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“A” for Russian: Russian Centre in Pecs Celebrates Anniversary

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“A” for Russian: Russian Centre in Pecs Celebrates Anniversary

20.09.2016

On September 28, Russian Centre of Pecs University is going to celebrate its first anniversary – 5 years from the date of opening. Head of Russian Centre of Pecs University Valentina Vegvari told the “Russkiy Mir” about how this date is going to be celebrated and about the reasons why today’s young generation in Hungary is aspiring to speak Russian.  

– Tell us please how the Russian Centre is going to celebrate its anniversary?




– First, we are preparing a small report on the work of the Russian Centre. We are also going to publish prospects in Russian and Hungarian, telling about our events like Days of Russian Language and Culture, which we hold on our own and together with other Russian centres. For example, now we are preparing one of such events together with Chinese Russian Centre in Guangzhou. We are also preparing an exhibition of posters made by middle school students during their visit to the Russian Centre. During the last five years, our Centre was visited by 150 students, to whom we told about the work of the Russian Centre and Russkiy Mir Foundation.  We always give assignments to them in topics like “What Would you Tell to Russian Tourists” or “What do you Know about Russia”. Now we are going to gather all the posters in one exhibition.


We are also planning a small concert; its participants are going to be middle school students, our University students, representatives of Russian-Hungarian Friendship Society. Deputy of Hungarian Parliament, University Prorector, Director of Russian culture centre and representatives of other non-commercial organisations have already given their consent to come to the official meeting dedicated to the 5-year anniversary of the Centre’s work.  

Валентина Вегвари

– You said you are planning a joint event together with a Chinese Russian Centre. Tell a bit more about this project, please.


– It is a Russian Centre under a university in Guangzhou. The head of the centre addressed me with a request to visit our centre, exchange experience and discuss further cooperation. They visited us at the end of August, we told them about our work and in the process of discussion we generated an idea to make an on-line contest named “What I Know about Russian Culture?” We will make questions together both for Hungarian and Chinese participants. Apart from the contest, the participants will have to write a short essay about Russia.


We would also like to file for financial assistance to the Russkiy Mir Foundation for the Hungarian and Chinese winners to visit Moscow as a prize. It would be a very strong motivation for the contest participants.


We have already held this kind of joint events, so we have some experience. Our Russian Centre tries to cooperate with other centres from neighbouring countries – we already had joint projects with the Belgrade Russian Centre. We have recently prepared a joint project with Russian centres in Austria – there are two of them – and in Bratislava. As a rule, our colleagues are opened for such kind of mutual cooperation.


– Are school and university students interested in participating in the events of the Russian Centre?


– They are. All the more so, not only gymnasium students, who study Russian, come here. We hold open days and invite everyone, who is interested in the Russian language. Many people come from neighbouring towns, as well. Not only students learning Russian have visited us, but also the students, who became interested in the Russian language and they decided to visit our Centre. It is always curious for us – why does the younger generation, which does not have to study it, choose it any way.


– What reasons do they have for it?


– Very interesting ones. For example, four people came to a meeting a week ago. A girl, who practices rhythmic gymnastics, told that her coach is Russian and this became the reason for her interest to study Russian. One more girl ended up in a Russian study group by chance: at first, she wanted to study French, but did not like it. She wanted to switch for Italian, but all the vacant places were already occupied there and she was offered to study Russian. Now she says she is very happy it all happened like that – she is very glad for her choice.


– Can this be a motivation for a future career?


– This is the reason why students choose Russian, because students enter our department of Russian language and literature without background language skills and start learning it only at the university. And when we conducted a research about the reasons why they had chosen our department, they said the chances to get occupied in the sphere of business were much bigger with Russian language skills. Gymnasium students are also telling they are interested in studying Russian. I asked them once how their peers felt about them studying Russian. I got very interesting answers. The first reaction is amusement, afterwards they ask to say something in Russian, write a text in Cyrillic script and to read it.   So it is interested and absolutely unbiased relation to the choice of the Russian language.


  

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