Russian as a Foreign Language Competition: A test of Perseverance and Dedication

On the 4th of April, there was an Competition “Russian as a Foreign Language” at the International Institute of Economics and Linguistics of ISU. The concept of this Competition was Family with its sub topics of types, values, benefits, traditions. This topic attracted and inspired the organizers of the Competition following the declaration of the 2024 as a “Year of family” by the President of Russia Mr. Vladimir Putin. Hence, in this article I will discuss my experience participating in the Competition, and what I learned from it.

The Competition is a prestigious and quite challenging competition for students of all levels. The competition was structured in 4 categories which are A1 (elementary level), A2 (basic level), B1 (I certification level) and B2 (II certification level). Students from countries such as Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Niger, Republic of Togo, Egypt, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ivory Coast, Indonesia and China were participated in the event. These students were coming from different Irkutsk universities: INRTU, ISU, BSU, ISMU, IrGUPS, IrSAU named after A. A Ezhevsky. Every student was ready to unhilate the knowledge obtained from language faculties. In short, the Russian as a Foreign Language Competition is an intensive and rewarding experience for those who are willing to put in time and effort to succeed.

In order to prepare for the competition, I had to spend several hours studying and revising Russian grammar, vocabulary and few aspects of Russian culture, that I had been taught. I spent at least 2 hours daily trying to revise grammar focusing on the difficult Russian cases and verb tenses. I also read short Russian stories from the website, that I was recommended by miss Ekaterina Karpets and Anastasia Orlova, my teachers. My preparation helps a lot during the competition as I felt confidential, answering the grammar and other questions there were asked. However, it was quite difficult with the listening and speaking parts, as they required a much more improve and impressive level of proficiency, which is something that I am still working on.

Moreover, my experience participating in competition “Russian as a Foreign Language Competition” helped me develop a positive and deeper desire to understand Russian language at the same time, injecting a self-motivational vibe towards the language, since I felt glad and confidential, when I was answering what I knew and mustered. I participated in the A1 (elementary level) and as for me it was fair, since it was my first time to indulge in such a competition. We were over 20 students from different universities and countries. I was afraid due to the numbers, but as soon as the Competition started, I became calm and confident. However, in every competition there is the best not everyone can win. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it. 

The first place in the A1 competition was taken by Lee Chen of the hosting faculty (MIEL ISU), the second by Kouassi Nguessan Affu Ermin (ISMU) and the third by Assogba Semevo Magloirw (BSU). For A2 competition the first place was taken by Isfandiyor Saidbegovich Kurbonov (ISMU), second by lziybayar Oyu-Erdene (MIEL ISU) and third was shared by Wang Qixiang (IFYAM ISU) and Li Xiaobo (BSU). For B1 level first position was shared by Shao Minghao (IFYAM ISU) and Enkhtur Emuuzhin (IrGUPS), second was taken by Tan Yali (BSU) and third by Liang Liang (BSU) and Azimkhan Zhanerke (IFYAM ISU). For B2 level first position was taken by Liu Chao (IFYAM ISU), second by Wei Zhizhong (MIEL ISU) and third by Xu Mengmeng (IFYAM ISU). As a result of not qualifying in top 3, I was motivated to work harder for future Competitions and improve my communication skills. I also got a certificate for participating and got acquainted to different young people which in a way brought a smile on my face as I enjoyed every moment of the conversations.

Furthermore, despite my struggles with the listening and speaking, the most thing I learned from the competition, was the importance of perseverance and dedication. Even though I did not win, I learned that hard work and determination are the keys to success, no matter how far you want to go. For instance, in grammar part of the competition, I was stumped by a particular question, that was revolving around one of the six cases. However, I didn't give up and instead I used gained knowledge from my months of studying to work through the problem. I may not have gotten the answer correct, but I learned, that perseverance can take you far, even when you face difficult challenges.

In a nutshell, Russian as a Foreign Language Competition was a challenging, but rewarding life experience. I learned the importance of perseverance, dedication, hard work and importance of interacting with other students from countries, manipulating the desire to explorer the language. Although, I didn't win the Competition, I am proud of the effort, I put in lessons, I learned along the way. All thanks to my Russian Language tutors miss Karpets Ekaterina Vladimirovna and Miss Orlova Anastasia Andreevna for informing me about such an interesting competition, and lastly thanks to the organizers of the Competition!