minats_zone

Dear all, here I am in Moscow again after many examining trips around Russia. I really enjoy travelling, so I don't want to complain. There were ups and downs in my trips, as usual, but generally these trips were exciting and memorable. I'll describe them one by one. 17/18 May - Saratow, just after coming back from Vietnam. It was nice and well organised, thanks to Barbara Danshina, the local woman in charge. The Volga river there is very wide and we even enjoyed sailing a jet boat belonging to Barbara's family. See some pictures above. 23-26 May - Omsk. It's a beutuful Russian city in Siberia, close to Kazakhstan. It's full of old buildings and houses, many theatres and cafes with relatively good food and prices. The main church has been restored there and now it dominates over the city centre. Their major Saint is St. Silvester who was tortured and murdered in 1920. The remains of his body is kept inside the church in regarder as a shrine. Have a look and go...

Here I am in Moscow doing usual things. But let me tell you about our last days in Hanoi. We lived in the same Lake Side Hotel as in winter 2007-8, just in the city centre. You can have a look at the view from the balcony of our hotel over a small lake. Time passed so quickly there - we had meetings with Stanislav's people from plants and companies in Hanoi. I think the talks and arrangements were successful as Stanislav always smiled and was happy after these meetings. We also took an exciting motobike-ride around Hanoi with our friends. We even managed to take some curious photos on a ride - of LENIN, of boys doing martial arts and people sitting on the grass (they simply enjoy it!). However, I think the culmination of our stay there were the massage sessions, which we had in the nearest massage saloon. It was so good and effective, not to mention that it was unbelievably cheap!!! The sessions lasted for 1 or 1,5 hours and the body feelt so good and relaxed after them. But stil...

I can't be silent after I've learned about nearly 22,000 people that had been killed or missed in a devastating cyclone Nagris in Burma, Myanmar. It's really hard to imagine that this devastation and disaster occured not so far from peaceful and flourishing Vietnam and Thailand,in Burma, one of the poorest states of SE Asia (and, probably, the planet), which had been under harsh military rule for decades. Thousands of buildings were flattened and lots of people became homeless. The humanitarian aid is the only supply they can rely on. And this cyclon broke out on Saturday, May 3d when other people were doing usual things or even enjoying life (like me). Now I realize more clearly than ever that happy moments in life are so precious and they are of inestimable value to us. We shouldn't forget about this and help each other as much as possible.

Really, it was an exciting trip on a Cham island. The pick up van arrived at 8:30am and the adventure began. There were about 30 people on a boat, not all of them for snorkelling. A few people came for diving and they had a diving instructor. As for the folk there, some people were from Netherlands, France, Australia, New Zeland, Italy and, perhaps, some others, I don't know. But the Russians were only us. The boat and the business belong to an Italian family. The head of the family, quite a remarkable Italian guy in his late-forties, was in charge of both snorkelling and diving. I was surprised at his fluent Vietnamese language when he gave orders to some very helpful and ever smiling Vietnamese boys on the boat. I was also surprised not to see flocks of Chinese people there(from Hong Kong) as they are really plentiful in Hoi An and the hotels here. So I thought that only Europeans could be interested in spending their time on a boat and the island shorkelling or diving as for th...

Here I am, in Vietnam. After a long period of monotonous dyas in Moscow, we broke away from the daily routine to freedom. And, surely, we are here in Vietnam again. We both (my husband and I) love this country so much that we couldn't help going here (the best of SE Asia) one more time. Of course, my husband's business here will take up some time,at least 3-4 days, but the rest of our 12 days we are spending in our dear Hoi An. This time we've decided to kill two birds with one spone - first, stay in a fabulous 5 star hotel, just on the seashore, second, to have some new items of clothes made by the local tailors. I searched the Web before going to Hoi An as many foreign tourists come here just with making new clothes in mind as well as doing regular things (swimming, sunbathing etc). So I found some favourable brands in Hoi An to explore. We did so and now we both have some fancy outfits for summer, but more importantly, for Stanislaw's 55th birthday on July 3d. I hope...

On this bright April day I want to share with you my joy and happiness that I feel on this occasion. Eventually, I can say "Christ the Savor is alive!!!" I think my feelings and joy about this can be shared by many of you who believe in God, our Savor! After a long period of fasting (not completely, but avoiding meat, butter and chicken), I have reached this Big Day, but more importantly, now I can say again and again: "God bless us all!!!"

The question is - why should I write about Tanya if she graduated from RSSU in 2007 and now other new students are due to finish? The answer is very simple - she passed CPE in June 2007 with the 'B' and eventually e-mailed me her scanned CPE certificate. This fact in itself is really outstanding and I decided to write about it and tell you more about this very special girl. However, first of all,let us have a look at her certificate and at Tanya herself among other fellow students (she is the first on the left) in her class of would-be-teachers of group 1, graduation 2007. I'm also among them, the one on the very right (sure, you can't mistaken me for some of my students!!!). She came from a small Russian town of 'STH', I don't remember its name. But her motivation and ambition have always been incredible. These qualities drove Tanya through all three levels of the ESOL Main Suit Exams: FCE (A) in 2005, CAE (B) in 2006 and CPE(B) in 2007. And it was the girl...

I'm reflecting on the way I can help my students with speaking. I noticed that both advanced and lower level students experience the same problems - they don't structure their speaking and neglect the sounds and intonation. Very often this results in producing something monotonous and flat with the only links used 'and'/'but'/'because'. Today I've been examining my final year students and many of them really disappointed me by making such mistakes. Perhaps, I failed to explain to them that speaking fluently suggests not only fluency in itself, but ability to choose the appropriate vocabulary and structures so as to communicate ideas effectively. The pictures illustrate what they produce and what the'ups' and 'downs' of natural English look like. Sorry for that!

Look at these two guys from England an a baby lion. They reared it for some time at home, in England, then, when it reached maturuty, they were forced by the authorities to send it back to Africa and set it free in a wildlife sanctuary. They did exactly so and in a year time they returned to the wild to see what happened to their ex-friend. The African scientists warned them that the lion would not remember them, but when it noticed the two guys, it behaved like a sweet pussycatjumping on each guy in a cat's manner!!! This event, in my opinion, dismisses the common notion that grown up lions have short memories and are always agressive and dangerous. Good news!!! P.S. Sorry, but I am unable to attach the video showing this exceptionally unusual reunion in the African jungle as it takes a lot of time to download. It's a pity!

Dear all. I've got two news to share with you - the first is happy but the second - is not. The happy one is shown in the photograph. It's a reward given to school 1359 for the exceptionally good achievements in teaching in 2007. In fact, the students of this school really have proved to be among the best in all-Moscow foreign language contests (olimpiads). Among these students are many of my best FCE and CAE girls and boys. I really take pride in contributing to their success and their winning positions in the language contests. Not only is it outstanding in itself, but it'll give them a real chance to enter the top Moscow Universities such as HSE, Plekchanov Academy and others. Good luck! They really deserve this. However, after the big CAE day (March 8,) they came up with the idea of writing a complain about the arrangements (Listening on the same day as written papers) provided by BKC IH. I agreed to help them as it's not fair to candidates to put them in such inad...

Dear all. I haven't written for a long time as I had some problems with my LAN internet provider. Now I'm writing from my dacha and want to tell you more about my best loved CAE group from school 1359. All these boys and girls have passed FCE with flying colours, and tomorrow they are sitting their written papers and Listening CAE. They are doing this with the BKC International House and the situation in itself has caused a lot of concern from both their side and mine. The point is that I don't think doing Listening after all those written papers is a good thing as it is a kind of violation of the exam regulations. I do hope my students will somehow manage, but still the stress and pressure of the written part of the examination will inevitably affect their performance in Listening. We agreed that they would come to see me the following week and we'll decide what to do, in case they experienced problems. Anyway, what we can do now is to keep our fingers crossed for them...

Hello there. I'm completing reading a book called "Easter Memory" which I bought in Diveevo and all these days I have been running under its great impression. The main personality there is a priest Vladimir Shikin, whose life is a real example of the life of a Saint. I've never thought that such people still can live among us and what he had done to people is really possible in our cruel time. The impression became even greater when I realized that I might have known him. I have two main reasons for this. Firstly, he studied in the MSSU at the same time as I did. Secondly, his face, in the early photographs I found in the book, seems to be very familiar to me. When I was in Diveevo, I just didn't realize that he was so great a person as we've become accustomed to hearing about some people who can do wonders or are like Saints etc. I just looked at the cross on his grave (among other most outstanding Diveevo's Saints) not knowing and realizing that he was s...