Anna And Marta Take English Lessons

Their father was at the station to welcome them on their return, after hugs and kisses he picked up the cases and started towards the bus stop, telling them on the way that Nana Olga knew about the modelling, she had seen a letter head sticking out of an envelope, she just didn't know any details, so they would stay with the story of a foreign clothing catalogue, which is why of course they had no copies of the pictures.

Their mum's ankle was now a lot better, and the boys were pleased to see them, and of course grateful for the souvenirs the girls had brought them back. Greg was encouraged to take Peter into the bedroom to read for a while so that mum and dad could have a chat with the girls about their week away. Their parents were delighted that Anna's career had taken off so well, already having her contract extended, and now with the bonus of Marta being employed to do research for the studio, things had never looked so promising.

When the conversation wound down and they went to fetch the boys, they were curled up asleep on their parents bed, and hardly stirred as they were undressed and tucked into their own bed.

In the morning Marta and Anna went across the hall to visit their neighbours, thank them for helping their mum, and tell modified stories about Anna's modelling work, like trying on lots of European clothing with dozens of other kids for hours each day, before they left they gave the couple some gifts they had bought for them.

After their lunch they went to meet Svetlana, the woman who taught English, taking some of their books with them to show her, her apartment was similar to their own except that it had two bedrooms and the kitchen was separate from the main room. They took off their shoes when they entered and they were led to the table, Svetlana said she would go and make tea then they could have a chat about the lessons.

As soon as she left the room Marta whispered to Anna, "Svetlana must be having a very hard time" Anna wanted to know why Marta thought that, "Well those dark shadows on the wall, it looks like she has sold some pictures that have been there a long time, and that nice oak display cabinet where most people would display their best china is empty."

She went on to make several other astute observations, before Svetlana returned with the tea in quite plain cheap cups as if proving Marta's point.

Svetlana was curious as to why they wanted to learn English, so they stuck to the story about doing work on European clothing catalogues, so they met some English people and sometimes people from the American branch of the company and they wanted to impress them in the hope that they could get work abroad.

"Could you say anything for me in English."

Marta used, the phrase she had spoken to Ivan a few days before.

"Hello my name is Marta, I'm thirteen years old, I like to do folk dancing and play chess."

She then looked at Anna.

"Hello my name is Anna, I'm ten years old, I like to read and sing."

"You both speak with more of a British sounding accent than an American one, which is quite charming, where did you pick that up?"

Anna said how they listened to a British radio station at home, and one of the people who had helped them and given them the books had spent some time in England.

After chatting about how she liked to teach using real situations, she nervously asked if their parents were prepared to pay for the amount for intense tuition the girls wanted and perhaps they might like to spread out the lessons. Marta realized that the woman was thinking she could get by for a long time with only one or two days paid work per week, worried about not knowing where her next pupil might be coming from.

"Our parents aren't paying we are, cash up front each week, I don't mean to be rude, but how many hours of tuition are you teaching at the moment?"

"Marta I will be honest with you I am only teaching five one hour lessons each week, one by one people have been dropping out with the state of the economy, business people are losing their jobs and people who were thinking of travelling are now saving their funds."

Marta looked at Anna as if there were some unspoken communication between them, and then turned to Svetlana, "I have an idea, or maybe two, that will help you if you can teach us to speak English in a reasonably short time, then I think we can find you several other girls that also want to learn on an intensive course. The second idea, this looks to be a two bedroom apartment" at which Svetlana nodded, "two or three girls could take lessons, then you could use the spare bedroom to earn additional income from bed and board. These other girls would need to travel so that would solve both teaching and accommodation, also they would be able to learn from the moment they got up until they went to bed."

Svetlana was feeling a little giddy, from what had yesterday seemed like a small glimmer of hope, now there was the possibility of a wonderful opportunity to teach what could amount to several eager new students, with the bonus of renting her spare bedroom for which she had no takers locally, when she had tried advertising for a lodger.

Marta asked what rates she normally charged, and Svetlana was more than happy agreeing to an hourly fee at a compromise between her individual and group rates for the two girls.

Anna retrieved an envelope containing most of the cash they had taken away with them and not spent, counting out an amount that should take them well past the first week, joking that Svetlana would need to stock up on tea, juice, and pastries for her pupils.

With business taken care of, it was only early afternoon, so they got down to work right away, with both girls making notes in fresh exercise books they had bought just for these lessons, by the time it came to leave for supper, they set a time to return the next day.

As the days passed they increased their vocabulary, writing down each word with it's English spelling followed by it's phonetic equivalent, and as their grammar improved they would apply it in conversations at the meal table, they then moved on to learn relevant words and phrases needed in the kitchen. When they later moved to the bathroom a red faced Marta learned how to ask for feminine hygiene products, then Anna was asked to try to find the right words to ask the chemist for medicine to stop diarrhoea. This was a cause of much laughter when Svetlana explained what Anna had said on her first few attempts.

They also went sightseeing in their own town, in order to think about what phrases they would need in the equivalent situation speaking in English, with Svetlana using role play to get the girls to push themselves, they included using buses, eating out, and visiting various places of interest as a tourist would.

When it got to the point where the girls were starting to feel confident, Marta suggested they include topics such as sport and leisure activities, by now having learned the basic grammar it was a matter of increasing their vocabulary. Listening to the radio at home they found they could now follow the news stories or plays, despite the gaps in their knowledge, they found it was getting easier to understand providing the person they were listening to was not talking too quickly.

At first when Svetlana's other pupils turned up for lessons Marta and Anna went to the spare bedroom to work on exercises she had set for them, but as Marta pointed out she was being paid by all of them for that time perhaps some of these students would like to stay a little longer to take part in group conversations, which proved useful and popular with all concerned.

Marta had been keeping in touch with Ivan, Valya, and Dmitri to keep them informed on how they were progressing and to put forward new ideas. Her conversations with Dmitri much to his delight were now mostly in English, and from Valya she had found out many of the girls had shown an interest in the teen magazines, and about learning to read them.

Ivan was impressed with their progress, and was bowled over about her idea for girls going to live with a language tutor for a short intensive course of lessons, saying he would start talking about it to some of the parents.

The second Friday after their return from Kiev, set three, the company's first ever super sized set had been released twenty-five days after the Anna's previous offering, and they were tentatively awaiting the first week's sales figures, as Dmitri had said the anticipation in the forum was high, but would they put their money where their mouth was.

Although Marta had told Svetlana some other girls were interested in taking an intensive English course with her and staying as lodgers, she was shocked when she was handed a letter complete with an initial payment for three girls to join her in a week's time subject to her agreement. She had to sit down and wipe her eyes as she noted the daily rate they were offering to pay for each girls tuition, and when she saw the rate they included for meals and accommodation on top, she was sure they could have found an hotel for less.

Asking Marta if there was some mistake, she was told the company she was dealing with were more familiar with paying city prices, so when Marta had spoken with them, she had talked Svetlana's prices up a little knowing how pleased they had been with how well she and her sister had advanced. Of course the letterhead showed the bland name of the holding company giving no clue as to the real nature of the business, something Marta had suggested they do when necessary, after their own close call at home.

Svetlana phoned the company on the number provided, which elicited a response from the switchboard using the holding company name, which they then informed Ivan before transferring her call. Ivan spoke with Svetlana using the ruse of a producer of European clothing catalogues, an idea that had peculated throughout the company, saying how useful it was when the girls could understand and talk to the foreign clients.

On Friday the girls for the first time finished early, stating they had a relative coming to visit, where in fact they intended to sit near the phone while the boys were having supper across the hall with Nana Olga that day. Anna was having trouble sitting still, in fact they were all a little anxious, when at last it did ring, it was Marta that grabbed it but waited a few more rings before lifting the receiver, ready with a pen and pad.

"Hello."

"Hello Ivan."

"Oh, Hello Marta, the numbers are in for the first week."

"Yes?"

"It's the fastest rising set ever, we used your idea on the 'Meet the Models' and the 'What's New' pages, and Dmitri spiked the members forum, you should see the comments."

"The way things are going we should be able to read most of them ourselves now."

"Funny that's what Dmitri was saying, let me speak to your father."

Ivan went on to speak with Igor and Anna, telling them how there had also been a boost in the other sets this past week, indicating Anna would rise to earning the top percentage rate if not on this set, then definitely on the next one.

Igor hugged his wife and daughters explaining how they had now received fourteen cheques, four were the posing fees for the sets so far, six payments for set one, and four with regard to set two, and there was a note with each of the last three about bonus earnings from the work that Marta had done. He related the story of how when he visited the bank that they used to deposit the modelling cheques, they knew his name and called him sir, but in the other bank he had used for the past seventeen years they made him feel like a nobody.

They all hugged one another again before Ella went next door to collect her boys.

After the first six weeks sales on any set, the company called any further sales residuals, and these were only totalled on a monthly basis and added to whatever other payments that were due around that time, so set one sales were about to become an intermittent footnote on the paperwork with other future payments.

Meanwhile Marta was still busy thinking, Anna's last set had been promoted on two pages of the web site, and Dmitri had been responsible for starting a rumour on the members forum, but no one had mentioned the idea of the models talking on the forum, or maybe having their own 'talk to my fans page', yes as an idea this was her best yet.

She decided to let it bubble in the back of her mind for the time being.

The following day Svetlana used as a learning experience, shopping for new bed clothes, towels, and tableware, testing if the girls could make the same transactions in English, as she prepared for her next set of pupils. When they stopped at a small coffee shop for a drink and a cake, Marta saw a man on the next table reading, the book was a well known play, which gave Marta yet another idea.

It was Anna shaking her arm, that roused Marta from her thoughts, writing Anna a script for a video, not learning it line for line, but a framework to work by ad-libbing as she went, in order that it looked fresh, Anna had learned enough to do this. Marta now set about what questions she needed to ask Svetlana next.

By the time they had returned and put the purchases away, Marta was ready with her notebook, asking if Svetlana could help them learn about the differences of American society and culture. She talked for a while on the subject, even about how the English and Americans using the same word didn't always mean the same thing. Football in Europe was different to American football, which was a little bit like rugby played in Europe only they kept stopping so the TV stations could show advertisements, and everyone wore silly padding. She didn't think the Americans played rugby because it was to rough, and they always called football played everywhere else soccer.

She told them lots of other silly stories about American sports and it's rituals, but the one that made them laugh most was the 'World series' for baseball, in most countries around the world it was called rounders, a game only played by school children, but the thing was almost no adults aside from Americans played the game, so they had no one else to beat.

Another amusing thing was how Svetlana also thought many of the Bible thumping types in church on Sunday had been the same people ogling teenage cheerleaders in short skirts at sports events the day before. They went home that evening with a number of books she had loaned them covering sports, entertainment and culture.

That night Marta told Anna her idea for writing basic plot outlines with some practice text with a few phrases she could use during the shoot. Next they tried to think of a scenario or two where they could develop a plot involving Anna getting undressed, their first storyline would be a girl going to bed, but right at the end after she had been naked for a while she could put on a short nightdress.

The next idea was sorting through her bags after shopping, trying on all the underwear or swimsuits, and pretending to talk to someone out of camera shot, Anna came up with a scene they could shoot in the apartment in Kiev, where she could read a recipe in the kitchen, and spill some on her clothes as she progressed ending up naked, Marta had a couple of others in her head she said she needed to work on. On Sunday Marta had told Svetlana she would not be in till late on Monday but Anna would be there early as usual. First thing on Monday she called Dmitri asking if there were any cooking articles or recipes in the magazines he had or the ones Valya had brought since they were last there, also items about shopping, fashion, or cheerleaders explaining it was research for some video plot lines.

He said he would gather them up and check, then call her back, next she spoke to Ivan about the video ideas she was working on and hinted about a following idea she was still working on would really blow his socks off, if she could figure out the details. Ivan asked if she and Anna could be ready to do a video shoot next week, thinking it was possible they decided to discuss it again later in the week and talk to her parents, as the call ended Ivan smiled to himself, sure the little minx was not making any idle boasts.

Marta was still agitated, thoughts going round and round in her head, she phoned back this time asking to speak to one of the fashion designers she had met, after receiving his congratulations about her position, she enquired if they had ever done a cheerleaders outfit because she didn't remember seeing one on the site. He was sure they hadn't so Marta asked if he could get together with Dmitri who was looking up some pictures for her, and design something for Anna to wear in a video they might be shooting next week. He couldn't say no as she had asked him so nicely.

Dmitri phoned back having found a number of articles for her, saying he could translate them or leave them in English and scan the pictures to send to her on disk, she then asked about the material relating to cheerleaders, and how he could expect a visitor to view the pictures later, after thanking him she got ready to go to Svetlana's. Her tummy was feeling a little odd, realizing the implication she checked her diary and did some counting, probably due tomorrow, but she went to the bathroom to fit a panty liner just in case and made sure she had supplies and tissues in her bag, never wanting to be caught out after her previous night-time accident and the horror stories Valya had told them.

The day went well, and Marta wrote out quite a lot of lines she wanted to use in the video scenarios but with some subtle differences so as not to rouse any questions, she could change a word here or there later. The good thing was that Svetlana had checked her efforts for grammatical errors and if she had used the correct tense.

They left in time that day to take their brothers to the park for an hour before supper, and while the boys played Marta updated her sister on her ideas about developing the video plots, and showed her the lines she had been working on earlier and where the changes were needed. Together they re-wrote the amended lines in a new exercise book, Marta had labelled her 'video plot book' and by the time they had to get back to eat, they had a completed script for their first video and a basic outline and phrases for a second.

Early that evening just after supper the boys were sent off to read, as this was becoming a frequent habit in order that the others could talk of the 'project' without interruptions, and Marta updated her parents about her morning phone calls, and that we might be going to Kiev next week. Ella jokingly asked which 'we' that was going to be, but admitted although she had enjoyed her visit, if the studio were willing to allow the two girls to go, she would be happy, as it would be easier if she were to stay and run the home.

The next morning Marta woke to find her period had started, glad she had chosen to wear a night-time pad, she was also relieved that apart from feeling uncomfortable she did not suffer the pains, sharp cramps, bad headaches or mood swings she had heard of from other girls in her class who called it their monthly curse. Having seen the cheap rough sanitary products most girls used, made her thankful she had a choice and could afford to use more comfortable branded items, but such were the recent changes in her life.

She vowed to herself she would never take for granted the value of money, as life was so hard for most people, and she knew they had to make the best of the opportunities that were open to her and her sister.

By the end of the week everything was slotting into place, Svetlana was ready for her new students the following week, Marta had written a lot of material for the videos, Anna had the phrases all learned, and best of all she had firmed up her plans about the forum and about Anna's link from the 'Meet the girls' page, the only problem was their lack of a connection to the internet, apart from when they visited the studio.

The three girls who had volunteered first for the English course, had been briefed on what was expected of them, and what to say if asked any questions about the company, so they were well prepared. They were travelling to the studio over the weekend from their home towns, then someone from the studio would go with them on the train to meet up with Svetlana at the local station.

One useful outcome of Marta's ruse about the European clothing catalogue, was that one of the first things they had been taught were what each item of clothing was called, along with any alternative names an item might be known by.

On Monday morning Marta mused that as they were heading towards the studios, three girls from the studio were passing by in the other direction, now all she needed was for Dmitri to come good on the last few items she had recently called him about.

Valya was waiting at the station, and phoned their mum to say they had arrived safely, then it was straight to the studios, the bags could wait until they got to the apartment later.

Dmitri had found all the things Marta had asked for, the first was a set of video clips with cheerleaders doing their routines and chants, which she and Anna took away to the spare office to watch.

After they had selected which parts were useful, Marta left Anna to practice in front of the screen, and went back to talk with Dmitri.

"Dmitri, you're one of the tame geeks who knows all the technical stuff, do you know how the forum works, and how the people write things?"

When Dmitri admitted he did she continued, "Do you think you could help me with my next idea I want to tell Ivan about?" go on he said, "Well the members like to talk to each other about the models, so I thought they would like it if they could talk with the models. If Anna had her own forum type page, they could leave messages or comments and she could reply to them, the only thing is she could only do it from here. Then my idea to fill the blank bits, was to have all the models take turns, so you could say this model will be here at that time and this other model would be here at this other time."

She looked at Dmitri waiting for a reply, but he just sat there.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you did something right, I was just stunned, it is just such a good idea I don't know why no one suggested it before, whatever Ivan is paying you he needs to multiply it by ten and that would still be a bargain, but you haven't told him yet."

"How did you know that?"

"If he knew about it, the whole I.T. Department would already be working on it and sales would be promoting it, let's go see the man, I want to see his face when you tell him."

To be continued in chapter 9