The second week of the Russian Language Summer School 2016 at YKSUG: meeting history of the University, teambuilding and Slavonic Martial-arts club “Aridan” performance.

Despite intensive studies, our guests, participants of the Russian Language Summer School 2016 at YKSUG, continue discovering history and culture of Belarus. Last week they explored a lot of new facts and visited some unique locations.

Foreign guests with volunteers and Tatyana Vladimirovna Cherkes, senior lecturer of th Russian as a Foreign Language and Linguistic Disciplines Department, visited YKSUG History Museum. They have discovered there, how our university evolved, as well, as how magnificent was a contribution to the literature and culture of Belarus, made by famous poet, writer and public person Yanka Kupala. At the end of the excursion foreign students were allowed to touch some showpieces with their hands, and also they checked in the Book of the Honorable Guests of the History Museum of our university.

And that was not the last excursion they had had last week. Listeners of the Summer School visited public mineralogical museum “Carat” at school #16 in Grodno. Vladimir Anatolyevich Zhdnyuk, professional geologist, founder and caretaker of the museum, told our guests about minerals and rocks from around the world, picked and processed by pupils from Grodno. One of the most exciting discoveries was an amber inclusion with pre-historical ant 30,000,000 years old. Foreign guests also visited mineral processing workshop, where they saw all the stages of processing. Gwendal Pyegwa, a student from France, even had an opportunity to become a gem-master for some time As it is a tradition of Belarusian hospitality, every visitor got a mineral for a present, and they also checked in the Book of the Honorable Guests of the public museum “Carat”.

The week continued with teambuilding event, organized by Larisa Leonidovna Skvortsova, senior lecturer from International Business and Marketing Department of the faculty of economics and management. Interactive games in the fresh air not only helped international guests get positive energy, but also helped breach psychological walls, create friendly atmosphere and tighten team bonds.

Bright event to remember was international night. There students told about traditions of the other country. So, Belarusians told about Italy, Italians about China, the Japanese about Poland, the Chinese about France, Slovaks about Belarus etc. The night ended with national meals degustation. Maple syrup from Canada and Chinese pancakes, American pop tarts and Polish sausages, French nougat, Belgian chocolate, and of course Belarusian zephir and birch juice – these and more meals were shared among guests, volunteers and lecturers of the Summer School.

Slavonic Martial Arts Club “Aridan” impressed foreign students a lot. The members of the club amazed the guests with battle tricks and tremendous ancient weapon mastery. During the show our guests took part in ancient Slavonic games, tried to hold a sword and shield, tried on a helmet and nocked a bow.

During traditional for the Summer School cinema lectures students watched the “What a love” movie with Russian subtitles. This not only helped improve our guests’ Russian, but also gave a possibility to discover Russian and Belarusian actors.

On Saturday excursion foreign students visited Belarusian architectural masterpieces, castles of Mir and Nesvizh. On Sunday they discovered primal beauty of national park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”.