The new academic year in Leo Tolstoy Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of KFU started with the traditional international event. 

The tradition appeared last year when the group of Chinese students was met by  Russian students learning Chinese language, this mutual help became a custom called «Buddy-programme». This year we met the group from different European and Asian countries, especially from Germany and Japan with a few people from the USA and Italy, who would spend the half of study year in Russia, Kazan, learning the Russian language. Traditionally, each one of the foreign students pulled out the peace of paper with the name of a Russian one to create a friendship with. The English-learning students of KFU really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to the native English speakers, moreover, to continue this communication in the future:

"My feelings are really positive, it's so great to have such a wonderful opportunity to learn other cultures through communicating with foreign people, to practice our skills and help them to get the better understanding of Russian culture. We all are so different, but the things that unites us are the Love to learning languages and Respect to our world community. Thank you, Buddy-programme! " - said the Russian student Darya Atroschencko. 

Such a support from Russian side promotes successful adaptation of foreign students in Russia. Furthermore, it's a great assistance for discovering new places which you won't find in touristic maps, because only local people know them. Also the colloquial phrases which are only in everyday life speech, lots of unknown Russian and Kazan customs. All that information we can give our foreign friends. 

Our Italian student Simona Cannalire shared her emotions:

"I think the buddy-programme is a great opportunity for everyone, both  Russian and foreign students. For us, exchange students, is really hard to get to actually  local people, because we always hang around  other foreign students! But with this programme  we have a great chance to know the real language, habits and way of life of Russians, not just what we learn in class. PLUS, it's always good to have new friends! And finally, I have been lucky enough to find two really nice girls, with whom I hope to have a longlasting friendship"

To sum up, we live in international environment and it's so good for our education, and "buddy-programme" based on the principle of respect and love to other cultures becomes a good tradition for our university. This is the platform for communicating and sharing we all really like.