On April 21, the VII Samara Language Festival took place. The event was organized by the Department of Russian Language and Mass Communication and students of the Faculty of Philology and Journalism with the support of the Department of Extracurricular Activities.
The program, as always, was intense: along with language master classes, guests of the linguistic festival were treated to lectures, competition venues, viewing of a foreign film in the original language and, of course, creative performances by students.
After the grand opening, there was a lecture by Professor of the Department of Russian Language and Mass Communication L.A. Kiseleva “Body language in interpersonal communication: universality or ethnospecificity?” Listeners learned about the importance of audio and visual communication channels, levels of analysis of non-verbal means, classification of body movements and means and styles of verbal communication.
We continued the festival program of the event from invited guests. So, E.V. Prokhorova conducted an interactive master class “Speaking skills: successful presentation”. Guests of the festival not only learned how to properly talk about themselves in English, but also immediately practiced. A.R. Agafonova spoke about the possibilities of preparing for the international exam at the master class “How to successfully pass the international exam in Samara.”
The Department of German Language organized a screening of a film-fairy tale about love and duty in German, and students of the direction “Pedagogical Education (Russian Philology)” held an educational game “Linguistic Archaeology”.
The finals of the speaking essay competition and the “English Poetry” competition for reading works in English aroused constant interest. At the final of the speaking essay competition, works were presented on the purity of the native language and the importance of developing literate speech. At the “English Poetry” poetry reading competition in English, guests heard excerpts from literary texts about the important role of family in the life of every person.
After lunch, the building became noticeably more crowded, because the most interesting thing began – language master classes. The festival guests were faced with a truly difficult task – to choose the language they would like to learn more about. Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese – and this is not the whole list! Festival participants learned interesting facts about languages, became acquainted with the peculiarities of the alphabet, and even learned some phrases. Teachers from Samara University, students, and native speakers acted as hosts for the master classes.
Festival guests highly appreciated the festival program. “There is an extraordinary atmosphere at the festival of languages! I attended an interesting game “Linguoarchaeology” and a master class on the Bulgarian language! And at a master class on the Spanish language I compared the structure of the verb in Spanish and Italian. <...> I thank the teachers, organizers and participants festival!” – Ekaterina Zakharchenko shared her impressions.
Throughout the day, guests took part in an interesting competition: Serkan Bolat moved around the entire festival site. Participants had to find it and take a photo, posting it on their page with the hashtag learnTurkishnasfya .
The festival did not abandon the online part – educational content in the community on the social network VKontakte and much more could be seen from anywhere in the world.
The busy day ended with a concert at which both students and creative groups performed. Songs and poems in various languages of the world, a magical waltz and an incredible paso doble are the icing on the cake, the perfect end to the language holiday.
The festival brought together dozens of different nations. And, despite the difference in cultures, all boundaries between the participants were blurred – they were all united by a love for their own and other languages.
Photos from the event can be found in the group Samara Language Festival.
Text: Alexandra Khvostova, group 5202-420301D
Photo: Daria Sheshunova, group 5301-420301D
