Seminars

On 29 June the Athens Centre of Russian Language and Culture "MIR" with the assistance of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture (RCSC) in Athens, organised the 6^th International Workshop as part of PaRus project "Using the values ​​of the Russian cultural heritage in teaching Russian as a foreign language for adults in Europe"

Seminar topic: "Russian cultural heritage in Greece."

The seminar was attended by partner organisations of the educational project PaRus:

• «MIR» Centre of Foreign languages ​​/ Athens (Greece)
• Association Russie-Aquitaine / Bordeaux (France)
• Association Maison Russe à Liège / Liège (Belgium)
• ALFAVIT Oktatási és kulturális közhasznú alapítvány / Budapest (Hungary)
• Associazione culturale "Russky dom - Italia" / Milano (Italy)
• Rus Kültür Derneği / Ankara (Turkey)

as well as school teachers, students of the Centre of the Russian language "MIR" and students of Rus Kültür Derneği / Ankara (Turkey).

The seminar was opened by the director of the Athens-based "MIR" Centre E.V. Yanova, welcoming the participants, RCSC director AM Khomenko and PaRus project coordinator I. Zhukovsky (Association Russie-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France).

In the first part of the seminar Sonya Averchenko presented the activities of the Athens Centre of Russian Language and Culture "MIR".

Evgeniya Krichevskaya (founder of the Russian-Greek almanac greekorbis.gr) gave an overview of the Russian cultural heritage in Greece.

Angelika Evstafiu gave a presentation entitled "The Russian Church of the Holy Trinity - the focal point of Russian culture in the centre of Athens. The cemetery of Russian sailors in Piraeus. Father Timothy guardian of the history of the Russian heritage in Greece. "

Alexandra Slavko presented a report that extensively elaborates on the contribution to the history and culture of Greece of Queen Olga, the granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas Ι.

The short film "Queen of the Hellenes - Olga," clearly showed the spiritual wealth of Queen Olga.

E.V. Yanova, Director of the Centre "MIR", presented in detail the methodology of the his use of theatricality in lessons of Russian as a foreign language.

Students of the Centre "MIR" showed “Lingo Theatre” in motion - a work of Chekhov's "Thick and Thin" as well as a compilation of different poems, illustrating the theoretical part of the previous report.

Then E.V. Yanova responded in detail to numerous questions from representatives of compatriots from other countries concerning the specific methods and followed some discussion on the specificities of teaching Russian as a foreign language for a Greek audience.

The participants of the seminar were shown an amateur film about the five-year history of “Lingo Theatre” of Centre "MIR".

The final part of the seminar was a workshop where the participants once more discussed in detail all the aspects of their co-operation which aims to compile a collection of texts on Russian cultural heritage in Europe.

This production of the educational project PaRus allows the integration of Russian cultural heritage in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language for adults in order to relate the Russian cultural heritage to the Russian language teaching.

The coordinators of the project Igor and Antonina Zhukovsky have been given the necessary advice on all the methodological and technical issues of finalising the project.

All project materials of PaRus created over the past two years of work on the project by all the partner countries will be published on the PaRus project website, as well as by the European Commission. Upon completion of the project it will create an interactive map of Russian presence in Europe.

The workshop ended with a social programme at the Athens Centre of Russian Language and Culture “MIR” where souvenirs were exchanged with each delegation, and a small knowledge quiz was played.