AIRA adds one more foreign language class called “Russian Salon”, apart from the present six language classes, namely English, French, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. （No.22-6)
Date and Time : Sunday, July 24, 2022 13:30 ~ 15:00
Venue : Abiko Civic Plaza Meeting Room #2
Participants : 3 members, 2 observers, 1 guest (an Abiko resident from Russia) Total 6 people
Millions of Ukrainians have been evacuated from their country to its neighboring countries since Russia’s invasion to Ukraine started on February 24. As Abiko City has possibilities of accepting evacuated Ukrainians if requested, AIRA also considers measures to support those people.
AIRA started to prepare for opening the Russian class on March 30, 2022, based on the premise that “Abiko City would have possibilities to accept the evacuated Ukrainians. Due to the similarities of the two languages of Ukraine and Russian, people of the two countries are able to communicate each other to a certain degree. Therefore, AIRA decided to open the Russian Salon, assuming that studying Russian, which is used more widely than Ukrainian, will help to communicate with evacuated Ukrainians in Russian”.
The Salon started with the three people on June 19, who shared the same idea.
The meeting this time was the second one led by Mr. Ohishi, leader of the salon. Decided the current purpose of this group at the last meeting, the members discussed details of the support they would extend this time.
The members had some experience with Russia from the past to the present; Mr. Ohishi keeps on studying Russian, the other Japanese member stayed in Ukraine and Russia, and the last member, a foreigner speaking Tajik, has a good command of Russian.
The observers, having experiences of having studied Russian or having enjoyed short stays in Russia, were interested in Russia. Therefore, all participants were highly motivated in studying the language, which would give them a lot of chances to speak Russian.
The Russian Salon is to be held once a month. Please inquire AIRA secretarial if you are interested in studying Russian or supporting evacuated Ukrainians.
(Translated by Ms.KOYAMA Hitomi)
