You might not see or hear much if Halloween isn’t a thing in the country you’re visiting, or if the local version of Halloween isn’t widely upheld.

But, in other countries you’ll experience a sensory spooktacular of spine-tingling strangeness and terror-inspiring voices from beyond the grave. Imagine gruesomely ghoulish gurglings in other languages!

Here’s a spell-binding selection of weird and wonderful monster mashes you might find yourself involved with if you’re abroad in late October –

·        China

Halloween is known as Teng Chieh in China. The Chinese enjoy phantasmagoric fun by placing food and drinks in front of photographs of their dearly departed friends and relatives.

Besides offering refreshments, the Chinese also have bonfires and light lanterns to guide the spirits of their loved ones who return to roam the earth for one night every year. 

·        Czech Republic

The Czech people pull up an extra chair on Halloween for spirits to come and join them. So, don’t be fooled by thinking you’re in a half empty room. It might be packed to the rafters. You just can’t see how many ghostly party-goers have taken up the invitations of their earthy kith and kin.

·       Latin America, Mexico and Spain

El Dia de Los Muertos – Day of the Dead – is a major three-day supernatural celebration.  Parades of revellers dance through the streets dressed as skeletons. Someone is chosen to be carried in a coffin, with other participants throwing fruit, flowers and sweets to them.

Candlelit church services and prayers at home are held throughout the fang-tastic fiesta.

It isn’t without its macabre elements. But it’s an uplifting affair that celebrates the cycle of life from birth to death.

There’s nothing scarier and more ominous than not being able to speak any other languages besides your own native language.

At La Academia, we can’t promise other languages will protect you from supernatural spirits. But we can guarantee your time abroad will be a whole lot less blood-curdling when you have other languages at your disposal to communicate with the living… and the dead.

Sources

Halloween Traditions and Celebrations Around the World, Pumpkin Patches & More
https://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/halloweenglobal.php

For a start, here’s some astonishing stats: Russian is the largest native language spoken in Europe. The language’s more than 150 million primary speakers live in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. An additional 110 million non-native speakers use it worldwide. It is extremely influential in all Euro-Asian countries and the US. It is the official language in 38 territories. It’s the seventh most spoken language in the world and one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Learning Russian allows you to join a global community.

Russian Language, Literature and Career Opportunities

At St. Petersburg University 1 in 10 students come from a foreign country. Many come to learn Russian, some simply out of love for Russian literature. After all, Russian is the language of some of the world’s best novelists,  Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for example. Others see it as a career opportunity. Margarita Rusetskaya, from the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute says, ‘Our studies show that demand for personnel who can speak the Russian language in all spheres in the world today amounts to about 125 million people.’ There is strong market demand from business, notably in the science and communication sectors.

Russian Country and Culture

Russia is a huge and fantastic place, and each year welcomes more and more visitors and tourists. 17.5 million people came here in 2016, followed by 21.6 million in 2017. I went there in 2014 and will never forget the extraordinary architecture and the breathtaking art and objects at The Hermitage in St Petersburg – the second largest art museum in the world. (The Louvre is the largest.)

Cyrillic Alphabet

Before I went to Russia, I learned the Cyrillic alphabet. The alphabet looks difficult but in fact it’s very simple and it helped immensely being able to translate street names, metro stations and so on as we moved around. So don’t be discouraged just because it looks tricky. And the good news is that Russian grammar is very similar to English, so pretty easy to grasp.

Can’t wait to get started? Then contact us now to arrange your first lesson with Halyna Savchyn, our Russian and Ukrainian teacher.