American students met with Ufa poets

Creative meeting of American students and Ufa poets took place in the House museum of S.T.Aksakov in Ufa. Members of UFLI literary association headed by its leader Aidar Khusainov, representatives of Tropinka poetic association under the Bashkir State University and Tysyachelistnik poetic association under the M.Akmulla Bashkir State Teachers' Training University (BSTTU) came to recite their verses and talk to the guests.

The students came to Ufa on the invitation of the BSTTU within the framework of the Critical Language Scholarship Program. In February, representatives of American Councils for International Education negotiated with the management of the University and acquainted themselves with its material and technical base. Initially 17 students were supposed to be sent here, but later the group was enlarged to 20 people.

"Our students were carefully selected at home before being admitted to participation in the program," Bo Knutson, the resident director of American Councils for International Education said. "Today here are young people from different States. There are representatives of Texas, Ohio, South California and others. Besides, they are not all linguists. Future historians, musicians and representatives of other specialities have also desire to study Russian language and culture. The students will stay in Ufa for two months. For this period, they settled down in the houses of their peers, and this will not only contribute to their progress in language acquisition, but also give opportunity to get better acquainted with our mentality and way of life.

"In our University, American students are taught Russian grammar, lexis and phonetics. Such disciplines as Russian Press and Russian Culture are elaborated for them," Tatiana Shabanova, Doctor of Philology, professor of the chair of intercultural communication and translation, tells. "Besides, we try to familiarize the students with history of Ufa and the whole Republic. They visit museums, exhibitions and theatres. In the nearest future, they will go to Aigir for a whole week. There is an English summer school there. The classes will be organized according to the principle of "University in the mountains". It means that studies will be combined with recreation and acquaintance with nature of our land."