The International Institute of Economics and Linguistics at the Irkutsk State University held a festival for foreign students "We are neighbors on the planet." It was the first meeting of students from different countries this academic year.
The festival originated in 1966. At first, only Mongolian students took part in it. Since 1982 twice a year, foreigners from different countries demonstrate their proficiency in Russian language.
This year’s theme - "We are neighbors on the planet"- is quite relevant – the International Institute of Economics and Linguistics hosts 255 international students from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Germany, China, Korea, Madagascar, Mongolia, Syria, USA, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, France, Sweden, and Japan. The participants showed colorful video presentations about their homeland, talked about sights, sang songs both in their native languages and in Russian, and read poems.
Among the audience there were not only foreign students who came to support their friends, but also Russian ones. There was the friendly atmosphere, and all the participants shared the idea that people should be friends and respect traditions, customs, habits and history of other countries.