“Perhaps of all the creations of man, language is the most astonishing.”

Lytton Strachey

Language is the most amazing, and the most useful creation of a man. It is an important tool that people use in their every day life. It is a tool which makes it possible for people to get information, to exchange experiences and knowledge, and even to get information from the ancestors. The society cannot exist without language, as it fulfils people’s primary need – communication.

To speak a language is one of the most basic parts of people’s identity. With the help of language, one learns about his/her culture, country, nation. From century to century, language helped people to leave messages to descendants, due to which nowadays people know the history of society development, and many other important things. In different times, the messages were transferred  differently: by signs, pictures, hieroglyphs, runes, and were written on  different materials. However, all this was a kind of language, which has been keeping and transferring information up to nowadays.

The transfer of information remained one of the most essential parts of life till now. Therefore, communication takes 70 per cent of people’s life. The society cannot live properly without language and communication, as 99 per cent of human activity stopped if the language did not exist. People need to communicate in order to live together, to work together, to make families and friends, to transmit information to next generations.

By means of language people are able to express their feelings, emotions, impressions, thoughts. It helps people to cooperate, to exist in the same space, so to say. Due to language people discuss things, debate, argue, reach agreement. It is really difficult to imagine a silent society, that cannot read and write, and even having no idea about gestures and expressions, that is about body language.

So, everything in the life, every step a man takes is connected with language. Even if a  person does not use language in oral communication, he/she has to interpret or decipher the signs he/she is surrounded with: inscriptions on the doors, advertisements, announcements, signs on the roads, instructions for different appliances and so on. It is evident that language accompanies people through all their life. And it is more easier to imagine life without computers , telephones, cars, television than without a language. For sure, language is the most astonishing and valuable creation, that people are very lucky to possess. 

“Perhaps of all the creations of man, language is the most astonishing.”

Lytton Strachey

Every day, without reflecting, people utter a lot of different words, simple, difficult, beautiful, or figurative. Every day people use thousands of words, as naturally, as they brief, walk, sleep, eat. Words in their turn, which are put in certain order, make word combinations, phrases, texts. Words as though build their own world. A world that is called “language”. Unfortunately, very rarely somebody ponders that language is the best creation a man ever made, which fulfils one of man’s primary needs- communication.

 Communication is the base of everything people do. The whole man’s life is to some extent connected with communication. Seventy per cent of people’s life consists of communication. It became possible with appearance of language. Language is closely connected with man’s thinking. Thus, using thinking and language people are able to communicate in order to live together, work together, make friends and families, and transmit information from generation to generation. It is hardly possible to live without knowing a language.

Each invention that exists in modern world partially appeared due to language. Why? Because in order to produce something new people need to cooperate. Due to language, people can discuss this or that, debate and reach agreement. Moreover, all those modern inventions are useless without language. In order to use things it is necessary to know language. For example, what a man can do with a computer if he/she does not know the language? Or, simply, in order to use any new appliance one has to read instructions to it. So, almost every action, every step in one’s life is connected with usage of language.

Language is a tool that a man uses day by day. It is very easy to imagine life without computers, telephones, cars, television. However, it is impossible to imagine life without a language. Humans cannot exist without language and speech.

So, language really is the most astonishing and valuable creation, that accompany people through all their life. It is the inexhaustible wealth that people are lucky to possess.

Cat in the Rain (2)

Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” is a short story which describes misunderstanding and indifference in a relationship between a man and a woman.

At first glance, this is a simple story about a couple who travels together to Italy and enjoy spending time together. In fact, the author gives some prompts which prove how these people are unhappy together.

To begin with, the mood of the story itself is sad. The author often repeats that it is raining: “It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. The sea line broke in a long line in the rain…”  It creates the atmosphere of sadness and unhappiness.

Almost the whole action takes place in the room. Probably the author in such a way wants to emphasize that this couple is not interested in anything. Although they are travelling it seems that most of the time they spend in the room, each doing his/her business. The most indifferent to that what happens around is the husband. When the author writes about the husband he mentions his position in the room: “her husband offered from the bed”, “lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed”. George feels comfortable in his world, in the bed with a book, whereas his wife is ready to go under a heavy rain to get the cat. They are too different. Moreover, the author shows the wife’s interest towards another character of the story, the hotel-keeper: “The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands.” So many “she liked”, but focused on absolutely strange man. Not a single “she liked” for her husband. It proves the wife was not happy with her husband.

The author does not describe the characters directly. So the reader can characterize them from the point of view of their behavior and dialogues.

As to the title, “cat” is a symbol. On the one hand it is a symbol of wife’s loneliness. The cat was sitting alone in the rain, lonely and helpless, like the wife probably felt in her marriage. On the other hand it symbolizes wife’s desires. She repeats: “I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty”. And then she says: “And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.” I think the cat and all these things she wants are connected. Well, a cat is often associated with home and cosiness. And probably the wife missed it in her relationship with husband. That’s why the author repeats that the wife wants that cat so much.

So, in order to understand this short story the reader has to read between the lines. Only in this way the reader is able to understand that in fact this story is about lonely people, for who is difficult to find a person which would be similar to them.

Analysis of the short-story “Cat in the Rain”

At first glance Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” is a story of an ordinary American couple who travels to Italy to have a rest. Actually the story is not about a happy relationship. On contrary, it reveals the theme of loneliness and misunderstanding between close people.

The main characters of the story are a young American girl and her husband George. There is no direct description of the characters in the story. The reader can only characterize them from the point of view of their behavior and dialogues.

The young American lady is a lonely woman, even being together with her husband. She wants to get the cat that is sitting outside in the rain, which is as alone and helpless as the main heroine is. This cat in fact is the reflection of young lady herself, a being that suffers the lack of care and love.

George is not interested in his wife. He spends time in bed reading a book, without paying much attention to his wife. It seems that he feels comfortable in his own world.

It is evident that the main problem of this couple is lack of communication. But why this problem touched a young couple?

At the beginning of the story the author describes a war monument, which means that the action in the story could take place during the postwar period. It is well-known that the generation that lived then was the Ernest Hemingway’s favorite theme. He considered this generation as “lost” one, which has no interests, doesn’t know what to do, what to expect from future. Maybe, George is the representative of thus generation, who is not interesting in anything, who lost taste of life. And his wife, also desperate, but hoping for some changes. She dreams of her own home, her table, spoons, and a kitty – all those simple things that she probably missed during the war, but which could make her happy. Here is the misunderstanding: George feels comfortable about his life, he needs no changes.  His wife feels sad, she wants to change something, but her husband doesn’t listen to her.

As to the title, “cat” is the symbol not of the loneliness, but also of lady’s desire of cosiness, hearth and home, and happy family – all those things that the young lady misses. 

                Features of academic writing

Academic writing is intended for a particular reader to get some important information from it, and not for entertainment. Therefore an academic text follows certain strict rules, which a writer in this genre should hold, in order to persuade the readers.

In order to be convincing the writer should be factual. It means that an academic text should be based on real facts. The writer should not use his personal opinion to judge certain things.

The writer should be precise. Everything that is written should be proved and taken from a reliable source. Each source that is used should be mentioned, so that the reader does not doubt in plausibility of information.

The text will be more understandable for a reader if the writer selects words carefully. So, an academic text should be written in a formal vocabulary. Colloquial words and expressions, abbreviations should be avoided.

As an academic text uses formal vocabulary, it should be written in passive voice. Pronouns I, You, We, They should be missed, as they are used more often in informal speech. However passive voice also should not be overused.

Another feature of academic writing is objectivity. The text should be focused on the main theme and offer information about it, without the writer being involved in a personal manner. Therefore an academic text includes more nouns, than verbs and adverbs.

A logical and coherent structure is another important key to writing a clear and convincing academic text. There should definitely be one central topic which is developed with supporting ideas. An academic text should contain introduction, from which the reader understands the subject and the purpose of the writing. Then follows the body, where the subject is developed and all the ideas are proved. And it ends with conclusion where the writer sums up all the ideas.

It is also important that each new idea should start with a new paragraph.

Thus, following all these rules, will help to write a coherent, logical and, that is the most important, a convincing text.

                                      Benefits and Challenges of an Internship (2)

           Every student, every future specialist in any field goes through an important and worrying period in his/her studies, which is called internship. During an internship students of 3^rd or 4^th year of study apply acquired knowledge in practice and get some experience in their profession.

The internship has a lot of benefits on the one hand, and challenges on the other. Namely benefits and challenges of an internship will be discussed further.

Probably, the greatest benefit of an internship is that after it students become more confident in themselves and their future profession. Studying at University one can doubt if he/she made the right choice, or think that he/she could not cope with chosen profession. But little by little, practicing day by day and trying to do all their best students finally realize that there is nothing frightening and lose fear of failure.

Moreover there are people who can help. Interns work with more experienced people who share their experience and peculiarities of the profession. They point out the mistakes, so that interns do not repeat them in future. Thanks to their instructions and pieces of advice interns improve their skills in chosen profession.

Besides improving the skills interns learn how to act when an unforeseen situation occurs. There are things that simply cannot be taught at University during theoretical classes and which you can learn only from your own experience.

To all the enumerated benefits I can add that an internship is students’ time to demonstrate all their abilities, their potential and strength. And not to others, but in the first instance, to demonstrate all these to themselves.

Unfortunately, there are not only benefits in the internship. As a rule, every student meets some challenges, too. First one is that some interns are forced to do some other job, which is not connected with profession. Some leaders of organization, where interns do the internship solve their own problems. They ask interns to go somewhere, to bring or to buy something. So, they make students do things which they are not supposed to do and thus, students do not manage to get enough experience.

Another challenge which probably bothers most of the interns is that they can hardly apply for a job in the place where the internship was done. It would be better if there were a chance to get a job in the organization where you practiced. But the truth is that it is almost impossible.

In conclusion I can say that in spite of some disadvantages of an internship every student should use the chance to do it, because  this is the perfect time  to decide whether the chosen profession is his /her vocation or not. 

Benefits and Challenges of an Internship

Every student, every future specialist in any field goes through an important and worrying period in his studies which is called internship. Internship is the method when students apply their knowledge practically. It is an exchange of experience between a student and organization where he do his practical work. The internship is accompanied both with benefits and challenges. I would like to speak about challenges and benefits of the internship from the point of view of my own experience.

I spent last four weeks doing my internship as a teacher of French. And I can say that the greatest benefit of it, in my opinion, is that after the internship students loose their fear towards the future profession, as it happened to me.  Studying at the University one can doubt if he chose the suitable profession. Such thought as for example “what if I will not cope with it” probably came to everybody. But little by little, practicing day by day, trying to do all your best, you finally realize that there is nothing frightening and become more confident in what you are doing.

Moreover there are people who help you. So, there comes another benefit – you work with more experienced people who teach you the peculiarities of the profession. They share their experience with you, point out your mistakes, so that you don’t repeat them in the future, and encourage you. Their help and pieces of advice enrich your knowledge and contribute to your experience in the chosen field.

One more benefit is that you apply your knowledge in a real-life situation. There are things that you simply can’t be taught in the University.  You will work with real people and there might happen situations and problems the solution of which you will learn only working practically.

And finally, internship is your time to demonstrate all your abilities, all your potential, all your strength, and not only to others, but in the first instance to demonstrate all these to yourself.

However, how it was mentioned in the beginning, the internship has challenges as well. So far, I can name the one, which bothers me. The internship doesn’t assure that after graduating you will get a job. The organizations which receive students as their interns in most cases can’t offer them a job. It would be really good if you continue to work in the place you practiced. But the truth is that it is almost impossible and a lot of really well-prepared young specialists remain without a job.

In conclusion I can say that in spite of some bad sides of an internship every student should use his chance to do it, because only during this time he can apply all knowledge acquired for three or four years in the University and decide whether the chosen profession is his vocation or not.