SPbU launches Russian language courses in South Africa

Courses are held completely in an online format. Programme of courses aims to promote the Russian language, create more opportunities for career guidance and promote the state testing system for Russian as a foreign language.

Dmitry Ptyushkin, Director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University, said that it took only six months from the idea of creating a course of the Russian language to implementation. Within a month, SPbU plans to launch courses in Lesotho, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Mongolia. There were received more than thousand applications from these countries.

SPbU efforts in promoting the Russian language are known worldwide, and people from different counties ask for our help. Now, the Russian language is, among other things, an instrument to get better job and improve life. On the other hand, we are also interested in ensuring that people from all over the world can receive a classical education at the first university in Russia.

Dmitry Ptyushkin, Director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University

SPbU courses’ participants learn Russian for a variety of reasons, but most of them are active young people who are willing to acquire business and academic contacts. ‘It is a chance to be immersed in a different culture. If you are immersed in it, you will not have a bad attitude toward this country. Interest in learning of the Russian language did not disappear. There is a growing interest in it. Our aim is to ensure that demand for learning Russian will be satisfied’, noted Dmitry Ptyushkin.

Last year, a similar programme was launched in Zimbabwe. Since that time, more than 600 people have mastered this course.

The article was prepared in collaboration with students of SPbU.