She teaches English – and she has 183000 students just on Youtube: BLICK spoke with the most popular teacher in the world.

BLICK: Where does your passion for the English language come from?
Marina Orlova: I have two university degrees: one in Russian and world literature and one in English philology. Philology is about the study of the origin of words – this has always fascinated me. And I learned English because I thought that it is useful, in case I leave Russia.

BLICK: How many languages do you speak then?
Marina Orlova: Only Russian and English. But I know also Latin and Greek – however only reading, not speaking.

BLICK: Why did you move to America?
Marina Orlova: Originally to improve my English. I have applied within an au-pair exchange program and I watched after an autistic child for two years. At the same time I attended universirty here. Now I have been here for five years.

BLICK: You are welcome in Switzerland anytime. We have very special dialects and words with marvellous etymology.
Marina Orlova: I LOVE Switzerland – and what your country represents in history. I want to visit the country at any rate – Youtube has finally incredibly wonderful offices in Zürich, there are stored most of my videos. I have heard that there are fire-brigade poles between floors – you don’t need any lift!

BLICK: Why did you make your Youtube channel? Really to teach people, or to become famous?
Marina Orlova: I always wanted to become a teacher. In Russia I had a class of about 20 children. In December 2006 somebody sent me an e-mail and he told me: “Hey, look this Youtube stuff here!”. I thought, maybe in this way I can reach a couple of thousands instead of just 20 people. I’d had never thought that they would become 165 millions, never in my life!

BLICK: You are now a true Internet celebrity. Why is it? Can you still go around as before, or do you have to hide yourself like many Hollywood stars?
Marina Orlova: Well, I am ALWAYS working. From the morning to the night I am sitting in front of my PC and I answer comments and e-mails. My videos are watched several thousands times a day, therefore I try to answer as many comments as possible. I collect reqeusts and suggestions for new words, I write the script for new videos, I record new videos, I cut them I upload them. Every day there is a new video – this keeps me very bust! Therefore I hardly go out of my house. But if I do, then I get recognized. Yesterday for instance it was the gatekeeper of a club. And in that club a girl said she loves my videos. That’s cool, I should go out more often.

BLICK: How do you go around? Dressed like in your clips?
Marina Orlova: When I am not recording, I wear comfortable shorts, a T-shirt, no make-up and a cup of tea near my PC. But when I go out I wear similarly as I do for my clips.

BLICK: You are certainly aware that many of your fans do not wish primarily to learn English – but rather enjoy you and your outfits.
Marina Orlova: Sure, it is the specific of my channel. The people would hardly click a video if they knew that it is about the origin of words. It sounds quite boring. But if they know that there is a hot cheek to watch, then they click. And when I have their attention, then they notice that the meaning of words is in fact a very exciting thing!
There is also the prejudice, that boys like stupid girls. A lot of girls think so. I try to show that the opposite is true. It is cool to be intelligent, it is cool tu use the brain!

BLICK: Should maybe more teachers dress like you do? As to keep them motivated in the English course for beginners?
Marina Orlova: In the primary school I would say ‘no’, there it is not convenient. But 90% of my fans is beyond 21 and 30% beyond 40! The way I dress attracts people at the beginning. So it is meaningful to dress like I do.

BLICK: Any reaction from angry feminists?
Marina Orlova: No, they do not attack me. Honestly I receive a lot of congratulations from women that thank me for making intelligence sexy! If there were no substance behind what I do, then there would be certainly some critics. The people do think indeed, at the beginning, that I am a sort of silly “babe”, but after a couple of videos they realise what it is all about.
Of course there are a few women that call me a whore on Youtube. But they do so with all women, you learn simply to ignore that and to focus on the positive comments.

BLICK: Talking about bad comments – do you receive many of those? How do you deal with that?
Marina Orlova: One of the most difficult things for women that get famous in Internet is the amount of ‘hate mail’ they get. Because Internet allows the people to comment anonymously – so they can say the nastiest thing, without fearing any consequences. At the beginning this got me down – they called me “old”, “whore”, they said they hated my Russian accent, and so on – but the 14-years-old son of a friend of mine taught me something valuable. He told me that kids of his age would do all that sort of things only to obtain a reaction. They do not even really believe what they say. As I realised that I had to laugh. I read ALL my comments myself. The good and the bad ones.

BLICK: What would you like to do in future?
Marina Orlova: I’d definitely like to continue with the Hotforwords stuff! I simply LOVE it! And I have just written a book at HarperCollins – it is coming out at the end of August. A Game-Show with myself is also planned. As long as I love it, I will continue doing that!

BLICK: If you sit the whole day at the PC and never go out – do you have a boyfriend?
Marina Orlova: I am very single! Since I work so hard and hardly leave my house, it is difficult to meet anybody. So, men, contact me on my webpage http://www.hotforwords.com. Maybe I’ll break my rule and I will date somebody I get in touch with via Internet.

Yes, It’s mine, all mine, get your own.

Always.