The last blog post in this English class

The first semester at NES comes to an end. Therefore, now it is a sufficient time to evaluate my progress in this English class and things I should continue working on. To express my ideas in clearer way, I'd like to emphasize some points I'm going to tell about.

1. Fluency of my speech.

I wrote in some of my previous posts that I had difficult with fluency of my speech. It was hard to me to formulate my thoughts in English fast and then tell them to David or my classmates without stammer. I was also confused to ask David questions in English because I though he wouldn't understand me. However, at the end of this course I can say that I enhanced my speaking skills, and the fluency of my speech became faster. It is also not confusing for me to speak with David and others native English speakers about something. It is a very important aspect of my English progress!

However, it is worth saying that despite the fact my speech became faster, I should continue working on it so that to have an opportunity to speak free with English speakers about any topic.

2. My writing skills.

As you possibly know, before this English class I hadn't practice in writing many types of English essay. Obviously, my writing skills were very bad. However, in this class I knew much about how to write and what to write in opinion, descriptive, narrative, comparison and contrast, and argumentative essays. It was hard to me, and some of my grades were worse than I had expected before this class. Nevertheless, for every lesson I learned more and more about writing, wrote blog posts and essay assignments, and read special materials for every lesson. This way, I enhanced my writing skills, and now it is easier for me to write essays or blog posts than it was before. However, it is worth saying that my writing skills are very long to be called "perfect", so I should continue practicing in writing. I expect that next semester I will have this opportunity.

3.Oral presentations.

At the beginning, I'd like to say that doing oral presentations was one of the most interesting assignments we had in this class! Actually,it is worth saying that I always liked doing oral presentation when I was at high school but I never did it in English. There I've got 2 opportunities to do it. I should confess, it was harder than do presentations in Russian. However, some training helped me to fell myself confident and I got 26 of 30 points for the first presentation and 28 of 30 points for the second presentation. I think, this result is good enough, but if I paid more attention to my grammar and pronunciation, I could get better grades. Therefore, next semester I'm planning to work on my grammar and pronunciation at the Writing at Communication Center.

4. Vocabulary

It is worth saying that I am little disappointed about my vocabulary progress. Despite the fact that I knew some words writing essays and blogs, but before this class  I had expected that learning new words would be more systematic. However, we did an only one vocabulary list in the semester. I think, 40 words should be learned every month to enrich our vocabulary. Next semester I'm planning to learn more words reading books and texts in English. Fortunately, the next class is committed to reading assignments, so I expect I'll get practice enough.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that this English class was very interesting and useful for me! I haven't missed any lessons because every lesson I learned something that was new for me.

Thank you for your work, David!

The NES 20th Anniversary

It's seems to me that I'm not only NES student who will write a post #14 about the NES 20th Anniversary. It is no wonder. According to Konstantin Sonin, “There is no doubt that The NES Anniversary will be the main event of academic season in economic science, it can be guaranteed" (Sonin, December 11, 2012). Actually, after the celebration ceremony of the Anniversary I realized that Sonin was right.
I worked on the Anniversary as a volunteer. We were discussing unpaid internship last lessons with my classmates. I urged that every person should have internship so that to get useful experience for the future and also to get important contacts. Therefore, when I got an offer to become a volunteer on the NES Anniversary I hadn't any doubts to accept it.
The first day (14 December) of the Anniversary wasn't simple for me. Me and my colleagues ought to transport electronic devices and other things from NES building to World Trade Center, where the Anniversary was celebrated. After four hours of work we were invited to the stand-up of "Welcome reception". There I was stuffed full and was ready to continue working next day :) . Moreover, the next day many lessons of famous economists were planned, and I was looking forward to visit them.
15 December. The greatest day if the celebration.
At the beginning of that day Olivier Blanchard, the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, presented a keynote speech "The State of the World Economy". It was interesting, but, worth to say that I didn't understand all his speech at all because of lack of experience in listening scientific lectures. However, I was very glad to listen such a famous person. All in all, it is a big rarity to meet with people like Blanchard is, every day.
But it was only the beginning. Next, I attended a roundtable "Does Internet change everything?" At that roundtable I was explained that Internet would play more and more important role in people life. One evidence is that almost all students know information from the Internet, not from TV (none of the students raised their hand when were asked this question).
The most interesting roundtable was "Economic policy". Speakers were Arkady Dvorkovich (Deputy Prime Minister), Igor Shuvalov (First Deputy Prime Minister), Erik Berglof (Chief Economist and Special Adviser to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Sergei Guriev (the Rector of the New Economic School), and Anders Aslund (a famous Swedish economist). They told about Russian economic policy, its failures. In addition, they evaluated perspectives of Russian Economy development. 

It is worth saying that at the beginning of this roundtable Igor Shuvalov and Arkady Dvorkovich were absented themselves. That time, S. Guriev, E. Berglof, and A. Aslund didn't have any reason to argue with each other about their economic views. However, when I. Shuvalov and A. Dvorkovich came, the topic of the roundtable became debatable. It was very interesting and, worth to say, amusingly! The most memorable moment of this roundtable was the suggestion which was given to students by I. Shuvalov to sign up for internship in the government during one summer's month. Frankly speaking, I thought it was joke, but then I noticed woman who signed up students for this internship. However, I didn't sign up, because I thought that this summer I would have more valuable opportunities to get useful experience for the future. 

The NES 20th Anniversary Dinner.

After the roundtable "Economic policy" all guests and volunteers were invited to the NES 20th Anniversary Dinner. It was amazing! Many famous people such as German Gref, Petr Aven, Gur Ofer, Mikhail Abyzov, Barry Ickes and many professors of prestigious foreign universities congratulated the New Economic School for its anniversary. I had never seen so many famous people in one place and I felt myself like on the other planet. However, it was reality, and I was very glad to feel myself a member of the NES – this fascinating community! 

One of the most memorable and unexpected event was performance given by a professor Andrei Shevchenko and Roger Myerson - the Nobel Laureate in Economics in 2007. A. Shevchenko song and R. Myerson accompanied him by harmonica.

After this performance, students of  joint HSE/NES Bachelor of Arts in Economics program took a photo with J. Myerson.

After this performance, students of  joint HSE/NES Bachelor of Arts in Economics program took a photo with J. Myerson.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that the NES 20th Anniversary, according to K. Sonin was really the main event of academic season in  economic science in Russia. Moreover,  the Anniversary became one of the most memorable event in my life. I'm really proud to be a NES student!

                                                

A critique of my argumentative essay

Write a critique of your argumentative essay. What is the best
thing about it? What are the essay’s weaknesses? How can you
improve your essay? How is this essay different than essays you
wrote earlier in the semester?

Having finished peer review on the previuos lesson, I saw that my classmates had given me some useful critique of my essay:
The first problem is bad word choices. Sometimes I don't know how to express the meaning of Russian words in English, so I use a Russian to English translator that sometimes doesn't suggest appropriate words' form for the context. To avoid this problem, I should pay more attention when choosing the form of word and try to find text or sentences with similar context which have the words I want to use in my text, and then try to correlate them.

The next problem is grammar mistakes. When I have some ideas which I can use in my essay, I try to write them as  fast as I can so that to not remember. As a consequence, I do a lot of gramma mistakes, for example, miss article. To avoid these mistakes, I should read essay out loud after finishing. The best way would be to print it, and then correct it with a pan.   (It is worth saying that I was surpised to see that David suggested us the same ways for checking essays in his new blog post).

Thirdly, sometimes I do mistakes in organisation of body paragraphs. Sometimes I can write a concluding sentence which brings new idea to my essay while I just only have to conclude a paragraph.  Also, some of my body paragraphs don't contain information that is essential for support my ideas. To avoid this problem I should pay more attention and time for body paragraphs' organisation.

I think the best critique was about my second body paragraph where the Nadezhda's comment helped me to notice that my argument doesn't help to understand why the Russia's government should change its economic policy with regard to political protection to companies. I will try to do some changes of this body paragraph in my second draft to make my idea more clear.

If I effectively use the ways of avoiding weaknesses in my essay, I will improve it.

Differences between this essay and others essay I wrote earlier:
In comparison with other essays I wrote in the semester, an argumentative one is longer than others and, of course, more complicated because of searching the source and form them according to the rules. 
However, I liked the argumentative essay more than previous essays because in this essay I had to do a research like a real economist.

An one hour delay or how almost 10 thousand people lated for work

Having looked through my previous topics, I realized that I hadn't written about the way which I get to the University(this way is, firstly, an electric train, and then underground). Frankly speaking, it is not surprising because I thought that my blog's readers would not be interested in my way. Really, many of us use an electric train to get to work, school, and University. However, last week I got an experience which many of people had not got.

 It was Wed, 28 November. On that day I had a lesson at 9 a.m. at NES building. As usually, I wanted to wake up at 6:40 a.m. to catch an electric train that arrived at 7:25 a.m. I often use a train in this time because it isn't too crowded as the train in 7:40 a.m. However, because of much homework I went to sleep in 3 a.m. 

Having woken up, I realized that I overslept 20 minutes and didn't have time to catch the electric train in 7:25 a.m. However, I had time enough to go to the electric train in 7:40. But when I woke up, my first thought was to continue sleep and miss the first lecture. I was thinking for 5 minutes, but then I decided to go. I was standing up with words "It will be great if I don't regret about my choice". But one hour later I regretted.

It wasn't a secret for me that sometimes electric train at 7:40 a.m. goes from Odintsovo to Moscow more than 25 minutes as it is written in a timetable because of many stops. But these stops were not longer than 5 minutes, so I wasn't worry about it. However, I made a mistake. 

Having caught the train, I noticed that there were more people than usually, so I had to stay in a narrow passage with too many people around me. I even could not make a single movement! But it was only start of my problems. Having gone 3 stations, the train was stucked. A machinist turned off the heating and opened doors. All crowds began waiting. At the beginning I thought that it was an ordinary stop that would be no longer than 5 minutes. But then I began noticing that 5, 10,15,20,30 minutes were flowing...all crowd became anxious. Some people decided to catch the bus or phone to the machinist so that to know what had happened... After 50 minutes of delay I realized that I had late for the first lecture for almost 40 minutes. In other words, it meant that I had hurried for nothing. Moreover, I was very tired to stay within the crowd without opportunity to make a single movement. But I couldn't make a thing. After one hour the train set off and people began applauding. However, the one hour delay meant that I almost missed the first lecture at NES and at the same time thousands of people delayed for work.

In conclusion, I'd like to ask myself and other people a rhetorical question: “Did it case show that we always should do what we want to do? “ My answer is not, but henceforth I will think more about my decisions. Sometimes in can be useful.