This blog post was written by our student ambassador Ana, who is a student of the semiotics programme at the University of Tartu.
Student life in Estonia includes lots of academic challenges and opportunities. Most typical ones are attending lectures, writing course papers, preparing for exams and participating in various workshops. What about presenting at conferences? Presenting at conferences is a great way for students to show off their work, improve their academic skills, gain valuable experiences and meet lots of potential colleagues. One of those conferences is ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’; the annual student conference taking place in one of the Baltic cities or Poland, which focuses mainly on culture, tradition, society, art and language of the Baltic countries. So, the main topic of this conference is the Baltic countries and their riches. In this blog, I will share my experience in presenting at this conference and describe more about the content of the conference and what it is all about. I will even provide the link to this year’s ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’conference which will take place in Riga, Latvia, from the 9th to 10th of October. I hope this blog will inspire some of you to register for this year’s conference, where you can present your knowledge of one of the 3 Baltic countries.
‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’ conference- what is it all about?
As previously mentioned, ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’ is the annual student conference organised by the universities of the 3 Baltic countries and universities of Poland. Each year, the conference takes place at the university of one of the Baltic cities or in Poland. The conference usually takes place at the end of September or the beginning of October. Working languages of the conference are Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and English, so students of all study levels can present in one of those languages. The main goal of this conference is to connect all 3 Baltic countries and their respective universities to present their national identities through culture, history, art, society and language, which are also the main topics of the conference. When presenting, the students can choose from those topics and relate them to one of the Baltic countries, so the main focus has to be on the Baltic country. Plenary speakers of the conference are the representatives of each Baltic country. The first ever ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’ conference was held in Estonia, at the University of Tartu in 2013. And since then, a memorable and valuable tradition was born.
Presenting at the ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’ conference experience
The first time I heard about the ‘’Bridges in the Baltics’’ Conference was in the spring semester 2 years ago, while I was sitting in the lobby area of Lossi 3, and then I saw a post on the screen about the student conference about Baltic countries taking place in Tartu next semester. Since I love presenting at conferences and I love talking about Estonia even more, I decided to register for the conference. I got the acceptance letter in the summer, and I presented in the autumn semester. The conference was held at the Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures at the University of Tartu from the 22nd to the 23rd of September. I presented in English, since my Estonian was in the transition between A2 and B1 level, and I didn’t want to risk bad grammar and pronunciation. I talked about Estonian folklore and fairy tales, and after that, we had an interesting discussion about the folklore of all Baltic countries. Besides presentations, there was also a cultural event, which included a guided tour of the University of Tartu’s main building. Next year, the conference will take place in Vilnius, at Vilnius University. I also presented in English again and I talked about the famous Estonian movie ‘’Siin me oleme’’ (Here we are). The conference in Vilnius was amazing as well. I met some great people and enjoyed the beauty and monuments of Vilnius city, since it was my first time in Lithuania. This year, the conference will take place in Riga from the 9th to 10th of October, and this time, I will be presenting in Estonian on the topic of Estonian literature. The registration deadline for this year’s conference is the 30th of June, so there is still plenty of time left to come up with a great topic and get registered.
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