On November 9, 2022, there was held an international web meeting organized by the Department of Language and Intercultural Communication of the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Kazan Federal University (Russia) in collaboration with Partap College of Education (India).

It was a great idea to organize a joint webinar on the topic “Cultural Corner. India and Russia: A Tale of Two Civilizations” on October 27, 2022 for students and teachers of the Department of Language and Intercultural Communication of the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Kazan Federal University (Russia) and Partap College of Education (India). The participants had a good opportunity to enjoy the cultural aspects of Russian and Indian societies. The theme of the webinar turned out to be so relevant that it was not surprising that a follow up web meeting, scheduled for November 9-th, continued a talk on this topic.

The agenda included the Introduction part that explained the purpose of the web meeting: to provide a deeper understanding of two nations – Russia and India – with their rich history and culture; a Talk on the topic which presupposed students and teachers’ exchange of questions/ answers; and the Conclusion part.

The meeting opened with a presentation of two short videos prepared by Russian and Indian students, which introduced the topic under discussion – RUSSIA-INDIA: OPENING NEW PAGES OF TWO ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS, and provided, in some respects, answers to the following questions:

Why should we need to know and keep our traditions, preserve our language, culture and history?

Why and how should we, educators, teach patriotism?

What doest it mean to be a patriot?

During one hour students were firing questions and were doing their best to give answers to them. It was, on the one hand, exciting and challenging, and on the other hand, interesting and informative.

We are sure students learnt a lot of new things about each other’s culture and history.

It was also important for students to hear teachers’ viewpoints on the discussed issues: professors of both institutions Balwant Singh, Manpreet Kaur, Balwinder Kaur, Tatiana Pimenova. The question of teaching patriotism in schools and colleges/ universities appeared an urging issue.

All the participants agreed that web meetings play a great role and contribute to developing a greater understanding of each other’s cultural and educational systems and a more internationalized perspective on teaching and learning processes.

Source of information: Balwinder Kaur, Tatiana Pimenova