AS AN English speaker from St Petersburg, Maria Veselova-Smith is well placed to spot the cultural differences between the UK and her homeland.

She’s a member of the Volga Russian Cultural Club which for just over a year has been uniting Russian speakers in Huddersfield.

And she and the rest of the town’s Russian community were looking forward to celebrating the New Year Russian-style, with partying that could go on until well into today!

Maria, 27, who studies English and intends to teach the language and mathematics, said: “There are quite a few people in Huddersfield from Russian speaking countries. After the Baltic States joined the EU it brought more immigration here from Latvia and Lithuania around five years ago.

“Some founded businesses here and some work in the factories, some are studying and some have raised families.

“I came to London from St Petersburg and met my husband there.

“When I moved here I found Huddersfield a lot more cosy and friendly than London.

“At the club we can speak Russian, sing in Russian and play games and it’s good to have the children around because most of the time they speak English in nursery. We hope to establish a kindergarten eventually.”

The club also offers access to private English tuition and members have an insight into the differences between the two languages.

Maria said: “Russian is a very difficult language to learn, probably the second hardest after Chinese.

“One of the main differences is that we pronounce things exactly as we write them but obviously in English there are plenty of silent letters.

“We have what a lot of people here would recognise as a Scottish “R” sound.

“The language is a deep part of any culture and in my country there’s a deep culture of literature with Pushkin and Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

“One of our founder members Irena was working in the Citizens Advice Bureau in Holmfirth and she thought there was a need to have a regular meeting place and to make an official club.

“We were kindly given the use of the St Patrick’s Centre and we will be paying rent on the room we use next year. We meet around once every two months and celebrate the Russian holidays.

“New Year celebrations are very big in Russia, it’s a time for the family and we can stay up until 9am in the morning. Christmas though is less of a cultural event, it’s more of a religious observance and we mark it on January 7.

“We also mark International Women’s Day on March 8. That’s a public holiday and there are presents given. People are quite surprised that here you only get a day to celebrate being a woman if you are a mother!”

You can find out more about the club by visiting its Facebook pages, just search for Russian Volga Club.