An Orange County man who travels the world teaching people to speak English is watching firsthand how Russians are dealing with economic sanctions issued by the United States and other countries.

My name is Takhira. I was born in Azerbaijan but have lived my whole life in St. Petersburg, Russia. I graduated from Herzen State Pedagogical University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in education.

Having taught for nearly a decade, I’ve worked through my share of classroom challenges. Nothing, however, prepared me for the toughest one: teaching my own children to speak Russian, my native ...