Russian 101 Day

(left, back: RUS 101 students: Hunter Moxley, Lily Cho, Matthew Mangold (Rus 201), Doctor Anastasia Kotestkaya (Chair of the Russian department and RUS 101 instructor), Branndon Evans (a long time friend of the Russian Program from HPU), Tasia Wilkonson (RUS 311). Front, left: Peter Orte (Lecturer of Russian), Van Blevins (Me!), and Bronson Asam-Balicanta (Our program’s photographer), both from RUS 101)

It certainly has been a great start to the semester in Russian club! Having kicked off this

semester with introductions and a viewing of Leonid Gaidai’s The Diamond Arm, this week we had аn opportunity to participate in Russian 101 Day. There are students just beginning their journey into the Russian language, such as myself, and we were able to practice our newly acquired conversational abilities and vocabulary through games.  

Activities included word unscrambling; a game of charades, acting out vocabulary words; hangman, practicing the spelling of new words; and a game of go-fish to reinforce certain grammatical structures learned in class. It is also great to see more and more new people getting involved with the program every meeting! Every person has brought a unique cultural heritage and perspective: we have students that have come from as far as Washington D.C. Building a diverse community around our shared interest in the Russian language and culture is invaluable. Special thanks to Sonia (pictured center, below), the Russian program’s current intern, for such great ideas for games and a big thanks as well to all the participants!