English YOUTH ENGLISH SECTION

The main goal of learning a foreign language is communication. Project work is a way to bring a student to a success in using English in real life through humanistic approach in learner-centered class and out-of-class activities based on the use of students’ personal strengths.

Student outcomes are clearly seen at school research conferences where they show the results of their project work.

Materials are developed on the basis of authentic newspapers, letters, brochures, via the Internet.

Students are given reasons for communicating, not just instructions. E.g. research conferences provide exercises which challenge learners to communicate with each other. They are given the chance to share information, to discuss the issue and to ask questions.

Last school year my students worked on the project devoted to the future Olympic Games in Sochi.

The objectives of the project were:

•Learning to present information in a speakerfriendly way.

•Developing the attitude to belonging toDa group and school community.

•Describing personal experience.

•Raising awareness of English-speaking cultures concerning the topic “World Menues” and “World Cuisines”.

•Enlarging the vocabulary and speech patterns.

•Practicing grammar structures.

•Developing skills in using Internet resources. Here are some of the quotes we use starting,

making and finishing our research;

1.Life is a do-it-for-others, do-it-yourself project.

2.Put up the dream. Put in the knowledge. Put out the effort.

3.Think of your imagination as a skill rather than a talent and learn to use it.

4.Each human being on earth has equal rights to fulfill his or her potential.

5.Optimism creates energy and is contageous.

6.It is not so much what the job gives you, it is what you give to the job.

(From Denis Waitley, “The Psychology of Win-

ning and Being the Best and the Seeds of Greatness Treasury”).

We would like to present some extracts from the students’ projects.

By Irina Kotova,

School No. 74, Yaroslavl

OLYMPIANS GET A TASTE OF OLYMPICS

According to our research in line with the stated topic and based on the comparison with the Olympic games of the 1996 in the USA (in the state of Georgia) they prepared food for 15000 Olympic athletes, coaches and officials from 197 countries around the world, successfully meeting a wide variety of cultural and religious requirements and customs.

We found out that ARAMARK, the world leader in providing such specialized manages services, did its best in such a great undertaking as Atlanta Olympic Games. ARAMARK was serving a “World Menu” featuring food which was fun, food that helped the athlete perform at his or her best and food that offered a taste of “home”. “The World Menu” included such special items as Halal meat for Muslim athletes, Tandoori dishes for Indian athletes, Russian borshch, Japanese Miso Soup, and Moroccan Fish Tagine. In total, a fiveday rotating selection of over 550 world recipes had been created.

The operation included the construction of a 25000- square-foot kitchen and dramatic 75000-square-foot Olympic Dining Hall in time for the July 6th opening of the Olympic Village.

ARAMARK had been involved in nine previous Olympic Games meeting the culinary needs of athletes from around the World.

They’d adopted one Georgia specialty that was served to international athletes at the Summer Olympics.

We are sure everybody liked the tastes of the meals served. We developed a formula that could help the Sochi Olympians win.

Food should be fun.

Food should help the athlete perform Food should offer a taste of home Food should meet culinary needs Food should be olfactory important

Scientists speak about four senses: sight, taste, smell and touch. Scents and flavors are integral to memory. Scientists tell us this is because our olfactory path ways have a more direct link to the hippocampus (a major component of human’s brain important to long-term memory) than to sensory path ways linked to sight or touch. Since food is all about smell and taste if offers a bullet ride to distant memories for sportsmen (in other words things connected with home thus support them and encourage to win).

Different cultures developed their own “taste understanding”. Our job was to complement any taste on the international level.

WE ARE CREATING IDEAS!

Our internet research showed there would be 62 restaurants, 40 cafes and 27 “fast food” joints will provide meals for athletes and guests of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Local authorities are hoping that the region’s own chains and agricultural companies will play a key role.

The organizers of the event are planning to implement a special nutrition system with eight specific user groups in mind. A similar approach has been used in laying out the guidelines of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games.

“This involves the athletes, the media, the workforce, the Olympic family. All of these various groups have very different responsibilities and requirement. Therefore, the food styles are very different, which makes the games unique”, said British Professor David Russel, a nutrition and catering expert who took part in a Sochi industry forum on providing food and cleaning for the Olympics.

Besides diversity and an innovative approach food safety is another major concern. The 38-day long event requires the highest standards and quality of service from all participants.

It is important to provide special meals, keeping in mind the visitors’ cultural diversity and dietary requirements.

It is expected that more than 200 experts representing restaurants chains and cleaning companies from all over the world will be able to share their experience ahead of the February sporting event.

RUSSIAN CUISINE FOR SOCHI ATHLETES

Borsch is one of the top items which can best represent Russia

Borsch recipe

These are the ingredients

Meat or poultry - 0,5 kg Beetroot - 1 piece (medium size) Sweet pepper - 1-2 pieces Cabbage - 500 g

Potatoes - 2 pieces

Tomatoes - 3-4 pieces or a spoonful of tomato paste Brown onions - 1 piece

Parsley - 2 pieces

Method

Boil some meat for about 1 – 1,5 hours in the salted water. Stew sliced beetroot in the pan with the fat from the broth. Fry sliced carrots, onions and parsley on the frying-pan (separately from the beetroot), use vegetable oil for this. Beetroot should be stewed, carrots and onions – fried. Peel, slice and fry tomatoes for ten minutes separately. Put some cabbage and potatoes in the broth. (The lid of the sauce-pan must be open). Add stewed beetroot, fried carrots, onion, parsley, tomatoes, sweet pepper (if you want) and in 15 minutes your borsch is ready. It is served with sour cream, garlic and greens. Add salt to your taste.

Try it! This is one of the Russians favorites! You may take this home and use it as a special treat for your family and friends. They’re sure to like it!

METHODS OF TEACHING English

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Прививаем вкус к английскому на примере

шоколадного перфекта

Английский кажется нудным, если мы относимся к нему как к набору правил и списку слов для заучивания. Гораздо интереснее попытаться понять, какое восприятие мира стоит за тем или иным скучным правилом. Например, русскоязычному человеку сложно понять, почему фразы “Я написал тест вчера” и “Я уже написал тест” в английском языке различаются. Более того, вторая фраза относится к настоящему времени. Пусть и завершенному (Perfect), но все же настоящему (Present). Чтобы это почувствовать, можно прямо на занятии предложить ученикам съесть шоколадку. Когда шоколадка съедена, мы начинаем думать о своем действии как о прошедшем. Наглядное тому доказательство – пустая обертка или фантик. Но давайте посмотрим на эту ситуацию по-другому. Можно спросить учеников, чувствуют ли они еще вкус шоколада? Возможно хотят пить? Значит действие еще не совсем в прошлом. Оновнастоящем, нозавершенном: Present Perfect. Аналогично с фразами “Я написал тест вчера” и “Я написал тест на этой неделе”. В первом случае мы отправляем действие в прошлое с помощью слова “вчера” (yesterday), а во втором – говорим о том, что хотя действие и закончилось, но временной промежуток – эта неделя – еще продолжается. Мы еще живем этим, а значит в английском будет использоваться настоящее завершенное – Present Perfect. Ачтобыещелучшепочувствоватьразницу между по-настоящему прошедшим временем Past Simple и завершенным настоящим Present Perfect можно также поэкспериментировать с вкусным горячим кофе. Неужели фразы “Я выпил кофе вчера” и “Я выпил кофе только что” ощущаются одинаковыми? Какая “вкуснее”? Желаю успешного “переваривания знания”, а главное – поглощайте его с аппетитом!

Пётр Степичев, ИИЯ МГПУ

THE “WASTING” ATTITUDE

Crazy wasting in America strikes you at first, especially in student buffet-style cafeterias.

A big country brings forward big demands, a ravenous appetite and crazy amounts of waste. But it’s the attitude rather than the size that accounts for so much unnecessary waste in America. After all, I was raised in Russia, the largest country in the world, and never came across such wasteful practices.

Picture these scenes: 1) Piles of clothes on the floor in the retail outlets during big sales; people grab as fast as they can and don’t care if, while taking one item, they leave three others on the floor. The clothes are cheap. 2) Piles of paper are dumped in the wastebasket; students print out everything and don’t care if the material’s headed for the trash. The printing service is free. 3) Serving trays full of cooked food move smoothly into the garbage receptacles in the campus cafeteria; it’s an all-you-can-eat style buffet. Yes, it’s all-you-can- eat but not all-you-can-carry-on-your-tray, though students seem to prefer the latter.

Tara Wiedbusch, 19, a student supervisor in Dining Commons One (DC One) in Eastern Michigan University, said the food is wasted because of the buffet style. “A lot of people take more than they want,” she said. “It’s a cafeteria style. Everyone sees everything and then realizes they are not going to eat it all.”

Wiedbusch’s duties include making sure everything is good on the line, every container is full, there is no problem anywhere. Overseeing the process, she came to understand that if students didn’t take more than they can eat, there would be no wasted food.

Ebonia Williams, 24, who had worked in DC One for two years, said the only solution is to regulate how much people take, but that is impossible since it is a self-service buffet. “Probably, because there is so much, you come in, you are so hungry, and you take a bit of everything,” Williams said.

But I want to know – can’t students regulate themselves? Why do they take three platefuls knowing they won’t finish it all? I can understand newcomers who don’t know what the food tastes like at first. International students may have a problem adjusting to the foreign food. It’s unfamiliar, it looks

different, and names scribbled with a marker in a foreign language leave many without a clue what the dish is like.

I watched a poor German girl try bravely to finish her waffle with a spicy Mexican-type sauce instead of the marmalade she hoped for. I don’t blame her for being unable to put the strange mixture into her mouth. I remember my Tajik friend’s emotional story when somebody talked her into trying sushi with a spicy hot greenish sauce. She still gets mad when I remind her about the incident. But she won’t take it anymore because she knows she isn’t going to eat it.

After some time, all students know what is what, but still nearly full plates go into the tray collection area.

Other internationals were also surprised at seeing such a wasteful attitude. One of the exchange students from England last semester was indignant about food wasting in the U.S. Once he was sitting in the cafeteria in the library. He told me he was very hungry, and the staff person threw buns and some other left-overs into the trash bin in front of him. He saw it as cruel, he said, explaining what made him so angry. He said he even sent a letter of complaint to the cafeteria staff.

Well, that may seem a bit too much, but this is an illustrative example of wasting in America. I don’t want to say that food is always thrown away. In DC One the food left in warmers is donated to the food bank, Williams said.

But I saw my Tajik friend pick up a piece of bread from the floor, but not because she was hungry, though. It is considered one of the worst things in Tajikistan to throw the bread away. It is almost equal to a sin. That’s why she was very upset at seeing bread on the floor or anything similar to bread, for instance, cookies.

I was brought up with the idea of respecting bread, too. In the Russian language, one of the meanings of the word “bread” is equal to food. I remember films, books and stories about the 900-day Siege of Leningrad in 1941-44 during World War II. Then, a piece of bread was a treasure, more than that – it meant life. I remember the pleasure of tasting bread after 12 days of backpacking in the mountains. We had only dried bread with us, and I was happy to break soft fresh bread and put a desirable piece into my mouth. After that, I won’t ever throw bread away.

It’s just a different attitude. Having much allows wasting much. A big country allows crazy wasting, but it doesn’t mean people should throw the food away.

NOTE: American food establishments are very strictly inspected by the government about leftover or uneaten food. They are severely restricted about what they can do with this food, especially regarding sanitation. That said, because Americans have gotten used to food surpluses and choice, they often have a lazy, irresponsible and wasteful attitude towards discarding food they don’t want to eat. As we say, “Their eyes are bigger than their stomach.” – Erin Bouma

PATRIOTISM DIFFERS…

I was interested to know if, in the USA, Americans really love their country. But it turned out not many could answer an honest “yes.”

I’ve always thought patriotism can be instilled. In the USA I saw it can be promoted and advertised without being felt.

National flags for interior design of American houses are as popular as colorful rubber bracelets in a college environment. The playing or singing of the national anthem is an essential beginning of every sporting event. There is definitely something to be proud of in the U.S., but is there something to love?

When I asked Americans of different ages if they love America, I was amazed at how many people cannot say that. Some thought for a second and answered a hasty “no,” others went on to speak about their political views and how they are unhappy about Bush’s presidency and policy in Iraq. Some students explained to me that people are very liberal at Eastern Michigan University, and that’s why I won’t get many “yeses” in my mini-investigation. Hey, what does love have to do with politics or political views?

The most common answer to my question was, “I like living here” and “I like the freedom we have,” but this is not the same as “I love my country.”

I got some positive answers to my question, however. The first was from an EMU sophomore who crossed his index and middle fingers to illustrate his close connection with his country and his devotion to it. But doing this, he noticed that love is “too strong” a word. Why is it too strong? That’s what patriotism is – love of and devotion to one’s country. If love is “too strong” a description, then, in my opinion, there is no patriotism.

“Most of us here in America are very, very spoiled and don’t appreciate all we have, which is awfully sad,” said a person who was born in the U.S. and has lived there for more than 50 years.

I sometimes heard in Russia that young Russians should learn how to love their country from Americans. I’ll keep

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away from commenting on that. I won’t ever hesitate to say

– no, to shout – that I love Russia simply because I was born here and because it is my country. I love the rustle of the green leaves and slim birch trunks mounting on the hill. I love the reflection of the night city lights in the wet autumn roads. I love the evolving images of the city behind the bus window and conductors’ tired voices waking me up from daydreaming. I love Russia with all the shortcomings it has, with all its sometimes rather stupid rules I have to obey, with all the daily stress I endure. I love it with all my heart.

And I don’t need a national flag to express my devotion. I didn’t even have my national flag until I had to leave for America, and I had trouble finding a place to buy it in my home city. You won’t find Russians decorating their homes with the white, blue and red flag’s colors.

You won’t see national flags in Germany, either, Mike Veldink, 29, an exchange student from Germany said. When he was 10, his mother, who has Dutch roots, took off a small German flag from his parka, a popular winter army jacket. He is not sure why she did this; he only added that they had never had a German flag at home and children were never taught a national anthem. Only in high school did he learn the anthem’s story.

The anthem was shortened to the third verse after the war. “The other ones (verses) seemed to be too patriotic,” Veldink said.

“Das Lied der Deutschen” (“The Song of Germans”) was written before World War II, when the desire for a strong united Germany was a healthy patriotic goal. After the military aggression and nationalist usurpation of 1933-45, the words “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,“ (“Germany, Germany above all”) rang as a reminder of the nationalist past. Now the first verses are never sung. Even the third verse, which is the official anthem, is not often sung, Veldink said.

“In Germany you can’t show your feelings for your country at all,” admitted my friend from there.

“It is considered inappropriate to say loudly that you love your country,” Veldink told me, adding that the situation is different in his fraternity, which tries to bring back “healthy patriotism.”

Young Americans have the freedom of speech that they like so much about their country, but they still can’t say they love their Motherland. They hang national flags in their houses or make vain statements that America is a world power and has the right to interfere into other countries’ policies.

Only this power doesn’t make them love their country for simply being theirs – for being their Motherland.

By Anastasia Khodakova (Maslova)

Photos by the author

to be continued