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Как иностранцы произносят русские названия

http://www.adme.ru/nejming/kak-inostrancy-proiznosyat-russkie-nazvaniya-404405/

Five rules as a guide to success—or at least less pain—in learning a language.

Commencement Address by John Beyrle

#1. Stay focused. My high school German teacher Mr. Anderson taught me that learning a language is not a hobby—it’s a discipline. Too often when Americans study languages they take two years of Spanish, and then maybe another couple of years of French, and end up with no real facility at all. Don’t dabble in languages. Hone in on the one or two that you’re drawn to, and make its mastery a lifelong obsession.

#2. Go away! When I was a student in Ann Arbor, there was a travel agency with a wonderful sign hanging outside its door. The sign said “Please Go Away.” That’s rule number two. When you are looking at options for study abroad, try to go far, far away, until you are immersed in the language and the culture and you spend days without speaking or hopefully even hearing or seeing English. That means that if you can, you should choose smaller towns and cities to study in and visit. Avoid Paris—discover Nantes. Spend less time in Moscow, and more in Yaroslavl, or Irkutsk.

Rule #3. Rediscover the radio. Everyone learns languages in a different way, but if you want to be able to communicate, the most important input to learning is what you hear. It is now a simple matter to stream the Russian or Farsi or Mandarin equivalent of NPR or the BBC on your smartphone, and your earbuds insulate you from outside distraction. The more you listen, the more you learn, and of course what you are hearing is the best educated native diction you can find.

#4. Watch your language! As all instructors know, after a certain level of proficiency is reached (or sometimes even before), the student’s temptation to try out a few colorful off-color phrases can be irresistible. Resist. As Genevra Gerhart wrote in her classic work The Russian’s World, swearing in a foreign language is like shooting a gun without knowing where the bullets come out. 

#5. Find a practical outlet. Learning a language is a great joy in and of itself, and it broadens the mind and opens many new doors, but few of us can live off of that for the rest of our lives. The value knowing a language—not to mention your job prospects—are enhanced greatly when you pair the language with another discipline. Diplomacy, business, economics, education—the choice is yours, but you need to focus on that choice now. And remember—if you choose diplomacy, the State Department gives you points for knowing a language—and extra credit for a hard language—in the competition for entry-level positions.

Choosing a word...

Esquire выбрал из современного английского языка несколько терминов, которые обозначают еще не описанные, но уже существующие в России явления.

Christmas creep
Феномен, при котором празднование Рождества с каждым годом начинается все раньше.

Football widow
Женщина, которая в дни футбольных матчей считает своего мужчину временно умершим.

Brandalism 
Завешивание городских фасадов уродливыми рекламными постерами.

Wikiality — от Wikipedia и «реальность»
Явление, существование которого подтверждается большим количеством ссылок на него в интернете.

Stage-phoning 
Попытка произвести впечатление на стоящих рядом людей разговором по мобильному.

Globish — сокращение от global english
Упрощенный английский, на котором общаются представители неанглоговорящих стран.

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The beginning of the United States by Margarita Glinskaya

The size of the United States is practically the same as the whole of Europe.

At the begiёnning of the nineteenth century the biggest part of America was a wilderness and in the end of the century it already had forty-five of the present fifteen states. The urban population had grown from six to forty-four  million between the years 1860-1910. The speed with which America was settled is amazing. How did it all happened?

Between 1620 and 1630 the Founding Fathers (the Pilgrims and Puritans) settled on the northeast coast of North America. Both the Pilgrims and Puritans were part of the Protestant religious group and went to the New World from Great Britain to practice their religion freely. The religious options were strict and influenced every part of their lives: social, political and economic. They were honest, thrifty and believed in hard work and a good education for everyone. Success at work and making money were considered as a sign of God’s favor.

Soon after their arrival the Founding Fathers set up the first British colonies and started successful business: the fish, fur, salt and timber trades. Business and factories developed in and around Boston which soon became an important city and seaport.

At this time the life and economy of the South Atlantic area were agricultural. Towards the end of the 1800s the South became more industrial, in particular Texas with its cotton, cattle and oil industries.

After the American Revolution the thirteen English colonies became the first thirteen states of America.

In 1803 the Fort Dearborn, a US military fort, was built where the city of Chicago stands today. Soon Chicago became an important industrial city of the Midwest.

San Francisco by Gorbacheva Mariya

San Francisco... This city is surrounded on three sides by water and because of
this it has one more name - "The City by the Bay".

We can compare San Francisco with a beautiful bird phoenix. According to the
Greek mythology this bird climbed onto a pile of sticks and burned itself when
it grew old. And then a beautiful new phoenix appeared. And like this bird, San
Francisco has been destroyed plenty of times by fires and earthquakes, but each
time it can rise better and bigger and all of that because of its people. That’s why
the official seal of San Francisco is phoenix.

The history of San Francisco began with the event when in 1769 Spanish friars
begin to teach Christianity to the American Indians. They founded plenty of
missions all along the California coast. Then Don Gaspar discovered San Francisco
bay by chance. Then another Spanish explorer declared that this area was Spain’s
and built there a fort Presidio. There was a new settlement which called Yerba
Buena because of the sweet-smelling plants growing there. Yerba Buena was a
sleepy village until 1848 when California became America. Then Yerba Buena’s
name was changed to San Francisco.

This city would not have begun so popular if only one event had not happened:
the Gold Rush. It changed the future of this city. About 100 miles from San
Francisco gold field was discovered. Plenty of adventurous people with pans and
shovels started to look for gold. These people were called the “forty-niners”.
They travelled on horse, by sea or even on foot. This journey could take five to
eight months. Most of these people didn’t achieve success, but some of them did.
But the cleverest one opened there shops, hotels, banks for other people. One
German immigrant called Levi Strauss began to make strong blue trousers – jeans.
When the Gold Rush began San Francisco had a population of about 900 people,
but by the end of 1849 the population grew to 25 000!

Also the richest people began to build transcontinental railroads there. They
could connect California to the rest of the US.

So, that way San Francisco began strong and rich city .

by Gorbacheva Mariya

Survey for 4th year students in British Studies

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San Francisco Today by Olga Boronina

Today, San Francisco is a dynamic, international city with approximately 764,000 inhabitants. The San
Francisco Bay Area, which includes the city of San Francisco and other cities on the coast, is home to
over seven million people.

Even since the days of the Golden Rash, San Francisco has been a friendly, open-minded city. Tourism
is the city’s biggest business with more than 16 million visitors each year. It is an important cultural and
educational center with many famous museums, concert halls and fine schools.

San Francisco is unique in many ways. One of its most unusual characteristics is its foggy, windy
summers, when temperatures don’t usually above 15°C. The good climate means that homeless people
have come to San Francisco from all over the nation because they are able to live outdoors.

The streets of San Francisco climb up and down 43 hills. Visitors love driving down these streets.
In 1873 Andrew Hallidie, an engineer, created a special transportation system, the cable car, which is one
of the city’s biggest attractions.

Since San Francisco is at the tip of a peninsula water is never far away. The ocean and the bay are too
cold and full of sharks for the most swimmers, but sailing and wind-surfing are popular sports thanks to
the strong west wind.

Fisherman’s Wharf is another very popular area with boats, restaurants, seafood stalls, shops and
street performers. You can also visit the amazing Aquarium of the Bay and walk through its long acrylic
tunnels under the way and see more than 20,000 marine animals.

At the Wharf there are ferry boats that take you to Alcatraz Island, which was opened in 1934 as a
maximum security prison for America’s most dangerous criminals. No prisoner has ever successfully
escaped from Alcatraz because of the icy waters of the bay. There was one guard for every three
prisoners and each prisoner had a tiny prison cell by himself. Al Capone, the Chicago gangster, was kept
in this prison.

To sum it up, San Francisco is a modern city with its rich history and amazing nature. I think that this
place is worth visiting.

Project: Tula sights 2012

Project: Looking at the map of Russia