Between 4 and 16 August, the Summer School of Belarusian Language and Culture “Under the bright name of Kupala” was held at the Scientific Library of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno. Representatives of the Faculty of Philology of VSU, including Daria Galtsova, lecturer from the Department of Slavic Philology and 3rd year student Maria Prisheltseva, took part in the school.
Linguists from different countries extensively studied the Belarusian language and literature for two weeks and also learnt about the traditions of Belarus. The training session included practical classes in phonetics and grammar as well as lectures dedicated to the issues of linguistics, literary criticism, and cultural studies.
Apart from classes, the school offered various tours around Grodno and its surroundings. Participants visited the museums of Maxim Bogdanovich, Eliza Ozheshko, Adam Mickiewicz, and Alaiza Pashkevich, attended a workshop at the “Nasledie” Crafts Centre, and saw Kolozha, one of the oldest preserved temples of the 12th century in Belarus. Belarusistics specialists visited Porechye, Novogrudok, Murovanka and many other important places in the Grodno Region.
The educational process, guided tours, and informal communication between the participants were all in Belarusian.
“I enjoyed learning Belarusian at the university. I was really happy to visit Belarus where you can easily and quickly learn the language in the linguistic environment. And it’s even easier to fall in love with Belarus since it is a country where different cultures are so organically combined. It was nice to find something familiar, to learn about traditions in general, and discover so many new things,” said Maria Prisheltseva, sharing her impressions about the Summer School.
