At the English lesson on December 21st, first-year students of the medical department of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and biology together with I.S. Nalimova, a senior English language lecturer of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies carried out a Christmas party. The upper-intermediate group was formed in the beginning of the academic year and turned out to be multinational. Representatives of various countries happened to study together: Africa, Yemen, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, students who have lived in Germany for some years, let alone some republics of Russia.
During the hot period of tests and credits, without any special preparation of projects, presentations or reports, students gathered to share some national traditions and customs of celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Day in their countries. All of them brought some sweets to share with the groupmates – home-made Christmas gingerbread men, a home-made cake, baklava.
The conversation was organized in a free and amusing way, everyone had something to say and to learn. All students’ stories were different. But they had some important ideas in common – no matter where people are from, they value the same things such as family, relatives and friends, being it an African student’s family visiting his grandmother or an Arab’s large family union on New Year’s Day.
In the course of the lesson the talk alternated with some funny Christmas tasks, such as passing a quiz to check if a person deserves some presents for Christmas or not, answering the Santa’s ho-ho-ho questions, guessing the music from the Christmas ballet The Nutcracker and others.
At the end of the lesson students exchanged Christmas wishes and wished each other a Happy New Year.