Sharing life experience: students from Jianwen Middle School at RLCI

For many international students arriving to Saint Petersburg life and study in this city becomes a new significant stage in their life. There is no doubt that immersion into new culture brings new invaluable experience. Students from Jianwen Middle School (Shenzhen city, People's Republic of China) Dai Zhibao, Lin Jin, Se Yaomin and Wei Nizhi shared experience of their 8-month stay in the cultural capital of Russia. Its is worthy to note that students accepted the offer from the Insitute administration to talk about their life in Saint Petersburg with a sincere enthusiasm!

During their stay in Saint Petersburg Chinese students studied the city thoroughly. All of them buy clothes at "Mega" shopping mall, visiting this place not only for purchasing, but for leisure as well. Together with their foreign friends from Europe they speak Russian both in classes and outside university - for example, at the bowling and table tennis tournaments at "Peak" cinema center, or at restaurants that they visit together no less that once a week. They enjoy their favorite Chinese cuisine in the city's best Chinese restaurants: "Tian Zheng", «Honkong", «Harbin". They prefer Japanese meals served at restaurant "Dve Palochki" («two chopsticks») too.

The students rent together a 2-room flat in the district not far from the university.  Students cook at home themselves. They buy food at hypermarket "Lenta" and cook traditional Chinese meals from fish and chicken with vegetables. In Russia Chinese students like oranges, apples, bananas and grape, drink juices and coffee. A nice gastronomic surprise for them was cheese and milk. Excluding cafeterias and restaurants, students spend for food some 5 000 rubles (some 1100 RMB) monthly. If they do not have time to cook at home, they go to McDonalds, KFS or Teremok (Russian fast-food network, famous for its delicious pankakes).

The students got well acquainted with Saint Petersburg as a cultural capital of Russia. They visited one of the biggest world art museums, the State Hermitage, have seen the main collection of Russian art stored in Russian museum. Some of them on summer also visited Peterhof palace and park ensemble with over 150 fountains. One of their favourite attractions is to watch Russian cinema in numerous cinema theaters in Saint Petersburg, that gives them a good opportunity to listen and understang fluent Russian speech regularly.

Students agree that Russian language is not easy to study. But the students are greatly satisfied with their Russian teachers, calling them their best Russian friends that always come to help them when they have any problems in language studies.

 

Althoug the marine climate of Saint Petersburg with abudant rains and snow surprised students from warm Shenzhen, that was also a new experience for them: it is here where they saw snow for the first time in their life, and sometimes they even wait for some snowfalls to play snowballs.

Students appreciate vivid and diverse life in Saint Perersburg, first-rate studies at Russian Language and Culture Institute of Saint Petersburg State University and do not regret that once they have chosen this city as a destination for their future studies.