As many Long Beach High School Students already know, Arkadiy Simonovsky (often simply referred to as Simo) is one of our finest teachers. While many of us have had the pleasure of learning from Simo, there is still much that is unknown about him: is he cooley-cooley or goody-goody; what country’s chocolate does he prefer; and does he say Dak, or Tak? With these questions in mind, we decided to conduct an interview with the man himself— keep reading to see his responses.

Oh, I don't know, I just like to be a teacher. I enjoy student company. I enjoy being among young people. I learn so much from them: how to dress, how to behave, what to say. And when I wake up in the morning, for example, I don't feel good. And then I come to Long Beach High School, oh my god, I feel young, full of energy, feel good. So I just like, I enjoy being a teacher and just to deal with young people.

I am cooley-cooley. I am goody-goody. I hope I am not baddy-baddy. And you know what? It accidentally became a hit. When I was saying first time cooley-cooley, goody-goody, I didn't mean anything. It just sounded good, but now everyone is using this. So I am cooley-cooley and goody-goody, a nd I strongly believe that people who take interview for now with me, they are goody-goody and cooley-cooley today.

I don't know. All math are the same. The only what I can say: of course, in Russia, math in high school was on much, much higher level. And everyone studied the same. People, for example, in the same grade among all country, everyone did the same. It wasn't like this half of class take this and then this. Everyone. And it was very hard. I don't think it was a good idea that everyone taking the same. So, I like math here much easier. But eventually students who want to learn get on high level here. So, I don't have preference.

I told everyone when I came to America 30 years ago, I brought a textbook, I don't remember, I believe from 6th grade or even 5th. And I am scared to open this book now. Because it is very difficult what they do in 5th grade, they do here in 9th grade.

Definitely Russian chocolate. And I prefer when I give students my Russian chocolate, they know the drill. And they must say that they ate the best chocolate of their life. On your birthday. On your graduation. On the day when this article will go out, you definitely will get Russian chocolate.

First I want to say I didn't expect this. I didn't know what is going on. I even didn't know what is TikTok. And a student asked me to do something, to read something. So I just read without any reason.And then, oh my god, on the next day people started to call me and said, You're famous. I said, what is that? Where is it? And they told me that I'm on TikTok. I was meeting young people in Syosset, in Merrick, in all different areas. And they were telling me that I'm famous and I first time learned the word viral. I didn't know what is viral. It is good to be famous. Good, and I have more than 80,000 views, I believe, and 14,000 favorites. Oh, I like to be famous.

It is no story. It is the way how you say, well, okay. My well, okay, is Tak. And in Russia, we call... I cannot translate this. It is not a bad word, but it is a word which... I even can't explain. So, Tak, it means... It doesn't have meaning. It is well or it is okay. And even if I want to get rid of this, because students ask me what is every five minutes. And they ask, how do you spell? T or D? It is Tak, T-A-K. And even if I want to get rid of this word, I can't. It comes automatically. So, Takmeans well or okay. And it looks like forever, ever, and ever, I will stay with the word Tak.