"I didn't mean that to say I'm humoring you." Natasha assures her slowly. Why not learn new languages. They have more than enough time for it, and what languages are relevant to know always evolve with the political climate. Natasha, for example, never had a reason to learn Hindi. But English, German, Italian, Mandarin—that had been what her teachers thought she would benefit from. "But until your Russian is up to snuff, there are other options."

She sips her wine, buying a little time to recover from her surprise. "It's just not every day someone asks me to teach them Russian. And I haven't had the chance to speak it much since moving here."