#3.The hazards of smoking

To begin with I would like to say that approximately one year ago I disliked smoking girls. I was always annoyed when met smoking girl, especially when her friend didn't smoke, but she did. It is hard to explain, but it seemed to me that women who were smoking every day couldn't be good wives and couldn't bear healthy children. At the same time, I was indifferent to smoking boys and thought for them it is normal to smoke.
However, during the last year and, especially, during the first semester at NES my views have changed. Now I more tolerant to smoking girls and don't be annoyed while they smoking. I think it is their choice and I should respect it. Nevertheless, despite of my tolerance to smoking people I'm absolutely convinced that smoking has more disadvantages than advantages.Firstly, I think that smoking is deterioration of people's health. Moreover, while smoking they also indirectly harm the health of people who surround them. Apart from these facts, children can inherit many diseases and depending on smoking from their mothers or fathers.Secondly, smoking is a waste of money. If I'm not making a mistake, an average cost of pack of cigarettes in Russia is 50-60 Rubles. Imagine that smoking people buy one pack every day. It costs them 30*50=1500 Ruble at a mouth (at average, of course). Decide by yourself how many useful things you can buy for this sum, especially things that are opposed to smoking (for example, tickets to a gym and others). Thirdly, smoking people often become dependent on it and, as a result, they lost their will to resist smoking. When you can't reject from smoking, you become helpless in others bad habits. Because of this, trying to make every day duties becomes hard for smoking people. They often pay attention for unnecessary activity and become lazy (I remember that it is only my opinion, which is based on my own observations). Some people sometimes said to me that smoking helps them relax, don't be nervous, and helps to think about their problems clearly. Of course, it can be seemed like respectful reason, but in my humble opinion this way people only try to justify themselves, not more. For me, when I want to " relax, don't be nervous, and think my problems  clearly", I try to do sport such as running, exercising on the horizontal bar, push-ups, or simply lying on the bad and relax. These methods really help me those moments. Moreover, there is no doubt that doing some easy sport exercises is more useful for a health than smoking even one cigarette.In summary, I'd like to say that even though I'm tolerant to smoking people, I'm sure that smoking has more hazards than useful effects. The hazards are numerous diseases and risk for children's health, wasting much money, and the loss of will.  

#2. What do I like more: poetry or prose? Why?

To begin this topic, I'd like to say that all kinds of literature have always played a big role in my life. Since I was young, it was hard to imagine me without book in my hand. I liked to read them in all places I was. However, during my childhood I have never thought about what I like more: poetry or prose. I would say that I liked to read all what was interesting to me.
During the school years until 11th grade I preferred reading only prose, not poetry because our teacher required us to learn poems by heart, which was very difficult for me and I tried to avoid it. However, I tried to be a diligent student at the same time, so I couldn't say "I'd prefer not to learn it by heart", as Bartleby, the Scrivener often said to his chief :). Nevertheless, I didn't like read poetry because it associated me that I "had to" do it, not "wanted" to do.
However, at the 11th grade my preferences have changed rapidly. Because of too long preparations to economic competition, I became exhausted. It was a kind of apathy. I didn't like learn other school subjects except Economic, but later I was tired from Economics, too. At the same time I hadn't much time to read complicated books because of the same reasons. I realized that I ought to pay attention to other activities so that to relax, but I didn't know what to do. It was a big problem for me.
However, one day my friend Maria adviced me to read a poem "There aren't uninteresting people in the world" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. I was impressed. Besides the fact that it was the poem with deep sense, I realized that I was distracted from my daily routine through reading this poem. Moreover, I decided to learn it by heart...For some people it could be nonsense, but my productivity of learning Economics and other subjects increased harshly. I continued read poems more and learn by heart those which I very liked. It was like an interesting experiment on my own and I couldn't stop. I even has a specific goal: learn 1 poem every day. It was amazing. Despite the fact that this way I distracted from my daily routine, my memory skills became better every day. As a result, during about 90 days I learned by heart approximately 60 poems by different poets. Basically, it were poems by Eduard Asadov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Michael Lermontov, Vladimir Vysotsky, and, of course, Vladimir Mayakovsky. After that, I began to read it by heart to my Literature teacher. She was really glad about it. So I did, because after long time I began doing it with real pleasure. Then I read poetry on different events such as school-leaving party and "The Evening" club in the Krasnoyarsk Summer School. It is worth saying that I was happy those moments. I realized that each person can find different kinds of activity, which would distract him or her from daily routine.
As you can see, it was a specific answer to question "What I like more: poetry or prose?", but when I read this theme of blog, I right away thought about this passage of my life.
Unfortunately, now I don't have much time to learn poems by heart, but I continue reading them so that to distract from many homework assignments. As for prose, it is worth saying that I try to read it, too. Moreover, now I have an English class that is called "Introduction to Literature", so I'll have a great opportunity to read prose in English, too. It is very interesting and I like our reading assignments. In this way, if you ask me now a question about what I prefer more: poetry or prose, I'd say that I like them equally. However, it is worth saying that my preferences tend to be change in some specific moments of my life.

P.S. Irina, thank you for the great blog topic suggestion! 

#1. The first week of the second semester

Hi everybody,         

It is my pleasure to welcome you at the continuation of my blog posts. As you know, now this blog is devoted to the English 202 class, where we will read novels, short stories, and other types of literature. I think it will be very interesting and useful for me because I've always wanted to read books written by famous novelist and enhance my writing and vocabulary skills at the same time. Despite the fact that I just had two English lessons this semester, I convinced that my desires would be accomplished. Moreover, in addition to skills, which I've mentioned, I realize that I will always learn how to read critically and discuss some debatable moments of the novels in literature circles, being in different roles such as "Discussion leader", "Word Wiz", and "Illustrator". I think it is a great experience. Therefore, it is not a secret that I like my new English class. I also believe that after this class my English skills will become better a lot.

         At the first week of the semester I also had two lessons of the classes named "Social and Economic history of Russia" and "Introduction to Evolutional Anthropology". Firstly, I'd like to say about class of the "Social and Economic history of Russia". I decided to choose this class because recently I realized that my knowledge of the history of Russia is poor. Therefore, it became one of the main goals to me to enhance my history's knowledge this semester. What's more, the literature used on this course is almost all in English, so it is a great opportunity to improve English vocabulary there, too. What about the class of the "Introduction to Evolutional Anthropology", I think it will be very useful for me to improve my erudition and an advantage in communication with biologists. I have many friends from the Krasnoyarsk Summer School who learn Biology, so it is very important to know this subject to speak with my friends freely.   
        However, this week I didn't only study, I also visited two interesting events. The first was the lecture about innovation by Steven Geiger, who is a former Chief Executive Director of the "Skolkovo". The second was the English club meeting that was devoted to discussion about differences in weddings in the USA and Russia. David and his fiancée Jennifer told us about their own preparation to wedding, and then auditory began asking additional questions and compare Russian and American questions. I was very impressed about new facts of American culture. If you want to know about it more concretely, ask me. I liked events I've attended and I'm certainly planning to continue attending them as much as I can.In summary, it is worth saying that I like my new classes and the first week of the semester and I'm looking forward to this semester because it is going to be very interesting, hard-working, and essential for my future. 

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.