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November, 23, 5 p.m.

It is my last blog in this year. Being a bit devastated and depressed because of studying, I can’t suppress my positive feelings. There is one week to the end of this trimester, so I should prioritize things what I have to do. I’d like to begin with a brief summary of my achievements in studying Vocabulary of Modern English.

Firstly, if I compare this subject to other, it has a lot of benefits. I can say with a great honour, it teaches me a lot of new words and collocations, which I supposed will be useful in my future studying. However, I faced with some considerable difficulties in memorizing new words, to be honest, it was my main concern. It was uneasy to bear in mind so many new words, sometimes in my head was an utter chaos. At any rate, I thank for our teacher, because she took real efforts in teaching us. To simplify our studying she followed a rule: “Practice makes perfect”, so she helped us to memorize everything in our practical classes, by using creative activities. For instance, we played games, sang the songs, made dialogues or just created sentences.

Secondly, I found in myself some creative skills. Writing blogs was a classic example of incorporating our imagination and our new language. Moreover, for myself I created a new schedule of organization my work.

Finally, Vocabulary classes were worth learning. I feel ecstatic and jubilant of having such subject. It helped me not solely in improving my language, but also it provided me with enterprise and initiative. Furthermore, it fosters team spirit and collaboration with my classmates.

P.S: I’m looking forward to new classes of Vocabulary and hope they will be the same unforgettable:)

The Numismatic Museum in Ostrog

Travel agency

  The history of our company started 10 years ago, when I was travelling to Poland, there I understood that I want to provide other people with an opportunity to travel. So when I came back I found people who have a common goal and we started doing first steps in creating travel agency.

At first year we encountered a lot of challenges and even we were near to go under. Besides, sometimes we thought about winding business up, especially when we lost a colossal project and our main investor refused to cooperate with us. But after spending real efforts our business has soared and, finally, it tips the balance. Now, we have a team spirit, mutual respect in the company and every person has an initiative and an enterprise, tries to foster productivity and examines details of future company outlook. 

As our travel agency is buoyant, we want to expand the number of the staff, so vacancies of manager and two travel agents are available now. We are waiting for qualified people, who can tackle a problem and sort any difficult situation out. Also, the employees should be responsible and wise, do everything ruthlessly and stick to work, moreover, never pass the buck or procrastinate doing something.  

Furthermore, we have a suitable benefit package for every worker. It includes comprehensive healthcare provision, food allowance and company pension scheme. Also our agency provides the staff with additional bonuses and perks, holiday entitlement and subsidized canteen.

So if you are eager for working and you are ready to fit in our team, we’re waiting for you and guarantee you an employment. 

Academy Day

Have you ever thought what makes you happy? I think, yes of course. Everyone of us surely had been in an extraordinary situation where in we best exhibited our best qualities. How we achieve happiness can be different for each one of us. Our passions, expectations, life experiences, and even our personalities all contribute to the level of contentment we experience in our lives. All days are not the same, some can be boring while some can be really exciting and leave an indelible impression on your mind, I am describing one of those days which bears in my mind. Life is a blessing thus every moment of your life has to be lived to the fullest. The most remarkable event in this month was an Academy Day (but about it later).

Incidentally, one year ago, I was a different person. I had a dream to study in Kiev, but life is an unpredictable thing. Now, I’m studying in Ostrog academy – in place, where I’ve never wanted to be. And with a great honour I can say that I’m very happy to be here. By the way, I found people who change my point of view, change myself and simply make my life better and happier. We celebrated together anniversary of our alma-mater.

Despite the fact that since the founding of the university has been more than four centuries, since the revival she was 20 years old. Having entered to the territory of academy, I felt an old powerful spirit of this place. In any case, everything was decorated in blue-yellow colours. In the afternoon there was a concert of pianist Etella Chupryk, then was a flashmob – held on the stadium. After official part at the academy park was a fair where was an utter chaos and a small concert, where all familiar faces showed their talents.

Finally, Academy Day is a remarkable event not only for Academy, but also for this small city. Thanks for organizers who put real efforts for a successful anniversary celebration. It was a classic example of a great highlight, which wasn’t ill-prepared or underworked. At the end of the day everyone was ecstatic and went home with a smile on a face.
You can see my article here: http://bit.ly/11XkDSN

Leisure time

     

                                                              Leisure time

     Things are a lot easier now than they were fifty years ago, technology has given us more time to spend on leisure and to take an interest in different things.

     Every individual whether a student or a businessman ideally finds some leisure time in a day. In most instances you spend your free time with your friends and families, which is good. You may also choose to play, read, or fulfill your other hobbies and interests. While you do all such activities, feel the excitement of you doing them in a productive manner. Remember, you’re only young once. So making the right use of your time can not only be interesting but also be very satisfying if you can be a little more creative to come out with great productive ideas. There are many ideas that you can implement to make your leisure time very productive and how to reduce stress. Here are a few ideas on how you can make your free time useful:

-Make some money. As now is 21 century – century of modern technologies and booming business, it has a collosal impact on the way we live, so is easy to earn a sufficient sum of money. The best productive way of utilizing your spare time is to use your hobbies and interests you are skilled at and earn an income.

-Clean up your belongings. If you’re devastated and feel that you can lose your temper, why not to do some cleaning? At any rate, do some cleaning work at your home, like reorganizing your books scattered in your study room or work space, cleaning your backyard garden, putting your clothes to clean, and many more. This not only helps you maintain cleanliness, but also lets you some good exercises for your body. Moreover, it can help you to wind down and to feel more ecstatic and jubilant.

-Plan your important goals: When you have free time and your mind is quite relaxed, try to suppress your feelings and set your milestones and goals. It does not have to be only your professional goals; you can also plan how you want to achieve your personal goals.

-Revisit your network. Free time is the best part of the day to relook at your network connections and visit them by sending them a welcoming message. It really helps when you have been thinking of buzzing someone, but have not been able to do so. Revisiting your network at your leisure times can bring wonders in your relationships.

-Broad your outlook. In any case, travelling is the most exciting way of spending free time. If you’re gutted of something, go for a picnic or visit a country of your dream.

-Stay healthy. Your regular work may keep your busy and uneasy all the time and you tend to ignore your health. So it is very important to calm down, so the best way to ease up your fatigue is to do some useful exercise for your body and mind whenever you get some free time. You can go for a walk or run through the jogging track at your locality, do some meditation exercises, or even do some yoga.

     Finally, I hope everyone will choose the most appropriate step of spending leisure time productively. What's more, leisure time is one of the most important thing people can't live without. It is a big part of our life, and it actually shows the character and temper of person. Our hobbies and habits make our lives, filling it up with variety of feelings and emotions. Each person chooses his own way of spending time, either active of passive and in any case in should be a refreshment and a source of inspiration.

Body language

     Have you ever thought about the way you walk and talk? What about the way you sit? Does it matter and what does it say about you? About your mood? About your attitude? Your personality or your culture?

     What is this body language exactly?" Our body gestures, facial expressions, postures and even the distance we keep from others, when tied up together, create a rich layer of mostly subconscious communication called body language. We communicate and interact mainly through motions of our body and expressions with our face. In any case, without it we would be like robots - standing and blinking at each other while we speak.

      It's your most natural and effective way of communicating in face to face interactions. As a matter of fact, the same gesture can indicate a number of different things depending on context. It is very important to have a little knowledge, what different kinds of gestures means. Bear in mind the proverb: "Better safe than sorry'' and during speaking with a person you'll know if he says the truth or deceives. 

      Incidentally, after observing my groupmates I noticed how they behave in different situations and I made some generalizations about their gestures. For example, most of them always lean towards another person displaying an interest in each other. At any rate, it's a good way to keep an eye contact. I noticed than some goes red, when they are praised. When someone is confused, he always raises his eyebrow.  If a person is sitting with folded arms it may imply stuborness. Alternatively, folding arms can tell that person isn't interested in subject of speaking and do not want to participate in conversation.

   Finally, a better understanding of human body language can be useful in our own communication and in understanding others. It is an excessive need to learn what every body sign means, because actions speak louder than words. It can also be a lot of fun to feel like you know what other people are thinking, when they're lying to you and how comfortable they are in a given situation. 

Do something you love

“Do something you love”
     I hear that all the time. But the problem with it is that for a long time I was ill-informed and misunderstand what does it mean. 
     First off what is love? Second how do I find what I love? Third how do I identify and visualize if I love something? Frankly speaking, “what I love” is basically telling me nothing. So how do we start figuring out what we love? Let’s start off small,let’s attack one of the biggest questions of our lives: how do you define love? 
"Love is the desire to have something forever."That’s a horrible definition of love. That’s literally meaningless,” Love is so much more than that. It’s a deep intensified passion, an incurable madness, it’s poetry of the soul. But clarify what does it mean to say you love something? What does it mean to say you love a person? To exemplify, it means you want that thing or that person in your life forever. No matter what happens. No matter if things get tough, if the relationship goes sour, in good times and bad, monotonous. When people say love is crazy this is what they mean: you’re willing to sacrifice your happiness, your sanity, your very soul for someone or something else. Love is becoming a part of something bigger than yourself. That’s why it’s one of the most beautiful and noble things a person can do.

     Now that we know what love is, the next question to identify is how do we find it? Most of us do what any self-respecting Ukrainian would do when faced with a question like this. I mean we can’t just sit around waiting for love, we have to go find it ourselves. The problem is this: it doesn’t work. Why? Because the stakes for every interaction are too high. If you’re actively searching for that activity you love, for something or someone you’re passionate about, then you’re constantly asking yourself: “Do I love this?” 

     To finalize love is very often not something that you feel immediate passion for. Love doesn’t start out as a hurricane that sweeps through your life and changes everything in an instant. It starts out as a seed. Barely alive, easily overlooked, fragile and small. But given attention love grows. Given proper care it sprouts and springs up through the dirt. Given enough care the thing that you love becomes the lens through which you see the world. The same happens with an activity which you love, so remember everything starts from the small and only you have an opportunity to decide if this is what you love.

Vocabulary Sci-Fi

Dear Tom! 
     I haven't heard any news from you for a long time. So I decided to write a short letter to you and I would like to explain which opportunities we have today to learn English.
    One wise man said: “Language is the key to the heart of people”and I totally agree with it. We should be proficient speakers of our native language, but also we should know a language of worldwide communication. English is an excellent second language to learn, whether it's for conducting business, travelling or personal reasons. Moreover, a few years ago it was too hard to come into contact with foreigners, but as now XXI century - century of modern technologies, it is easier to do it. I' m going to tell you the difference between studying nowadays and 20 years ago.           Firstly, you can develop your knowledge from English by communicating and chatting with native speakers. Also, it would be useful to have a small talk with them every day. By talking non-stop with foreigners you can face with a problem of regional accents, so it would be better to use dictionaries during your studing. It's easy to find different types of dictionaries, as now everyone have access the Internet. Here is an example how one online dictionary works.

     You have an opportunity to create a word cloud and it will recognize a lot of different collocations with the word you are interested in. 

     Furthermore, people who aren’t out of touch with the Internet can find an example sentence used with an ineresting word. Besides, it is easy to bump into an article, where is that sentence. An example you can see here.

"English learners can range from kindergarten students who can't speak English to a sixth-grader who can speak the language but has trouble writing an essay or passing a standardized test. They usually take additional English classes and receive specialized instruction in other courses. Educators had credited the decline in the number of students designated as English learners in previous years to a stronger focus on the group to learn their new language more quickly because of tougher state and federal testing standards that require students from every demographic group to improve yearly on standardized tests."

     Finally, don't forget to expand your vocabulary and use idiomatic phrases, watch films and programmes with English subtitles, attend an English class or discussion group, read books in English.

I hope we don't lose touch with each other and you'll try some new methods of studying English.

Yours,

Ira

    

Fairytale

   Once upon a time two different dictionaries lived in a big Kingdom. What's more, a reputable queen Lexicology ruled here. Once she decided to choose the most intelligent and the most accurate man. Royal servants announced throughout the kingdom, that man will be the one who proves that he will be an excellent king and will do everything for the kingdom without any favour. 

     At the following day came all the dictionaries to the yard. The first was proposed a word to Longman, he went out and began to explain his point of view: "Oh beautiful princess, I admire your beauty and intelligence. My name is Longman. Everyone called me so that I give the name to the whole animate and inanimate, I count and reflect all meanings of the words without any mistakes". Princess nodded approvingly. Futhermore, this handsome dictionary attracted her attention very much, but she asked others to say the word (she wanted to compare all dictionaries). The second dictionary began to speak, his colourful clothes was sparkling. He said, "You're the fairest and unsurpassed princess." Then he bowed and stepped back into position.
       Finally, the queen thanked for all candidates and explained: "I apologise to everybody, but without strugging shoulders I choose Longman, he would be a king".
      All loved the Queen and reflect the emotions of joy and pleasure. Moreover, her words was a law for them. And at the end of the day words and dictionaries celebrated a wedding. So this event became the highlight of the year.

First lesson

     Hello! My name is Ira. And I can say with a great honour, that I'm a student of Ostrog academy. And it's my first attempts to write some feelings and thinks here.
     A few days ago I had my first lesson in Vocabulary of Modern. I want to make a brief summary of the lesson. Without a strong criticism I can say, Vocabulary of Modern was a classic example how to teach students in an unusual way. The first exercise was to draw a poster "I love Ukraine"(you can see the picture under this post). As for me it was so interesting start of the lesson. And all familiar faces were writing some wishes about the future of Ukraine. What is more, it was great to read similar thinks, a lot of them were connected with the war in Ukraine. Moreover, everyone agreed that the fire which broke out should go out. Doing this activity, at the classroom was an utter chaos, but it was great. Then we played the game, rules was to say your favourite word in English. It was easy and didn't take any considerable difficulties. Next, we wrote our aims which we want to reach after studying this course, it took some real effort.
    To sum up, this lesson brought me a lot of great feelings and I was happy to get knowing such a good teacher as our. Furthermore, the main concern for me is to reach success in studying this course.
P.S: Thank you for your reading =)