Russian language brings people together
The International Pedagogical Forum "Russian without Borders: Educational Models of Promoting Russian Culture Abroad" took place on December 10-11 in Kazakhstan. The forum was organised by the National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod with the support of the Russian Ministry of Education. On the first day, the forum was hosted simultaneously by two Kazakhstani partner universities, the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University and Turan University in Alma-Ata. Virtual venues were also organised at the Financial Academy of Kazakhstan and Lobachevsky University.
Welcoming speeches to the participants were made by Elena Zagaynova, UNN Rector, Kuanysh Tazabekov, First Vice-Rector of Turan University, Marina Skiba, Rector of the Finance Academy of Kazakhstan, Maktagali Bektemesov, First Vice-Rector of the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Alexei Koropchenko, Head of Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in Kazakhstan.
On behalf of the forum organizers, Elena Zagaynova thanked all participants of discussion platforms for their activity and wished them fruitful work: "It is no coincidence that today Kazakhstan is the main platform for the forum. Last year, UNN held successfully a similar forum with 1500 participants from 53 countries, and the universities of Kazakhstan were among the most active participants. I sincerely hope that the forum will become a uniting space for all of us, those who sincerely love the Russian language and actively help to disseminate, popularize, and strengthen its position both internationally and in Russia".
The focus of the forum’s first day was on discussing the position of the Russian language as a language of international communication and education abroad. In the framework of the International Conference "Current Issues of the Theory and Practice of Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language: Current Challenges and Perspectives in Open Education", more than 300 participants from over 40 countries discussed the internationalization of education and teaching Russian as a foreign language in various countries.
On December 11, the work was centered on the discussion platform "Russia - Kazakhstan: development of humanitarian cooperation in the sphere of education", where the successful cases of cooperation of Russian and Kazakh universities in the field of science and education were presented during round tables and master classes.
"Our forum is a large-scale international event: representatives from almost all parts of the world are taking part in it. The forum - both in its form and content - is a vivid example of the development of international cooperation and internationalization of education. Indeed, the new reality has literally forced all of us, who are involved in education, to move to an entirely new level of using modern technologies, has taught us to be flexible to the maximum, to constantly look for innovative, non-standard approaches and solutions in organizing the educational process. In this sense, our forum is an excellent international communication platform for international relations experts, for those who care about the Russian language," summed up Alexander Bedny, UNN Vice-Rector for International Affairs.
