On June 6, the birthday of the prominent Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, we celebrate Russian Language Day 🎉

We wish success and immense motivation to everyone learning this eloquent and sometimes mind-blowing language! To support those on the journey, here are some top picks from the Russian Language section at ITMO.NEWS:

👨‍🎓 Learning Russian: International Students’ Insights
👅 Well-Known Russian Tongue-Twisters
🤬 How to Swear Like a Russian
📺 Top Russian Remakes of Popular Shows to Boost Your Russian
❓ The Most Puzzling Letter of Russian Alphabet

#russia

🌟 Start your Friday with a weekly scoop on the latest happenings at ITMO. Spare a minute and enjoy the digest!

🔧 ITMO and Zyfra partner up for a Master’s program in business transformation technologies and strategies to train specialists in digital transformation and AI.

🏟 Experts from various fields have unveiled plans for a new phygital sports complex at ITMO Highpark, featuring an esports arena and more.

🧠 At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, ITMO rector Vladimir Vasilyev emphasized that training AI specialists requires new role models made possible through collaboration between businesses and universities.

Let’s recall a few top-grossing stories from last week 👇

🚤 Take a ride on the water taxi and enjoy scenic vistas of St. Petersburg for just 100 rubles.

📚 Check out our humorous guide on what not to do during your thesis defense and ease your pre-defense nerves.

#newsdigest

I don’t eat meat – will I find anything to eat in St. Petersburg?

This is a question we often get from our students – and we are happy to tell you that the answer is: yes, definitely! 😎

First, two helpful words for your journey:

🌱 вегетарианский / vegetarianskii – foods that don’t contain meat, but may contain other animal products, such as dairy or eggs

🌱 веганский / veganskii – foods that don’t contain any animal products at all

You can use those at any cafe to find out about the plant-based options on the menu.

What’s even better is that you can go to these places to find exclusively plant-based menus:

Ogurtsy (vegan)
📍Fontanka River Emb 96

Hood Street Food (vegan)
📍8th Sovetskaya St.

Raiz (vegan)
📍 Aptekarsky Pr. 2

Jiva Burgers (vegan & vegetarian)
📍Griboyedova Canal Emb 49

Vegan Pyramid (vegan)
📍 Moskovsky Pr. 4AA

Botanika (vegan & vegetarian)
📍 Pestelya St. 7

Rabbit, run! (vegan desserts)
📍Marata St. 67/17

Stay Gold (vegan)
📍 Nekrasova St. 52

Хорошие люди романтики (vegan & vegetarian – with a view!)
📍 Vilkitsky Blrd 4

For more places to eat out and shop for vegan meals, check out the dedicated tag on ITMO.NEWS.

#stp

According to a report by the research center SuperJob, the salaries of ITMO’s IT graduates have increased by 11% since last year!

💼 Now averaging 260,000 rubles per month, ITMO grads have the highest salaries among St. Petersburg universities and the second-highest in Russia.

👉 Find out more

#itmoinfo

ITMO in your language 🗣

English isn’t the only option for current and future members of ITMO Family to keep up with news and other content from the university!

🇪🇸 Universidad ITMO – our Telegram channel in Spanish
🇷🇺 Корень из ИТМО – our Telegram channel in Russian
🇨🇳 ITMO University – our Chinese page on Weibo (微博)

You can also access ITMO’s official website in any of the four languages. Visit en.itmo.ru and select English, Spanish, Chinese or Russian in the upper right corner.

And if you’d like to join more ITMO Telegram channels in English, check out this post 👈

#itmoinfo

St. Petersburg is a city like no other, and its symbols are pretty unique, too. Here are a few that will intrigue and amaze you 👇

🐟 Koryushka: in April and May, St. Petersburg smells like cucumbers – all because of a tiny fish with a big history

🦭 Seals: in spring, these cute sea-dwellers featured on the IUCN Red List make rare appearances on the city’s shores

🏛 Broken Ring: the poignant memorial honors Leningrad’s resilience during the nearly 900-day siege during WWII

🌙 White Nights: in summer, St. Petersburg becomes a “city that never sleeps” thanks to an awesome weather phenomenon

⛵️ Scarlet Sails: during a magical festival in late June, a bright-red sailing ship celebrates the city’s school students

Learn their tales in our article on ITMO.NEWS 👈

#aboutstpete

Friendly reminder that there are no classes tomorrow as June 12 is a holiday 🤓

Due to this, there are some changes to the university’s working schedule:

📆 ITMO Library, ITMO.Share, ITMO.Charge, the quiet coworking space, and the Student Services Office will be closed.

🚪 Coworking spaces will operate without booking options.

📆 Classes on June 13 will be held according to schedule.

Pankaj Kumar, a soon-to-be-graduate of the Master’s program FoodTech, has quite a unique collection of academic degrees!

On what makes the Russian education system different, Pankaj notes:

Here we have a more flexible schedule and freedom to choose the courses we like. Along with my Master’s program, I studied many extra courses and did a project for six months as an engineer at a biotech lab.

In an interview with ITMO.NEWS, Pankaj shared his journey from Haryana, India to St. Petersburg, his experiences as an international student, and exciting plans for the future 🚀

Read on 👈

#itmofaces