense.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com