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Ardent speech about emojis

As soon as this post is published you’ll be allowed to call me a fearful reactionary but I have to make a confession. The thing is that I can’t stand emojis.

At first, there were just smiles. These funny yellow circles seemed really helpful to express emotions while texting and to prevent ambiguity. I started using them quite often and really enjoyed this new way to empathise certain nuances of my written speech.

Later on, when I first starting using an ‘innovation’, emojis, I also found them quite entertaining. Sometimes, my friends and I even made a kind of code with them. For example, we would make each other guess the hidden message. 

Now I hate the emojis. What makes me so worried about people using them? The fact is that now emoji are either used in excess or compete with actual words. I’ve seen plenty of posts on the Instagram/FB/VK/etc. where each sentence ends up littered with small pictures. Why do this if the meaning of a text is obvious anyway? They neither look pretty nor are relevant. I’ve also seen posts without any words where all the author’s thoughts were put into pictures. It does kill writer’s creativity, doesn’t it? Instead of choosing weighted words, you can just flick through colourful rows of icons and find something close to what you were going to say. Instead of making up a syntactically complete sentence, you can just put together a load of badges.

I think about the books for children and the ones for adults. Where can one find more illustrations and less text and vice versa? It feels like we have become children again who can’t read huge meaningful texts – and what’s more – don’t want to. And it has to do with 'fragmented thinking’, which kills not only creativity but also the depth of comprehension, the ability to critically perceive information and the capacity to focus and concentrate. 

I, of course, do not intend to quit using emoji and don’t judge anyone. I, myself, use them in spite of my own pathetic speech above. The only thing I try to do is to remind my readers that everything needs to be in balance.  

https://memegenerator.net/instance/54550536/american-psycho-post-that-emoji-one-more-time

[sunthread]

March?

We all know that March is the first Spring month. It’s the beginning of flowers blossoming, the period when nature gradually wakes up. 

Saying ‘we’, I certainly don’t mean St Petersburg citizens. I mentally exclude them. Their approach to March will be mentioned below. 

We, people who live in Spb, know that March is not the first month of spring but the last one of insidious winter. It can be warm and dry for three days at the beginning of March, and then suddenly turn -1°C and start snowing. It can be a prognosis that rain is highly unlikely and suddenly start raining cats and dogs. It can be a wonderful calm sun-drenched morning and horrible windy dull evening. The weather is unpredictable and you never know what you’re supposed to be wearing. 

Rapid weather changes impact not only on your clothes but also on your mood. And sometimes even your blog’s content turns out to be influenced by the weather’s state :) I pin my hopes on April and believe that this post is the last one about the weather!

That oil spot behind the house is what we usually call ‘sun’

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Hello, my little big world!

I am delighted to say ‘hello!’ to you my dear friend who’s stumbled across this post. I wanted to announce a future activity in this blog. The thing is that I realise I lack English writing practice, and so here’s the place where I decided to revise it.

Why ‘revise’? Because this place which has recently gone silent has already served as my English creativity field. 

What am I going to write about? Anything I find interesting and/or useful. And pictures! 

Why do I want you to read my blog? My immediate goal is quite banal. If your English is better than mine, please do not hesitate to correct all the ‘I does/mine laptop’ you may unfortunately find. If you have time and energy, of course. 

This child warmly welcomes you and promises to write something every single day! Let’s start! 

[sunthread]

Beauty and Ugliness of Art

This is my second art note. It's gonna be small. I'm going to dedicate it to an extraordinary German Renaissance figure Lucas Cranach the Elder. This Martin Luter's close friend was a court painter to the Electors of Saxony so he painted numerous portraits of the famous persons of his time. Besides that, he often used religious and mythological themes in his painting. Actually, Lutheran religious concerns are one of the most important issues of Cranach's works. He tried to express them new ways in order to show people its value and significance. But you know, this is not the reason I love his painting. And I really love it. I saw it not only on the Internet but in real life. I enjoy watching masterpieces in museums and exhibitions because I get a possibility to admit small details and tiny strokes. So I examined a couple of Cranach's works in Hermitage. What really drove me crazy is that peculiar women's beauty bordering on ugliness. I don't realise how he did it. Those pictures make one look at themselves again and again and find out whether the character is harmonic and proportional or it's weird and disproportional. Frankly speaking, I find them really esthetic. You can judge for yourself. I added a picture :)

Portrait of Princess Sybille of Cleves, Wife of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous of Saxony signed with the artist's serpent device (lower right)

[sunthread]

William Shakespeare

What do you imagine when you hear 'William Shakespeare'? Are these medieval scenes with noble knights and magnificent ladies? Or it's uncertain forms of unstoppable passion bordering on madness? Maybe this name is associated with  the theatrical platforms of The Globe Theatre in London? I guess there are countless answers to my question. Some people know Shakespeare's biography well, the other would better discuss his plays, some people are most fond of his sonnets. A different perception of the poet's person and works links with different associations which his name creates in our minds.  

Talking about me, I am captivated by melodic and magic patterns of William Shakespeare's rhymes. I can't understand all the things he wrote about because of medieval vocabulary, but sometimes I don't even need it. I just open a page with random sonnets and read them aloud like spells. God, I like their sound. Today I wanna share with you a sonnet 55. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. ’Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgement that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes. _______________________________ On the website, you'll find this sonnet paraphrased with modern English words http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/55detail.html If it is difficult to understand anyway, I recommend you a translation of Marshack. It's not literal, but great.

[sunthread]

Micro Theme

Today I chose some of my future posts' micro theme. I've already written a text about this subject. This is art and history of art which I'm really fond of. When I was a high school student, I spent plenty of time researching websites and books about different artists and developing of painting. I had a strong interest in curious art's attributes so nothing changed. Though, one thing has changed. I'm a law faculty student that's why I cannot continue to explore art world so intensively anymore. But I have enough time to participate in this challenge! So I'm gonna mix pleasure things with useful ones and sometimes tell you about famous creators like painters and sculptors. ...but not today ^_^

[sunthread]

Favourite Number

There are already 88 subscribers in the group ‘100 days of English in the row’ in vk.com! I enjoy it, and the reason is 88 is my favourite number. It's not the same thing like a lucky number. I hardly can believe lucky number exist. I just love the one because of some nostalgic remembrances which are linked with it in my mind. My first 'What? Where? When' team was called '88'. Half its participants studied at the school under number 88 and decided not to create anything special. I didn't study there, but I had pleasure relationships with lots of its students so I liked this idea. It was really happy time when something new appeared in my life and completely changed it in some ways. Since that period of time I've admitted this number everywhere and smiled when I saw it. P.S.: If we turn '8' on 90°, we'll see a sign which looks like infinity symbol. Maybe it's one more reason this number is sort of magical for me.

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Spontaneity

Sometimes I'm quite spontaneous. I have a principle not to watch series because of their lengh, but yesterday I started watching 'Twin Peaks'. The funny thing is I'm supposed to be aware of all the series' events because my friend retold me all the plot several months ago... What do you think? I completely forgot it! I can remember only my impression like 'Hm... I should watch it once'. So that intention realized. I use 'ororo.tv' to watch. There are English subtitles on the website which can be instantly translated in Russian. Maybe this link will be useful for you.

[sunthread]

Damien Hirst

This morning I scrolled my instagram and suddenly saw a philosophic quote, ‘But the answer how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing it anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live.’ The curious thing is the quote belongs to a contemporary artist who's famous as a ‘death's artist’. I'm talking about Damien Hirst. So I decided to tell you a bit more about his life and works. Damien Hirst is a world-famous English artist, enterpreneur, and art collector. He was born in 1965 in Bristol. At the present moment he's the United Kingdom's richest living artist. His art is directly linked to the life and death's questions. Since the late 1980's, Hirst has used a varied practise of different art's forms to explore how life and death can reflect themselfes in the art and how this reflection will influence on people. Subsequently, he said, ‘You can frighten people with death of an idea of their own mortality, or it can actually give them vigour.' In case you think that he paints provocative pictures, you're not totally right. As plenty of contemporary artists, Damien Hirst mixes different genres and mainly workes with installations. His installations are uncredibly expensive! However, people buy them. Some critics say Hirst isn't an artist but a successful enterpreneur. I'm not going to agree or disagree with them. Instead, I'm gonna add to the post some Hirst works' photographs and share with you his website. There you can find lots of his biography's facts, sculptures and installations' pictures, information about his current activity and so on. Then you'll be able to decide whether Hirst's works relates to art or they're only commercial. http://www.damienhirst.com

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain, 2006

[sunthread]

Teacher’s Responsibilty

To be a teacher means to be responsible. Yesterday I realised it clearly. Frankly speaking, I'm one of the most irresponsible girls you've ever seen. I often forget something, don't come on time, lose my things, choose the wrong direction, miss deadlines and so on. But if you become a teacher, you become an authority at the same time. You share information which your students haven't known yet. You have to tell them new facts correct, and understandable. You have to check all the way if they perceive your speech or not. You should keep a contact which means you have to ask your students some curious questions, remind some interesting examples of history and your own life. Another part of being the teacher is creating and checking a homework. You have to consider what type of tasks will be helpful to remember a new material and how these exercises will develop your students' practice skills. Then you should correct their mistakes attentively and find out what hardships they have. Finally, the most important thing is a progress of your students. It's that part of teaching where your responsibility embodies itself. When your efforts become other people's results, you feel you can help them, and you know you've been responsible enough. And talking about efforts one more time... I guess good tutors invest really numerous powers in their business. It's a pity that they're not high authorities and their salaries are tiny in Russian schools. This situation is supposed to be changed through politic and economic actions in order to improve Russian school education in general and the attitude towards the teachers in particular.

[sunthread]

Yulia Became a Teacher

This evening is supposed to be extremely curious. The fact is I'm gonna play an absolutely new role. Being an eighteen-year first-course student, I'm gonna teach four other girls as a tutor. The discipline is social science. As you know, all the students pass their exams in June. Lots of them are afraid. They think they aren't prepared enough so it will almost impossible to succeed. I'm sure there aren't any reasons to worry because one month and a half is quite a long period of time to learn necessary information and get desired skills, especially talking about human sciences. So the first lesson takes place in Skype this evening. Then I'm gonna send to girls everyday homework, and finally, I carry out a practical lesson on next Monday. It's something like test educational week. If I'm a good tutor, I'll work in an online educational platform as a constant tutor. If I'm an awful one, I'll just get an interesting experience. It's so fascinating to do something unusual for you. This is a possibility to look at yourself from another side. I'm looking forward to my first lecture!

[sunthread]

Social Network’s connection

One of my previous posts was dedicated to playing guitar and singing. I wrote I liked these activities a lot, so nothing changed. Once I even posted a video where I was singing a cover version of the song 'Neva' of 5'nizza band. It was quite a long time ago... Why did I remember it now? The reason is I got a message from Samuel in vk.com. I didn't have any idea who he is. It turned out to be that he's one of 300 viewers of my cover who liked my voice and wanted to talk to me a bit. After a small conversation I realised he's Mexican who studies Russian and sometimes he looks for Russian songs on YouTube. He found a pleasure cover, and then he found out its singer which means he found out me :) I can't stop wondering the way social networks connect completely different people. Btw, to make my post more multimedia, I add that video. I hope you enjoy it.

[sunthread]

Through Sudden Sandess to English Madness

I guess we all realise that life can's be all the way same. Some days, weeks, and even longer periods of time are happy and productive, but other ones are unfortunately sad, and 'empty'. 'Sad periods' make us miss motivation and inspiration. So in different days we do our routine different ways (such a sudden rhyme:D). This week I found out my English stagnated. I didn't understand what a learning direction is supposed to be chosen by me. I couldn't 'grope' weak points of my English, those hardships I have to overcome. It seems like my unanswered questions related with sort of strange state in general, so I was lazy, unmotivated and I hadn't any ideas what to do. Now I found desired answers. I felt something like a creative urge and I realized it's time to broaden my vocabulary. Firstly, I wanna get a strong B2 but I use too simple words. Secondly, I stopped reading 'Lust for life' because of an ocean of unknown phrases. It annoyes to scroll a dictionary all the time, ecpecially when you use English-English one. I'm gonna continue my reading in the future. Now I'm gonna read a textbook 'English Vocabulary in Use' and do exercises from it. I hope I repeat forgotten stuff and study absolutely new word groups. I'm looking forward to starting self-studying with these materials :)

[sunthread]

Recently I have lots of tasks and duties that's why I think I won't be able to write completed texts all the time. I'm gonna check 15 minutes per day to create an English post. It means I'm gonna count minutes and stop myself on time instead of try to put numerous thoughts into the small white square in spite of other deadlines. To mark unfinished tales, I'm going to use a common English movie's phrase "to be continued". But this day I don't need the one 'cause I explained my thought in this short paragraph :)

[sunthread]

Melancholic evening

Today is a day of extremely strange weather in Saint-Petersburg. All the streets are wet and a part of them are even white. It's been snowing since 12-13 pm. I haven't ever thought the weather can influence on my mood, but if I drew my current state of mind, it would be a picture in gray shades with obscure objects. I guess people's mood relates with nature's state in some ways. I think it's an evening of melancholic laziness and hot tea.

[sunthread]

Routine VS Special Pleasure

Two weeks ago I accepted a challenge that I invented by myself. Before I shared it with you, I should say a couple words about preceded events. In March, I spent half of my saving on coffee (That's a hyperbole, but it exactly reflects my perception). I bought it everywhere, especially in McCaffee. Why didn't I drink it at least at home? Of course, I did, and my coffee quickly was over. I got sort of dependence. I wanted to drink this beverage several times per a day. The funny thing was I didn't have a student's syndrome which means I didn't try not to sleep during all the night or stuff like this. I just drunk. At the end of the March (еo be exact, the 30th of March), I decided to refuse coffee to me in the uncertain period if time. It supposed to be an experiment on my body. <...> Two weeks passed, so I found me in McCaffee again. It wasn't an unconscious act. I went there in order to do my homework. And I felt it was time to order a cup of coffee. Maybe two weeks ago, when I started my funny challenge, I didn't realize precisely why I accepted it. Now I found out clearly what happened. The coffee stopped being my daily routine. I got rid of the dependence. And at the same time I didn't stop loving this drink. So it turned out to be tastier twice as much. I guess, in this case, I distinctly felt a magic power of moderation. When something makes you a special pleasure instead of being a part of your everyday life, you appreciate it much more. And you know, I'm talking not only about coffee.

[sunthread]

Dreams come true

I'm glad to say that today I bought a bicycle. Of course, I already tried to ride and I admitted some facts: 1) Most of Vasilyevsky island's sidewalks are extremely narrow; 2) I don't love dogs anymore :D (They suddenly appear everywhere without a leash) 3) I'll spend twice as few time to go to my university; 4) The new transport makes me incredibly cheerful! Maybe I'm happier than the postman Pechkin was.