Recitation contest ‘Simple Words’

Students from different countries study at our university. Each has its own unique culture, history, traditions and, of course, language. Eleven students from China, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Belarus took part in the competition.

To take part in the recitation contest, participants chose an excerpt from a work or a poem in their native language. The contestants performed poems by famous authors about their homeland, love, their mother tongue and spring.

Rachele Ngoyi Mutombo from Democratic Republic of Congo: ‘It was really great, I was very happy to take part in the recital contest in my mother tongue (French), which is one of our 4 languages in the Democratic Republic of Congo.’

Nancy Djembe Dato from Democratic Republic of the Congo: ‘I would like to express my gratitude for the confidence I have been given. I am honoured to have had the opportunity to participate in the competition. We enjoyed it very much and we were very impressed. We can't wait to experience moments like this again.’

Vladimir Vulovic from Republic of Serbia: ‘It was a wonderful event to honour our mother tongue! We came together to celebrate the beauty and importance of our cultures through the languages that unite us. During the event, we shared our stories, traditions, and pride in our heritage. It was inspiring to see each of us express our love for our native language.’

The Belarusian language speakers were students of the speciality ‘Social Communications’ Ekaterina Dudareva, Natalia Kastruk, Anna Timacheva, Nikita Balyuk, student of the speciality ‘Electronic Marketing’ Daria Tkachenko, as well as Nadezhda Boreiko, Associate Professor of the Department of Business Accounting and Finance, Logistics and Management.

Natalia Kastruk from Republic of Belarus: ‘I got great pleasure from presenting a poem to such an amazing audience. I really enjoyed the performances of foreign students, especially remembered the beautiful performance in Serbian, I was also surprised by the beauty of the French language.’

Nikita Balyuk from Republic of Belarus: ‘I really hope that this will become a good tradition and people from different countries will get together and recite their favourite poems in their native language. I got a tremendous pleasure from participation, no other competition in which I have participated in terms of atmosphere can be compared with what I saw and felt today.’

Anna Timacheva's poem ‘What do we waste time on?’ was awarded a diploma.

Anna Timacheva from Republic of Belarus: ‘Only recently I had no idea what I was writing poetry for, but today I was lucky enough to share my creativity and take part in the recitation contest ‘Simple Words’.

For a long time, I couldn't decide on the theme of the poem, but I wanted to motivate the participants and guests of the event, which I hope I managed to do, thanks to my poem ‘What do we waste time on?’.

I am very glad that I became the winner and received nice gifts. For the beginning of a writing career, I think it is a very good start. It was unexpected and pleasant to listen to poems written by foreign students in their native language.’

As part of the joint educational programme of the Euphrosyne Polotskaya State University of Polotsk and the Tashkent State University of Economics, the joint faculty has a large number of students from Uzbekistan, who also took an active part in the creative competition. Temurbek Eshmurodov presented the history of his nation, Abdurakhmon Bakhromov not only recited poems in Uzbek, but also demonstrated an excellent command of Russian, performing a poem by Alexander Pushkin, ‘I Remember a Wonderful Moment...’

The winner of the competition was Abdurakhmon Bakhromov, a student of the joint faculty (Republic of Uzbekistan): ‘Thank you all for appreciating my hard work and efforts so highly. Of course, at first there was excitement, but after seeing the performances of other students, I became proud of my native language and people. And of course, special thanks to the dean, vice-dean and my supervisor for the chance to show my creative side.’