The III International Language Festival was held in the friendly atmosphere of Ufa State Petroleum Technological University (USPTU) on December 7-8, 2013. 45 languages of the world were presented at the Festival. The comments of our guests and participants are given below.
Students of local universities and colleges and students from other cities of Russia took part in the Festival.
Several sections were formed. I am going to tell you about 4 of them, which I had an opportunity to attend.
The first section I attended was the section of Romance and Germanic languages, exactly the part that was devoted to German and its dialects in different European countries such as Germany, Austria, Sweden. I think the most interesting was the comparison of varieties of German spoken in different European countries, when presenters showed the differences in pronunciation and spelling of words depending on the country.
One of the presenters of Turkic languages section spoke about the origin of some words and set expressions in Tatar. The material that the presenter used amazed me by the depth of investigation. As it turned out, it was the basis for the presenter's doctoral thesis. The attendees got acquainted with the little known Mishar dialect of Tatar and learned the peculiarities of the Uzbek language and culture.
Having attended the presentations of the languages I know something about, I went to the third section - section of African languages.
To tell the truth, it is difficult for me to speak about this section, as I am so overwhelmed by the emotions that I can hardly find words to describe them. The students from African countries were so emotional, charming and held the audience's attention so well that it was impossible to stay indifferent to their presentation. The audience was delighted with them! So was I!
The last section I attended was the section of Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic languages. The students from this section were not worse than the students from the African section. I think I liked their presentations most of all. The presenters not only spoke about their native language but also compared it with Russian. It is much easier to understand the peculiarities of a foreign language when it is compared with your native language, you know.
The first day of the Festival was crowned with the "Round Table" - the event during which the members of our club UNESCO delivered a session devoted to the world heritage of UNESCO on different continents of the world.
Summing up the first day of the Festival, I would like to say the following: it was amazing how foreign students spoke about their native languages. They all sang songs, read poems in their first languages with loving care, spoke enthusiastically about their cultures, so by the end of the Festival I was eager to learn at least one of the languages I got acquainted with. And I was surprised to learn how many foreign students study with us, how many different cultures are presented at our university and other universities of Ufa.
Kachalkina Kristina (BUT 13-01 USPTU),
Journalists Association OFTRK "Kulturnyi Fresh"
The grand opening of the III International Language Festival in Bashkortostan took place in the Large Hall of housing №8 of USPTU. The representatives of different countries, language branches and continents attended the event. There study more than 600 students from 47 countries of the world at Ufa State Petroleum Technological University. The representatives from different language families were distributed among the sectors: the sectors of Romance and German, Turkic, Austro-Asiatic, Uralic and Iranian languages. Among the participants there were not only the faculty and students from the USPTU but also from other higher educational institutions of Ufa, out-of-area students, schoolchildren and guests, willing to feel the spirit of different cultures and nationalities. The opening ceremony of the Festival started with greeting guests of honor. After that the presenters delivered their sessions. The first presenters were those who presented Romance and German languages. Robert C. Kelly's song sounded quite melodiously performed by one of the members of the group. The performers prepared well and though they were excited they were able to show what friendly nationalities live and study in the republic. The native speakers of African languages literally stirred the audience's enthusiasm. The dance they performed received a great ovation and cheers from the audience. I would like to single out each participant or at least each group but I don't think I will have enough words to do this. The concert filled me with enthusiasm! I was glad I was there, touched each language and culture presented at the Festival. National dances, songs and poems, presentations - everything was up to standard!
Be on a cultural wave!!!
Aigerim Umbetyarova (MEK 04-13-01 USPTU),
Journalists Association OFTRK "Kulturnyi Fresh"
The III Language Festival in Bashkortostan was held at Ufa State Petroleum Technological University within the framework of the 65th anniversary of this university on December 7-8, 2013. More than 40 languages of the world were presented for the program of the Festival: from the UN official languages to African and Austronesian languages of Oceania and Polynesia.
Language Festival is a mass cultural and educational event devoted to languages, linguistics and cross-cultural communication and organized within the framework of the international educational project "Language Festival". Currently the project is supported by UNESCO and is successfully implemented in a number of Russian cities (Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Ufa, Izhevsk, Kaluga, Yakutsk, Velikyi Novgorod, Perm, Yekaterinburg) and abroad (Kiev, Odessa, Berdyansk, Yalta, Minsk, Tbilisi, Kishinev, Nanjing).
Being a linguistic unit the Department of Foreign Languages for Professional Communication of INEFB couldn't keep aloof from such a large-scale event and took an active part in the activity of the forum. The Department presented German and Latin under the guidance of associate professor Gabdullin Salavat Samigullovich. Габдуллина Салавата Самигулловича. His students were selected from a large number of contenders for performing during the opening ceremony of the Language Festival at USPTU where they performed the song "Alice" in German.
All the participants of the Language Festival got certificates and souvenirs.
L.M. Zainullina,
Doctor of Philology, Professor,
Head of The Department of Foreign Languages for Professional Communication of BSU.
The event turned out to be very bright, colorful! At the grand opening in the Large Hall of the Palace of Culture named after Ordzhonikidze there were no vacant seats. After the guests of honor were greeted, the participants of the Festival delivered their sessions. Besides the nationalities that live in Bashkortostan guests from India, Indonesia, African countries presented their languages and cultures. There were even Kurds who participated in such a large-scale event for the first time. After the concert the guests went to lecture halls where they could get thoroughly acquainted with languages they were interested in. The Tatar language was presented by the students of the Faculty of Philology (BSU) Valitova Guzel, Galimova Alsu, Galikeyeva Gulshat and Gallyamova Gulnaz. Guzel made a report and spoke about the history of the Tatar language and its peculiarities. At the end of her report she said that she was proud that she knew her native language and spoke Tatar. To visually show the audience the fascination of the Tatar language we performed a literary and musical composition during which we recited Tatar classical poetry and sang songs to the accompaniment of Alsu Galimova. It should be said that the Language Festival was a success and it was organized up to standard. All the participants were not only awarded certificates but also got lots of positive emotions, pleasant impressions and acquired many friends - representatives of other countries and nationalities. I believe that such events can foster tolerance and love for people all over the world.
Galimova Alsu (the Faculty of Philology of BSU)
The III International Language Festival in the Internet:
The topic of GTRK "Bashkortostan"
In USPTU Information Channel group "VKontakte" (See videomaterials. Posted on December 7, 2013)
The fragments of the opening ceremony at YouTube
The newspaper "Vechernyaya Ufa" about the Festival (an article from the December 11, 2013 issue)
Posted on the site of the BSU branch in Neftekamsk, RB
The news story of Ufa State Professional and Pedagogical College
The information provided by the site of Ufa State Aviation Technical University
MBOU DOD "National Polish Sunday School named after A.P. Penkevich" about the Language Festival
Continuing Education Mironova D.M. (one of the coordinators of the Festival), lecturers of Departments of Russian Language and Literature, Foreign Languages of USPTU, representatives of BSU, BSPU and guests from Ulyanovsk. USPTU students, members of International UNESCO Friends Club, presented their independent creative work - a lecture-presentation of the International organization UNESCO. On December, 8 a tour of cultural and historical places of Ufa - the capital of Bashkortostan - was organized for out-of-area participants of the Festival.