On April 21, the 7th Samara Language Festival took place. The event was organized by the Department of Russian Language and Mass Communication and students of the Faculty of Philology and Journalism, with the support of the Extracurricular Activities Office.



The program, as always, was rich: along with language workshops, lectures, competition venues, watching a foreign film in the original language and, of course, creative performances by students waited for the guests of the linguistic festival.

After the grand opening, the lecture by L.A. Kiseleva, Professor at the Department of Russian Language and Mass Communication, “Body language in interpersonal communication: universality or ethnospecificity?” took place. The audience learned about importance of audio and visual communication channels, levels of analysis of non-verbal means of interrelation, classification of body movements, as well as means and styles of verbal interaction.

The Festival program was continued with the event prepared by invited guests. So, E.V. Prokhorova conducted the interactive master class “Speaking skills: successful presentation”. The Festival guests not only learned how to talk about themselves in English, but also practiced immediately. A.R. Agafonova told about capabilities of preparing for the international exam at her master class “How to successfully pass the international exam in Samara”.

The Department of German Language organized watching a movie-tale about love and duty in German, and students of the area “Pedagogical Education (Russian Philology)” held the informative game “Linguoarchaeology”.

The finales of the contest of sounding essays and the competition of readers of works in English “English Poetry” aroused unchanged interest. In the finale of the contest of sounding essays, works on purity of the native language, and importance of forming literate speech were presented. At the competition of readers of works in English “English Poetry”, the guests heard excerpts from fiction about the family’s significance in everyone’s life.

After lunch, the building became noticeably more crowded, because the most interesting event - language workshops - started. The Festival guests faced a difficult task - to choose a language they would like to learn more about. Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese - and this is not the whole list! The Festival participants learned interesting facts about languages, got acquainted with peculiarities of the alphabet, and even memorized some phrases. Samara University’s teachers, students, and native speakers acted as hosts of the master classes.

The Festival guests highly appreciated the program. “There is an extraordinary atmosphere at the Language Festival! I participated in the curious game “Linguoarchaeology” and attended the master class in the Bulgarian language! At the master class on Spanish, I compared the verb structure in Spanish and Italian. Thank you to the teachers, organizers and participants of the Festival!” shared Ekaterina Zakharchenko her impressions.

Throughout the day, the guests took part in the interesting competition: Serkan Bolat moved around the entire festival venue. The participants had to find him and, having taken a photo, post it on their page with the hashtag #учутурецкийнасфя.

The Festival did not abandon the online part: its informative content posted in the community on the VKontakte social network and much more could be seen from anywhere in the world.

The eventful day ended with the concert, where both students and creative teams performed. Songs and poems in various languages of the world, a magical waltz and an incredible paso doble were as a cherry on the cake, the perfect end to the language holiday.

The Festival brought together dozens of various nations. Despite the difference in cultures, all boundaries blurred between the participants, because they were all united by their love for their native and foreign languages.

 The event photos can be found in the Samara Language Festival group.

Text: Aleksandra Khvostova, Group 5202-420301D
Photo: Daria Sheshunova, Group 5301-420301D