Students’ scientific works in foreign languages were presented at the eleventh scientific practical students, postgraduates and young researchers conference “To Make the World Smarter and Safer” that took place in March 2017. It is organized by the Language Centre of Foreign Languages Department at Sumy State University and helps young researchers to draw attention to the advancements in the field of Information Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Medicine and Humanities. This year a big part of the conference was dedicated to intercultural communication, its peculiarities, problems and ways to solve them. The invited speakers were a Peace Corps volunteer Benjamin Geoffrey Stewart and a volunteer from Center for Euroinitiatives Sebatian Wankiewicz. The languages of the conference were English, German, French, Ukrainian.

The students who major in Advertising under the guidance of the instructor of the department Natalia Usenko successfully completed the course of Professional English and performed final projects dedicated to the creation of their own brands, logos and developed advertising strategies for them. Their works can be looked through by this link https://elearning.sumdu.edu.ua/s/b2-dmw

The instructor of the Foreign languages department Oksana Hladchenko and a Peace Corps volunteer Benjamin Geoffrey Stewart took part in the Peace Corps seminar on Project Management. They developed their own project “Increasing the awareness of Sumy pensioners on healthy and socially active life style”.

International badminton tournament among amateurs and sports veterans took place in Kyiv on March 3-5, 2017. 169 sportsmen from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, India, Malaysia etc. The instructor of Foreign languages department Oksana Hladchenko presented Sumy State University and took the first place in the age group 45+.

Teambuliding is one of the main tasks of the Foreign languages department. Winter events to stimulate effective teamwork included celebrating the New Year and Masliana, team skiing and joint work in different projects. The staff of the department is looking forward to the spring holidays and events to increase the unity of the staff.

Love to music and the guitar have united two nations and cultures: American and Ukrainian. On February, 16 English Speaking Club with Benjamin Jeoffrey Stewart turned into a guitar evening. The participants of the club enriched their vocabulary, and emotions made learning English easy and enjoyable. Benjamin and the students sang Ukrainian and American famous songs. Someone has taken guitar into hands for the first time on that day, someone shared the experience accumulated for years. The next music club is going to be dedicated to Blues, which comes from the USA. Music became the language of intercultural communication, and love to different genres inspired the musicians to have more rehearsals and meetings.

The project proposed by the Foreign languages department “Intercultural Communication” has won funding in the Pitching of projects at Sumy State University. The presentation of creative initiatives was held by the student-self-governing office of Sumy State University alongside with The British Council (Ukraine). The authors of the project are instructors of the Foreign languages department Svitlana Mikhno, Viktoriia Kurochkina, Svitlana Zolotova and the students of the Language Centre scientific laboratory Kateryna Korzh, Oleksandra Tveresovska, Kateryna Shamkalo, Iryna Shvetsova, Stanislav Smolenko, Illia Sovenko, Diana Kozlova and others.

The project aims at providing students, instructors and schoolchildren with information and skills necessary for successful intercultural communication in a foreign language (English). The events included in the project are going to help avoid isolation from other cultures as well as overcome the difficulties arising in the process of communication with representatives of a different culture and native speakers, and enhance intercultural tolerance.

We congratulate our winners and wish them success!

In order to find new Ukrainian leaders and develop leadership skills of students the Department of Foreign Languages has implemented new project ‘Student Leadership Office in Foreign Languages’ which starts on February 8^th2017. The working languages of the Office are English, German, Ukrainian, Russian and French.

We invite you to our meetings taking place every Wednesday (except holidays and weekends), the main language of Student Leadership Office is English.

February 8^th, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – Mini-training on the development of communication skills.

February 15^th, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – Model UN, the ecological situation in the world, mini-speeches.

February 22^nd, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – The World Economic Forum, mini-speeches.

March 1^st, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – Globalization, debate.

March 9^th, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – Interaction between cultures, intercultural tolerance, debate.

March 15^th, 12:50, Room 1208 (SSU Main Building) – Never, never give up, real life stories.

The year of English in Ukraine presented us with a new teacher: English will be taught to students by an American volunteer Benjamin Geoffrey Stewart. The American Peace Corps volunteer will work at the department of foreign languages for two years. This will facilitate the development of students’ communicative abilities in foreign languages and also broaden their world view. Also the instructors will be able to implement the innovative methodology of Team Teaching. We ourselves hope that the volunteer will successfully and easily integrate into our culture with the help of our department and students.

Benjamin has already acquainted himself with the city of Sumy, the community and his colleagues and has established a cooperation with the department. On December 7 he swore in along with 74 other volunteers at the Ukrainian House in Kyiv and performed the national anthems of both Ukraine and the USA.

This not the first time that the department has cooperated with a Peace Corps volunteer. Two other Americans worked here with us, John Clifton from 1998 to 2000 and Thomas Dorgan from 2000 to 2003.

This is the third time a volunteer from Peace Corps Ukraine starts working as an English teacher at Foreign languages department of Sumy State University. John Clifton was the first in 1998-2000, Thomas Dorgan took his turn in 2000-2003, and in 2016 we welcome Benjamin Stewart.