Dear Danish Democracy Foundation!

I would like to say "thank you very much" for the possibility to go to Denmark and study here. This programme and your scolarship gave me a good opportunity to spend a semester in the Danish School of Journalism, learning the Western journalism as it is.

I could see the Western concept of writing and coverage of the events. In Russia we studied many things about the Western media, their economy, management, circulation, but almost nothing about the content. Here I could express my impressions in some articles in English which has improved a lot as I can see.

The courses in DJH helped me have a new look on some events and problems. I still have the same personal attitude to some things but it reflects less and less in my stories. I became more objective in my work. But to be objective is not enough to have the right word order in quotations, you need to have good knowledge of things around you. The DJH courses helped me in it very much.

I discovered Denmark for myself through our workshops and assignments. But I also revealed some details about Estonia, Russia, the USA, the whole world. I began to think in more global way, and in my opinion it is very good. Tough courses with the everyday schedule are succeeded by the courses with the classes 2-3 times a week. We had a lot of time for independent studies and for personal experience of Denmark as a whole.

Special thanks to the DDF I should say for the money for travelling. Else it will be impossible for us to go to some other countries. It is much easier to travel around Europe when you have Denmark as a starting point. All the people in our group had traveled a lot before going to Denmark, but not the Russians. It is very nice that we could make our dreams true in Denmark! We got much for our articles and for our journalistic experience after those trips.

Thank you once more for everything!

Alexander Smotrov,
Moscow State University