TSPU IN POLAND: LEARNING AND TRAVELING
Students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) of the TSPU spent the winter semester at the University of Poland: four months ago, eight of our stidents went to study at a university in Wroclaw as part of an academic exchange program. Svetlana Zakharenko, second-year undergraduate of the FFL, told us about study, student life, cultural and educational events and travels throughout Europe.
For FFL students, studying in Wroclaw is a real fairy tale! We gain a lot of experience in the classroom, as they all conducted in English. The most favorite subject in most of our company was the Practice of Speech, conducted by native speakers from the USA or Great Britain. The advantage of such classes is that it is possible to ask any questions related to culture and language. After classes communication in English does not end: students from different countries live in hostels, everyone is interested to learn about each other, about the characteristics of other nationalities and disprove (or confirm) a couple of stereotypes. Most of all we managed to learn about the people of Spain thanks to our neighbors Raquel and Martha: the Spaniards are surprisingly open and positive people who will certainly hug you at a meeting and invite you to a party.
Communication with people from different countries greatly enhances the desire to explore the world. From Wroclaw it is very easy to get to Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, France. There is always the opportunity to go to another city or country, try an unusual dish, see with your own eyes things that you preveiously had only seen on pictures. Although, if you ask me which city is my favorite, I will answer - Wroclaw. It is so beautiful, comfortable and feels like home already.
Special evetns are prganized for exchange students that help them to feel at home faster, providing an opportunity to chat with each other, to learn the city and culture of the country. Christmas chants will forever remain in my memory as the warmest and most memorable event. Within a month, everyone was rehearsing holiday songs. The teachers did not care if we could sing or not. They all had one answer: “On the day of your performance, magic will turn you into a choir of angels.” It was that rare occasion when a miracle happened. It was magical!
Many thanks to my beloved university and faculty for such an opportunity!
The training of TSPU students in Wroclaw will end with the final test. They will also give an assessment of the level of proficiency in oral speech: the teacher will evaluate the possibilities of speaking in the course of a lively dialogue of students. Having received written confirmation that the training in Poland was successfully completed, the guys will return to Tomsk, where they will have exams and tests in their native language.