University of Havana launches Russian language studies chair
To promote cultural exchange between Cuba and Russia, a Russian Language Chair of the Pushkin Institute was inaugurated Wednesday (May 24) at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Havana (UH).
Margarita Rusetskaya, rector of the Moscow-based Pushkin Institute, and Gustavo Cobreiro, UH rector, cut the traditional red ribbon, in the presence of José Ramón Saborido, Cuba’s minister of higher education.
Rusetskaya emphasized that this is a result of bilateral ties in the area of education, strengthened by the visit in 2016 of Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba´s First Vice President, to the center she directs.
Cuban teachers have been trained in Russia since last year, she said, and this is one of the first steps for teaching Russian culture in the Caribbean country, in order to spread that language at all levels of education, especially in primary and secondary schools.
Rusetskaya said that a large number of children learn Spanish in her nation, and the creation of this Chair is a “magnificent opportunity for cooperation, both in children’s and youth programs, as well as in economic and humanitarian plans and also in other areas”.
Saborido noted that the Third Cuba-Russia Meeting of Rectors would begin the following day (May 25) so the inauguration of this Chair would be a good precedent for that event.
The inauguration was also attended by Natalia Pochinok, rector of the Russian State Social University; Mikhail L. Kamynin, ambassador of that nation in Cuba, as well as professors, students and professionals of education of the UH.
The Pushkin State Russian Language Institute will delegate three professors to Cuba each term to teach students of the foreign languages’ department. At present about 80 people study the Russian language at the university. They study for six years, after which they get a bachelor’s degree.
The institute is named after Aleksandr Pushkin, a 19th-Century poet.
Currently, all students of the department are provided with new studying materials on Russian language, literature and history of Russia. A workbook was prepared for the Cuban students as well. The department was equipped with computers connected to the “Education in Russian” Internet portal. This will provide the students an opportunity to access all electronic studying materials without Internet connection.
The First National Conference devoted to Russian language and Russian culture started in Havana this week. The event is organized by the Cuban Association of Linguists. The association invited more than 100 Russian philologists, translators and teachers as well as students studying Russian language at Havana University to attend the two-day Forum held in the Institute of Literature and Linguistics of Cuba.
PHOTO AT TOP shows Margarita Rusetskaya, rector of the Pushkin Institute, presenting a Russian textbook to Gustavo Cobreiro, rector of the University of Havana. Others are, from left, Natalia Pochinok, rector of the Russian State Social University; Russian Ambassador Mikhail Kamyinin, and José Ramón Saborido, Cuban minister of Higher Education.
