Conan Doyle vs Shakespeare. Round!

It is a widely known fact that RGL department is always in the public eye attracting attention of many students with its spectacular performances related to various events. As a matter of fact, this time RGL students pampered all the spectators with their amazing talents in the day of Arthur's Conan Doyle works which took place on the 19th of May. It was an unexpected turn of events as students broke a long-lasting tradition devoted to Shakespeare which had a significant impact on the cultural development of the department. Nevertheless, such innovation didn't spoil the impression but embellished the event and didn't leave anybody indifferent. 1st and 2nd-year students were singing songs, acting out a short dialogue, presenting a video - were making everything possible to turn this evening into a miracle. What's more, cookies and sweets provided by the organizers made the atmosphere even more homey  and friendly.

There is no doubt that after such a brilliant evening all the performers suffered from press intrusion and were not willing to talk their impressions up. However, our magazine has got a great chance to pry into the life of one celebrity and  take an exclusive interview from the amazing singer Viktoria Pedchenko. 

-Viktoria, it is needless to say that your performance has been highly praised by all the guests, but can you reveal the secret and keep our readers informed about your preparations and rehearsals? What was your life behind the scenes?

- Well, as I always feel elated when singing I didn't feel any discomfort during our rehearsals. We didn't have any mishaps as the event itself was perfectly organised. The only thing which bothered everybody was the trouble with microphones as they didn't work properly but the situation was instantly improved.

- Lets go back to your past: when did you realize your ambitions as a singer and how it affected your present life?

- I started to realize singing was my destiny at the age of 6 or 7 if I'm not mistaken. I need to give credit to my music teacher as he always urged me to develop my skills and did everything possible to help me with my singing career. He thought the word of me and once told me I was a real prodigy. And these words were the most crucial for me because they made me the person I am now. 

- Last but not least, as you have already won a lot of praise for your performance how are you going to celebrate your achievements? 

-Surely it won't be in the full glare of publicity as we deserve privacy, we decided to gather together and relax a bit after such a tiring but truly exciting evening. 

The only thing left to do is to wish all the participants good luck and inspiration for the future performances.

        The present of the past

       My blogpost is not going to be about the horrors of a war or about fierce fighting. I’m not going to tell you about sth that threatened world peace or caused civil unrests. I will not tell you about the person who declared a war or brought about peace. In fact, the thing which is going to be presented came in useful for many people living during those times. And this phenomenon is called Khrushchyovka. Why exactly Khrushchyovka – you’ll ask. Well, this is a part of 20th century history which exists till nowadays and we face with it every single time we visit our grandmas and grandpas as this kind of apartment had a huge effect on them (well, at least this thing affected my family in particular). Khrushchyovka is an unofficial name of type of low-cost, concrete-paneled or brick three- to five-storied apartment building which was developed in the USSR during the early 1960s, that sprang from Nikita Khrushchev who directed the Soviet government.  During 1947–1951 there was a severe housing shortage which caused a great anxiety among citizens. In fact, the situation was a perfect recipe for disaster. But soviet architects made useful contributions and evaluated various technologies attempting to reduce costs and completion time. During January 1950 an architects' convention, supervised by Khrushchev, declared low-cost, quick technologies the objective of Soviet architects. During 1954–1961, engineer Vitaly Lagutenko, chief planner of Moscow caused a sensation and designed and tested the mass-scale, industrialized construction process, relying on concrete panel plants and a quick assembly schedule. 64,000 units of this type were built in Moscow from 1961 to 1968 and brought about peculiar changes into people’s everyday lives.
       Planners regarded elevators as too costly and as too time-consuming to build, and Soviet health/safety standards specified five stories as the maximum height of a building without an elevator. The panel buildings called 'Khrushchyovka' are found in great numbers all over the former Soviet Union and still have a lot of influence on people living in the 21st century. They were originally considered to be temporary housing until the housing shortage could be alleviated by mature Communism. Khrushchev predicted the achievement of Communism in 20 years (by the 1980s). Later, Leonid Brezhnev promised each family an apartment "with a separate room for each person plus one room extra", but many people continue to live in Khrushchyovkas today. And as we see now for communists “temporary” means “forever”. Nevertheless, I consider K-s to be remarkable achievement as it brought about positive changes into the society.

Money Talks

No, that doesn't mean that money has the natural ability all humans possess. The heading means that no matter where you are from, what nationality you are, the trick is that money will always make difference and the game I played proved it.

Being an adult turned out to be not a pleasant thing to experience. During the game I was on a shoestring budget while I needed to take care of my child and pay off all the debts. Well, at least I tried to save up as much money as possible as I tightened my belt and didn't use services that come at a price. The game showed that I wasn't a good granddaughter as I sacrificed my grandpa's memorial to make ends meet. Sorry,grandpa, you need to understand that money doesn't grow on trees and I'm not rolling in it to spend money like water. But at least I still tried to be a good mother and sometimes pampered my child but not that much as I wanted. Luckily my math knowledge allowed me to save some money and not to hire a tutor. At the end of the game I felt a bit miserable because as far as I'm concerned broke beggars never feel elated. Still I have 13$ in my pocket, and ambitions in my head, and much money I need to settle up with my friend.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017552020207

HEALTH IS WEALTH

Being an average student is not only about fun and parties but also about making decisions concerning their health. And many of students opt for ignoring their body needs that may lead to various disorders causing serious problems. To analyze this burning issue I've made up a list of the most disruptive things which are the main obstacles for students to stick to a healthy lifestyle.

1. Nourishing meals are too expensive and time-consuming. Let's be honest-the lack of time and money is the main enemy for any student. Instead of cooking a hearty breakfast they would rather vote in favor of  junk food. Looking out for some reasonably priced products they usually choose ready meals which help them save time and money. Students choose dying of hunger but not devoting their precious hours to cooking slap-up meal. But then comes the moment when a student goes home and tries an elixir of longevity - home-cooked food which mom has prepared for a starving student. Such nutrition differences result in eating disorder and obesity as long as having quick snack every single day isn't a good option.
2. Sedentary way of life. It doesn't come as quite as surprise that the majority of students spend much time studying or surfing social networking sites without taking up any kind of exercises. The thing is that in order to stay healthy we need to rotate physical and mental workout to develop our endurance during the day. Judging from the personal experience I feel more energetic after my training in a gym, and feel tired all the time if I spend the whole day just studying. What's more I feel particularly bad at night when I don't work physically as spending your energy in a gym is the best way to have a good rest at the end of the day. 
3. Sleeping is for wimps - the most absurd fallacy for every student. Permanent splitting headache, heart disease, feeling dizzy are all the results of studying at night. So you had better think over before sacrificing your sleep.

Independence in your student means freedom in every life aspect, but consciousness is a good thing to consider. So eat fresh produce, take up exercises and sleep well and you will see that the key to your success is a healthy lifestyle.

MEMEonix

Production of high-quality memes

MEMEonix is a high-powered company which is responsible for making up memes and spreading them around the world in various forms. The company consists of a network of offices, each of which is in charge of a particular task. Here is the list of sections:

1. Production of memes. It is the most important and demanding job. This section is the basis of others as without our top-notch professionals that put forward ideas related to various memes the other offices won't function at all. As the demand for memes raises with the increase of consumers, we need more professionals who will do a groundbreaking work. A meme-maker must be good at using his own initiative, he must keep up with the latest changes in memes industry and master new skills. What is more important - he must have a great sense The hardest task of a first-rate professional  is to be able to meet tight deadlines as it is a nine-to-five job which requires you work hard and productively. But those who are capable of staying calm under pressure are rewarded with various perks. We also have a performance related bonus scheme which shows how effectively each worker performs his tasks. If you are ambitious enough you can also be transferred to the editing section which is a much more rewarding job.
2.  Editing memes. As any company which is aimed to satisfy mass market need there are people who supervise work and give their comments and advice. They estimate very meme made and then delegate duties to the PR section which is the final point of our enterprise. Editors must have a good knowledge of memes and also be good team players getting on well with their colleagues. 
3.  PR section actually promotes memes delivering them to the consumers through stakeholders. Advertisers must cooperate with the best web-pages to spread memes and make them popular among consumers. PR professional must be a people person as he communicates with a great deal of administrators running their own web-pages. 

Altogether, if you possess all the qualities mentioned our company is waiting to take on top-notch professionals full of enthusiasm and desire to works hard and climb the career ladder.

The future of the world is in my classroom today

If you ask any random adult if he would ever like to go back to his school classes, I'm sure that even an ex-straight A student  would never expose himself to experience it again. So why reminiscing our studying at school is something that makes us feel revulsion rather than nostalgia? It seems that the primary aim of education is not actually to educate but to force and establish the frames that limit our possibilities. But still there are people who fight against the system and put forward some great ideas we should keep up with and take into consideration. So I'd like to give feedback on some amazing TED talkers who give a fresh view on the subject.

• The first speaker, Sugata Mitra, covers a lot of ground in his relevant speech.He starts with a brief background to the history and tells that the origin of today's schools dates back to the times of British Empire when education was aimed to create a bureaucratic administrative machine. The empire has gone, but the system remained the same. That is why to grasp the importance of education Sugata subscribes to the theory that the educational system today is obsolete. He also tells us about a very significant experiment he carried out during his researches. He went to remote areas of his country and gave computer to the kids that have never previously used it. He returned in a few months and found out that these eager beavers used the device as if they completed a course! He proves that practice makes perfect and our natural curiosity is something that pushes us to explore, to learn, to examine.
• I honestly think that the second speaker, Ken Robinson, has a natural talent for making up remarkable decisions about the topic of education. In his speech he puts forward 3 principles on which a human life flourishes, and they're contradicted by the culture of education when most of the teachers need to labor and most of the students - endure.
  The first principle - human being are different, so education must be based on diversity but not conformity.
  The second principle - curiosity is the engine of achievement. The process of giving lessons is not only about delivering received information. Great teachers actually do that but they also stimulate, provoke and engage.
  Finally, the third principle - a human life is inherently creative so education mustn't suppress but encourage this characteristic. 

It's my firm conviction that there's a room for improvement in the modern system of education, especially in our country. So here are some of my personal reflections:

• Student must have the right to choose the courses they want to do. Of course there must be compulsory ones but concerning secondary subjects it must be up to our personal choice. In this case the number of students skipping their classes will definitely decrease.
• Learning must be predominant but not testing. Students usually tend to cram, then scrape through an exam and forget everything previously learnt with the sigh of relief. Education mustn't function this way.
• The government must attribute a high status to the profession of the teacher and encourage them in all the ways possible. All of my group mates were asked whether they want to be translators or teachers, and the majority confidently stated - TRANSLATORS. The reason is that the profession of the teacher is not appreciated in our country.
• More space for creativity. It great when students have practice in different scientific aspects but apart from that student need to go beyond their boundaries and give freedom to their thoughts and ideas.