Students from the United States of America finished their summer school in Narva where they studied Russian as a foreign language

Narva is the best place for learning Russian as a foreign language, say 37 students from four institutions of higher education of the United States of America. They participated in the summer school organized in Narva College of the University of Tartu. The summer school lasted for eight weeks. Lecturers both from the United States of America and Narva think that the students’ development in language training has been considerable by the end of summer.

Narva is the most Russian-speaking city in the European Union, 96% of the population of Narva speak in Russian. Russian-speaking communication environment changes the summer school considerably more fascinating. Besides studying in the classroom, training visits, meetings and seminars with area specialists were exploited in the summer school. Tandem learning was applied together with the students of Narva College of the University of Tartu.

Students from the University of Tartu visited the Song Festival and got thoroughly to know Estonia. Dawn Seckler, Programme Manager of the University of Pittsburgh, found cooperation with Narva College of the University of Tartu to be utterly successful and is open for further cooperation.

According to Katri Raik, Director of Narva College of UT, cooperation with the universities of the United States of America motivates to develop further the competence of the college in teaching Russian as a foreign language. “Taking into account the increase in popularity of Russian as a foreign language in Estonia, 2/3 of the students study Russian at general education school, a refresher training centre of Russian as a foreign language should be developed in Narva, where also Estonians would come to study next to Americans,” said Raik.