Final Opinion Essay (1)

     Today more and more young people consider education at   university level to be useless, whereas the older generation claims that the degree really matters. Who is right? This is the problem that Mariella Frostrup arises in her article ‘ I’ve got a top degree, but I'm stuck washing dishes ’ ( https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/16/i-have-a-top-degree-but-im-stuck-washing-dishes ) 

     First of all, I do share the young people’s viewpoint, because I often come across the real examples of people, who notwithstanding their high grades at University, can’t manage to find a proper job. To stretch this idea out, I’d like to refer to Mariella’s experience. She was graduated from quite a prestigious University but was unfortunate to get employed as well as hundreds of other educated people. I’m sorry to say, but according to the statistics, one-third of graduated people get drown into unemployment. The employers say that ‘rejected high-educated candidates’ lack practice that is much more precious than theoretical knowledge. But how can a certain student get experience if he studies hard from nine to five trying to stick to all the deadlines, to do piles of homework, to be ready for all the tests? Is it really possible? I guess the answer is obvious. 

      Nevertheless, the older generation is sure that the degree is relevant evidence of one’s education. They say that the degree shows that a graduate has general knowledge of his profession. Moreover, I know some parents who push their children to study, because of their fear of government instability. They are convinced that one day there might appear a law about obligatory high education. That means their children will have to get education anyway, that is why they agitate them to start studying process in time. 

     Anyway, I do not agree with the above-mentioned idea, because children are the future adults, so they are responsible for choosing what they really want. As for the general knowledge reflected in the degree, well, objective opinion of the teachers, who put the marks, does not mean anything connected with real knowledge 

    All in all, both opinions can be shared to a certain extent, but I am convinced that the degree of a top university is not a reflection of real knowledge .Mariella Frostrup as well as the whole young generation hope that universities will be substituted for something more efficient and time -saving ; in order to spend time on experience gaining .

Final Opinion Essay (2)

Marriage is an outdated institution

    The world changes, so do people, that’s why year by year we are acquiring new problems, and issues that are to be urgently discussed. It’s a well- known fact that today people do not tend to get married. But are they making a terrible mistake?
    Understandably, it’s not convenient to stick to another man’s habits, tastes, world perception and so on. Sometimes it happens so that a man shows his nature only after the wedding. The negative experience of unlucky couples is so frequent that those who even had never been married believe that marriage is just a ball and chain. That’s why they choose something simple and modern – they constantly change the partner in order to avoid the process of attachment. So, you actually have a good time with a nice man, until he is nice, but as soon as he is no longer smiling and laughing together with you, you just break up with him. No children (even if they are, they are not acknowledged), no hustle, no bustle. It’s easy, isn’t it? It is love at all? If it is, why not to stick with him through thick and thin and get married?
     According to the current statistics introduced by the famous web- site Debate.org, 58 percent of people say that nowadays marriage is an old-time tradition, whereas 42 still believe that marriage isn't outdated, it’s just people who are not able to live up to their vows. When you love someone, you take responsibility for his wellbeing, you want to help and stay close wherever Life leads you to.
   Anyway, I do not agree with the above-mentioned idea. Most people say that marriage is no more than a stamp in one’s passport, but this is the stamp that shows that you are really responsible for your partner. If you truly love someone why not to get married and show the surrounding that you are responsible for someone’s life?
    Even though most people consider marriage to be a useless act of one’s relationships, I strongly believe that marriage institution is currently for those who can love truly …

Reflection Note

Hello folks!

 Summer session is coming, which means that the fifth Uni semester is forthcoming. I think it is important to recapitulate the work done. During the fourth semester we’ve learned three types of essay, revised some structure rule and so on. I must say that online resources on essay-writing rules that were received helped me to stay afloat in the English-essay-writing world.

 I also think that IATEFL conference activity was pretty useful as we practiced our listening skills as well as writing ones. I picked up some new phrases on how to introduce the topic, how to make a transition from one topic to another. Now, when giving a formal speech, I usually use the following phrases from the conference session: “I’d now like to move on to the next part…; I am delighted to be here today to tell you about…; This leads me to my next point, which is…”-and many more other phrases that cannot be listed in my reflection note because they occupy too much space for it.

 To tell the truth, I didn’t quite like the Guidance Book activity, because I made small research, spent my time, but it wasn’t published, so that I made vain efforts, which disappointed me a little bit.

In the next semester, I ‘d love to focus on writing formal letters such as application for a job, business correspondence. I also consider rules of punctuation, orthography to be worth discussing because these are the rules that should be often brushed up. I hope we will have a special class of formal lexis, because, as far as I am concerned, formal style is different to informal one, and we are as linguists must be able to differentiate them.

All in all, I look forward to sharing my opinion on different topics, hope you will find my blog a somewhat wonderful.

My action story:)

 The registy office was as usual stuffed with people, who were eager to either get married or divorce from each other. There was a huge queue to the office, and suddenly a quarrel between a strange couple took place. It was a strange couple because a forty-year-old man was going to marry to a seventy-year-old woman, which was certainly extraordinary. The man said: If you, old cow, hadn't decided to remarriage me for the eighth time, we wouldn't stay right here, sweating because of the room stuffiness, losing my precious time!". " Be a man, Robert!,- she said. Ladies are supposed to change their mind and"..She broke off in a half of a sentence because about ten men with their face covered with a black mask crashed into the piece registry office. They were all pointing a gun at the woman's husband, except one man who was handcuffing him. "What's going on,- squeaked the man. "You are aressted for raping a tweenty-one-year-old woman! You have a right to remain silent, and  anything  you say will be used against that you in court;  you have the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning, and if you are indigent, an attorney will be provided at no cost to represent you",- said one of mask-covered man. ' It can't be true, I .... I know he would never be unfaithful to me and..The woman broke into tears and couldn't help whimpering. ' Oh, poor Mrs. Burn, I am extremely sorry for informing you that your faithful man raped young women each time you decided to divorce from him. Here we have seven divorces and seven female victims! We cannot let him rape one more woman, after you, Mrs. Burn, once more decide to get a divorce from him. The woman kept silent even though her husband was betting her not to trust a single word of that man's story. Armed wing left the registy office with her husband handcuffed. 

A man in his early forties, who is very rude.

A woman in her seventies, who can be quite spontaneous.

The story begins in a registry office.

Someone is arrested.

It's a story about a countdown to disaster.

Your character discovers some unpleasant truths

the IATEFL Conference

Hi folks!

 Last week we got a wonderful opportunity to watch the IATEFL Conference. I chose the topic devoted to the Oracy skills and 21st century ( https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/oracy-skills-21st-century ). The conference session turned out to be so much interesting that I decided to share with you, what I've recently learnt. 

 Anil Bayir and Ishak Ersin Kirac, the speakers, introduced the school where both of them are currently teaching oracy skills. They say that nowadays it's essential that a little child be prepared for the huge world of communication. So, it's quite obvious that the graduates of this school are going to be successful people. There were some pieces of advice on the improvement of one's oracy :

1) Speak no more than 30 seconds, otherwise, the interlocutor will be bored

2) After somebody's story ask some questions but if you are not really interested don't even try to. Don't try to be what you're not.

3)Mind the style of your speech, in order to avoid confusing situations. 

4) Learn some nursery rhymes and tongue twisters to train yourself at oracy.

I think these are rather easy pieces of advice to follow and develop your speaking skills.

Having watched the session, I got curious whether Russian schools have the same useful subjects or not. I'd like to find it out, and if you are also interested in this info, please, let me know in the comments below!

Is style and fashion the same thing?

    Current fashion shows strike its viewers with eccentric outfits: a triangle-shaped dress, mat skirts, double jeans, $3,000 straw hat dress. Moreover these “impossible -to-wear -clothes “ cost a fortune. But are they worth spending money on? Are fashionable clothes look any stylish?

    First and foremost, I think clothes introduced in fashion shows are aimed to express a designer’s feelings and emotions. Fashion is not only about looking pretty, it is ART. Surely, a casual T-shirt with a pair of denim jeans is not powerful enough base for an artist to show own depth. In other words, a runway show that features unwearable garments should be seen as an art exhibition. 

     For instance, Comme Des Garçons’ Fall / Winter 2017 collection introduces an outfit that makes you see a sculpture in which the human body is used as a material. This garment tells you a story about the influence of media on women’s bodies. Here we have food for thought, haven’t we? Moreover, some huge companies such as Armani, Zara, Versace. I know it might be a surprise to many people, but introduced clothes do not go for sale! You may find these unwearable garments in stores, where they are used as examples of fabrics, composition, embroidery, colour and so on. In addition, as you are never allowed to buy unwearable pieces of art in stores, you can buy their ‘translated’ wearable version. Obviously, it would be very expensive, still eccentric clothes, which require a certain event to wear them on.

   

Wearing such clothes doesn’t always mean you are stylish, because they were rather created to show three characteristics of the owner:1) he is rich; 2) he is courageous 3) he is self-confident.

  

     In my point of view, style entirely differs from fashion. To my mind, style is the way you wear your hair, the manner you communicate with others – generally speaking, it’s the way you carry yourself. You can’t buy style for 1 million dollar, because the style is your personal work with your look, which costs squillions. Moreover, a stylish person may not follow fashion at all. The style consists of three components: 1) your way of living; 2) disguising your flaws 3) accentuating your good points. As you might have mentioned, the word ‘ your’ is repeated in all three components, that means style kind of ‘works for you’. For example, wearing fashionable double jeans at the office is more than awkward, isn’t it? I guess training in pre-destroyed Margiela sneakers is harmful to your feet, what do you think? 

   On balance, style and fashion are entirely different notions, that should not be mixed. Fashionable clothes are not necessarily stylish, and vice versa. I would rather be stylish, than fashionable, and what about you?

My sharing with you

 Today a very useful website was found!
If you are intesested in writing interesting essays, you are welcome to look the following through: 
academicwriting.wikidot.com/animal-rights-essay

Post-4: MENTAL WELLBEING

I've just interviewed the students from the same department on the issue of the problems they had come across while studying at NSU. I decided to make research on students’ mental wellness. I’ve managed to interview five people who confessed to acquiring some psychological problems after entering Uni.

Student A. ‘ Well, I’ve never been a geeky person, but after becoming a freshman I got to be one. I study everywhere I can, on a bus, before going to bed, in a café, EVERYWHERE. That’s the problem because when I don’t study I feel that I can’t keep up with the tasks I get every day. I want to live a normal life’

Student B's answer  was also interesting: 

Student B. ‘My group has a lot of bright students; so that, every seminar is a kind of competition. It is a real stress for me because the only thing I think about during the class is ‘who will raise the hand earlier?’

Students C, D, F shared the above-mentioned opinions. They say they can’t find the way out, it’s like a vicious circle – a lot of homework and marks, marks, marks… Does it make a man any happy?

If you feel that you are about to go nuts because the study process drives you mad, please, make an appointment with ЦНМТ psychologists. Here’s the link   https://www.cnmt.ru/

Dear readers, as you might have noticed higher education is a system that can break your mental wellness. Be happy, studies mustn’t damage your sanity

Hello dear friends!

As the end of the first semester at Uni is coming, I feel it necessary to take stock of my progress in Academic Writing English classes. First of all, I’d like to thank my Academic Writing English teacher for her will to make our lessons interesting, she perfectly met the challenge. I want to point out some topics that I found really beneficial. Firstly, I enjoyed the lesson when we were to read about a specific technique of word memorizing, because as a linguist I do learn lots of new words and such techniques are really helpful. Secondly, the discussion of different types of essay made me understand better the structure of each type. As for the things I didn’t like, well, the computer, I worked with during the class, was always having some bugs, and I made a great effort to do my assignment.

In the forthcoming year, I ‘d love to focus on writing formal letters such as application for a job, business correspondence. I also consider rules of punctuation, orthography to be worth discussing, because these are the rules that should be often brushed up. I hope we will have a special class of formal lexis, because, as far as I am concerned, formal style is different to informal one, and we are as linguists must be able to differentiate them.

All in all, I look forward to sharing my opinion on different topics, hope you will find my blog a somewhat wonderful.

  Hello folks!

Today I will tell you about the article 'Seven ways to keep exercising in the cold, dark winter months' written by Amy Sedghi is devoted to the discussion of doing sports in winter time

(https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/03/seven-ways-to-keep-exercising-in-the-cold-dark-winter-months)they say that winter is an obstacle for doing regular exercises, because of low temperatures and the risk to getting ill. But is it really so?

    To persuade us, the author draws our attention to the tips that seem to work.   Firstly, she says about the importance of setting a goal, because the lack of motivation does not lead to any progress. Later on she refers to Dr Joe Costello to prove that doing sports together with your friends motivates you not to give up. She also emphasizes that  proper winter clothes are one of the most important aspects that require consideration. Further, the author suggests making your regular exercises various in order for you not to get bored with doing one and the same action. In addition, she highly recommends to keep track of your exercises, she writes it will help you visualize how much you have already done. She also makes the reader convinced that fitness at home is as good as training outside. The last aspect makes everybody  leave no excuses for missing the trainings because of bad weather. Finally ,in the article there was said that having a rest is essential for tissue repair. The author doesn't make a conclusion, because his only purpose was to provide the reader with some tips on the above-mentioned topic. Amy Sedghi leaves the reader alone to make his own conclusions and probably reconsider his point of view on doing sports in winter time.

Hello my dear friends!

Today I want to share my word-learning experience with you. At our Academic English class we underwent an experiment where every student had to choose an app that woud contribute to better word memorizing. I 've chose an app called Words 2  that is completely useless to my mind. It was so inconvenient to play with unknown people the game which is so strange... There was a kind of a crossword where two players had to fill the words. I 'm not a crossword passionate solver ,that is why the game seemed to be  boring. I've learnt five new words with the help of this game. I must admit that I've already found my own way for the best word-memorising. I make some flashcards ,and look the words up in the dictionaties that provide the contexts of their usage. No apps can substitute this method!