Maria Makarchenko

I am a new student to Ukrainian and to italki. From the very first «Привіт!», with her beaming smile, Maria had me hooked! Марія teaches and listens with enthusiasm, patience, and a lot of understanding. Her lessons and conversations are diverse, interesting, engaging, and we always smile and laugh along the way! 😄 With my extremely demanding schedule, our learning sessions have become a veritable oasis! We just completed another session and I already can’t wait for our next lesson (I feel that way after each lesson)! Щиро дякую, Маріє! Я так багато вивчаю кожен урок! Ти чудова вчителька! Дуже дуже дякую! 🙏

I have had Maria as a teacher for at least six lessons and she is excellent. She quickly assessed my level of skill in Russian, where I was strongest and what needed work on. Then she set up me up with the opportunity to do assignments (if I wished). Maria is also a great conversationalist and to my surprise had an incredibly detailed knowledge of my humble little state of South Dakota. The hour I spend with her each week just flies by. She motivates me to be better and I feel myself improving as a student -- at least my confidence is! : ) I was not a great language student back in school, but this is fun. It doesn’t feel like work at all. Notice how busy her schedule is. There is a reason: she’s good.

Maria never fails to provide a valuable addition to the language skill set I am striving to develop. She is an excellent teacher and an even more remarkable human being. She is always cheerful and never fails to motivate; encouraging her students to further their language education. Her approach promotes weekly progress, and she offers a variety of tasks to make learning interesting and effective. She masterfully weaves foundational building blocks with practical conversational tips which makes communication with native speakers of this beautiful language much easier. I highly recommend her as an instructor.

One of the best decisions I made this year was taking Ukrainian lessons with Maria. While I have little talent for learning languages, she has tons and gladly passes her experience and enthusiasm on to her students. In a relaxed and friendly environment, you will learn and practice your language skills, learn about Ukrainian culture, and be inspired to keep going. The hour will go by far too quickly, and you will be noticeably better by its end.

We're incredibly pleased with how easily Maria motivates my son, Saul. Her patience and teaching style ensure he's always learning. I'm delighted to see his progress in reading and vocabulary.

Every lesson with Maria is another huge step towards language proficiency. Her compassionate guidance and detailed explanations about the nuances of the beautiful Ukrainian language have been extremely valuable to me as I move towards real conversations with native speakers. She perfectly blends solid, foundational instruction with very practical words and phrases necessary to communicate on a basic level. My language lesson with Maria is the highlight of my week. I recommend in the strongest terms of every language that you book a lesson with her.