Interview

Who are you?

My name is Helen Petrenko, I am 25 years old. I live in Kerch. I’ve been living here since I was born. I study in Tavrida Kerch University of Economics and Humanity. I learn here two languages English and German. I think that nowadays it is very important to know foreign languages.

How did you learn English?

I began to study English at kindergarten. Then I studied at school №19, where English was the most important subject. After that I wanted to improve my knowledge of English and entered this institute. Sometimes I felt shy to speak and made mistakes in pronunciation. Studying at the institute has given me much.

What has English given you?

English discovered me a wonderful world of new opportunities and interests. English is the international language of communication. It gave me the possibility to make friends and travel without problem. So, now I can communicate with native speakers and read newspapers, books in original.

HOW TO GAIN A WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR A PERFECT ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

Work-life balance is about the interaction between our paid work and other activities, including unpaid work in families and the community, leisure, and personal development. Work-life balance for any one person is having the 'right' combination of participation in paid work (defined by hours and working conditions), and other aspects of their lives. This combination will not remain fixed, but may change over time.

When you work every day, all day, with no time set aside for living life, you just get more stressed. You lose sight of reality. You get out of touch with creativity, which is just as important for producing quality work as it is for innovating in business. You take much longer to do things and you get so exhausted that you sit there looking at the screen for hours.

Work-life balance is a problem for many people. Not just teachers, either— anyone who works in a job that involves some kind of thinking is tempted to take work home with them. I suppose that maintaining a good balance is one of the benefits to noble work.

A perfect English language teacher plans a lesson. So, she can plan not only the working hours, but also she can make the vital plan and to follow it, she can move on well-developed plan. Generally you know you have a good work-life balance when you: have a sense of control in your work and life, have a strong sense of achievement from work and life, gain enjoyment from everyday life.

A perfect English language teacher may be able to involve her children and her husband in your interests.

Here one of the ways of achievement of work-life balance for a perfectionist.

                      Halloween story

A young boy and his friends are out trick-or-treating on Halloween night. They are nearing the end of their fun and they decide to visit the house of an old man who lives at the end of a nearby street. Everybody is afraid of the man, but no one passes by his house on Halloween night because he gives out the biggest candy bars. The group of boys approach his old, dark house on a hill and they all build up the courage to go up to the door and ring the bell, all except one boy who is just too afraid. The group of boys rings the bell and old man open the door. As he drops a candy bar in each bag, the boys turn and run down the long sidewalk back to the street. When they all gather back around they look in their bags to see what they received. Each got their favorite candy bar, and convince the one boy who remained that he should go up to the house to get his candy, but none of them will go up with him. The boy finally goes up to the house. When he reaches the front porch he rings the doorbell. At that very moment flames shoot out of the face of the pumpkin! The boy gets scared and, as he begins to turn to run, the front door opens. . Old man says in a very deliberate tone, "And for you, a special gift!" as he drops a heavy object into the boy's bag. He disappears into the house as quickly as he appeared. The boy runs as fast as he can back to the street, screaming the whole way. Upon hearing this his friends scatter, leaving him behind. When he gets far enough away from the house that he feels safe, he ducks behind a tree to see what he received. He pulls out a large, dusty, but ornate bottle. He begins to rub it to wipe away some of the dust. At this point a genie comes out of the bottle. When the genie appears he tells the boy that since he released the genie, he must solve a riddle:

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.

 It was very difficult for boy to cope with the fear which has captured him. But he has found forces to cope with a panic and has given the right answer: Darkness. Then genie has presented the whole bag of the tastiest sweets and has disappeared.