Native Language Day in Southern Federal University 2023

The festival was timed to the celebration of the Mother Tongue Day. UNESCO to protect linguistic and cultural diversity established it. The holiday is traditionally celebrated on February 21.

The festival "Dialogue of Languages and Cultures" was organized by the International Institute of Interdisciplinary Education and Ibero-American Studies of SFedU. Foreign students of the SFedU made presentations about their native languages, and Russian students made presentations about Russian language and culture. Each performance ended with a poem or song that helped to understand the beauty of the language discussed in the performance.

Natalia Karpovskaya, Director of the International Institute of Interdisciplinary Education and Ibero-American Studies of SFedU, delivered a welcoming speech to the participants of the festival.

"You speak a variety of languages, and I hope that on this cold winter day, the sound of your native speech will warm your hearts. Familiarization with another culture gives an opportunity to look at the world in a different way, to feel its diversity. If you are open to this world, to the dialogue of cultures, everything will be fine for you," Natalia Karpovskaya noted.

The head of the Department of Russian as a foreign language and methods of its teaching, Associate professor of the International Institute of Interdisciplinary Education and Ibero-American Studies of SFedU Zinaida Rejuk stressed that language is a part of a person's personality; it is the most important thing that we must keep and protect.

"When we talk to foreigners in our native language, we explain the meaning of words – we share our culture and a part of ourselves," Zinaida Rejuk noted.

Emilia Baylent, a student of SFU, shared her impressions: "I came from Ecuador four months ago. Before the trip, I studied Russian for about a month. Now I'm in my first year, studying to become a psychologist – it will take five years. I like to stay in Russia, even the snow. There is no snow in Ecuador".

Hadjeh Dehi Farshid Geybali, a student of the Department of Russian Language and General Education for Foreign Students, told about his native Persian. His homeland is Iran, and there is a long history of relations with Russia. The Iranian student told which countries speak Persian and which alphabet they use. According to him, the Persian alphabet is similar to Arabic, it often has several sounds written in one letter. Interestingly, many Russian words originated from the Persian language – oil, teahouse, chest and others.

Zhang Hao, a 1-year master's student of the International Institute of Interdisciplinary Education and Ibero-American Studies of SFedU, made a report about the Chinese language, which is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people. The presentation of the master's student talked about Cang Jie – the creator of Chinese writing, which appeared in the 14th century BC. Modern trends in the Chinese language are aimed at simplifying writing, although more than two thousand hieroglyphs are still preserved in it. The first sources with hieroglyphs were carved on bones and stones, and the earliest work in Chinese is considered the "Book of Changes" or "I Ching", written around 700 BC. The speaker also noted that an interesting feature of the oral form of the Chinese language, which is not present in Russian and other European languages, is the increase in tone.

The Bahasa language was introduced by Simanungkalit Vino, a student from Indonesia. According to the student, there are many dialects in his native language, but it was Bahasa, one of the variants of the Malay language, which was declared the official language of the country in 1928. It became the unifying language of the nation. There are no genders and cases in it, and about 300 million people speak Bahasa.

At the Festival, students also presented presentations on such languages as Vietnamese, Mongolian, Spanish, Greek, Turkmen, Uzbek, Urdu, Quechua and the languages of Afghanistan.

The Festival was closed by the undergraduates of the International Institute of Interdisciplinary Education and Ibero-American Studies of SFedU Alexandra Nikitenko and Eleonora Nikolaeva with a presentation about the Russian language. After that, all the participants were able to take part in a quiz that contained questions from the presentations presented. The winners of the quiz were awarded souvenirs. 

The author of the text: Arkadiy Kuznetsov