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.