The “Winter School” for foreign students was held at the preparatory department of the Institute for Continuing Education and Retraining. During this time, Svetlana Shakuro, the tutor and the Russian language teacher held the variety of educational, sports and leisure activities for students from five countries: Cameroon, Congo, Togo, China and Turkey.
The purpose of the Winter School was to motivate foreign citizens to learn Russian through direct “live” out-of-class communication. To familiarize students with the traditions of the Belarusian people, the cultural life of modern Belarus and the city of Mogilev was also an important task. “Winter School - 2020” turned out to be truly vivid and memorable.
In the frame of “Winter School - 2020” there was the evening of Belarusian cuisine, a large university concert, “Among Friends” for the foreign students of our university from Cameroon, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. On December 25, Catholic students from the Republic of Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo attended Christmas service in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Maria (St.Stanislav Church). On December 30, a New Year's holiday was held with tea party and a theatrical performance. All the foreign students celebrated New Year in our country for the first time therefore they got acquainted with Belarusian folk traditions with great interest.
One of the highlights of the Winter School was an excursion and entertainment trip to the ice show “Ruslan and Lyudmila” at Minsk Arena. Foreign students also attended the big New Year’s performance “Alice through the Looking Glass” at the Regional Centre for Creativity. During the winter holidays, the sightseeing tours in Mogilev were organized with visits to Podnikolje Park, Leninskaya Street, the Square of Glory and the Pechersk Forest Park.
– Of course, “Winter School - 2020” was a success, and most importantly, it received sincere and warm feedback from our students, - Svetlana Shakuro summed up. - Joint leisure brought people from such different countries very close, and allowed them to understand better our Belarusian traditions and lifestyle. By the way, “Winter School” is a good image project: the students were pleased with the very fact that the university constantly attracts them to participate in bright joint events. Of course, it was also an excellent “live” practice of communicating in Russian, there has been obvious progress in its “studying.”
“Winter School” will become traditional in working with students from foreign countries. The only thing that could not be realized this year was skiing and sledding due to the snowless and warm winter, so the foreign students are familiar with them only through our stories.