No more homework!

Congratulations! Our first final exam is over. Frankly speaking, I was not satisfied with our topics because half of them seemed artificial to me – least likely to replace, characteristics of unsuccessful entrepreneur, reasons for failing in business – all of them have negative meaning. But I hope that we are smart enough to overcome such a tricky things that Scott invented to puzzle us. The most pleasant thing for me to think about is that we shouldn’t do any homework more! I prepared for our writing exam, but I am not going to do anything to be ready for our reading and listening exams. I think there is no use of it. What I am going to do is to have enough sleep in order to be in a good shape (or state). In fact, I had to do most of assignments in C-train or at night and because of this I have been dreaming about sleeping for a long time. When I think about finishing EAP programme, I feel happy, of course. But it is difficult for me to imagine that nobody will study me English any more, nobody is going to correct my mistakes in writing and speaking – now we are ready for real life. But the problem is that I don’t feel confident in my language skills. Of course, I learned a lot, but the more I know the more I understand how much I still don’t know. I am not sure if anybody can understand my “deep” thought, but I am really concerned about it. I still doubt if my English is good enough to study at the University. Anyway, I wish everybody good luck in real studies at the University and to be confident in your English and in yourself!

A good joke

Today I had a phone call from my colleges that I work with at my previous job in Belarus. We worked together for 5 years and get used to each other. I miss them and my job so much. When we spoke, we remembered a 1st April joke that we made of our Director a couple of years ago. At that time she was in the position of Director only for several months and was afraid of everything. As I worked as a lawyer, she always asked me for advice before making any important decision. In our country there is a system of labour contracts. An employer and an employee sign a contract for a year. When this time is up, an employer has a right to prolong a contract or to break it without an explanation the reasons for it. We had a woman employee who was not a good worker. She was rude with our clients and was not hard-working. Moreover, she was a great gossip. The Director wanted to break a contract with her, but she was not confident because that woman had three children and our native law has a lot of guaranties for women with children. I looked though the labour code and informed the Director that in this case she had a right to fire the employee. She was afraid that employee can address to the court, but after a week’s hesitation she decided to fire the employee. It happened at the end of the March. At the 1st of April I decided to make a joke. As the Director knew my voice, I asked my friend to phone the Director and introduce herself as a court administrator. My friend informed the Director that the employee that we fared sued against our company. Then she added, “How could you fare a mother of 3 children!?” In a few minutes scared to death Director ran into my office shouting “I told you!!!” I cried in reply “Happy April 1st!!!”

The fear of public speaking

Why people are so afraid of public speaking? I think all EAP 3 students are concerned about this issue because of tomorrow’s Final Presentation. As for me, I would rather write an extra term paper than participate in this activity. When there is a possibility to improvise during my speech, I feel free because I don’t need to follow the text of my report. But if I have to repeat my report as a poem word for word in exact period of time, I become stressful. When I did our previous presentation I caught myself thinking about other things while I was speaking. I tried to concentrate on my topic, but I continued to speak like a robot and think about everything except the history of dreams. I hope my next presentation will be better. Of course, to feel confident it is necessary to be well prepared, no matter at what language you are speaking. However, I think there is a huge difference when you give a speech in a foreign language. If people are scared speaking to public in their native language, how much more should be scared people giving a speech in a foreign one! I thing the best method to overcome the fear of public speaking is to appear in this situation as frequently as possible. It is a useful skill to look in listener’s eyes while you are speaking, but if I try to do so, I lose all the thoughts that I had in my head. Practice, practice and practice will help us to become more confident during our public speaking. I wish everybody good luck tomorrow!

A challenging choice: dogs or children?

Yesterday I visited the family of my son’s Canadian friend Tyler. I was amazed to discover that they have 3 children, 3 dogs and a cat. I always thought that only people who do not have children at all can have so many animals, but that family was exception. Tyler’s mother Heather told me that she has never thought that such a thing can happen with her. When they bought a dog for their first child, the other children asked “Where are our dogs?”, and parents had to buy dogs to everybody. All the dogs had the same breed (they were smaller than their cat was) and it was a miracle for me how their owners recognize them. My children had a lot of fun playing with animals, so it was challenging for me to persuade them to go home. In fact, when I came to Calgary, I noticed that many people like dogs because dogs are everywhere – in the parks, streets, and playgrounds. Some families even prefer to have dogs instead of children. When I play with my children at the playground, I often meet a woman named Denine with her lively dog Sky. While my children enjoy playing with Sky, I practice with Denine my communications skills. Although she is about 35, she does not have children and says that her dog is her child and that it is enough for her. She buys a lot of toys for Sky and it plays with them jumping and running as a child, regardless of its age of 10. What I like in Canada is that there are not homeless animals at the streets. In our country there are a lot of them, and I always felt sorry about them.

A puzzle

Yesterday I was puzzled by my nine-years old son’s question “Mom! How old should I be to marry a girl?” I asked him if he knew a girl he would like to marry. He confessed to me that he liked three!!! girls in class, but he has not decided yet whom of them he should choose. When I asked him what did he like in each of them, he told me that the first of them was beautiful, and all his classmates had fallen in love to her. The second girl was clever, and it was interesting to speak with her. Finally, the third girl was lively and cheerful, and it was funny to play with her. What a difficult choice my son had to do! When I told him that the best time for him to get married would be after finishing a University, he became very upset and told me that he could not wait so long. In fact, in different cultures there are different stereotypes about the ideal age to get married or have children. In my native country young people usually get married and have children (at least the first) in the age between 20 and 30, where as in Canada people do not hurry to get married and acquire themselves with children. It usually happens after 40 or even later. Sometimes it is difficult to guess whether the parents or the grandparents are near the child because a lot of women decide to have their children after 40 or even 50.

Job satisfaction

There are a lot of criteria for job satisfaction. Different people have different opinions at this point. It is indisputable that a person must really be found of his/her profession to enjoy his/her job. Another very important factor is the environment at the working place. If atmosphere at work is friendly, a person feels comfortable and confident. The work should be interesting and challenging. Dealing with the same routine work five days a week is boring. Finally, it is a great advantage if the job is well paid. Some people have two (or even more) jobs at the same time – one for the soul and another - to support themselves. If a person has a favourite job with a high salary he/she is really lucky. It is not easy to find your own way. Some people know exactly to what occupation they would like to devote themselves. They have a goal and approach it step-by-step. But some people cannot understand what is their destination in this life, and get an education in order to please their parents. Sometimes young people have a dream to become a dancer or a musician, for example, but their parents insist that they study business because it is considered to be more profitable profession. Sometimes when people realize what their favourite job should be, they give up their occupation and begin a new career. That is why I do not agree with the practice when children are separated in different specialized classes in elementary school. It is urgent to give the child a time to discover what subjects they like and what subjects they do not.

Zoo

I spend a wonderful weekend! I managed to accomplish a lot of activities that I can be proud of myself. I visited Calgary zoo, went skating, swimming, was at the dinner at our friends’ house and purchased some furniture for our apartment. However, there was a negative thing – I did not even approach to my English studies although I planned a lot of useful things to do, and I feel guilty about this. The weekend flied as a couple of hours and as a result I am sitting at night doing my homework, but suddenly I felt a strong irresistible desire to share my opinion about visiting zoo. So, here I am – writing my blog at 12.42 a.m. Well, now let’s talk about zoo. I did not expect that it was so huge! We managed to visit only several parts of it. First we visited African savannah. There were giraffes, hippopotamuses, snakes and a lot of other exotic animals. Then we visited a rain forest, and it impressed me so much. The temperature and humidity were so high that it was difficult to stay there for a long time. There were waterfalls with hot water, so the steam from the water made it difficult to see clearly. The animals were admirable and funny. My younger son, however, did not want to see anything except grey hen-sized birds that were running among the visitors. All that he wanted to do was to chase those birds. There is a popular fairy tale in my country about the hen named Riaba. That hen produced a golden egg to grandfather and grandmother who tried to break the egg, but it was not so simple. That puzzle was solved by a mouse which ran along and caught the egg with its tail. As a result, the egg fall from the table and was broken. My son knew that story well, and was sure that those birds were the hens Riaba. He followed them and begged them to produce an egg for him.

Spring

Hi everybody! Did you notice that spring came to Calgary? It is really surprising because at many other provinces of Canada there is winter with lots of snow and frost. However, in Calgary the nature is awaking from its winter sleep, and you can feel the smell of spring in the air. To tell the truth, I expected colder and longer winter with lots of snow when I came to Canada in August 2007, but my first winter in Calgary appeared to be beautiful and sunny. I am happy that I am so lucky to live in the sunniest and cleanest city in the world. I really like the sun and the fresh air of Calgary! For some people Calgary seems dull and entertainmentless
(I really don't know if there is such a word in English), but for me it is not the most important thing in the life. I have a family here and some friends. At weekends I prefer to go to the nature to make burbecu with my friends or simply to walk in the park. Being close to nature helps me to relax and to look at some things in my life with different eyes. I like Calgary beautiful nature and wild life. It is surprising for me that wild animals here don't afraid people. So I would never change the walk in the park to going shopping.

A mysterious concert

Hi everybody! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I’d like to share with you my impressions about the concert I visited last weekend. It was a concert of a vocal group Camerata from my native country, Belarus. Although it was founded in the 1980th in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, I have never heard Camerata’s music when I lived my native country. There were many Russian people at the concert, so I had a possibility to chat a lot without exerting my brains. It was so relaxing! At that moment I felt as I appeared in my native country among native people. When I heard the first sounds of musical composition, which was performed in unusual and unbelievable style, I was shocked. There was no music at all! The singers imitated sounds of different musical instruments, birds, wind and waves. They song in English, Russian, and Belarussian. Camerata’s experimental style combined classical and modern traditions. The concert included pieces of different genres, from classical and ethnic to jazz, often interwoven into each other, giving birth to totally new and uncommon combinations. Their compositions were very special, with a variety of plots. The singer’s voices were so strong and pure, and they so harmonised to each other that admiration of audience was indescribable. The performance was impressive and successful. I think listening to Camerata is a unique experience having quite a magic effect. I urgently recommend you to visit their concert if you will have such a possibility in future.
I was surprised to realise that I had to come in Canada in order to get familiar with the creativity of this unique Belarussian group.

Happy Reading Week!

Happy Reading Week to everybody! Our midterms are already in the past and we can relax and devote all our free time to blogging! (Joke!). However, I must admit that when I am reading my classmates’ blogs I feel like I am reading a writing of native speakers. I know may be Scott can see some defects, but for me most of the blogs sound natural and perfect. I don’t know your opinion about midterms yet; the research project was the most difficult of our tasks for me. It was something terrible! I started it at Saturday night being very enthusiastic, but I have hardly finished it at 2.00 am on Monday. So I had to miss skating and swimming and I was really upset with it. To my surprise I realised that I have spent more time trying to find articles than writing my research project! I must say I failed to find articles I really wanted write about. I tried to use key words in my search, but finally the main ideas of the articles I found appeared to be so far from my ideas that I became desperate. Finally, I lost my hope, took several articles which were a little related with my ideas and make myself to write something about them.
Now let’s change a subject. Have you noticed how beautiful the weather was today? It was +12! Unbelievable! If we compare with the last weekend…. – 25! Impressive!!! I can’t help admiring such a changeable weather! As the weather is going to be fine, I have lots of plans for this weekend: I am dreaming about going to Banff, making a barbecue with my friends in the park, snow-boarding with my children and of course swimming and skating.

A first lecture

Hi gays! I’d like to share my impressions about my first lecture, which I attended yestarday. The theme of the lecture was Alberta’s society (Sociology).There were about 150 students in the classroom. Some of them were late but the lector didn’t seem annoyed with it.
At the beginning of the lecture the professor asked if there were any new students in the classroom. I raised my hand, and he said if I will have any questions about the new material I can come to him after the lecture. Then he noticed that he wasn’t satisfied by the students’ attendance at the lecture (it was Friday!), so he promised that from now he will give the most important material on Fridays. Next he remarked that he still can’t remember all the students’ names and told that some professors used to take pictures of their students in order to solve this problem.
After this introduction professor began his lecture. I must say that I expected a terribly fast speech with strong Canadian accent, mach more fluent than those lectures that we listened at Murrey’s classes. However, I was very surprised when I heard a clear, well organized speech that reminded me Murrey’s one. So I relaxed and began to listen interesting facts about Alberta’s population. I was surprised to see that during the lecture students were allowed to ask the professor questions because one of my friends told me that you can have your hand raised during the entire lecture and a professor may not pay attention to you.
While I was taking my notes the professor asked us to make groups of three in order to make a list of tricky things about Alberta. At the first moment I was confused but then I had a great conversation with two students in which we compared some Canadian customs with customs of my native country. I was glad to hear that my English was good and understandable.
And how was your first lecture?

The best way of studying a foreign language

Hello everybody!!! It’s my first blog and I am very exited about it! May be it is impossible for you to believe, but I have never heard about blogs! On Thursday I couldn’t understand what did Scott want from all of us. But now I discovered that blog is a great possibility for us to communicate, to get some information about our classmates, to understand who is who and remember the names (I think for Scott it could also be a chance to practice with our names in order not to be confused between Jason and John). Most of students were happy to study at EAP 2, so they already know each other. As for me, a new student, I knew only several students with whom I took the placement test.
Now, let's talk about the best way of learning a foreign language. I am sure that most of us will agree with an idea that leaving in a foreign country, speaking with native people, watching local TV programmes and participating in different local events is the most effective method to study a foreign language. And we are so lucky to have such a possibility! I’d like to mention that the main obstacle in studying a foreign language is our shyness to communicate with local people. I remember when I arrived to Calgary I was afraid to open my mouth to say an English word. However, I discovered later that most of local people are very friendly. They are very patience and ready to explain again and again if you didn’t understand what they had said. I noticed when I am listening a person speaking English who is telling about something interesting I can forget that I am listening a foreign speech. It seams to me like my native language. Good luck in studying English!