Students of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications of South Ural State University celebrated European Day of Foreign Languages.
This holiday is relatively young: European Day of Foreign Languages was first celebrated only in 2001. At the beginning of the new millennium, UNESCO unofficially proclaimed the 21st century the century of multilingual education under a motto: "Learning Languages throughout Life!"
"Events like this are important for promoting foreign cultures. Knowledge of foreign languages and cultures contributes to the peace and harmony of all nations. The Day of Foreign Languages allows our students to grow fond of and understanding of other languages, while also contributing to the development of tolerance for our own culture. It's important not only to know the language but also to understand the culture behind it, because only then we can truly understand people," said Olga Babina, Head of the Department of Linguistics and Translation.
Students and teaching staff from the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications prepared an interactive event. Participants were invited to learn greetings in various languages, recognize the language of an offered text, take a master class on reading tongue twisters, guess the translator's "false friends", test their knowledge of foreign languages in the "Interesting Facts about Languages" quiz, and learn about the SUSU Centre of Language Training.
At the festival, students presented eight interactive activities: creating a greeting in a foreign language, finding and crossing out foreign words, translating the same word from different languages, and more.
"My favourite part was the one where we had to match national dishes and countries. It was interesting to learn about new dishes. And at another station, it was fun to solve riddles," said student Viktoriia Serebrennikova.
The event's goal is to attract the attention of the younger generation to learning foreign languages. Students from various fields and institutions study English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and some even study Russian as a foreign language. Today, they have had an opportunity to share their knowledge and make new connections.
"My native language is French. It's very interesting, kind, and conveys our culture. I love my language and am happy to speak it," shared student Ligan Gait.
The most exciting activities were the quiz and riddle-solving. All participants at the interactive stations received invitations to the Lingatech– Foreign Language for Professional Purposes Centre for Continuing Education.