Tomsk State University has developed a system that allows relatives and family members of students to come to Tomsk and live here together with their offsprings, as well as learn Russian language and get acquainted with the ancient Siberian city and Russian culture.
What do you think, what is the average age of the students of the TSU Pre-Courses Department? It is logical to assume that they are around 17 or 18 years old, and these are yesterday's schoolchildren who plan to enter Russian universities in a year. In fact, this is not entirely true. Middle-aged and even older adults often study at the preparatory courses of Tomsk State University.
“In my experience, some students were over 60 years old, and one of them, a polyglot priest, was 78 years old,” says senior lecturer at the Faculty of Philology and the Pre-Courses Department of TSU, Darya Gorbunova. “This year, we started working on the program For Parents or, more broadly, for families of our students. It often happens that a person who decides to get an education abroad already has a diploma from their homecountry, sometimes even work experience, as well as a family.
For example, mother of one of the TSU students from Haiphong, Vietnam is now a Pre-Courses Department student. Huong arrived in September and had time to see the city, visit several exhibitions in the local history museum and apply for a Russian language course.
There aren't many classes in the special course for relatives of foreign students, only one per week, but Huong is a bright and dedicated student. She can already read quite well and understand Russian speech by ear: she can ask for directions in the city, tell what she knows, what she does not know and where she came from. Within a few days after her arrival, Huong went shopping on her own and went to classes in the academic building, which is a few blocks away from the dormitory.
“The next day after the first lesson, we went to the local history museum, and at the exhibition of Siberian animals Huong began to read the names of animals and birds herself, this is very impressive!” Daria notes.
Pre-courses Department VK page: https://vk.com/prep_tsu
You can apply and learn more about the list of courses on the website of the TSU Pre-Courses Department.