I was thinking about recommending myself but this is not a good idea. Paulo Coelho..mmm. not really - I like him but not this much. Kapuscinski... this one is just too obvious. Orwell... the same case. Read the recent plagiarised essay to find out.
Eureka! At least! I will recommend my flatmate - Piotr Rogoża.
Although he was born in 1987, he looks around 30. He says:
"I wrote the first book at the age of 3 when I still had difficulties placing letters on paper. There are crying aliens, UFOs and idylls(he chose this word) like mushroom picking on an alient planet."
He was raised in Cielęcin, a place which does exist but has a little different name. He claims he is a maggot of a serious writer.(is he?) He wished to become a palaeontologist but now he knows it's all gone. When he was 20, his two books "Po spirali" and "Rock and roll bejbi" were published.
From my perspective he is a normal guy. He will sometimes open his computer and type in a little piece of literature. He drinks beer just the way any other human being does.
Orwell's unerring and painful science fiction satire is regarded as possibly the greatest British novel to have been written in the post-war area. Once an adherent of Russian Revolution, Orwell became bitterly dissillusioned with the reality of Socialism when the Stalinist treatment of truth – that by moulding one's mind, the Party changed reality – leaked to the west. By reversing the last two digits of the year, in which the novel was written, Orwell arrived at a year when his nightmare vision of a state based upon total subjection of its citizens' minds was to become true. Now, Orwell is long dead but his greatest science fiction novel is still alive. There however comes a question whether “1984” is alive as an art of fiction merely or the infernal prophecies of the novel are alive in the reality of today's world.
Regardless of the place where he was, John Winston, the protagonist of “1984” was always observed. Posters with an enormous face – the face of Big Brother gazing upon everyone, tracing his each and every movement - were plastered all over Oceania. The members of the Party were subjected to an unremitting brainwashing – it was not only action against the Big Brother that was punished, it was a thought, no matter how powerless it might be, that was nipped in the bud. The telescreens and microphones were installed in their workplaces, houses and forests, Thoughtpolice patrols were on the beat watching continuouously for any evidence of thoughtcrime. All this was to ensure absolute submission to the Party. Only the proles (proletariat) enjoyed unsubstantial freedom of thought, but “until they become conciouous they will never rebel and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious”. Today, in an apparently free world, the situation is no different. Modern technologies – the Internet, GPS, mobile phones – are everything that is needed to supervise people. When one uses the computer, his every click of the mouse is traced by the ISPs (Internet Service Providers), when one takes a walk to the park, the satellites take pictures of him. More than that, the authorities collect any possible data, such as: bank accounts, the records of hospital treatment, information on employment and income. Recent fruits of software engineering, these are, facebook, myspace and the like, give an opportunity to search for personal information in an infinite database. Bearing all this in mind, one sees that, concerning the supervision of the people, “1984” was a prophecy. Yet, the aim of the party was not supervision solely: the party wanted to control human mind. Is that the case now?
Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia were the three powers of the world in “1984” and there were the telescreens – the mouth of the Party – which kept informing on ongoing wars, sowing hatred, fear and the eternal love for Big Brother. Today, there are: Europe, Russia, the USA and the other, the evil world governed by terrorists and there are the media which keep informing on how successful our troops were. In “1984”, any alleged crimethinker ended up in the Ministry of Love which was, in fact, the Ministry of Hate. Today, anyone who is believed to have collaborated with the terrorists can be detained for up to 40 days without charges. To give another example, there have been established detention camps where torture is used as a means of imposing confessions which, in fact, may not be true. The similarities between the world depicted in Orwell's novel and the world of today are evident. In “1984”, the Party employed one more , actually the most powerful, way of shaping human mind – changing the language and consequently changing the thought. This idea is the basic assumption of linguistic determinism, the proponents of which claim, that human cognition is limited by the language. The Party suppressed words which were not in conformity with the Ingsoc and words which might be amiguous had their meanings reshaped. This all was done to ensure that any thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc were literally unthinkable. There is no way of knowing whether or not the rulers of the world of the 21st century are doing the same to our languages.
It might be concluded that “1984” by George Orwell, which is a powerful cry for freedom of thought and expression, was a prophecy which came true. The novel is a work of fiction but the world in which we live is not fiction: this is a real world where people are supervised, controlled, questioned and detained for no reason. Seemingly, there is freedom of thought but people are tacitly brainwashed: their thinking does not reach beyond what is in the media.
I do not feel eligible to comment on "1984": This book beat the pants off me.
"1984" is a novel written in 1984. By reversing the last two digits, George Orwell arived at the year when a nightmare world would be run by a totalitarian state. Influenced by Socialistic ideas, Orwell believed in Russian Evolution. However, when the Stalinist treatment of truth - that by controling people's minds the party controled reality - began to leak to the west, he became disillusioned and wrote "1984" as a denounciation of Socialism.
John Winston is the only one. The only one, who is non-existant. That's the first rule of Ingsog - doublethink. He is just the same way as 4 + 4 is five and just as well it may be 5 or 6, if the Party wishes so.
Although the story is literature, the idea - that by controling one's mind, the party controls the reality - seems plausible to me. For, if all the records of history were wiped out or ratified so that they mached the Party's policy, how can one now what is true? What party holds to be true, is true.
I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone. It feels like the better the book, the harder to write anything about it. Now I am on 'For whom the bell tolls" By E. Hemingway. Keep your fingers crossed.
This post was written a week ago but I forgot to publish it. So it goes. There it comes... I know that noone reads it but the duty to the KJO must be fullfiled.
The echoing sound of an alarm clock wakes me up; “fabulous! I have slept for five hours” - I thought and in an instant reached for the alarm clock to shut it up. What's scheduled for today? Brushing my teeth, eating, school, talking to the people who should be turned into biomass and then into fuel, drugs, sleep.”
Talking of a day from my future what comes to my mind is the movie “A madman's day”. My monthly salary will be equal to 1100 pln, I will have no prospect of having my own place, I will be in a constant fight with lower-secondary school students and I will eventually go insane.
There is not a thing more that I can tell. I hope that what I have told you will not come true. I hope that one day I will win millions of euros (take notice that by this time Euros will be the official currency in Poland) on a lottery or else than this I will discover that my relative, of whose existence I haven't heard yet, will die and I will come into fortune left by him/her.
Someone has recently told me that we – our generation – will be in such a despicable hurry that we will all die of cancer. So it goes.
So, the plan of this week was to read two stories of Auster's trilogy - 'The Locked Room', 'The Ghost' and a book by him 'The Music of Chance', which I have already read.
'The Music of Chance' - is a story of a man, who apparently bored with his daily chores, makes up his mind to set off for a two year journey around the expanses of his country - the USA. Financially backed up by his late father, who left him a heritage worth a lot, he can afford a fancy, a new Saab and an infinite amount of petrol, not to mention accomodation in hotels. One day, on his way, he meets a badly beaten fella, a roboust poker player, with whom Nashe will be now sharing his history throughout the novel.
The story itself is absorbing and, no doubt, worth reading. You can find plenty of coloquial language. It triggers imagination. Me... I was reading the book, savoring its every bit - I really enjoyed it.
But... I see no corellation between the title and the story.
Now that I have some free time I've taken up reading books. I read Paul Auster's 'City of glass', a story, which I do not fully understand but find nevertheless interesting and intriguing.
As you may have seen, I've been carrying a book, whose cover is bizarre pink. It's The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński. I saw it in Empik some time ago and there was no way of escaping it - I had to buy it. It's an amazing translation of "Heban". I don't know why the title was not translated literally. There is a word for 'heban' in English - 'ebony'.
For those who are not yet familiar with Kapuścinski's reportages I recommend his works. He was genius in my opinion.
Since I am not American I have no idea if the outcome of the recent elections in the US should be referred to with this cliche - a wind of change. I will just leave a couples of my thoughts that spring up in my mind when I think of the matter.
A few days ahead of the election day I listened to a radio interview with Prof. Lewicki who claimed that Obama did not offer anything of value besides astonishing PR of his campaign. He went even further and said that Obama's being a president could deepen the racism, though now I cannot recall why he said so. Nevertheless, it then rung true and resonable.
I wished the USA be less engaged in the world's affairs. I know that this country is of utmost significance, because of its size, military power and other earthly riches, but why should then dictate the world what it should do, or send its troops to other countries in the name of something that I cannot understand.
The missile shield. I reckon that the plan of installing it in Poland and the Czech Republic will be abandoned, and the ruling of these countries will find themselves cheated.
The USA is in a need for a president who will show a way out of the financial crisis. The time will show whether or not Barrack Obama will be one of this type and will go down in history.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
It's been a long time since I last was here. I do promise to catch up with everything. Since I have little time now I will write just one sentence.
I must say that I learn much more from teaching practice than from studying the theory. Talking about the theory and its application to the real teaching. Sometimes it comes useless. So it goes.
I liked teaching in Liceum and Primary School the most. Gimnazjum's not for me. I cannot stand guys kicking the school utilities and doing anything to get me as crossed as possible. I told you about them not once only, but for the sake of this blog I will put it here as well.
I had a group of 13-17 year-olds. It was 1st class of Gymnasium. Now.. you should wonder why such age differences. As simple as that, some of them tried to move forward to 2nd class but to no avail.
There is me, there are they. Who wins? No one. I wish you could see this class. They would do really the most stupid things to get the teacher see Jesus Christ.
Other groups didn't misbehave so much. But it should be said added that they didn't show interest in learning English either.
if you have any questions, doubts, or want to kill me, marry me, or propose fishing in the summer, just let me know.
Christmas as any other, in theory lots of time, in practice, no time. That's how it was. What now worries me is not having done anything for school. I'd intended to read something for literature or maybe even start revising for the exams but I didn't do either. The Christmas, the most commercial of all holidays, the holidays, by which I had been overwhelmed though I DID not want to is now gone. How happy I am but I am going to feel homesick. The picture below is not as much related to Christmas as supposed to but I hope that you will like it anyway, though you do not have to :-).
Sorry, but the picture won't upload, I don't know why. I will try tomorrow
It's 8:19 pm and it seems that there won't a better time for writing something about my music, not that I have much to say. I listen to so much different, so much unrelated genres of music that any attempt to classify it is pointless, thus this post will be rather short. Hmm... and now, I am trying to think of some names, bands, etc...
and I can't
ok:
- VNV - bonobo - thievery corporation - classical music - all sorts - trip hop- all sorts - best rock classics ever - anathema - tool - vavamuffin - bob marley - świetliki - czesław śpiewa - placebo - rammstein - massive attack - mesh - lao che - mike oldfield - interpol - cool kids of death - and many many many more.
thank's for attention. should u have any questions you know that I won't hesitate to answer. :-)
Beneath you've got two chapters of my story. I've been working on that and adding bits of but I didn't know that the date wasn't refreshed. So, if you feel like, just read it and leave a comment if u wish.
'Ok, Time's up. I should be going guys.' it's late Sunday evening. The previously lit windows of the remote buildings behind the river has now faded away, all fast asleep. There is no way of escaping this, I have to face the truth, the time is passing by. Someone kicked the pendulum aeons ago and gave the clock its fatal momentum.
Deep in shallow thoughts, I am trying to handle the issues of tomorrow ... was there anything to do, anything to remember to take, yes.. perhaps the CDs? I will type them in to my mobile.. just in case. Huh... damn burden of the momentum.
I feel like eating something. How I detest my habit of eating that late. I can't help it. Physiology versus rationality. The former wins, no exception.
Nestled in the fluffy duvet... the recollection of the day on its way. The well-known feeling of self-unfullfilment dwells in my mind. I planned so much, I did so little! How come?I didn't talk to the neighbours about the turns in cleaning the staircase. I didn't tidy up the kitchen and my flatmates will get furious about it. There it comes. The fear of the unknown. The fear of tomorrow.
The regularity of my heart beating goes hand in hand with the rhythm of the music. The computer switches off. Cleaning the staircase, Where is she? A new wobbler would make a do. ..frowned with anger and conf... . Freedom. . Where am I? … yes. That's it. My eyes glitter with the morning light. It's me.. driven by the momentum.
Shhh... the eyelids open up and the mortal daylight inevitably comes inside. What's the time? The right hand fell down to the floor, circled around twice and reached the mobile. It's not that late, 7:43. How come I feel so good? I get up with a rapid movement and feel the world reel in my head. 'I must have drunk something yesterday'. Yes.. probably yes.., and maybe this is why I feel this horrible, so much physical desire for a glass of water. Something is striving to tell me that I boiled some water ahead of going to bed. I won't believe in this until I can see it with my own eyes. How strange is this? I do not believe my own eyes. They saw the kettle yesterday, didn't they?. Were they the same eyes? There it is, waiting for me, waiting to be drunk, to flow into the depths of my alcohol dried throat. Sensation of life coming back to my body.
Ropelike tram terminus tightens around your neck, out of depth. Constellations of glittering lights spinning in your eyes. Whatever you say will sound stupid. One step further – railway; the barrier bows to the trains. The wagons drag through your brain with a deep rumble. Now's the time to walk.
On the other side of the street, stooped down, a hood, dynamic walk, hands in pockets. The church tower sticks out like a monstrous 'fuck you'. You pass blocks of flats, the fire brigade, you walk across the lawn. The scent of wet leaves, damn slippery. The staircase welcomes you unwillingly. You know you have to rush, though you do not realize why at the time, but but an unclear premonition hints it might deal with the bladder. You climb up the stairs, wrestle with the lock. The victory comes not easily. Not taking off muddy shoes you dash into the room, open the balcony door, look upwards and downwards. Stars and pavement. You wonder where it is closer and undo your fly.
Piotr Rogoża (I translated this from Polish to English),
To find out more, type in his name to google search engine and something will surely show up.
For those who do not know where I am from, I suggest visiting www.maps.google.com and typing in 'Bartoszyce' into the search field. There will come up my hometown, which for you is a place only, and for me is a way more than a place itself. 13 kms from the Russian border. Lots of illegal cigarrets and vodka, cheaper petrol. Lots of affluent people. Yet, there is the other side. Even more of destitute people. But this is not I am going to talk about. I 'd rather say something about the Bartoszyce that I see through my eyes. (take notice of the words say and tell, they do not sound the same but they mean the same; not like bow and bough - Monty Python. I really recommend some of scatches of theirs).
First of all, I wish to point out to the differences between the two words: home - house. My house is the very building where I was, sort of, brought up. My house is a part of my home, but not the opposite.
My home is all where I feel secure, my town is one of these places.
Bartoszyce is a town that gives me a sort of shelter. Lot's of nodding accquaittances. If you have a problem, there is always someone to turn to. In my town, there are some special people, my family, mummy and daddy :-). My brothers moved out some long time ago. With my father, I often go angling. Nice thing to do, btw, there are lots of lakes and a river so you can enjoy yourself if you are a fishing fan.
OK, it's 9:44 PM. The right time to go on with the description.
It's really difficuly to verbalise the notion of my hometown, the one that I see trough my eyes. It's a bunch of feelings and emotiones that are attached to it and there seem to be no way of getting them across in writing. I'll try.
When I think of my hometown, I can see my girlfriend. Whenever I am home we meet.
To be continued, I have to read linguistic stuff.
Published on Teaching English | British Council | BBC (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk) Discipline problems by Nina M. Koptyug, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English,
Lyceum # 130, Novosibirsk, Russia
In her article,the author examines the causes ofdiscipline problemsin class and possible solutions to them. She goes on to say that there are a few stages that must be followed when trying to deal with students' misbehaviour in class, the first of which is identifying the causes.
The author quotefrom someone anonymous,"For every person wishing to teach,there are thirty persons not wishing to be taught". Next, Nina M. Koptyug comments that different types of learners may depend on the their families' well-being. Besides, students may come to classanoxiousaboutan upcomingtestin anothersubject,which,bythe author,willinfluencen establising good rapportwiththem.
As statedinthe article,another reasonfor discipline problems occuring is students' inability to cope with the tasks.According to the article, the second stage is identyfing the ringleaders. The author goes on to say that it is vital to keep ringleaders busy. Whereas the third stage is varying traditional tasks. By the author, it is beneficial, in terms of discipline, to praise students' for their achievments and alternate tasks which cover skills that students have difficulty with.The author gives an example of working in a computer lab as a good means of enhancing students'writing and pronunciation abilities.
Another stage, mentioned by the author, is increasing students' motivation, which, according to her , can be attained in a variety of ways depending on the students' grade level.
The last stage,which is elaborated on in the article,is what the author calls establising the priorities. Nina M. Koptyung points to the role that the teacher play in a classroom. According to her, it is the teacher that is responsible for everything that goes on and who has the power to restore good rapportwith students.Yet,the author claimsthatthis cannotbe achieved without the feeling of self-confidence.
My opinions,
Nina M. Koptyug gives an account for discipline problems, but in my opinion this explanation is too shallow. Apart from the family situation of a student and the timetable clashes, there are a few more causes of classroom problems, in my opinion.
One of these can be the peer pressure and the trends of the day. For some it can be undoable to work in class because of their feeling that no one should command them. Some students reject the notion of school as such as they do not want to feel subjected and this does not have to be any related with student's family's hardships.
As to keeping the ringleaders busy, I would like to say that this should be done with a possitive approach, meaning, not to treat learning a language as a tool of repression. I do believe that such motivation for working in class can lead to disastrous results. From psychological point of view, once external motivation seizes to exists people do not feel motivated at all. I think that this rule would apply to teaching just perfectly.
Talking about motivation, I am a supporter of the idea that students should find the point of learning languages only by themselves. Of course, teachers can help them do it, but this should not turninto a teacher's endless talking about the need for learninglanguages due to final exams coming up.
Finally, I would like to express my doubts about the role of teacher in class presented in the article.The author wrote that the teacher must be the boss and the students will feel it. In my opinion,what students need to feel foremost is that they are responsible for their learning, theirachievmentsetc.WhatImeanbythatisthatitismuchbettertoevokeinternal motivation in students rather than the external one.
What could I be doing at 1:30 p.m. on Monday? Well, I should be listening to the lecturer attentively but I was not. Instead, at 1:30 p.m. I was already at the lake enticing the monsterous fish with my toys. To see a hunter at home, priceless. Wasn't it ?
