A Strong Interest about the World
Vessela Ilieva, an assistant professor with Utah Valley University’s School of Education and a recognised expert in teaching and educational communications, gave a series of classes at the Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod between June 1 and 13, 2013.
Vessela Ilieva's visit to HSE-NN was supported by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholar Programme.
She taught classes on intercultural communication in economics, management, business, law, linguistics, and literature to students of different faculties. Her classes were built around case studies, where students were asked to solve various intercultural communication problems.
Vessel Ilieva also conducted faculty workshops in Academic Writing and Grant Writing.
- You’ve been teaching classes in intercultural communication. How relevant is this subject today?
- I have been studying intercultural cultural communication globally. Here in Russia, I can see that it is very relevant for your country. In particular, a lot of interesting questions on this topic were discussed at the seminar on migration. In the U.S., we distinguish between two aspects of intercultural communication: for people in the same country and between people from different countries. I believe that both are relevant for Russians.
- What is your opinion of Russian students?
- The students have a strong interest in the world and intercultural communication; they have good language skills and successfully practice them. I feel I have done some very productive work teaching students at different faculties of the Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod.
I would like to thank the Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod for the invitation and I look forward to working together again in the future.
HSE students share their impressions:
Lilia Travina (Faculty of Law, 2nd year):
- Very informative, exciting, and fun! A wonderful experience, and it was great to see once again that the HSE is cool! Many thanks to the organizers and the teacher.
Alexei Matrenin (Faculty of Law, 2nd year):
- A great class! I learned a lot of new things. In addition, it was very interesting to hear English spoken. Hopefully, after this lecture, I will be able to engage in effective dialogue with other cultures.
Maria Makarova, (Faculty of Economics, 2nd year):
- It was a fruitful discussion which taught us how to communicate more effectively and avoid misunderstanding. It was really interesting and useful experience for our future. I would like to thank Vessela for such a great course! I find it a great idea to deliver short courses in foreign languages, because it helps us, World Economy students, to learn our subject better.
Natalia Belova (Faculty of Economics, 1st year):
- Firstly, I would like to say that the atmosphere Vessela created was incredibly friendly and inviting: everyone was happy to get involved and to bring something to the table. Secondly, the language used by Vessela was beyond praise! I would like to suggest we have more classes in English as it is a great opportunity to improve our skills. Thank you so much!