On May 28, 2025, the Regional and Country Studies Salon of the School of Foreign Studies was successfully held in Room 112, Building 41. This session featured Russia as the theme country and was hosted by Mr. Zhang Wenzhi, a postgraduate counselor at the School of Foreign Languages. The salon specially invited Ms. Elena Volkova, Russian language foreign teacher, as the keynote speaker. Russian language teachers Sun Huan, Wang Ying, and Li Jiaqi, along with more than 20 students from different grades and majors, actively participated in the event.

During the event, Ms. Elena Volkova delivered a comprehensive sharing session on Russian life and culture, focusing on Russian artists, artworks, traditional cuisine, and etc. This sparked the students’ interest in Russian culture.

As a symbol of ice and snow culture, Russia is also a neighboring country of Heilongjiang Province and an important partner of China on the international stage. Conducting regional and country-specific exchanges on Russian culture is conducive to strengthening friendly interactions between Chinese and Russian students. Throughout the event, teachers and students were gentle and friendly, asking Ms. Elena Volkova about Russian culture while also showing care for her adaptation to life in China.

In addition, the salon included a cultural experience session, where each student personally tried making a traditional Russian dish — Blini. While enjoying the process of preparing the food, everyone also took the opportunity to share aspects of Chinese food culture with Ms. Elena Volkova, creating a small cross-cultural exchange between the two countries. Through this activity, the students deepened their understanding of Russia and gained valuable cross-cultural communication experience.

The successful organization of this salon provided students with a platform to engage closely with Russian culture and the Russian language, while also outlining a promising prospect for the further development of the school’s regional and country studies programs. Each session of the “Regional and Country Studies Salon” features a different theme country, conducting in-depth discussions with experts or international students from the theme country through diverse activities. It enables participants to experience the cultural characteristics of the country, enhances students’ understanding of diverse cultures, strengthens exchanges and interactions between China and other countries as well as between teachers and students, and improves students’ cross-cultural communication competence.

Following the salons themed on Algeria and France, this event marked the third session in the “Regional and Country Studies Salon” series. In the future, the School of Foreign Languages will continue to organize these salons, inviting more experts and international students from various countries to share and exchange ideas. This will provide students with more diverse academic resources and a broader platform for interaction, further expanding their international horizons and enhancing their cross-cultural communication skills.