One of my favourite phrases: “Literacy – light and illiteracy – darkness. After some years, and experience I came to conclusion that without higher education, it is extremely difficult to go through life. However, everything depends on the goals, that have been set, and main activity that we chose to do till the retirement. In my opinion, higher education broadens personal outlook. Besides this, higher education gives an opportunity to obtain desired and well – paid occupation. In addition to this, this degree says about certain status in hierarchy of our society.
Due to certain circumstances, I had an opportunity to study in one of the most prestigious universities of Poland – Warsaw University. Frankly speaking, it is still difficult to imagine how will go there (I have just started my first year at this university). The reason of my worries are fear of something unknown, language barrier, understanding that the only way to pass examination is hard study and no other option is possible. However, in spite of all mentioned worries there are also positive moments, which bring me excitement and courage. These moments will be further explained in details.
During the first year of education in Poland, I have already received a huge amount of knowledge. Taking into account that the way of education was relatively interactive, this knowledge has been acquired very easily. Every lesson lecturers and administration of learning center made various presentation, quizzes and competitions. Besides this, obligatory program also included weekly film show of polish “golden collection”. By watching these films, students get familiar with famous directors, actors and practiced language.
The students were all very friendly and that was the most interesting personally for me. We had an opportunity to talk with people from very different countries, such as India, USA, China, Nepal, France, Mongolia, Israel, etc. We exchanged information about national customs, cooked national dishes (once a week we tried to visit each other’s homes in order to try something new and usually tasty for ourselves).
Returning to study, I would like to note that the study plan even included the distribution of copies of famous paintings by various artists, and an explanation of their meanings. However, in my opinion, this did not bring great excitement to the class. The real excitement for all students were teachers, who demonstrated their real love to their work. They truly believe in their students and in their mission. They do all the best to motivate students to attend classes and actively participate in conversations or assigned tasks. Xun Zi said: “There is no quicker way to master the knowledge, than a sincere love for the wise teacher.”
Anastasiya Eremenkova