One cannot teach language without teaching culture; culture is the context for language learning. Cultural instruction must be integrated into all lessons throughout the year, not just taught as mini-lessons in order. Teachers cannot expect their students to gain intercultural competencies through activities that are not embedded in cultural contexts any more than they can expect their students to gain communicative proficiency by simply doing drills on worksheets. In this article, the author shares the Russian FLES program at Argonne Elementary School in San Francisco.