Text 1. Student Life in Russia

Task 2. Read and translate the text. Comment on new words and expressions.

Every year Russia becomes more and more popular country for studying among young people from around the world. It has one of the best educational systems in the world, especially in the fields of engineering and medicine, with literacy rate 99, 6 %, that is higher than most of counties in Western Europe. Russia is also the largest country in the world, with very unique culture, history and traditions.

The Russian language is the 8^th most popular in the world. Learning Russian as a student is a great way to more deeply understand Russian culture. The key element for the foreign students is the fast and effective mastering of Russian. The better the language is learned, the more effectively adaptation happens; the faster foreign students cease to hesitate to address the requests and questions in Russian. Teachers create an atmosphere where each student-foreigner feels at home.

Depending on your personal preference, student living in Russia can involve one of two paths: staying with a host family or braving a university dormitory.

Russia traditionally combined undergraduate and graduate studies in a 5-6 year period until 2007 when a two-tier bachelor and masters structure was adopted. Classroom attendance and participation are monitored carefully and may have a significant impact on final grades. The academic year is divided into two parts: from September to January and from January to June, with winter and summer exams respectively.

Social life and student culture in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg have a lot to offer. Students may visit museums, take part in boat tours, interact person-to-person, and have field trips to other cities or sights of historical significance. Universities in Russia may organize one or two out-of-town trips each semester, to cities and regions of historical and cultural interest. A limited number of city excursions are also organized each semester, at each site. The new Russian friends take the foreign students with them on holidays, excursions and walks.

Destinations for trips vary from site to site and from year to year. Student groups may travel on short trips to Nizhnyi Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Vladimir/Suzdal, Tver'/Torzhok, Tula/Yasnaya Polyana, (western Russia), and Ulan-Ude, Krasnoyarsk, Khakassiya, Tuva and a variety of sites on Lake Baikal (Irkutsk). Longer trips have taken students to Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Sochi, Kazan, and the Lapland areas of the Murmansk region.

International students take an active part in the life of the University: together with Russian students they perform in concerts, organize students’ parties, participate in contests, festivals and sport events, they are represented in the Student Council of the University. All this gives international students a great opportunity to make friends all around the world, to learn the cultural peculiarities of a new country, provides them with the skills necessary for their future professional career in the globalizing world.

Having overcome the significant period of the adaptation process, students are able to appreciate other sights of their Russian life. Any problems encountered by the students can be easily resolved with the support of a special psychological service for foreign students coming to study in Russia.

 

Word Check

Task 3. Memorize the key terms, concepts, expressions and their meaning.

1.	mastering of Russian	овладеть русским языком
2.	depend on	зависеть от
3.	dormitory	общежитие
4.	respectively	соответственно
5.	destination	место назначения
6.	vary	разнообразить
7.	appreciate	ценить, оценить
8.	encounter	встретиться, наталкиваться
9.	resolve	решать, разрешать

Task 4. Answer the following questions, solve the problems, do the tasks.

1. Is Russia popular with foreign students? Why?

2. How do students master Russian?

3. Where do foreign students live?

4. What language do foreign students use for interaction?

5. What does academic life of foreign students include?

6. What activities do foreign students pursue with Russian peers?

7. Where can foreign students travel?

8. Can foreign students take an active part in the life of the University?

9. If the students encounter any problems they can easily besupported by a special psychological service. Is it so?

 

Text 2. Student Life Abroad