Open 53-2018

ISSN 2228-0847

EATE Estonian Association of Teachers of English

The EATE Journal Issue No. 53 August 2018 RAISE YOUR LANGUAGE LEVEL: A CHALLENGE OR AN OPPORTUNITY? Ene Peterson 1 ACCENT REDUCTION VS PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE Allison Pickering 3 IT’S GOOD TO (TED) TALK Alex Warren 5

New Zealand ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE ROLE OF A LEARNER? Kärt Leppik, Katrin Saks 35 MY KIWIANA Evi Saluveer 37

Experienced Educator

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 2018 Zinaida Jevgrafova 6

THOUGHTS ABOUT TEACHING IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE An interview with Juta Hennoste 42

BENJAMIN BERESFORD – THE FIRST ENGLISH LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TARTU Ilmar Anvelt 9

Reading Recommendation FREE TO LEARN BY PETER GRAY Helin Haga 45

PROMOTING SCOTTISH CULTURE Vaiko Välli and Eike Urke 13 CROSSING THE RIVER: A RECENT MOVE Julia Hirsch 18

100 years of friendship: Creative competition for schoolchildren

TIME Artur Alliksaar, translated by Hilary Bird

100 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP Emily Lieberg 46

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IATEFL MY #IATEFL2018 EXPERIENCE IN VERSE Erika Puusemp 22 HOW TO SURVIVE THE CHANGES IN THE ELT WORLD? Aet Sarv 24

National English Language Competition SOME ISSUES OF TRANSLATION IN TÕNU ÕNNEPALU’S PIIRIRIIK AND ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION BORDER STATE Eva Ikkonen 25 TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH IDIOMS INTO ESTONIAN AND THE USAGE OF DIFFERENT TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES Helene Vellevoog 30

THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ESTONIA – PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION Aleksandra Ratkovits 47 “OPERATION RED TREK” 1918 Julius Tarand 48

EATE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Photos by Reet Noorlaid

Tartu, 27 October 2017

Committee members ready to meet conference guests

Tiiu Vitsut from the US Embassy

Lively discussion during groupwork

Lunch-hour at MHG canteen

Booksellers from Studium

Happy to receive certificates

Estonian Association of Teachers of English www.eate.ee Chair Erika Puusemp erika.puusemp@gmail.com

Editor of OPEN! Ilmar Anvelt ilmar.anvelt@ut.ee

Current account EE331010152001597007 in SEB

RAISE YOUR LANGUAGE LEVEL: A CHALLENGE OR AN OPPORTUNITY? Ene Peterson

Chair of the Estonian Association of Foreign Language Teachers, project manager

The Estonian Association of Foreign Language Teachers received support for the preparation and implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) project “An International Examination” during the period from 1 October 2017 to 30 October 2020.

The teaching of foreign languages and the assessment of learning outcomes in foreign languages in Estonia is conducted in line with the six levels for different language skills of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The national curriculum sets the required level as the basis for the state examination in a foreign language. Students have a choice between German, English, French, or Russian language examinations. The state examination in a foreign language may be replaced by an internationally recognised language examination on the conditions established by Decree 54 of the Ministry of Education (§ 27 Sections 11 and 15) of 15 December 2015.

Now we have good news for students well as for teachers of foreign language teachers. During the following three years, at least 100 students acquiring the qualification of a foreign language teacher (either as a major or a minor) and teachers of English, French, German and Russian have the opportunity to pass an internationally recognized language examination at the level B2, C1 or C2 and get reimbursed for the examination fee. Internationally recognized language examinations in English include: First Certificate in English (FCE) B2-level; Certificate in Advanced English (CAE); Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE); the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) at least 5.5 points of the maximum result; Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) iBT; Pearson Test of English General (B2 – Level 3, C1 – Level 4, C2 – Level 5).

The project’s activities include three stages: project initiation and planning; project execution (delivering information about the project via different communication channels, organisation of information days), and reimbursement of examination fees.

To launch the project, working meetings were organized at Tallinn University, the University of Tartu and the University of Tartu Narva College in cooperation with the representatives of teacher training universities, centres of international examinations, and foreign language teachers from all over Estonia – 55 interested people altogether. The members of the leading group and contact persons were assigned, and the project schedule was worked out.

Information day in Tallinn

Much focus is put into the outreach activities in order to introduce the centres for international examinations, familiarize the examinees with the examination materials, the format and the structure of

examinations. The first information days took place in March in Tallinn, Tartu and Narva. The number of participants was surprising. 155 foreign language students and teachers of English, German, French and Russian all over Estonia participated in our first seminars. We have planned 9 more information days during the following years.

Information day in Tartu

Information day in Narva

The first steps have been made thanks to the fruitful cooperation with the representatives of centres of international examinations: Kaarin Truus, Sirle Kivihall, Gerdel-Gris Sibrik (TU Centre for International Examinations), Katriin Visamaa (Dream Foundation SA), Eha Teder (The EducationUSA Advising Centre), Anne Lind, Maria Kljujeva (Deutsches Kulturinstitut Tallinn), Helen Aedla (Goethe-Institut Estland), Ljudmila Vedina (the University of Tarty, the Russian Language Testing Centre), Triin Johanson, Mathilde Bernez (the French Institute of Estonia), Larissa Jekimova (Koolituskeskus Kastaalia OÜ), Iveta Vitola (Pearson regional manager for the Baltics); the representatives of universities Maris Saagpakk, Suliko Liiv, Liljana Skopinskaja (Tallinn University), Ene Alas (Tallinn University, Associate Professor of English Language Testing), Ülle Türk, (the University of Tartu, IELTS examiner), Oksana Palikova (the University of Tartu, TORFL examiner), Piret Kanne (DELF examiner) and many, many motivated students and teachers of foreign languages.

To take an internationally recognized language examination – a challenge or an opportunity? It is both a challenge and an opportunity. The sooner you start facing the challenge, the easier it will be to overcome.

Now it’s high time to take action.

More information: http://www.voorkeelteliit.eu/programmidprojektid

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ACCENT REDUCTION VS PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE Allison Pickering

English Language Fellow 2017/2018 United States Department of State

Secrets of 1.

2.

3.

4.

English Pronunciation Stretch vowels.

Open your mouth. Relax your jaw.

Strive for rhythm, stress, and intonation.

Pay attention to the ends of words.

We all know that for most people learning a language is a process that is part acquisition and part diligent, hard work. For some, the most frustrating part of language learning is speaking and the production of new sounds and rhythms, i.e., getting the accent right, or at least right enough that the speaker feels comfortable attempting to communicate.

Teachers know this and often spend a lot of time talking about the position of the tongue in the mouth, the placement of the sound— forward, mid, or back—or bludgeoning some poor student by making her repeat th over and over again. Using English as the example, if the third person s is omitted, or an auxiliary verb left out, an utterance is still comprehensible, but certain mispronunciations interfere with meaning. All languages have their pronunciation stumbling blocks. Chinese and Vietnamese have tones many speakers of other languages can’t even hear; Russian and Spanish roll their Rs; English has the dreaded th and the flat, short-a vowel sound, among others. But if comprehensibility and communication are the goals, there are, not necessarily simpler, but more important things to focus on before perfecting phonemes. I do not advocate for eliminating the teaching of any sound. Of course, we teach pronunciation of discrete sounds, but there are aspects of English pronunciation that are more important to comprehensibility than the perfect th (voiced or unvoiced).

Drawing on the work of accent reduction specialist and trainer David Stern, we can identify four characteristics of the English language that are relatively easy to work with and remind students of as they speak. Outside of the classroom, when a person attempts to say something in English and is met with a blank stare or a simple “Huh?”, restating the utterance while employing these four “secrets of English pronunciation” will often solve the problem.

They are 1. Stretch vowels.

2. Relax your jaw.

3. Strive for rhythm, stress, and intonation.

4. Pay attention to the ends of words.

Let’s look at each “secret” more in depth.

1. Stretch vowels. Native-speaker spoken English, regardless of country of origin, stretches stressed vowels. As simple an utterance as Hi or Hello comes out more like Hiee and Hellooo. A multi-syllabic word such as family or watermelon stretches the stressed syllable and there is a secondary, lesser stretch of the last syllable as the intonation drops to end the word. Compare produce the noun and produce the verb. Produce the noun stresses and stretches the first syllable. Produce the verb 3

stresses and stretches the last. Negatives are conveyed by first stretching and stressing the negative auxiliary. I can go = I kn go. I can’t go = I cAn’t go.

2. Relax your jaw. Spoken English is loose in the jaw. Saying certain vowel sounds such as the ah sound in hot, jaw, or father without opening your mouth distorts the vowel sound. Some languages do not require speakers to open their mouths very wide. Russian and Japanese are two examples.

3. Strive for rhythm, stress, and intonation. All languages have their own rhythm and rules regarding stress. Most can be easily identified by listening to children’s nursery rhymes. English adds an added layer with a complicated intonation. Spoken English changes pitch every syllable. David Stern refers to the Jump up, step down nature of English. Stressed syllables are louder and higher in pitch than non-stressed syllables. Each syllable following the stressed syllable reduces in pitch and loudness until the voice jumps up in pitch and volume on the next stressed syllable. As an example, take the sentence, I’m very happy to meet you. A graphic representation of the changes in pitch looks like this:

Every syllable changes pitch. The jump up occurs on the next important word.

Some languages, such as Swedish and Estonian, employ a lilting intonation similar to that used in English. Speakers of these languages are more easily understood when they begin speaking English than people whose native language does not use intonation to convey meaning.

The concept also applies to longer phrases and sentences. In lower levels when teachers employ more repetition and drills, it is the end of the sentence that gets lost. A simple technique to mitigate this problem is backward buildup.

Backward buildup is a technique to help students say longer phrases or sentences. Model the statement and then conduct a repetition drill starting from the last words in the statement.

Teacher: There’s a pencil on the floor next to the chair leg. (Say 3 times) Students, say, Chair leg.

Students: chair leg T: next to the chair leg Ss: next to the chair leg T: on the floor next to the chair leg Ss: on the floor next to the chair leg T: There’s a pencil on the floor next to the chair leg.

Ss: There’s a pencil on the floor next to the chair leg.

There is a high probability that you will have to repeat some of the chunks more than once. It is worth the time and effort as it makes it more likely that the students will be able to repeat the full 4

target phrase. The advantage to working from the end of the sentence is that the repetitions better retain natural rhythm, stress and intonation.

4. Pay attention to the ends of words. Not all languages have problems with all four characteristics. #4 is a good example. Pay attention to the ends of words is most relevant to speakers of languages whose words are more likely to end in vowels. The natural inclination for speakers of such languages is to end with an open mouth sound. Consequently, it takes targeted practice to get a beginning Spanish speaker to sound the letter m at the end of a word like name or time, and a Vietnamese speaker to put the s sound on the end of rice or toss

Applying this information in the classroom is not difficult. Keep a poster of the four “secrets” on the wall. Email me and I’ll send you the file. It cost me €1.5 for poster and lamination.

The first time you use it, go over each secret with a little more attention than in subsequent uses. Make it its own lesson. Later as you prepare the students for, or are in the middle of, oral practice—whether drills, echo reading, open conversation, or project presentations—refer to the poster to remind students of the points. Demonstrate the vowels that need stretching or jaw dropping. Model the rhythm, stress and intonation.

Clap or snap your fingers, tap the table to help with rhythm, stress, and intonation. Have the students repeat what you model from your content.

Most importantly, have fun and teach with love.

IT’S GOOD TO (TED)1 TALK Alex Warren

National Geographic Learning Teacher Trainer

If I told you that TED Talks started in the same year that Michael Jackson released Thriller, and Ghostbusters, Gremlins and The Karate Kid were some of the year’s biggest films, what would you think? Would you believe me? TED might be hugely popular and influential now as a purveyor of 21st century creative thinking and for spreading ideas, but back at the very first TED conference no one really blinked an eye, even though it showcased the CD and was one of the first outings of the Apple Mac. In actual fact it wasn’t until around 2006 (a staggering 22 years after the first talk) that the TED juggernaut started to pick up speed and become globally renowned. It was hardly a coincidence that this was also the year that YouTube began to take off. And then someone, somewhere decided that it would be a good idea to use TED Talks in their classes. This in turn started its own movement of teachers using them to teach English and the skills of English. And why not?

They make a fantastic resource for learning and teaching. Indeed, it could be argued that there are as many reasons to use TED in the classroom as there are TED Talks (which is 2,300 and counting).

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TED – Technology, Entertainment, Design

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The topics are contemporary and cutting edge, they’re interesting, they’re relevant and they’re inspiring.

Don’t be mistaken, you can find TED Talks for any topic covered in a course book, and as such they’re a great way to go ‘off piste’ while still being ‘on topic’. In this respect they make learning English ‘real’ for students. If you didn’t know already, English lessons are more than just learning English nowadays – they’re about learning about the real world and preparing for it through English. And that’s just the talks. The speakers themselves are diverse, engaging and truly global – you don’t have to be Bono or Bill Gates to be a TED speaker, just someone with a great idea that’s worth spreading. And in many respects TED speakers represent the epitome of what it is to be a 21st century global citizen – they are critical and creative thinkers who communicate their ideas brilliantly, and as such are role models to be listened to, inspired by and followed.

But how about linguistically? Well, TED Talks also provide great input for language acquisition and the development of authentic listening skills. As we all know, language learning requires substantial comprehensible input and there’s no questioning the fact that TED Talks are jam-packed with that. Yes, they’re challenging for EFL students, but so is listening in real life. So shouldn’t we be helping them by giving them the practice they need? Of course we should. They also act as great models for speaking – these guys are the experts at public speaking – as well as being the perfect springboard for discussion, critical thinking and follow-up project work. In other words, they get students talking. And they really do. TED Talks are talked about – just see how many times they’ve been viewed online. Therefore, by using them in class we’re giving our students a platform from which to participate in a global community.

So, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t “Why should I be using TED Talks in my classes?”; rather it should be “Why shouldn’t I be using TED Talks in my classes?”

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 2018 Zinaida Jevgrafova

Tallinn Jewish School

The 10th National Public Speaking Competition run by the EnglishSpeaking Union of Estonia was held at Tallinn Secondary School of Science on 7 March 2018. This year each participating school had the right to register two students and 35 participants competed in the National Final of the NPSC representing different schools of Estonia from Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Narva, Kohtla-Järve, Viljandi, Jõhvi, Jüri, Ahtme, Viimsi, Türi, Kunda. About a hundred supporters and guests came to enjoy the speeches prepared in advance on one of the seven themes, which were announced in November 2017:

• The best way to predict the future is to invent it • Eesti 100 – Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country

• How social media is changing our democracy and the ability to have meaningful relationships with each other

• The next 100 years of British-Estonian Friendship • All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

• Does education produce greedy people? What does?

• Is perception the new reality?

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James Melville, the US Ambassador to Estonia, Ene Saar, the headmaster of the school, and Zinaida Jevgrafova, ESUE Chair and Convenor of the NPSC welcomed the audience and wished the participants good luck.

In the first round the speakers had to deliver their 5-min speeches on one of the seven themes. Then they answered up to 3-4 questions from the audience. The judges had to choose the four best speakers of a heat. In the second round, the semi-final, the 12 winners of their heats had to prepare a 3-min speech on a topic chosen by them 15 minutes before that. No question-and-answer session followed this round.

The following participants progressed to the semi-final (student, school, teacher): 1.-2. Kertu Saul and Agnes Milla Bereczki, Viimsi School, Merike Kaus 3.-4. Tanel Marran and Markus Aksli, Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium, Annika Rego 5. Jegor Rozanov, Jõhvi Gymnasium, Jelena Hmeljova 6. Nastya Zateeva, Ahtme Gymnasium, Jelena Hmeljova 7. Viktoria Iškina , Narva Keeltelütseum, Vasily Nosov 8. Maksym Zarodniuk, Audentes IB School, Margarita Hanschmidt 9. Jevgeni Smirnov, Tallinna Humanitaargümnaasium, Tatjana Koltsova 10. Katariina Emilia Kõiv, Tallinn English College, Bibi Raid 11. Anniki Mikelsaar, Tartu Miina Härma Gymnasium, Tiia Sevtšuk 12. Marko Malling, Türi Co-educational Gymnasium, Aet Sarv

Judging a heat

US Ambassador James Melville

All rounds of the Public Speaking competition were judged by qualified professionals, who are diplomats, teachers, professional public speakers, communication experts, former winners. Their decision was made according to the Judges’ Guidelines of the ESU IPSC Handbook 2018. Here are the key points that were taken into account: 1) Expression and delivery – use of voice, audibility, use of language, appearance on stage, use of gestures.

2) Reasoning and evidence – original approach to topic, clear structure (opening, body, ending), main ideas supported by evidence/examples, argument / alternative viewpoints, contact with audience, clear purpose.

3) Organisation and prioritisation – creative structure, strong introduction and conclusion, signposting – arguments categorised/labelled, easy to follow and understand, managing time.

4) Listening and response – handling questions, courtesy, originality, relevance of the answer.

According to the judges’ decision the best speakers of the

Winner Markus Aksli

Runner-up Tanel Marran 7

National Final 2018 were: the winner – Markus Aksli, Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium; the runner-up – Tanel Marran, Tartu Jaan Poska Gymnasium.

We are really grateful to all our supporters: the US Embassy, the British Embassy, the Canadian Embassy, the British Council, Tallinn City Government, and many others. Our special thanks go to Kristi Vahenurm and Tallinn Secondary School of Science who provided an extremely hospitable atmosphere and made the long day much more pleasant for everyone.

Markus Aksli represented Estonia at the International Public Speaking Competition 2018 in London in May. The International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC), now in its 38th year, is the largest public speaking competition in the world, involving over 600,000 young people in more than 50 countries.

The final week of the competition brought together 53 young speakers, each the winner of their own national public speaking competition, to London for a week of cultural exchange and public speaking contests. The competition is one of the clearest manifestations of the goals of the English-Speaking Union: providing students with an opportunity to develop the vital skills that enable them to be confident communicators, and promoting international engagement and understanding.

Winners and judges of the Estonian competition

Finalists of the international competition

Markus progressed to the final where he competed against fellow students from China, Lebanon, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and the USA. The finalists, all aged between 16 and 20, spoke on the theme ‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it’. The judges ‘had the hardest of work’ to choose the best speaker because all of them were fantastic they said. On Friday, 18 May, Johanne Jazmin Tan Jabines from the Philippines won the International Public Speaking 2018 Grand Final.

As for Markus, he was one of the best. Many people favoured him more than the winner: “I was impressed with your speaker at the finals. Difficult subject well delivered. I had him as first choice with Philippines second,” one of them wrote to me. However, there is only one winner and the judges’ decision is final.

Participants of the international competition

Alan Johnson, former Home Secretary and Chair of Judges at the final, addressed the young people after the final and praised them for their eloquence, confidence and intelligence. He ended with, “I think that we have seen some of our future leaders and I’m enormously encouraged by that.”

We are very proud of Markus and I am really grateful to everyone who helped to make it happen.

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BENJAMIN BERESFORD – THE FIRST ENGLISH LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TARTU Ilmar Anvelt

Editor of OPEN!

Teaching of English at the University of Tartu began soon after the university was reopened in 1802. The first lecturer, Doctor Benjamin Beresford, was appointed to his post on 20 May 1803, i.e. approximately a year after the reopening of the university. From March to August 1804, he also fulfilled the duties of the lecturer of the Italian language.

Beresford resigned from office on 22 April 1806 (Levitsky 1903: 614, Verzeichnis 1803: 4, 1804: 8).

Throughout the whole tsarist period, practical language teaching was not the responsibility of any of the faculties of the university, but the schedule of lectures included a special section “Lectures on Languages and Arts” (Lectionen in Sprachen und Künsten, from the end of the 19th century, when the university transferred to the Russian language, Уроки по языкамъ и искусствамъ). In 1803, when Beresford took office, the other languages taught were Russian (the Russian lecturer also acted as translator for the University Council), German and French; the Italian lecturer had not arrived yet. By 1804, Latvian and Estonian had been added to the languages taught; the Italian lecturer was still missing – most probably, this was the reason B. Beresford had to take care of teaching Italian as well (Verzeichnis 1803: 4, 1804: 8). When he took up teaching Italian, his 500-rouble annual salary was doubled (Shelley 1936: 479).

Although Benjamin Beresford stayed in Tartu only briefly, his life and career before and after that is also worth of attention.

He was born in the village of Bewdley (22 miles southwest of Birmingham) on the banks of the Severn in 1750. He graduated from Oxford University and became a pastor. He had an unfortunate love affair that included an elopement to Gretna Green – a village near the Scottish border that used to be a popular destination for runaway lovers due to differences in English and Scottish marriage laws (Shelley 1936: 477).

This marriage brought about a court case because of which Beresford ended up in the prison of Châtelet in Paris and King’s Bench prison in the London Borough of Southwark (Shelley 1936: 478).

Thereafter, he travelled in Italy and Sicily, Holland, Switzerland and France, and finally settled in Berlin in 1796. There he became English tutor to Queen Louise (1776–1810) of Prussia and several other persons (Shelley 1936: 478). A laudatory poem has preserved that Beresford wrote for Queen Louise’s 25th birthday in 1801. Below, there are a few lines from it: … To worth that shines untarnished on a throne, In fair Louisa’s bright example shown!

O, formed alike to grace the courtly scene, Or smile the sweetest on the village-green, To charm alike the heart, the eye, the ear, …

He finishes this glorifying poem with the line “That Praise for Truth is but another name” (The Poetical Register 1814: 384).

Along with teaching, he was engaged in translating German literature into English, for which he was commended during his lifetime and afterwards. The English literary journal The German Museum writes, “Mr Beresford has published masterly translations of the best productions of the German Parnassus, which in their English garb display as much of the spirit of the originals as translations possibly can retain” (The German Museum 1800: 12). Philip Allison Shelley, a professor of Pennsylvania State University, 9

mentions in his 1936 article Beresford’s “sterling service as pioneer literary intermediary between Germany and England” (Shelley 1936: 476).

The best-known of his translations seems to have been The German Erato or a Collection of Favourite Songs, first published in Berlin in 1797 and in several later editions. (Erato was the muse of love poetry in ancient Greek mythology.) The book begins with a dedication to the Duchess of York as “a lady highly eminent in the musical art, and the natural patroness of German composition”. The texts have been published with their original music and contain, among others, a Duet and a Song by Mozart, and some Songs by Haydn (The German Erato 1797).

B. Beresford’s personal file in the National Archives of Estonia

Another noteworthy translation by him is August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue’s The most remarkable year in the life of Augustus von Kotzebue, containing an account of his exile into Siberia, and of the other extraordinary events which happened to him in Russia, which was published in three volumes in London in 1802.

August von Kotzebue (1761–1819) was a well-known author and dramatist who spent a part of his life in Estonia and founded a German-language theatre in Tallinn. Some of his plays have been translated into Estonian, e.g. Kangur (Narva, 1905), Armukade naine (Tallinn, 1929), Kes teab, mis tarvis see hää on (Tallinn, 1930). One of his sons was the famous explorer Otto von Kotzebue (1787–1846) who circumnavigated the world twice.

August von Kotzebue made an agreement with the Covent Garden Theatre in London to furnish them annually with a considerable number of new plays, which were to be translated and adapted for the English stage by Beresford. Due to “the ingratitude of theatre directors”, however, the project failed (Shelley 1936: 489).

Although Beresford complains that “good musical composers are not always good judges of poetry” (Shelley 1936: 483), his translations from German also include such famous pieces as Friedrich Schiller’s “An die Freude” (“Ode to Joy”), which was published together with its translation into Latin and several other languages (Shelley 1936: 486). Ludvig van Beethoven used Schiller’s poem in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony, although this was written much later (1822–1824) than Beresford did his translation.

The tune (without the text) is the official anthem of the European Union.

For his literary activities, the University of Halle (the present Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg) awarded him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Master of the Liberal Arts (Shelley 1936: 479).

Books adapted for language learners existed even in these early days. There is the 1797 edition of The Vicar of Wakefield by the Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) with accent marks on stressed syllables (Accentuirt von J. Ebers) to help learners to acquire the English pronunciation. The following is an example of the text with accents: “Shé prìded hersélf àlso upón bèing án éxcellent contrìver ín hóusekèeping…” (Goldsmith 1797: 2) The preface to the second edition of the book was written by B. Beresford who has signed it as “englischer Geistlicher und Lehrer seiner Muttersprache bei Preuss. Hofe” (an English cleric and teacher of his mother tongue at the Prussian court). He says in the preface that, in cooperation with a German scholar, he is working on a new English-German and German-English pocket dictionary. (Goldsmith 1797: iii). At the end of the book, there is also an advertisement of the new dictionary where it is said to be “containing a more select and copious choice of words than is usually found in works of a similar size, with accents as a guide to pronunciation in both languages” (ibid. 312).

Unfortunately, the materials available to me did not show whether the dictionary was really published.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, in 1803 Beresford was invited to work at the newly reopened University of Tartu, then called Kaiserliche Universität zu Dorpat. While the name of the first rector of the university, Georg Friedrich Parrot, is generally known to us, it might be worth mentioning that the curator of the university (and of the Tartu Educational District) at that time was Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831), a German dramatist and novelist (Shelley 1936: 479). His drama Sturm und Drang 10

(1776) gave the name to the whole proto-romantic movement in German literature.

During his stay in Tartu, Bereford seems to have been engaged mostly in teaching, and the only original literary creation that is known to date from that time is the following poem, which renders his impressions of the chilly spring here.

May-day in Livonia (Dorpat, May 1, 1805) Dear month, in softer climes so fair, The poet’s theme, the lover’s care; With snowy garb and ruffled mien, Thou com’st in vain to grace the scene: Unhail’d by smiles of rustic glee, Unbless’d by all, and most by me Who erst have trod on Arno’s side, And nature hail’d in vernal pride.

O bear me hence, propitious pow’rs, Where spring shall deck the mantling bow’rs; Where cowslips rear their golden heads, And where the violet scents the meads; Where linnets wake the new-clad grove; Where all is joy, and peace, and love!

Once more, in life’s declining day, To taste the sweets of blooming May! (Quoted from Shelley 1936: 479) After leaving Tartu in 1806, Beresford lived and worked at several places in Russia. According to Levitsky (1903: 614), he left for St Petersburg and worked for some time in Kharkov University (now Kharkiv in Ukraine). Shelley (1936: 480) mentions that he was a pastor of the English congregation in Moscow.

He also continued his activities as a translator. The results of his Russian period were published after his return to Germany under the lengthy title The Russian Troubadour or Collection of Ukrainian, and other national Melodies, together with the Words of each respective Air translated into English Verse

by The Author of the German Erato, Interspersed with several favourite Russian Songs, Set to Music

by Foreign Masters, and Translated by the Same Hand (London 1816) (Shelley 1936: 491).

Beresford returned to Berlin at the invitation of King Frederick William III (1770–1840) to teach at the new University of Berlin (established by Frederick William III in 1810, now the Humboldt University of Berlin). His lectures were first announced for the summer semester of 1816. In the following years, he lectured on Milton and Shakespeare. (Shelley 1936: 480–481).

He also compiled a collection of German translations of Scottish folk songs, Der Schottische Barde, oder auserlesene Sammlung von National-Gesängen, mit der Original-Musik (1817), although the translations were not done by himself but by Helmina von Chezy (Shelley 1936: 492).

Benjamin Beresford died on 29 April 1819 (Shelley 1936: 481).

Although the first English lecturer at the University of Tartu seems to have been well qualified for the job, teaching of English was of secondary importance under the tsarist rule, and there were even several lengthy periods when the post of the lecturer remained vacant (1812–1817, 1861–1865, 1879–1886, 1892–1910) (Levitsky 1903: 369, 614, Verzeichnis 1891–1900, Obozrenie 1901–1918). English acquired greater significance only when the University of Tartu became the national university of the Republic of Estonia.

REFERENCES German Museum, or Monthly Repository of the Literature of Germany, the North and the Continent in general. Vol. I for the year 1800. London. https://books.google.ee/books?id=t2EHAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=beresford+queen+of+prussia&source=bl&ots=Sf2Sfwg1nV&sig=eO M35qiNBk9VUZ_3GzfbFYjtpxw&hl=et&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm0-mkzdXZAhWJ1SwKHe0UA_ 11

cQ6AEIZDAO#v=onepage&q=beresford%20queen%20of%20prussia&f=false. Accessed 18 March 2018.

Goldsmith, Oliver. 1797. The Vicar of Wakefield, a tale supposed to be written by himself. Accentuirt von J. Ebers. Berlin. https://books.google.ee/books?id=MadgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA312&lpg=PA 312&dq=%22the+vicar+of+wakefield%22+beresford&source=bl&ots=Z2QQMfgTT2&sig=qG Dyabz3b0i2icvriEa0yXDlJcI&hl=et&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_rdPZv_jZAhXKxaYKHQlWAUMQ 6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=%22the%20vicar%20of%20wakefield%22%20beresford&f=false.

Accessed 19 March 2018.

Kotzebue, August Friedrich Ferdinand von. 1802. The most remarkable year in the life of Augustus von Kotzebue, containing an account of his exile into Siberia, and of the other extraordinary events which happened to him in Russia. Translated from the German by Rev. Benjamin Beresford. London: printed by T. Gillet for Richard Phillips, 3 vols. https://archive.org/details/ mostremarkableye00kotz. Accessed 19 March 2018.

Kotzebue, August Friedrich Ferdinand von. 1905. Kangur. Narva.

Kotzebue, August Friedrich Ferdinand von. 1929. Armukade naine. Tallinn.

Kotzebue, August Friedrich Ferdinand von. 1930. Kes teab, mis tarvis see hää on. Tallinn.

Levitsky. 1903. Бioграфическiй словарь профессоровъ и преподавателей Императорскаго Юрьевскаго, бывшаго Дерптскаго, университета за сто лѣт его существованiя (1802–1902). Томъ II. Подъ редакцiей Г. В. Левитскаго. http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/17434. Accessed 18 March 2018.

Obozrenie. 1900–1918. Обозренiе лекцiй въ императорскомъ Юрьевскомъ университете 1900– 1918. http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/203. Accessed 19 March 2018.

Shelley, Philip Allison. 1936. Benjamin Beresford, Literary Ambassador. PMLA, Vol. 51, No. 2, (Jun 1936), pp. 476–501. https://www.jstor.org/stable/458066?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed 18 March 2018.

The German Erato or a Collection of Favourite Songs. Translated into English with their original music.

Berlin 1797. https://books.google.ee/books?id=b4Is0fnb6OEC&pg=PA3&dq=%22the+german+ erato%22+1797&hl=et&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXvYOm1_XZAhXoCJoKHURoB9EQ6AEIKTAA# v=onepage&q=%22the%20german%20erato%22%201797&f=false. Accessed 18 March 2018.

The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1801-11, Vol. 8. London 1814. https:// books.google.ee/books?id=gW0OAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA384&lpg=PA384&dq=beresford+queen+ of+prussia&source=bl&ots=aRdoQDxpRf&sig=-GNyMlJgT00sc8DoL0w83LwPSFE&hl=et&sa= X&ved=0ahUKEwjm0-mkzdXZAhWJ1SwKHe0UA_cQ6AEIVzAL#v=onepage&q=beresford%20 queen%20of%20prussia&f=false. Accessed 18 March 2018.

Verzeichnis der vom 1sten Februar 1804 zu haltenden halbjährigen Vorlesungen auf der Kaiserlichen Universität zu Dorpat. http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/369. Accessed 18 March 2018.

Verzeichnis der von 1sten August 1803 zu haltenden halbjährigen Vorlesungen auf der Kaiserlichen Universität zu Dorpat. http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/369. Accessed 18 March 2018.

Verzeichnis der Vorlesungen an der Kaiserlichen Universität Dorpat. 1891–1900. http://dspace.ut.ee/ handle/10062/371. Accessed 19 March 2018.

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PROMOTING SCOTTISH CULTURE Vaiko Välli

Scottish Culture Society of Estonia

Eike Urke

The Scottish Culture Society of Estonia was founded on 12 February 2009 in Tallinn.

Our mission is to promote and celebrate Scottish culture and heritage in Estonia.

As it stands in the Statutes: “The society shall provide a variety of activities for its members and the community at large, offer social, recreational, and educational programs for the general public.”

Who are our members?

Everybody who wants to get hands on or just support promoting Scottish culture in Estonia.

So far we have not organised events for members only – rather have we been keen to address the general public in order to promote Scottish culture in a very wide sense.

However, we are (just at the moment when I am writing this) drawing up a plan how to be more useful to the members some of whom have been really loyal throughout the years. We will continue providing events for the wide public, but there will be a change as regards the members – so that there would be a remarkable benefit in belonging to the Society. We have interesting times lying ahead!

How did it all start?

A long story cut short by Eike Urke (Albert): The ceilidh bug bit me at Riverside Club in Glasgow in 2002, and the world has never been quite the same for me after that. I was living and working in Sweden at that time. I went back to Riverside Ceilidhs as often as I could, and when I finally came to stay in Estonia in 2004 and could not fly over to Scotland every other weekend, I started to look for a way to write the dances down so that people in Estonia could get the feel of what I had experienced.

I met with Angela Arraste, head of Tallinn University Choreography Department at the time, and to my delight she gave me her dance group to try out the dances; moreover, she encouraged me to publish the dances in a book. It was not an easy task, studying the books written on ceilidh dances in Scotland and keeping the versions that were danced at Riverside club, but after more than a year’s work a booklet of Scottish ceilidh dance descriptions (as danced at Riverside Club) in Estonian (Šoti keilitantsud) came out in print in spring 2006 with a CD of Šoti Keilibänd attached to it.

We started with regular ceilidhs – every second Friday of the month from May 2005 to December 2006, Hamish Dewar from Edinburgh being the first Scottish caller to visit us and call us a ceilidh and getting more people interested in this dance form. Vaiko Välli, another Estonian who had been bitten by the Scottish ceilidh bug somewhere else but around the same time, came to be my dance partner and copromoter over all this time. This ceilidh series was a success, and many people came to tell us later that they had had the time of their lives at our ceilidhs. Mike Scott from Scotland made us our first ceilidh list to keep in touch with people who were interested in ceilidhs in Estonia.

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Sometime in between, the regular ceilidh goers had started to crave for more Scottish dancing than just once a month, and as I was also interested in another Scottish dance style beside ceilidh – in Scottish Country Dance – then a good friend of mine, Daniel McLean, sent us a video, Reel Scottish Dancing: and the Tallinn SCD group came together for a weekly class of Scottish dance – our first dance teacher thus being Alastair MacFadyen and the dancers from the DVD!

By January of 2007, we had the Tallinn Scottish Dance group (14–15 people) well established, and twice a year we invited visiting teachers who came and taught us on SCD weekends – the first ones were taught by Pia Walker from Cupar. All this we did in cooperation with Tallinn University and Angela Arraste, who was our guardian angel.

We have now later received a lot of feedback that people have come across Scottish ceilidh dances at parties in various parts of Estonia, called by someone who had been at one of our seminars, so it seems that this form of dance has been gratefully received in Estonia and is here for the enjoyment of us all.

In a nutshell – we started with dance and then moved on to other areas.

What does the Society do?

1. We promote Scottish Dances. Ceilidh and Scottish Country Dances, sadly not Highland dances as yet.

A cèilidh (Scottish) or céilí (Irish) (in Estonian – keili) is a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering.

In its most basic form, it simply means a social visit. In contemporary usage, it usually involves playing folk music and dancing either at a house party or a larger concert at a social hall or other community gathering place (Wikipedia). In bigger towns it has been mostly reduced to dancing, in smaller villages it may well be only playing music, singing, and telling stories, reciting poems. A Glaswegian (person who lives in Glasgow) would tell you that there are basically a dozen ceilidh dances, no more. But there will be variations depending where you come from – each village or area had their own versions of the same dance.

Oh, and if you go to Edinburgh you will be told that there are several dozens of ceilidh dances – I would not believe them. It is just the English ceilidh dances which have merged into Scottish dance culture around those areas.

In Scotland ceilidh dances are usually called, this means that someone calls what you should do while you are dancing. Most fun! If being in Scotland, you see an ad for a ceilidh, definitely go there!

Scottish Country Dancing (SCD) (in Estonian – šoti seltskonnatantsud) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are set to musical forms (Jigs, Reels and Strathspey Reels) which come from the Gaelic tradition of Highland Scotland, as do the steps used in performing the dances. It has become the national ballroom dance form of Scotland. You dance on tiptoe, there are a handful of figures that are combined to make up a dance, but alas! there are about 20 000 Scottish Country Dances. And if you learn a dance, let’s say “Midnight Oil” here in Tallinn and then travel A ceilidh in Scotland. Photo by Paul Tomkins somewhere in the world and see that dance danced there, then it will be exactly the same dance and you can join in and have fun there. If you have done your homework, that is. ☺ And by the way, this dance style has been scientifically proven to improve your memory!

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2. In cooperation with Haapsalu town and the UK Embassy we have organized Scottish Days since 2014.

Did you know that the Mayor of Haapsalu wears a kilt once a year?

And he does look good in that!

Take out your calendar! The next Scottish Days in Haapsalu will take place on 26 January 2019. We will send info about it in time to all those who have joined our newsletter list.

Mayor of Haapsalu Urmas Sukles.

Photo by Arvo Tarmula

3. With Tallinn SCD group we started a library and gathered more than 100 Scottish music and dance CDs and books. In 2013 we gave it all to Tallinn University Library.

St. Andrews Day Ceilidh in Tallinn University, 2013.

Photo by Eike Urke 4. We promote Scottish Culture. We celebrate St. Andrews night, Tartan Day, and organize Burns Suppers.

We have organized Burns Suppers since 2011 with all the rituals in the Estonian language! We do this because we believe that it would be important for our people to know about Burns and his importance.

And, because it is great fun meeting all whom we have become friends with during these years – once a year in January – to feast, toast humanity and friendship. And please note – this is for all, and we would really love to see you there too!

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You may ask who was Burns? What is a Burns Supper?

If you ask me, then I feel that Robert Burns has been to Scotland what Juhan Liiv or Lydia Koidula have been to us. The difference is that the Scottish really know how to celebrate their national poet, and what initially started off as a friends’ gathering in memory of Robert Burns to commemorate his death became over the years the nationwide gatherings at the time of Burns’ birthday (25 January but actually all January all over the world) to read Burns’ poems, drink, dance, give toasts and hold a speech in his memory. The best speech I have ever heard at a Burns Supper here or abroad was given by Jürgen Rooste – it dwelt upon the world literature – but had Burns in every breath of it. Jürgen has also taken it to his heart that one day we here in Estonia should celebrate an Estonian poet the way Scots celebrate theirs. That Mother Tongue Day will not be only in schools, but that people would really come together and celebrate it! Exciting, is it not?

NB! Robert Burns would have been pleased to learn that the tradition of Burns Suppers in Estonia has also given a small rise to appreciation of our own national writers; thus in Hiiumaa, people have arranged a similar evening dedicated to the sea and the writers who have written about the sea, and then to bread and the people who have written about our daily food.

Tiit Kikas, Ilona Aasvere and Peeter Rebane working in the studio for the CD of “Burns Songs in Estonian”.

Photo by Tiit Kikas

Given the huge importance of this Scottish National Bard – Robert Burns – all over the world, the Scottish Culture Society of Estonia set out in 2016 to launch a CD of “Burns Songs in Estonian”.

We still have some deficiency in the budget, but we are getting close, hopefully this year!

5. We promote the Estonian Tartan; this tartan is really something to take pride in.

The Estonian National Tartan was given as a token of friendship to Estonia by Scots in 2005; the project was organized by Iain Lawson, Honorary Consul to Estonia at the time. The tartan was produced as a symbolic gift from the people of Scotland to the people of Estonia and marks both the historic and the new links between the two countries.

Designed by Perth-based House of Edgar, the tartan uses the blue, black, and white of the Estonian flag plus gold and red from the Lion Rampant of Scotland to emphasize the strong Estonian-Scottish relationship.

Eike Urke and Seido Tšeponis are showing how to get into the Great Kilt.

This is the fabric of cloth that unites us, so let’s use it for our enjoyment and in communication between Estonians and Scots / Estonia and Scotland!

Here we are showing at Haapsalu Scottish Days 2016 how to dress one into a Great Kilt. Seido Tšeponis (in the picture) is the one in our Society who masters the Scottish dress code.

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Here you can see how well it is pleated.

No sewing involved.

Should the rain or cold wind surprise you...

And it even has pockets!

Photos by Arvo Tarmula

Estonian National Tartan has been registered in the Scottish Tartans Authority.

Since summer 2017, when selling tartan, we work closely with OÜ ScottEst, who has worked out its brand.

And last but not least...

What can we help you as an English language teacher with? We are open to all kind of cooperation.

- We could arrange an inspired Burns Supper with your class if you feel you have a class who might be interested in poetry or theatre play or just want to try something different.

- We could do a quiz in your school, and we call ceilidhs all over Estonia.

NB! We welcome new members to the Scottish Culture Society! Send us an email, and we will add you to the list so that you will be informed of the events that we organize.

Regarding our greatest project – “Burns Songs in Estonian” – please note that we have started a presale of the CD to finance the last stage of the launch of the CD – get in touch and get it!

Email: info@kultuuriselts.ee Website: www.kultuuriselts.ee

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CROSSING THE RIVER: A RECENT MOVE Julia Hirsch

Professor Emerita Brooklyn College (City University of New York)

As Frank Sinatra puts it in the famous song, New York is the city that “never sleeps”. There are plenty of reasons to stay up late – the pressures of work, the thrill of the theater, the many kinds of music one can enjoy every night of the week, the diversity of people one can meet – but an unglamorous and commonplace one is the process of moving. New Yorkers move: in search of a bigger place, a smaller place, a better view or a lower rent.

About five years ago I moved from Brooklyn, where I had lived for almost 30 years, to Manhattan. Once upon a time, my move would have reverberated with cultural undertones but today the differences between the two neighborhoods have shrunk.

My new home – very much like my old one – is in a large block of flats (“apartment building” in American English), a twenty-story building built at around the same time as the thirty-story building I left and is located on 86th Street and First Avenue. Like many neighborhoods in New York, my new neighborhood goes by a number of names. It’s often called the “Upper East Side” – to distinguish it from the “upper West Side” – as well as Lenox Hill, Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, once known as a German community.

Like Brooklyn Heights, it features elegant townhouses such as the ones the wealthy characters in Edith Wharton and Henry James novels might have lived in, as well as more modest four- and five-story houses which contain individual apartments. Like Brooklyn Heights, my new neighborhood underwent considerable change in the 1950’s and 1960’s – under the auspices of “urban renewal”– when many small old buildings were torn down to make room for the kind of large construction I moved out of in Brooklyn and moved into in Manhattan.

Once again both neighborhoods are experiencing a construction boom as three-, four- and five-story buildings are giving way to ever-taller apartment buildings. The public library I liked to go to in Brooklyn Heights was torn down last year to make way for one of these “high rises”, while across First Avenue, where I live now, a small supermarket as well as a few town houses are in the process of demolition.

One might hope that some of the prospective new structures would be “affordable housing”, but the new construction is only for the very affluent. The scarcity of adequate housing for people with modest incomes – including young people who are starting out – is having quite an impact on life in the city. But that is another story.

Both Brooklyn Heights and my new neighborhood are densely populated during the day. The Heights, while residential, is also the civic center of the borough and home to law courts, municipal office buildings, four colleges, and two private schools. There are a number of private schools and a major hospital (with another one nearby) in my new neighborhood, but 86th Street Subway 86th Street is also a shopping hub where one can buy appliances, clothes, trendy shoes, lots of cosmetics, home furnishings, and cellphones. There are also a large supermarket and a few banks. To complicate the movement of both people and vehicles, the stretch from Second Avenue to Lexington Avenue has 18

been besieged for a number of years by excavators, diggers, concrete mixers and flatbed trucks carrying building material required by the construction of a new subway line (in process for about ten years and first opened in January 2018), as well as the demolition and construction of a large building on the corner or Lexington and 86th. Since the subway station at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue is the nearest to many popular sites, I often see tourists come out on the street after leaving the train and look about them in disbelief. “Where are we?” they exclaim. The street scene is so bewildering they can hardly orient themselves.

Despite the chaos, the neighborhood’s attractions are among the most celebrated in the city and remain unaffected. As visitors to New York know, the upper East Side includes the Frick Collection on 70th Street, the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of El Barrio on 103rd, and the Neue Galerie on the corner of 86th Street and Fifth Avenue. Central Park – the leafy borderland between the East and West sides of Manhattan – is nearby with its open fields, winding paths, lakes, and plenty of benches on which to sit and watch the world go by. Further east is the East River, narrower than the Hudson, but quite dramatic with its churning currents.

At the easternmost point of 86th Street, adjacent to the river, is Carl Schurz Park, a small haven of flower beds, trees, lawns and dog runs. Visible over a tall wooden enclosure are the windows and roof tops of Gracie Mansion, the Mayor’s official residence. A paved path (currently under repair but expected to open before the end of the year) runs along the river and leads to a walkway to Wards and Randall Islands, lovely spots for bike riding, soccer and baseball practice, walking or sitting on a grassy hill overlooking the river.

Guggenheim Museum

Hell Gate Bridge across the East River

Although I enumerate landmarks with the flourish of a tour guide, I don’t visit any of these sites more than I used to. On a typical day I’m likelier to go to the supermarket (there are a few well-stocked ones nearby), to the post office to buy some stamps (I still write letters in preference to emails…), or to an excellent bakery a bit further afield to buy my favorite fresh loaf of bread. A number of elegant flower shops offer an abundance of orchids, roses and lilies. What I miss are the declining number of “mom-and-pop” stores both in Brooklyn Heights and on the upper Gracie Mansion East side, small family-run businesses where one can develop a personal relationship with the staff – the only shop around where I’ve been able to establish such a connection is a shoe-repair store. The manager, an affable young man, even knows to ask about my daughter, who recently asked me to take her favorite boots to him because she couldn’t find any reliable shoemaker in New Paltz, the small town in the Hudson Valley where she has lived for the past 20 years.

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Now that I’ve settled into my “new” home, it’s become familiar, and I’ve become aware of how, like Brooklyn, it is changing. Rents for commercial spaces have risen since the completion of the new subway, so that many small businesses (such as a Japanese take-out up the block, or an Austrian pasty shop a few streets away) have had to close. New commercial spaces are now sometimes occupied by small medical facilities (affiliated with large hospitals) such as the one a street away from my new home. One can walk in any time between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and see a doctor. A new kind of office, a “co-working space”, has also taken the place of former shops – it allows people (often “dot-com” innovators) who can’t commit to, or afford, a proper office to rent a shared space that will offer internet, telephone, office machines and other necessities. There are also abundant coffee shops and cafés around. While having a meal, people can recharge their phones or connect their laptops to the internet – in effect coffee shops now appear to constitute a new kind of (informal, “for profit”) community center. My new neighborhood also features many bars which attract a lot of young singles. Both in my old Brooklyn neighborhood as well as my current one, there are more places to eat more different kinds of food – Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Israeli, Japanese, as well as French, Italian, Turkish, and Mexican – than there are food stores in which to buy the raw materials. At the same time, however, three family-owned restaurants on 86th Street, which featured respectively Greek, Italian and Japanese cuisine, have been closed to make way for new construction.

As someone who had enjoyed living in and studying the history of New York neighborhoods, I know that change is a perpetual theme. When I was a child during the 1940s and lived on the upper West Side of Manhattan, Columbus Avenue was considered “off limits” to me as “too dangerous for a girl”. Today that same avenue is full of stylish boutiques and restaurants. When I first moved to Boerum Hill in Brooklyn in 1983, various concerned friends warned me that that was not a good place to live as a single mother with two young daughters – today the neighborhood is a haven of chic little shops, cafés and gift shops.

The odd thing about New York is that while it’s easy to spot a neighborhood on the rise, it’s much harder to spot an area in decline. One thing is for sure – if today a neighborhood is on the way down, in about a decade it will be rising again. New York never sleeps because it’s always busy changing.

How well do you know New Zealand? (photos p. 49) 1. New Zealand Parliament Building, named Beehive, in Wellington. Designed by the British architect Sir Basil Spence, opened in 1977. 2. Dunedin’s Railway Station (South Island).

Designed by George Troup, constructed of dark basalt, completed in 1906. 3. Pancake Rocks (South Island). Created when the sea bed was raised above sea level by earthquakes to form the rugged coastal cliffs of the West Coast’s coastline. The sea, rain and wind have since eroded the rocks to create the unique formations that now look like pancakes. 4. Cathedral Cove, one of New Zealand’s most picturesque spots on the Coromandel Peninsula (North Island). 5. The silver fern. Along with the kiwi bird, it is one of the national symbols of New Zealand. The plant can grow to the height of 10 m or even more. 6. The Re-START Container Mall in Christchurch, built to replace the shops destroyed in the earthquake. 7. Kawarau Bridge where Hackett brothers started the world’s first commercial bungee jumping.

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TIME Artur Alliksaar

Translated by Hilary Bird

There are no good times, there are no bad.

The present is all there is to be had.

What starts will never come to a stop.

Neither beauty nor ugliness is part of the plot.

There are no gloomy or laughing days.

Our moments the same – equal our days.

Life breeds life, it’s all the same.

Chronos must have toys for his game.

There is no future, there is no past, There is only now: this too will pass.

Live in the moment before its done.

In the blink of an eye it will be gone.

No one ever lives in vain.

Even if reasons are seldom plain.

More or less, there’s no certainty Life usually demands a fee.

There are no losses, there’s no decay.

Just each moment of every day.

Time past won’t fade, it will always remain, in a mind’s eye all will stay the same.

Painting Poet by Ilmar Malin

The translator with her cat Photo by Ilmar Anvelt 21

IATEFL MY #IATEFL2018 EXPERIENCE IN VERSE

Erika Puusemp (MHG, EATE, DKG)

WORK: an examination of real life

PLAY (almost)

How do you practice what you preach, and meet the highs and lows of the expectations of the world?

Brighton sun’s hidden in a blanket of grey clouds Only daffs still shine

How do you decide which words matter more than others, weigh your utterances and avoid mixed messages?

How do you create expression before communication, get somebody talking, create a safe haven to talk about something that really matters, like how many shades of grey there are in their world at the moment, or what they really want?

How do you reflect, foster awareness, get the most out of the power of knowledge, use your brain to rise to challenges, break the monotony?

How do you develop autonomy in learning, engage students, overcome obstacles, melt barriers in the mind?

How do you motivate your brain to see the wood for the trees, add new dimensions to your vision?

How do you develop the life skills of taking responsibility for safeguarding yourself, accommodating your needs, developing a healthy sense of self, extending the life cycle of each teacher?

How do you make outstanding the norm, and tasty taboos more palatable?

How do you empower the magical moments of both your dreams and real life, and put any negative trail of thought out of its misery?

How do you maximise the beneficial effects of teetering on the brink of panicking and relaxing where learning actually happens?

How do you tame the shrew of insecurity, convince yourself that you are motivating enough, that you are the boss, and take control?

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My workshops of choice: creativity, reading, poetry, writing Old acquaintances, long-lost friends, surprise colleagues – just IATEFL Since Creation Day seagulls have been intermittently shrieking their enlightened screams as the self-appointed masters of every seaside world and branding visitors with splashy acidic seals In spite of that the promise of a ray of sun shining through lifts the fog and the spirits At 9.45 an early siesta begins a.m. sleep strikes hard Why these weird haikus?

Brain overload before noon – test-microwriting Undercliff walking Keep off the groynes Murmurs – roar – the sea!

A sea-lullaby: shingle polished by time while tide waits for no one

Brighton ─ IATEFL Conference Venue in 2018 Photos by Erika Puusemp

The Royal Pavilion in Brighton

i360 observation tower

The Aids Memorial in New Steine

Local Brighton and Hove municipality bus

Undercliff walk between Brighton and Rottingdean

The Old Mill in Rottingdean 23

HOW TO SURVIVE THE CHANGES IN THE ELT WORLD? Aet Sarv

Türi Co-educational Gymnasium, Language School YES

One of the more thought-provoking talks at the IATEFL conference was Nick Robinson’s description of globalization in the ELT environment. It is useful, from time to time, to have an extra pair of eyes to cast a glance on our everyday practice.

Robinson pointed out that, in the increased presence of routine and automation, we are losing control of the way things change also in language teaching. The presenter invited the audience to think about how ELT professionals could thrive in the surroundings that are constantly transformed by technology. Here are a few ideas that caught my attention.

• Spelling problems which have been caused by the new media and means of text production can help the future employer decide upon applicant’s suitability. Typing with proper capitalization indicates creditworthiness.

• Users of Chrome and Firefox make better employees because these browsers take more time to master, and the deeper one goes, the more dedicated they are.

• Data is the world’s most potent, flourishing unnatural resource.

• Roughly one in five students in the US do not complete high school on time. To help more students graduate on time, school districts use intervention programmes, data-driven “early warning systems” to help struggling students get back on track academically. Despite our good results in PISA tests, I think it is high time to start thinking in similar lines.

Nick Robinson gave the listeners an action plan for career development in the digital age.

1. Get creative.

2. Develop AQ (adaptability quotient).

3. Get rid of the fear of the unknown. The comfort zone and nostalgia of younger days of teaching does not actually protect us anymore.

4. Set the learning mindset: the sky’s the limit. Welcome problems as challenges. The more I learn, the more I will want to learn. I am willing to spend energy to better myself.

You can find more of Nick Robinson’s ideas together with some online courses at: eltjam.academy

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National English Language Competition SOME ISSUES OF TRANSLATION IN TÕNU ÕNNEPALU’S PIIRIRIIK AND ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION BORDER STATE Eva Ikkonen

Tallinn English College

Shortly after its publication in 1993, the novel Piiririik by Tõnu Õnnepalu alias Emil Tode became one of the most internationally influential Estonian novels ever written. Since, it has been translated into 14 languages, including into English in 2000 by Madli Puhvel.

The aim of the present article is to introduce the way in which Tõnu Õnnepalu has told the story in Piiririik through the use of a first-person narrator and how it has been perceived in the English translation Border State.

In the novel, Õnnepalu explores the emotions and thoughts of the protagonist, relating him/her to an East-European of the 1990s. In the setting of its initial release, the novel was a literary shock to its audience. It offers a European perspective on the life in Estonia, something that the domestic reader of the time was not at all accustomed to. Simultaneously, the novel excited the interest of foreign, especially Western readers, as it focuses heavily on the differences between Estonia and the Western world at the time.

Translation theory The basis of this article can be summarised using the statement made by Dan Slobin, who proposes, “We must assume that translators strive to maintain or enhance the force and vividness of the source text.”

Furthermore, Umberto Eco suggests that the translator does not only change the language but also the culture of the text. Occasionally, a literal translation is appropriate in the context, but at other times the translator needs to assess whether the message and the connotation of the source text endure in the translation. If the tone, style or underlying meaning of the text are different in the new cultural context, the translator has to make suitable adjustments that convey the message in a more accurate way.

However, Michael Halliday states that a “good” translation is comparatively equivalent to the original.

This equivalence does not only entail the meaning but also the linguistic features that play a considerable role in conveying the original message.

The narrative of Border State The English translation of Õnnepalu’s Piiririik will be explored on the basis of the characteristics of its narrator. A major factor in the novel’s success is the complexity of its unnamed and ungendered narrator-protagonist. Although the reader knows very little about him/her, the character’s perception of the world and interaction with others are key to understanding the story. Studying the narrative helps understand the essence of the novel and determine the features of the original that should be conveyed in the translation as well.

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Firstly, it can be said that the narrator is homodiegetic, more specifically autodiegetic, because he/she is also the protagonist. Furthermore, he/she classifies as a first-person narrator due to the fact that he/she describes the plot using the first-person form. Thus, the narrator’s words are the only explicit conveyors of the narrative and in that situation his/her self-awareness puts him/her in control of the manner in which the events are portrayed. This affects the narrator’s reliability: the more personally involved in the plot the narrator is, the less reliable he/she tends to be.

Secondly, the narrator of Border State actively takes part in the development of the plot and knows just as much as his/her character does. In other words, the narrator is not omniscient. Those characteristics make the narrator of Border State an internal focaliser. The character is never referred to or described from the outside and his/her ideas are never analysed rationally by an all-knowing voice of reason. Due to this, his/her judgement and opinions are often subjective.

Another significant indicator of the narrator’s unreliability is his/her own uncertainty in his/her memory.

Doubt is a leitmotif in the novel. The fact that the reader can never be confident in the narrator’s words adds another layer to the story, as the reader needs to evaluate which parts of the narration are authoritative and trustworthy, and which ones to doubt. Furthermore, it reflects the narrator’s secretive and mistrustful personality.

It is essential that in the translation both the actual story line and the way it is mediated remain as accurate to the original as possible. Now, some issues of the English translation will be accentuated, and their effect on the distortion of perception by the audience will be analysed.

Differences in style As it is characteristic of a homodiegetic narrative, the novel is written in the personal style of its mediator.

He/she uses a lot of discourse markers and filler words. In the English translation, however, those are often omitted. Although the meaning of the sentence might not suffer, the tone set by the mediator may end up being very different. For example: Franz võttis muide ise teema üles (...) Teise kanaliäärse laua taga oli nimelt istet võtnud üks hästi konventsionaalne hollandi paar (Piiririik, p. 29) Franz himself started on that topic. (...) A very conventional Dutch couple (...) had seated themselves at the other table near the canal. (Border State, p. 20) The word ‘muide’ has two purposes in that sentence. Firstly, it indicates that talking about one thing made the narrator remember another. Secondly, it expresses the irony of the situation. The narrator had just been thinking about betraying Franz’s trust. However, it happened to be Franz himself, who started the discussion on morality and hypocrisy, unaware of his partner’s thoughts.

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In the example the words in bold make the text more conversational and the transition from one idea to another smoother. The loss of them affects the tone of the narration and the mood it creates in the reader. The discourse markers and filler words can express the narrator’s attitude towards something, a note of irony or emphasis, and show the link between different thoughts. If removed in the translation, the underlying meanings and emotions, as well as the flow of the text can be lost, creating a false or incomplete image in the reader’s mind.

Grandmother’s style In addition to that of the mediator’s, sometimes the personal styles of other characters are changed in the translation. The most notable example from Border State would be the narrator’s grandmother. The uncompromising woman’s personality is strongly reflected in her speech, which is inflexible, opinionated and self-willed. She speaks the Southern Estonian vernacular language, which is an important part of her identity. In the translation, however, her speech is often in standard English like the rest of the text.

For example: Aga nüüd ta tänitas niisama: ,,No mis ta seisab seal nõnnamoodu, käed külje peal rippu! Ja mis elukas see sealt alt veel välja vahib, jusku metssiga? Ei niisuke pole pilt ega asi!” (Piiririik, p. 45) But now she just complained, “Why is he standing there like that, hands hanging at his sides? And what’s the creature that’s looking up from there, a wild boar? That’s not a real painting!” (Border State, p. 31) The English version has gotten rid of the vernacular and substandard language and made the text grammatically correct, changing the character’s manner of speech and personality to be more polite and curious rather than bitter. Moreover, the figurative expression ‘pole pilt ega asi’ has been omitted and replaced with a regular ‘that’s not a real painting’. The grandmother’s Southern dialect and scolding tone are lost.

Furthermore, the verb with which this discourse is described is different. The word ‘tänitama’ has a distinctly negative connotation, showing that someone is criticising someone else vigorously and continually, but for no good reason. The verb ‘complain’ is less emotional and is often used in the context when someone has a reason to be upset and rightfully demands that something be done differently. In this case, the Estonian verb fits better, as the narrator did not feel that her criticism was justified.

Throughout the novel, the grandmother’s direct speech is altered to be compliant with grammar rules, without substandard expressions or words. On the one hand, many of those are not easily translated into another language, as they are so immanent to the region they originate from. On the other hand, the translator ought to look for ways to make an alien culture familiar to those who will read the translation.

Thus, a more suitable solution would be for example to find similar vernacular expressions from the target language, which might not be exact literal equivalents of the ones in the source text but would recreate the atmosphere of the original text most authentically.

Differences in sentence and paragraph structure Sentence structure is closely connected to the style of a text. According to Coleman, “short sentences [are] significantly more comprehensible than their long sentence counterparts.” In Piiririik the sentences tend to be rather long and consist of several parts, thus making the text somewhat less clear. Yet in the translation, they are regularly split into two or more separate parts. The following example describes a Romanian girl begging in the subway.

Messieursdames, ma olen Rumeenia põgenik, mul on kaks väikest venda, mu emal ega isal pole tööd ja nad ei saa abiraha, andke mõni frank või restoranitalong, et mu väikesed vennad saaksid süüa, tänan teid ette… (Piiririik, p. 22)

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Messiueursdames, I’m a Romanian refugee. I have two little brothers. Neither my father or my mother has work. They get no welfare. Give a few francs or restaurant vouchers so that my little brothers can eat… Thank you in advance… (Border State, p. 13) The Estonian version is written as one long sentence, while the English translation uses six separate sentences to convey the same monologue. The girl was said to recite her monotonous speech like a ‘Christmas verse’ and make the same mistakes every day. The narrator doubted, whether she even understood what she said. The longer and dragging Estonian sentence sounds much more like a verse that is learnt by heart and delivered continuously without natural pauses, thus being a better description of what happened. A similar change of tone can be observed in the next example, where the narrator describes his/her feelings when meeting his correspondent Angelo: Siis ma ehmatan, mind on nagu äkki unest äratatud, ma võpatan, ma hõõrun silmi – aga juba see eemaldubki, unenägu, mis läheb meelest, mida enam ei püüa. (Piiririik, p. 18) Then I start. It’s as if I were awakened from a dream. I flinch. I rub my eyes. But it’s already fading.

Memory can’t catch the dream, can’t reclaim it. (Border State, p. 11) In this case, a single Estonian sentence is changed into six in the translation process. The Estonian sentence is more similar to a person’s train of thought – the narrator is trying to organise his/her ideas and there is a strong note of uncertainty in the tone; the memory was like a dream, which is difficult to remember precisely. The version offered in the English translation is much more structured and sounds more confident in style than the source text. Thus, the element of confusion is lost due to the fact that the original sentence structure is altered.

All in all, such alterations in sentence and paragraph structure can alter the tone of the text, reading pace, personal style of the characters as well as underlying meanings. As sentence and paragraph structure are also indicators of style, the original structure should be preserved as much as possible.

Clarification Occasionally, some details of the narrative are deliberately left ambiguous by the author, and the reader has to piece together what really happened. When the translator aims to make the text clearer, it can be regarded as an error in some places; unnecessary explication is defined as clarification. In Piiririik, the text is concise with multiple layers of meaning. Often, the narrator’s feelings can be sensed, but are not explicitly expressed. The translation, however, tends to be blunter. For example: Franz oli armastajana muide suurepärane. (...) Ma nautisin seda temaga, ma olin pöörane, nii et imestasin isegi, ja pärast seda ma põlgasin teda veel rohkem. (Piiririik, p. 56) As a lover Franz was wonderful. (...) I enjoyed sex with him; I was so wild with passion that I even surprised myself. And then, I started despising him more than ever. (Border State, p. 40) While reading the Estonian version, it becomes quite clear that when saying ‘Ma nautisin seda temaga’, the narrator is probably referring to sex, and ‘ma olin pöörane’ indicates that he/she was wild with amour (as opposed to rage, happiness or any other emotion). However, this is not stated explicitly, like it is in the English translation. This type of clarification seems inappropriately direct in style and leaves nothing for the reader to figure out themselves.

Those types of empty additions do not make the text clearer or more vivid and hence can be regarded as unnecessary in the translation. When used in places they could be omitted from like the several cases in Border State, additions clutter the text and occasionally change what the author originally meant.

Conclusion An ideal translation ought to seek to maintain the message, force, vividness and feeling of the original, 28

place the target text into the appropriate cultural context, while simultaneously keeping the linguistic forms as similar to the source text as possible. It is determined that the most important characteristics the narrator of Border State that should endure in the translation include narrative voice, focalisation and his/her reliability.

Border State has an autodiegetic first-person narrator who is an internal focaliser. Furthermore, he/she is highly unreliable in the narration. The translation is dissimilar to the original in the following ways: there are distortions in the narrator’s or other characters’ personal style, differences in sentence and paragraph structure, and empty additions by the translator.

Those dissimilarities affect the tone, mood and atmosphere of the narrative. Moreover, the way in which the reader perceives the characters’ attitudes, personalities and opinions is altered. The outspokenness of the narrative tends to remove or distort the underlying meanings, layers and emotions of the text.

Lastly, structural differences change the reading pace and the narrative’s natural pauses.

For the English-speaking world, the English translation is the only possibility of reading Border State, one of the most renowned and influential Estonian novels. However, this article has demonstrated that the translator’s changes to the original were unnecessary and impoverishing by providing examples of mistranslated sentences and accentuating the principal errors. It could be taken as a base for further research into the possible improvements of the translation, which ideally could eventually be implemented.

REFERENCES Tode, E. 2009. Piiririik. Tallinn: Eesti Päevaleht & Akadeemia. (Original work published 1993) Õnnepalu, T. 2000. Border State. Translated by Madli Puhvel. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Bal, M. 1999. Focalization. In S. Onega and J. A. Garcia Landa (Ed.), Narratology: An Introduction (pp.

115-129). London and New York: Longman.

Berman, A. 2000. Translation and the Trials of the Foreign. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 284-297). London and New York: Routledge.

Booth, W. 1999. Types of Narration. In S. Onega and J. A. Garcia Landa (Ed.), Narratology: An Introduction (pp 145-154). London and New York: Longman.

Eco, U. 2001. Experiences in Translation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Phelan, J. 2001. Why Narrators Can Be Focalizers—and Why It Matters. In W. van Peer, S. Chatman (Ed.), New Perspectives on Narrative Perspective (pp. 51-66). New York: State University of New York Press.

Rimmon-Kenan, S. 2000. Narrative Fiction. London and New York: Routledge.

Slobin, D. I. 2005. Relating Narrative events in Translation. In Ravid D. D., Shyldkrot H. BZ. (Ed.), Perspectives on Language Development. (pp. 115-129). Boston, MA: Springer.

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TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH IDIOMS INTO ESTONIAN AND THE USAGE OF DIFFERENT TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES Helene Vellevoog

Tallinn English College

Idioms and fixed expressions appear in the majority of languages; they cannot be understood literally and have a wider meaning. Therefore, understanding and translating idioms and fixed expressions can be problematic. Idioms make the language richer and give it more fluency and variety (Shojaei, 2012: 1220). Many aspects make translating of idioms especially difficult since they can be analysed and are still complete at the same time. They are constructed from a number of words that can have a meaning which is not understandable by translating the words separately (Cacciari 1993).

This article is based on my research paper on translation of English idioms into Estonian and the usage of different translation techniques.

The main focus of my research paper was on direct translations of idioms.

For my research, I chose translations of eleven idioms from Ingliseeesti idioomisĂľnaraamat (1999) written by Urve Hanko and Gustav Liiv.

Furthermore, I conducted a survey where people were asked to translate English idioms into Estonian and compared the responses to the translations in the dictionary. The translations from the survey were also analysed with the common idiom translation strategies by Mona Baker who is a professor of translation studies. There is an overview of which strategies were used more by the respondents, and how common the direct translations were compared to Bakers’ techniques.

English is a language that is rather rich in idioms; therefore, when translating idioms from English to another language it is important that translators know where to use idioms and acknowledge their types and features.

In particular, not recognizing and understanding an idiom could be one of the biggest factors that causes problems in translations. Another factor could be the fact that it is very difficult to render some aspects of the meaning of the idiom from one language to another (Baker 1992: 65).

When an idiom is being translated, it is not always possible to find a matching idiom in the target language.

In those cases, translators use different translation strategies.

Those strategies are: 1) Using an idiom of similar meaning and form This strategy is the most common and, in some cases, can be the easiest to use. A matching idiom in the target language is found that already has the same form and meaning as the idiom that is translated (Baker 1992: 65).

2) Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form This strategy finds an idiom from the target language that has different lexical items but has the same meaning as the original idiom. This strategy can be used in most cases and is quite common (Ibid.).

3) Translation by paraphrase Translation by paraphrase is mostly used in cases when there is no matching idiom in the target language. The idiom is paraphrased into an ordinary saying or a word that conveys the same meaning as the original idiom but is no longer an idiom (Ibid.).

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Direct translations The hypothesis of my research paper was that that the majority of people answering the survey would translate the idioms directly without using any of the translation strategies. It was expected that they would use the direct translation even though there is no idiom originally existing in Estonian. The majority of the direct translations of the chosen idioms have come to Estonian from English and have become widely known but are not originally Estonian expressions.

Idioms chosen for the research Media is one of the best and most accurate sources to understand the language spoken in a country. It reflects well what language is currently accurate and used more widely among people (Kasik 2004: 5).

The choice of the idioms in my research is based on Estonian news articles that have often translated the following idioms directly into Estonian, even though the translation can often sound inappropriate and mechanical. The media sources used include, for example, the newspapers Äripäev, Postimees, Eesti Ekspress, Õhtuleht.

For the research I conducted a survey on idiom translations. People who took part in the survey were asked to write the translations to the English idioms the way that they had heard those idioms being used in Estonian. They were asked to leave the meaning unchanged, but there were no rules on how they had to translate those idioms. There were overall 54 people who responded to the questionnaire, but the respondents were asked only to translate the idioms they were familiar with. Therefore, the number of answers for each idiom translation varies. All of the following idiom translations in Estonian are from Inglise-Eesti idioomisõnaraamat (1999) by Urve Hanko and Gustav Liiv.

Out of the box (erakordne, ebatavaline) This idiom was translated by all the 54 respondents. That makes this idiom the best known among the people who answered the survey. 85.2% of the people had used the translated expression themselves, and only 14.8% had not used it but had heard others use the translated version of the idiom.

64.8% of people chose to translate this idiom directly as “kastist välja” and 35.2% translated it by using different techniques.

The second most popular translation strategy was translation by using an idiom of dissimilar form but similar meaning. The answers “raamidest väljas” and “piiridest väljas” are not translated directly and do not sound as foreign in Estonian as “kastist välja”. They also retain the play of words that an idiom should have. Altogether those two expressions were used by 20.4% of the respondents.

There were 14.9% of the people who translated this idiom by paraphrase. Those people used expressions in their answers like “eriline”, “teistmoodi” and “laiemalt mõtlema”. All those answers convey only the literal and concrete meaning of the English idiom.

Overall, the idiom “out of the box” turned out to be widely known among the respondents and mostly known by the directly translated Estonian match “kastist välja”.

Let the cat out of the bag (saladust välja lobisema) This idiom was known and, therefore, translated by 43 (79.6%) respondents out of the total 54. The majority of those people (51.2%) had used the translated idiom themselves, and the rest (48.8%) had not used it but had heard others use it. The most popular translation technique was direct translation – “kassi kotist välja laskma”. This translation was used by 62.8% of the people.

Another strategy that was used more widely was translation by paraphrase that was used altogether in 37.2% of the answers. Those answers were “saladust paljastama”, “ilmsiks tegema” and “saladust välja lobisema”, which are not idioms but just ordinary sayings in Estonian that convey the same meaning.

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One’s cup of tea (kellegi maitse; kellegi huviala; kellegi saatus) The idiom “one’s cup of tea” had very many slightly differently phrased responses that have been sorted into more general answers. There were 48 respondents who were familiar with this idiom and 20.8% of them had not used this translation before whereas 79.2% had used it themselves. The most popular translation “kellegi tass(ike) teed” was translated directly by 54.2% of the respondents.

37.5% of the people translated the idiom as “kellegi huviala/teema”, “kellegi maitse” and stated the literal meaning of the idiom in Estonian by paraphrasing the idiom.

There was also a usage of an idiom of a similar meaning but dissimilar form with an Estonian expression “kellelegi mokkamööda/meeltmööda olema”, which was used by 8.3% of the people.

At the end of the day (lõppude lõpuks, kõike arvesse võttes) The idiom “at the end of the day” was translated by 53 people, which makes this idiom also very widely known, and it had only three different kinds of answers. There were 46 respondents who had used their translations themselves and 7 who had only heard others use it.

Using the direct translation – “päeva lõpuks” – was the most popular translation strategy among the respondents and was used in 66% of the answers.

The other translations were translations by paraphrase. The answers “lõppude lõpuks” and “lõppkokkuvõttes” bring out the concrete and literal meaning of the idiom and can be considered as ordinary Estonian sayings.

Taste of one’s own medicine (samaga vastamine, sama mõõdupuuga tasumine, samaga kättetasumine) This idiom was known by 39 respondents 25 of whom had used the translated expression and 14 who had only heard others use it. 66.7% of the answers were translated directly as “oma rohtu maitsta saama” and did not use any strategy.

Additionally, there are four different matching idioms and expressions from Estonian that have been used to translate this idiom. Those are “mida külvad, seda lõikad” (10.3%), “omad vitsad peksavad” (12.8%), “omal nahal tunda saama” (2.6%) and “kes teisele auku kaevab, see ise sisse kukub”(2.6%).

All those four idioms are well-known Estonian idioms.

5.1% of the respondents translated this idiom by paraphrasing the idiom and gave it an Estonian literal and straightforward translation “samaga vastama”.

Be out of the picture (1. üldpilti mitte sobima, mitte asja juurde kuuluma; mängust väljas olema, lavalt lahkunud olema; 2. mitte asjaga kursis olema, mitte teadlik või informeeritud olema) The idiom “be out of the picture” was known and translated by 49 respondents 42 of whom had used the translation themselves and 7 had not.

77.6% of the answers were translated directly as “pildilt väljas olema”, and 12.2% of the people translated this idiom as “mängust väljas” by using an Estonian idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form.

Respondents whose translations were “kõrvaldatud olema” (4.1%) and “ilma tähelepanuta jääma” (6.1%) used the translation by paraphrase to convey the concrete meaning of the idiom, and they formed 10.2% of all the answers.

Keep/maintain a low profile (silmatorkamatuks või märkamatuks jääma, endale mitte tähelepanu tõmbama, tagasitõmbunult elama) The idiom “keep/maintain a low profile” was known to 52 respondents. 51 people had used the translation themselves, and one person had heard this translation used by others. The majority of the translations 32

(88.5%) were direct translations from English with the answer “madalat profiili hoidma”. 9.6% of the people translated this idiom as “tähelepanu vältima” and 1.9% as “tagasihoidlik olema”. Both of those translations use the strategy of paraphrasing and translate the idiom into an ordinary Estonian saying.

Put oneself in somebody’s shoes (end kellegi olukorda asetama) This idiom had answers from 52 people who were familiar with it. This idiom was translated directly by 59.6% of the people. 30.8% of the people translated this idiom as “end kellegi teise olukorda panema” by using the strategy of translation by paraphrase. This translation is a saying that is common in Estonian and has the same meaning as the English idiom.

The strategy of using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form was used in two different translations that were “olukorda läbi kellegi teise silmade vaatama” (3.8%) and “kellegi teise nahas olema” (5.8%).

A skeleton in the closet (võõraste eest varjatav halb perekonnasaladus või -skandaal) This idiom was translated by 49 people 35 of whom had used their own translation, and 14 had not used it but had heard it used by others. This idiom was translated only by two different options.

The most popular translation among the respondents was the direct translation “luukere kapis”, which was used by 85.7% of the people. The second popular answer was “suur hästihoitud saladus” that was translated by paraphrasing the idiom and was used by 14.3% of the respondents.

A storm in a teacup (torm veeklaasis, tühine ärevus) This idiom was known by 41 people 21 of whom (51.2%) had used its translation themselves, and 20 (48.8%) people had not used it but had heard others use it.

39% of people translated this idiom directly into “torm teetassis” and 39% of the people used the strategy of finding an idiom of similar meaning and form and translated this idiom as “torm veeklaasis”, which is an existing idiom in Estonian.

There were also 7.3% of the respondents who translated this idiom into “sääsest elevanti tegema” by using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form.

In addition, there were four kinds of answers that used the translation by paraphrase and those answers were “üle reageerima” (2.4%), “väikesest probleemist suurt tegema” (4.9%), “tühjast suurt numbrit tegema” (4.9%) and “ülespuhutud teema” (2.4%).

A/The devil’s’ advocate (kuradi advokaat) This idiom was translated by 39 from whom 16 had used the translated expression themselves, and the majority of 23 people had only heard others use it but not used it themselves.

73% of the people translated this idiom as “saatana advokaat” and 18.9% as “kuradi advokaat”, both of which have been translated directly.

5.4% of the people translated this idiom as “opositsioon” and 2.7% as “keegi, kes tahab, et olukorda rohkem kaalutaks”, which are both translated by paraphrasing the idiom.

One of the main deductions that can be made based on the results of the survey is that every idiom in the questionnaire was translated directly by the majority of the respondents. This shows that the hypothesis of my research paper was right, and the direct translations of the chosen idioms from English to Estonian are very commonly used.

The other most used translation strategy was translation by paraphrase that was also used in translations of all the idioms. The translation using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form was used in the translation of five idioms.

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The fact that those idioms were mostly translated directly shows us how big influence English has on Estonian.

Increasingly we come across English idioms that have been directly translated into Estonian. The more important position English acquires in the world, the more of such new idioms appear in Estonian. The question is whether such a phenomenon enriches the Estonian language with new idioms or vice versa, neglects the matching idioms in Estonian.

Idioms in this research have all come to Estonian from English and have never originally existed in Estonian. Since those idioms have already been used in different media articles, they are expected to be more widely known in Estonian, otherwise they would completely change the meaning of the text.

Therefore, the survey proved that most people do know those foreign idioms by their direct translations.

When translating idioms, it could be especially hard to understand the meaning of the direct translations of idioms that are not so widely known like “taste of one’s own medicine” or “the devil’s advocate”. Those idioms could easily be used in wrong context or understood very differently. Nevertheless, there were still many people who chose not to translate those idioms directly and decided to make those idioms more compatible to the Estonian language. According to this, those chosen idioms should not be used in media that lightly since the meaning of the direct translations might not be understandable to all Estonians.

REFERENCES Baker, M. 1992. In other words: a coursebook on translation. London and New York: Routledge.

Cacciari, C., Tabossi P. 1993. Idioms: processing, structure, and interpretation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Hanko, U., Liiv, G. 1999. Inglise-Eesti idioomisõnaraamat. Tallinn: Valgus.

Kasik, R. 2004. “Muutuv meedia – muutuv keel.” Oma Keel, p. 5.

Shojaei, A. 2012. Translation of Idioms and Fixed Expressions: Strategies and Difficulties. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 1220-1229.

On 14 May 2018 Raili Marling delivered her inaugural lecture “Kriitiline lugemine poliitiliste afektide ajastul” (“Reading Critically in the Age of Political Affects”) in the Festive Hall of the University of Tartu.

Thus, she became the fourth Professor of English Studies at the University of Tartus, the earlier being Heinrich Mutschmann (1921–1939), Ants Oras (1934–1943) and Krista Vogelberg (1992–2015).

EATE congratulates Raili heartily on her election to this honourable post.

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New Zealand ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE ROLE OF A LEARNER? Kärt Leppik Institute of Education, University of Tartu

Katrin Saks Pärnu College, University of Tartu

This is one of the key questions asked from teacher candidates in the schools in New Zealand. Open classrooms, team-based teaching, multi-cultural environment, big differences in learners’ socio-economic status, learner autonomy and awareness of their learning process – these are some of the key words that characterise the schools in New Zealand. The scholars and staff involved in a project of the competence centre of the University of Tartu had a chance to see the best practices and educational innovation in primary and secondary schools in the North and South Island of New Zealand, and in Auckland and Canterbury universities.

After the earthquake that struck New Zealand in 2011 and caused major damage to buildings, including schools, the government directed its course to a new schoolhouse design described by open classrooms and diversity of opportunities. Everyone found themselves in the new situation – directors, teachers and students. Today, people must handle anxiety attacks caused by the natural catastrophe, devastated physical environment, and different ethnical groups – Maori and Oceanian who have been mistreated for a long time. At the same time, the need for educational innovation has emerged which is closely related to the expectations of our contemporary learning approach. The visits to schools, talking to their students and teachers and seeing their satisfaction with the teaching-learning process were really inspiring.

In open classrooms teaching is team-based and supported by coaches, the board and parents. The learning goals and the learning process are planned with students, learning takes place individually or in small groups where the teachers’ role is consulting and supporting learners. Traditional teaching as we understand it, with the teacher standing in the front and students sitting at their desks and listening, could not be found anywhere. What we saw was students being busy working individually or in groups, having found a comfortable place in the room, and the teacher moving from one group to the other observing their work and discussing the problems. A lot of collaboration is done by the board and teachers in the phase of planning the learning process. This provides the opportunity to organize work in the class in individual and groupwork mode considering every student’s personal development and learning plan. The State Curriculum in New Zealand is targeted at acquisition of core competences and values; schools may arrange their learning process according to their best understanding. It came as a surprise to see how aware the primary school students were of pedagogical basics of the learning process and how reasonably they were able to discuss it. They know what interest in learning starts from, how 35

to manage problems and face challenges, and develop their skills step by step. In New Zealand, a very different approach from ours is employed to learning. However, similarly to Estonia, they achieve good results in PISA test.

Stonefields school with its more than 600 students implements a program to enhance learning and entrepreneurship (schooltalk.io).

Teachers use a digital system to enter different communal learning assignments which earn them digital points and are directed to developing different core competences (e.g. school tours for visitors, activities with learners with special education needs etc). In the system, the teachers provide different projects for students to learn; students can submit individual and groupwork assignments and have a constant overview of their academic progress. The two 11–12-year-old girls who showed us around the school and classrooms, and talked about the learning process and core values were also involved in this program. We were impressed by teachers and students in all schools in NZ sharing the same information space, being self-directed learners and aware of the steps of the learning process, being able to plan their learning trajectory and asking for help if needed.

The students used different digital tools in the learning process. There were schools which provided their students with laptop computers (Stonefields School, Haeata Community Campus, Merrin School) but also schools where children from better-off families used their own digital devices.

“Talking walls” could be noticed in all schools – walls covered with messages for teachers and students in halls and classrooms, several of them co-created by people in collaboration. The schemes of the learning process, values and core competences had been described in the posters in a way that was also understandable for primary students.

Another thing that all schools shared was the structure of their schoolday. They had up to 3–4 specific classes a day; each of them lasted for 90–120 minutes and the classes were attended by dozens or up to a hundred students who were supervised by teams of teachers. According to them, team-based teaching enables to exploit the strengths of all teachers belonging to the team, make the learning process more thoughtful and deliberate, more diverse, and use a lot of individual supervision and groupwork.

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The diversity of nations, cultures and languages makes teaching in the schools of New Zealand challenging. A good example is the Haeata community school which today hosts the children from four local schools damaged in the earthquake. Half of the students are of Maori origin; a quarter are from the Pacific islands (mostly Samoa). According to the state policy, the Maori language and culture, and children and their families with a different cultural and socio-economic background have to be supported. The schools follow the principles of inclusive education. Therefore, children with different special educational needs could be met in all schools. In more complicated cases, the students could also be taught in separate units of the building. However, for joint activities all children were included.

In Stonefields school, we had a very heart-warming conversation with a 12-year-old girl who showed us around the school. When we asked her who she liked to become in the future, she said a teacher for children with special needs. She often went to their classes and enjoyed playing and interacting with them. This made us think of our children – do they have contacts with children with special needs? Do they need to have a chance to meet and learn to live with people with special needs to build personal relations with them, to build a spiritual connection?

Other very important issues in their schools are teachers’ professional development and wellbeing, also students’ health and wellbeing. The directors explained that, to prevent conflicts and disagreements between the staff, the problems are dealt with at the first opportunity. The board responds to teachers’ dissatisfaction, disturbing circumstances or different opinions of the school and parents. All schools have informal weekly gatherings to share information, enhance the staff and enable the board and teachers stay in the same information space while moving towards the shared goals.

Useful links: National Curriculum of New Zealand http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/ Rolleston College http://www.rollestoncollege.nz/contact/ Stonefields School http://www.stonefields.school.nz/ Merrin School http://www.merrin.school.nz/ Haeata Community Campus https://www.haeata.school.nz/ Teacher training in New Zealand: https://www.educationcouncil.org.nz Photos of Stonefields School and Rolleston College by Margus Pedaste

MY KIWIANA Evi Saluveer

Institute of Education, University of Tartu

Traditional symbols are most probably amongst the first things we learn about any new country. While they give the feeling of national identity to its people, they provide a good visual and mental image for its visitors.

New Zealand’s symbols are commonly known as Kiwiana.

One cannot find a unanimous definition of Kiwiana. Macmillan Dictionary defines it as “collectable objects, ornaments, etc, esp. dating from the 1950s or 1960s, relating to the history or popular culture of New Zealand”. According to Oxford online dictionary, it is “items and artefacts relating to or produced in New Zealand”. Dave Gunson (2016), the author of the book All about Kiwiana, describes it as anything that distinguishes New Zealand from any other place in the world. He goes on to say that this includes things people do and say, habits, customs and traditions and of course, the people. The list is inconclusive.

In other words – everybody can have their own Kiwiana.

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Nevertheless, the best-known of the symbols of Kiwiana can be seen in Otorohanga, in the North Island, which is known as the Kiwiana Capital of New Zealand (see more at https://kiwianatown.co.nz/). One can find models of a buzzy bee (a famous wooden toy), jandals, Swanndri (a trade name for a range of popular New Zealand outdoor clothing), sheep and, of course, the kiwi there.

The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand that everybody knows. It describes a flightless bird, the fruit and the people.

However, one may wonder why it has become such a powerful icon. In the early years of the European settlement, several symbols were used to represent the country, e.g. the moa (a huge flightless bird that the Maori people hunted to extinction), the fern (New Zealand has over 200 species of it), the Southern Cross (a constellation on the New Zealand flag) and the kiwi bird. While the former three had a more formal status, the kiwi enjoyed “popular appeal” (Barnett & Wolfe, 1990). In 1906, the Australian manufacturer William Ramsey developed a shoe polish which he named “Kiwi” in honour of his wife’s birth country.

The polish became hugely popular amongst soldiers in the First World War and the name itself was soon transferred to New Zealand soldiers. After the Second World War, the Kiwi became synonymous with New Zealanders in general, not just people of the Armed Forces (Barnett & Wolfe, 1990). Nowadays you can find the kiwi bird symbol all over New Zealand, e.g. on postage stamps, coins, badges, emblems etc, not to mention the official Kiwi Trademark that is globally recognised as a label depicting NZ made products.

Kiwi sign next to the road

The bird itself can hardly be seen in the wild as its numbers have drastically declined. As they are flightless, escape from predators such as dogs, cats and stouts is difficult. 95% of kiwi birds in the wild are killed before they are old enough to breed (Hepözden, 2014). Therefore, you shouldn’t get your hopes up when you see a kiwi sign next to the road. The best place to see kiwis today would be in wildlife reserves, bird parks and zoos.

When it comes to the kiwifruit, then this was introduced to New Zealand from China in the 1930s, and until the end of the 1950s was known as the Chinese gooseberry (Gunson, 2016). As it proved to be a very successful crop in New Zealand, it was decided to give it a more local name – the kiwifruit. The name stuck and it is known under it in most countries.

Even though the so-called official Kiwiana exists, most of us have our personal symbols we associate with the places we have been to and which bring back the best memories of any trip. Below are some of mine.

Long black and flat white “Can I have two medium long blacks and one large flat white, please?” is a sentence I must have repeated the most often in New Zealand. “Where?” you may ask. The answer is: anywhere you can buy coffee as these are the most commonly served types. Long black is made by pouring hot water into a cup, to which two shots of espresso are added. You can ask the water and espresso to be brought separately so that you can make your coffee as strong as you wish. For flat white, steamed milk, which is usually not frothy but creamy, is poured over a shot of espresso. Coffee is made everywhere by baristas and in the morning hours you may wait for yours for some time, but it’s worth it.

Because of its location, New Zealand’s cuisine is rich in seafood – Coromandel scallops, Bluff oysters, Marlborough mussels, shrimps, whitebait, snapper, tuna, to name just a few, but the winner for me was seafood chowder. This is a thick creamy soup made of vegetables and various seafood. The recipes vary from place to place and so do the main ingredients, but it tastes absolutely delicious.

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Even though New Zealand is the birth place of the world-famous pavlova, this meringue-based dessert topped with cream and fresh fruit is not easy to find. Most restaurants offer various desserts, but for some reason pav (as it is locally known) is not among them. I finally managed to order one in Rotorua.

Unfortunately, it didn’t resemble any of the inviting photos you can see in pictures. Mine was just a piece of baked meringue with some jam on the side.

Once in New Zealand, you should also try kumara* – sweet potato, introduced to New Zealand by the Maori and cultivated over a thousand years. Modern kumara is bigger than its distant relative and is a staple ingredient in many New Zealand dishes.

Kumara crisps are a real treat, but much more expensive than ordinary potato crisps.

Exuberant, fruit-laden, mouth-filling, refreshing, elegant These are just a few adjectives New Zealand wine-makers use to describe their production. For a wine-lover New Zealand Wine tasting in the famous is a dream come true. The country’s wine-making history is Cloudy Bay winery comparatively short. The first vineyard was planted in in the early 1800s, but it was only towards the end of the 20th century that wine industry started to boom, and New Zealand wines became world famous (New Zealand Wine). The country’s biggest wine-growing region is, of course, Marlborough in the South Island with its over 200 vineyards and world-famous Savignon Blancs. Altogether New Zealand has 10 wine-making regions. Besides Marlborough (whose wines can also be found in Estonia), Hawke’s Bay and Martinborough in the North Island and Central Otago (South Island) are worth visiting. You can enjoy a guided tour of 5 to 10 wineries on a comfortable minibus with an experienced guide or just choose a few on your own and try the best wines in the world in some most stunning environments.

Pohutukawa tree, pohutukawa tree… … New Zealand’s Christmas tree. These lines from a famous Christmas song haunted me whenever these beautiful trees came into sight. Pohutukawa can be found almost anywhere along the coast and its name (meaning “sprinkled by spray”) refers to the fact that it usually grows on the seashore. In their natural coastal environment, the trees can live for hundreds of years, but they can also be found in home gardens. The trees bloom from December till mid-January and have bright red flowers, which against the green background make them look like richly decorated Christmas trees.

Pohutukawa is not the only tree that features in Christmas carols. The New Zealand version of the famous English carol “Twelve Days of Christmas” is called “Pukeko in a Ponga Tree”. The ponga or silver fern is another well-known icon of New Zealand. It is an average-size tree-fern that can be found throughout the country. Its fronds (large divided leaves) have silvery undersides. Hence the name silver fern. The silver fern first became a popular icon in the military. There are numerous A sign asking visitors to scrub their shoes examples of New Zealand troops using the fern on their badges before entering a kauri forest at war times. The earliest use is believed to have been in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa (Mulholland, 2016). However, the plant has been made especially popular by New Zealand’s rugby team The All Blacks, who have a silver fern sign printed on their jerseys. Additionally, New Zealand women’s netball team is called The Silver Ferns and the plant 39

is part of New Zealand’s official emblem for the Olympic Games. The spiral of an unfolding fern – koru, on the other hand, has been an important element in the Maori culture and can be seen in jewellery, carvings and clothing.

Both pohutukawa and ponga are endemic to New Zealand next to the rest of 80% of the country’s trees and plants (Department of Conservation). Other distinctive trees include the cabbage tree (also popular in Europe; in Britain known as the Torquay palm), the kōwhai (unofficial national plant with its brilliant yellow flowers) and the mighty kauri. The largest kauri Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) is over 50 metres tall, with the trunk girth of nearly 14 metres (Gunson, 2016). The tree grows in the Waipoua forest in the North Island and is believed to be about 2,000 years old. As the kauri trees are threatened by a disease caused by a rot that is carried on people’s shoes, everyone needs to scrub them before entering the forest. Once there, you cannot but be overwhelmed by the size and glory of this majestic tree.

Kuri Bush and Kaka Point When travelling around New Zealand, you’ll notice a lot of funny and interesting-sounding place names. Many of them are of Maori origin and several – combinations of English and Maori words, like the above-mentioned names. These two will bring a smile on every Estonian visitor’s face. Kuri Bush is a small settlement on Otago peninsula, popular with local surfers. The word kuri stands for a dog in Maori. Kaka, on the other hand, is a large parrot. It is about 45 centimetres tall and has olive-brown plumage with bright splashes of yellow and red under their wings. It has a loud boisterous voice, which is said to resemble a creaky door. Kaka Point itself is a small place in Catlins district in the South Island.

Some place names make you laugh

Besides interesting place names, New Zealanders are fond of giant signs to introduce different sites.

The biggest – a giant fish – is at Rakaia in the South Island. It is 12 metres high and claims Rakaia’s status as the best salmon-fishing spot. A giant bottle near Paeroa advertises New Zealand’s iconic drink – Lemon and Paeroa (known as L&P). The most eye-catching however, is a 13-metre high fruit sign, including apricot, apple, pear and nectarine to celebrate the importance of the fruit-growing region at Cromwell. You can also come across huge signs of crayfish, donuts, paua shell, gum boots to name just a few.

Haka, hongi, and hangi About 15% of the New Zealand’s population is made up by the Maori, most of whom (86%) live in the North Island (StatsNZ). Their language - Te Reo - is an official language of the country along with English and sign language. Many words have become part and parcel of New Zealand English.

Haka is considered to be one of the most important aspects of Maori culture. It is used to show defiance, challenge as well as respect. Therefore, when visiting a Maori village and being welcomed with haka, you 40

After a concert in a living Maori village, Whakarewarewa

shouldn’t be discouraged by the performers’ fierce looks, bulging eyes and protruding tongues. The most famous haka is called Ka Mate. It is always performed by The All Blacks before the start of a rugby match to intimidate the opposite team.

Hongi is a traditional Maori greeting. It is done by pressing (not rubbing) noses together. The most commonly attributed meaning of hongi is sharing breaths (Salmons, 2017). Hongi is traditionally used in official ceremonies and meetings, but it could also happen in informal situations. We experienced hongi in a small roadside cafeteria, where the owner, a Maori man, came to talk to us. When he was going to leave he suggested doing hongi. For all three of us, it was a really emotional and memorable experience.

Hangi is a traditional Maori method of cooking, where food is cooked underground.

Traditionally, heated stones are put into a hole, Slope Point – southernmost point of New Zealand on which food in baskets is placed. The baskets are covered with cloth and earth is put on top.

The food cooks about three to four hours and is considered to be much healthier than the food cooked on open fire. In places where the underground temperatures are high, geothermal steam is used instead of stones and the food is put into specially prepared pits like, for example, in Whakarewarewa village near Rotorua.

New Zealand offers a lot to its visitors – stunning nature, fascinating culture, delicious food and friendly people. My Kiwiana is a collection of wonderful memories of my two trips of the country (2015 and 2018).

They are unforgettable, colourful, vivid and heart-warming. Like the country and its people. *Note. Maori words in this article are written without macrons – horizontal bars over the vowel. They are used to indicate the correct pronunciation of the vowel, which has a lengthened sound.

REFERENCES Barnett, S. & Wolfe, R. 1990. New Zealand! New Zealand! In Praise of Kiwiana. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. Department of Conservation. Native Plants. Retrieved from http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-plants/ Gunson, D. 2016. All about Kiwiana. New Zealand Treasures and Traditions. Auckland: New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd. Hepözden, R. 2014. Instant Kiwi. New Zealand in a nutshell. Auckland: New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd. Kiwiana Town. Retrieved from https://kiwianatown.co.nz/ New Zealand Wine. Retrieved from https://www.nzwine.com/en/ Mulholland, M. 2016. New Zealand flag facts. New Zealand Flag Consideration Panel.

Salmons, M 2017. Hongi, our national greeting. Retrieved from https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/ news/96504348/hongi-our-national-greeting StatsNZ. Maori. Retrieved from https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/maori Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved from https://teara.govt.nz/en Photos by Evi Saluveer

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Experienced Educator THOUGHTS ABOUT TEACHING IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE AN INTERVIEW WITH JUTA HENNOSTE

Why did you choose English as your major and what were the alternatives?

My first foreign languages were Russian and German, and I started studying English only in Year 8 when I changed schools. I caught up with my new classmates pretty quickly, but in secondary school, when thinking about further studies, I wavered between the Estonian and English languages, as I thought my English might not be good enough to enter university. I had fantastic English teachers, and that finally tipped the scales in favour of English, which I have never regretted.

How has the knowledge of English benefited you besides enabling you to be a teacher?

Thanks to knowing English, I have met very many interesting people and done things that would have never been possible without the command of the language, like working as an interpreter at the Tallinn Olympic Regatta, translating various materials, guiding visitors in Tartu, leading the Comenius project in my school and travelling a lot. I have had great penfriends, and I have enjoyed reading books and watching films in English, not to mention finding necessary information on the internet.

Sometimes I have pondered what my life would have been like without English, and I cannot imagine it, as they are so closely intertwined. Knowing English has broadened my horizons immensely and enabled me to lead a more exciting life.

Have your ways of teaching changed? If yes, how and what forced you to make this change?

When I started teaching in a small country school more than 35 years ago, it was mainly read-translateanswer-the-questions type of teaching, as I did not have any technological devices to make my classroom smarter. Students could use English outside the class only for writing snail mail to a few penfriends I could find for them. It may be unimaginable today when smartphones, tablets, computers and other high-tech tools are part of our everyday life, offering so many different opportunities.

Step by step, lecturers from abroad came to introduce active teaching methods, new and better textbooks were published, people could travel more and use English in everyday situations – all that naturally led me to change the ways of teaching, make it more communicative, introduce different styles of writing, teach students to make presentations or find more materials about English-speaking countries. I learnt a lot myself using new teaching aids. The driving force was our changing life.

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What kind of learning habits do you think a student should have if they want to master a foreign language?

Firstly, students need motivation what they need the language for, any aim from travelling to playing computer games will do. They should know that there are different styles of learning: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, etc. they can find out about on the internet and use the suitable ones while studying. Learning a foreign language should be done on a regular basis, instead of cramming for tests or exams. While in class, they ought to learn to fully concentrate on the material – it is a habit that seems to be quickly disappearing. Of course, it is useful to review things from time to time to avoid forgetting what you have learnt. Mastering a foreign language is hard work, so it cannot be fun all the time. Piret Kärtner once said, “A foreign language is not a leaf from a birch sauna whisk that easily sticks to your body.” Every language learner should keep this in mind.

Share a funny story about teaching English.

I suppose every experienced teacher has dozens of stories that bring a smile on their faces even years later.

When our school was still a secondary school, there was a boy called Allan in Year 11, a creative, kind and talkative person. The only thing he disliked was studying new vocabulary for the test, and he rarely got more than a satisfactory mark for it.

One day, after a long brain-racking, when the rest of the group had handed in their tests, he stood up and declared, “Teacher, I’ve got a test for you. I want to know whether you are a genuine English teacher or not.” The other students were very quiet as they had no idea what was going on. Allan marched to my desk with a broad smile on his face. I looked at his test and saw that he had written on the top of it: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?... I took my pen and added: Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Then I asked him, “What do you want me to do with this song by Queen, sing it to you?” His reaction was, “Damn!!!” He had discovered Queen for himself the previous summer, but he did not know that the band had been my absolute favourite for more than 30 years, and their “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the easiest challenge for me.

Sometimes a sheer coincidence can save your reputation.

If you were the Minister Education and of Research...

If I were in this position, I would do everything to make the teacher’s profession more attractive for young people, as the average age of teachers has been increasing, and quite a lot of teachers are now reaching retirement age or are retired and work part-time. The situation is a bit better in primary schools, but on the upper level the picture is different. I suppose it may be easier for young teachers who have a good command of ICT, lots of interesting ideas and energy to put them into practice, to motivate students and help to improve both their academic achievement and satisfaction with everyday school life.

First and foremost, it is the question of teachers’ salary, but in addition, young teachers should get active and sufficient support from their colleagues and feel comfortable and contented with the positive school climate.

But I think it would not be an easy task, and maybe I should have a magic wand to cope with it.

Where do you see Estonian school in ten years’ time?

Everything will have become digital, and we may have said goodbye to textbooks and workbooks.

Writing by hand will also be disappearing, if not gone by that time. Interactive technologies will be in everyday use. Education will be more practical: more projects, group work and studying outside school.

Classes will have disappeared, and students will work in changing groups. Vocational education will become more important and popular. Students will be more satisfied and happy with school, hopefully teachers as well.

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What are the most important lessons you learnt from being the chair of EATE? The years 2001-2007 gave me valuable and unforgettable experience of organizing events, interacting and co-operating with different people. The most useful lesson may be that in order to avoid silly mistakes in programmes, certificates or handouts, you need to read them carefully at least three times and ask three other people to read them before photocopying.

Do we still need EATE? Why? I am sure EATE is necessary for teachers, as the annual meetings have been quite popular and every year some new members have joined us. EATE can help to solve problems if they arise, like we have previously done about the National Exam. EATE committee members as our representatives are often asked to express their opinion on different matters. A yearly meeting is a good place to listen to native speakers as lecturers, get some new ideas and meet university friends or former colleagues. Teachers of other foreign languages have often expressed their envy that EATE is such an efficient organization.

Last but not least, OPEN! is open to everybody who wants to write about their experience.

What do you prefer to do in your free time?

I’m fond of knitting, especially Haapsalu shawls. It is the best relaxation after a hectic school day.

Sometimes I spend hours visiting FB handicraft groups, Pinterest or Ravelry, admiring other people’s work and dreaming of making all those beautiful things myself. I have attended Aime Asi’s painting studio at Tartu Folk High School for a couple of years and practised painting with acrylics, which is also a good way to forget everyday problems and create something interesting and colourful that did not exist before. I used to read a lot, but now I choose books really carefully and I could say the same about theatre. I like watching good films and British and Nordic detective series, also listening to music and going to concerts.

Juta Hennoste was interviewed by EATE Committee members

Juta Hennoste at Ballinskelligs Bay, Ireland

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Reading Recommendations FREE TO LEARN BY PETER GRAY Helin Haga

Coordinator of External Funding at Science Centre AHHAA Co-founder of Democratic Education Community PUNT

In his book Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life, Peter Gray, an evolutionary psychology professor discusses the importance of free play in children’s lives and the benefits of alternative methods of education, specifically democratic education.

Gray takes the reader on a journey through the history of traditional education systems that we have come to consider to be the norm today, looking at the origin of the practices of age-segregation, grading, homework and student ranking. He explains the discrepancy between the needs of obedience-oriented Puritan and Prussian societies of the past that gave birth to modern education systems and the creativity-seeking societies of today while pointing out the startling similarities of the past schools to those of modern times. He also gives examples of the increasing stress and anxiety levels measured in today’s youth, and how relevant figures have exponentially grown during the past century, going hand-in-hand with longer school days, more intense homework and increased adult control over children’s lives.

A big part of the book is dedicated to an overview of hunter-gatherer cultures since Gray argues that the human race’s natural inclination and hunger for new knowledge comes from the times we were roaming the land as hunter-gatherers. To illustrate this point, he presents numerous studies of still existing or recently existed huntergatherer cultures and the importance of free play in the self-educative practices of such societies. His ultimate conclusion is that nature has equipped humans with the skill and irresistible urge to play freely to enable us to acquire the skills and knowledge we need to survive in our respective cultures. One of the most curious cases he uses to illustrate this theory has to do with the games children of the Holocaust played since, even in such grim circumstances, children could not be stopped from playing. He goes on to pair the concept of free play with the concept of trustful parenting, explaining the developmental benefits of both and showing how both concepts are currently undervalued.

In order to show how the concept of free play, trustful parenting and belief in the self-educative skills of children can be implemented in a school system, Gray takes an in-depth look at the system of democratic education. In particular, he portrays the everyday life in the Sudbury Valley School, established in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts, the USA, by Daniel Greenberg and Co where Gray’s son was also once enrolled. While describing the details of learning at the Sudbury Valley, Gray introduces the reader to such integral parts of the school’s functioning democratic core as the School Meeting where everyone has a say despite their age, the Judicial Committee that acts as a court to solve instances of broken rules and equality between adults and children (for in the school, there are school members, not teachers and students).

Free to Learn is a critical, yet hopeful look at the current and future state of (Western) education, backed up with an abundance of scientific evidence and case studies involving people who have had the courage to step outside the norm or question the status quo of the schooling provided in most Western countries today.

In January 2018, Democratic Education Community PUNT published the book in Estonian under the title Vabadus õppida.

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100 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP: CREATIVE COMPETITION FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN To celebrate the Centenary of the Republic of Estonia and 100 years of bilateral relations, the British Embassy Tallinn held a 100 Years of Friendship Queen’s Birthday Party Competition for schoolchildren living in Estonia.

What was the challenge? To create an inspiring representation of 100 Years of Friendship between Estonia and the UK. Children could choose to look into the past, present or future.

What entries were submitted? There was no limit but the children’s imagination, and they truly let it run free! We received many fantastic entries, among them were drawings, paintings, paper appliques, sculptures, board games, computer games, photos, poems, essays, videos, woodwork, embroidery and even food.

50 winners of the competition together with an accompanying adult had an exclusive opportunity to take part in the most British party in Estonia: the Queen’s Birthday Party, the flagship event of the British Embassy that took place on 13 June. A selection of winning entries was displayed at the QBP and presented to the Prime Minister Jüri Ratas and Minister of Education Mailis Reps. Here we present three texts that were among the winners of the competition. All winning entries will be displayed at the Embassy’s Facebook page and at the competition web page competition.ukandestonia.ee in the nearest future.

100 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP Emily Lieberg

As a British proverb says, a real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. This adage can be used to best describe the friendship between the United Kingdom and Estonia, which has been strong for a century.

It all began with the Estonian War of Independence where the UK lent a much needed helping hand by bringing food, supplies and the Royal Navy fleet to keep the Estonian coastline open. After gaining independence, the UK recognized Estonia’s sovereignty in 1921. The UK became Estonia’s biggest and most important trading partner and the friendship between the two countries blossomed.

But with the start of the second world war, Estonia lost its independence once more, bearing both Russian and German occupation, until being united with the Soviet Union. Being separated by the iron curtain, the UK never recognized the occupation and kept the Estonian Embassy operating in spite of Moscow’s demands of closing it. Even though Estonia was cut off from the UK and foreign radio stations and programmes where forbidden at certain times during the occupation, British pop culture, music and trends still reached Estonia.

But as the years passed, the Soviet Union became more liberal and eventually it collapsed and Estonia was able to be free again and in 1991 the UK re-recognized Estonia’s independence. From that day 46

until today Estonia and the UK have been each other’s supporters and partners and the connection between the two countries has grown.

In 2004 Estonia became part of the European Union, which opened many doors for us, Estonians. The UK has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Estonia and around 12 000 Estonians study or work in the United Kingdom. During these years Estonia has been able to build up its economy and become a welfare state, although having many difficulties after regaining independence.

Although both countries have faced many ordeals during these 100 years, the connection established still holds strong. Estonia can now be viewed as an equal to the UK. From the beginning of the 20th century the UK has stood beside Estonia through thick and thin. Hopefully the friendship will endure the changes which are about to come and stay connected to each other for another century.

THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ESTONIA – PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION Aleksandra Ratkovits We all know that Estonia and Great Britain are partners in several fields – they actively cooperate in the spheres of national defence and IT technologies but not only. One of the newest fields of co-working is education as well as student exchange and academic cooperation.

As we know, British education is the best in the world. Many people from all over the world apply to the great universities of Britain, especially to Oxbridge and red brick universities. As long as Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union, nobody dreamt about studying at top universities of the UK. It became practically real for us to study in Britain only after the restoration of independence of Estonia. It seems that today every third student of an Estonian high school considers the possibility of becoming a student of a British university.

Recently I watched a report of BBC about a new community of YouTubers which is named StudyTubers.

Like British youth, Estonian students make educational videos, too. Ksenia Niglas, a former student of a common gymnasium in Tallinn, films videos about studying at the University of Cambridge, shares her experience and encourages more than 61 000 followers. Even though she had a university experience in other places, she decided to continue studying in Cambridge and to become a PhD student of mathematical education. Ksenia will be back to Estonia with a “Dr.” in front of her name, which will be received from the most famous university of the world, as well as she’ll obviously become a world’s leading expert of her field.

It is worth stating that both Estonia and Britain make steps for development of the educational relations.

Estonian government and foundations offer students scholarships for studying abroad, and employers and labour market accept international diplomas and degrees. The UK contributes to bilateral relations in education and also offers Estonian students scholarships. International students often need not pay tuition fees and search accommodation thanks to the support of Britain. Students develop the science and economy of the UK and have a great chance to embody their dreams without struggling with lack of money!

As it’s known, education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. Cooperation in the field of education is the best way to strengthen relations. Well-educated people, citizens of our countries as the future of our societies will be always standing for the development of relations between the UK and Estonia.

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“OPERATION RED TREK” 1918 Julius Tarand

Estonia got its independence thanks to clever planning and international collaboration. It is one the years that every Estonian knows by heart and serves with great honour. This was all made possible thanks to a very precise campaign that was launched exactly 100 years ago in order to enable the establishment of independence – “Operation Red Trek”.

The campaign was launched after the Russian October Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin in 1917. The situation in the Baltic states was chaotic. Hectic moments made Estonians feel insecure about the upcoming independence manifest because Lenin declared, “The Baltic must become a Soviet sea,” and unleashed his forces across the region.

Despite the uncertainty of the British Government whether to support the newborn states or not, First Sea Lord Admiral Wester Wemyss encouraged to extend the “freedom of the seas” principle to the Baltics, and succeeded in sending a naval task force. In November 1918 the Sixth Light Cruiser Squadron, consisting of modern C class cruisers and V and W class destroyers, under the command of Rear-Admiral Edwin Alexander-Sinclair, set sails towards the Baltics. After the arrival of the Squadron, Sinclair declared to attack the Bolsheviks menacingly “as far as my guns can reach”. This statement was vital for a little Estonia to fight against the Red Army. The Royal Navy was not only providing military aid at this time, it was a moral boost that helped building up the Estonian Army and especially the Navy.

Since then the Estonian Navy took over the manners and knowledge from the Royal Navy and preserves them till now. British Marines introduced Madsen guns to Estonians and, after cleverly capturing two Soviet destroyers, donated them to the Estonian Navy. These were the first Estonian Navy vessels – mine cruisers Lennuk and Wambola. Moreover, Estonian naval uniform came more or less from the Royal Navy at that time.

These remarkable donations and their impact on the development of Estonian Navy weren´t unnoticed.

The importance of the Royal Navy involvement is best summed up by the Chief of Defence General Laidoner who quoted already then that we owe our independence to the Royal Navy, even more than half of it.

Sinclair returned to Britain in January 1919 and his replacement was Rear-Admiral Sir Walter Cowan who, in order to sustain the newly-created state of Estonia, was as conscientious as Sinclair to protect the Baltic states. When in 2006 Estonia bought the Royal Navy vessel HMS Sandown, it was renamed after Admiral Cowan in honour of supporting Estonia´s fight for independence from Russia at the end of World War I. EML Admiral Cowan is a Sandown class minehunter and now the Estonian Navy´s flagship.

Later on, United Kingdom provided the construction works for the two legendary submarines called Kalev and Lembit. For the brave officers and seamen of the British Royal Navy who served and gave their lives in the cause of freedom in the Baltic during the Estonian War of Independence, there is a memorial plaque on behalf of the grateful people of Estonia in a 16th-century artillery tower called Fat Margaret.

Currently, Captain Jüri Saska is strengthening the connections with both navies and hopes to host a United Kingdom Joint Expedition Force in 2019. The Joint Expedition Force is created to implement important international framework and focus on refreshing existing high readiness capabilities. This would be an unforgettable event for both countries to celebrate the cooperation that has lasted till now and promisingly for the centuries to come.

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Photos by Evi Saluveer