90-year-old Jack Lewis has been attending classes at the Brasshouse Language Centre in Birmingham for approximately 12 years and when the Asset Language Assessments became available in Russian in 2006, he successfully completed the Russian Breakthrough Reading and Listening assessments – the oldest learner to have gained accreditation in this way. Jack’s interest in Russian began in the 1980s when he visited the country with his wife.  Rarely missing a year without visiting, he has usually attended a university summer school and he was one of the organisers of a charity event which involved cycling from St Petersburg to Moscow to raise money for an orphanage in the capital. Having left school aged 14 with a very basic education, Jack’s nominator, Gail Hughes, explains that Jack “has found learning in later life very rewarding – even though it’s not easy at 90 years of age… Learning Russian has made Jack more satisfied with life [and]… he’s quite proud of what he has achieved”. His learning also brought him a Russian daughter-in-law, now sadly deceased, who was very special to him.  Jack met Natasha, an English teacher, when he was at summer school in Russia.  They got on extremely well and she came to visit his family in England for five weeks.  At the end of the stay, Jack’s son announced that he and Natasha were getting married – which delighted Jack highly. Jack was nominated for his West Midlands Senior Learners Award by Gail Hughes of Brasshouse Language Centre.  PRESS RELEASE