American students study Russian Far East in the School of foreign languages in VSUES.

Jonathan Blaisdell, Daniel Mc Whirt and Mark Sokolsky came to our university for the program “Far Eastern Studies” which was developed by the School of foreign languages together with American universities.

The students have been studying at the university for one month, but they have already visited several museums and exhibitions and participated in the Maslenitsa festival in addition to their regular classes.

Within the framework of the program roundtable meetings with American and Russian students are planned for discussion of such sensitive issues, as the level of life of the Far East people, intellectual capital flow-off from the territory of the Far East, issues of Kuril Islands and relations with Japan, Chinese expansion in the Russian Far East.

On March, 1 the meeting devoted to family traditions and values of the Far East people took place.

- We received some basic knowledge about the Russian Far East from American professors and came here with the purpose to learn about different sides of life of the Far East region from the people that lived in it, – said Mark Sokolsky.

- The meeting was devoted to the subject that was familiar to all the participants – family traditions and values. We listened to each other attentively trying to understand what unites and what differs contemporary Russian and American family, – explained American students.

The director of the School of foreign languages said that the program of the Russian Far Eastern Studies was created together with the School SRAS and was designed for teaching American students in Vladivostok. This intake is the second one. In the long term it is planned to conclude an agreement for teaching this program to Americans on the premises of our university twice a year – in autumn and spring semesters.