I had a repeated message yesterday from the bank about the suspicious activity around my accounts and that they are blocking my access until clarification. I did not use the 800-telephone number they recommended. Instead, I went to my local bank in person. When in the bank I waited for a bank employee (not a teller at the window) to finish his conversation with a customer and shared my story with him. He was a young, bilingual (English-Spanish) man. He called their security department and he said to me that there was an attempt from Los Angeles to access my account. Then he showed me one of my personal phrases that dated to 18 years ago and said that it was my ID. I replied, “No, it isn’t. That ID I used many years ago.” And I showed him my current ID. After about 20-25 minutes of him speaking to their department, we created new phrases, IDs and passwords. Of course, today we have a wonderful tool, a personal cell, through which an instantaneous digital code is sent to the owner of the phone. Unless the owner is kept hostage, the code remains the last unbreakable barrier which is very smart because of its short life. However, for the hostage situation, let your friends know about your whereabouts frequently, or leave a comment on a public profile that people around know about your latest activities or shared thoughts.
Dear friends, as a matter of fact, my password for the bank was the same for 16 years. And it was a very short phrase without any capital letters or special signs. After 16 years a hacker got to my ID and password and tried to access my banking. And, by the way, banking of a part-time educator is not a big catch so why they bothered - who knows.
I wish everybody stayed secure, and could clear out, desirably in person, all obscurities that come your way today. With AI developing fast there will be more and more fakeness for real human beings to figure out in all possible shapes - pictures, texts, videos, people.
I yesterday saw a short (video) where they showed an Asian country and a robot - a young girl with eastern face features and white complexion, dressed in 2024 fashion, - so the robot was walking out of the grocery store and big crowds of people were watching. The robot had a very unnatural appearance - the features were the fantasy of its creator - eastern features with not matching complexion. The movements were regular robot's movements. She was cautiously stepping out of the market and down from the curb to the road while surrounded by a lively crowd of people, who observed her.
I believe we will have more and more of all of these kinds of creations almost every new day.
And fraud is never asleep. Who brought up those people? Why they have this ugly occupation of stealing from others? Who taught them? What culture made them crooked? How they skipped all good and valuable what each culture has? Why they are not ashamed of themselves and continue engaging themselves in pathetic criminal wrongdoings?
Let's fight fraud by exposing hackers' ways and sharing stories of fakeness and fraudulent activities, and how to stand against them - so our friend, relative, or neighbor is always on alert what can happen.
There was an evaluation of me, an instructor at a community college. One of 17 students anonymously wrote that I spoke with accent, and I guess, based on that, my total grade was “satisfactory”. Well, the choice of grades is very poor. One has to choose Excellent, or Satisfactory, or Unsatisfactory. How about if an instructor performs very well? It is wrong to call a good performance just “satisfactory”. “Satisfactory” is also the grade that just slipped by one point, or a fracture of the point up from “Unsatisfactory”. Should I be angry? Should I complain? Should I keep silent? I have to admit that the class I teach now consists of people who are very fresh newcomers to the USA. When you ask them how long they have been in the country, you may hear “2 months” and “4 months”. I would say if they do not like my accent, they 1) have a wide choice of other classes 2) can ask me to repeat the explanation – the suggestion I make quite a few times during any given class. Specifically from this class I have heard not very many questions. So, I guess, they are shy to ask a question, but they (just one particular person) was not shy to complain on an official paper. People, people! Who brought you up? Did not they teach you ask for help before complaining? And this is what I do all my life – I help people. This is what my profession is about. Of course, there were other students’ remarks, one of which said that I was the best teacher he (or she) had ever had, and that they liked my website very much. The college processing chose 2 positive answers and one negative – out of 17. The Peer Observation Review was almost 100 percent for 5.0 grade. All other points were also higher than 4.0, many of them – quite higher. And yet, the total grade is “Satisfactory”. 27 years of experience in USA and 5 years before USA. “Satisfactory” because I speak another language, and of course I speak with accent. As a matter of fact, the class is 99 percent Spanish-speaking, and I know Spanish grammar and I can explain and compare English with Spanish grammar. And the point of my article? 2 wishes that will remain just wishes, and that is OK, because we “cannot jump higher than our own heads” (with the analogues for this saying in other languages). My 2 wishes: I wish the student who became a reason for my low grade asked me questions first. I wish the final grades were more developed than just PLUS, MINUS and one poor “Satisfactory” grade. An experienced instructor who loves her job deserves better than “Satisfactory”. It makes me feel like that: “Ok, so I have worked all my life devoting myself to my teaching profession, and I am performing just “satisfactorily”. That much for self-evaluation, self-identity, and self-satisfaction. However, of course, there is just simple general truth about working with people: “One cannot ever be good to everybody”. There will be someone who will not like you. In Russian culture we also have a proverb “A tiny spoon of machine oil will spoil a barrel of honey”. My translation of the proverb is not perfect but readers will understand the sense of that perfectly. Thank you, everybody, for reading me! Zoia Eliseyeva April 25 2024 California PS Maybe I should have mentioned that from my childhood I was schooled with the grades “5” for “excellent”, “4” for “good”, and “3” for “satisfactory” with the latter hardly keeping on the surface of the performance. And my regular grade was mostly 4, “good”: I had almost never reached for “excellent”, nor I had such aspirations. I do not think it is good or bad: it is just about how high aspirations each person has for achievements. I have the other story to share just to the point, however I will tell it some other time, just to keep myself strictly to the topic of this particular standard college incident. 😀
I wanted to say a joke, but came up with a little story.
Here it is. I wonder, how long a modern “mammoth”, who resists using downloadable aps through codes, can survive? They (codes, offers, ads) are coming from all directions, I’d say in a more aggressive way, almost every day. The mammoth may just not be able, for example, to see that button F11 to exit the Full screen feature – because s/he is 1) of a mammoth’s age and because 2) s/he is writing in the darkness of the night. All today’s youngsters will be that age one day, even if they do not realize it now. Time is non-turnable. It only moves in one direction: to future. I was in a European big city airport in 2021 and at the check-up counter they made me download the code-reader app in order to read their app. When I flew to the next European capital city, a few hours later, the other fellow-traveler-mammoth, who spoke only one European language, asked me help her around the airport because she had heard me talking the language actively at the check-up counter of the previous city. Yes, that’s true, in a European capital city, in its big airport, for some reason, nobody was willing to understand the second of the 6 languages of the world communication: the language spoken in Europe and widely in South America. I helped her all the way because I am always happy to help other human beings with what I can. This is how we were brought up back in my native culture, and this is what today, I think, is more important than ever. It seems that not knowing a popular foreign language will be the smallest challenge for a human being in the near future. Well, a mammoth with the knowledge of a few popular modern languages may choose to resist the pressure of imposed codes, apps, and other downloads. However, if it becomes as necessary as it was the transfer to a cell service a few years ago, then, I guess, the mammoth will adjust and survive during its remaining life.
Clase de inglés gratis para principiantes en Hesperia, California. La clase es de Victor Valley College. La primera clase comienza el 14 de marzo de 2023, martes, a las 4:30 p. m. Maestra de inglés Zoia Eliseyeva también habla español y ruso.
Spring 2023 Term ESL-010.4-31163 (88759) Reading & Writing Lvl 2 03/14/2023-06/08/2023 Tuesday, Thursday 04:30PM – 08:45PM Ubicación: segundo campus de VVC (Victor Valley College), detrás de Hesperia High School en Maple Ave, Room W-25 (Hesperia, California) Instructor: Zoia Eliseyeva
This link from SP2021 can be helpful to learn How to Register:
by Zoia Eliseyeva, an educator (languages) in CA/AZ, USA – on December 2, 2022
Source on which I based this article:
1
PASTE from https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/leaked-documents-reveal-russia-s-plan-to-invade-japan/ss-AA14MbL1?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d8eb817afc5845dce2d79950131a3c54 on Dec 2 2022 FRI at 4:21AM from CA, USA END of PASTE of the source
2
PASTE of the Title of the Article and its Author
Leaked documents reveal Russia’s plan to invade Japan Story by Zeleb.es • Yesterday 2:07 p.m.
END of PASTE of the Title and Author
(Zoia’s note: yesterday means December 1, 2022, because today, now, when I am writing this is December 2, 2022, 5AM in California, USA)
Really?
And this is written by whom?
By the people who cannot find enough washing detergents – to wash their guilty minds. Guilty in making huge money selling weapons to Ukraine, to continue the war in Ukraine against Russia at all costs! How can the West stop that war? It will be the end of the huge income that the senders of weapons have now coming to their pockets. Too good to be true! To fight so hated Russia (hated for many years and even centuries) and do it on the other land under the pretext that that land needs protection from Russia! It is the win-win situation for haters of Russia and for big pockets politicians who get their share from selling weaponry! I will repeat – it is a too good to be true the situation for the above-mentioned wonderful people of the world.
In the meanwhile, we, American taxpayers, those who work hard for small salaries, all kinds of professional people, from drivers for community to educators for community, – we suffer hugely high gasoline prices never seen before – 5 and 6 dollars for a gallon of gas? You got to be kidding me! With all Alaska USA has. By the way, historically Russian land – 1867 – agreement with Russia for 100 years – all forgotten, as forgotten all the lands taken from neighboring countries. However – those have the natural tendency of recovering because of the disorganized flow of the general poor population through the south borders of the USA, into the USA, which we all have been observing in the last two glorious years. Diseases? Criminality? Covid? How to place all those people? How to support them? Well, it will be on the shoulders of us, taxpayers. It will not be on the shoulders of those deep pockets and those who live in rich areas, rich communities of states. The growing taxes of the general taxpayer of the USA, and I am one of them, a low-income educator with 27 years of experience – aren’t we, who are struggling from paycheck to paycheck are paying now for the strange decisions made by big pockets? Aren’t we paying for gasoline? Aren’t we the richest country in the world with all its resources? Where are our resources? Why and how the conflict between a small Ukraine and (bigger) Russia, two countries in the European-Asian continent, can ever raise the prices of gasoline for the struggling working taxpayers of the USA?
And now, to take attention from the horrible crime – selling weapons to Ukraine, heating the conflict, continuing the conflict that is so beneficial for weapon sellers in the West and USA – the wonderful authors, like the one I am showing on the top of my article, are finding all kinds of reasons to support in the gullible non-understanding Russian language readers the image of that “ugly Russia with its ugly and horrible president, the Russia-“aggressor” ” by posting this obviously fake news. This is a really faky-faky – if a reader knows a little bit about the history of Japan, the history of Russia, and the conversations of Russia and Japan regarding their neighboring territories. Unbelievable! This fakeness reminded me right away Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinski. Bill Clinton started bombing Yugoslavia to take attention from his miserable home/family/working place scandal.
Ah, people! Please open your eyes, read history, translate sources from other languages, including from Russian language, do not blindly believe the fake news that is so obvious like the one that made me to write this article.
My father and my grandfather were fighting four years in Great Patriotic war. My grandfather Pavel never returned from the war of 1941-1945. They were fighting fascists and Hitler. Today Putin fights neo-fascists who have been raising heads in Ukraine since the coup-d’état in Ukraine in 2014.
No to fascism, No to neo-fascism, No to hatred, No to weapon sellers, No to big pockets, No to big gasoline prices, No to disorders on southern borders, No to fake news.
Yes to hard-working people, USA taxpayers, Yes to education, Yes to honesty, Yes to willingness to see with open eyes what is going on with heating by the west the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Yes to good things in our life, No to bad things.
Zoia Eliseyeva on December 2, 2022, from California, USA PS Who am I? Educator for 32 years (5 years in Europe and 27 years in USA) – I teach languages. Self-published and published author of over 24 educational (multilingual) and memoirs type books (memoirs are in Russian language, the title is “The Girl from California” – 4 volumes from 1995 to present, 2022.) My site zoiaeliseyeva2.com My UTube zoiacalifornia My old site – zoiaeliseyeva.com (not managed by me).
I will publish one of my articles from my Russian books translated into English here soon. I just have a lot of teaching work this semester and I have little time left for my personal (writing) projects. The book in English is still in the making, already for a few years. My first English language book was published about 12 years ago in USA. It was about my self-publishing experiences. It is still there, on Amazon books’ nets. My last name was Burkhart (Zoia Burkhart) from 1995 to 2006. My last name was Sproesser from 2007 to 2014. A reader can see those last names on internet search. A few of my 24 books were never republished from the last name Sproesser. I tried to republish the most important ones, like the one based on Dostoyevskiy (Crime and Punishment – I have it in Rus-Eng dual-language version, the 2 chapters of the plotting of the crime and the commitment of the crime), or like my book based on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (I have it also in a dual language version, also two chapters – the beginning of love between Anna and Vronskiy, and demonstrating the Russian high society of 19th century, in the times of tsarist Russia). I also have Chekhov and Tolstoy – complete novels or stories – in trilingual versions – Rus-Eng-Spa. Et cetera, et cetera – don’t get me started about my book and language projects! 😀
Prologue:
If I have any negative consequences after publishing this article – as the response of those who will be touched – I will publish here all of those. Freedom of Speech – mamma mia! Thanks God I know (of) a few languages and can see what speakers of other languages of the world think.
Number of Doses and Boosters—For Most People (General Population)
How do the new bivalent boosters compare to the current monovalent booster doses?
This updated version of COVID-19 boosters offers stronger protections against severe illness and death from Omicron sub-variants. Everyone 5 years of age and older are recommended to receive the bivalent booster recommendation. This means that if you are 5 and older, you should receive one dose of an age-appropriate new bivalent booster dose at least 2 months after completing your primary series or after your last monovalent booster dose. Children 5 years of age are only eligible to receive the Pfizer bivalent booster. People 6 years of age and older can receive either the Moderna or Pfizer bivalent booster.
Should I receive the new bivalent even if I already received booster doses?
Yes, the CDC recommends that everyone age 5 and up should get an updated COVID-19 booster this fall to stay up-to-date on vaccinations. The same is true for people who completed their primary series or received one or two boosters: they should get an updated booster dose at least two months after their last shot. Eligible individuals can get either the Pfizer or Moderna updated booster, regardless of whether their primary series or most recent dose was with Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
From Page 7 of the same document (more general information on Covid and vaccinations’ safety)
Paste:
Are COVID-19 vaccines safe even though they were developed rapidly?
The vaccines were able to be developed rapidly because of the following: • Vaccines have already been created for coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), so a lot of the work was already done. • All vaccines have gone through the same steps to show safety and effectiveness. • Many steps occurred at the same time (e.g., vaccines were being made while testing was taking place). No steps were skipped. • Collaboration between medical experts and researchers, along with plentiful funding helped to bring vaccines to the public sooner. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines since they were authorized for emergency use by FDA. These vaccines have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. For more information and to view a video about vaccine safety, please visit
I looked through the news articles today, and I am posting here the translation of a short article into English, and its original link and Russian text. This is done to have a general update today on the topic.
June 16, 2022
Rogozin Called Twitter a Mouthpiece of Anti-Russian Propaganda
Twitter has become a platform for extremists and a mouthpiece for anti-Russian propaganda, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Telegram after his account was blocked on the first social network.
According to the head of the state corporation, Twitter administrators demanded that he remove the post about Ukraine.
“In general, what has grown up in the place of Ukraine is an existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, Russian language and Russian civilization. If we do not put an end to this threat, as, unfortunately, our grandfathers did not put an end to these elements (in the Great Patriotic war against Hitler’s Germany: clarifying notes of translator), we will have to die, but end up at an even greater cost for our grandchildren. So let’s get this over with. Once and forever. For the sake of our grandchildren,”Rogozin cited the text of his message on Telegram.
SOURCE with the link:
(Russian text is pasted here for convenience of readers who read Russian. Please go to the link to check it out, as well as other news of the day.)
Военная операция на Украине , 16 июн, 12:14
Рогозин назвал Twitter рупором антироссийской пропаганды
Twitter превратился в трибуну экстремистов и рупор антироссийской пропаганды, написал в Telegram генеральный директор «Роскосмоса» Дмитрий Рогозин, после того как в первой соцсети был заблокирован его аккаунт.
По словам главы госкорпорации, администраторы Twitter потребовали от него удалить пост об Украине.
«Вообще то, что выросло на месте Украины, представляет собой экзистенциальную угрозу русскому народу, русской истории, русскому языку и русской цивилизации. Если не покончим с ними, как, к сожалению, не покончили с ними наши деды, придется погибать, но заканчивать еще большей ценой нашим внукам. Поэтому давайте лучше мы с этим покончим. Раз и навсегда. Ради наших внуков», — привел Рогозин текст своего сообщения в Telegram.
Подробнее на РБК: https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/62aadd279a79471042cd490d
On February 24 (actually, it is February 23, 2022, about 11PM, if to see the TASS link-ZE), Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a new address. TASS publishes the full text of the head of state's speech, which is also posted on the Kremlin's website.
Today, I again consider it necessary to return to the tragic events taking place in the Donbass and the key issues of ensuring the security of Russia itself. Let me start with what I said in my address of February 21 this year (2022). We are talking about what causes us particular concern and anxiety, about those fundamental threats that year after year, step by step, are rudely and unceremoniously created by irresponsible politicians in the West in relation to our country. I mean the expansion of the NATO bloc to the east, bringing its military infrastructure closer to Russian borders.
It is well known that for 30 years we have persistently and patiently tried to reach an agreement with the leading NATO countries on the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we were constantly faced with either cynical deceit and lies, or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic Alliance, in the meantime, despite all our protests and concerns, has been steadily expanding. The military machine is moving and, I repeat, is coming close to our borders.
Why is all this happening? Where does this impudent manner of speaking from the position of one's own exclusivity, infallibility and permissiveness come from? Where does the disdainful, arrogant attitude towards our interests and absolutely legitimate demands come from?
The answer is clear: everything is clear and obvious. The Soviet Union in the late 80s of the last century (1987- 1989) weakened, and then completely collapsed (1990). The whole course of events that took place then is a good lesson for us today as well; it convincingly showed us that the paralysis of power and will was the first step towards complete degradation and oblivion. As soon as we (Russia, Russians) lost our self-confidence for some time, and that was it - the balance of power in the world turned out to be disturbed.
This has led to the fact that the previous treaties and agreements were no longer in effect. Persuasion and requests did not help. Everything that did not suit the hegemon, those in power, have been declared archaic, obsolete, unnecessary. And vice versa: everything that seemed beneficial to them has been presented as the ultimate truth, pushed through at any cost, boorishly, by all means. Those who did disagree - were to be just broken across the knee (destroyed, attacked, bullied - ZE).
What I am talking about now concerns not only Russia, and makes not only us to be concerned. This applies to the entire system of international relations, and sometimes even to the US allies themselves. After the collapse of the USSR, the redivision of the world actually began, and the norms of international law that had developed by that time - and the key, basic ones were adopted at the end of the Second World War and largely consolidated its results - began to interfere with those who declared themselves the winner(s) in the Cold War .
Of course, in practical life, in international relations, in the rules for their regulation, it was necessary to take into account changes in the world situation and the balance of world power players at the moment. However, this should have been done professionally, smoothly, patiently, taking into account and respecting the interests of all countries and with an understanding of one's responsibility. But no! The state of euphoria from absolute superiority, a kind of modern form of absolutism - took place - and, on the top, (it was happening) on the background of a low level of general culture and arrogance of those who were preparing, adopting and pushing through decisions that were beneficial only to themselves. The situation began to develop according to the changed scenario.
We don't have to look far away in search of examples. First, without any sanction from the UN Security Council, they carried out a bloody military operation against Belgrade, using aircraft and missiles right in the very center of Europe. Several weeks of continuous bombing of peaceful cities, of life-supporting infrastructure. We have to remind these facts, otherwise some Western colleagues do not like to remember those events, and when we talk about it, they prefer to point not to the norms of international law, but to the circumstances that they interpret as they see fit.
Then came the turn of Iraq, Libya, Syria. The illegitimate use of military force against Libya, the perversion of all decisions of the UN Security Council on the Libyan issue led to the complete destruction of the state, to the emergence of a huge hotbed of international terrorism, to the fact that the country plunged into a humanitarian catastrophe that has not stopped for many years, the civil war. The tragedy, which doomed hundreds of thousands, millions of people - not only in Libya - but throughout this region, gave rise to a massive migration exodus from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
A similar fate was prepared for Syria. The fighting of the Western coalition on the territory of this country without the consent of the Syrian government and the sanction of the UN Security Council is nothing but aggression, intervention.
However, a special place in this series occupies, of course, the invasion of Iraq, which was also without any legal grounds. As a pretext, they chose "reliable information" allegedly available to the United States about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As proof of this, publicly, in front of the eyes of the whole world, the US Secretary of State shook some kind of test tube with white powder, assuring everyone that this is the chemical weapon being developed in Iraq. And then it turned out that all this was a hoax, a bluff: there were no chemical weapons in Iraq.
Unbelievable, surprising, but the fact remains as it is. There were lies at the highest state level and (also) from the high rostrum of the UN. And as a result - huge casualties, destruction, an incredible surge of terrorism.
In general, one gets the impression that practically everywhere, in many regions of the world, where the West comes to establish its own order, as the result, are coming out bloody, unhealed wounds, ulcers of international terrorism and extremism. All that I have said is the most egregious, but by no means the only examples of disregard for international law.
In this series, were also promises to our country not to expand NATO even by an inch to the East. I repeat - they deceived me, but in popular terms, they simply blew smoke into our eyes. Yes, you can often hear that politics is a dirty business. Perhaps, but not to such extent, not to this degree. After all, such cheating behavior contradicts not only the principles of international relations, but, above all, the generally recognized norms of morality. Where is justice and truth here? They are just a bunch of lies and hypocrisy.
By the way, American politicians, political scientists and journalists, themselves, write and talk about the fact that a real “empire of lies” has been created inside the United States in the recent years. It's hard to disagree with that - it's true. But it is not necessary to be modest: the United States is still a great country, a system-forming power. All its satellites not only resignedly and dutifully assent, sing along with it for any reason, but also copy its behavior, enthusiastically accept the rules it proposes. Therefore, with good reason, we can confidently say that the entire so-called Western bloc, formed by the United States by its own image and likeness, all of it - actually is the very “empire of lies”.
As for our country, after the collapse of the USSR, with all the unprecedented openness of the new modern Russia, the readiness to work honestly with the United States and other Western partners, and in the conditions of virtually unilateral disarmament, they immediately tried to put the squeeze on us, finish off and destroy us completely. This is exactly what happened in the 90s, in the early 2000s, when the so-called 'collective West' most actively supported separatism and mercenary gangs in southern Russia. What sacrifices, what losses did all this cost us then, what hard experiences did we have to go through before we finally broke the back of international terrorism in the Caucasus. We remember this and will never forget.
Yes, in fact, until recently, attempts to use us in their own interests have not stopped, the attempts to destroy our traditional values and impose on us their pseudo-values that would corrode us, our people, from the inside; the attempts to impose on us those attitudes that they have been already aggressively planting in their countries and which directly (always) lead to degradation and degeneration, because they contradict the very nature of man (a person, an individual - ZE). It won't happen; no one has ever done it. It won't work now either.
Despite everything, in December 2021, we nevertheless once again made an attempt to have an agreement with the United States and its allies on the principles of ensuring security in Europe and on the non-expansion of NATO. Everything has been in vain. The position of the USA does not change. They do not consider it necessary to negotiate with Russia on this key issue for us; pursuing their own goals. They neglect our interests.
And of course, in this situation, we have a question: what to do next, what to expect? We know well from history how in the 1940s and early 1941s the Soviet Union tried in every possible way to prevent or at least delay the outbreak of war. To this end, among other things, it tried literally to the last not to provoke a potential aggressor; it (the USSR) did not carry out or, actually, postponed the most necessary, obvious actions to get prepared for repelling an inevitable attack. And those steps that were nevertheless taken in the end were catastrophically belated.
As the result, the country was not ready to fully meet the invasion of Nazi Germany, which attacked our Motherland on June 22, 1941, without declaring war. The enemy was stopped and then crushed, but at a colossal cost. An attempt to appease the aggressor right before the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly. In the very first months of military actions, we lost huge, strategically important territories and millions of people. The second time we will not let such a mistake to take place; we have no right to let it happen.
Those who claim world domination, publicly, with impunity and, I emphasize, without any reason, declare us, Russia, their enemy. Indeed, today they have great financial, scientific, technological and military capabilities. We are aware of this and objectively assess the threats constantly being addressed to us in the economic sphere, as well as we also assess our own ability to resist this impudent and permanent blackmail. I repeat, we evaluate them without illusions, extremely realistically.
As for the military sphere, modern Russia, even after the collapse of the USSR and the loss of a significant part of its potential, is today one of the most powerful nuclear powers in the world and, moreover, has certain advantages in a number of the latest types of weapons. In this regard, no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to defeat and dire consequences for any potential aggressor.
At the same time, technologies, including defense technologies, are changing rapidly. Leadership in this area is constantly changing hands, but the military development of the territories adjacent to our borders, if we allow it to happen, will remain for decades to come, and maybe forever, and it will create a constantly growing, absolutely unacceptable threat for Russia.
Even now, as NATO expands to the East, the situation for our country is getting worse and more dangerous every year. Moreover, in recent days, the leadership of NATO has been openly talking about the need to accelerate, speed up the advancement of the Alliance's infrastructure to the borders of Russia. In other words, they are hardening their position. We can no longer just continue to observe what is happening. It would be absolutely irresponsible on our part.
Further expansion of the infrastructure of the North Atlantic Alliance, the military development of the territories of Ukraine, that has begun, is unacceptable for us. The point, of course, is not the NATO organization itself - it is only an instrument of US foreign policy. The problem is that in the territories adjacent to us, I note, in our own historical territories, an “anti-Russia” hostile to us is being created, which has been placed under complete external control; and it is intensively being settled by the armed forces of NATO countries and it is being pumped up with the most modern weapons.
For the United States and its allies, this so-called 'policy of containment of Russia' (has in it) obvious geopolitical dividends. And for our country, this is ultimately a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a nation (people). And this is not an exaggeration - it is true. This is a real threat not just to our interests, but to the very existence of our state, its sovereignty. This is the very red line that has been talked about many times. They have crossed it.
In this regard, now I will talk about the situation in the Donbass. We see that the forces that carried out a coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014, seized power and who have been holding it with the help of, in fact, decorative electoral procedures, have finally abandoned the peaceful settlement of the conflict. For eight years, endlessly long eight years, we have done everything possible to resolve the situation by peaceful, political means. All (attempts made - have been - ZE) has been in vain.
As I had already said in my previous address, one cannot look at what has been happening there without compassion. It has become simply impossible to endure all this longer. It has become necessary to immediately stop this nightmare - the genocide against the millions of people living there, who rely only on Russia, hope only on us. These were the aspirations, feelings, pain of people that had become for us the main motive for making a decision to recognize the people's republics of Donbass.
What I think is also important to emphasize now - it is the following: the leading NATO countries, in order to achieve their own goals, support extreme nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine in everything, who, in turn, will never forgive the Crimeans and Sevastopol residents for their free choice - reunification with Russia.
They, of course, will try to get also into the Crimea, and in the same way as (they are doing it) in the Donbass, with a war, in order to kill, as punishers (executioners, Russian word "karateli" - ZE) from the gangs of Ukrainian nationalists, Hitler's accomplices, were killing defenseless people during the Great Patriotic War. They now openly declare that they consider to claim a number of other Russian territories.
The entire course of events and analysis of incoming information shows that Russia's clash with these forces is inevitable. It is only a matter of time: they are getting ready, they are waiting for the right time. Now they also claim to possess nuclear weapons. We will not allow this to happen.
As I said earlier, after the collapse of the USSR, Russia accepted new geopolitical realities. We respect and will continue to treat all the newly formed countries in the post-Soviet space with respect. We respect and will continue to respect their sovereignty, and an example of this is the assistance we have provided to Kazakhstan, which faced tragic events, with a challenge to its statehood and integrity. But Russia cannot feel safe, develop, exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern Ukraine.
Let me remind you that in 2000-2005 we gave a military rebuff to terrorists in the Caucasus, defended the integrity of our state, saved Russia. In 2014, we supported the Crimeans and Sevastopol residents. In 2015, our Armed Forces used to put up a reliable barrier to the penetration of terrorists from Syria into Russia. We had no other way to protect ourselves.
The same thing is happening now. You and I (in Russian language it is "to us and to you (plural)") simply have not been left with any other opportunity (choice) to protect Russia, our people, except for the one that we will be forced to use today. Circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action. The people's republics of Donbass turned to Russia with a request for help.
(2) Note of translator
In this regard, in accordance with Article 51 of Part 7 of the UN Charter, with the sanction of the Federation Council of Russia and in pursuance of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance ratified by the Federal Assembly on February 22 this year with the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, I decided to conduct a special military operation .
Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous, bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.
With all said above, our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force. At the same time, we hear that recently in the West there has been more often said over and over - that the documents signed by the Soviet totalitarian regime, which consolidate the results of the Second World War, should no longer be carried out. Well, what is the answer to this?
The results of the Second World War, as well as the sacrifices made by our people on the altar of victory over Nazism, are sacred. But this does not contradict the high values of human rights and freedoms, based on the realities that have developed today over all the post-war decades. It also does not cancel the right of nations to self-determination, stated in Article 1 of the UN Charter.
Let me remind you that neither during the creation of the USSR, nor after the Second World War, people living in certain territories that are part of modern Ukraine - no one ever asked how they themselves want to arrange their lives. At the heart of our policy is freedom, the freedom of choice for everyone to independently determine their own future and the future of their children. And we consider it important that this right - the right to choose - could be used by all the peoples living on the territory of today's Ukraine, by everyone who wants it.
In this regard, I appeal to the citizens of Ukraine. In 2014, Russia was obliged to protect the inhabitants of Crimea and Sevastopol from those whom you yourself call “Nazis”. Crimeans and Sevastopol residents made their choice to be with their historical homeland, with Russia, and we supported this. I repeat, we simply could not do otherwise.
Today's events are not connected with the desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They are connected with the protection of Russia itself from those who have taken Ukraine hostage and now are trying to use it against our country and its people.
I repeat, our actions are self-defense against the threats posed to us and from an even greater disaster than what is happening today. No matter how difficult it may be, I ask you to understand this and call for cooperation in order to turn this tragic page over as soon as possible and move forward together; not allowing anyone to interfere in our affairs, in our relations, but, on the contrary - to build them on our own - in order to create the necessary conditions for overcoming all problems and, despite the presence of state borders, to let this cooperation strengthen us from the inside as a whole. I believe in this - in this is our future.
I must also appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine.
Dear comrades!
Your fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers did not fight the Nazis, defended our common Motherland, so that today's neo-Nazis seized power in Ukraine. You took an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people, and not to the anti-people junta that plunders Ukraine and abuses these same people.
Do not follow their criminal orders. I urge you to lay down your weapons immediately and go home. Let me clarify: all servicemen of the Ukrainian army who fulfill this requirement will be able to freely leave the combat zone and return to their families.
Once again I insistently emphasize: all responsibility for possible bloodshed will be wholly and completely on the conscience of the regime ruling on the territory of Ukraine.
Now a few important, very important words for those who may be tempted to intervene in ongoing events. Whoever will try to interfere with us, let alone will try to create threats to our country, to our people, should know - Russia's response will be immediate and will lead to consequences that you have never experienced in your history. We are ready for any development of events. All necessary decisions in this regard have been made. I hope that I will be heard.
Dear citizens of Russia!
Well-being, the very existence of entire states and peoples, their success and viability always originate in the powerful root system of their culture and values, experience and traditions of their ancestors and, of course, directly depend on the ability to quickly adapt to a constantly changing life, on the cohesion of society, its readiness to consolidate and to gather together all the forces in order to move forward.
Forces are needed always, but strength can be of different quality. At the heart of the policy of the “empire of lies”, which I spoke about at the beginning of my speech, there is primarily brute, straightforward force. In such cases, we say: “Where there is power, mind is not needed.”
However, you and I know that the real strength is in justice and truth, which is on our side. And if this is so, then it is difficult to disagree with the fact that it is strength and readiness to fight that underlie independence and sovereignty, and they (all four together - ZE) make the necessary foundation on which one can reliably build one's future, build one's home, one's family, one's homeland.
Dear compatriots!
I am confident that the soldiers and officers of the Russian Armed Forces devoted to their country will professionally and courageously fulfill their duty. I have no doubt that all levels of government, specialists responsible for the stability of our economy, financial system, social sphere, heads of our companies and all Russian business will act in the coordinated and efficient manner. I count on the consolidated, patriotic position of all parliamentary parties and public/social forces of Russia.
Ultimately, as it has always been in history, the fate of Russia is in the reliable hands of our multinational people. And this means that the decisions made will be implemented, the established goals will be achieved, the security of our Motherland will be reliably guaranteed.
I believe in your support, in that invincible strength that our love for the Fatherland gives us.
++++++ End of Speech ++++++
Notes of Translator
1
The translation is done with the help of Google, however, it is edited, where the Russian to English is not correct. For example, in the colloquial expression “разбить о колено, через колено – to break in 2 halves over the knee” Google gave the wrong preposition which completely clouded the meaning. The meaning is: “…to raise your left knee (or right) and to break something breakable, like a stick, which you hold in your right hand (or left), with a fast hit over the knee.” I already mentioned in my articles before that Google translation (of 2021-2022 at least: we are not talking here about 20 years ago) mostly does a good job until it is about idiomatic expressions, proverbs, synonyms, etc. In these Google’s translating computer (app) would be making inevitable mistakes. Here we need editing by the fluent and educated native speaker-translator. Why educated? Because an uneducated one would not be able to explain, even if he or she has the knowledge and the best intentions.
2
Recent talks of Putin with Azerbajan president prove very good and stable, mutually respectful relationship between Russia and Azerbajan, The Azerbajan President expressed gratitude to Russia for helping pacifying the military conflict between Azerbadjan and Armenia in Nagorniy Karabakh area.
3 In Russian language we have and use both words – “fatherland” and “motherland” (отечество, родина). For “motherland” we use the word “Rodina” (Родина), which has many derivatives: imperfective infinitive-verb “to give birth” (родить), adjectives, adverbial words and phrases. Especially important of these derivatives is an adjective “rodnoy” (родной). I am showing here only masculine form, however Russian adjective has 4 forms: feminine, masculine, neuter, and plural. Russian adjective agrees by Case with the noun it describes.
For example, "rodnaya storona" (родная сторона) means "village, country, place, where a person was born". Because "storona" (сторона) is of feminine gender, the adjective here takes also feminine gender. If I change the case of noun, the adjective will change the ending too, because the noun will change the ending in a certain secondary Case. For example, "On ne bil v rodnoy storone dvadtsat' let" (He has not visited his motherland, the place of birth, for twenty years - Он не был в родной стороне двадцать лет.) The case here is dictated by the preposition "в" which is the Prepositional Case preposition, so the phrase "v rodnoy storone" is in Prepositional Cse.
The adjective "rodnoy" (родной) is also applied when the siblings are of the same biological parents. For example, "rodnaya sestra"(родная сестра) means "the sister of the same mother and father". So, you see, this adjective reflects also blood relations. Or, we will specify that "rodnaya tolko po otsu"(родная только по отцу), if that is the case - only father is the same of the two siblings and this particular sister, but mothers were different. Also, this adjective is very emotional, when we speak about romantic love, and if we apply it, that means, we speak of high emotions when a person feels that the one whom he/she loves is like the same blood, so close to his/her heart. Blood is a physical part of a human body, while soul, emotions are spiritual parts. This adjective brings the two close together.
Russia has a rich and deep culture going with its roots in the past. Russians has the richest folklore. We remember proverbs dated to early middle centuries. We not only remember them - we use them in everyday speech. We support ourselves with the knowledge about the past because for us things are interconnected. We are proud of victories achieved as early as in the early middle centuries, let alone the ones that are in the memory of the general population - for the last couple of centuries.
The strength of a person is in his memory of his/her history. The strength of a person comes from the rich cultural roots and traditions. One has to know his/her roots. There are people, who have been unfortunate and lost both parents in early age. It is more difficult for these people to find strong grounds for creating their own confident Self. Nevertheless, it is possible - through other, common values of humanity or the immediate community in society. It is unfortunate when in the surrounding society or community of people the cultural, historical, traditional values are not taught, not followed, or they are lost in people's minds.
I wish more people of the world who do not know much about Russian culture, or Russian people, learned about our rich, authentic, deep culture and humane values. It is good, useful, interesting, curious, empowering, and enriching knowledge. At any age it is not late to study something good. It will make a life of a person more exciting and meaningful for that person and for other people around.
PS
Dear Reader! I have done all the editing and my Notes by myself. I do not use spell-checking. I did not have time to ask my friends to run through this text. Therefore, if there are any mechanical misprints, I apologize - one pair of eyes can miss them a few times. However, whenever I notice any, I will be correcting them right away on the spot. Trust me, I have been a language instructor for 30 years: I dislike mistakes, spelling or spoken, with all my soul! :D
I am grateful to all visitors of my sites, platforms, and online communities!
I wish to everybody happiness and prosperity!
Zoia Eliseyeva
March 25, 2022
AZ, USA
My mother's only and younger brother, Nicolas (in Russian it is Nikolay, Kolya, for me, a little girl then, he was "dyadya Kolya"- uncle Kolya) came to live to RIga to my mother. So, I will call him here as I knew him - dyadya Kolya, d.Kolya, my uncle Kolya. It was after my father died, and my mom was a young widow with three children. I do not remember this time when uncle Kolya was living with us, because I probably was 2 years old, or somewhere in that range. My father died when I was 9 months old. I do remember some episodes when I was 6 years old, so d. Kolya should have been earlier, before I was 6.
Mother told me this story many times, so I know it as I know it. My mom loved to tell stories, especially like the basic ones which were woven into the fabric of our family history. So this one is one of such stories.
Once in a while my mother went to visit a family of Ukrainians in Riga. She knew that family from the time when my father Vladimir was alive. Somebody from that family, a man probably about my father's age, was my father's old friend, whom he probably met at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945 against Nazist Germany). So, after my father died, my mother was visiting some family friends. These Ukrainians were one of such friendly families.
My uncle Kolya was doing military service, three years on the sea in the Far East (Vladivostok is one of the big ports there, for example. It is near Japan - that side of Russia - Pacific ocean). After he finished his service, he went to my mom to Riga, to his only older sister, who was a widow with three children and he knew she lived in a spacy apartment. My mother and her brother had always warm relationship, I know. He was a younger brother, so mom took care of him. And he was a very simple, nice, hard working Russian man. He loved his sister. They helped each other, shared, discussed things about their family in the past, when they were growing up in central Russia.
So, he lived in my mom's apartment in Riga for a while, a young man, after army, as we say it in Russian (posle armii), he should have been about twenty-one. The mandatory military service during Soviet Union was always at 18 for young men. 2 years regularly, and 3 years for those who were in sea (marine) service.
Once my mom took d.Kolya with her to visit that Ukrainian family. It so happened that exactly at that time, a young girl from a small city, a big village in Ukraine, Kharkov area, was visiting that family. The name of the girl was Galina. Galina is a very popular woman's name in Ukraine, and it is used by Russians quite often too. So, this is how d.Kolya met Galina. The two obviously fell in love and decided to get married.
By and by, my mom is suddenly called to a local KGB in Riga's downtown. You know, there is a little official postcard in the mail - "Come to such and such place at such and such day and hour." What happened? My mom probably wondered, why the KGB needed her - a young widow with three small children. If I was 2, my sister was 8, and my brother was 13. So, my mom went to that appointment.
In the office they asked my mom: "Well, we have here some information about you. It says that you live like a queen, by yourself, in a big apartment, all surrounded by crystal vases and beautiful rugs."
My mom replied: "Well, I am a widow with three small children. I work 40-hour week, like all Soviet people. I also take my son to school in the morning, before my work (they walked - ZE). My older daughter is in a weekly boarding school. I take her home for a weekend. My younger daughter is in kindergarten. I take her there every morning before I take my son to school - before my work. The government pays me a tiny stipend for the lost husband for my three children, which, added to my salary, helps to have ends met for the four of us - my children and me. The apartment I live in is from my husband's time: we used to have a smaller apartment, then we made an exchange with our upstairs neighbors on a mutual agreement: they had a smaller family. If you think my life looks like a queen's life - well, it's obviously the life of everyday struggle of a working widow with three children with little income."
The decision of KGB was: "For uncle Kolya and Galina, his bride - to leave the city of Riga in 72 hours." Galina, the young girl, wrote that anonymous letter to KGB, wanting to have a piece of my mom's apartment.
Shall I now say that it was typical of a Ukrainian person to do something like that out of jealousy?
I will not. In every culture there are good people and bad people, but as a historical fact - there were many Ukrainians who served in Hitler's police on occupied Ukrainian territories. There were some Russian traitors, but not as many as Ukrainians. We need to understand the history here. The western Ukrainian territories were going back and forth between tsarist Russia, and Poland, and Lithuania. So, some Western Ukrainians hated Russians, and all what was Soviet. They were extremists which during Soviet Union did not express their hatred much.
I remember having an ESL student in my classroom in California. He was an elderly medical doctor, a religious man from Western Ukraine. It was about 5 years ago, around 2017. This is the first time I met a person from Western Ukraine who hated all Soviet (things, time, life). He told me his family story about some hardships they had in the past. Naturally, with such circumstances, and attitude, and hatred, his father and uncles would not think twice to change their loyalty from Soviet to German Nazis in the difficult times of the war of the Soviet Union, when Hitler unannounced attacked Russia - he started bombing Kiev at 4AM on the June 22nd of 1941.
Russian people of my generation, Soviet-born, whose parents fought Hitler in the fronts, have this date written with blood in our hearts and our minds. We have it in our memories forever, in a poetic form from the song lyrics which was written right away:
“On the 22nd of June Exactly at 4 o’clock in the morning Kiev was bombed and we were announced That the War just started.” Двадцать второго июня Ровно в четыре часа Киев бомбили, нам объявили, Что началася война.
And today, all the hating extremists who were more or less quiet under Soviet Union, raised their ugly heads, and in many places of Ukraine they raised actually fascist flags with svastika.
And who can tell me now that Putin should not fight the Nazis Ukrainian haters who has been objecting the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk regions for 8 years?
Nobody can tell me that! Millions of Russian people feel and think like I. The millions, who have had the same or similar family history. My father fought fascists for all the 4 years of Patriotic War in the fronts. My grandfather never came back from that War.
All nations have the right to be independent.
Lugansk and Donetsk have right to be independent if they choose not to be under the corrupted Kiev’s government. The Ukrainian government has a long history of corruption, problems with economy in the country tied to that corruption. It is a well known fact. I did not know much what happened in 2014 in Ukraine with a coup d’état. Now I understand clearly: that coup d’état was by extremists. Now, after 8 years of staying out of open protection actions of Lugansk and Donetsk, Russia recognized their independence. The very well-respected Russian American scientist of DNA Genealogy, Anatoliy A. Klyosov, PhD and 12 years of work in Harvard on invitation, on March 10, 2022, said in the interview to a big Russian UTube channel, “My wife and I drank champagne when we heard about the recognition by Russia of independence of Lugansk and Donetsk.” I completely support Anatoliy Klyosov. He is an honest scientist, who advanced the science in his field in a very significant way, the impartial Russian-American citizen of the world, who lives and works in the USA, as I do. I also am an impartial Russian-American citizen of the world, a Russian, who lives and works in the USA. We, Russian people from all over the world, wherever our life is, we have our own feelings, family histories, and we have right to be supportive of the just actions to protect Lugansk and Donetsk, while bringing the public attention to the bad things that Nazis extremists are trying to do from Kiev. I do not know much about the current Ukrainian president. I only know that he has lawyer’s education and that he was for a few years a comedian in a show. I do not know his family history. I do not know did his father or grandfather serve in Soviet Army defending Soviet Union against fascists or did his grandfather or other relative served in German Nazis police during the Hitler’s occupation of Ukraine in 1941-42, the years of the Patriotic war. I do not know these facts, and I do not speak about the things I do not know. But every normal person will understand that depending on the family history the views and standpoint of a person are formed. It is unfortunate that mass media in USA has an overwhelming power over the minds of all people who speak only English, and so they filter the information about the Ukraine-Russia conflict now only strictly from the point of view of those Ukrainian extremists who, since 2014, have tried to stay in power in Ukraine – at any price. It is very unfortunate.
However, the thinking people do know this about the mass media and will not blindly believe all they see on the screen without checking with the facts. I know, my story does not give many facts, but it gives some true facts – about my family history, about my work experience in the USA, and other facts, that I have lived through and just have shared here. Why am I impartial and not biased? Let’s see: I am an educator. My major, chosen from my childhood, and followed through life is English language. All my family of origin – father, sister, mother, brother – have passed away. I do not have children – neither from a Russian marriage, nor from an American marriage. All I have is only my love for my teaching profession, my love for the good people and friends, my love for life and justice. I, a Russian person, have never lived in Russia. I was born in Riga, Latvia. I am impartial to Russia and to Ukraine. I see only facts and what is just. When I was growing up, my mom sent me to my uncle to Ukraine – 90 kilometers from Kharkov (Eastern Ukraine). I went there every year. Many Russian people, like I, have or used to have tight connections, blood connections with Ukraine. Russians will never hate Ukrainians, and Ukrainians will never hate Russians – whatever the propaganda shouts out. We are close Slavic nations. Kiev was a Kievan Rus. Russia started in Kiev. What extremists are doing – it is not what normal Russian and Ukrainian people are feeling. This is my voice and I am glad I have spoken.
Vladimir Putin’s Speech/Address on February 24, 2022
Source: https://tass.ru › politika https://tass.ru/politika/13829919 TASS – RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY Обращение Владимира Путина. Полный текст – ТАСС Message from Vladimir Putin. Full text – TASS 12 hours ago — 24 февраля – February 24 2022
The Russian News Agency TASS (Russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, romanized: Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii TASS), abbreviated TASS (ТАСС), is a major Russian news agency founded in 1904. (Wikipedia)
+++++ Paste of Speech Starts ++++++ 24 февраля президент России Владимир Путин выступил с новым обращением. ТАСС публикует полный текст речи главы государства, размещенный также на сайте Кремля.
Уважаемые граждане России! Дорогие друзья!
Сегодня вновь считаю необходимым вернуться к трагическим событиям, происходящим на Донбассе, и ключевым вопросам обеспечения безопасности самой России.
Начну с того, о чем говорил в своем обращении от 21 февраля текущего года. Речь о том, что вызывает у нас особую озабоченность и тревогу, о тех фундаментальных угрозах, которые из года в год шаг за шагом грубо и бесцеремонно создаются безответственными политиками на Западе в отношении нашей страны. Имею в виду расширение блока НАТО на восток, приближение его военной инфраструктуры к российским границам.
Хорошо известно, что на протяжении 30 лет мы настойчиво и терпеливо пытались договориться с ведущими странами НАТО о принципах равной и неделимой безопасности в Европе. В ответ на наши предложения мы постоянно сталкивались либо с циничным обманом и враньем, либо с попытками давления и шантажа, а Североатлантический альянс тем временем, несмотря на все наши протесты и озабоченности, неуклонно расширяется. Военная машина движется и, повторю, приближается к нашим границам вплотную.
Почему все это происходит? Откуда эта наглая манера разговаривать с позиции собственной исключительности, непогрешимости и вседозволенности? Откуда наплевательское, пренебрежительное отношение к нашим интересам и абсолютно законным требованиям?
Ответ ясен, все понятно и очевидно. Советский Союз в конце 80-х годов прошлого века ослаб, а затем и вовсе развалился. Весь ход происходивших тогда событий – это хороший урок для нас и сегодня, он убедительно показал, что паралич власти, воли – это первый шаг к полной деградации и забвению. Стоило нам тогда на какое-то время потерять уверенность в себе, и все – баланс сил в мире оказался нарушенным.
Это привело к тому, что прежние договоры, соглашения уже фактически не действуют. Уговоры и просьбы не помогают. Все, что не устраивает гегемона, власть предержащих, объявляется архаичным, устаревшим, ненужным. И наоборот: все, что кажется им выгодным, преподносится как истина в последней инстанции, продавливается любой ценой, хамски, всеми средствами. Несогласных ломают через колено.
То, о чем сейчас говорю, касается не только России и не только у нас вызывает озабоченности. Это касается всей системы международных отношений, а подчас даже и самих союзников США. После развала СССР фактически начался передел мира, и сложившиеся к этому времени нормы международного права, – а ключевые, базовые из них были приняты по итогам Второй мировой войны и во многом закрепляли ее результаты, – стали мешать тем, кто объявил себя победителем в холодной войне.
Конечно, в практической жизни, в международных отношениях, в правилах по их регулированию нужно было учитывать и изменения ситуации в мире и самого баланса сил. Однако делать это следовало профессионально, плавно, терпеливо, с учетом и уважением интересов всех стран и при понимании своей ответственности. Но нет – состояние эйфории от абсолютного превосходства, своего рода современного вида абсолютизма, да еще и на фоне низкого уровня общей культуры и чванства тех, кто готовил, принимал и продавливал выгодные лишь для себя решения. Ситуация начала развиваться по другому сценарию.
За примерами далеко ходить не нужно. Сперва без всякой санкции Совета Безопасности ООН провели кровопролитную военную операцию против Белграда, использовали авиацию, ракеты прямо в самом центре Европы. Несколько недель непрерывных бомбежек по мирным городам, по жизнеобеспечивающей инфраструктуре. Приходится напоминать эти факты, а то некоторые западные коллеги не любят вспоминать те события, а когда мы говорим об этом, предпочитают указывать не на нормы международного права, а на обстоятельства, которые трактуют так, как считают нужным.
Затем наступила очередь Ирака, Ливии, Сирии. Нелегитимное использование военной силы против Ливии, извращение всех решений Совета Безопасности ООН по ливийскому вопросу привело к полному разрушению государства, к тому, что возник огромный очаг международного терроризма, к тому, что страна погрузилась в гуманитарную катастрофу, в пучину не прекращающейся до сих пор многолетней гражданской войны. Трагедия, на которую обрекли сотни тысяч, миллионы людей не только в Ливии, но и во всем это регионе, породила массовый миграционный исход из Северной Африки и Ближнего Востока в Европу.
Подобную судьбу уготовили и Сирии. Боевые действия западной коалиции на территории этой страны без согласия сирийского правительства и санкции Совета Безопасности ООН – это не что иное, как агрессия, интервенция.
Однако особое место в этом ряду занимает, конечно же, вторжение в Ирак тоже без всяких правовых оснований. В качестве предлога выбрали якобы имеющуюся у США достоверную информацию о наличии в Ираке оружия массового поражения. В доказательство этому публично, на глазах у всего мира Госсекретарь США тряс какой-то пробиркой с белым порошком, уверяя всех, что это и есть химическое оружие, разрабатываемое в Ираке. А потом оказалось, что все это – подтасовка, блеф: никакого химического оружия в Ираке нет. Невероятно, удивительно, но факт остается фактом. Имело место вранье на самом высоком государственном уровне и с высокой трибуны ООН. А в результате – огромные жертвы, разрушения, невероятный всплеск терроризма.
Вообще складывается впечатление, что практически везде, во многих регионах мира, куда Запад приходит устанавливать свой порядок, по итогам остаются кровавые, незаживающие раны, язвы международного терроризма и экстремизма. Все, о чем сказал, это наиболее вопиющие, но далеко не единственные примеры пренебрежения международным правом.
В этом ряду и обещания нашей стране не расширять ни на один дюйм НАТО на восток. Повторю – обманули, а выражаясь народным языком, просто кинули. Да, часто можно слышать, что политика – грязное дело. Возможно, но не настолько же, не до такой же степени. Ведь такое шулерское поведение противоречит не только принципам международных отношений, но прежде всего общепризнанным нормам морали и нравственности. Где же здесь справедливость и правда? Одна лишь сплошная ложь и лицемерие.
Кстати, сами американские политики, политологи и журналисты пишут и говорят о том, что внутри США создана в последние годы настоящая “империя лжи”. Трудно с этим не согласиться – так оно и есть. Но не надо скромничать: США – это все-таки великая страна, системообразующая держава. Все ее сателлиты не только безропотно и покорно поддакивают, подпевают ей по любому поводу, но еще и копируют ее поведение, с восторгом принимают предлагаемые им правила. Поэтому с полным на то основанием, уверенно можно сказать, что весь так называемый западный блок, сформированный США по своему образу и подобию, весь он целиком и есть та самая “империя лжи”.
Что касается нашей страны, то после развала СССР при всей беспрецедентной открытости новой современной России, готовности честно работать с США и другими западными партнерами и в условиях фактически одностороннего разоружения нас тут же попытались дожать, добить и разрушить уже окончательно. Именно так и было в 90-е годы, в начале 2000-х годов, когда так называемый коллективный Запад самым активным образом поддерживал сепаратизм и банды наемников на юге России. Каких жертв, каких потерь нам тогда все это стоило, через какие испытания пришлось пройти, прежде чем мы окончательно сломали хребет международному терроризму на Кавказе. Мы помним это и никогда не забудем.
Да собственно, и до последнего времени не прекращались попытки использовать нас в своих интересах, разрушить наши традиционные ценности и навязать нам свои псевдоценности, которые разъедали бы нас, наш народ изнутри, те установки, которые они уже агрессивно насаждают в своих странах и которые прямо ведут к деградации и вырождению, поскольку противоречат самой природе человека. Этому не бывать, никогда и ни у кого этого не получалось. Не получится и сейчас.
Несмотря ни на что, в декабре 2021 года мы все-таки в очередной раз предприняли попытку договориться с США и их союзниками о принципах обеспечения безопасности в Европе и о нерасширении НАТО. Все тщетно. Позиция США не меняется. Они не считают нужным договариваться с Россией по этому ключевому для нас вопросу, преследуя свои цели, пренебрегают нашими интересами.
И конечно, в этой ситуации у нас возникает вопрос: а что же делать дальше, чего ждать? Мы хорошо знаем из истории, как в 40-м году и в начале 41-го года прошлого века Советский Союз всячески стремился предотвратить или хотя бы оттянуть начало войны. Для этого в том числе старался буквально до последнего не провоцировать потенциального агрессора, не осуществлял или откладывал самые необходимые, очевидные действия для подготовки к отражению неизбежного нападения. А те шаги, которые все же были в конце концов предприняты, уже катастрофически запоздали.
В результате страна оказалась не готова к тому, чтобы в полную силу встретить нашествие нацистской Германии, которая без объявления войны напала на нашу Родину 22 июня 1941 года. Врага удалось остановить, а затем и сокрушить, но колоссальной ценой. Попытка ублажить агрессора в преддверии Великой Отечественной войны оказалась ошибкой, которая дорого стоила нашему народу. В первые же месяцы боевых действий мы потеряли огромные, стратегически важные территории и миллионы людей. Второй раз мы такой ошибки не допустим, не имеем права.
Те, кто претендуют на мировое господство, публично, безнаказанно и, подчеркну, без всяких на то оснований объявляют нас, Россию, своим врагом. Они, действительно, располагают сегодня большими финансовыми, научно-технологическими и военными возможностями. Мы знаем об этом и объективно оцениваем постоянно звучащие в наш адрес угрозы в сфере экономики – так же, как и свои возможности противостоять этому наглому и перманентному шантажу. Повторю, мы оцениваем их без иллюзий, предельно реалистично.
Что касается военной сферы, то современная Россия даже после развала СССР и утраты значительной части его потенциала является сегодня одной из самых мощных ядерных держав мира и, более того, обладает определенными преимуществами в ряде новейших видов вооружения. В этой связи ни у кого не должно быть сомнений в том, что прямое нападение на нашу страну приведет к разгрому и ужасным последствиям для любого потенциального агрессора.
Вместе с тем технологии, в том числе оборонные, меняются быстро. Лидерство в этой области переходит и будет переходить из рук в руки, а вот военное освоение прилегающих к нашим границам территорий, если мы позволим это сделать, останется на десятилетия вперед, а может, и навсегда и будет создавать для России постоянно нарастающую, абсолютно неприемлемую угрозу.
Уже сейчас, по мере расширения НАТО на восток, ситуация для нашей страны с каждым годом становится все хуже и опаснее. Более того, в последние дни руководство НАТО прямо говорит о необходимости ускорить, форсировать продвижение инфраструктуры Альянса к границам России. Другими словами – они ужесточают свою позицию. Продолжать просто наблюдать за тем, что происходит, мы больше не можем. Это было бы с нашей стороны абсолютно безответственно.
Дальнейшее расширение инфраструктуры Североатлантического альянса, начавшееся военное освоение территорий Украины для нас неприемлемы. Дело, конечно, не в самой организации НАТО – это только инструмент внешней политики США. Проблема в том, что на прилегающих к нам территориях, – замечу, на наших же исторических территориях, – создается враждебная нам “анти-Россия”, которая поставлена под полный внешний контроль, усиленно обживается вооруженными силами натовских стран и накачивается самым современным оружием.
Для США и их союзников это так называемая политика сдерживания России, очевидные геополитические дивиденды. А для нашей страны – это в итоге вопрос жизни и смерти, вопрос нашего исторического будущего как народа. И это не преувеличение – это так и есть. Это реальная угроза не просто нашим интересам, а самому существованию нашего государства, его суверенитету. Это и есть та самая красная черта, о которой неоднократно говорили. Они ее перешли.
В этой связи – и о положении в Донбассе. Мы видим, что те силы, которые в 2014 году совершили на Украине госпереворот, захватили власть и удерживают ее с помощью, по сути, декоративных выборных процедур, окончательно отказались от мирного урегулирования конфликта. Восемь лет, бесконечно долгих восемь лет мы делали все возможное, чтобы ситуация была разрешена мирными, политическими средствами. Все напрасно.
Как уже говорил в своем предыдущем обращении, нельзя без сострадания смотреть на то, что там происходит. Терпеть все это было уже просто невозможно. Необходимо было немедленно прекратить этот кошмар – геноцид в отношении проживающих там миллионов людей, которые надеются только на Россию, надеются только на нас с вами. Именно эти устремления, чувства, боль людей и были для нас главным мотивом принятия решения о признании народных республик Донбасса.
Что считаю важным дополнительно подчеркнуть. Ведущие страны НАТО для достижения своих собственных целей во всем поддерживают на Украине крайних националистов и неонацистов, которые в свою очередь никогда не простят крымчанам и севастопольцам их свободный выбор – воссоединение с Россией.
Они, конечно же, полезут и в Крым, причем так же, как и на Донбасс, с войной, с тем, чтобы убивать, как убивали беззащитных людей каратели из банд украинских националистов, пособников Гитлера во время Великой Отечественной войны. Откровенно заявляют они и о том, что претендуют на целый ряд других российских территорий.
Весь ход развития событий и анализ поступающей информации показывает, что столкновение России с этими силами неизбежно. Это только вопрос времени: они готовятся, они ждут удобного часа. Теперь претендуют еще и на обладание ядерным оружием. Мы не позволим этого сделать.
Как уже говорил ранее, Россия после развала СССР приняла новые геополитические реалии. Мы с уважением относимся и будем так же относиться ко всем вновь образованным на постсоветском пространстве странам. Мы уважаем и будем уважать их суверенитет, и пример тому – помощь, которую мы оказали Казахстану, который столкнулся с трагическими событиями, с вызовом своей государственности и целостности. Но Россия не может чувствовать себя в безопасности, развиваться, существовать с постоянной угрозой, исходящей с территории современной Украины.
Напомню, что в 2000–2005 годах мы дали военный отпор террористам на Кавказе, отстояли целостность нашего государства, сохранили Россию. В 2014 году поддержали крымчан и севастопольцев. В 2015-м применили Вооруженные Силы, чтобы поставить надежный заслон проникновению террористов из Сирии в Россию. Другого способа защитить себя у нас не было.
То же самое происходит и сейчас. Нам с вами просто не оставили ни одной другой возможности защитить Россию, наших людей, кроме той, которую мы вынуждены будем использовать сегодня. Обстоятельства требуют от нас решительных и незамедлительных действий. Народные республики Донбасса обратились к России с просьбой о помощи.
В связи с этим в соответствии со статьей 51 части 7 Устава ООН, с санкции Совета Федерации России и во исполнение ратифицированных Федеральным Собранием 22 февраля сего года договоров о дружбе и взаимопомощи с Донецкой народной республикой и Луганской народной республикой мною принято решение о проведении специальной военной операции.
Ее цель – защита людей, которые на протяжении восьми лет подвергаются издевательствам, геноциду со стороны киевского режима. И для этого мы будем стремиться к демилитаризации и денацификации Украины, а также преданию суду тех, кто совершил многочисленные, кровавые преступления против мирных жителей, в том числе и граждан Российской Федерации.
При этом в наши планы не входит оккупация украинских территорий. Мы никому и ничего не собираемся навязывать силой. Вместе с тем мы слышим, что в последнее время на Западе все чаще звучат слова о том, что подписанные советским тоталитарным режимом документы, закрепляющие итоги Второй мировой войны, не следует уже и выполнять. Ну что же, что ответить на это?
Итоги Второй мировой войны, как и жертвы, принесенные нашим народом на алтарь победы над нацизмом, священны. Но это не противоречит высоким ценностям прав и свобод человека, исходя из тех реалий, которые сложились на сегодня за все послевоенные десятилетия. Также не отменяет права наций на самоопределение, закрепленное в статье 1 Устава ООН.
Напомню, что ни при создании СССР, ни после Второй мировой войны людей, проживавших на тех или иных территориях, входящих в современную Украину, никто никогда не спрашивал о том, как они сами хотят обустроить свою жизнь. В основе нашей политики – свобода, свобода выбора для всех самостоятельно определять свое будущее и будущее своих детей. И мы считаем важным, чтобы этим правом – правом выбора – могли воспользоваться все народы, проживающие на территории сегодняшней Украины, все, кто этого захочет.
В этой связи обращаюсь и к гражданам Украины. В 2014 году Россия была обязана защитить жителей Крыма и Севастополя от тех, кого вы сами называете “нациками”. Крымчане и севастопольцы сделали свой выбор – быть со своей исторической Родиной, с Россией, и мы это поддержали. Повторю, просто не могли поступить иначе.
Сегодняшние события связаны не с желанием ущемить интересы Украины и украинского народа. Они связаны с защитой самой России от тех, кто взял Украину в заложники и пытается использовать ее против нашей страны и ее народа.
Повторю, наши действия – это самозащита от создаваемых нам угроз и от еще большей беды, чем та, что происходит сегодня. Как бы тяжело ни было, прошу понять это и призываю к взаимодействию, чтобы как можно скорее перевернуть эту трагическую страницу и вместе двигаться вперед, никому не позволять вмешиваться в наши дела, в наши отношения, а выстраивать их самостоятельно – так, чтобы это создавало необходимые условия для преодоления всех проблем и, несмотря на наличие государственных границ, укрепляло бы нас изнутри как единое целое. Я верю в это – именно в такое наше будущее.
Должен обратиться и к военнослужащим вооруженных сил Украины.
Уважаемые товарищи! Ваши отцы, деды, прадеды не для того сражались с нацистами, защищали нашу общую Родину, чтобы сегодняшние неонацисты захватили власть на Украине. Вы давали присягу на верность украинскому народу, а не антинародной хунте, которая грабит Украину и издевается над этим самым народом.
Не исполняйте ее преступных приказов. Призываю вас немедленно сложить оружие и идти домой. Поясню: все военнослужащие украинской армии, которые выполнят это требование, смогут беспрепятственно покинуть зону боевых действий и вернуться к своим семьям.
Еще раз настойчиво подчеркну: вся ответственность за возможное кровопролитие будет целиком и полностью на совести правящего на территории Украины режима.
Теперь несколько важных, очень важных слов для тех, у кого может возникнуть соблазн со стороны вмешаться в происходящие события. Кто бы ни пытался помешать нам, а тем более создавать угрозы для нашей страны, для нашего народа, должны знать, что ответ России будет незамедлительным и приведет вас к таким последствиям, с которыми вы в своей истории еще никогда не сталкивались. Мы готовы к любому развитию событий. Все необходимые в этой связи решения приняты. Надеюсь, что я буду услышан.
Уважаемые граждане России!
Благополучие, само существование целых государств и народов, их успех и жизнеспособность всегда берут начало в мощной корневой системе своей культуры и ценностей, опыта и традиций предков и, конечно, прямо зависят от способности быстро адаптироваться к постоянно меняющейся жизни, от сплоченности общества, его готовности консолидировать, собирать воедино все силы, чтобы идти вперед.
Силы нужны всегда – всегда, но сила может быть разного качества. В основе политики “империи лжи”, о которой говорил в начале своего выступления, прежде всего лежит грубая, прямолинейная сила. В таких случаях у нас говорят: “Сила есть, ума не надо”.
А мы с вами знаем, что настоящая сила – в справедливости и правде, которая на нашей стороне. А если это так, то трудно не согласиться с тем, что именно сила и готовность к борьбе лежат в основе независимости и суверенитета, являются тем необходимым фундаментом, на котором только и можно надежно строить свое будущее, строить свой дом, свою семью, свою Родину.
Уважаемые соотечественники!
Уверен, что преданные своей стране солдаты и офицеры Вооруженных Сил России профессионально и мужественно исполнят свой долг. Не сомневаюсь, что слаженно и эффективно будут действовать все уровни власти, специалисты, отвечающие за устойчивость нашей экономики, финансовой системы, социальной сферы, руководители наших компаний и весь российский бизнес. Рассчитываю на консолидированную, патриотическую позицию всех парламентских партий и общественных сил.
В конечном счете, как это всегда и было в истории, судьба России – в надежных руках нашего многонационального народа. А это значит, что принятые решения будут выполнены, поставленные цели – достигнуты, безопасность нашей Родины – надежно гарантирована.
Верю в вашу поддержку, в ту непобедимую силу, которую дает нам наша любовь к Отечеству. +++++End of Speech+++++
My Opinion About One More Writing Application/Software – January 31, 2021
I bought my laptop quite recently – maybe 5 months ago. Today I noticed a writing feature in it: Word Editor for Windows 10. I opened the document and created a 7-page brochure presenting one of my Russian Grammar books. When I wanted to save the document for myself – I could not. It appeared that I needed to go through signing in into Microsoft, and then what? Going into Google Documents? Or anywhere else? I could have created anything I wanted directly in the Google Documents without trying (as I was offered by my HP laptop which is obviously overtaken by Microsoft in many features) this new (fancy) name “Word Editor for Windows 10”.
So, what did I do?
I saved the creation as best as I could, but I never could save it in what I was opening: "Word Editor for Windows 10", because I usually sign into Microsoft with my employer (educational organization) account, and this was my personal project. I do not use my employer's address for personal projects.
What's interesting, after I started my brochure, the program asked me a few times whether I wanted to give them my feedback.
Yes, this is my feedback, and it is not positive; and I am leaving it here: in the blog of my site. Why would I spend my personal time leaving negative feedbacks? I wouldn't. However, here, in my blog, maybe someone, who will read this feedback, will not bother to even open the named Word Editor. For people who write it is not flexible, unless they write and save all their work through signing in into Microsoft.
Let's see at first, when in a computer store about 5 months ago, I was surprised how come I could not buy a simple writing laptop (a laptop for writing a lot) cheaper than for 500 dollars. By the way, I bought 7 years ago a wonderful laptop Toshiba for 300 dollars online. So, I could not understand why they became so expensive now, as if it all goes backwards instead of technologically progressing, especially in simple devices like laptops that have been around for quite a while now.
And today - one more surprise on the top of the endless surprise about the costly WORD, which I never use except at work, occasionally, - and that surprise - one more new name of a document-creating program which does not let you save your own document creation.
It makes one wonder whether developers of such application (useless for me, a professional linguist, writer) see only dollar signs in their creations, while implying that it must be a very convenient feature to do every step through signing somewhere in order to save your document.
It is a waste of time, and it is a violation of my privacy, and, therefore, it is not a good program for a writing person like me, or for my adult students as well.
Sorry, new version of Word Editor (of Windows 10), I do not approve you!
And yes, I realize that not many people may see this feedback of mine.
However, I have written it:
A) in my time B) by my own will C) not bothered or pushed by anybody’s need to collect the info D) saving where I want it AND E) I can delete it from here when I want it.
Freedom, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies, and Gentlemen!
I translated today a paragraph from English to Russian language with Google Translation. Here are my comments. Who am I? I am a philologist, educator, instructor of languages and my teaching work and studying languages are both my occupation and my hobby. My teaching experience is about 30 years now. When I can find translations I will do translations too.
I already mentioned recently in my articles or comments that Google Translation has improved greatly in the last few years. However, today I want to mention a few mistakes of Google Translation that were made by computer: the mistakes that only a language professional may correct, or sometimes only a native speaker. Also, the paragraph I have been translating here is written by my student of Russian language, and I find it very interesting in itself, as a comment from a native speaker of English about the difficulties of the Russian vocal stress. The mistakes that were made by computerized translation were of the following nature: 1) The meaning of a word that was used in the end of translation was wrong, although the topic of the paragraph had been clearly defined from the beginning. The conclusion: the computer does not have the logical ability to finish the translation of the short paragraph keeping to the topic. Suddenly, out of logic, computer used a different meaning of the word. In this case the topic was all about the vocal stress, yet in the end computer suddenly translates the word as “psychological stress”. We all know that computer confuses the different meanings of the homographs, however, I am pointing out here, that computer of today still does not have a logical memory of things, even in a very short text sample. 2) The second of a few mistakes of this translation was about the absence of some knowledge that maybe only a native speaker of Russian could detect. I am talking about the word “peasant”. The fact is that we generally do not use in Russian culture the word “peasant”. We may use it for history or it is widely used in Russian classical literature (written in XIX century), but the word is quite uncommon for today’s conversational speech. The common usage of the word “peasant” (крестьянин) belongs to tsarist times of Russia – before and during the Russian Socialist Revolution of 1917. After that the so called “kolkhozi” (collective farms) were created, so what is a common word for Russian speaking people – it is “kolhoznik” for a man and “kolhoznitsa” for a woman. I found it interesting that computer does not know history and important language tendencies in a certain culture and it uses the general vocabulary. Otherwise, but a few inconsistencies, the computerized translation of today (September 16, 2021) is not bad at all. I remember, years ago, one of my American friends was translating some document by Google translation from English to Russian, and that translation was very bad. We can see the improvement in computerized translations, however we also can see how far we are from not having the necessity of a good translator or philologist when it comes to a good quality translation or editing. (This topic is close to the AI topic too.) Thursday, September 16, 2021 CA, USA Zoia Eliseyeva zoiaeliseyeva2.com UTube – zoiacalifornia
Note: The paragraph referred to in this article is this: The Cyrillic alphabet expresses the written Russian language very well. But when I read a passage of Russian to my teacher, I find it difficult, in words of several syllables, to know on which syllable the stress falls. I make the same mistakes again and again. My excellent teacher Zoia tactfully tries to conceal her impatience, and she corrects me as often as necessary. Which syllable to stress is very important in Russian. The entire meaning of a word can depend on stress location. Misplaced stress makes one sound like an ignorant peasant or “redneck”. Кириллица очень хорошо передает письменный русский язык. Но когда я читаю отрывок по-русски своему учителю, мне трудно в словах, состоящих из нескольких слогов, понять, на какой слог падает ударение. Я снова и снова делаю одни и те же ошибки. Моя прекрасная учительница Зоя тактично пытается скрыть свое нетерпение и поправляет меня столько сколько требуется. На какой слог делать ударение – очень важно в русском языке. Значение слова может зависеть от места ударения. Неправильное ударение в словах может сделать речь ничего не подозревающего студента подобной речи невежественного колхозника или «деревенщины».
Девушка из штата Калифорния 4 Рассказы и шутки May 2021, B n N
The book is published only on one site, in USA. Not available in electronic version. Not available on Amazon or Ridero. The book is in Russian language. To read a story from this book here:
Читать рассказ из этой книги здесь (нажмите линк над этой строкой – это моя авторская страница на proza.ru): Канадаходец Зоя Спраусер Елисеева Буркхарт (avtor)
Девушка из штата Калифорния – 4 (единственная публикация в США без электронной версии – книга на русском языке закрыта обложками на английском языке – Barnes and Noble, May 2021 – the link is under the picture of the book – on the top of this article)
Contents/ Содержание
5 Предисловие 8 Сумасшедший рынок недвижимости 32 Жертва 45 Парашютики 53 Наказание Индианой 73 Пять минут полного счастья 81 Канадаходец (читать выше по линку на proza.ru) 127 Горячий итальянец в Буэнос Айресе 170 Не сошлись гаджетами 179 Тюрьма Циммермана 190 Сумасшедшая или перышко 210 Последняя фишка Кошкина 218 Румяной зарею… 252 Были ли зубы? 256 Лемуры 258 Жадоба Пеорийский 293 Проживем 100 лет: История Айка 304 Вылизал тарелку 320 Добрый ангел 323 Ветреная или Хочетон 335 Aфганско-персидский студент 342 Развела драку или Не на жизнь а на смерть за родимый борщ 353 Ода женской красоте и прочее 378 Круиз 389 Купание или Бегемотство как общественоое явление 401 Я побывала в раю 418 Нереальная реальность 457 Шутки
More info on this book see on the page Zoia’s Books of this site.
Thank you for visiting my sites and watching my videos! The easiest way to contact me is to write a comment under my last UTube (zoiacalifornia) post, or to send a message through a profile on any public site – FB, Ldn, etc. Zoia Eliseyeva on July 29, 2021 from California, USA
Instructor Zoia Eliseyeva speaks Spanish and Russian. Also, some French, German, and bits of Italian and Arabic. She has been teaching English and ESL for over 25 years. To register an adult student has to live in California, USA. It is a free of charge, non-credit class, as all ESL classes are in different USA states. Why is it free of charge? Well, because English is the language of USA, and these classes help immigrants with limited or no English to adjust as soon as possible to life in the USA.
This Fall Semester (2021) class starts on August 30, 2021 – Monday. It is a morning class. It is most likely will still be an online class. If not – I will keep you updated.
To register:
WebAdvisor at vvc.com
Victor Valley College (California, USA)
Let’s have fun of learning English together! 😀 😀 😀 Hoorah!
Go to WebAdvisor to register for the class. The class is free of charge for adult students who live in California. It is an online class of English Language. Instructor Zoia Elisseyeva also speaks Spanish and Russian.
Course Description: It is for non-native speakers of English who wish to develop listening and speaking skills. The course will focus on learning new vocabulary and sentences patterns in everyday speaking and listening situations.
From Instructor, Zoia Eliseyeva: Hello, students! It is an online English class from Victor Valley College that is geographically located in California. So, the class is from the comfort of your home. It is very intense, so you will learn a lot in a short period of time. The class is 4 days a week, 4-hour long each class, and it will last only 6 weeks. So, you will have a 16-hour instruction a week with an experienced teacher. It is like a Boot Camp of English language. You will remember what you have forgotten, and you will learn many new things. About me: I know Spanish and Russian, and, to some extent, a few other languages – the facts that you already, probably, learned about me from my UTube channel and from my website. I also have created over 20 books in a few languages. My books are of 2 main categories: they are my stories (mainly, but not all, in my native language) or they are based on the world classics and these are in the mixture of English, Spanish, Russian, German and French. Welcome to the class! Please register and let’s do the hard work together!
Зарисовки продавца-покупательницы, снявшей свой дом с продажи через 6 дней
Я переехала в Аризону пять лет назад, когда из-за сокращений на своей учительской работе я еле-еле справлялась с оплатой ипотеки (mortgage - англ.) в одном из банков штата Калифорния. Мой дом в Калифорнии был хорошо подготовлен и продан агентом в первую субботу открытых дверей. Тем временем я сняла крошечную однокомнатную квартирку с парковкой на одну машину в Вест-Вэллей, штат Аризона, примерно в тридцати пяти милях к северо-западу от Феникса. Это был февраль 2016 года. Я общалась с четырьмя агентами по недвижимости в поисках дома в Аризоне.
Через два месяца поисков я купила дом в Аризоне и закончился бумажный процесс продажи и покупки. Мой дом в Аризоне был куплен за наличные деньги от продажи дома в Калифорнии - за ту часть денег, которая оставалась после выплаты долга за дом Калифорнийскому банку. Дому в Аризоне было всего тринадцать лет, и я даже не нанимала инспектора. У меня оставалось немного денег после покупки дома, около двадцати тысяч долларов, которых хватило как раз на то, чтобы за месяц построить бассейн в большом дворе, что был позади Аризонского дома. Бригады рабочих работали слаженно и быстро. На своем канале UTube я тогда выставила три видео с разными картинками строительства бассейна с названиями на английском, испанском и русском языках.
Прошло пять лет, последний из которых все жили в масках Ковида (Covid-19). Про себя я назвала этот период жизни "Маски-Шоу". Под конец две тысячи двадцатого года весь народ уже настолько привык к маскам, что, казалось, никто на них уж не обращал внимания. Все считали своим долгом сначала нацепить маску и потом уже общаться.
Я решила продать свой дом и вместо него купить другой. У меня не было экстренной ситуации, чтобы продавать мой красивый, ухоженный дом, который я обновила, переделав полы и установив кондиционер в гараже. Я просто подумала, что разберусь со своими вещами, просмотрю и почищу свои старые архивы документов и, возможно, у меня будет дом, который немного больше и не хуже моего. У меня не было пятидесяти или семидесяти тысяч долларов, которые я могла бы предложить продавцу в придачу, но была сумма поскромнее из моих учительских сбережений.
Я потратила несколько тысяч долларов на обновление своего дома, покрасив его снаружи и частично изнутри, и заменила оконные стекла (1) по совету одного агента по недвижимости, с которым(ой) я начала общаться. Я закрепила на крыше шурупы и заменила черепицу на углу крыши, где птицы любили вить гнезда. Я также арендовала два больших складских помещения и вывезла из дома всю мебель, кроме одного шкафа с телевизором и двух красивых черных кожаных диванов в большой гостиной.
Я подписала договор купли-продажи с агентом по недвижимости, и он(а) выставил(а) мой красивый чистый дом на продажу. Моя Красавица была готова к своему Зверю.
Зверь оказался настоящим зверем. Всё это зверство произошло в виде моментального появления с одной стороны беспокойных, спешащих, настаивающих, убеждающих, вечно бегающих агентов по недвижимости, покупателей, инвесторов и, со второй стороны, неожиданного создания очень больших неудобств и странных перемен в моем личном образе жизни. Дом был выставлен на продажу. Я спала в собственной спальне, как в отеле. В моей спальне осталась только постель посреди красивой комнаты - постель, покрытая черным покрывалом - маленький черный островок выживания на фоне ламинантных полов цвета светлого дерева и светлых стен цвета "алебастр".
Это было настоящее выживание. Все самое необходимое - ноутбук, книга, блокнот, ручка и карандаши, небольшая лампа - было спрятано в плоских прозрачных пластиковых лотках под черным островом. Я была теперь горничной и ненавидела заправлять эту несчастную постель каждый день так, чтобы на гладком атласном острове не оставалось ни единой морщинки. Мне было жаль горничных в отеле. «Как они могут так зарабатывать на жизнь?» - размышляла я, бегая вокруг "острова", разглаживая и одергивая атлас, и уничтожая каждую пылинку и соринку вокруг перед уходом из дома.
С часу дня до шести вечера я исчезала из дома, потому что мой агент показывал(а) дом покупателям. Я разъезжала по округе, пытаясь найти себе будущий дом.
Всё, что я видела, имело завышенную цену, было нечистым, зачастую с людьми внутри, изношенным карпетом, не свежими стенами, крошечными передними двориками, маленькими задними дворами, в основном без бассейна и ежемесячной платой в ассоциацию. Я разговаривала с многочисленными торговыми агентами. Они говорили, что у них красивая недвижимость и двенадцать предложений покупки, которые выше запрашиваемой цены. Вместо красивой хваленой собственности я видела огромные грязные матрасы посреди грязных комнат; я видела грязноватые дома и очень грязные дома. Ни в одном из домов, которые мне довелось увидеть, не была удалена мебель или проведена какая-либо чистка, ремонт, уборка. Это были дома в моем ценовом диапазоне, которые были на несколько сотен квадратных футов больше, чем мой дом. Для ясности картины вспомним, что один фут в три раза меньше одного метра, поэтому, например, пятьсот футов это всего 152 квадратных метра. Если для квартиры в многоквартирном доме это значительно, то в доме, особенно старой постройки, где узкие коридоры и маленькие комнатки, и еще все это или заставлено мебелью, или не отремонтировано - этой лишней площади как-то и незаметно. Дома, которые я смотрела, были футами побольше и их продажная цена была на несколько тысяч долларов выше моего дома.
В двенадцати милях к востоку от моего дома, ближе к Фениксу, был старый дом, и его продали чуть меньше чем за триста тысяч, что было полной запрашиваемой ценой. Показы длились всего два дня, а на третий день сравнивали предложения. Дом был в плачевном, грязном состоянии. Я предложила им на двадцать тысяч меньше, потому что чистка, покраска, замена полов, установка недостающих дверей, новый кондиционер (в Аризоне жара тридцать пять и выше градусов в течение шести месяцев года) и остальные необходимые поделки обошлись бы примерно в двадцать пять - тридцать тысяч долларов.
Мое предложение было отклонено, потому что кто-то дал за этот дом полную запрашиваемую цену.
Я помню женщину в том доме. Ей было около 60-65 лет, и она сидела в темной столовой, рядом с темной кухней, все помещение было темное, нечистое и заполнено тысячей каких-то грязных, ненужных, маленьких и больших предметов. Она ела хлопья с молоком. Это было печальное зрелище. В своем предложении на покупку я упомянула, что часть моей оплаты будет наличными. Я также предложила агенту по продаже личную и конфиденциальную взятку, помимо официальных документов и не посвящая в это моего агента; деньги "Victoria's Secret", как я написалa ей в записке. Я родом из культуры (русской), где личные взятки - деньги, шоколад, услуги - могут иметь большое значение и давать искомые результаты.
Должна ли я плакать из-за того, что у меня не прошла покупка старого грязного дома, находящегося дальше на восток, с вероятностью необходимости удаления свинцовой краски, что обнаружилось при подписывании предложения о покупке, только потому, что этот дом был больше на несколько сот квадратных футов?
В течение шести дней, что мой дом был выставлен на продажу, я уезжала, как из казармы на линию фронта, заправляя кровать без складочки и морщинки, и ненавидя за это свою жизнь. Зная, что сегодня опять пойдут сюда толпы незнакомцев - топтать мое личное жилище. За несколько дней до казарменного положения, я, наивная, думала, что моя жизнь была трудной, когда я загружала и разгружала пятнадцать машин, чтобы перевезти вещи и книги из своего дома в арендованный склад. В течение пятнадцати дней я упаковывала, паковала, заворачивала, загружала и складывала свои пакеты на складе в большой Эльбрус в углу. Под конец, я, как баскетболист, старалась забросить более лёгкие пакеты повыше на Эльбрус в углу, чтобы внизу оставалось больше места для других вещей. Поскольку я не могу поднимать тяжелые упаковки, мои книги были разделены на сотни маленьких пакетов и увязок, которые я могла поднять без проблем. Это было утомительно, но не нервно.
Теперь, живя на маленьком черном острове и пряча щетку для волос, шампунь и зубную щетку, у меня была неприятная и неудобная жизнь. Каждый день на мой дом совершали набеги несколько незнакомцев или даже групп. Ситуация мне нравилась все меньше и меньше, и, получалось, что, продавая свой дом, я не могла найти ничего подходящего для покупки.
Одно предложение о покупке моего доме было от инвестора. Инвестор предложил на двадцать одну тысячу больше запрашиваемой цены, и столь "заманчивое" предложение сопровождалось самыми жалкими и грабительскими условиями контракта: у меня был бы выбор арендовать у него мой собственный дом (купленный, напомним, пять лет назад за наличные и без долгов), платя ему арендную плату на срок до двенадцати месяцев. Однако и эта слабенькая ситуация с арендой предлагалась без каких-либо гарантий: если бы этот акула-инвестор захотел, он мог продать мой дом в любой день, попрощавшись со мной или ничего не сказав, уйдя, так сказать, по-английски - и новый покупатель, возможно, выгнал бы меня в два счёта.
Итак, давайте посмотрим, за жалкую двадцать одну тысячу долларов (это приблизительная цена моей машины, которую я держу новой, так как мне нужно часто ездить между штатами, сохраняя свою профессиональную работу), я должна была бы навсегда оставить свою чистую красивую собственность без долгов, и зачем-то перейти на положение съемщицы, и в конце концов, от нужды, закончить такую неприглядную замену дома, перейдя в дом такого же размера, а то и меньше.
В самом деле? Really? - cказали бы американцы.
Ой! Погодите-ка минуту! А будет ли в гараже такого же или меньшего дома кондиционер, который я установила в своем Beauty-красавце? А может в нем будет еще и ежемесячная плата в ассоциацию, которая имеет неприглядное свойство повышаться? Все эти владельцы земли, если это не твой частный дом, любят создать ассоциации и потом брать пожизненную плату с жильцов, чьи дома стоят на их земле. Будет ли у него почти новый сверкающий голубой бассейн в большом заднем дворе? Думаю, все это было очень маловероятно, и мой «знаменитый» кондиционер в гараже, который я установила четыре года назад, тогда был бы «сбывшейся мечтой, которую я когда-то имела и потеряла». У этого умника-инвестора хватило нахальства предлагать такие условия. Но, видимо, на то они и инвесторы. В океане есть мелкая рыбка, а есть акулы, питающиеся этой рыбкой. Людской океан живет по тем же суровым законам природы. Зазевался – тебя и проглотят. Последней каплей, которая приблизила конец моему эксперименту с продажей дома, стал день, когда с моим агентом мы договорились посмотреть дом, что был недалеко от моего. Назначенного времени никто не соблюдал, кроме меня. Я неслась, как всегда, просмотрев свой дом на чистоту перед уходом, приехала раньше, и сидела в машине на соседней улице, подкрашиваясь. Дома у меня, к сожалению, на такую роскошь, как подкрашивание, теперь времени не было. Я вдруг стала Золушкой, которую судьба держала в черном теле. Как контраст сжигающей жаре, пеклу, в течение шести или семи месяцев в году, остальные пять-шесть месяцев года в Аризоне стоит очень красивая, приятная, теплая погода. Солнце светит постоянно, но в эти месяцы оно не сжигает, а приятно греет. Я наслаждалась коротким отдыхом в машине, когда не надо было ничего грузить или чистить. Когда, наконец, мы с агентом собрались у назначенного места, еще один покупатель, видимо с другим агентом, находились в доме, и, кажется, не собирались оттуда выходить. Мы ждали снаружи. Дом был некрасивого цвета. Рядом была начальная школа с кричащими детишками. У дома практически не было переднего двора, а задний двор был меньше моего и без бассейна. Постояв около пятнадцати минут возле этого дома, я взмолилась своему агенту отпустить меня, закончив эту свою странную эпопею расторжением моего контракта на покупку и продажу. Небольшая часть обещанной (ранее в рассказе) взятки пошла теперь на отступную, чтобы хоть расторжение прошло быстро, без сучка и без задоринки. Надо отдать должное, этот агент помог мне избавиться от нескольких ненужных вещей при приведении дома в надлежащий вид. Как я была теперь счастлива начать разгрузку арендованного склада, оставаясь в моем хорошем, чистом доме! Мне казалось, что я что-то нашла или что я вот-вот готова была потерять – что-то очень ценное и жизненно важное – и мне удалось это не потерять. Поговорка «Все познается в сравнении» как раз описывает то, что произошло только что со мной. Если бы я могла предложить от пятидесяти до семидесяти тысяч наличными в придачу к своему дому, у меня был бы выбор домов для покупки. Мораль моей истории: не пробуйте горячий рынок недвижимости, если у вас нет приличной суммы в кармане, разве что вы идете на понижение площади. Я сделала свою домашнюю работу по подготовке своего дома, но основной горячо любимый ингредиент бизнеса – достаточные наличные деньги – отсутствовал. Теперь я могла оставаться свободной и счастливой в собственном доме: свободно раскладывать и организовывать свои книги и вещи и не прятаться ни от кого и ни от чего. Я получила уроки бут-кампа (2), превратив свой дом на несколько дней в проходной. Спасибо, акулы и акулята рынка недвижимости, инвесторы и агенты, за ваши уроки! Теперь я буду знать, как ценить то, что у меня есть, и как сделать какие-то перемены, вместо того, чтобы идти неизвестно куда, рискуя потерять то, чего достиг своим трудом. У меня получилось как в русской сказке “Пойду туда, не знаю куда; найду то, не знаю что”.
Примечания:
… заменилa oконное стекло … В течение нескольких весенне-летних месяцев при температуре 120 градусов в Аризоне (48 по Цельсию) черная резина между двойными стеклами окон плавится и становится видимой. Окна полностью исправны, но агент по недвижимости сказал(а), что они бы не прошли проверку инспектором. Поэтому я заменила стекла в нескольких окнах.
Бут-камп (boot-camp) – слово-гибрид, выражение из американского английского. Прямое значение слова – “сапог-лагерь”. Выражение означает усиленную срочную подготовку, в которой часто применяются стрессовые методы для быстрейшего достижения какого-то практического знания.
Приветствую всех слушателей и читателей из далекой Аризоны!
Удивительная жизнь: русский писатель и ученый прожил 92 года, 25 из которых он провел в тюремных застенках. Я читаю из книги Рыжова, где автор сделал опечатку в фамилии отца писателя. Правильная фамилия отца – Щепочкин, что подтверждается статьей энциклопедии. Я приношу извинения за свое ненамеренное повторение оговорки автора Рыжова. Книгу мне прислали в США мать или брат. Значит – книга стоящая. Брат не читал неинтересных книг. Мой брат, Елисеев Олег Владимирович (1948-2016) был историком по призванию своей души, хотя и бросил исторический факультет Латвийского государственного университета на третьем курсе. Скоро ему было бы день рождение, в начале февраля. Так я хоть добрым словом помяну брата. Много книг он покупал, читал, потом пересылал мне в далекую Америку. Он имел большую, хорошую домашнюю библиотеку в Риге. Моя русско-английская книга, посвященная Омару Хайяму, сделана на основе книги, что прислал мне брат. Алик (домашнее имя моего брата) всегда делился всякими интересными знаниями – тем, что вычитывал из книг. Он читал сцену борьбы с барсом из “Мцыри” Лермонтова наизусть, меряя маленькую кухню шагами. Он обладал изумительной памятью и читал исключительно быстро. А я вот медленная чтица! Но учительством взяла, однако ж! Учитель иностранного языка повторяет всё по двадцать раз. Так учитель с многолетним стажем знает материал своего предмета назубок. Зоя Владимировна Елисеева Американское имя: Zoia Eliseyeva PS Преподаватель языков и самопубликующийся автор с 2010 года. Моя первая книга “Девушка из штата Калифорния” (на русском языке) была замечена редактором санкт-петербургского журнала “Натали” в 1996 году. Там и публиковались первые главы из нее. Тогда моя фамилия была Буркхарт – по первому американскому замужеству. Последняя публикация этой моей первой, частью автобиографической, книги была в 2017 году в русском онлайн-издательстве “RIDERO” и фамилия автора на ней – Зоя В. Елисеева. Также мои рассказы можно почитать на Proza.ru, бесплатной интернет-платформе русских авторов, если ввести фамилию автора так: Зоя Спраусер Елисеева Буркхарт. Благодарю всех за внимание! January 14, 2021 Arizona, USA
1) Find the Subject “Adult Education English” (AENG)
2) Choose the semester “Spring 2021”
3) Find the class by name of instructor “Zoia Eliseyeva”
AENG-10.1-78159 Low Beg Speak/Listen Spring 2021 Term
Instructors Eliseyeva, Z
Meeting Information M, W 7:45 AM – 11:05 AM
2/17/2021 – 6/9/2021 (Hesperia High School), Zoom CANVAS (Laboratory/Studio/Activity)
Dates 2/16/2021 – 6/12/2021
To register: vvc. edu 1) Find the Subject “Adult Education English” (AENG) 2) Choose the semester “Spring 2021” 3) Find the class by name of instructor “Zoia Eliseyeva”
In 2018 Utube warned that it would soon close the channels with not enough subscribers (small channels). I had about 5 or 6 channels at that time, where I tried to post my UTube videos by general categories of my time/place/work at a certain point of time. For example, I had a small boutique type fashion store for a year (May 2013 – May2014), the year when I left my second marriage. It was a difficult year: the opposed divorce, severely cut teaching hours in California, no help from anybody (only one person still lived from my family of origin). So, at the time of my beautiful store I created the channel “Zoia’s Fashions”, naturally devoted to my small business. Later, my personal historical circumstances connected me to Arizona, so I created the channel connected to the email address with the word “Arizona”. That channel has the photo/symbol of orange color (the prevailing color) of a few of my books. I thought my life disconnected me from California at that point. However, in a couple of years I started again working for a community college in California, and that made my first channel “zoiacalifornia” look like having again a very good sense. Besides, that first channel originally had the biggest amount of posts, some of which became quite popular with a viewer, and got 20 or 30 or more thousands of views. Of course, it is nothing compared with multi-million subscribers and channel views, however, it is definitely better than UTube channels with no their own content posted, or playlists created of other people’s creations. Nevertheless, I do not mean to judge the people who just come to UTube to watch and leave their comments: it is a platform for watching. Needless to say that since my profession is an educator, my focus is on a few languages – teaching and studying. There is a certain depth to each culture and each language that I have studied, or still study. Often times that depth is quite bottomless. That means that the videos that I create on a regular basis to portray languages and cultures, have very different stories of creation. On some of them I work for weeks. For example, I just posted a fairy-tale “Froschkönig” in German and English. I started doing my Russian translation of it. But yesterday I decided if I was going to delay the post till my Russian translation and slides to it were ready, my Froschkönig would not see the light of day for a while. So, I decided to post a bilingual tale GER-ENG, and then, when Russian is ready, I will post that separately. So, I have been working on this Froschkönig, on and off, for about 6 months. However, the Italian historically rooted song “Alla Mattina Appena Alzata” that I posted yesterday, took only a couple of days. I got by chance into the site of songs lyrics from all over the world, and translated there an easy song from ENG to RUS, and on the way of doing it I came across the wonderful Bella Chao song that I have known forever, since my older brother (in my Soviet childhood) was young and hummed the melody. So, now, after many years, in USA, in English, I read the history of Bella Chao and it threw a quite bright light for me on a historical song Mattina Alzata. I loved it, including the fact that it is connected with the hard labor. The hard labor of women – for me – is connected with a Russian poet Nekrasov. All the details are very different and belonging to two completely different world cultures. But for me – there is a connection. It is well-known that there are women in the world who never knew hard labor and money earning by themselves, but there is the other kind – who knew hard labor. Myself – I do not belong to either of these named categories. I am an educator, a (mostly self) self-published writer, so my labor is intellectual, not physical. I am here, in this article, not to praise my own work, but to describe the origin of the video post that appeared in my head just a few days ago, and was posted almost right away, without a delay. And this song is dear to me – all the memories and emotions it triggers; let alone the Italian language, which I like a lot, but I do not have time of my life to learn seriously a few languages at a time. I have already mentioned this fact here and there: that there is not enough time in life to do all the things that a person wants to do and accomplish. To finalize my word about the creation of videos and my few video channels, there are five or six video-channels that I have, and some valuable videos are not visited much, and some of these channels are staying not very active because of the changes in UTube posting policies of 2018 and the choice I had to make to fit those new changes. Today I discovered the beautiful (said not without humor) four videos about the kinds of sausage in Russian culture, and I realized that they represent 4 Episodes of Season 1 of my series “Kolbasa”. Please, smile, as I do now! The topic is food, the quite prosaic one! This series is in English language, and can be used as an original additional cultural insight by the professors and students of Russian language. For example, a professor of (conversational) Russian could give a Homework to students – to watch the four short videos and then to compare the topic and described realia with that existing in their own culture. Then ask them to write a little one-paragraph report reflecting their thoughts, and adding/sharing the information from their culture on the topic.
0:55 Length SAUSAGE КОЛБАСА RUSSIAN ENGLISH DEFINITION MEANING CULTURAL INSIGHT https://youtu.be/ADHLzm7JlJc
Introducción ¿Cómo me inscribo para una cuenta de Canvas como estudiante? ¿Cómo puedo usar Canvas en mi dispositivo móvil como alumno? Anuncios¿ Cómo hago…
Estudiantes de inglés en California!
Posiblemente, que voy a enseñar la clase para los empezantes (empezando con la revisión del alfabeto) en el semestere de otoño 2021. Y aquí. en este link-enlace, hay la información que trata de CANVAS – el formato en la linea que hemos usado en el colegio Victor Valley College desde la primavera de 2020.
Si tienen qualquieres preguntas acerca de mi clase de otoño 2021 para el nivel bajo de inglés, pueden escribir´a mi en los comentarios abajo de mis últimos videos en zoiacalifornia (mi UTube) o en los mensajes de FaceBook. Encuentren mi en cualquier lugar en las plataformas de la red y voy a ayudarles con la información.
Master’s Degree in Educational Counseling for Community Colleges – 2002
Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature – 1989
Notes About My Educational and Professional Background
Before graduating with this BA, I was entering Kharkov University (Ukraine) at the age of 17 (after my high school). It was in different republic (Soviet Union times) and I did not proceed with that. Then, I actually entered and studied for about a year in the BA program “Librarian” in Latvia State University. It is much like Russian philology in the first year. I left that program since it was not exciting enough for me. I was a graduate of a high school with the emphasis in English language and literature. In a few years, at the age of 22 or 23, I entered English philology and Literature major at Latvia State University, and graduated in 1989. At this time it took me 6 years altogether, since I had taken at first a complete year of the entrance examinations preparatory course. There was a competition to get into the program.
Master’s degree: At first I was for 2 years in CSUF (Fullerton University) in California. Then I transferred to CSUB (San Bernardino) because of the major. My majors in CSUF were at first Administration of Education, then Family and Marriage Counseling. After two years in CSUF I found “Counseling for Community Colleges” (Master’s) major in San Bernardino University, and so I transferred there while working for Victor Valley Community College as an ESL Adjunct faculty. At the end of this Master’s I had an internship through Counseling Department at ESL Department with students of ESL at Mount San Antonio Community College. I also taught ESL and Russian at Mt SAC in those years. (ESL – for a couple of years and Russian – for 8 years on Saturdays at Community Education Department. I passed a job interview with the Director of the Department).
After I finished this Master’s at CSUSB (California State University of San Bernardino) in June 2002, I started taking college Spanish credit classes right away.
I took Spanish for 9 years – in community colleges, face-to–face and online, and also a few classes at CSUF (California State University Fullerton).
After all those classes of Spanish, I, naturally, wanted to finish it with a degree in Spanish, but I was not lucky: in that year they said to me that they did not allow the second Bachelor Degree. I remember, I went for advising to CalState Poly to their Spanish Department (Pomona, California). Then. at that point. I was taking a few classes in Spanish major at CSUF, and there was a confusion with majors, and then I stopped seeing the point in my efforts. I was always working two teaching jobs at that time, paying for my education right away. I taught morning classes here, and evening classes there. I also was teaching one semester Adjunct ESL at Rio Hondo Community College, where I passed a job interview.
And why am I writing here all of this? Just to explain that It is not just what we see in two diplomas. It is a lot of studies and teaching work around that and beyond that. I took only university classes for about 12 years plus languages – Spanish and French in University and community colleges. Well, French was my 2nd foreign language from my BA from LSU – the diploma you see in this video.
In the last three years I have been taking German language credit classes from Arizona community colleges. I also took some German in the distant past – we were exchanging English for German with one teacher of German – before USA. In one of my UTube channels you hear me teaching beginning Arabic – explaining in Russian for Russian listeners. I was studying it by myself, in California, for a year. We can see the dates on my posts. Sometimes, as time passes, I may forget when and what happened, so then I go to my own video posts, and it’s all there.
The purpose of these notes is to give more details about my educational and teaching background, and also for identifying purposes – these two university diplomas show my maiden name and my patronymic, and my Master’s diploma shows my Burkhart last name that is the last name of my marriage of 1995 to 2006.
I came to California, USA, in May 1995, and I married M. Burkhart in June 1995. And all of this is described in my first book (in Russian language) “The Girl from California”.
I recently had to do a lot of documents for my personal identification in order to transfer just a few dollars of royalties from a Russian publisher (Russian Federation) to USA, where I live. I almost spent more money in the process than my royalties actually were for my Russian books. However, I saw that it is possible to do it.
If anybody ever needs to know about my identity and who I am, they need just to look into my over 1000 videos, a few blogs, my website(s), the Google records, my books at Amazon/Kindle and Barnes and Noble (over 24), and for a few minutes all the curious researchers will find more information on my identity than they asked for.
It may take longer for me to find my own information in my own home files, than to find it right here – on internet.
And the talent of writing briefly has never been one of my strengths! Not that it has ever been required in my teaching profession, or my writing or translator’s occupation. As an educator and a self-published (self-publishing) writer with such saturated background, I do not need the talent of writing briefly. Brief letters do not get results. The long ones – do. It was proven by me – to me – just yesterday, and many times before that.
I appreciate everybody, who visits my channels, platforms, and reads my quite lengthy notes. And no, I do not use Grammarly. Grammarly is only English, anyway! 🙂 Why bother? 🙂
Zoia Eliseyeva October 23, 2020 from CA, USA
September 14, 2020: No News – Good News
So far everything is calm, and I am busy with my English and German classes, teaching and learning. Just came here to say Hello! to all who visits here.
My royalties for September 2020 were 1 dollar 61 cents. Really?
Вот как надо официальным образом грабить людей: присвоил все их файлы и несчастный автор никак не может проследить – что там продается на тридцати сайтах и в сорока магазинах. Захотят 20 долларов пришлют, а захотят – один доллар пришлют. Это – капитализм., батенька. Беззаконие и угнетение богатыми бедных. Точно как в царской России. И что толку, что бедные – грамотные могут быть теперь. Ты бесправен и бессилен. Тебя грабят, а ты молчишь. Издеваются изощренно, при помощи мошеннических законов и регуляций. Держат тебя в страхе, как глупое животное. А орут, что это свобода. Это свобода грабителям. А бедняки – загнанные в сети, как роботы, все про них известно, все пронумерованы. Попробуй пикни – отнимут последнее, накажут. Будут больше издеваться. Вот и молчат бедняки. Их отвлекают политическими травлями. Zoia Eliseyeva on October 4, 2020, from Arizona, USA.
My over 20 multilingual educational books based on classics are sold on Barnes and Noble, AbeBooks, Book Depository, on Amazon (just some – Amazon gets the main part of royalties when selling through world-wide distributors; it does not need necessarily to show all my books on its USA page), and on many international book sites (Bokus – Swedish, Bol – Dutch, French, German, India, Arab Emirates, Norway, United Kingdom – just to name a few).
Ingram is named as a supplier by Book Depository.
Ingram and Barnes and Noble play innocent and always answer negatively to all requests about taking my books off their sales.
I guess, they are hiding themselves behind the Amazon who provided them with all files for my paperbacks. Just counted – 25 different titles and 28 or 29 books sold (there are about 4 books that are the same titles but different ISBNs and editions – on Zoia Sproesser and Zoia Eliseyeva).
I started self-publishing my books on CreateSpace in 2010 and had received little monthly royalties regularly till May 2020. In May 2020 KDP/Amazon banned me from my book portal and they stopped paying royalties. Now I can order my own brand new books online for the prices created by retailers – just to trace this print-on-demand process. In the meanwhile, the royalties are going to all these sellers, suppliers and distributors, including Amazon – from across the world distribution. The majority of my books are in 2 to 5 languages and they are based on world classics and they include grammar. My multipage Claim is in Amazon legal department now. How long this wide-spread official piracy and robbery of my books will be going on – I do not know. My books are by Zoia Sproesser (2010-2014- last name by marriage) and Zoia Eliseyeva (2015-2017 maiden last name). While investigating this “economic/intellectual” crime with my books I just want the authors to know that it is possible that everybody sells your print-on-demand books and you do not have a cent for them. This is what has been going on with all my books for two months. Authors! Be aware!
The other goal of this article is to document and record the last facts/current situation with my books.
My open profiles by my name are on all public platforms.
Zoia Eliseyeva, instructor of languages, on August 6, 2020 from California, USA
The last news from my books’ fate: Amazon just discontinued paying me royalties that I have been receiving for my self-published books every month for 10 years. I had received insignificant amounts from a Russian newspaper in Hollywood, California, for their publication of separate chapters of my first book in Russian language “The Girl from California” around 1998 – just to make it clear here since when I have been in writing. Or, rather, first, my book was published by chapters in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1996. I started self-publishing on CreateSpace (USA) in 2010. It was so long ago, that I forgot the dates, but a few days ago I came across a royalty payment invoice of December 2010 from CreateSpace self-publishing platform. It reminded me that I started self-publishing with them in 2010. My royalties have never been big. I earn my living with teaching languages at adult education (in the past) or community college, and also, sometimes, with occasional lessons with individual students or occasional translations.
My monthly royalties were just the recognition of the big work I have done with my books: looking for good translations, matching them, working with them, creating the inside file, then creating the book covers. To create the front cover takes special individual view on the literary work it presents. I love the front covers of my books – they tell me a story about each book creation and the thought under each project.
Now we can see all my books – about 20-22 of them – on the multitude of Amazon distributors channels: many bookstores, Author’s pages in many countries of the world that are in many different languages. My books are mostly multilingual, that’s why it makes big sense to have them all over the world.
When Amazon speaks about its charities, it makes me think now: well, without asking a low-income educator, they took all the books from her, banning her from her self-publishing portal, and then they channeled her royalties into their charities (or maybe to their AI dream projects, or maybe to build more warehouses and buy more trucks for deliveries – we don’t know). That’s a wonderful way of doing business in the world: take from a teacher her life creations and put the label of your nobility and charity on your doings.
I wonder – is this a theft or is this business by Amazon’s way? Or the two notions have just smoothly grown into each other before our eyes?
What am I doing here writing this personal information? I am just documenting what’s happening. I guess I will have to change now the title of one of my books in English language written around 2011 “How I Published My Books by Myself and Sold on Amazon 96 Books in One Year”. Or, rather, I will write a new book “How Amazon…”. However, I have to wait and see what the three top executives will say, or their arbitration team before publishing something like that. Let’s get this story its own ending!
Dates of Events:
May 29, 2020 – AmazonKDP sent me an email note to notify they are banning me from my author’s platform. (They said I violated something with my book in Russian “Work in USA”. Really? The last time I touched that little book was in 2017, when I republished my three Russian books on the platform of Russian Federation, that is different country. They could just remove any violation they didn’t like. But they didn’t. Instead, they have all their distribution channels up and going banning the authors).
July 1, 2020 – no one cent of royalties. (There were like 10 dollars in the previous month. My royalties were melting from month to month in the last six months especially.) They banned me not only from the access to my files, but to the money that my books earn, too. You know, I had a letter about a year ago, from one reader from USA about my five-language book based on Edgar Poe. He was so grateful; they were staging the story.
February 2018 – AmazonKDP rolled over all the book files from CreateSpace to AmazonKDP self-publishing platform – massively. Nice, good CreateSpace, with easily manageable portal and templates for self-published authors stopped to exist. Amazon did not ask the author at that time which files I wanted to transfer to the new place, which not. They never asked the author – did I want to have my files in e-format or I didn’t. Actually I didn’t. Many of my books have three languages on one page, or four languages in paragraphs on one page, or even five languages on one page – it goes and shows badly on those little electronic devices. So, for this kind of books it is not a good idea to show them on a small screen. So, they are better to be just paperbacks.
Zoia Eliseyeva, July 7, 2020. CA/AZ, USA
These books (and a few others which did not fit in this picture) are sold by big and small bookstores in USA and abroad (as of July 7, 2020). Mostly the author is Zoia Eliseyeva, but there are still books with Zoia Sproesser (my last name in years 2007-2014).
Please scroll down to the bottom of my Zoia’s Books page to see my article about Republishing in June 2020.
I also just cleaned those bad links on that page to my books, and replaced them by good ones.
I have a certain order of my personal preference which book comes faster than the other. Now I am working on Khayyam and on 2nd song book. The 2nd song book never existed in paperback, so I am making a paperback now. Some of my books will have to wait, like for example Dual-Language English-Russian “Three Men…” based on Jerome K. Jerome.
In the meanwhile all my books are on Barnes and Noble. Just put Zoia Eliseyeva in their search and you will see this part of books. When you put Zoia Sproesser in their search, you will see the second part of books, which I never republished since my last name was Sproesser (2007-2014).
Kindle just banned me, the author of more than 20 educational paperback books, from KDP/Kindle publishing portal.
I admit, that I have not published anything since Amazon took over in 2018 the convenient, low-cost, and later made free, Publishing Online Platform CreateSpace.com. By chance, I just found in my home files the invoice from CreateSpace (they were distributing through Amazon) dated August 2010. So, at least 10 years I have been publishing my books. (My first Russian book dates far back to 1996 St. Petersburg, Russia, as by chapters in the magazine “Nataly”, then I published 1000 copies of it – “Devushka iz shtata Kalifornia” – with my picture on the front cover – in “Golos” ruled by the writer F.A. Alyoshkin in Moscow, Russia, in 2004. Alyoshkin or his editors distorted my last name in annotation, and that’s OK, they could not remove my picture from the front cover! The picture aroused negative feelings by some moscovites – it was showing me in a bride-girlfriend’s dress that easily could be confused with a bride’s dress. You see, all small circumstances of my life are fighting against me, however I am fighting them back. And this is how my life goes. Sorry for a long inside-parentheses note!)
Kindle banned my e-format variant of my books. I do not care about e-books at all. I do care about my paperback multi-language books based on the world classics, like Tolstoy,, Dostoyevskiy, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Poe, Omar Khayyam, Chekhov, Albert Camus, brothers Grimm, and the like, that I, an educator and linguist, have created.
My books are sold all over the USA, and all over the world. My modest royalties (just a few dollars a month) have dropped in the last 6 months, magically, by 75 percent, comparing to the previous years.
I just received the reply from Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble has many of my titles on their site. They took time with the answer, and now redirected me to their other department. So I will follow with inquiring the stores who sell my books just to have a clearer picture how all this messy system works as regarded to my own creations. Then, I will be sharing my knowledge about my discoveries if I see it is valuable for other authors like me.
I wanted to write to the owner of Amazon. Actually, I did. I just took some kind of his email address from general online search and wrote him an email. That email unlikely reached him. I initially wanted to follow it with my physical letter to his headquarters. It happened in my past that I reached powerful CEOs and did campaigns fighting for my (consumer’s) rights. They actually stopped the unlawful charges after my letters. The courts changed their decisions after my contesting some traffic tickets, for example. (Faulty as charged! I used to like speeding a little bit when I was younger, when I was driving to two works and two studies – 4 different places every week.) As we all know the teaching profession does not exactly implies 40 hours a week. We, teachers, multi-language people, are looking for all hours we can get at different institutions, or the translations we can get from lawyers’ offices or other organizations or private parties.
So, my income never relied on my book-publishing royalties – it’s quite obvious. By the way, I found now articles from other authors online who were complaining about being banned by Kindle platform, and I do understand their lamenting of losing their life incomes from their publishing. Also, I found articles about different fraudulent activities of plagiarism made to income through Kindle. Well, both these causes have nothing to do with me, a self-publishing author and educator. My books are created in connection with my own studies of languages, my memories sharing, my experiences sharing. Each of my books is very different and my personal notes in each book explain how and in what way the book is different. Some books have grammar chapters or grammar comparisons across a few languages. Other books have my own translations of different texts, or passages. Some books have my personal notes with my memories back to the past in Russian culture or Soviet times. My books are very individually and custom made and I do not make much money on them.
I will finish now the thought why I decided not to reach further the Amazon owner by my passionate, craving for justice letter. Amazon’s stocks are more expensive than Google stocks. Google is way much more useful than Amazon. Well, I decided that there is no use for me to waste my time and energy, and emotions for that fight. I made a plan.
I will re-edit all my paperback most dear for me books, and republish them from another platform, and recreate links to my books. The old editions with corrupted links then will lose their value (if any) because I will extend my texts by improving them.
Look what Amazon Central Customer Service replied to me about my book just the other day. I asked him why I couldn’t connect my valuable paperback based on Leo Tolstoy’s complete novel, the trilingual book “Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Zoia Eliseyeva (Barnes and Noble has them all, so it’s easy to see my books there) – I couldn’t connect it by ISBN search to my Amazon Author’s Page – Zoia Eliseyeva. In past it was Zoia Sproesser, so Author Pages multiplied too because I changed my last name to maiden after the divorce with Sproesser in December 2014. So, the Customer Rep. very politely explained, that my above-mentioned book has Author Page in Singapore, China (I hope not in Wuhan! :D), and Arab Emirates. However, in USA, where I live, I cannot connect my main titles to my Amazon Author Page. Now I got it why, after his message!
This is because I have not been republishing my paperbacks since 2018 Amazon’s coup d’état of CreateSpace, and that’s why my Author Pages, by the CreateSpace worldwide distribution remained like that.
Dear friends! Do not be discouraged and perplexed when you see a stupid dog’s image when you click certain amazon-links of my books! (Some links still work, but my Author Page looks quite miserable at this time having only 8 old titles instead of about 18, published in 2014-2017 years.) Also, they have inconsistency with prices. You can see the price 499.00 dollars on my two-chapter 200-page-long Rus-Eng Dostoyevskiy “Crime and Punishment” – some weird mistake that possibly makes bad publicity for already suffering (my poor) paperback book. They made my links dead-end non-existent at this time, June 2020, but victory will be with us!
We all die one day because we are human beings. CEOs will die, and teachers will die. With big money maybe CEOs will buy their artificial imaging for future. Nobody of millions of people will know about it anyway, so what’s the point now to break our spears here?
The goal of this article is:
To notify the community about what just happened to my books since my books are spread widely in USA and in the world. (Last year one my book in English about self-publishing techniques authored still by Zoia Sproesser, since I found it unworthy to reedit as Zoia Eliseyeva, was bought massively for English pounds and Euros in Europe. I guess somebody taught a self-publishing class with that. So it was one time more or less big royalty. Majorly, like I said, my monthly royalties are quite low.)
To let my readers know that I remain myself – a very active, adjusting to the time educator: I teach languages, and I continue writing. If somebody is a writer, they write. They write their thoughts that are pouring out of every thinking educated knowledgeable writer. Let them frauds be frauds. Normal people will remain normal people and will not do plagiarism. Plagiarism is boring like hell (pardon my French)! Give me a fresh thought, a fresh joke from a real person. I do not have a bestseller about vampires, but I do have my two websites and my profile is public on all public platforms, and my UTube is filled with my creations. My voice exists and it can be quite easily found in audio/video and written creations.
To notify other banned authors about my case, about what happened to me, a published author of over 18-20 titles since around August 2010. Let them not be discouraged by the ban, but continue their writing finding other publishing platforms. There are plenty on internet. I am tying to find a free one or low-cost one as CreateSpace was. I am creating my books myself, from Front and Back covers, to inside file in pdf or document file. If my texts are all over internet to read, and one can see my texts exposed to tease customers to buy products – so let it be. Where is justice in this world, anyway? So, why to worry. Relax, and continue your life, find new, less corrupted people or organizations to deal with. Learn a lesson. Share your experiences in your blog or on your site, or on a public platform page. I just wrote on my FB page a couple of extended kind of “diary notes”. Like I said, writers will write, and grabbers will grab. And robbers will rob, and frauds will fraud. We cannot be upset over something we cannot control.
Thank you for reading me. Zoia Eliseyeva, June 3, 2020 from California, USA. In Russian my full name is Елисеева Зоя Владимировна. I am an educator living in USA for 25 years. I have an extensive UTube channel named zoiacalifornia (only around 2 thousand subscribers: honest one-teacher education does not sell) where my 2 universities’ diplomas are posted (Russian BA, and American Master’s Degree in Education, rather Educational Counseling for Community Colleges). Let’s not confuse me with other Russian people, who may have the same last name and who live all over Russia and may be in other countries too.
Good luck to all readers of this site!
I am enclosing here a song. It is a historical poem by Valeriy Bryusov, a famous Russian poet-symbolist (beginning of 20th century) about love, that he obviously translated from Armenian language poem dated back to the famous Farsi-Armenian-Azerbaijan-Georgian poet of 18th century Sayat-Nova. Valeriy Bryusov is highly valued by Armenian culture institutions for his contribution to popularize Armenian texts for Russian readers. It is the most beautiful poem with its brilliantly fine and rich vocabulary. I am singing it in Russian language. The melody is approximately like melodies of Armenian popular songs. Thanks to all, who devote a little bit of their personal time to read, or listen to my creations!
Some Thoughts About AI – Artificial Intelligence – and Where We Are Now in
May 2020
I am the kind of person who does simultaneously
4-5 tasks, working on PC, a regular desktop computer, or a laptop. I am not
talking here about IPads and all variants of tablets – they are inconvenient,
unpredictable, insecure, and I prefer to keep them turned off after I quickly
do what I need on them. I know many people will be surprised, but a cell
telephone is in the same category as “all variants”. Sorry, cell!
So, working on a PC, I am dowloading a 25MB my
own video from my yahoo email, and it goes so slow, that I am opening my German
class text and starting editing it.
So my thoughts on Artificial Intelligence are:
1
Aren’t all these downloads of average size file like
25MB supposed to be a matter of the past and be very quick?
2
If a regular person is doing a few intellectual
tasks at the same time, will AI creation do the same? And with that, experience
different emotions, and simultaneously look into other things. For example,
suddenly stop and change the activity because something more important just
came up, like a mailer brought a box to the house, and I jumped up and ran out
to the front door to see if it is for me?
3
Can we possibly create more complicated things,
like workable and serviceable AI, if our internet connection is still shaky and
pending? With all the space we have on the planet and out of it?
Isn’t the internet supposed to be free already?
4
What’s the point of the turn-around screen
feature when you read a simple pdf book on a tablet, if during turn-around it
loses the page I am reading and I have to scroll every time all from the top
beginning of the book to the page I need, that takes about 2 irritating
minutes?
5
Are all the imperfections with electronic devices
and their functioning directly connect to the summarizing knowledge of creating
a faster thinking device, named AI, that will be imitation of a human being?
6
I have some – sorry “my French” –
stupid reader, or notebook at home, that I never use. It is good only for a few
tasks, and it is too slow. How many of these stupid electronic devices we have
that we don’t use? Why they keep creating them? (Money, I know. This bad
commodity of human race).
7
Why do I need an AI-robot that looks like me? Isn’t
it freaky? Does a scientist who works with such a robot have psychological
issues of self-importance that is blown out of proportion? Until now I have
seen at least two women who work with a robot who is their spit-copy. One was a
stand up, and the second was a lab scientist. These are women at about 39 years
old.
Aren’t they are going to be irritated when the
robot remains the same age and they look worse in 5 years, older, not as young?
I have many questions about AI and I decided to
start this article to put down my thoughts. Things documented may lead to
something interesting. Things not written can be forgotten and they will never
lead to anything. They are waste of human brain’s time.
Introduction:
This mini-lecture, advice, is first written as a comment under my UTube video “SOR JUANA TRILINGUAL SPA ENG RUS POEMA 145 17TH CENTURY” published on January 29 2020. It can be easily found in my UTube channel “zoiacalifornia” just if searched chronologically. It is such an unpleasant nuisance in this case: when published as a video. The only way to correct is is a very long one. I have to unpublish the video and redo the video. I am not going to do it. I will just issue the awareness comment under the video and on my site. It is an important point to remember for self-publishers. I have a book on self-publishing that was written about eight years ago. Since then the technical approach in self-publishing has changed. The essence of my change, for example, is that I do not have anymore that extremely comfortable and easy publishing internet-platform which I used for seven years. Now I have to self-publish using the rules and regulations of Amazon/Kindle platforms – something, that I have never done since 2018, the year when the big switch happened. At the moment, I am collecting, preparing two or three files (English, Russian, and dual-language), which I intend to publish eventually.
The topic I am discussing here could be easily added to my book on self-publishing, as a fresh reminder of the importance of the issue.
Re: the Above Mentioned Video In Russian language version (blue color) there is a misprint in the third line from the end. The letter “a” is missing in the ending of the adjective “staromodnaya” (старомодная). This proves once more that one pair of eyes (mine in this case) can go through the text five-seven times and be missing the misprint. Usually I never have anybody to ask to reread my work. I do everything myself. And this is a customary occurrence that I see my misprints in a published version. I apologize for this one!
About a month ago I posted my story in Russian language on a Russian internet site “proza.ru”.
What a surprise I had when I started rereading my story from that site and I discovered that I had a misprint in a root vowel of the verb “to lie in the sun” (загорать).
I felt so bad about it, that I created a little lecture on the topic and posted it here, on zoiacalifornia (UTube), and I went to the site inside my author’s box, and corrected it there too.
Mistakes and misprints happen, happen, happen. If it is one person (author) who can correct them, he or she needs to review his work over and over again, after publishing included.
Thank you for reading my little lecture about misprints of self-publishing and self-editing.
Zoia Eliseyeva
February 15, 2020
California, USA
All URLs on Gravatar are based on the use of the hashed value of an email address. Images and profiles are both accessed via the hash of an email, and it is considered the primary way of identifying an identity within the system. To ensure a consistent and accurate hash, the following steps should be taken to create a hash:
Trim leading and trailing whitespace from an email address
Force all characters to lower-case
md5 hash the final string
As an example, let’s say we start with “MyEmailAddress@example.com ” (note the trailing space which our hypothetical user entered by mistake). If we md5 encode that string directly, we get the following (in PHP):
I have created about 12 or so videos of Beginning Arabic language, for Russian speakers, on my main UTube channel “zoiacalifornia”. Additionally, I posted a few fairy-tales (in Russian language) from the compilation “Arabian Nights” (“Тысяча и одна ночь”), devoted to Arabic culture.
Although I am not able currently to devote time to my interest to Arabic, nevertheless, my dream remains. When I am older, and I have more free time on my hands, I hope to find a nice Arabic girl, or a young woman, who would be living not far from me (in California or Arizona, I suppose), and who would be willing to tutor me forever Arabic language. I miss Arabic very much, but life is life. It has its priorities.
I know a very nice young woman from Egypt who lives and works near a community college in California, where I have been employed on and off, for years, teaching English to immigrants. Will it be she or another girl – who knows, we cannot predict future. I have never shared this dream with anybody. Here it it is. I am sharing it with the visitors of this site.
Of course, I am dreaming about learning more of French and Italian, and at least some basics of Portuguese. There is not enough lifetime for my dreams. They are overwhelming. And they may change as time passes.
Arabian Nights told in Russian language. Fifth Night.
Arabic Alphabet for speakers of Russian language. Lesson 1.
I hope that Russian-speaking parents of young children are able to tell the difference between correct, good Russian language and bad, illiterate one. I now, by chance, came across a site where I saw a children’s fairy-tale posted in a bad, illiterate Russian language. I emphasize, that I am not a political person, and I do not have any favoritism towards any countries, however, I have to mention that the site I am mentioning here is from Ukraine. It is seen from the site’s address. I understand that the creators have already lost the good command of Russian language, however they want to use it to attract the visitors. It is a shame when people cannot edit their own texts and are unaware of their bad quality. With this comment I just want to warn the readers, especially the young parents who teach their children – please be aware of the existence of the bad quality texts on internet. Educate yourself! Go to educated, reliable sources. Do not read to your children distorted language. Russian language is rich and beautiful. One has to learn it, and appreciate its value.
Надеюсь, что родители, которые читают своим детям сказки с интернета умеют различить плохое качество текста от хорошего. Я сейчас набрела в интернете на один сайт детских сказок и неприятно удивилась ужасному тексту сказки на русском языке. Язык исковеркан, отвратительные речевые обороты. Хочется предупредить, что есть и такие безграмотные сайты. Я не хочу делать никаких нападок ни на какую страну в особенности, но все-таки замечу, что сайт тот был с Украины. Это можно заметить по интернетному адресу. Видимо, у людей осталось какое-то плохое знание русского языка и они не стесняются выставлять это на всеобщее обозрение.
Zoia Eliseyeva on February 20, 2019 (California, USA)
August 9, 2020 – this page is under construction now. I am transferring the useful info from here to my new Page BOOKS FOR SALE with “Buy Now” buttons. In the light of the fact that ALL my books now being taken from me by amazon and its distributors, like Ingram, AbeBooks, B n N, Book Depository and many other book vendors, big and small, across the world. We are not talking about best-sellers here. We are talking about educational books based on classics in a few languages with my notes on vocabulary, grammar, and culture.
All what is follows below this paragraph here currently is being reviewed by me and, basically, not for a reader but for me – I do not want to lose valuable dates or facts since I am now in this big case with amazon fighting for my intellectual property. In two words, what is going on if you have not read my articles that are scattered here and on public platforms for the last two months – 1) I, the author, Zoia Eliseyeva (Sproesser before 2014) do not have access to buy my author’s copies. I need to buy my own books from retailers. 2) Distributors have my all files from amazon (CreateSpace in the years 2010-2017) now and they are actively advertising them and selling them – in USA and world-wide. You can see 25 different titles of mine on AbeBooks advertised by them on their 5 different countries/languages websites. It is a big pirating operation going on with Abe, and my case/claim is on the desk of their copyright department. This is after two-month humiliating for the author correspondence with them – asking, begging them to stop selling my books. My books can be in two, three, four, or five languages. It makes a lot of sense to sell my books at European, Asian, Arabic, and South American countries of the world. I just ordered a few of my 1st edition books from different retailers by retail prices – specifically to trace the process of pirating my new books while pocketing the profits by the above mentioned “businesses”. Does it qualify for a business – to take live author’s files, and sell them without sharing with the author? When I asked numerous times those businesses to take off my books from their sales – they answer negatively every time. Selling my name and my brains and openly denying to communicate with me – how about those apples? Zoia Eliseyeva on August 9, 2020 from USA
ARCHIVE: will be removed soon after organizing all info
I have a few books that I authored – at home. They are for sale.
Mostly they are 1st editions of my books that have my previous last name on them, so the author will look like “Zoia Sproesser”. In 2014 I divorced Sproesser and took back my maiden name – Eliseyeva. After December 2014 I re-published a few of my books with “Zoia Eliseyeva” as author on them. However, I did not republish all of my books, that are about 20 by now, so a reader can find my books with the both last names online. I tried to discontinue the 1st edition with “Zoia Sproesser” on it for those titles which I republished as Zoia Eliseyeva.
At home I do have a few books of the 1st editions, like “Chekhov and Goncharov – Russian-English”, or “Moidodir – Russian-English”, or The Masque of Red Death – 5 languages (Eng-Ger-Fre-Spa-Rus). Actually, “The Masque…” I created already after December 2014, so the name on it can only be Zoia Eliseyeva.
I will edit this article to enclose the list of my books on sale with prices. I just wanted to let the visitor of my site know that I do not have drastic* measures with customers like Amazon does. If you order my book, I will just send it to you from a local post-office with the shipping charge as $3.00. It is hard to tell exact shipping charge until one is at a post office with that book, however, for one book it is unlikely will be higher than that.
I will start the list with the book that I have mentioned.
LIST of my books for sale:
Attention, visitors! My List will be adding, as I have time. I just started here with my first book. (Jan. 3 2019) The list will go from down to up. You will always see the last post on the top, and the very first you will find on the bottom.
3.
$11.00 including S/H. (Lower price than on Amazon). Ships from CA or AZ within USA.
5 LANGUAGES BOOK ENGLISH AD EDGAR POE ENG GER FRE SPA RUS
5 Languages Book ENGLISH – GERMAN – FRENCH – SPANISH – RUSSIAN: The Masque of Red Death (Story by Edgar Allan Poe) (Five Languages Books) (Volume 2) (Paperback)
by Zoia Eliseyeva (Author)
Book Description:
The five languages book “The Masque of the Red Death” is devoted to Edgar Poe’s story – a rich multilingual reading and studying experience! It is recommended for students, professors, and all people (adults or teenagers), who are interested in the presented languages: English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian. The languages belong to three different language groups: Germanic, Romance, Slavic. The comparison of the translations will bring to a reader an incomparable experience of language study while enjoying reading the complete text story by the brilliant unique American author. Take it with you on an uninhabited island! Your life will be more entertaining than that of the Robinson Crusoe, because it will take you a long time to figure out the five languages, unless you have already devoted significant time and effort to each of the five. For the convenience of the reader who wants to concentrate on just one language, each of the 5 translations is also reproduced, at the back of the book, in an uninterrupted text format. The book also has some entertaining multilingual comparative vocabulary exercises with the answers – across the five languages. Zoia Eliseyeva (Sproesser, Burkhart by marriages) has been writing since 1996, and her multilingual books (over 20) have been contributing to the language study in USA, Russia, and around the world for quite a few years. Zoia has Master’s Degree in Education and has been appreciated by her students of English, Russian, and Spanish languages in Europe, USA, and Mexico.
5 LANG BOOK RUSSIAN EDGAR POE ENG GER FRE SPA RUS
ISBN-13: 978-1544155128 ISBN-10: 1544155123
5 LANGUAGES BOOK FRENCH AD EDGAR POE ENG GER FRE SPA RUS
Price: $11.00 – includes Shipping/Handling, Ships from Arizona or California.
2.
Russian-English Dual Language Book Based on the Masterpiece of the British Humorous Classical Novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome… 1st Edition. March 2011. 62 pages
This Russian language UTube extract is read by Zoia Eliseyeva who is a native speaker of Russian language.
Here I have a rhetorical question: Why is the Kindle edition 2 times shorter in number of pages than a paperback? Because they “crumple” all the text? In that case, this parallel text may not lay out well in e-format, unless e-format pages are 2 times longer/bigger in size. The whole idea of English and Russian parallel text of this book is to see simultaneously English paragraph and the corresponding to it Russian paragraph.
I am very sorry for the formatting of this text – it is uncontrollable! I try to click Block, I try to click Document and the pasted text is not possible to format better. WordPress obviously thinks that a simple mortal teacher has to be a computer engineer familiar with HTML formatting. I once had a textbook of HTML language in my hands, and I assure you it was far from enjoyable reading. I fell into boredom on the second huge page of that textbook and stopped reading. One cannot make himself or herself learn that one finds boring to death. That’s for sure. January 6, 2019. Yours truly, ZE PS I cannot even put “Yours truly” on a new line! If I try to make such a brave step – I am being immediately kicked out of this strange red brick color I have chosen for this paragraph. 😀 С улыбкой по жизни! 😀
Dual-Language Book Chekhov and Goncharov, 56 pages, $9.00 total, Shipping included.
Price, Shipping/Handling, Payment Explained
The price includes a partial self-cost of the book from Publishing company plus Shipping/Handling. Compare: Amazon just (Jan. 3 2019) charged $11.28 the buyer of this book, of which $6.08 belongs to me. So, Amazon earns 5 dollars on the book, while I, the author, hardly 1 dollar (I bought my books from the Publisher first, then yesterday I sent it myself to that buyer; Amazon did only advertising in this case just charging me (the seller through AmazonSeller the big fees – about 4.25 for this particular book). With $9.00 directly to me from a buyer I will earn about 3 dollars for my own book, which, by the way does not make much sense, because the self-cost of the book – to order from a publisher – is higher than that. Well, I have the books, that I ordered a while ago, so I want to sell those. After that – we will see what happens. We can plan many things, but life (or Amazon) plans for us something else that we do not expect.
Figuring all it by ourselves. Thank you, Google, for the info!
Thank you, thank you! Without you, Google, I would be quite informationless. And you do not charge my credit cards without my permission like Amazon does. And you do not ignore author’s concern when an author is trying to speak to you. And you don’t treat intellectual property of other people as your own.
By the way, in about year 2003 or 2004 a PhD professor in Fullerton University (or maybe it was San Bernardino? I studied in both) strictly said to us, Master Degree students: “Do not research Google for your reference! The grade for your research paper will be lowered if I notice that. Research only academic journals!” Well, well, I guess that professor uses Google now, in 2019 (I can’t believe this digit of a year already!) for her research! 😀
And, since I am here on a Google note, I want to add, that one cannot compare the quality of Google translation in the beginning of 2000s with the current quality of Google translation from language to the other foreign language. Even the pronunciation is made by a native speaker of that language. No matter that it sounds a bit electronic, like a robot sometimes, however we cannot go without mentioning great improvement in that area. How many people Google helped!
__
My Comment on August 9, 2020:
Improvement of amazon in May 2019? Hmm! In May 2020 they cut me off from my book portal and from my royalties.
Amazon!
Give me my royalties or remove all my titles (25 titles at least) from your wide web sales!!!
Authors’ Lives and Fair Business with Their Books Matter!
Zoia Eliseyeva on August 9. 2020
_________________________________
**Improvement of Amazon (written on May 18, 2019)
Lately I have noticed a few improved features on Amazon compared to those faults that I described here 3 months ago below this note, marked with one asterisk.
What has improved?
They stopped charging my credit card.
They improved the Author’s Central page.
They corrected the price of my 5-language book based on Edgar Poe to the real price that this book is worth. Thank you, Amazon, for improvements! If they continue, I will remove my previous grumpy critics on Amazon’s behavior. Now, I want still have it for a while, as a record of what has happened quite recently.
* drastic measures of Amazon (written on January 3, 2019):
They charge $14.20 monthly fee for PrimeAmazon, even if a person did not apply for Prime. They may just sneak into the two credit cards of a person (Just happened to me).
They do not ask the author about the price on his/her book. Amazon just consider himself (itself) the rightful possessor of all authors’ rights and intellectual property (just happened to me that they priced one of my books 3 times lower imposing the Prime membership with its purchase).
Amazon rudely violates fair business practices and authors’ rights, and the customer (author, seller) is helpless. I have done my research. If anybody has another opinion, be my guest to share, especially if there is a class action lawsuit against Amazon, because there are innumerous complainers whom Amazon has treated badly and who will be happy to join.
As a Russian joking song says :”And all the rest is in the complete order, my beautiful Marquise, just in the complete order!” – “А в остальном, прекрасная Маркиза, всё хорошо, всё хорошо!” 😀
If I were an artist, I would make a caricature of Amazon, where he (it) is a big-size monstrous creature with big teeth having in its hands all people, parking lots, warehouses, etc, and in the lower right corner of the picture there is a crowd of complainers, small figures of people, crying with their hands up towards the monster, asking, begging, complaining. The little tags to those people say “a businessman”, “a seller”, “a book author”, “a file creator”, and so on. This is my sketch for artists – for free! If you do it, you will express the pain of all the people (who are “We Are The People”) hurt by Amazon. 😀
I want to thank you, an unknown complainer, who just gave this sober advice that I read yesterday online: “If you have your site, don’t ever deal with Amazon”. Because of you, a smart person you are, I have this post today. Because of you, I will have my own measures applied to deal with the monster. Thank you!
This formatting of the paragraph is not very flexible. Sorry for that, my patient reader and/or visitor! By the way, the wrapping of the pasted text does not work here either very well (I am using the WordPress, their new “block” invention for formatting). It wraps the text breaking words in disorderly uncontrollable manner, so I have to do wrapping of the text manually. Thank you, visitors, for your patience and understnding, that this site is constantly under construction and improvement Zoia Eliseyeva on January 3, 2019 from AZ, USA (sometimes I may be in CA, or, occassionally traveling elsewhere).
** PayPal – I have been with PayPal for 8 or more years. Never anything bad has happened from PayPal. They do charge a fee. If you send me 9 dollars, they will probably charge a few cents fee. Not 4 dollars as Amazon does! By experience I can say that PayPal is the company we can trust with transferring money.
I know this will sound funny (in the both meanings of this definition), but I did have very bad experiences with credit card payment processing machine companies; one of them was First Data ( to remember that exact name I need to look it up in my own UTube “zoiacalifornia” where I was posting my fight with them). They were trying to continuously charge a monthly fee my small fashion store business in CA, that I closed in one year. The fight I had in Feb to May 2014! You see, with me, when bad things are over, my brain has a protective reaction: it blocks all of them from easy reach. That was the bad experience fighting that monster who lives out of deception (by their small print agreements) of small businesses. I had many complainers contacting me on my UTube posts about that fight. We, regular people, who sometimes use services of Amazon and First Data have to learn our lessons a hard way, and then we want to stay away from such traumatic, worrysome, time consuming, and health consuming experiences. Huge corporations lived, live, and will live. We, on the other hand, just need to survive through them.
WOULD NOT OPEN WELL AS AN E-BOOK BECAUSE IT IS FORMATTED AS the PHYSICAL BOOK PAGE-TO-PAGE – Language1-to-Language2
A reader who uses e-devices of all kinds and screen sizes has to keep in mind the particulars of this book. Because of them, maybe it will not open very well on any device. What are this book’s particulars or features? The format is 5×8 inches. The text takes the whole page – Russian on left side page when you open the book, the English translation is on the right side of the 2 opened pages. It is convenient ton read a physical book like this, however on a small electronic device like Android cell phone Samsung Note 7 the page sized 5×8 will not fit, so your reading of this parallel text will be disturbed by these pieces of the Russian and English pages that appear on that small screen. If you are on a big screen desktop PC, the big chance is that you can read this Kindle edition very well, since the pages will open in their full size.
This is my first book, created when we did not have many small e-devices. Later, in 2014 and after, I started formatting my parallel texts in paragraphs, so that they follow each other, instead of being on the side of each other.
