Dear colleagues
I have been following your discussion about cultural visits to Russia. We have
exactly the same difficulties here in Finland. Nowadays, it is difficult to
find cheap and reliable accomodation in St Petersburg and the bureaucracy
causes problems to exchange programmes if you would like to have family
accomodation.
Last autumn I was with a group of 19 adult education students in St Petersburg.
Most participants stayed at the hotel of Herzen State Pedagogical University, 7
stayed at a hotel and four students in a family. Invitations, visas and
registration caused us many problems, but we survived. The participants were
very satisfied with their stay in St Petersburg. The staff of Herzen university
organized the tuition, lunches and dinners as well as a many-sided cultural
programme. Click this link and have a look at some photos:
http://setka.tkukoulu.fi/verkkokurssi/kielisuihku.htm
My opinion is that cultural exchange and contacts to the target language
country/culture increase student motivation and improves the learning results.
Best wishes from
Anne Lindholm
Turku, Finland
http://www.tkukoulu.fi/~annelind/
|