Student Video Project in Russian: Cooperation between Zessko and the University of Gdańsk

Dr. Kharitonova, Zessko and the University of Gdańsk have been working together for some time. Can you tell us something about it?

We have already organized several joint projects with the University of Gdańsk and, in particular, with Dr. Joanna Mampe. These include the Russian Language Olympics or joint online lessons.
In the 2023 Summer Semester, we organized and carried out a joint video project. Students learning Russian at the University of Potsdam from the UNIcert® I course and first-year students from the Institute of Russian and Eastern Studies at the University of Gdańsk took part in the project. The Polish students were at a B1-level, which corresponds to our UNIcert® I level.

How exactly can you describe the video project? What was the topic?

To prepare for the UNIcert® exam, our students usually create short videos on various topics that we cover during the semester. We chose the topic "A typical day for a student " as our project task. In these videos, our students and the students of the University of Gdańsk talk about how their typical day starts, what they do at the university, show the campus and classrooms in the videos, and what they do in their free time. We held our meeting online, where the students talked briefly about themselves, showed their videos and answered questions.

How was the project received by the students?

I think the meeting was interesting for everyone. The participants of the project could see what a typical day of students in Germany, Poland, and Italy (we had one Erasmus student) is like, and they repeated the necessary vocabulary and grammar. But the most important thing was that they heard the other students speak in Russian and used this language as an means to get information (to talk about themselves or ask a question). We have not been working with Russian universities since the beginning of the war, but I think it is essential not to be in linguistic isolation and to be able to communicate with students from other cities or countries who are also learning Russian. We are now planning to make this a regular project and do it every summer semester.

Thank you very much for the interview!
 

Contact: Dr. Ekaterina Kharitonova

Published on 4 March 2024