“French skinner" means... Francysk Skaryna to Chinese students !

120913 Martynovi4 Zamegniki.mp3

I met a Chinese student near the Philological Faculty of BSU. I repeated all my questions several times because the future philologist could not understand them:

Den Tzyunfei: “It is a bit difficult. Sometimes teachers speak too quickly. In general, it is not difficult to take notes. We have very few Belarusian friends. It may be because we do not have a  good command of Russian".

A BSU teacher of Russian, Katsyaryna, speaks to Chinese students slowly and distinctly. Then they can understand her.  

 “The main problem is the grammar. They learn to speak quickly. We had to expel a Chinese student last year - he could not understand anything, he only knew three words. It is easier for Turkmen because they study Russian at school". - explains Katsyaryna.

Foreigners can officially repeat their exams thrice. But they are allowed to repeat exams more times because they have problems with the language.

Foreigners must take notes in Russian. And then Chinese students speak about some "French skinner" at exams.

Katsyaryna: “A first-year student came to repeat his exam for the fifth time. I told him to chose any topic he liked. He said that he only knew about some "French skinner". I took pity on him and told him to go on. And he started telling me about... Francysk Skaryna”.

As Euroradio has already informed, about 600 students from Turkmenistan study in BSU. It is only a quarter of all foreign students there.

Photo by: flikr.com