How Chinese students study Russian literature

Thousands of foreign students study at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. The Faculty of Pre-University Training was founded at the university more than 40 years ago – this faculty was created specifically for the education of foreign students who study languages, Russian or Kazakh, for a year, and then already enter other faculties of the university. For example, students from the People's Republic of China have a great interest in the Russian language, in Russian culture and in Russian literature. Therefore, when teaching Russian grammar, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal 4 – Quality Education, our teachers use the classics of Russian literature as assistants. In our classes, we try to use short works by Alexander Pushkin, who is known to all foreigners. When Chinese students have learned what the case system is, have learned how to change the endings of nouns and adjectives correctly, and have learned the tenses of verbs, we can start reading a very famous and beautiful poem by Alexander Pushkin, "I Loved You…" Of course, not all the words are clear to Chinese students, but they try to create their own text, try to translate this work of the great poet, keeping the whole meaning of the secret declaration of love. When students understand the deep philosophical content of this very short work, their joy is endless. And now the final stage – we learn this verse by heart, and each student can demonstrate the skills of expressive reading of Russian classical literature at the exam, surprising and delighting all the Russian language teachers.

Turebekova R., Yeshimov M. are teachers

at the  Faculty of Pre-Higher Education