Giving a talk in Russian

In School No. 47, an elementary school.

Vanessa's father is a Chinese. She is happy to learn some Chinese words.

My education in Chinese started from this word : ren! (people) . Most important thing in life is actually back to basics, how to be a good person and live well.

Explaining in Russian the essencee of Chinese words and the basic structure of the language. I need to practise more to be more confident.

I felt like a star. Thank you, all students.

My teacher was there to assist me in times of need.

Last week, I gave a short presentation in Russian to 30 Russian students in my university. They are students of my Head of Russian Language Department Mdm Larisa Nikolaievna. University students from year one till they graduate need to take Russian language lesson, this speaks volume how difficult this language is. I was initially quite nervous, but when I saw their friendly faces, I relaxed and be myself.

My teacher Irina Sergeevna spent 2 hours with me to rehearse how to speak and helped me with mistakes I made along the way. She said it does not matter if I do, most importantly it is the platform to speak the language. She even invite me to speak to school children about Chinese language. I would love to!

I was happy that the students responded warmly and rushed to answer my questions. It was really fun. And they asked many questions and I responded accordingly. I am very proud to be a Chinese, and I would help anybody to appreciate its beauty.

I said President Medvedev recently visited China and suggested that people of two countries should learn each other's language. I said I am doing my bit to help him to fulfill his wishes. Hopefully I would plant the seed of interest in our Russian students' minds, and maybe there will be one more student learning Chinese!

Today I was invited to speak in a primary school for students of the fourth standard. I realised I had to speak in a much different way when speaking to adults. It was still challenging. The students were very responsive and very interested in Chinese characters. They wrote everything they heard and saw on the white board attentively.

During the break, they all gathered around me and asked for my autograph, and some even asked me to write their names in Chinese. We have Masha, Dasha, Daniel and Alexis. Lovely students!

They also asked many questions. One asked me what is the staple food of Chinese. Another was interested to find out where exactly is Singapore. I also invited them to come to the white board to write the Chinese words, following the strict order of Chinese writing. They were thrilled, all raised their hands!

My teacher told them that my initial intention in learning Russian was to sing Russian songs, and next thing to happen was that I was already singing to them in Russian, "Katchusha". And I was glad that they all know the lyrics and we sang together!! And I also sang a children's song in Chinese, "当我们同在一起". They applauded warmly. Some were busy taking pictures of me.

Thanks to their teacher, Tamara Vitorevna for taking all these pictures today. One beautiful boy even came to me and meekly said, please come again and walked away. The other teachers spoke to my teacher and would like me to come again. Well I would be glad to do so.