The major benefits to join our summer program are as follows:
1) We organize an exciting cultural, social and excursion program for
international participants of the camp, which is a very enriching
experience. You will be involved in interaction with the Russian children,
youth and adults all the time. This is the kind of experience you will never
get if you go as a tourist. The camp lives a full cultural and social life.
In addition to language and culture studies we also offer sports,
intellectual games, quizzes, entertaining activities, shows, performances,
presentations, parties, discos, etc.
2) You will gain a first-hand experience of the Russian culture and life
style and particularly the Siberian one. They say if you want to know what
real Russia is like you should go to Siberia.
3) This is a not-for-profit program. Participation fee covers expenses on
accommodation and ALL meals, and tuition fee for students as well. If you
come to Russia (Siberia) on your own or through a travel agency you will
spend much more money compared to what you would pay to participate in our
program. Participating in our program you won't need much pocket money, just
maybe some to buy souvenirs and gifts to take back home. All the local
services (airport pick-up, local transportation, excursions)
are provided by our school without any additional payment.
4) International participants attend Russian languages classes every day.
Russian classes are taught by well-educated native speakers trained to teach
foreigners. Students are placed in a group according to their level of
Russian. No previous knowledge of Russian is required. We will also be happy
to arrange courses on the Russian culture, history, music, etc., if
required.
5) We are dedicated to providing a student with the most excellent
supervision possible. All the students are supervised and each group has a
group leader who is normally responsible for between 10 - 15 students and
stays with the group 24 hours a day. Everyone can expect a warm, supportive
and friendly atmosphere along with professional service. Our goal is that a
student has the most enjoyable and worthwhile experience possible during the
stay with us. We are determined to ensure that everyone benefits fully from
the interaction with other students and the staff. The Head of Studies,
Psychologist, the Social Program Coordinator and the Program Director are
constantly monitoring the program to assure that everyone is enjoying the
stay and taking advantage of the many activities offered by the school.
Parents are allowed to the program.
6) You will meet people from other countries who are going to participate in
this program and this is a very interesting experience. Many of our former
foreign participants keep in touch with each other after the program and
even visit each other in all the different countries.
7) We also offer excursion packages which include trips to Moscow, St.
Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Lake Baikal, the Altai Mountains,
TransSiberian Railroad, 'Welcome to Siberia' program. All the details and
tour descriptions are available at request.
8) If you are planning a trip to Russia and would like to consider our
program you should take into consideration that if you do go to Russia you
will need an invitation to receive the Russian visa in any case. All travel
agencies and tourist companies charge for an invitation. As far as our
program is concerned, you won't have to pay anything extra for the official
invitation form that you will need to get the Russian visa. We provide all
our foreign participants with the invitation and arrange their registration
on arrival.
I can assure you of a very warm welcome that all our foreign participants receive. We do have a web site but it is currently being re-edited and updated and you may not have access to some of its sections. However, the update of the International Summer Language School (CAMP) section on our web site has almost been finished. You can also see the photos from the past years summer programs in the 'Photo Album' section (which is at the bottom of the main menu on the homepage). The link to the site is http://cosmo.qc.nov.net/ . Sorry for the inconveniences caused by the site update.
This CAMP program is scheduled during the summer. However, if some of your students would like to consider planning a trip to Russia during the school year we will be happy to arrange for them a homestay style Russian studies program in the city of Novosibirsk. We will also be delighted to offer a Russian studies program that could be incorporated into your university's study-abroad plan.
Please let me kow if you are interested in finding out more about our programs and would be willing to consider them as a possibility for your students, and I will be happy to provide the detailed information on any of the programs and discuss this matter further. I look forward to hearing from you and remain hopeful that we will be able to establish a worthwhile co-operation. I will very much appreciate it if you could forward the information on our program to your students, colleagues and other people who may be inyterested in attending.
Regards,
Natasha Bodrova,
Director of International Language School "Cosmopolitan",
Novosibirsk, Russia
cosmopolitan@online.nsk.su
cosmoschool2@mail.ru