International Russian-as-a-Foreing Language Online Contest

The first round of International Russian-as-a-Foreing Language Online Contest has begun on March 29 within the annual International Festival «In the Language of Friendship».

This year it is hosted by Polzunov Altai State Technical University and Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language. The aim of the contest is to promote the Russian language abroad, increase interest in learning the language and to form a positive image of the Russian Federation.
The exercises of the contest are based on popular Russian movies and check comprehension of native Russian speech. The proposed videos demonstrate various situations from different communication areas. Within a certain limit of time (80 minutes) foreigners should watch three video segments and answer questions that indicate the knowledge of Russian set phrases and understanding emotions in communication process.
According to the number of registered applications, around 600 students from 43 countries of Asia, North and Latin America, the Near East and Europe will take part.
The first participants have already shared their impressions. They mentioned, that they got interested in the video fragments of the movies and would certainly find out their titles to watch them in full-length. The Shihezi students (China), Wang Jingxue, Zhu Jingru and Xie Xin admitted that they had not looked up dictionaries for the words they didn’t know while doing exercises, but right after the contest was finished they checked themselves if they had understood everything right. Now the students are waiting for the results that will be announced in 5 days and hope to qualify for the second round.
The second round begins on April 7 where foreign students will do a creative work. They have to watch a silent video segment and then make a voice-over — to write a dialogue that conveys not only the essence of the speech but also the mood of the characters.