On April 17th at the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications a meeting was held between students and the director of the Confucius Institute, Ning Huaiying.
Miss Ning has been working with South Ural State University for a few years already. She holds meetings with students studying Chinese, cooperates with the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language, the Center of Testing and Language Training, and the Pushkin Institute Center. At this time, she is working on her dissertation under the guidance of Elena Kharchenko.
On April 17th a lecture was held about the characteristics of intercultural communication. They spoke about how the typological diversity of languages creates a range of issues when studying Russian and Chinese. Miss Ning talked about traditions dealing with food, giving gifts, about special behavior in meeting new people, about different relationships towards outer garments, and about behavior in public places. The variations of nonverbal languages – gestures, facial expressions – were of special interest to the audience. It turns out that we even count on our fingers differently!
Russian students studying Chinese in bachelors’ programs (Fundamental and Applied Linguistics, Regional Studies) and Chinese students studying Russian as a foreign language in master’s programs (Philology) came to hear the lecture. The lecture finished up with discussion about current issues of international communication which appear in conversations between Russians and Chinese, and the issue of adapting to a foreign language and culture when studying in a different country.
Ning Huaiying, who speaks Russian wonderfully, noted the high level of training for both Russian and Chinese students. Study at the Institute of Linguistics and International Communication gives students a chance to dive into a special, multilingual atmosphere and constantly practice their mastery of foreign languages. At this time the idea of opening a testing place for international tests in Chinese (HSK, HSKK) at the Center of Testing and Language Training is being discussed.
