During the academic year, Anna Erastova, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Philology, has been teaching Russian language and literature to students at Anhui Normal University.
Anhui Normal University (Wuhu, China) and Minin University have been cooperating since 2014. This year, Anna Vyacheslavovna Erastova was sent to the city of Wuhu to teach Russian literature and language to students under the long-term teacher exchange program.
Anna shares her impressions about teaching Russian at ANU and difficulties of teaching language to Chinese students:
“International cooperation is a necessary part of our life. We learn more about culture of other people, learn to cooperate, share experiences. I have experience in teaching Russian as a foreign language in multinational groups since 2004. During my first semester at ANU I was teaching Silver Age literature to the fourth year students. I also conducted listening, speech practice and Russian phonetics to first year students. During the second semester I continue working with first year students; with second year students we will practice listening. Students at Anhui Normal University are disciplined and very diligent. For instance, first year students did not know a single word in Russian, but now they have made significant progress in learning the language. Our language systems differ greatly in Chinese, there are no cases and verb forms. Only by understanding the principle of constructing phrases in Russian can one advance in learning the language. Moreover, I would like to say about educational systems of Russia and China: in general, they are close but there are some differences. For instance, in China there is a unified state exam (USE), but school students take not four but eight compulsory exams. In China, people are less focused on the free choice of profession. Applicants are guided to universities by the results of their exams, not by their choice.”
