I've been a returning student at this language center. Initially, I attended Farsi classes and later switched to learning Georgian. The facility itself is quite small, with only three teaching rooms, located in a Soviet-era building away from the city center near Delisi metro in Saburtalo. The classrooms are basic offices with whiteboards, which work well for one-on-one or small group lessons. The teaching approach for the Georgian language is strong and more effective than what I experienced at the more upscale institute, Gogo Askureva, where I learned a lot about the language but struggled with active speaking skills. My teacher Lika, who is the wife of the owner Giorgi, focuses on making you speak. Unlike in my previous experience with Pikria, Lika uses a proper set of learning materials, including Shavtvaladze's "Georgian Language for English Speakers," which is quite comprehensive, though it includes a lot of thematic vocabulary that could be found in basic phrasebooks. She also creates custom media, like audio recordings of verbs, upon request. For Georgian learners, mastering pronunciation is crucial due to its challenging consonant clusters. The Persian language instruction was decent but lacked appropriate materials for English speakers, relying instead on Iranian school textbooks, which aren't ideal for adults. Though I didn't study Russian, I've overheard lessons here using Russian-developed materials for teaching it as a foreign language. They seemed effective, focusing well on various skills, particularly grammar. For more accurate feedback on the Russian classes, one should consult actual students rather than rely on my observations.
