11/12/2020

On Wednesday, October 21st, 2020, an online international talk was held, and 50 Japanese students, international students, and faculty and staff members joined via Zoom.

Mr. Victor Khaustov (Doctoral third year) and Ms. Veranika Mikhailava (Master's second year) were invited as speakers. They introduced their country "Belarus", and talked about the culture, famous people, food and more in English!

Veranika spoke about the history, culture, and food, etc. in the first half of the talk.

Belarus is divided into six regions with a population of about 10 million. She explained that the pattern on the left side of the national flag (Rushnyk) is often used for traditional clothes.

Belarus has a lot of forests and there are no high mountains, and the highest point is only 345 meters. Many forests of Belarus are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site and the European bison that live in the forests are very famous and are used as characters for the national hockey team.

For food, many dishes are made of potatoes, Dranik is famous, and Borscht is also well known.

The National Library which is Veranika's favorite building, and the castle were introduced.

In the second half, Victor spoke about democratization and freedom in Belarus.

After the collapse of Russia, Belarus declared its independence in 1991. He also explained the problems of the presidential election held in August of this year. The participants said that not only Belarus, but other countries are facing similar problems.

We could learn about the history and culture of Belarus, as well as the problems they are facing through their talk. We could get to know Belarus more deeply through various question and answer sessions, and we felt that it is important to know the current situation in order to understand different cultures.

The next International Talk "Let's learn about Bangladesh online!" will be held on November 18th. Enjoy it!