Voronezh State University every year participates in various international partnership programmes with world leading universities and companies, students' and academic staff exchange programmes, and integration programmes.
The cooperation between VSU and Asian universities, Chinese in particular, has been developing actively and steadily in the last few years. We have renewed contracts with our long-time partners, in addition to signing new agreements, developing our initiatives and establishing Russian Language and Culture Centres in China.
Denis Myznikov, a third-year bachelor's degree student at the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Phylology, has completed a term at Qingdao University of Science and Technology (China) within the student exchange programme.
– I went to China to learn the language and culture, to learn more about the Chinese traditions, and just to see what life is like there. The programme included the following courses: Spoken Chinese, Aural Chinese, Chinese Reading, and Comprehensive Chinese. All the classes were always at the same time – 8 a.m. – 12 a.m. every working day of the week. All the classes were in Chinese. The teachers spoke English only when there was no other way to explain something. It was extremely interesting, and the atmosphere was friendly and nice. In the afternoon we had free time and could meet new friends, play basketball and football, practicing the language all the time. On Fridays there was a special class for all the Russian students studying at Qingdao University of Science and Technology and the Chinese students learning Russian, so that we could get to know each other and each other's cultures better. In this class, we spoke both Russian and Chinese, and helped each other explaining the peculiarities of grammar and certain expressions. There were also many social and cultural activities organised by the University. We visited several museums and attended a real tea ceremony – told Denis Myznikov.
