Foreigners Take Lithuanian Language and Culture Courses at VMU
From 26 July to 19 August, the annual intensive Lithuanian Language and Culture Summer Courses for foreigners will be taking place at Vytautas Magnus University, attracting young people from all over the world to gather in Kaunas.
“Our land’s language and culture are attractive to the youth from not just the neighbouring countries – Latvia, Estonia, Poland – but also to those from more remote countries as well. More than forty guests from Europe and even Australia and the USA will come here to learn Lithuanian language and spend an enjoyable month in the summer courses”, Prof. Ineta Dabašinskienė, the Dean of the VMU Faculty of Humanities and head of the Lithuanian Language and Culture Summer Courses, said.
According to the head of the courses, this is a great opportunity to meet new people from around the world, talk and spend time with them, and at the same time learn Lithuanian language, which sounds exotic to foreigners. Paying regard to the differing Lithuanian language skills of the participants, the tradition of holding courses at various levels – beginner, intermediate, advanced – will continue this year.
Prof. Ineta Dabašinskienė claims that the courses provide students united by desire to learn a language and discover new culture with an opportunity to enrich their vocabularies, learn Lithuanian grammar, take part in discussions and find out a lot about our land’s unique culture, arts, history and politics.
Žydrūnė Žemaitytė, the Departmental Coordinator for International Relations at the VMU Faculty of Humanities, said that the month-long courses will be attended by “youth from 20 countries who want to learn Lithuanian. They will see historical places and museums of Kaunas. On the weekends, they will go to Vilnius, Trakai, Druskininkai, the small Lithuanian Switzerland – the town of Anykščiai – and other places. Lots of fun will come in the form of an international party with traditional songs, dances and dishes characteristic of various lands”.
The courses are organised for 13th year in a row. More than 350 people have already studied Lithuanian in the courses and received diplomas.