HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I think that the warmest memory I will take home from the United states will be Thanksgiving Day celebration. It was my second Thanksgiving and both of them were so touching and remarkable.

This year my wonderful kind-hearted friend and classmate Leigh Smith invited me and other Fulbrighters for the celebration. Her house was so welcoming and family so friendly. It was a pleasure to spend this beautiful time with my class-mates, friends and Professor O'Dowd (the kindest person ever). Playing trivia challenge organized by Leda Chavarria, a Fulbrighter from Nicaragua, was not only fun but educational! We had learnt a lot about the history of Thanksgiving. Sharing "Thank you" among this huge company was very touching and I felt so anxious because so grateful to my life I was.

I am thankful to St. Michael's College, first of all, for the opportunities of cultural exchange, education, and - most of all- personal growth I am provided here. I am grateful to my friends for sharing this wonderful time with me. I am grateful to Leigh for being so kind and caring. I am grateful to my life which I live and which is so kind to me.

One Week Without a Computer

I heard that in one of the classes a professor asked students not to use their cell phones for 3 days and describe their feelings about that. I thought that I would love to try something like that and a week ago I got this opportunity: the power cord for my computer stopped working, the battery died, no one's cord fitted my computer and it was the week of Thanksgiving- short hours or the library did not work at all. My first reaction was shock with horrible images (I am Drama Queen, I know): last weeks of the semester which means projects, big assignments and so forth. But then I recognized the beauty of it! I have never had such a wonderful weekend! My friends and I went bowling, organized a few movie-evenings in my apartment and went to the movie-theatre and much much more fun stuff. I have read a good book "The Rainmaker" by Grisham, I read a few chapters of The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain and I read a few stories of Sherlock Holmes- I had not read for a while so it was just ecstasy time! Whenever the feeling of guilt came to my mind- I had justification. I think I should organize No Computer Days more often!

My First Teaching Experience in the USA

Today was a very anxious and responsible day to me. I had to teach English for the first time in the USA after a one year break in teaching. I was concerned about many questions, starting with: "Do I remember how to teach?" up to "Will I be able to manage a group of multicultural diverse students of different ages?"

First of all, I should say that I have the best teacher ever to work with, Patricia Hoffmann, who is an experienced teacher of English in an Intensive English Program, highly respected both by her students and colleagues. It is a big responsibility and pleasure to be under her supervision. Another wonderful point is that this group of students is the most amazing group I have ever met. They are 11 young people in the age of 19 to 26 from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Japan. I will have 5 classes with them and the first one was really challenging to me. The reason for that lies not in my anxiety about my ability to teach. I forgot about it after the first minute when the students entered the room so supportive with shining smiles. My biggest challenge was the topic I had chosen. We spoke about the human rights. It is a very interesting topic to discuss. Just interesting to discuss for me. But for students from Haiti, it happened to be a quite painful topic because they live in a country where their rights are very often violated. During this hour I had learned a lot about the life of people in their countries. It was difficult to lead a discussion when students expressed their pain along with their opinion.

However painful my first experience was when emotions tried to prevail over the process of language teaching, it was really wonderful and educational both for me and for them. I am looking forward to my next 4 lessons where we will try to find out beautiful aspects of the life of young people.

MEN AND WOMEN WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER

this is my view on language use by men and women....

Men and women belong to different species, and communication between them is a science still in its infancy.
Bill Cosby

A great debate rages as to whether there exists a difference in the way men and women communicate. The feminist movement tried to equate the two sexes, claiming the only differences are biological. Objective reality and everyday life, however, proves that men’s and women’s speech and talk differ considerably. Different perspectives on the view of the same issues cause confusion, misinterpretation and therefore misunderstanding. There is noticeable dissimilarity not only in the use of language by men and women but in the language they use.
In her article “Sex, Sighs, and Conversation,” Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics dealing with gender differences in language use, argues that men and women have goals and ways of expression in communication innately different from one another. From a general look, women are usually more talkative and expressive in their speech whereas men prefer to keep silence and are more neutral in the ideas they express, unless the topic they speak about is sports, politics or there is a necessity to impress a woman or conquer her heart. Women are seemingly or actually more talkative because they tend to speak in longer sentences with plethora of adjectives, epithets, and emotionally colored words. They are visually and aurally more expressive because they contribute to what they mean by gestures, facial impressions, variations in tone and timbre. Men, in turn, appear in women’s eyes to be cold rude animals without any feelings or ability to understand because they speak in short abrupt sentences with neutral vocabulary and only when they think that there is a real need to say something. Worse than their inability to speak is their inability to listen to a complete story or event because they will stop you with constructive-in-their-opinion comments or questions completely unconnected to what you are speaking about.
The lack of listening skills is embellished by the use of language which turns to be a more sophisticated and troublesome issue. When something bad happens, what a woman wants and needs is just talking. She is not looking for immediate solutions which men are ready to offer; all she needs is to tell someone close about her problems, feelings, emotions and the only thing she wants is to be listened to and heard. Probably, not so much heard?! To please her in her confession, because any problem-report will definitely turn to a confession, men could listen quietly first and then slowly get deeply involved into exploration of why this happened, what led to it, looking attentively at all tiny details of the event, because the tiny details are always the most important. Missing tiny things we can miss the whole essence of the event. However incredible it can be but men do not pay attention to small things.
Instead of noticing details such as who said what, how he or she looked at him or her, what implications that word or intonation had, men prefer global problems and global solutions. Globalization of speech is noticeable in topics men choose because they prefer to speak about politics and sports. It is very important who will win the next election, and why and how the country’s situation will change. They discuss fine football strategies spending countless hours predicting the next champion. However, when women speak about upcoming sales and the opportunities for personal improvement or about their friends’ daughter’s new boyfriend, men call it worthless gossiping. Why don’t men realize that what “the female searches for is connections” and speaking, sharing ideas, thoughts, events of everyday life is the best way to create these connections?
Life shows that men and women are different both biologically and in communication. Because a conversation helps find friends and make enemies, solve problems and worsen a positive situation, women like to relish each word of the story. The more words are said, the more enjoyable the story is. The more words you share, the more unity it creates. Men, because of the way they communicate, in many women’s eyes are severe, impolite, and unfeeling. A man and a woman therefore will never understand each other because they have different expectations and outcomes from a conversation. But isn’t it what makes our life more interesting?!

That Was the Music From Above

Sitting at home by the computer, still impressed and charmed by the divine music played in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, St Michael's College. I can still hear that majestic playing and singing by the Bardot Youth Choir from France. I have not attended any classical music concerts for a while and this opportunity allowed me for living through various emotions during a short period time. Images in my head changed from whirling in a dance couples to gorgeous cathedral arches and from spinning around me emerald-green Russian birches to the high transparent blue Siberian sky with the huge hot sun. It seems that I have lived through my whole life, my homesickness, my happiest and saddest moments of life, my whole being...

Captivated by the sound of music, I, at the same time, questioned the realism of what was happening. That thin fragile girl had such a strong magnificent high voice. How is it possible? To have such a voice you need strong big lungs. How can those little kids take very difficult tones? How long and how much effort it should have taken to become such a brilliant choir?!

The music of the Solemn Mass in Honour of Saint Cecile by Charles Gounod will stay long in my soul, in my mind and as a background for my imagination.

Are Changes in Russian Education Necessary?

During the Soviet Union’s era, Russian education was considered one of the best in the world. Nonetheless, in 2008 it appeared 45th as rated by the World Economic Forum. According to the world specialists the main reason for moving far down the list is that Russian education does not meet the world’s, Western-oriented, standards of education. Because of that, diplomas earned in Russian higher education institutions are not convertible in foreign countries. Russian specialists in education also point out that education in Russia was not properly modified for quite a long period of time, but education cannot exist without a systematic change and development. Ensuing reforms with an attempt to adjust Russian education to the Western standards created an educational tangle. Therefore, this development should happen inside the educational system and be organic because copying others’ methods of success will not lead to the same achievement.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most progressive countries tried to achieve alignment with Western education. The Russian government, unfortunately, put aside the matters of education. The consequence of this neglect was that according to the world reviews, Russian education was not practical and could not compete on the world market. In order to recover world status, the reformation of the Russian education system began in accordance with Western standards. This total Westernization of education, however, contradicts Russian mentality. The aim of Russian education has always been to give children the knowledge about the world, to develop children as many-sided personalities who are able to take responsibility for themselves, their society, and their communities. With current orientation to Western standards these qualities are mostly denied. The market approach is introduced into education which can lead to creating a “biocomputer” consisting of programs which are in demand on the market. This is proved by the fact that in former times we spoke about the ‘art of teaching’ and ‘pedagogical creativity’. Nowadays, we more and more hear and read about ‘educational technologies’, ‘anthropotechniques’, ‘human resources’ and other terms which are in conflict with human nature and soul.

Another significant reason for modifications in the Russian education was that Russian people who received education in our educational institutions were accused of the lack of practicality and absence of pragmatism. However, alterations targeted at meeting these requirements have lead to the loss of the valuable foundation that the broad holistic approach has provided for the Russian education system. As the results of a few years of reformation show, the knowledge that formed a holistic scientific picture of the world is being substituted with exclusively pragmatic and technological information and skills. Following Western standards in the Russian education reformation and corresponding loss of the holistic approach have meant a dehumanization of the Russian education system, revealed by the sacrifice of humanitarian disciplines with world- outlook building such as history, literature, philosophy that shaped moral core and broad thinking of a personality to socio-economic sciences such as political and social studies, economics, marketing, and management.

In an attempt to fit our education into the Western system, the Russian government has been carrying out education reforms during the last decade. This reformation, however, leads to a huge loss of a solid holistic base of Russian education. It seems imperative that we should create such a system of education in which Russian academic school and culture and corresponding benefits are integrated with the Western model of education instead of being sacrificed entirely in the name of reformation.

There is no more lovely, friendly, charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.

Martin Luther said that and he was soooooo right!

These days I am very sentimental. I have just returned from my friends' wedding where I could witness a dazzlingly young and beautiful couple joining their hearts and lives. It is always so touching to see sparkling eyes of the two loving people and happy tears of the parents and relatives. And how wonderful the tradition of weddings is because so lots of people can come to witness the happiness and the beginning of a new family.

However, at this wedding I targeted at two things:

First, and the most important, was to share my friends' happy and significant step of the life.

Second, secondary :-), but still important, was to attend an American wedding.

NB: I am sorry, but cultural exchange is present in each and evry moment of my life in the USA. :-)

I should say that the American wedding differs a lot from what we have in Russia.

First of all, it was fun to do everything on-line: to inform that you are attending the wedding and to choose, buy and send the present. Moreover, I will tell you a secret: I am still worried that I have neither seen nor touhced the present and hope that it is in a good condition and as good as it was described. Besides, I do not know if it have already reached the addressee or not. In general, I know that everything is allright with it, but as it is something new to me, it makes me nervous.

Second, it was surprising to me that newlyweds had to care about the clothing for bride's maids. But the most surprising was that they had to give presents to their maids, parents, grandparents, and those people who helped them to prepare the wedding. In Russia, the young couple are the only people who receive presents to have a good beginning in their family life. So, it was very interesting to learn about this good tradition.

In this wedding there was one moment which made me very anxious: I knit a shrug for bride's dress and till the last moment I was worried how it was going to be. It was nice. A beautiful woman makes any clothes look beautiful :-).

However different or surprising some moments were, I was charmed by the church ceremony with beautiful organ music, magnificent voice of the psalm singer, and the grandeur of the ceremony itself. In Russia people can get married only in the registry office (some definitely have church marriages as well, but they do not have legal importance and they have to go to the registry office) which are also beautiful but different events. I am wondering if in the USA a couple still has to have some civil procedure to finish all the formalities of the marriage or the church ceremony is enough. It is what I should make my inquiries about :-).

The reception after the wedding was very nice, with lots of people, nice food and dancing. This is what might be common to weddings all over the world.

I wish all the best to Michelle and Edward in their new step of life and hope to see their children soon :-).