International students – participants of the creative welcoming room

On November 29, 2024 the creative welcoming room at the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno hospitably welcomed the students of higher education institutions of the Republic of Belarus. The students of the Faculty for International Students of the GrSMU took part in the annual festival of creativity of foreign students “Belarus – Crossroads of National Cultures”.

Students participated in an interactive round-table discussion: “Traditional games and entertainment: What we played with in childhood”, “National symbols of happiness”, “Children's fairy tales and folklore”, “Myths and legends”. Foreign and Belarusian students from universities of the city and of the republic took part in the essay contest “Culture of Communication: How We Express Respect”.

Students from Minsk (BSU, MSLU) participated in the game “Brain-ring”. It consisted of 2 rounds, the first one: questions on knowledge of history, geography, culture and traditions of different countries, 15 questions were about Belarus; in the second round participants had to guess the name of the song and the singer, both Russian songs and foreign ones were played.

The students prepared presentations for the poetry recitation contest “My native land, how dear you are to me”, poems in Belarusian and Russian were performed by foreign and Belarusian students.

The creative welcoming room “Belarus – Crossroads of National Cultures” united students at a fascinating game “Intercultural Taboos”. “Intercultural taboos” event became a real celebration of friendship and mutual understanding, where the participants were able to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of intercultural exchange. This game allowed students not only to demonstrate their knowledge of different cultures, but also to develop communication and teamwork skills. Our Belarusian students from the Faculty of General Medicine and the Faculty of Pediatrics also took part in these and other contests.

The final stage of the event was the awarding of diplomas and a colorful concert “The Polyphony of national cultures”, where there were songs and dances of the peoples of the world.

The participants of the creative welcoming room shared their impressions:

– Celebrating the richness of Belarusian culture was an unforgettable experience! As a foreigner, I was fascinated by the colorful traditions and heartwarming stories shared during the presentations by students from different countries. It is amazing how culture can unite us all, regardless of where we come from (Aishath Atheefa Ali, a 6th year student, Maldives).

– I participated in the game “Intercultural taboos”. Each team had 4 people, one by one each person in the team had to pull cards and explain to their team the word written there, without using the forbidden words, which were also indicated in the card. The team that guessed as many words as possible won. The main difficulty of this contest was that foreign students did not always understand us and vice versa, but everyone tried very hard. It was allowed to explain only in Russian. In general, it was very interesting, we learned a lot of new things about the traditions of different countries, and became even closer to each other (Rabchinskaya Diana, 4th year, PF, Belarus).

– A wonderful event because I met old acquaintances whom I first met in Vitebsk at the contest. She is the curator of Ludani (a girl from China) who came to Miss Grace. She came to the concert with her students from China. I met my friend Nelly, a student from Cameroon who studies at the Minsk State Linguistic University (Cuncheer Shehara Ashmeena, 4th year, Sri Lanka).