International Students’ Day

Today’s session at the GABFEST speaking club club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was blessed :-) with the visit of our American friends – Mrs. Erica, Mr. Joseph , Mr. Keith and Master  Jacob.
Mrs. Erica triggered a vivid conversation with the club members by asking them funny and paradoxical questions. This allowed her to learn more about her new Ukrainian friends. But she was often perplexed by the pronunciation of the Ukrainian first names and their short forms. For example, Dmitriy is Dima for short, or Artiom is Tioma for short.
The official topic of the session was International Students’ Day.  We have read and translated an article about the history of this day. The story was illustrated by a video about actions of the US Student association. Our American guests explained to us important things about the phenomenon of a student loan.
The International Education Week organized by the US department of state and US department of education was introduced to the club members. The world known programs for academic and professional exchange were introduced to the audience - the Fulbright Program, IREX, the Humphrey fellowship.
A book display «If you want to study in the USA» of the Window On America center was presented as an illustration to the educational opportunities in the USA.
The Ukrainian full-time students and lecturers shared their impressions about the modern Ukrainian education system. The older club members were asked about the good and bad things in the Soviet education system. Our American friends were surprised with the stories about the soviet practices of sending students to the collective farms in autumn to help the farmers with harvesting vegetables and fruits. The Club members explained to our American guests other phenomena of the Soviet education – pioneer and Komsomol organizations, summer pioneer camps, obligatory workplaces for graduates, St.Tatiana’s Day, etc. The story that impressed the Americans most was about the protocol of an oral exam with question cards (“tickets” in Russian).
The conversation was very emotional and enriched the knowledge of all participants.
The session was fun and very informative. Many club members inquired about the opportunities to study in the USA.
The number of participants – 32.
Have a look at more pictures, please