On February 7, 2024, students of the Pre-University Training Department, group 23 ПО9, under the guidance of Elena Khudyakova, a teacher of Russian as a foreign language, visited the workshop on Mezen painting which took place in Saltykov-Shchedrin City Library
no.2. In the course of the workshop, the students found out about Russian traditions, particularly, about the origin and meaning of the habit of greeting guests with bread and salt, about the symbolism of Russian national costumes. They were also taught the main techniques of Mezen painting. The workshop allowed the students to expand their experience of communicating in Russian, and gave them a lot of positive emotions and bright impressions.

Despite the fact that the 23ПО9 students came to Russia not a long time ago and have been learning Russian only for two months, they were able to share their impressions:

Mohammed Amin El-Gidani (Morocco): “Yesterday morning I had a class, after which I and my friends went to the library. We did a lot: at first we painted a horse and a bird. We also listened to Russian music, looked at Russian clothes. What a wonderful day!”

Belkassmi Malak (Morocco): “Yesterday after classes I visited the workshop. I met a lot of new people. We learned to paint a horse, snowflakes, stars, and a Russian national pattern. We looked at clothes of Russian peoples, listened to Russian songs, ate bread and salt. I enjoyed it.”

Lotfi Uail (Morocco): “Yesterday was a nice day. We visited the library. I painted a horse and looked at Russian clothes. I listened to Russian music. After that, I ate Russian bread, and it was delicious. Then we came back to the residence hall”.

”Not only is the participation in such workshops educational and entertaining, it also has practical purposes of learning Russian as a foreign language, because it’s a kind of a natural lesson. Such lessons give students an opportunity to gain new communication experience and increase the language learning efficiency. When the students study the language in class with the same teacher, they get used to their speech, pronunciation features, vocabulary, whereas in the course of natural lessons they gain the experience of communicating with new people in natural environment, which allows them to overcome the language barrier, thus increasing their motivation of learning Russian”, commented Gleb Sintsov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs.