Point in a series of New Year holidays in the multinational VVSU puts the Eastern calendar

Teachers and students of the Preparatory Department of the International School for Training and Adaptation of Foreign citizens celebrated the New Year according to the Eastern Calendar.

– The students came to Russia from different countries: China, Mongolia, Laos, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia and Nigeria. The average age is 20, and most have left home for the first time. Moreover, the Eastern New Year is a big family holiday. So we felt it was our duty to organize and host a fun home celebration, – says teacher Inna Ishmurzina.

In the best traditions of the Eastern holiday action stretched in time. The first stage was culinary: blini (Russian pancakes) were baked in the dormitory.  

– I love both cooking and eating, – says Li Yichun, a Chinese student. – We all took turns kneading dough and baking blini. And we ate them together too. Our teachers, Svetlana Karyakina and Inna Ishmurzina, brought us honey and strawberries with sugar. It was very tasty! Most importantly – warm, with a feeling of a homely atmosphere.

A few days later came the active part of the festivities.

– We have most of our students studying online, but the 20 bravest and most motivated have come and studied in the classroom. We tried to prepare fun games for them. The students ran around with snowballs in their spoons, threw fruit into a basket, built a fortress, collected puzzles, and passed onion crisps to each other. At the end, they improvised a folk orchestra, and played along with the famous Russian «Kalinka». The point of these seemingly simple games is to raise student''s spirits and team spirit, to unite, and, most importantly, to increase interest in Russian culture and the Russian language, – says Svetlana Karyakina.

Laotian student Bivisouda Vongxay had no idea that VVSU was so interesting:

– We thought we would only be learning Russian. It turned out that holidays like this are part of the learning process. That''s great!

– It was especially fun for everyone to draw the symbol of the new year – the rabbit. At the end, we cut off a present for ourselves with scissors! It was unexpected and nice. I think our teachers are our Russian mums! – said Pattamawan Panpikul, a student from Thailand.

A student from China Wang Shaokun noticed that the New Year here is not at all like the New Year in China:

– But I really liked how the teachers congratulated us – we cooked and ate blini, played and laughed a lot. Thanks a lot to them!

Victor Ogundiran, a student from Nigeria, shares his impressions:

– We had a great orchestra. We played spoons, tambourines, bells and rattles. And we felt like one. I dream of becoming a business analyst, there is a lot of studying to do. But I think that real student life is all about spending time together, making friends and having fun. Happy New Year to everyone!