Two of NOSU’s international students became laureate prizewinners at the 8th Online Festival of Friendship. The theme of this year’s festival was Folklore as Confession of the Nations. Alice Smith (the Republic of South Africa) and Aiidzhan Akmuradova (Turkmenistan) were among some of the top participants.
The conclusive stage was held at Lomonosov Moscow State University. In the final round NOSU’s students were the only representatives from the North Caucasus Federal Region.
The Online Festival of Friendship is an annual event and has already become a tradition. The idea of holding this festival came from the rector of MSU, Victor Sadovnich. This year 248 students, post graduates and interns from 47 universities (both in and beyond Russia) participated. The finalists came from more than 50 countries like China, Japan, India, Mongolia, Africa, Latin America, Central and South East Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Participants in the online festival had to pass a few selection rounds. First they had to write and submit an essay to the festival committee. This essay had to be about the participant’s national folklore.
“Those who passed the first selection round had to submit a video clip of their item in order to participate in the conclusive round of the festival. Aiidzhan sang a Turkmen folk song and Alice compiled a short skit of a legend about the south of the African continent”, Oksana Kravchuk explained. She lectures at the Department of Foreign Literature at NOSU and was the one who facilitated the two participants.
NOSU is establishing a strong Russian language school for international students who need to master the language in order to enroll for tertiary education in the Russian Federation. The local test center for international citizens developed by M. V. Lomonosov MSU is functioning at NOSU’s School of Russian Philology.
Educators teach international students from various corners of the world. The majority of them start to learn Russian from scratch. After completing the preparatory course, the foreign students are able to communicate comfortably and continue their education at NOSU or other Russian tertiary institutions in the study field of their choice.
