TV BRICS and Modern Russian organize a teleconference with Indian students

TV BRICS International Media Network together with the "Modern Russian" project organized a space bridge with students from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on the topic "Russian hospitality: Soulful and Tasty". The event took place on 20 March.

The teleconference was held by Tamara Skok, director of innovative linguistic projects department of the TV BRICS and head of the "Modern Russian" project and by Svetlana Kukava, editor-in-chief of TV BRICS.

Dr Richa Sawant, head of the department, gave a welcome address on behalf of the university.

"Participating in a video class is a great opportunity to learn about Russia's diverse culinary traditions and customs. Our students are very interested in learning more about the everyday life of Russians, learning about the variety of dishes and methods of its preparation. Words and expressions related to Russian hospitality will introduce students to the worldview of the Russian people," she said.

The teleconference of the Modern Russian project between Russia and India was held for the second time. During the lesson, students enlarged their vocabulary on the subject of hospitality, learned a lot about traditional Russian dishes, and parsed the meaning and origin of proverbs and sayings about the table.

Third and fourth grade students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi also prepared a creative surprise by singing folk songs and reciting poems on the theme of table and hospitality. They also spoke about traditional Indian cuisine, comparing it to traditional Russian dishes.

"We are very happy to have had the opportunity to participate in this programme. We learnt a lot about Russian cuisine. We look forward to such programmes on other topics," said Ashish Kumar, a first-year master's student.

TV BRICS production project "City of Stories" and the project "Vkusno po gostu" by Prodvizhenie TV, a partner of TV BRICS in Russia, were also shown to the participants within the teleconference. These materials help to study Russian as a foreign language, TV BRICS sends its videos about Russian culture to the departments of Russian as a foreign language teaching in different countries.

The Indian side thanked the organisers for the informative lecture and expressed interest in having the next class devoted to speaking practice so that students could improve their speaking skills.

"The topic of the teleconference was unique. Our students not only had the opportunity to learn about different dishes of Russian cuisine, but also how to cook them. They also learned some expressions and new words related to hospitality. The students participated in the teleconference with great enthusiasm and enjoyed it very much. Such informative and educational programmes need to be organised more frequently," said the organising committee of the Centre for Russian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

TV BRICS has been actively cooperating with leading universities in the BRICS countries for several years in order to promote and popularise Russian as a foreign language.

In 2022, a meeting with the editors of TV BRICS was held at the Fluminense University in Brazil. Participants in the Russian as a foreign language courses at the Fluminense University of Rio de Janeiro had the opportunity to ask questions about the work of the international network in Brazil and in the BRICS space.

In addition, last year, the TV BRICS lecture "Peculiarities and Identity of Russian Regions" was held at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in a full-time format and attended by undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students of the Department of Russian Studies.

In 2019, a teleconference in the format of an international videoconference linked two cities, Sao Paulo and Omsk. In 2018, a Russia-Brazil teleconference was successfully held, where teachers, postgraduates and students of the Department of Russian Studies of the University of Sao Paulo were presented with educational media resources created as part of the international informational and educational project "Modern Russian".

The "Modern Russian" international outreach project has been successfully operating since 2007 and contributes to improving the level of language culture in 638 cities, of which 366 cities are in the Russian Federation and 272 are in the near and far abroad.

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