My Vision of Teaching
Almost a year and a half have passed since I gave my first lesson. It seems to me that it was ages ago, but it stands in my memory quite vividly. I remember how the door closed behind me and I found myself one-to-one with my first pupils. Since then I have understood that teaching is for me. There’s nothing like it! And I’m sure that every teacher will agree with me.
Why did I make up my mind to become a teacher? Well, that’s a very difficult question. In fact, I love children very much. And I think that my future will be connected with them. Besides, my elder brother used to teach Russian and literature, and every Friday he brought home ninety exercise-books to check them. And very often I helped him, looking through his pupils’ works, and even giving them marks. At that time I imagined myself entering the classroom, and greeting the children. So, at last my dream came true. Many people think that teaching is very easy. How wrong they are! To my mind it’s an art to be able to teach children. Besides, my students also teach me a lot; they teach me to be patient and soft-hearted. And I suppose that it’s God’s gift to be an elder friend of children. Personally, I forget everything on earth while I’m explaining a new rule, or listening to my pupils’ answers, or just having a chat with them. My profession takes me away for some period of time. And only when I come back home do I realize that I’m also a student of the Moscow State Teachers’ Training University.
In conclusion I’d like to say that there’s nothing but happiness when children begin talking English and you know that it is you who has taught them. The best award for me is when I see the results of my work.
By Elena Bizunova, 3rd year MPSU student
Can Money Buy Beauty?
The answer is probably “yes”, but the main question is:
How much money for how much beauty?
Every beautician, hair-dresser and make-up artist will quite easily calculate the total amount for your “beauty look” just by seeing you closely once. Of course, you can enhance your “beauty expenses” by doing aerobics exercises in a prestige gym (“World Class” ~ 2000$ per year) or using “BOTOX” injection (approximately $300–500 for treatment) into the deep and deeply irritating crease that runs down the space between the eyes. Also, you can be introduced to plastic surgery, and there are many other possibilities of spending money in order to get a stylish, glamourous look. As for price, it is really high – only having much money you can buy a beauty look.
Money cannot make you beautiful. “You can live your whole life, and you can die, and no one will have ever suspected that you weren’t beautiful,” these words belong to a very famous make-up artist. “Make-up can not make you look like a top-model, but it can help you achieve a look. And a look can be mistaken for beauty.”
Even Jackie Onassis, who was famous for her look, had
to pay to get it. The young Jacqueline Bouvier was fresh-faced and pretty, but not a
classic beauty. She wore little make-up; her eyebrows were bushy and unkempt; her hair was
described by some writer as a “delightful and unruly mop.” Then she married the
dashing – and very rich – Senator Kennedy and went to Kenneth.
I don’t think that every woman will be so lucky as to get such a rich husband, but I am sure that some advice can help her reach tremendous results in her daily life without multi-millionairs.
So, for the first step, you should throw away your cheep cosmetics, and find a way to fill up your vanity bag monthly with high quality items.
Secondly, you should endure the procedures of cosmetologists in beauty salons (2-4 times a month).
Thirdly, don’t forget about physical exercises, if you are not very lazy, and special devices (microstimulators).
Never think that you are not beautiful enough, or your face and body have some defects. Your shining eyes and a warm smile can work miracles with men. There is such a thing as natural beauty, of course, but other people have to pay for it. Bear in mind these words while watching the latest fashion or elite news, you can be happy that you have not suffered for beauty (there are so many marks of high surgical technology on each famous face!) and just be as beautiful as you are!
By Natalya Agafonova,
University of Academy of Education,
3rd year student
Traditional Spring Holidays in Russia
There are many national holidays in Russia. I would like to tell you about the spring holidays. Rich national experience and the annual cycle of agricultural work merged with the church calendar to form the native Russian holidays.
The first one is Willow Sunday. Willow Week, which precedes Easter week, is the sixth week of Lent. In ancient times people carried bunches of blossoming willow. ”There is no spring without willow”, they used to say in Russia. On Willow Sunday the willow is first consecrated in church, and then kept at home behind the icons. It was a custom to tap each other with a sprig of willow, chanting: ”The willow is beating you to tears. It’s not me beating you; it’s the willow. The willow beats and makes you cry. White willow beats and it knows why.” This was thought to bring good luck.
A solemn rite of the “procession with an ass”, in memory of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, described in the New Testament, preceded the Week of Christ’s Passion in Moscow. The Tsar himself led by the bridle a horse in white linen bearing the Patriarch of Moscow. In a specially decorated chariot rode the festival “willow”, a large tree lavishly decorated with flowers of silk and velvet, apples, nuts, dates, pears and raisins. Willow Sunday, which in many European countries is called “Palm Sunday”, was celebrated in this way.
The next holiday is Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. Easter is the main festival of the Christian Church. In the Easter rites, one can easily detect echoes of ancient festivals of cattle breeders and tillers of the soil, who sacrificed the fruits of their labour to the gods. In the Orthodox Church, Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday, the first Sunday after the first full moon following March 21, the spring equinox. People prepared for Easter by adorning their homes, baking kulich cakes, making a paskha out of cottage cheese, and painting as many as hundreds of eggs, which were divided equally between the members of the family. They greeted relatives and friends by kissing them three times and saying “Christ is Risen!” It was a custom of Easter to visit cemeteries and leave painted eggs and a little bread and beer on the graves of dear departed ones.
The spring holidays end with Red Hill, a popular name of the first Sunday after Easter. It is known throughout Russia, and signifies spring with its red (i.e., beautiful) sun, fragrant air, and water just released from icy fetters. Traditionally Red Hill was the name given to the place where village celebrations were held during Easter, when the rivers rise and flood, only the lowlands and high places were left for making festivities. Red Hill is also the name for the spring season, suitable for weddings. On Red Hill day, the first spring holiday, young people welcomed spring and played blindman’s bluff. That day was regarded as a festival for young unmarried girls, because it was customary then to hold weddings, and there was a great deal of match-making and courting. Singing and choral dancing went on until late at night and a straw dummy was burned.
By Arkhipova Elena,
Moscow Institute of Arts, first year student
Within the Limits of "Dogma"
“Dogma–95” is the code of cinema commandments created by a group of film directors in the spring of 1995 in Copenhagen. Its postulates dispute the basic tendencies formed in modern cinematograph. The sensational manifesto enunciates shooting a film with a hand camera, with a synchronous recording of the sound, without using artificial illumination, and some other rules. Lars von Trier – one of the founders of the “Dogma” – explaining the necessity of these limitations, says that it has become too simple to shoot cinema, and there should be some external restrictions in order to revive this kind of art, to breathe a new life into it.
A rather curious fact is that the exact number of films shot by the adherents of the project is unknown, in accord with one of the manifesto’s postulates: the name of the film director mustn’t be mentioned in captions.
But it would be wrong to treat “Dogma” just as a
code of indisputable rules which must be strictly implemented. Trier himself
asserts that it’s impossible to follow all of them. The most important aspect is that
the project sets a certain style to the films being shot within its limits. One of the
striking examples of the style is Trier’s “Breaking the Waves”.
The beginning of the 70s a Scottish hamlet appeares; its inhabitants profess a very severe and ascetic form of Protestantism. A young girl, Bess by name (Emily Watson), falls in love with a worker from the derrick, and implores the strict elders of the community to allow her to marry him. She gets permission; her wish comes true. But when the honeymoon is over Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) has to return to his work. Bess falls into despair. She entreats God to get him back, promising to endure every trial he will send her. Her wish comes true again. She gets Jan back. He is paralized as a result of an accident on the derrick. Bess blames herself for what has happened. Observing that he is getting worse and worse, believing that she is the only one who is able to help him recover, she consents to comply with an eccentric request. Every one turns away from Bess. She is accused of immorality and blasphemy. Her only support and consolation are faith, and confidence that she does what she must do.
The faith portrayed in the film is far from traditional moral principles – it is faith in drastic expression. A society, which observes only its outward display, tears away those who possess such faith.
The image of Bess is very impressive, it is created by the fantastic acting of Emily Watson. The actress allots her heroine the bewitching force of simplicity. She acts so truthfully and gets the feel of her part so strongly, that, according to her own words, for some stretch of time after the shooting was over, she wasn’t able to drive a car or to buy cheese in a department store.
Very interesting effects are caused by the implementation of one of the manifesto’s rules – not to use a tripod. The camera is constantly in motion; the continually quivering image creates an illusion of a home-made shooting. This detail, which adds a peculiar charm to the film, with the camera man’s brilliant work, the actors’ splendid performances, and the uncommon character of the plot, will hardly leave you indifferent.
GLOSSARY:
commandment заповедь
enunciate объявлять, провозглашать
shoot зд. снимать (фильм, кино)
adherent приверженец, сторонник
captions титры
implement выполнять, осуществлять
derrick буровая вышка
blasphemy кощунство
drastic радикальный
allot наделять
bewitching очаровательный, чарующий
get the feel of her part вживаться в образ
tripod штатив
Yusup (Editor), Lena Kuzminykh,
Natasha Plusnina (YES Club president),
Natalya Khmelik (Advisor).