Americans as tourists

The ways of tourists are strange, and one afternoon as I sat in the Plaza Mayor, I heard some Frenchmen at the next table tearing Americans apart. To the first barrage of criticism, I could not logically protest: Americans were uncultured, lacked historical sense, were concerned only with business, had no sensitivity and ought to stay at home. The second echelon of abuse I did want to interrupt, because I felt that some of it was wide of the mark: Americans were all loud, had no manners, no education no sense of proportion, and were offensively vulgar in dress, speech, eating habits and general comportment, but I restrained myself because, after all, this was a litany one heard throughout Europe, here expressed rather more succinctly than elsewhere.

Sitting as quietly as my French companions would permit, I tried to discover what my true feelings were in this matter of honest description. In my travels, I had never met any single Americans as noisy and crude as certain Germans, none so downright mean as one or two Frenchmen, none so ridiculous as an occasional Englishman, and none so arrogant as some Swedes.

But in each of the national examples cited I am speaking only of a few horrible specimens. If one compares all English tourists with all Americans, I would have to admit that taken in the large the American is worse. If some European wanted to argue that seventy percent of all American tourists are regrettable, I would agree. If he claimed ninety, I suppose I wouldn’t argue too much. But when like the Frenchman on my left he states that one hundred percent are that way, then I must accuse him of being false to the facts.

(James Michener)

T E X T 6

Our people

We are usually described as “particular people, kind and sincere, patient and wise, tolerant and industrious, sympathetic and understanding, empathetic and open-hearted, honest and diligent”.

All this is true. But these words are far from enough to present a complete image of us as Belarusians. We are also joyful, honorable, and firm, as well as courageous and brave-hearted, though we have never attacked anyone ourselves or initiated any wars. Never ever! We were sometimes used to defend, and each time we defended, we did it with passion.

Belarus sits in an unfortunate place (in terms of military strategy), located at the very crossroads of Europe. Here, the people say that we are sitting “under all the drafts”; most often, it was the non-Belarusian nations that made war on Belarusian soil.

Nearly all the Northern Wars between Russian Tsar Peter I and Swedish King Karl XII for control over the Baltic sea passed through Belarusian Land: Polotsk, Orsha, Kopyl, Mogilev, Cherikov, and Gomel suffered hard. They were a little ruined, a little burned, and a little looted, but we renovated our homes!

Napoleon’s Army passed through Belarus twice, toward Moscow and back. Lands were spoiled again, houses and churches - destroyed, archives and libraries all looted. But we recovered yet again!

What about World War!? Remember the peace making in Brest? World War II Belarusian guerillas… In that war we lost one out of every four. But Belarusians survived, recovered, and restored our homes again and again. And we carried on!

The most ancient principality founded by Belarusians was the Polotsk Principality. Then there was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which many historians, in fact, consider to be the real Belarusian State during the Middle Ages, with Novogrudok as the capital and Belarusian as the state language.

At the close of the past century, on the territory of Belarusian Gubernyias (a territorial entity), including Smolensk and Vilnya, there lived 4,769,032 Belarusians. Then, this figure made up 70% of the overall population of those lands.

And at the close of the 20^th century, in today’s Belarus, the population reaches 8,159,000 people according to the latest census held in 1999. This composes nearly 81,2 % of the country’s population. This is why Belarus may also be reported as an ethnically integrated state – it is also composed of many other nationalities, like Russians, Ukrainians, Polish, Jewish, Tartars – and all friendly to us, the Belarusians.

Nearly 4 million Belarusians live abroad – in Western Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia and the Ukraine.

The 9^th volume (dedicated to Belarus) of the famous research work done by V.P.Semyonov titled “Russia: A Complete Geographical Description of Our Motherland”, reads that “Belarusians are characterized by their light-colored skin. Women often possess extremely delicate features. Light or light brown hair is very typical for Belarusians, as well as a gray or blue colored eyes…

Generally, Belarusians correspond to the most perfectly exemplified type of Slavonic appearance. This can be explained by the fact that Belarusians, in their historical past, were not assimilated with other nationalities and peoples.”

The Russians were assimilated with Finish tribes, the Ukrainians – with Turkish groups; and the Polish – with German groups. As for us, even if we assimilated, it was only by the Russians, Ukrainians or Polish – our close Slavonic neighbors.

We Belarusians are an ancient people. We began inhabiting our lands nearly 40,000 years ago. We “remember” the last glacier that “moved” toward us from Scandinavia and melted in our lands, leaving numerous stones and lakes as souvenirs.

We “remember” how so many marvelous temples and churches were erected, and how foreigners were so astonished by their beauty that they referred to our land as the country of temples and churches.

(Self-Portrait of Belarus.

“Belarus” №2/3, 2000)

GLOSSARY

UNIT I

intermediary (n) – посредник

legitimacy (n) – законность

legislator (n) – законодатель

legislature (n) – законодательная власть; законодательные учреждения

realm (n) – королевство, государство, царство

sibling (n) – (единокровный) брат, (единокровная) сестра

arouse (v) – пробуждать, вызывать, возбуждать

assert (v) – утверждать, заявлять

cast (v) – бросать

confine (v) – ограничивать

crumble (v) – распадаться, разрушаться, гибнуть

dwindle (over) (v) – уменьшаться, ухудшаться, приходить в упадок

deliberate (v) – обдумывать, взвешивать

engage (v) – занимать, привлекать, вовлекать

evoke (v) – вызывать (воспоминания, восхищение)

inculcate (v) – внедрять, внушать, прививать, вселять

intermarry (v) – вступать в брак (о родственниках)

make one’s mark (v) –выдвинуться, отличиться, сделать карьеру

pursue (v) – преследовать цель; следовать по намеченному пути

tail off (v) – присоединяться к