Russians Learn to Speak English Outside Classroom

I've always believed that, to pick up spoken English, you are better off sitting in a park or a bar than in the classroom. How can you learn to speak from hearing teacher talking all the time?

A friend sent me an article appeared in today's The St. Peterburg Times. It's about Russian students getting out the classroom--finally--and practicing English in informal groups:

Tired of English classes held at universities, Russian students and professionals have taken to the Internet to find new ways of learning English. VKontakte, a Russian online social networking site, similar to Facebook, is now making it easier to find English language conversation groups in St. Petersburg.

VKontakte allows individuals registered on the site the opportunity to create groups based on their general interests. Speaking English is one of the most popular. One such group, called “I Speak English,” created in September, is described on its Vkontakte page as a club for “those who want to be able to converse fluently in English with foreigners.”

If the momentum of this grassroots efforts stays on, then I'd expect nothing short of a "October Revolution" in Russia in language learning and acquisition.

For the full article, here is the link.