Vietnamese students visiting Ivanovo schoolchildren

On a gloomy winter day on February 6, in one of the classes of the Ivanovo gymnasium No. 36, it was unusually festive, warm and light! Vietnamese students Nguyen Thuy Ly (2nd year of the Master's program in the educational program "Philology") and Hung Dinh Quoc (3th year of the bachelor's degree in the educational program "International Relations") under the guidance of Associate Professor of the Center for Russian Studies and International Education R.N. Kanafieva visited Russian schoolchildren to tell them about the traditions of celebrating the Lunar New Year – an exotic and magnificent event in a number of countries in Southeast Asia.

In Vietnam, the celebration of the New Year according to the lunar calendar is a traditional national holiday and is called Tet. Of course, almost every student has heard that 2023 is the year of the Cat (or Rabbit). But this time the children were told in the first person about the traditions of this unusual holiday. A lot turned out to be amazing for the students of the 6th "B" class! For example, the fact that there is no fixed date for the New Year in the East: the holiday comes on the second new moon after the winter solstice, and all the time, due to the cyclical nature of the lunar months, this happens in different ways. Thus, the era of power of the Water Cat (Rabbit) began only on the night of January 21–22 at 23:56 Moscow time, and will end on February 9, 2024. The children were especially interested in the national festive cuisine of Vietnam, which decorates the table on Tet.

The meeting of our Vietnamese students and students of the gymnasium became a dialogue in Russian between representatives of such different folk cultures, brought a lot of positive emotions and, undoubtedly, stimulated interest in knowing the unknown in the world, as well as respect for the native culture and the culture of other peoples. On this day, the students acquired an extremely important experience and the most pleasant impressions from communicating with Russian schoolchildren. In parting, Li and Ding received gratitude from the director of the gymnasium for the implementation of a cultural and educational project that promotes the development of intercultural communication, interethnic speech communication, acquaintance of students with the cultural and linguistic characteristics of other countries, as well as memorable Russian souvenirs.

And even when the bell rang for recess, the guys were in no hurry to leave: it was necessary to ask the most important questions and take selfies with the guests. That's how unusual the class hour at 6 "B" turned out that day! And the Center for Russian Studies and International Education has acquired new little friends.