12. Drugs, alcohol and smoking

Nowadays our life is very intensive and people invented some methods to diversify our life, to relax ourselves after a long hard working day. Unfortunately that methods don’t do anything good, but cause a lot of troubles to our organism, arouse mental addiction, destroy the human appearance of the person and can lead to totally corruption, or prison time, and difficulties at work and home. Many drug users engage in criminal activity, such as burglary and prostitution, to raise the money to buy drugs.

Drugs, alcohol and smoking is addiction, or a dependence, on a behavior or substance that a person is powerless to stop. The term has been partially replaced by the word dependence for substance abuse. Many researchers believe that addiction is a behavior that can be controlled to some extent (мера) and it’s also a brain disease.

Millions of people are addicted to alcohol, drugs and smoking. What most people don't realize is that family members, friends and colleagues also feel the impact when someone is addicted. Each person addicted could affect many more that suffer from the emotional or physical consequences of living with, loving or working with him or her.

People take drugs for many reasons: relief of stress, increased energy, to relax, to relieve pain, to escape reality, to feel more self-esteem, and for recreation, to avoid depression. They may take stimulants to keep alert, or cocaine for the feeling of excitement it produces. Athletes and bodybuilders may take anabolic steroids to increase muscle mass.

In my opinion drug addiction is first of all an illness of a poor and weak person, but also that’s a crime and should be punished. The punishment is a good example for others not to do the same things and of course addicts are dangerous for the society and should live isolated from other people. For those people who haven’t committed any crime should exist special hospitals to help addicts to get rid of their drug addiction, but for those who committed the crime should exist special isolation ward with medical care to help them also.

Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, causing many diseases and reducing health in general.In many European countries recently was prohibited smoking in public areas. I think that’s a good measure as first of all people who are around smoker the passive smokers suffer from the smoke. As we know smoking can cause cancer and heart diseases.

The only thing to avoid addiction is to affect mentally on brains of young generation. First of all we – teachers, parents, grown-ups are responsible and in charge for this. And only through our own example we can show that any kind of addictions destroy the life of a person.

13. What is it to be a Russian

The Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries. Russians as all nationalities have special features of character that differ them from others. These special identified futures were generated through ages due to historical events that influenced people’s consciousness.

It is true to say that Russia is most famous for its people. To understand Russian people, one must know from where they come. Nature has not been kind to Russia. Winters in Russia are cold, windy and snowy. So in old Russia people could do little during long winter months. But in spring there was a lot to be done, and in a short period of time. Perhaps, this explains why the Russians are often inactive for long periods of time and then show bursts of energy.The harsh climate explains the Russians' strength and their ability to overcome hardships. Climate has also made them cautious.

Our country is a country with a very rich history, stable traditions and customs: there were a lot of wars, invasions, struggles for freedom and independence of the country and its population; all these events influenced our consciousness and world understanding. We are the strong nationality ready to unit in difficult moments and situations – the history proves this; the spirit of patriotism is an important feeling inherent (свойственный) to all Russians. People all over the world know that Russians are very hospitable, generous and sympathetic (отзывчивый) and we proudly justify this. At the same time there is a number of bad habits that also exist and known. Drinking alcohol drinks, by the way it’s also one of the so called Russian habits, but in my opinion that’s stereotype about Russians, all nationalities have their alcohol traditions and alcoholism is not the national habit that’s the disease of a concrete person no matter what his nationality is. Also I can mention a very poisonous Russian habit to count on the off chance (полагаться на авось), not to bear the load of responsibility and instability. But in spite of this I can say that every Russian is proud of his country. Russian people have always loved their country, though life in Russia has never been easy. They have always been devoted to their Motherland, fighting for peace and independence against enemies.

Yet most of the Russians are open people. They are neither reticent nor reserved as the British. Russian people like having parties and receiving guests. The Russians are known to be a hospitable people. According to old traditions, a guest should always be welcomed with the symbol of life-giving food — bread and salt. If Russian people smile, it means that they really feel it while Americans smile to everybody but their smiles mean nothing, it is just the work of their muscles, their smile aren’t connected with their feelings.

We can't say that the Russians are conservative. On the contrary, they encourage research and innovation. Still, there are a lot of customs and traditions in their life. For example, before leaving on a journey, many Russian people sit down quietly together for a few minutes.Russian people are clever and talented. We can name a lot of outstanding Russians who are well-known all over the world. And we can say that we are a nation that has done a lot for the world civilization.

When foreign guests leave Russia, they usually say different things about the country. Some of them like it, others don't. But practically everybody agrees that Russian people are wonderful. They are friendly, kind and very hospitable.

No doubt Russians differ from population of GB and the USA. That’s not bad, that’s normal, the world like diversification but at the same time that can provoke some problems in mutual understanding and relations, the only way to avoid this to be tolerant and not egoistic nation. Russia and Great Britain are countries with stable traditions and customs and very rich culture that influences other countries. The thing that unites is that citizens of all states are proud to be such and even in case of moving won’t change the understanding and mentality of native state.

When one keep teach international classes he\she should keep in mind the differences between his own culture and the culture of the country where he\she teaches to avoid misunderstanding and unpleasant moments. That’s not enough to learn the language more important to understand the culture, more important and the most interesting thing.

Teaching is an interesting by quite a difficult job itself but there are some difficulties connected with teaching international groups. So there are several key ideas. The teacher must:

-remember about cultural peculiarities and about the rules of intercultural communication,

-create some kind of informal atmosphere in class, create a personalized and supportive way of communication which makes students feel at home, and encourage their participation,

- remember all students’ names though it may be very difficult,

-avoid discouraging students and be careful about words and gestures,

- be positive as it is the best way to make students comfortable,

-have a good sense of humour to deal with all the difficulties in class.