The Sinology department held a department-wide essay writing competition in Kazakh language named “How powerful is your pen, young talent?” during the University’s “Language Festival”. The main purpose of the competition was to evaluate the abilities of students to fascinate the readers by beautifully expressing their ideas on paper in their native language. The competition began with the words of congratulation from the Oriental Studies department’s dean’s assistant Z.E. Iskakova, the head of the Sinology department Z.S. Batpenova, and the leading specialist of education department of KazNU S. Kanafieva. Due to the absence of any limits to the topics in the requirements for the competition, students wrote essays on various subjects. The most popular topics were the native language and the present status of Kazakh language. The competitors were evaluated by the instructor at the Sinology department Kerimbaev E., the master of philology, literature, the master of literature at the World languages department, young poet Talapbek T., and the head of “Zhezbuida” public association Taskyn K. The students were awarded as follows:

Main prize – 3^rd year student at Japanese and Korean studies department Kairat Z. with his essay “My native language – proof of my existence”

First place – 3^rd year student at Sinology department Dosmuratova N. with her essay “My native language – the most sacred”

Second place – 2^nd year student at Sinology department Tursynbekova M. with her essay “What is happiness?”

Third place – 1^st year student at Sinology department Balgynbaeva M. with her essay “Learn to love your language”

The winners and contestants were awarded with valuable presents.