“Primavera en español“ festival celebrates the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world

On 15-25 April, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) will host the annual festival “Primavera en español”, which this year invites you to discover the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. All events are open to the general public and will be held in Spanish, Lithuanian and English.

One language – a multicultural world

The 13th edition of “Primavera en español” aims to promote cultural dialogue and mutual understanding, as well as to increase the inclusion of foreigners and foster multilingualism. “Spanish is an official language in 21 countries, so it is not surprising that this language, which is spoken by some 580 million people worldwide, also unites many different cultures. We are glad that the number of people who want to learn Spanish is growing rapidly in Lithuania too. Not only in universities, but also in our country’s schools. That’s why we want to give everyone the opportunity to see the Spanish-speaking world in a much broader perspective. In cooperation with academic institutions in Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Mexico, and El Salvador, we hope to open the door to the rich cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking countries. On 18 April, we look forward to welcoming you at the opening of the Festival, where the Ambassador of Spain, María Nieves Blanco, will present the historical exhibition “12 mapas y un proyecto. Cartografías de Europa” said Vigilija Žiūraitė, Vytautas Magnus University Spanish language lecturer and one of the festival organisers.

Spanish-speaking VMU students present their cultures

This year, the main organisers of the Primavera en español festival are the Hispanic students of Vytautas Magnus University. Fiorella from Venezuela, Marili from Mexico, Christian from El Salvador, Alberto and Laura from Spain and Georgina from Andorra will present their country’s cultural features at an evening of legends and myths on 16 April. The students also invite you to get to know the music of the Spanish-speaking world by attending a karaoke night at the Mexican restaurant “Amigo BBQ” at the beginning of the second week of the festival. Another surprise in the students’ pipeline is the traditional Hispanic sweets competition on 24 April. “We will end the festival with a concert at the Academy of Music, where we will join René Marines from Mexico to perform a variety of songs that best represent the countries we come from, Venezuela and Mexico. Join us!” invites Fiorella Fusco, student of the Academy of Music of VMU.

Spanish at VMU – 35 years

On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the restoration of Vytautas Magnus University, the organisers of “Primavera en español” are preserving the important traditions of the festival, which have become an integral part of the history of the Spanish language at VMU. As every year, the festival’s activities bring together not only students, but also pupils and alumni. On the evening of 18 April, VMU alumni are invited to come back to the university for the event “Spanish in my life”. Another “Primavera en español” tradition, the “El mundo hispanohablante y yo” schoolchildren’s Olympiad, will take place on 17 April. The tradition of inviting speakers from abroad is also being maintained. In the first week of the festival, creative writing workshops will be given by Agata Babina from the University of Liepaja (Latvia), and in the second week of the festival, lectures will be given by Martha Flores Carillo from ITESO University of Guadalajara (Mexico). On 23 April, there will be a Spanish poetry evening, hosted by lecturer Ana León Manzanero and students from the Latvian Academy of Culture. Everyone is welcome to read a poem in Spanish!

“Primavera en español” is organised by the Miguel de Cervantes Spanish Language and Culture Club and the Vytautas Magnus University Institute of Foreign Languages, in cooperation with the Embassy of Spain in Lithuania.

You can find more information about the festival on the Miguel de Cervantes Club website.

Programme of the events:

Open Competition for Scholarship of Drs. V. and S. Čepukėnas

On the initiative of Neila Baumilienė, an alumna of Vytautas Magnus University and the Executive Director of the New York Office of the Kazickas Family Foundation, and with the support of the Kazickas Family Foundation, a scholarship in memory of Drs. Vaclovas and Dr. Stefanija Čepukėnai was established at Vytautas Magnus University. The daughters of Drs. V. and S. Čepukėnai, Rasa and Milda, also contribute financially to this scholarship. The aim of the scholarship is to foster the French language and Francophone culture by enabling the most active students to deepen their learning and study it further, as well as to promote and spread it in society.

The Scholarship amount in 2024 is €4 000 (four thousand euros); applications are accepted until April 30, 2024.

Applicants who want to receive the Scholarships must meet the following criteria:

the overall average grade of the studied subjects must be at least 8 (eight),
learning French at a B1 level or higher,
being active in civic, social, or community activities, organizing and/or participating in activities related to French and/or Francophone culture, or engaging in scientific and/or scholarly promotion or artistic activities in this field,
having plans to purposefully use the scholarship to implement activities related to the French language and/or culture (e.g., using study credits for the French subject, participating in study trips to courses in a Francophone country, paying for DELF, TCF, etc.).

The Scholarship will be awarded to the student(s) who most closely meets the specified criteria. The decision on awarding the Scholarship will be made by VMU Institute of Foreign Languages and the founders of the scholarship.

The students eligible for the Drs. V. and S. Čepukėnai Scholarship must apply by April 30 by filling in the application form on VMU Student Portal:

log in to VMU Student Portal using your personal login provided by the University;
in the menu box, select the section Applications & Certificates and click on the Applications button;
select the application category Finance, Scholarships and Other Support and Named Scholarship (form F-005) and fill in the form: justify your field of study and/or scientific interest and list your activities.

Selected candidates will be invited to an interview with the representatives of the Institute of Foreign Languages and the founders of Drs. V. and S. Čepukėnai Scholarship, after which the scholarship winner(s) will be announced.

For a more detailed biography of Drs. V. and S. Čepukėnas in the memoirs of their daughters, Milda and Rasa Čepukėnas, click here.

Information about the Scholarship in French/Les informations sur la bourse en Français peuvent être trouvées ici

More information about the scholarship and its award is provided by the Department of Student Affairs, by e-mail at srd[at sign]vdu.lt or by telephone (8 37) 751 175

Happy Easter

Visit to Don Bosco University in El Salvador

When one hears the country name ‘El Salvador,’ many Lithuanians would probably shake their heads and look at a map to see where it is. Admittedly, we know very little about this country. Naturally, the next question would be the following: what could Vytautas Magnus University and El Salvador have in common? And, as it turns out, there may be a lot!

The Institute of Foreign Languages of VMU has been cooperating with Don Bosco University in El Salvador for the past two years: every semester, a Spanish-English tandem learning is organised, and one semester there was an online conversation club in English, which was attended by students from Don Bosco University and the gymnasiums of S. Darius and S. Girėnas and Ariogala. Tandem learning refers to learning in pairs: half of the time, one participant teaches his/her mother tongue or a language he/she knows well, and the other half of the time, he/she learns the other language. The participants have indicated that they not only improve their language skills, but also learn about countries, cultures and traditions, and make friends. Some of them call each other every week to talk even after the semester is over. In an online conversation club, students and pupils shared cultural things: about their cities, nature, festivals, traditions… Everyone was surprised how different countries and customs can be.

Last October, Vigilija Žiūraitė, a lecturer in Spanish at VMU IFL, visited Don Bosco University as part of the Erasmus+ exchange programme. This year, on 4-8 March, Dr. Teresė Ringailienė, director of the IFL, visited El Salvador on the basis of the same Erasmus+. She gave lectures on the use of corpora in language learning/teaching and informal language teaching methods to English language students, on intercultural communication to tourism students, and on inclusive language teaching methods to postgraduate students and fellow lecturers.

During the visit, the sincere engagement of the students was truly surprising as well as the many questions they asked about the lecture material, Lithuania and Vytautas Magnus University. The possibilities of further cooperation were discussed with the colleagues: the continuation of the activities and new initiatives (e.g. joint publications).

This visit was a great opportunity to share knowledge with students and colleagues, as well as to get to know a wonderful country: its exotic nature for Lithuanian eyes, picturesque places of interest and, of course, extremely warm and sincere people. We can only hope that this meaningful communication and cooperation between two small and geographically distant, but at the same time close, countries will continue.

Language tasters at IFL

The Institute of Foreign Languages invites you to take part in the language tasters. The aim of the event is to introduce lesser-known and lesser-taught languages. This year we invite you to “taste” Hindi, Cantonese, Icelandic and Yoruba.” EET timezone. The events will be held in English on Teams.

Join the events if you’re interested in languages!

Student Language Conference

Dear students, most likely excellent presentations have already been prepared in your chosen language subjects. We would like to invite you to actively participate in the third student language conference, which will be international this year.

The purpose of the conference is to give an opportunity to all language learners- be it a beginning or advanced level-to celebrate progress in language learning not only in the classroom but outside its walls. Languages are alive and in order to acquire them, you need to find as many ways as possible to use them in real life situations. We really hope that proficient students will give a new life to the presentations while the beginners share comics that will make us laugh or draw attention to the challenges, joys, and curiosities of languages.

The conference is a way to share knowledge and improve language skills, but it can be much more. Namely, it could be a first step in career development. Your active participation in various activities and in this conference is an opportunity to add to your resume yet another challenging experience.

We invite you to overcome your fears and foster your professional curiosity. Registration

Visit Lund University in Sweden

Innovation in Governance for Urban Nature-based Solutions, 2024–2025

Green Transition for Low-Carbon and Resilient Societies

Perspectives on Multi-level Governance, Decentralisation and Human Rights

VMU celebrated the International Mother Language Day

On 21 February, the Institute of Foreign Languages organised a Mother Language Day celebration. The day was designated by UNESCO in 1999 and aims to promote multilingualism as well as highlight the diversity of languages and cultures.

International VMU lecturers and students joined the event, organising various language games in their mother tongues: Albanian, Bulgarian, Esperanto, Japanese, Yoruba, Cantonese, Kartvelian, Montenegrin and Bosnian, Turkish and Ukrainian. The event attracted a large number of participants who were learning words and phrases in these languages, singing and writing in Kartvelian.

Of course, the Lithuanian language was also presented: international students tried to recognise Lithuanian words, and Lithuanians had the opportunity to recall the things that they might have already forgotten: fairy tales, songs, legends, tongue-twisters, etc…. Perhaps they had a chance to think about how beautiful and rich the Lithuanian language is.

French Summer Academy

To create more opportunities for foreign students to immerse into French Language, Culture and History, we organise a French Summer Academy with 2 formats:

Students can choose either one of them:

– 3 weeks: July 8^th to July 26^th, 2024

– 4 weeks: July 1^st to July 26^th, 2024

ICES French Summer Academy offers a comprehensive and all-inclusive study package for French language study. Please find more information on this programme here.

As a sign of gratitude for our friendly partnership, we would like to offer a 50% discount to 2 of your students:

Summer Academy fees
	Full price	50% discount
3 weeks	1 980 €	975 €
4 weeks	2 590 €	1295 €

Registration will be open from 1^st February. The application deadline is 31^st May 2024. Please register early as places in the programme are limited.

Should you have students interested in this programme or have any further inquiries, please contact us at international@ices.fr.

Visit of a lecturer of the VMU IFL to the University of Mauritius (Reduit, Mauritius)

On 15-19 January, Lina Abraitienė, lecturer in English at VMU IFL, gave lectures to second and third year students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Mauritius.

During her Erasmus+ teaching visit, Lina not only presented Vytautas Magnus University, the programmes offered and the opportunities for foreign students to come to study but also shared her experience in language teaching using the latest media for creating engaging learning content.

The University of Mauritius is multilingual and multicultural, and the sharing of experiences and insights in working with students of different languages, cultures and religions by Dr Naseem Lallmahomed-Aumeerally and Dr Mooznah Auleear Owodally, both lecturers at the University of Mauritius’ Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, will be an adaptation to the VMU, which is gaining international attention and attracting an increasing number of international students.

This visit is just the beginning of a nice cooperation that will surely develop into a closer relationship between VMU and MU, as the VMU Student Conference in April will also feature presentations by MU students.

Moments from the Erasmus+ teaching visit: