Russian, along with English, is an official working language of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. While English has traditionally served as a universal way of international scientific communication, Russian remains a key tool for integrating specialists from abroad into the scientific and cultural life of Dubna. In autumn 2024, in order to help employees overcome the language barrier that complicates their social and professional adaptation, the JINR University Centre established the Russian Speaking Club, a platform where the language is mastered through practicing live communication.

The format of classes at the club is different from the classical academic approaches. The weekly meetings, organized in a comfortable informal atmosphere, combine both usual theoretical classes on the lexical and grammatical foundations of the language and interactive formats: thematic discussions, cultural orientation workshops, and communicative, linguistic, and other educational board games in Russian. This approach helps to model socio-cultural contacts, teach teamwork, improve language practice, and develop deeper awareness of language acquisition.

The club’s programme covers the following range of communicative tasks: from mastering everyday dialogues to developing soft skills and skills that facilitate effective, high-quality professional activities. As part of the practical exercises, participants engage in role-playing exercises simulating both everyday situations (for example, shopping or conflict resolution) and work-related cases (discussing research results and the correctly asking a question at a scientific seminar or conference). As the teacher and methodologist Lyra Yarullina emphasised, the key principle of the club’s work is to model real communicative contexts, which ensures that the participants not just rote learn the vocabulary, but to timely apply it in work and social situations.

“Even those participants who recently started learning Russian from scratch are already showing remarkable success,” Lyra Yarullina said. “In the first few months, they mastered the basic vocabulary, learned how to answer basic questions and build simple sentences”. The teacher noted she is sure that the club members’ skills will only improve.

The Russian Speaking Club unites more than 30 representatives of different cultures. Participants from China, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Iran, Mongolia, Romania, South Africa, and Vietnam have the opportunity not only to improve their language skills, but also to exchange experiences and valuable knowledge with like-minded people.

“I found out about the club from my Cuban colleagues, and I find it great!” a research intern at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics at JINR Silvia Fortune Fabregas (Cuba) admits. “The classes help overcome the language barrier in a variety of situations: from discussing technical issues with JINR employees to having informal conversations with friends or even random passer-by. Every meeting here is always new knowledge”.

“Try to start slow. The key to success is gradually memorising new words and grammar structures,” a club member, research fellow at the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems at JINR Amer Hassan (Egypt) advises. “It is important to understand that the process of learning helps you deeper understand Russian culture.”

One of the main initiators of the club’s creation was UC Director Dmitry Kamanin . According to him, this project was conceived as a permanent platform for all employees who want to improve their conversational skills in Russian. “Club meetings will undoubtedly help the socio-cultural and social adaptation of our international employees in our hospitable city and in the Institute’s residence country,” Dmitry Kamanin noted.

Overcoming the language barrier and developing oral skills remain key challenges in modern linguodidactics. The JINR Russian Speaking Club, offering regular classes and a comfortable atmosphere, practically becomes a laboratory of live speech, where everyone can fulfil their communicative potential and build confidence in real speech situations. Purposeful development of oral skills, especially in the context of intercultural communication, is the key to successful mastery of any foreign language and effective integration into the local community.

Regardless of the level of Russian language proficiency, every JINR employee can become a member of the speaking club and dive into the atmosphere of live communication. The club offers group classes and individual consultations, adapted for both beginners and more experienced students. Weekly meetings are held in the room 481 at UC JINR (4th floor, MLIT JINR building) and led by the lecturer and moderator Lyra Yarullina. Admission is free. To register, you need to provide a mail from the Laboratory to the UC email address: uc@jinr.ru.