In Japanese school pupils are as busy as bees, they spend most time at schools, they learn hard from morning till late evening.
For me an ideal school is situated eighteen thousand miles far from Japan to the west. This school is a little school in Summerhill.
Recently I've read about Summerhill school in a magazine and was very interested in the method of education in this school.
This school is a modern kind of school, the main idea of which is to make school fit the child instead of making the child fit the school. Here teachers don't make children sit at desks studying mostly useless subjects. They allow children freedom to be themselves. In order to do this the administration of this school had to renounce all discipline, all direction, all suggestion and all moral trainings. They are sure, and I completely agree with them, that each child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing. Summerhill is a place where people who have innate ability to be scholars will be scholars.
To my mind Summerhill is possibly the happiest school in the world and an ideal school for children. For instance lessons are optional there. Children can attend them or stay away from them. There is a timetable but only for the teachers, so children can choose when they start their day at school. The children have classes usually according to their age, but sometimes according to their interests.
The teachers are friendly and understanding there. They are sympathized with the children and help them as much as they can. They help the children to do as well as possible in their exams and help them to develop their personalities and characters. So, Summerhill is a placе that gives the children not only some skills or knowledge, but teaches some social things the pupils need to know when they leave school. And the main thing - Summerhill is a pleasant place to be in as the children feel comfortable, equal among each other and happy.
Frankly speaking I regret that I didn't have an opportunity to be a pupil of this school, though I really enjoyed years at school and lyceum. And now when I have finished them, my heart is full of gratitude to most teachers for the knowledge they gave me and to many of my classmates who made my school life enjoyable. School has opened me the world and the way to it, and I'm sure I will always look back at my school and lyceum years as the happiest years in my life.
-------------------------------------------------------
MY ENGLISH STUDIES
According to a legend, originally the world only had one language. One day the people decided to build an enormous tower so that they could reach up to heaven. The creator, convinced that he had to put an end to such futile ventures, decided to confuse their languages so that they couldn't understand each other, and to scatter them all over the earth.
Since that time people throughout the world have been struggling to understand each other.
Despite various attempts to create universal language- between 1880 and 1907 no less than 53 were invented- today, whether we like it or not, English is the only universal language.
I'm sure that it is very important and necessary to learn English now, because English is the language of the whole world. 700 million people all over the world use it. Over 30 million people speak English as a mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, etc. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, India, Canada and the South African Republic. As a second language it is used in the former British and US colonies. Besides, millions of people study and use English as a foreign language. But at first I'd like to say some words about the history of this language.
The rise of English is a story of wonderful success. When Julies Caesar landed in Britain in the 5th century, English was already spoken by the people, who inhabited Great Britain, but they were not many and their English was not the language we know today. Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the 16th century, when William Shakespeare created his works, English was the native language of about 6 million Englishmen. At that time English wasn't used anywhere except Great Britain, but now English is the main language of business, sports, science, trade, progressive technology, commerce and it's the world's computer language. 75% of the world's mail and 60% of the world's telephone calls are in English. Also it is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and the major language of diplomacy. It has replaced French in the world of diplomacy and German in the field of science. English is the dominant language of medicine, electronics and space technology, of international business and advertising, of radio, television and film. Besides, the English language is the language of the great literature, hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and read all over the world. A lot of new films in English come out every day. If you know English, you can understand them without translation. Also I should mention that every year thousands of people from Belarus go to different countries as tourists or to work and they can't go without knowing the language of the country they are going to, but they can speak in English, because it is an international language.
I should say that in general interest to foreign languages is increasing nowadays, especially among young people. Youth likes to rest in different youth camps and to communicate with coevals from other countries, but it is problematical if you don't know any foreign language. Modern teenagers like to sit at the computers as well and to spend a lot of time in charts, where they can make acquaintance with people from other countries, but communication with them also requires knowing foreign language.
I'm sure you will feel at home while doing business if you know foreign language, because you have an opportunity to exchange visits and business letters. You can fluently speak to your foreign partners on business on the phone, without help of an interpreter. I'm sure that a specialist knowing a foreign language can find a well-paid job in any professional sphere. Learning foreign languages opens up new opportunities to expand one's knowledge in particular fields. Some people are interested in the culture of other peoples and it is the reason why they learn foreign languages. To my mind the best way to know the culture of different nations is to travel, because when we travel we can see and learn a lot of things that we can never see or learn at home, though we may read about them in books or newspapers and see pictures of them on TV, but to my mind the best way to get to know and understand the people is to meet them in their own homes. Also I'm sure that learning other languages can give you self-confidence when you go abroad, because you can freely express your wishes and thoughts and you will never get in a silly situation.
I'd like to admit that all people have their own purposes for learning other languages, but all of them have the same opinion that learning foreign languages opens up a lot of new prospects nowadays.
As for me I think that learning a foreign language is the best way to discover new things about world culture, which you have never known before and it will open to you great prospects for business. I learn English because it expands my knowledge. At every English lesson I get to know something new and interesting. English enriches my knowledge in some particular fields, broadens my outlook and enriches my mind. If I want to feel quite well in today's multilingual society I should learn English because it is an international language and it is spoken everywhere. Another reason why I learn English is that I want to read English books. I like Shakespeare, Byron and Mark Twain and I want to get pleasure reading books in the original. Also I learn this language because I want to use it for professional purposes as I want to become an interpreter. In my opinion an interpreter is a very useful profession because it helps people to communicate. I want to work in an international environment; I want to travel and to communicate with people. It has always attracted me.
But my friend is sure that learning a foreign language is a waste of time. She says that learning of English is a fashion of the day; she thinks that foreign languages would not be popular in some years. Also she finds her English lessons dull and boring, she says that she always wants to sleep when her teacher begins to speak in English. I'm sure that the reason is that she can't understand what the teacher and other pupils say, and that's why foreign language sounds tiresome for her. She is always grumbling about the difficulties of this language. On the one side she is right, because English is very idiomatic language, there are a large number of exceptions to any rule and the prepositions are terrible, also there is a problem of spelling. I agree with her that English is not an easy thing as it takes a lot of time and patience. Sometimes it is boring to study grammar or to learn new words, but it is well known that reading books in the original, listening to the BBC news and communication with the English speaking people will help a lot But my friend says she would be rather learning one of the artificial languages, for example, Esperanto, because it is a neutral language that is very easy to learn: there are no exceptions to any rule, the tense system is simple and the grammar is based only on 16 rules. Also to her mind it sounds beautiful, because it is quite similar to Italian. She even thinks that in future English would be replaced by Esperanto, but I disagree. I don't think that Esperanto can become an international language, because it is artificial, people don't use it for communication and they don't write letters in Esperanto or read books because only few books are translated in it. There is no country where the native speakers of this language live and where you can go in case you want to improve your language. That's why I prefer learning English to Esperanto, though I find English harder. Also I want to say that a hard thing always evokes larger interest than an easy one.
As for my English studies I should say that I have been studying English for ten years. Here I must admit that I was privileged to study at a school where the English language was taught since the first form, as it was a specialized English school. Since the first days at school English became my favourite subject. At the age of seven I was introduced into foreign speech and was taught to read, write and listen to short texts in English. My first English teacher made each lesson an interesting game which I enjoyed very much. It was exciting and easy to learn English at that time by playing games and singing songs. As I grew older our lessons became more instructive and serious. After the 9th form I entered Gomel state region lyceum where we had five English lessons a week and four additional lessons in English literature and practical grammar. Much attention was paid to grammar, writing all kinds of tests, speaking and listening.
Of course like all pupils I had tasks that I liked to do and that I disliked to do. I didn't like to write tests as I found it boring. I'm a rather creative person that's why I preferred such kinds of work where I could express my own thoughts, and opinions ,that's why I liked writing compositions and speaking. I can't but mention my teacher of English who devoted all her energy and talent to making us speak good English. She did her best to convince us that learning a foreign language was a strong requirement of modern life. I think I can never forget her words that every educated person should be able to speak al least one foreign languages and in many aspects of life English is the key and it has a great influence everywhere. She says that today one person in seven of the world's population either knows English or learns it. I belong to the last group because I'm only studying it now. I'm sure that language learning is something that everyone can do throughout their lifetime - you're never too old or too young to learn a language. Learning a new language is always a challenge but if approached in the right way it will be enjoyable and will provide an immerse feeling of satisfaction. It will give you a practical skill which can add to appreciation of other cultures, improve employment prospects and make travel more rewarding; to my mind you should never stop learning foreign languages. You never reach a point where you can say "at the end of this course I will know this language and I can stop learning it". It's a process that goes on and on.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
For me an ideal school is situated eighteen thousand miles far from Japan to the west. This school is a little school in Summerhill.
Recently I've read about Summerhill school in a magazine and was very interested in the method of education in this school.
This school is a modern kind of school, the main idea of which is to make school fit the child instead of making the child fit the school. Here teachers don't make children sit at desks studying mostly useless subjects. They allow children freedom to be themselves. In order to do this the administration of this school had to renounce all discipline, all direction, all suggestion and all moral trainings. They are sure, and I completely agree with them, that each child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing. Summerhill is a place where people who have innate ability to be scholars will be scholars.
To my mind Summerhill is possibly the happiest school in the world and an ideal school for children. For instance lessons are optional there. Children can attend them or stay away from them. There is a timetable but only for the teachers, so children can choose when they start their day at school. The children have classes usually according to their age, but sometimes according to their interests.
The teachers are friendly and understanding there. They are sympathized with the children and help them as much as they can. They help the children to do as well as possible in their exams and help them to develop their personalities and characters. So, Summerhill is a placе that gives the children not only some skills or knowledge, but teaches some social things the pupils need to know when they leave school. And the main thing - Summerhill is a pleasant place to be in as the children feel comfortable, equal among each other and happy.
Frankly speaking I regret that I didn't have an opportunity to be a pupil of this school, though I really enjoyed years at school and lyceum. And now when I have finished them, my heart is full of gratitude to most teachers for the knowledge they gave me and to many of my classmates who made my school life enjoyable. School has opened me the world and the way to it, and I'm sure I will always look back at my school and lyceum years as the happiest years in my life.
-------------------------------------------------------
MY ENGLISH STUDIES
According to a legend, originally the world only had one language. One day the people decided to build an enormous tower so that they could reach up to heaven. The creator, convinced that he had to put an end to such futile ventures, decided to confuse their languages so that they couldn't understand each other, and to scatter them all over the earth.
Since that time people throughout the world have been struggling to understand each other.
Despite various attempts to create universal language- between 1880 and 1907 no less than 53 were invented- today, whether we like it or not, English is the only universal language.
I'm sure that it is very important and necessary to learn English now, because English is the language of the whole world. 700 million people all over the world use it. Over 30 million people speak English as a mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, etc. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, India, Canada and the South African Republic. As a second language it is used in the former British and US colonies. Besides, millions of people study and use English as a foreign language. But at first I'd like to say some words about the history of this language.
The rise of English is a story of wonderful success. When Julies Caesar landed in Britain in the 5th century, English was already spoken by the people, who inhabited Great Britain, but they were not many and their English was not the language we know today. Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the 16th century, when William Shakespeare created his works, English was the native language of about 6 million Englishmen. At that time English wasn't used anywhere except Great Britain, but now English is the main language of business, sports, science, trade, progressive technology, commerce and it's the world's computer language. 75% of the world's mail and 60% of the world's telephone calls are in English. Also it is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and the major language of diplomacy. It has replaced French in the world of diplomacy and German in the field of science. English is the dominant language of medicine, electronics and space technology, of international business and advertising, of radio, television and film. Besides, the English language is the language of the great literature, hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and read all over the world. A lot of new films in English come out every day. If you know English, you can understand them without translation. Also I should mention that every year thousands of people from Belarus go to different countries as tourists or to work and they can't go without knowing the language of the country they are going to, but they can speak in English, because it is an international language.
I should say that in general interest to foreign languages is increasing nowadays, especially among young people. Youth likes to rest in different youth camps and to communicate with coevals from other countries, but it is problematical if you don't know any foreign language. Modern teenagers like to sit at the computers as well and to spend a lot of time in charts, where they can make acquaintance with people from other countries, but communication with them also requires knowing foreign language.
I'm sure you will feel at home while doing business if you know foreign language, because you have an opportunity to exchange visits and business letters. You can fluently speak to your foreign partners on business on the phone, without help of an interpreter. I'm sure that a specialist knowing a foreign language can find a well-paid job in any professional sphere. Learning foreign languages opens up new opportunities to expand one's knowledge in particular fields. Some people are interested in the culture of other peoples and it is the reason why they learn foreign languages. To my mind the best way to know the culture of different nations is to travel, because when we travel we can see and learn a lot of things that we can never see or learn at home, though we may read about them in books or newspapers and see pictures of them on TV, but to my mind the best way to get to know and understand the people is to meet them in their own homes. Also I'm sure that learning other languages can give you self-confidence when you go abroad, because you can freely express your wishes and thoughts and you will never get in a silly situation.
I'd like to admit that all people have their own purposes for learning other languages, but all of them have the same opinion that learning foreign languages opens up a lot of new prospects nowadays.
As for me I think that learning a foreign language is the best way to discover new things about world culture, which you have never known before and it will open to you great prospects for business. I learn English because it expands my knowledge. At every English lesson I get to know something new and interesting. English enriches my knowledge in some particular fields, broadens my outlook and enriches my mind. If I want to feel quite well in today's multilingual society I should learn English because it is an international language and it is spoken everywhere. Another reason why I learn English is that I want to read English books. I like Shakespeare, Byron and Mark Twain and I want to get pleasure reading books in the original. Also I learn this language because I want to use it for professional purposes as I want to become an interpreter. In my opinion an interpreter is a very useful profession because it helps people to communicate. I want to work in an international environment; I want to travel and to communicate with people. It has always attracted me.
But my friend is sure that learning a foreign language is a waste of time. She says that learning of English is a fashion of the day; she thinks that foreign languages would not be popular in some years. Also she finds her English lessons dull and boring, she says that she always wants to sleep when her teacher begins to speak in English. I'm sure that the reason is that she can't understand what the teacher and other pupils say, and that's why foreign language sounds tiresome for her. She is always grumbling about the difficulties of this language. On the one side she is right, because English is very idiomatic language, there are a large number of exceptions to any rule and the prepositions are terrible, also there is a problem of spelling. I agree with her that English is not an easy thing as it takes a lot of time and patience. Sometimes it is boring to study grammar or to learn new words, but it is well known that reading books in the original, listening to the BBC news and communication with the English speaking people will help a lot But my friend says she would be rather learning one of the artificial languages, for example, Esperanto, because it is a neutral language that is very easy to learn: there are no exceptions to any rule, the tense system is simple and the grammar is based only on 16 rules. Also to her mind it sounds beautiful, because it is quite similar to Italian. She even thinks that in future English would be replaced by Esperanto, but I disagree. I don't think that Esperanto can become an international language, because it is artificial, people don't use it for communication and they don't write letters in Esperanto or read books because only few books are translated in it. There is no country where the native speakers of this language live and where you can go in case you want to improve your language. That's why I prefer learning English to Esperanto, though I find English harder. Also I want to say that a hard thing always evokes larger interest than an easy one.
As for my English studies I should say that I have been studying English for ten years. Here I must admit that I was privileged to study at a school where the English language was taught since the first form, as it was a specialized English school. Since the first days at school English became my favourite subject. At the age of seven I was introduced into foreign speech and was taught to read, write and listen to short texts in English. My first English teacher made each lesson an interesting game which I enjoyed very much. It was exciting and easy to learn English at that time by playing games and singing songs. As I grew older our lessons became more instructive and serious. After the 9th form I entered Gomel state region lyceum where we had five English lessons a week and four additional lessons in English literature and practical grammar. Much attention was paid to grammar, writing all kinds of tests, speaking and listening.
Of course like all pupils I had tasks that I liked to do and that I disliked to do. I didn't like to write tests as I found it boring. I'm a rather creative person that's why I preferred such kinds of work where I could express my own thoughts, and opinions ,that's why I liked writing compositions and speaking. I can't but mention my teacher of English who devoted all her energy and talent to making us speak good English. She did her best to convince us that learning a foreign language was a strong requirement of modern life. I think I can never forget her words that every educated person should be able to speak al least one foreign languages and in many aspects of life English is the key and it has a great influence everywhere. She says that today one person in seven of the world's population either knows English or learns it. I belong to the last group because I'm only studying it now. I'm sure that language learning is something that everyone can do throughout their lifetime - you're never too old or too young to learn a language. Learning a new language is always a challenge but if approached in the right way it will be enjoyable and will provide an immerse feeling of satisfaction. It will give you a practical skill which can add to appreciation of other cultures, improve employment prospects and make travel more rewarding; to my mind you should never stop learning foreign languages. You never reach a point where you can say "at the end of this course I will know this language and I can stop learning it". It's a process that goes on and on.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37