The intensive Lithuanian language course for beginners (A1 level) at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty was held on 4 January-2 February. The course included cultural lectures, tours, visits to museums, parties and lots of discoveries with students from different countries learning together.
"This winter, the course welcomed 21 participants from different countries: Kazakhstan, Sakartvelo, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and even Uruguay. Three participants from Uruguay and Hungary were of Lithuanian origin," says Rita Baranauskienė, Associate Professor at the Institute of Languages, Literature and Translation Studies, who is the head of the project. According to her, all the participants of the course were happy not only to learn Lithuanian, but also to get acquainted with the Lithuanian culture.
The lecturers of the course, Associate Professors Saulutė Juzelėnienė and Eglė Gabrėnaitė, say that learning Lithuanian for foreigners is not an easy but interesting challenge. The results of their teamwork are really pleasing: from the difficult grammar, to the seemingly impenetrable pronunciation, to the intricate accentuation laws – all difficulties can be gradually overcome when the work is accompanied by good emotions and motivation.
"During the first days of the course, some students dared to say only 'hello', and at the end, they were able to converse in Lithuanian, even if not completely correctly, but boldly," said Associate Professor Eglė Gabrėnaitė.
To create unique experiences for the course participants, activities such as "Taste the language" were organised. During the event, participants drank Lithuanian tea, tasted Lithuanian cottage cheese with home-cooked jam, Šakotis and other delicacies. "The participants of the course really appreciated the Lithuanian cottage cheese and wanted to bring it back home as a souvenir," says Juzelėnienė, who is delighted to be able to spread the word about the Lithuanian quisine.
Among the traditional activities is a tour to the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum. This institution is a social partner of the study programme Lithuanian Philology and Advertising run at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty, so the Museum's tour guide, Tadas Jakubauskas, is already well-known and understands the needs of the Faculty community. "We also enjoyed a warm welcome at the J. Tumas-Vaižgantas Memorial Apartment-Museum," says Rita Baranauskienė, one of the course lecturers. She believes that a warm welcome, interactive and sensory experience is particularly motivating for students to learn the language. The film "Trail of Angels" left an unforgettable impression on the foreign students, who, after watching it, better understood the symbolism of the artist's paintings discussed by the guide at the M. K. Čiurlionis Museum.
"The participants were also impressed by the meeting with the street artist Vytenis Jakas. His interesting and engaging story about the beginning of the 'Kiemo galerija', its history, and each work of street art left no one indifferent," says Rita Baranauskienė. She is convinced that such experiences are the most valuable, because they show, by real example, how open talk can dissolve the alienation between people all over the world, starting with oneself and one's own backyard.
The course is also special because new experiences bring together people from very different countries . In the programme, they not only tasted Lithuanian food, but also made it themselves, and in the workshops, they learned about Lithuanian ethnic culture and customs, sang and learned dance steps together with the folklore ensemble "Uosinta". At the Musical Instruments Museum, participants not only learned about traditional Lithuanian instruments, but also had the chance to play and try them out, and learn Lithuanian folk dances. During their visit to the Kaunas State Philharmonic, they learned more about the Modernistic architecture of Kaunas, the features of Art Deco style, the history of the building, and listened to a rehearsal of the performers.
The students of the Lithuanian Language and Culture Course assured that they would definitely recommend this course to their friends.
The course is organised within the framework of the Education Exchanges Support Foundation project.
We invite members of Lithuanian diaspora wordwide, foreign university students, lecturers and scholars to spend a winter or summer month in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Language and Culture Course provides an opportunity to learn the Lithuanian language for free, to get acquainted with the culture and history of Lithuania and Kaunas city in particular, and to network with participants from around the world.