What is your favorite national dish? Could you tell me its recipe?

How is your favorite writer?

What are your favorite English idioms?

Culture and Globalization Sure, the dominance of any one culture is bad and dangerous for society. It will be disastrous for humanity. Today people from over the world discuss the globalization. Ardent opponents of this negative tendency, anti-globalist activists persist in saving of multiculturalism. If earlier only culture of small nations was in danger, now there is a risk to lose cultural roots in a range of big countries. The reason is the dominance of mass culture which is the powerful tool to control mass conscience. The consequences of globalization are noticed now. It’s rather difficult to meet a person dressed in a national costume, people seldom listen to a national music, but it is especially sad that young people don’t know their culture, history and furthermore they don’t know native language. A lot of native values were lost. There is no a national idea in our country. Ok, let’s try to look at this issue from the other hand. First of all globalization means integration (or intrusion of any one culture, but let’s continue). Integration has big benefits for humanity. It may help us to avoid the risk of ethnic conflicts and ultimately new wars. Moreover we won’t need translators if we have only one language. Everything is likely to be good. But in my opinion is a never-never. In addition people don’t want to be victims of globalization. Vanishing of differences leads to the wave of angst. I’m sure that we should not admit the dominance of any one culture. The differences are strength of humanity. For instance, Eastern Culture and Western Culture are absolutely dissimilar but they are equally valuable for the planet’s population. The variety of cultures as well as the variety of species is a necessary condition to save life on our planet and to continue mankind development.

Charisma Charisma is something that everybody wants to have and that is not available for every person, I suggest. It's something invisible that can’t be defined. It’s rather difficult to understand, to unravel the essence of charisma. Sure, we can say that it is ability to attract people, to influence on audience. However it seems to me, this definition is not complete, it needs some addition. I have no idea, how explain by words what charisma is. I can go on discussing charisma only by illustrating this phenomenon. First of all, charisma is usually associated with politicians. For instance, a lot of presidents of USA (Washington, Kennedy, and Obama) are charismatic. Secondly, it’s an inalienable feature of actors. For example, Russian actors Mironov, Yankovsky, Garkalin are very charismatic and fascinating… Their speech is lush and convincing and can attract one’s attention so strongly that it will be difficult to tear off glance. There is something mysterious in their manners and gestures. Also a lot of humorists, singers are success in their activity because of their charisma, their confident behavior. They can always save face. I don’t know how it works but I’m sure it’s not always your natural abilities, very often charisma is a result of the hard inner efforts. For instance, I red memoirs of the daughter of Russian politician Pieter Stolypin . According to her description, Stolypin always worried about public performance but his speech was unforgettable, his speeches made people cry and rejoice. So, I don’t know what charisma is, but it’s not only innate but it is also trained. There is likely everything that I’d like to say. I have no idea what can be added to my thoughts.

Art should be available for everyone Let me begin from quoting. Lenin’s words come to mind: Art belong to public. : ) So, it’s not the statement to doubt, I suggest. All kinds of art, including painting are designed to activate feelings and conscience of society. Priceless paintings made us think about eternal and eventual, real and unreal, about religion and belief, about everyday problems and something escaping from our attention, something that now remains only a part of our history. It as though painters send us a message through ages telling us about their epoch and reflecting their mentality. Having seen some masterpiece, one can revalue life, changing the view on some problems and even one’s live principles. Moreover, there is a particular feeling. It’s an aesthetic feeling. The man has a need to see something beautiful every day. I’m sure meditation under the beautiful lets a person develop other high feelings. Everyone should feel oneself a participator of history and art as nothing else realize this aim. Unfortunately there are some barriers between individual and priceless paintings. There are expensive tickets, a location of paintings in private unavailable collections, bad restoration, your location and maybe something else. Expensive tickets are a real problem, but, you know, there are discounts and free admission for children, students, and pensioners. I have no idea how people cope with the second problem. Perhaps they use the same means that applying to decide the problem of location. Salutation is rather wise. There are a lot of websites where you can commit a virtual visit to well-known museums of Art. It makes the Art more available. To conclude, I should say that there is one more barrier. It’s a lack of free time. But I soon believe that Art always will find audience no matter how.

Travelling is the best form of education, isn't it?

Modern communications technology. Is it good or not? It’s rather difficult issue, but as usual, the coin has 2 sides. On the one hand, today the speed of life is rising and people try to economize free time. That’s why they prefer telephonic conversation to a real talk. And if earlier there was only telephone, today there are numerous communication technologies due to creating the Internet. It’s easier to send message than to listen a lot of unessential information. Why not use this great way to economize your time and time of others? Why not use mobile or Skype when you are on the one city’s end and your friend is on the opposite end? Sure, the quantity of live dialogues is reducing by day to day , but we can’t affirm that is just a consequence of using mobiles, the Internet and so on. I suppose there are another factors. I don’t know what they are, I can mistake. Then, perhaps, the influence of progress in communication technology is wider and it conditions generating some features of our thinking. These features in turn lead us to reducing of live communications. In any case there are a lot of examples of this sad or to my mind normal, situation. People are likely to return to live talks when the Internet and mobile boom will end. The main reason why it will happen is a natural need not only to hear or to see your companion or partner on communication but also to touch him, to feel the distance between you. It’s an important component of mental health. Abandoned babies who was not taken on parent’s hands subsequently has a greater risk to suffer from mental disorder or some neurosis. So, the reducing of live conversation can be rather dangerous, in particular, some people can feel loneliness in spite of excess in short telephone talks. But sure everything is not so awful! The modern communications technology has a good side. We can chat with people who live in different countries. It’s so amazing! The internet let you to talk more often with your friends who are far from you. So, we can’t affirm that “modern communications technology is designed to keep us too busy to actually see anyone”. It depends on us.

Challenges I am absolutely sure that life is a challenge. There is nothing left to do but agree with this statement. Life is not a continues holiday, it consists of a numerous quantity of a very hard days and situations, when you face challenges and you have to do your best. Sometimes life challenges us, sometimes we have burning ambitions and set difficult unattainable goals. It doesn’t matter as does not matter what type of challenge is got. That what has a real meaning is your strength of will or strength of your spirit. People are different in this feature. So, some people can’t reach obviously achievable goals and complain of bad conditions from lack of money to ailment. Meanwhile a lot of people living in awful situations, having some defects, incurable illnesses, win on Paralympic games, write bestsellers, and draw without hands. When people achieve improbable high it means that they had been working tooth and nail. When others slept and complained, they worked to make their dreams come true. So, I don’t say that absolutely everything depends on us, but we are the main conductors of own life, consequently, everything in our hands. Thinking about this topic, I have remembered a work by Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl «Man’s Search For Meaning”. There he sad that “we need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who is questioned by life daily”. His idea is following: life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the daily and hourly tasks. So, the challenge is a difficult situation not only from point of view your recourses, but also from point of view a moral choice. And it’s important to see the best way of your actions to be honest before yourself, never give up and realize ambitions in spite of circumstances and contrary to circumstances. Sure, it’s possible if you have a great belief in your best future and your abilities. It’s important because the fail (I mean, first of all, the loss of spirit or something like this) lead to the next fail, and vice versa the achievement lead to another one. To conclude I’d like to say that it’s great that life is a challenge, because we have a chance to rise, to achieve, to realize our potential, the growth (the improving) is possible only when we face problems and when we save positive mood and a sense of humor. ; )