Two HSE Students Win Prizes at Russia’s First Ever Arabic Language Competition
On December 13, Russia’s first ever Arabic Language Competition took place in Moscow with the support of the Qatar Embassy. Three students – two from HSE and one from MGIMO – won one-year scholarships at Qatar University for next year.
The Competition
The main objective of the competition is to find and encourage talented Russian students who study the Arabic language, as well as the history and culture of Arab nations.
With the support of the Embassy of Qatar in the Russian Federation, the HSE St. Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies organised the competition. The jury was headed by the embassy counsellor and consisted of 10 individuals, including representatives from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and several top universities. The head of the organising committee is Evgeny Zelenev, who is also the head of the HSE St. Petersburg Department of Asian and African Studies.
Contest participants included students in Arabic programmes at Russian universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Grozny, Kazan, Makhachkala, and Ufa. They learned about the competition from their professors after the organisers sent around information to key universities that teach Arabic.
Prize Recipients
The competition lasted one day and consisted of two parts – a written portion (the qualification round) and a listening portion (poem recitation in Arabic, a short story on a given topic, and detailed responses to questions about Qatar). Eighteen students made it to the listening portion, and the jury selected three winners. Their prize was a one-year scholarship to Qatar University.
Dinara Yanbekova (first place) and Anastasia Ter-Saakova (third) are both first-year students in the Demography master’s programme. Both girls graduated from HSE’s undergraduate programme in Asian and African Studies. Despite the change in direction, the two continue to improve their knowledge of Arabic and teach private courses on the language.
Shamil Dzhavtaev (second place) is a master’s student at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He completed his bachelor’s at the same school, majoring in international relations with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Shamil also changed his focus area in his masters, specialising in European economics, but he nonetheless continues to study Arabic.
© Ksenia Bregadze and Maria Svinoboeva/ HSE
The Challenges
‘Knowing the language was enough for us to participate in the competition,’ Anastasia Ter-Saakova explains. ‘The education we received at HSE ensured we speak Arabic fluently.’
The hardest part of the competition was the fact that participants had to demonstrate their cross-cultural knowledge in great detail, Dinara Yanbekova says. Students prepared by reading books and browsing the Internet to find out how the government of Qatar supports culture, what the country’s industrial achievements are, what the education and healthcare systems are like, where the territorial and administrative divisions are, and more.
‘It was difficult understanding the grammatical tasks,’ Shamil Dzhavtaev notes. ‘I studied grammar mostly through Russian textbooks, where all of the key grammatical terminology is given in Russian, but the competition was exclusively in Arabic. I knew some of the terms since I interned in Jordan and Morocco, but I still wasn’t used to the problems’ phrasing in Arabic.’
Shamil adds that the competition was a way to meet and share experiences with other Arabists from universities all around Russia.
Looking Ahead
The winners of the competition view their upcoming year abroad at Qatar University mostly as a way of perfecting their knowledge of the language and learning dialects. ‘This is one of the best universities in the Middle East,’ Dinara Yanbekova says. ‘Before, Qataris would travel to America and Europe to study, but then they started inviting professors from the best universities in the world to Qatar. The annual budget of Qatar’s education system is over $6 billion.’
The prize recipients have no doubt their year in Qatar will help them find future work.
Shamil wants to work for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but if such an opportunity does not present itself, he believes he can always find a job in the private sector thanks to his knowledge of Arabic. Dinara and Anastasia were already offered jobs as researchers with the HSE School of Asian Studies. ‘It might even be possible to combine our knowledge of Arabic and demography. We are both interested in research, and we’d like to stay in academia. The year abroad will help us understand what’s worth focusing on,’ Anastasia concludes.
The Arabic language is studied in the following HSE programmes:
See also:
Graduate of HSE University in St Petersburg Receives Award at ‘Chinese Bridge’ Competition in Beijing
In early September 2024, Anastasia Usyk, a graduate of the Bachelor’s Programme in Asian and African Studies at HSE University in St Petersburg, participated in the final round of the ‘Chinese Bridge’ International Language Competitionin Beijing, where she won the first prize in online voting and received the Audience Award and the Award for Most Outstanding Performance. She spoke about her experience in the competition,her studies and future plans in an interview with HSE News Service.
Charming East: HSE University Hosts Anniversary Oriental Crazy Day 2024
At the end of May, HSE University hosted the traditional Oriental Crazy Day. This year the holiday was held for the tenth time. For students, this is an opportunity to show their talents on stage, take part in fortune-telling with the Book of Changes, and learn more about the diversity of Asian cultures as well as the bachelor’s programme ‘Asian and African Studies.’
Tea Ceremony, Naruto and Norigae: HSE Celebrates Year of the Green Wood Dragon
On the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice, the HSE Cultural Centre welcomed admirers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures. HSE students, teachers, and guests celebrated the Lunar New Year with South Korean hit songs and popular anime openings. They attended calligraphy and origami classes, tried regional sweets, and had Far Eastern teas. The festival ended with a big concert.
Oriental Crazy Day 2023: Photos with Panda, Calligraphy and Oriental Hospitality
On May 21, HSE School of Asian Studies organised their traditional Oriental Crazy Day for 2023. Prospective students learnt more about HSE degree programmes and admission process, and met with students and university teachers at the ‘Meeting under the Stars’ held at the HSE Cultural Centre.
‘Asian Studies is a New High Tech for Russia’
Russia's pivot to the East requires balanced actions, as well as knowledge of the languages, cultures, and traditions of Asian countries. Without this, Russian businesses will not be able to work there effectively. Experts and government representatives discussed the issue and the experience of Russia's regions working in Asia at ‘The Pivot to the East: The Regional Dimension’, the first interregional conference held by HSE University with the support of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.
Talking Chinese, Writing Articles, and Drinking Tea: What Chinese Club Students Did this Year
The HSE Chinese Student Club at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs School of Asian Studies has completed its 2021/22 season. Its participants and organisers talked to the HSE News Service about how they discuss China’s socio-economic, political, and cultural development as part of the club’s events.
Asian Studies—An Essential Subject for Students of Different Specialisations
Russian society demonstrates a growing interest in Asia and North Africa, with economic, social, political and cultural expectations associated with the macro-region. What is more, demand for educational programmes and competencies related to Asian and African studies is projected to grow in Russian universities. HSE Vice Rector Sergey Roshchin and the heads of relevant HSE departments explain the university’s past and current efforts to respond to these challenges.
Japanese Theatre, Dance and Calligraphy at Oriental Crazy Day 2022
Oriental Crazy Day is a traditional festival of the School of Asian Studies, which has been held at HSE University for eight years. This time, Asian Studies students taught guests Chinese calligraphy, Arabic script, Yemeni dancing and origami. They were also introduced to kabuki theatre and traditional Japanese drums.
Pivot to the East: A Comprehensive Study of the Cultural and Civilisational Centres of the Non-Western World is the Top Priority
China and the Chinese world, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and Africa are gaining new significance in Russia’s foreign policy. However, we do not know enough about the Eastern countries. It is necessary to change the priorities in education, starting from grammar school. Prospects for the development of domestic Oriental studies in the context of the new stage in the development of the system of international relations were discussed at a round table at HSE University.
Scientists Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Communicate. It’s Time to Speak Out
Aleksey Maslov, Professor at HSE University’s School of Asian Studies and one of its founders, has become a super-media persona this year. This is due to major interest in China amid the pandemic and Beijing’s strained relationship with Washington. In the column ‘HSE University Scientists’, Aleksey Maslov explains how to keep up with everything (spoiler: Shaolin Monastery!), why Russian science has become a ‘fossil’, what scientists should do for self-promotion and why it’s important to look good at the same time.