Minin University and Anhui Normal University (Wuhu, China) have been partners for five years already. This year, Ms. Anna Vyacheslavovna Erastova, an associate professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Philology, went to Wuhu to teach Russian language and literature to Chinese students who study Russian.
These are her impressions of the first month of cooperation with Chinese colleagues and students:
"China met me with hot weather and a hearty welcome. Even with my longtime love for the East, reality has exceeded all my expectations. China is an extremely interesting country where millennial traditions are combined with modern technology and progressive views.
This is the 4th year I teach Russian literature of the Silver Age. My first question to students was: "Why have you decided to study the Russian language and Russian culture?" The diversity of answers surprised me. Among their reasons for studying the Russian language were the desire to build a career in modern society and even the desire to stylish like Russian women. I was very pleased to hear that their love for Russian literature, novels of L.N. Tolstoy that they had read in Chinese, also inspired someone to study Russian. Now we are studying works of M. Gorky. Some of the 4-year students have already visited Nizhny Novgorod and they remember historical places associated with this writer.
With second year students we watch Russian cartoons and learn Russian songs. The cartoon "Kroshka Enot" and the song "Ulybka" help students not only improve their understanding of Russian mentality, but also make pronunciation of the sounds "p", "ч", "ы" (which are difficult for the Chinese) better. And they already know the song "Katyusha".
Freshmen students have started mastering phonetics of the Russian language. I’ve been teaching them for one week only, but they always greet me with enthusiasm saying «Здравствуйте!». The teachers of the department speak Russian very well. Our graduate Li Chuan, who spent 11 years in Nizhny Novgorod, worked and studied at Minin University, defended her thesis under the guidance of I.A. Frolova, has been working at Anhui Normal University for two years already.
All students and teachers are greatly interested in Russian culture! And I’m trying to know the mysteries of the East better. I hope our cooperation will continue to be fruitful in the future. "