3rd year students of the Faculty of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, PSU, have successfully defended and tested a group project in partnership with the Museum of PSU History. The team of Arina Azanova, Evgenia Demchenkova, Anastasia Efimovskikh, Elizaveta Mayorova and Elizaveta Tyurina designed and delivered the “Back to the Past: the Origin of PSU” tour for university students from China, Colombia, and Peru – followed by tour guides printed in Russian, English and Spanish.
Luckily, the ‘language tours’ by PSU students met a request for volunteer initiatives by the Museum. “We love such coincidences. They prove the museum is not just a repository of artifacts, but a living part of the University, incorporated into the educational process,” admits Maria Mingaleva, head of the Museum of PSU History. “In the students’ move, we saw a strive to make a good and sought-after product. We will be glad if they become our volunteers and help guide tours for foreign students.”
“The Chinese group appeared much more uneasy to interact with, as it was difficult for them to rely on voice only, without text. Most of all, they were intrigued by an old Chinese book,” shares Arina Azanova, a project participant. “The guys from Peru were easier to communicate with, we felt more spontaneous and confident, and maintained to run a dialogue. Sometimes it seemed that it was them who made the tour. Despite the groups were quiet different, we managed to get an extraordinary cultural experience.”
“It was truly exciting to create the original product of ours. No one gave us a ready-made text for translation. Surely, we did rely on materials available, including tours by the Museum staff, books and articles on PSU history. Our task was not just to collect data, but also transform it and adapt for another ‘mindset’. It’s been important for us to find balance within the text without overloading it with unnecessary information, and at the same time, make it interesting,” notes Evgenia Demchenkova.
“Not only did we try to immerse international students in the university history, but also create a kind of new tradition – the one that reflects our hospitality towards foreign guests, and eagerness to interculturally communicate,” says Elizaveta Mayorova. “As far as we discovered, tours around Museum of PSU History have not been conducted in other languages, before. So, we feel like a part of new trend or University tradition, which we do hope to develop!”
59 students from the Faculty of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures prepared 12 reports aimed at both the University community and Perm Territory residents, as well as wider Internet audience. A distinctive feature of the group projects is their target audience focus, offer and demand character, ability to run dialogue with an employer, and customer-oriented result. Students practice creating multi task teams, using individual talents and knowledge, and challenge themselves with new objectives – like creating websites, shooting videos, recording podcasts, designing posters and writing press releases.
The project activities for the Faculty students in 2023 included the support of the LAMPA International Film Festival, supervision of PSU international students, support of environmental initiatives and comfortable campus space, running city tours and helping University museums, child training in robotics, interaction with PSU partners, promotion of language centers and PSU Academic Library, popularization of local urban folklore and Komi-Permyak culture.
“It was great to realize that our students’ initiatives have something in common regardless their association with different faculties. Taking that cross-field path is extremely promising and important for the University, especially when such initiatives aim at implementing socially significant tasks, contributing to the overall University progress,” notes Olga Meshcheryakova, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Extracurricular Activities, PSU.
On 6 June, the Babel Mic project, a flashmob and a public reading event will take place at Perm State University, uniting PSU Botanical Garden, Academic Library and Department of Public Relations.
As part of the Babel Mic format, students, staff and graduates of the University, residents of Perm city and other territories get together both on campus and digitally to read poems by their favorite poets, prose or archive documents. This is the eighth event of the kind since February 2019; three out of seven Mics have been held online.
The recent venue will be held in the Oriental Yard of PSU Botanical Garden. Dr. Boris Kondakov, director of the Center for East Asian Studies, PSU, will give a lecture on Chinese classical poetry. Tatiana Margina, head of the Merchant Tea Co, will talk about tea varieties and its cultural phenomenon, including the history of Chinese tea in Perm territory – followed by a tea brewing ceremony at the Garden.
The audience will read poems both in Chinese and translations, accompanied by the sounds of the Garden and world music. Original poems will be accompanied by comments in Russian, so that the listeners could comprehend their meaning, along the rhythm and melody of the Chinese originals. Personal translations will also be made by PSU students and poetry fans.
The venue will be held on 6 June from 5pm till 8pm, Perm time (3pm – 6pm Moscow time). For a detailed program, please see here. For participation, please register here.
Interested in participating or other events of the kind? Got ideas or want to share practices? Please, contact Svetlana Solaryova, Head of PSU Academic Library, at solar@psu.ru, VK page or by phone: +7 (342) 2 396 505.
On the Roots of the Babel Mic
While the Tower of Babel traditionally serves an image of misunderstanding, it’s image picked by PSU community to explain the roots of multiple languages, praising identities and overcoming communication failures.
According to the myth, the generations of humanity following the Great Flood spoke a single language. Uniting their efforts, people agreed to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach Heavens. The builders gradually lost communication, and were scattered around the world.
Challenging the opportunity, the University staff, including international and Russian students, present extracts of their favorite works in various languages and topics – paying tribute to national identities and unifying values.
Duong Thi Phuong Chi, PhD student at the Faculty of Philology, Perm State University (PSU) has successfully defended her PhD (Candidate of Sciences) thesis. The defense took place at Ural Federal University (UrFU) at the end of 2022.
Five years ago, Duong Thi Phuong Chi came to Perm from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where she taught at the Library and Information Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. In 2018, she entered the graduate school led by Professor Vladimir Abashev, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, PSU.
“Out of recommended universities from a dozen popular cities of Russia, I chose Perm State. What attracted me most was a post graduate course in Mass Media and Library Informational Science. The English version of PSU website also appeared an important factor – there I studied in detail the structure of admission and study plan. So, I thought it was a good university,” said Duong Thi Phuong Chi.
Drawing the example of academic libraries in Ho Chi Minh City, the scholar analyzed the libraries’ huge identity crisis, and proposed a strategy for solution, based on modern media communications. According to Duong Thi Phuong Chi, there are three key tools for a university library to win the Internet era race:
“Firstly, it is a complete digitalization of all library collections and their flexible division into thematic collections. Secondly, the library has to be included into international information exchange network – allowing researcher or student to access the necessary databases, at any time. Thirdly, it is a creative dialogue with users based on social networks. So, the library is no more a bookshelf, but rather a smart hub of information flows.”
On 1 September, at the start of the study year ‘2022-2023, PSU Academic Library opened a new reading and interactive space, uniting its collections with the contributions by the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature, PSU.
The new branch unites sources on foreign and Russian languages, linguistics, literature, teaching, publishing activity, journalism and public relations. Most of publications are presented in a single copy. PSU international students interested in Russian literature will also find the Library collection useful, getting a handful advice by the Library staff.
“While creating a new Library space, we have been following those wishes of teachers and students of the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature. The collection will include both by books from other Library sections and newly acquired items. It is important that the Library acts as a space of meaning, combining information sources and a professional approach with a cozy environment and friendly atmosphere of the native ground,”
says Svetlana Solareva, Head of PSU Academic Library.
Among the contributors to the Library branch is the only Victorian Center in Russia, founded in Perm with an assistance by Anglists from Oxford (UK), Stanford and Indianapolis (USA), including Dr. Christopher Harvey, a well-known British expert in English and Scottish history and literature, professor at the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (Germany).
“Since the launch of the Victorian Center in 1997, we have managed to form a unique collection of books, magazines and materials, starting with British pre-Romantic period (end of the 18th century) to late Victorianism (the beginning of the 20th century), as well as publications on the theory and history of English literature, as well as social and political history of Britain in the Victorian period. The Cente has been subscribed to a number of English and American scientific journals specializing in British literature and culture of the time. The Center co-founder was Mrs. Karen Hewitt, PSU Professor Emeritus from the University of Oxford (UK). Karen strongly supported the idea of passing the Victorian Center collection to the newly opened PSU Library space,”
says Dr. Boris Proskurnin, Head of the Department of World Literature and Culture, PSU.
The collection will available through an open access. In addition, readers might enjoy the opportunity of hiring a book overnight, on weekends or holidays. The branch is headed by Maria Bryukhanova, a graduate of the Faculty of Philology, and a fellow at the Laboratory of Theoretical and Applied Folklore Studies, PSU. Maria has already introduced freshmen into the Library collection.
“We are very pleased to have a new library space in our building, where students are able to get acquainted with dedicated academic literature, engage in educational and scientific research. We hope to most effectively fit it into the educational and scientific activities of our staff and students,”
comments Daria Pavlova, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Philology, PSU.
To see the new PSU Academic Library branch, please visit PSU building 5, rooms 140, 142, 144 (Faculty of Philology, Faculty of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature, PSU.
Academic Reference and Cochrane Library will provide access to electronic resources for PSU students and staff. The subject of the Academic Reference resource covers all major disciplinary areas and divisions – from technical sciences to the humanities and arts. The Cochrane Library is aimed at scientists involved in medical research.
Academic Reference is the unified search platform of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) project, publishing publishing Chinese research papers, and the most complete polythematic English-language database. The resource combines more than 1,400,000 full-text documents and bibliographic data, including:
250 English-language journals published in China and 162 bilingual journals;
more than 13 million essays, reports and abstracts;
English-Chinese glossary.
The Cochrane is a non-profit organization, a network of medical and public health researchers and professionals from over 130 countries who publish their works at the Cochrane Library.
The platform allows to find information on clinical trials, Cochrane reviews, non-Cochrane systematic reviews, methodological studies, technological and economic evaluations on a specific topic or disease.
For more information on the Cochrane Library resource, visit PSU Academic Library website. In addition, a series of webinars will be held with a representative of Wiley, who will explain more about the source itself and related capabilities:
participate in free conversation clubs run by teaching professors from Russian universities;
get access to free educational literature on Russian as a foreign language, for different levels;
use broad education material, including videos;
pass the test for knowledge of Russian as a foreign language (TORFL);
get a personal certificate;
will see presentations of Russian universities.
Note: If you are not yet a part of international studentship, the links in below the newst will help you to join us. If you are an international student already, and Perm-based, here is more to you:
PSU Academic Library invites all those interested to use its sites and facilities for a comprehensive free online courses in Russian as a foreign language along the academic year, until 1 September, 2022, using:
1). any device with Internet access, anytime and anywhere, using a registered PSU username and password, indicated in the student’s personal account;
2) any device with Internet access, anytime and anywhere, using a n individual username and password, with an assistance by PSU Academic Library or IPR Media (support@ros-edu.ru). “Our service is addressed to those already studying at Perm State University,” says Svetlana Solaryova, Head of PSU Academic Library. “Complementing the above opportunities, PSU International Department assists our students in their access to the source. Actually, any Russian student and teaching staff studying or researching Russian language, culture, traditions and history is welcome to use it, as well.”
