Times and people About me. Swedish lifestile.

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Jamtland, Sweden
I left everything behind: my country, friends, my lovely son and my dog. I fell in love and got married to a Swedish man. Now I'm in the middle of Sweden and that is what I think and feel. Everything I trust to my blog.

Friday 26 February 2010

I have a feeling that I am both: Rita and Eliza, I'm changing from in and outside at the same time. That is what I'm going to write about, but later. I should contemplate about it for a while.
Marvelous sky.
You cannot enjoy it in the city.

LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY
an essay by Kenneth Hermansson

Language and Identity is the topic of this essay based on the reading of two literary plays, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita. The following should be regarded as a personal interpretation and not as the absolute truth in every respect.
Language and identity are two expressions that need to be explained. English is the official language in several countries, Chinese is the language spoken by Chinese people and Danish is how Danes speak. But languages could also be described as different ways of talking due to social background, education, profession, age and sex. A person’s language is connected to his social situation. Eliza, the cockney flower girl from the gutter does not speak the same language as professor Higgins, even if English is their common mother tongue. They speak differently because they belong to different social worlds. Identity can signify the very special characteristic of a person, something that makes him differ from others.
EDUCATION AND IDENTITY CHANGES
Eliza and Rita, the principal characters of the two plays are both objects of identity change in the course of the stories. Are these changes identical or can we find differences? The two young women originally come from intellectually poor circles. Eliza is a young flower girl who speaks a gutter language. She talks in the following way: "Aint no call to meddle with me, he aint." (1) Her manners are crude, and her cockney accent leaves her feeling as if she is a second-class citizen. She is treated that way. Still, she seems to be proud of herself, "I’m a good girl, I am." (2)
Rita is a twenty-six-year-old, brash, earthy hairdresser, married to a Liverpudlian beerdrinker who demands her to have children and to be a good wife. She feels unsatisfied with her marriage. At the hairdressing salon where she works, she gets tired of the daily listening to women who talk a lot without saying any important. "They never tell y’things that matter." (3)
The story of the two plays tells how the education of the women changes their lives. There are remarkable progresses in their studies and the result is an obvious change of their lives.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CHANGES
I would guess that many readers and spectators of the two plays regard them as about the same story. As a matter of fact, they are not. There is at least one important difference. The changes are not the same. One of them is external while the other is internal.
What happens to Eliza is more or less a change on the surface. In a few months Henry Higgins, a professor of linguistics, manages to lift her up from a low status on the street and transform her into a refined young lady. Among the upper class representatives of London she is able to behave like a duchess and by those who do not know her she is treated like a princess. Her mastering of English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation is admirable. But do these progresses of language skills mean a real change of personality? Certainly not! Eliza remains a cockney gutter girl even though her conversation becomes more sophisticated. A few months of language learning do not transform her character and identity profoundly.
Rita, on the other hand, keeps her old manners of talking like an uneducated woman. When Frank, her teacher, at the end of the story asks her if she will follow a friend to France, she answers: "I dunno. He’s a bit of a wranker really. But I’ve never been abroad. An’ me mother’s invited me to her’s for Christmas." (4)
Nevertheless, Rita has been changed. Not because of pure language training, but owing to her literary learning. Her deep determination to change her life brings her to a world ofd self respect and new ideas.
There is a link between language and identity. But language studies that are concentrated on pure linguistic training of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation bring only about external progresses. If they are completed with literature they are likely to attain a higher level. Language skills are important, but the are nothing but tools. To be used in a fertile way that produces interior changes of character and personality, the need to be completed with a knowledge of literature.
Eliza achieves good language proficiencies, but her identity remains that of a cockney gutter girl, while Rita develops her character and reaches personal independence. However, it would have been ideal if the two young women had been able to study together and learn more about both language and literature.

Footnotes
1. George Bernard Shaw, 1957: Pygmalion, page 24
2. Shaw, 1957, page 24
3. Willy Russell, 1997, Educating Rita, page 10
4. Russell, 1997, page 72

Thursday 25 February 2010

What is the difference between Lutheran and Catholic church? You may ask the question as it was put today by a former Lutheran priest. And I see no big difference. Just a little one: catholics have Mother Mary to worship as a protector, saviour of all the children, all the women and men. It is the light of Womanhood, Motherhood and Childhood. It is everything that connects with birth, the beginning of the things. Have you ever thought what gender is Universe? I think it is "SHE". Only SHE can give birth to variety of living objects.
When my Mom passed away I found Mother Mary who supported me and gave me warmth of her presence and gave my Mom shelter taking her to Heaven. I prayed for that. And now I pray for all the women in the world for their kindness and overwhelming love, for their tolerance and courage, for their patience and sufferings that didn't kill them, but made stronger. I pray for parents of my close friend Raymond who lives in Canada and whose Mom I love. She is so like my Mom, just so far away.

Monday 22 February 2010

Now I should learn how to live without money.The problem is if you are getting married in Sweden,you will go through some procedures to prove that you are loyal,not aggressive and certainly have the real feeling to your husband-to be.But that is not everything.Even if you are allowed to stay with your husband!!!! for 2 years it doesn't mean that you will have an unemployment insurance money or students' contribution.So,you should learn how to leave on the fresh water and fresh air.But you know I'm from K-Pax,so I switched on my spare energy.
I found this link about travelling and I ask myself if it is possible to travel without money.Some people proved it,but it is risky and out of common sense.Today I discovered that there are tickets that are cheaper if you go to some countries and places in several days.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

За окном звездопад принимает пустая аллея.
Не нарушит покой тишины от падения звук.
Только кто-то опять, чистоту белизны не жалея,
С хрустом в звёздную россыпь впечатает грязный каблук.
Владимир Труфакин
It is exciting to be kept busy the whole day,but so tiresome.I hope I'll have sometimes later pictures of today's workshop,where we made our birds with our own hands from a new material - wire (strings).Then I participated in literary club where we discussed a book by Hjalmar Sjoderberg "Serious games".The book is worth reading.The next will be Bulgakov's "Master and Margaret".But I'm going to read the masterpiece by a Norwegian writer,whose book is similar to Bulgakov's one.Interesting to find parallel world in other country :)

Monday 15 February 2010

Yuriy Kuimov

Береги свои силы и время не трать,
Чтоб побольше динаров в кубышку собрать,-
Что имеешь, друзьям раздари, а иначе
Все сожрет и растащит врагов твоих рать.
How nice to find a verse in Russian in Internet of the living poet,still young and talented.
У наставников мудрых прилежно учась,
Мы учеными стали, чтоб слушали нас…
Но финал этой повести – скорбная участь
Праха, ветром раздутого в смертный твой час.
Juriy Kuimov.
I'll try to make a translation in English.
Omar Hayjam would write those lines. And who's a translator? That is a question.

Sunday 14 February 2010

Today is the 14th of February,Valentine's Day, and I started my blog and my new life in Sweden.I have a family now,I'm married to a man,who makes me happy and treats me with respect,whom I love dearly.And this blog I opened in the name of our love and mutual understanding.It is my child,it is my love and my life.Today was a wonderful day and evening that I will never forget looking at the pictures we took of the sky and the place were we were happy.