Gosia (2)

Dear All, 

Last Wednesday was rather easy. I had many things to do, but I also had plenty of time to do them. That’s why I didn’t hurry and I wasn’t tired when my teacher came and my English lesson started. This lesson was a very nice end of my day because of the form of the lesson. He is that special kind of teacher who always manages lessons in a different way to make them unique. This time he brought an ipod with a special story recorded.

The story began with some nice classical music. After a few seconds a calm male voice started to give some instructions. It asked me to sit comfortably, put my feet strongly on the floor and acknowledge all things which can distract me. When I executed all of these instructions the voice started to tell a story about some place which I started to imagine.

I found myself in the garden of my summer house by the lake. It was a hot sunny day, full of flowers’ smells and insects’ sounds. Suddenly, when the voice told me to pick up a stone and throw it into the water, the day changed into night. There was a full moon on the dark sky and its glare was well visible on the lake’s surface. When the stone touched the water, the ripples started to go in circles and then the stone was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark water. I was watching this image from the site but at the same time I was flying next to the stone and drowning with it. I saw this scene at a slow motion, like in a movie. It was a nice experience which relaxed me at the end of my day.

I wonder what  my next English lesson will bring.

Gośka 

Luka – episode 1

It’s Monday morning, 11 a.m., in a little town in South England. Grace is on her French class with Theodore, her favourite teacher. But today’s lesson isn’t as exciting as usually. Grace looks out of the window and notices a boy leaning against a tree. He is short and skinny, and he wears glasses. He is standing on his own, there are some other students nearby. Grace thinks the boy is a bit weird.

Meanwhile, John wakes up in his apartment. The first thing that comes to his mind is that he is short of money this month. He hasn’t sold any ‘stuff’ this month yet. So far, John has been selling drugs to his adult friends but today he decides to try the local secondary school…

The lesson finally ends. Grace quickly goes back home because this evening she has got a date with Theodore. When she goes near that tree she recognizes the same boy which she saw in the morning. She hasn’t got much time, but decides to say something to him. Luka (that’s his name) doesn’t want to talk a lot, but Grace understands that something wrong is happening with Luka. She asks if they can meet tomorrow.

In the evening Grace tells Theodore about Luka. Theodore says that Luka is from a poor and problem family. He says some more details about Luka’s life. Grace is worried about Luka and decides to help him.

The next day Luka waits in the same place where he yesterday met Grace. Grace’s late. Unfortunately, John comes. He starts to speak with Luka and gives him some drugs for free to refresh. When Grace comes Luka is stoned. He laughs all the time and says strange things. Grace understands that John gave him drugs. She goes to look for him. She doesn’t have to look very long. Round the corner there is insensible John. She can see that he also took some drugs. It looks as if he overdosed. Grace calls the police and an ambulance but when they arrive it is too late. John’s dead.

Blue – a color or memories?

What’s blue? Is it a color? Yes, it is a color. So what is a color? A color is a kind of a physical process  in which light beams of defined length (each color has its own light beam length) reflect from the surface of an subject (in this case blue subject). And the human eye is able to see this rebounded length of light as blue.  But the world we live in is not only the physical processes. Apart from physics there is chemistry. Chemistry is mainly about connecting and disconnecting substances and/or elements. All these reactions take place outside and inside of our body. They are tremendously vital for living organisms. The human body has a special place where unique connections and disconnections of various chemicals (called neurochemicals) may result in a feeling of joy, cheerfulness even ecstasy or sadness, dejection or fear. These chemical processes give to a human being pleasant or unpleasant feelings. And the blue color may trigger our brain with neurochemicals to bring these feeling. In a great number of people blue color provokes good feelings, mostly coded as happiness and cheerfulness of beautiful days in theirs life. These days are mainly the summer time, when blue fills the sky and water. The blue sky and water are main surroundings of our leisure time, during which people have fun, enjoying their hobbies such as swimming, diving, yachting, windsurfing, cycling or playing different ball games etc. Doing what we like to do gives us pleasure and this pleasure is coded in human brain with positive chemicals reactions. To make all this easier the human brain makes shortcuts connecting the blue color with positives neurochemicals – so blue is responsible for positive feelings.

Yes, it’s good to see the blue color knowing what secrets it carries.

Gosia (1)

Dear Wojtek,

I think that you were right to change the place of our meetings. My office seems dark and quite formal. The new place, the kitchen, is rather simple, neutral and meant for resting, so it is much friendlier than the office. We call it the common room.

The kitchen gives me also the feeling that there is a new relationship beetween us. This relationship is not the same as between a teacher and student but more like between two partners. Of course your job is to lead the conversation, suggest new topics and give me more opportunities to improve my English skills.

Gosia

Two-line graphs for IELTS*

The graph below shows the results of a medical experiment recording the heartbeat rates of two people climbing the Belfry of Bruges, one of whom suffers from a height-related phobia. Write a report for a university lecturer comparing the results of the experiment.

*This IELTS writing task was inspired by a short story available for reading here

The graph compares the heartbeat rates of two people measured during an ascent of the Belfry of Bruges: Edie, a relatively fit woman in her late twenties, and Edward, a man of the same age and comparable level of fitness, but with a severe fear of heights. It could be clearly observed from the graph that their heartbeat rates are distinctly different.

The values recorded in the short period prior to the climb show a parallel rise in both Edie and Edward by 20 beats, from 95 to 115 and 70 to 95 respectively. However, at that point, but still before the ascent, differences start to appear. While Edie’s heartbeat drops slightly, to 110, Edward’s goes up to 127. During the three phases of the climb, corresponding roughly to three sections of the tower, Edie’s values balance between 110 at the start and 125 at the top. Over the same time Edward’s heartbeat is continuously on the increase – it starts at 127 beats in the first section of the tower to reach its peak of 200 at the top, marking a difference of 90 beats between him and Edie. Individually, overall differences between the values at the ground level and top are only 25 beats for the woman, and a staggering 130 for the man.

In conclusion, a dramatic global increase in heartbeat rate can be clearly seen in phobia-gripped Edward. By contrast, Edie’s rate remains relatively stable throughout, equaling the value of 110 beats at the start, almost 50% lower than her companion.255 words

Justyna

At the beginning I’d like to say that the person which I will describe is in my imagination. I want to describe my ideal woman. I’ll meet her in a library or somewhere else. Her name is Justyna and she’ll be a nurse in hospital in Białystok. The best thing about her ids that when we will be walking through the city, everybody will be jealous of us.
She’ll shorter than me, so when she’ll be wearing high heels she won’t be taller than me, because it looks rather silly if a girl has to bend down to kiss her boyfriend. In her early twenties she’ll have long, wavy, dark hair, just as I like. Because of her long legs she’ll look very sexy while wearing short skirts. Justyna will wear all types of clothes because for me she will look sexy in everything.
What I will particularly love about her is that she’ll know how to dance, because I like dancing, and she’ll tell me things that I really want to hear, because I like when girl is talking about me. Patient and understanding will be her best features. What is more, great and intelligent sense of humor and a lack of evening headaches will be her features that I’ll truly love.
As I said before, Justyna is my ideal woman and, undoubtedly, she’ll have a big influence on my personality. Maybe knowing her will make me more responsible and, perhaps, I will grow up mentally thanks to her. With her I will learn how to be more confident and I will experience things that I have never dreamt of. There aren’t many people that I love but she’ll be my number one.

Blue

My associations with the blue colour are the sky, cold feet and sea.
Through the eyes of my imagination I can see the endlessly blue sky. It represents hope, peacefulness and belief – a strong belief in God, his goodness, care and mystery at the same time. Then I think how I feel blue. Cool, cold – just the opposite of hot red. I have cold feet every night, which might sound trivial when juxtaposed with the sky, but nevertheless it is factual. Although I do my best to protect myself by wearing warm socks, pyjamas and sleeping under two blankets, the phenomenon is inevitable in wintertime. Afterwards, I recollect a pleasant dream I had three days ago. I was swimming in the Baltic Sea at night. The water was pleasantly warm and dark, must have been blue during the sunny day though. No cold feet, only overwhelming deep relaxation and sense of freedom.
In conclusion, the colour blue has various meanings to me. It simultaneously symbolizes my attitude towards God, the physical ailment and reduction of tension.

Haiku on Chopin last night*

the preludes to what
they are twenty four codas
ending your own songs

*Nikolai Demidenko played 24 Preludes at Białystok Philharmonic

Whose face do you see?

Infectious disease scared for this time
Her eyes half open when I lay
Told her hand I can see them properly
Remember I bend and kiss her
For a long time she always says goodbye
She leads the way I’ll have one sent it
She’d shriek a kettle and say I ask her
I would stroke her face, her arm, her hands

What do you think? / Co państwo myślą?

I heard Justyna talking to her AT students the other day and she addressed them as ‘Mr./Ms. X’ and it struck me. I thought: how cool! And I thought about how I address my adult students: as ‘you’ obviously; and I do it automatically, subconsciously. But I’m not particularly happy with it. You’d say it’s the English way - the English refer to each other as ‘you’ and it doesn’t mean disrespect whatsoever. But in Polish it does! Addressing somebody as ‘ty’ is disrespectful, unless you have a person’s permission to do that. That’s the way we do it here. I know it’s tough when we constantly mix English and Polish in the school, but isn’t it so that we are trying to be more English than the English? Was denkst du? 

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