Interview

Who are you?

I’m unique & I’m common. The Universe makes me unique, it gives me power to create, power to think, power to love… The fact that I belong to Homo sapiens makes me common: two legs, a pair of ears, a nose…Nobody will treat me as an extraterrestrial, so no one will give me special attention.

My name is Brodnikova Svetlana. From Greek it means Light. Well, perhaps I can give some light if I would rub myself with phosphorus.

I’m a student of foreign philology- I study English & German and really enjoy it because it makes my life multifaceted. The wise say you live as many lives as you know languages and it is perfectly true- new culture, new thinking, new personality.

How did you learn English?

But how did a girl from Kerch open for herself an English wonderland?

At school I was hiding myself from English. I avoided this school subject with all my childish persistency. The reason was pretty simple. I hated red tape of learning by heart at first ABC, then 1, 2, 3, then some alien words, then whole texts that seemed never to appear to be useful.

Yah, I remember butterflies in my stomach at hearing the teacher saying “ listening comprehension” So ten years at school were spent in vain. But now I don’t regret it because even a few words learnt by me were remembered wrong and it was difficult to retrain.

But there were two things I make use up till now: irregular verbs and Passive Voice.

I needed those things for my grade. Nice factor to booster a motivation, wasn’t it?

So I began to invent a bicycle, as Russian would say. For remembering verbs I adapted associations. To understand Passive Voice I analyzed sentences with such constructions. But now I know that such methods are used in teaching from time immemorial! In proper teaching, I would add.

But here the story begins. Once upon a time my mother brought a book of a certain Dragunkin (an inventor of New Russian method). The book had a long philosophical – psychological preface to make you believe that English is not beyond the reach, it is for us made of common clay.

But English became alive, became an open new world only at University. Here I got new my English self. I felt that every new lecture brought me one stair up to the realm of the language.

Don’t think that break through was easy for me. I recall my first year of studying, our group was watching an authentic film ”Amadeus”. For me it was inseparable flow of speech. Upon me dawned only one phrase “try it “(about cakes). So I decided to watch films in English only (with English subtitles of course). The results were on hand. Once I was enjoying a song on the radio, just relaxing, dreaming and words were making a nice picture in my curly head… But suddenly I realized that it is English lyrics. Unforgettable minute!

And one more important point, according to my profession it is not only important to know the subject but also the ways of teaching. Methodology contributed much & now I know how to make my students happy about English as I am.

What has English given you?

 Sure it will give. Without English it is impossible to build a successful career.

Hope my children will not have mentioned above butterflies in their stomachs as I had once.