Thursday, May 24, 2012

somewhere over the rainbow

Well, well, well I think, in this picture I was about 6 years old. I remember that time as the time of joy and happiness. Everything was sooo easy ;] As you may have deduced from the picture, I wanted to become a super model, and believe it or not, I was sure that one day I'd make it :) Well, I haven't become a super model yet, so far just a teacher, but never say never.

Friday, April 13, 2012

If I had a chance

If I had a chance to change the history, I would try to change the events from 2001, September 11. This is the date when the Radical Islamists - Al-Qaeda- attacked the United States, flying into the buildings of World Trade Centre. The attack resulted in 2,753 deaths. Imagining that I actually can influence the events of that day, and keeping in mind that my only weapon, except for my brain, is a sonic screwdriver, I'd probably change the direction of the two jets. In this way, I'd avoid the crash and a horrible tragedy of people being killed. Apart from the most important aspect, which would be saving people's lives, in this way, the relations between Muslim people and Americans would not become that tensed. Unfortunately, nobody can go back in time and change anything. But we can remember and respect the memories of the victims. As a tribute:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

something less "official"

When I first started wondering what should I right about, my thoughts went straight to music. Probably, similarly to most people, music has been in my life since I can even remember. And so, there have been artists that I simply enjoyed listening to and there have been artists that strongly influenced my life. Speaking of those, there is quite a big number of them:) I could keep on listing names beginning with early years of junior high when Alicia Keys and John Legend ruled my world. Then, I surrounded myself with slightly different sounds such as Swell Season or Beirut (my love). But, since the task is to focus on one artist only, I decided to go with the flow of the last night. Yesterday I was at the concert of Olafur Arnalds. I could say he's one of my recent interests. He is an Icelandic musician, pianist, composer. Being only 26, he has already released 6 albums, a movie soundtrack included. His music is a mixture of strings and piano with edgy beats, so the listener has an impression of crossing over from classical to pop. The real beauty of his art is its rare ability to fit the mood of the listener. Depending on how one feels, the music joins your emotions. I think, the main reason why Olafur Arnalds influences me that much is the fact that today's music is way too loud and empty. Of course, I'm overgeneralizing now, there are plenty of worthy artists, nontheless, it isn't easy to find them, because they're dimmed by the cheap "fancy" pop stars.
Yesterday (20.03) Olafur Arlands perfomed, accompanied by the two of his musicians playing violin and cello, in of the PoznaƄ's clubs - Blue Note. I was lucky enough to be there! Except for the crowd of fans, which made me standing for at least 3 hours in my high heels ( by the way, who wears hills going at the concert - silly me), the impression was, and I guess still is, unforgetable. To let you know, what I'm exactly talking about, I'm adding a link to one of his songs. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do and maybe you could join me at his next concert, which I hope I'll have a chance to participate in pretty soon!

Monday, February 27, 2012

No foreign language?! Come on...

When I try to analize the non-foreign-language-life situation it's pretty difficult to imagine. Ever since I remember I've been taught foreign languages, starting with English and some other attempts such as German and French. Some of them were quite successful, some less. But still, there has always been a language of some foreign country that I've been studying.
Now, reffering to the text from The Observer, to be able to comment on it, I should imagine I'm, let's say, British for a moment. So, hypothetically I know English perfectly, thus, I'm able to communicate through lingua franca all over the world. But not learning any other language, in that case, would probably made me feel poor, as if I lacked something.
But, maybe I should facilitate those considerations and try to imagine that, being Polish, I wouldn't learn any other foreign language. First of all, I just can't think of anything else to do in life, and secondly, how would I function in today's world without knowing the almost international language? Impossible.
I don't think that The Observer's text is exaggerated and I have quite good a justification for that. Mainly, everyone knows and thus will most certainly agree with me, that nowadays people travel a lot. And I really mean it - A LOT. The world is changed, politics is changed, international relations are changed. Basically, travelling gradually gets easier and easier for people. And this seems to be the main and most important motivation for learning foreign languages. The British may say that if they speak English, which is widely spoken almost everywhere, then they don't need another language. But don't you think it is really polite if you visit another country, let's say France as an example, and you put so much effort into communicating in the language of the country you came to visit and admire? Personally speaking, I'm very much moved when a foreigner asks me about the direction on the street, trying to use Polish language. You may find it a bit lame, but I think it's cute:)
There is a number of other examples of good reasons for learning foreign languages, but they deserve an essay.
But to cut a long story short, I'd say that a person who considers him/herself a modern world citizen is obliged to speak a foreign language, if not many of them.
And just as a conclusion, this note made me think about my French and that I really should work on it.