Singing Russian Folk Songs at Manoa's International Education Week

RUS 209 Class with our teacher- Professor Mukhortova - after singing 4 Russian folk songs at the Campus Center

Last Tuesday (13 NOV 2018), my RUS 209 class participated in Manoa’s International Education Week. The events included in the program for Tuesday were Middle Eastern belly dancing, Indian Bollywood dancing, and Okinawan dancing. My class (Russian Phonetics) was responsible for singing Russian folk songs at the Manoa's Campus Center.

We basically had been preparing for this day since the very first class. In RUS 209 (Russian Phonetics), you can expect to start (almost) every class with singing. After a couple months, me and my classmates could sing about 6-7 well-known Russian folk songs. We chose 4 of our favorites to sing at International Education Week, along with two Russian folk games to play with the audience. And, by they way, we had to learn these songs by heart- no papers in front of us, no singing along with the professional recordings- we just belted these songs out from memory the best we could (And believe me, I have absolutely no talent for singing).

RUS 209 class getting ready to sing at Manoa's International Education Week

Singing to a crowd, right in the middle of campus, in a foreign language, is not the easiest of things to do. I was definitely more nervous than even I thought I would be, but I had this surreal moment of, like, “holy smokes, I’ve actually memorized and can sing Russian songs in public..” I mean, its still kind of blows my mind that I know these songs even though I’m a first-year student. So, yeah, overall a really exciting (perhaps a bit nerve-racking) and fun day for me. I hope that this increased confidence carries over to an increased willingness on my part to engage in speaking with native Russian speakers (which also makes me a bit nervous).

Here are some links to YouTube videos of the 4 songs we sang:

Kalinka / Калинка

Katyusha / Катюша

Moroz, Moroz / Ой, Мороз, Мороз

Миленький ты мой