Online seminar "Prospects for Teaching Russian in Syria"

In recent years, Syria has been associated mainly with military events and destruction. But the situation is changing, and the country is gradually returning to normal life. Russian Russian Language teachers' online seminar "Prospects for Teaching Russian in Syria", which was organized by the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Damascus and Lomonosov Moscow State University on October 23, was one of the signs of this return.

The seminar was held in a very warm atmosphere. The Syrian colleagues, who gathered at the RCSC in Damascus and were joined by about 45 people from different cities of Syria, were a grateful audience: they asked questions to the speakers, took an active part in the open lesson. The program of the seminar was varied and lengthy. After the opening, which was addressed by the deputy head of Rossotrudnichestvo P. A. Shevtsov and the director of the RCSC in Damascus N. V. Sukhov, a round table meeting was held on the specifics of teaching Russian in Syria. It was conducted by the Vice-rector of Moscow State University, Professor T. V. Kortava. The participants of the round table agreed that it is necessary to create a platform for permanent Russian-Syrian cooperation in the field of education. The very format of communication was conducive to memories of the beautiful past. The Moscow State University lecturer V. M. Mazanik, who taught Russian in Syria in 1987-1989, spoke about the Soviet-Syrian cooperation in the field of training specialists for Syrian universities.

In the pedagogical workshop, which was conducted by the leading experts of the Moscow State University in the field of using Internet resources for teaching Russian, Professor A. N. Bogomolov and Professor L. A. Dunaeva, the students learned about where they can find a variety of electronic and Internet manuals. Very lively held an open lesson was conducted by the teachers of the Institute of Russian language and culture (Araik) MSU V. V. Chastnykh and Yulia M. Ryzhikh  The topic of the lesson - "Education" aroused great interest among the students, because it is included in all curricula and exam tasks.

After the break, Syrian teachers and teachers of the Russian language were invited to take part in master classes conducted by specialists of the oldest department in Russia for preparing foreigners for study in Russian universities-the Moscow State University's IRIAIK V. V. Privatnykh, G. M. Kopytina and N. E. Lutskaya.

At the end of the seminar, the chairman of the MSU Student Union, E. Zimakova, spoke about the youth programs of Moscow University, encouraging young Syrians to join them.

"Many thanks to the organizers and teachers for the meeting and valuable information! I would very much like to attend such seminars more often! " - this is one of the many reviews left by the participants.