American Students Are Here Again to Study Russian at the HSE Nizhny Novgorod

Some participants of the summer language school want to tie their future lives and work to  Russia

The annual HSE Nizhny Novgorod Summer School of Russian Language and Culture has begun and this year eleven students from Brigham Young University (Utah) under the supervision of Jennifer Bown are taking part. The  students will be living with host families in Nizhny Novgorod and attending classes in Russian language, Russian national identity and concepts of Russian culture until June 12, 2014.  

As well as studying, the American guests will enjoy an extensive cultural programme. They will see the sights of Nizhny Novgorod, visit Shelkovsky Khutor, Gorodets, Semenov and Suzdal, and take a boat trip down the Volga river.

The students started learning Russian in the USA. Joshua Prince, a fourth-year law student at Brigham Young, spent two years in Kharkov, where he learnt about Russian culture and language. That was five years ago and since then Joshua has been learning Russian. He has not only fallen in love with the country, but also changed his future plans: ‘When I got back to the USA, I felt I wasn’t at home anymore, I felt out of place. Russian people are very hospitable, when they make friends it is forever, which is rather rare among Americans,’ said Joshua. One of his goals is to make a career in Russia and probably to continue studying here.

According to Tatjana Batishcheva, Head of the International Relations Office in HSE Nizhny Novgorod, the secret of success of their summer schools for foreigners  is not only the high level of Russian language teaching, but also  that they spend a lot of time analysing the Russian mentality and national character.