Posts tagged "English"

[English Subs] Judgement of Corruption [PV]

Song: Judgement of Corruption Singer: KAITO Avaritia (Greed) of the Seven Deadly Sin Series English Lyrics: xTwilight95x and animeyay (Video Translation) Music: mothy (Akuno-P) Subtitles: crystaltear5 Original Video: www.nicovideo.jp
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Language Bridge Technology Announces New Self-Study Software for Learning English as a Foreign Language Faster

Language Bridge Technology Announces New Self-Study Software for Learning English as a Foreign Language Faster
New brain-compatible software helps adult learners in turning off the mother tongue while learning English as a Foreign Language and forming the English language speech center in the brain. The software introduces simultaneous repetition, which was never used in learning languages before, to achieve this objective. (PRWeb April 04, 2011) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com …
Read more on PRWeb

Next, a new peace plan
Rejecting criticism of his actions in Libya, President Obama outlined a standard for civilised multilateralism: “Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and common security,” he said. “Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners … to see that the principles of justice and human …
Read more on Khaleej Times

BRITAIN TALKING TO GROUPS IN LIBYA, SAYS MINISTER
KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) — Britain is currently engaged in talkswith those groups in Libya which are opposed to the country”s leader MuammarGaddafi”s regime.”Obviously, it is a very fluid situation but I would want you to think thatit has not reached a formal level which is equivalent to the type ofrelationship we would have with a formalised state,” Britain”s Minister of Stateat the …
Read more on Bernama Media via Yahoo! Malaysia News

It’s time for Obama to say Kefaya!
He took the White House armed with hope and promise of change, but has Obama already been beaten down by Washington?
Read more on Al Jazeera

Corruption Garden – English & Chinese Sub – Megurine Luka – sm12284787

From Nico Video: sm12284787 HD version: www.youtube.com Transcription English & Romaji: motokokusanagi2009 vocalochu.blogspot.com ??: cyataku www9.atwiki.jp Encoding: lxw Video download HD: www.mediafire.com HQ: www.mediafire.com Original video ??(Lyrics)? Caz ??(Composer)? Caz ??(Arrangement)? Caz www.nicovideo.jp Not really HD size but I don’t want to redo it.Please use the below links to download the Mp3. Off vocal: www.mediafire.com Luka: www.mediafire.com Click on “MP3 ???” and the download should start. Luka: nicosound.anyap.info Click on “* mp3?DL??” and the download should start. Luka: www.nicomimi.net *A Vocaloid is a voice synthesizer. This software is primarily used to produce songs. For more information consult Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org .

Braveheart In Defiance Of The English Tyranny! BRAVO

LISTEN TO HIS SPEECH CAREFULLY. Mel Gibson, an excellent Aussie-American Hollywood actor starring as the “William Wallace” character in the movie – BRAVEHEART – based on a real story took place in Scotland. William Wallace gave his fellow country-men a freedom speech against the tyrant English(Anglo-Saxons)King’s Royal/Evil Armies. Scotts and Irishs want to have their own independence from the corrupt-brutal Royal Kindom of England.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

People who are subscribers take this viral. We need to get people involved with the July 4th Tea Parties. People must understand this is not a democratic or republican issue this is an American issue and we are getting our rights and wealth stolen. Show this video to a friend and lets get a million people to protest on July 4th. President Barack Obama Ron Paul Dennis Kucinich Glenn Beck Peter Schiff Republican Democrats Civil Liberties America Theft Jim DeMint Nancy Pelosi Barney Frank Chris Dodd John Boehner Rand Paul Issa Kaptur Jesse Ventura
Video Rating: 4 / 5

In the Bible: Three Days and Nights Before the Creation of the Sun

This is a new series (1-19) of Verse No. in the Bible versus the Quran.

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament says Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

—————-

The verse No.19 in the Old Testament is Genesis 1:19

The verse continues talking about the creation of the heavens and the earth, it says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Now, in the process of the creation of the heavens and the earth, We are in the fourth day after God has created the sun and the moon in that fourth day.

Hence, we have three days passed with three evenings and three mornings.  These first three days with their three evenings and three mornings happened before the creation of the sun and the moon (See articles 9-18 of this series).

How would or could that happened?

—————-

The verse No.19 in the New Testament is Matthew 1:19

The verse continues talking about the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, and Matthew lists Jesus’ ancestors, the verse says: Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly or it says: And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly

Here again, the Bible deals with Saint Mary as if she was an ordinary woman. She was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant and because he was a righteous and a jut man and unwilling to put her to shame, he did not want to expose her to public disgrace. So, he decided to divorce Saint Mary!

On the other hand, the Muslims’ faith about Saint Mary, peace be upon her; is that

She lived and died as a “Pure, Untouched, and an Outstanding Virgin Woman”. although the Bible  insists that she was pledged to be married to Joseph, then she married him and then she had babies from him and then those babies are the brothers of God!

—————-

Verse No.19 in the Noble Quran is Chapter 2:12,

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW), 2:12

The verse says:

Verses 2:8-20 are talking about the hypocrites

Verse 2:8 (See article 15) states that the hypocrites say: ‘we believe in Allah and the last day, ‘ yet they are not believers.

Verse 2:9 (See article 16) says: They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not.

Verse 2:10 (See article 17) says: “There is a sickness in their (the hypocrites) hearts which Allah has increased; for them there is a painful punishment because they lie.”

Verse 2:11 (See article 18) says: when it is said to them: Do not corrupt in the land;  they (the hypocrites) say: we are only reformers.

The verse 2:12 continues talking about the hypocrites; it says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

The meaning of verse 2:12

They are indeed the mischief mongers by being a hindrance.

Truly they are the agents of corruption, but they perceive, this, not.

but they do not perceive; They herein refers to both the hypocrites and their followers. The hypocrites do not sense that they are the agents of corruption. their followers do not know that their leaders mislead them.

==========

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Noble Quran in Four different Translation

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament

Genesis 1:19

New International Version:

19] And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

New American Standard Version:

19] There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.  

English Standard Version:

19] And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

King James Version:

19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament

Matthew 1:19

New International Version:

19] Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

New American Standard Version:

19] And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

English Standard Version:

19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

King James Version:

19] 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran

Chapter 2: 12

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW)

QARIB: but it is they who are the evildoers, though they do not sense it.

SHAKIR: now surely they themselves are the mischief makers, but they do not perceive

PICKTHAL: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

YUSUFALI: of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realise (it) not.

==========

It is very premature to ask this question:

Is the Quran quoted from the Bible?

Wait and you will see.

Prof.dr. Ibrahim Khalil
http://www.articlesbase.com/science-articles/in-the-bible-three-days-and-nights-before-the-creation-of-the-sun-669638.html

“Unquenchable Russia”, or Forbidden Themes in Nabokov’s Prose

“…What I feel to be the real modern world is the world the artist creates, his own mirage, which becomes a new mir (“world” in Russian) by the very act of his shedding, as it were, the age he lives in” . Such an answer Nabokov once gave to an interviewer who was interested in his opinion regarding the modern world and contemporary politics. The book which contains this interview as well as many others, is entitled Strong Opinions, and, indeed, Nabokov is well-known not only for his brilliant fiction but for his original, independent and uncompromising views on creativity, art and the place of artist in the world. Whenever interviewed, he avoided discussion of “general ideas” such as social, political and moral issues and asserted that such global concerns lay outside the realm of art: “A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. I don’t give a damn for the group, the community, the masses, and so forth… There can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art . A work of art, for Nabokov, is a world in itself, brought to life by one’s creative imagination. It leads its own independent existence, unrelated to its historical surroundings and realities. In the introduction to his Lectures on Literature Nabokov explains once again: “…The real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of fiction” . In this statement, visions of cosmic grandeur and an obvious reference to the story of Adam and Eve reflect a parallel between creator-artist and creator-God. In one of his interviews Nabokov explicitly brings out this comparison: “A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world” .

Nabokov’s position is, to a degree, a reaction to the situation in Soviet Russia, where demands of the state dominated the needs of a human being, where the individual was suppressed by the collective and details by generalities. He asserts once again the power and independence of personal creativity, the ability of one’s imagination to build worlds of its own, and makes a sharp distinction between a work of fiction and everything outside of it, including the personality of its creator. “Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art” .

Nabokov insisted on a specific approach to literature from the readers as well. He renounced the usual tendencies of identifying oneself with a book’s characters, searching for clues to the social and political realities of the time the work was written, or trying to form “general ideas” about a book without absorbing all its specific details. Emotional involvement, he pointed out, could also prevent the reader from objective appreciation of the work “…A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading” .

Nabokov avoided formulating his ideas under the famous slogan “art for art’s sake” just as he avoided labels of all kinds, but this well-known phrase can undoubtedly be used to describe his views and attitudes towards literature. In this hierarchy of values, aesthetic concerns dominate all others, and the influence of a great work of art on its reader is limited to a “tingle in the spine”. However, it remains to be seen, to what extent Nabokov’s ideas penetrate his own fiction; whether his novels are entirely a product of his creative imagination or a result of the deep personal experience that saturates them with great intensity.

Nabokov changed countries and languages during his creative life, and it is interesting to analyze whether these changes affected his books. Comparing two of Nabokov’s novels, The Gift, written in Russian mostly in Berlin of the 1930s, and Pale Fire, written in English at a much later date, can provide an insight into these questions.

As Nabokov mentioned in the foreword to The Gift, “the main heroine” of the novel is Russian literature, and the main character is a writer, an emigre author Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who shares many autobiographical details with Nabokov. Like Nabokov during his post-Cambridge years, Fyodor lives in Berlin of the 1920s, writes poetry and makes a living by giving lessons in English and French. He leads, for the most part, a solitary existence, devoting his time first and foremost to literature. Happy childhood in St. Petersburg, love of butterflies and chess problems, synesthesia, – all this Fyodor has in common with Nabokov. Description of certain episodes mirrors incidents from Nabokov’s own life, depicted much later in his autobiographical book Speak, Memory, – for example, the story of a childhood illness: high fever, obsession with numbers and a huge Faber pencil, given as a gift by the mother.

Perhaps, the most significant trait that Fyodor shares with Nabokov is passionate love of literary language, faith in the power of the written word: “Since there were things he (Fyodor) wanted to express just as naturally as unrestrainedly as the lungs want to expand, hence words suitable for breathing ought to exist” . Fyodor reflects on his youthful interest in rhyme and meter, analyzing the very mechanisms by which words interact and fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form the harmonious whole of a poem. Fyodor shares Nabokov’s dislike of generalities such as social issues or psychiatry. When he briefly considers the possibility of fulfilling his acquaintance, Mme. Chernyshevski’s yet unvoiced request to write about her son, he explains his aversion to the idea as follows: “I would have become enmired involuntarily in a “deep” social-interest novel with a disgusting Freudian reek” .

Most clearly, Fyodor’s (and Nabokov’s) views on literature are expressed in Fyodor’s (imaginary) conversations with Koncheyev – a fellow emigre poet, the only one whose work he admires and whose opinions he considers valuable. When Fyodor and Koncheyev leave a literary gathering and walk together down the street, a unique, brilliant dialogue, filled with allusions to various works of Russian literature, takes place between them. “…There are only two kinds of books: bedside and wastebasket. Either I love a writer fervently, or throw him away entirely” , – declares Fyodor, and the two proceed to discuss what, in their opinion, is the best and the worst in the works by famous Russian writers. Both are utterly uninterested in “general ideas” or the moral significance of the writings they talk about (aspects which always attracted Russian critics and gained new importance in the Soviet period), and all they do is lovingly point out purely artistic findings of this or that writer. They praise Leskov’s Jesus – “the ghostly Galilean, cool and gentle, in a robe the color of ripening plum” or “the gray sheen of Mme. Odintsev’s black silks” in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Speaking of dismissed Dostoyevski, Fyodor notes: “In the Karamazovs, there is somewhere a circular mark left by a wet wine glass on an outdoor table”, – and that, for him, is the only thing “worth saving” . As for several writers known for their beautiful depictions of nature, Fyodor ruthlessly criticizes them for mistakes in their descriptions of natural phenomena: “My father used to find all kinds of howlers in Turgenev’s and Tolstoy’s hunting scenes and descriptions of nature, and as for the wretched Aksakov, let’s not even discuss his disgraceful blunders in this field” . All these statements obviously echo Nabokov’s own approach to literature, with his love of detail, his insistence on accurate knowledge of the natural world and dismissal of any other criteria in judging works of literature.

Nabokov’s belief in the power of deception and invention in creating fiction frequently finds expression in his attempts to mislead the reader, to establish this or that false move in the development of the plot, which, after a few pages, turns out to be an illusion, a figment of the character’s imagination. The whole exchange between Fyodor and Koncheyev proves to be such an illusion: “Whose business is it that actually we parted at the very first corner, and that I have been reciting a fictitious dialogue with myself as supplied by a self-teaching handbook of literary inspiration?” However, the significance of this non-existent conversation in the novel is not limited to expression of opinions on art and display of Nabokov’s mystification devices. It shows the extent of Fyodor’s loneliness, the absence of interlocutors with whom he could share his extensive knowledge of literature and love of language: the degree of detachment from the surrounding world. In his book Speak, Memory Nabokov describes the way native Europeans were perceived by Russian immigrants in Germany or France: “These aborigines were to the mind’s eye as flat and transparent as figures cut out of cellophane, and although we used their gadgets, applauded their clowns, picked their roadside plums and apples, no real communication, of the rich human sort so widespread in our own midst, existed between us and them” . The Gift recreates that atmosphere of cultural and human isolation in which Fyodor has to dwell. Deprived of his own cultural environment, Fyodor feels nothing but resentment towards the German-speaking world he is trapped in. “The Russian conviction that the German is in small numbers vulgar and in large numbers – unbearably vulgar was, he knew, a conviction unworthy of an artist” , – and still he cannot help it, as he directs all his irrational hatred at a German who pushes him in a bus (and who, ironically, turns out to be a Russian).

Like Nabokov, Fyodor is trilingual, but his French and English in his current situation serve a purely utilitarian purpose, whereas Russian remains the language of his soul and his art. Riding a bus to one of his tedious teaching jobs, Fyodor thinks of himself: “…there he is, a special, rare and as yet undescribed and unnamed variant of man, and he is occupied with God knows what, rushing from lesson to lesson, wasting his youth on a boring and empty task, on the mediocre teaching of foreign languages – when he has his own language, out of which he can make anything he likes – a midge, a mammoth, a thousand different clouds” . This is why there are hardly any examples of word play and language switch in The Gift.

On the way to yet another hateful lesson Fyodor becomes completely immersed in the memories of Russia and his past life there, – memories ”swift and senseless, visiting him like an attack of a fatal illness at any hour, in any place” . The warm, sunny vision of the Russian countryside after a short summer rain stands out in such a sharp contrast with the surrounding colorless reality and the upcoming encounter with a hopeless pupil, that Fyodor ends up skipping the lesson and going home to his writings. This is another theme expressed in The Gift with great emotional power – the theme of nostalgia, longing for the lost homeland. Whenever faced with the question about Russia during his interviews, Nabokov gave replies such as “all the Russia I need is always with me” or “exile means to an artist only one thing – the banning of his books” . Sometimes, however, he speaks of Russia quite differently: “In the first decade of our dwindling century, during trips with my family to Western Europe, I imagined, in bedtime reveries, what it would be like to become an exile who longed for a remote, sad and (right epithet coming) unquenchable Russia, under the eucalypti of exotic resorts. Lenin and his police nicely arranged the realization of that fantasy” .

References to Russia in Nabokov’s novels, particularly The Gift, bear a trace of an overwhelming and bitter sense of loss, coming, undoubtedly, from personal experience. Like Nabokov, Fyodor transforms his inner world into art, and his poetry, born out of childhood memories, justifies, as he says, the years spent in exile. But even creative fulfillment in literature cannot fully relieve Fyodor of his nostalgia, which sometimes becomes almost a physical sensation: “For a long time he had wanted to express somehow that it was in his feet that he had the feeling of Russia, that he could touch and recognize all of her with his soles, as a blind man feels with his palms” . Again and again, he imagines an impossible return to his familiar and changed country: “And when will we return to Russia? What idiotic sentimentality, what a rapacious groan must our innocent hope convey to people in Russia. But our nostalgia is not historical – only human- how can one explain this to them?” Immediately following these lines is one of Nabokov’s central thoughts expressed through the words of his character and given a somewhat ironic ending: “It is easier for me, of course, than for another to live outside Russia, because I know for certain that I shall return – first because I took away the keys to her, and secondly because, no matter when, in a hundred, two hundred years, I shall live there in my books – or at least in some researcher’s footnote. There; now you have a historical hope, a literary-historical one…”

In this passage, there are two distinct perspectives on Russia, two different ways of perception – that of an artist and that of a simple human being, and it is the more independent, proud and detached position of an artist that Nabokov prefers to present to the world. He always vigorously protested against being identified with his characters, and, perhaps, it was his way of concealing that part of himself, which contained his own human feelings and dreams, often painful, often helplessly irresolvable. Nevertheless, just like in one of Fyodor’s childhood memories colors leak into his vision of letters and irrevocably affect his perception of language, this private and forbidden world of Nabokov inevitably enters his fiction in various guises and through different characters. Besides the theme of nostalgia, there is another highly personal development of the plot in The Gift, and it is Fyodor’s relationship with his father. Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev is an explorer who is also very absorbed in his occupation and uninterested in the major upheavals that occur in Russia. In 1917, despite the troubled situation in Russia, he departs on one of his expeditions and never returns. It is another loss that haunts Fyodor: even though there is hardly any hope of seeing his father again, he keeps dreaming of his return, imagining that one day he would meet his father on the street, or hear a phone call… In one of the most poignant episodes in the novel, the phone rings, after all, in the middle of the night, and Fyodor rushes to the house of his former landlady along the streets of Berlin which suddenly become transformed into a beautiful, mysterious world somewhat reminiscent of St. Petersburg in a white night. Fyodor enters the room and sees his father. “With a moan and a sob Fyodor stepped toward him, and in the collective sensation of woolen jacket, big hands and the tender prickle of trimmed mustaches there swelled an ecstatically happy, living, enormous, paradisal warmth in which his icy heart melted and dissolved” . And again, almost unbearably this time, the whole scene turns out to be one of Nabokov’s false twists, and Fyodor wakes up from yet another dream to a cold and empty morning.

Nabokov denied a work of art any kind of “truth” aside from artistic one, but the episode with Fyodor’s father radiates with human truth: warmth, longing, vulnerability, the void of shattered hopes… One just has to remember the tragic death of Nabokov’s own father, to understand where all this is coming from.

In The Gift, covers are often transparent, and its hero is presented from multiple angles. He is not just a writer who “treats life as a possibility of fiction”, he is a human being who sees the world through the prism of his own experience, his own joys and sorrows.

The Gift was the last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian. In 1940, he immigrated to the United States and, since then, wrote his major works only in English. The change, as he said, was not easy: “My complete switch from Russian prose to English prose was exceedingly painful – like learning anew to handle things after losing seven or eight fingers in an explosion” . Pale Fire, one of Nabokov’s English novels, was written partially at the end of his stay in America, partially in Switzerland, where Nabokov spent his later years. The novel has important structural and thematic similarities to The Gift. Like The Gift, where a whole separate chapter is devoted to Fyodor’s biography of Chernyshevsky, a book on its own, Pale Fire contains a work of literature within it – a long poem written by an American poet John Shade. The rest of the novel is a commentary, which for the most part has nothing to do with the poem itself. It is an elaborate story of remote Zembla, whose king has been swept off the throne by the revolution and fled the country. Gradually, it becomes clear that Charles Kinbote, Shade’s neighbor and the author of the commentary, is himself the fugitive king. Therefore, as in The Gift, there is a theme of exile and a theme of creativity, though in Pale Fire they take quite a different development.

As Kinbote explains, “the name Zembla is a corruption not of the Russian zemlya, but of Semblerland, a land of reflections, of “resemblers” . Zemblan language resembles several European languages at the same time. There are obvious traces of Russian in it, and some words are borrowed almost unchanged: for example, there is a picture of bogtyr (bogatyr’ in Russian) in a Zemblan history book, and there are “stone-faced, square-shouldered komizars” (Russian: commissar) maintaining order on Zemblan streets after the revolution. Besides, French and German can be vaguely discerned in other phrases. “Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty)” , – a Zemblan nurse says to Kinbote, and one hears, besides the Russian “alkat’” and, possibly, the English “pernicious”, “mon amie”, “Gott”, and the first person of the German “mochten”.

Nabokov in his interviews stressed that Zembla is not Russia, and, indeed, there is another Russia in the novel, a totalitarian state that contributes to the Zemblan revolution. Kinbote talks about “the tainted gold and the robot troops that a powerful police state from its vantage ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution” . Kinbote’s constantly talks about Zembla, but his memories of it lack that depth of human feeling, which marks Fyodor’s nostalgia. Even though Kinbote repeats again and again “my Zembla”, “dazzling Zembla” , tenderness that shines through the best pages of The Gift, is missing from his story. It is essentially a story of himself and his escape from the country. For a king, Kinbote shows a remarkable lack of interest in the revolution that struck his country and the possible causes which led to it. He is more preoccupied with aesthetic and literary pleasures and calls the whole business of politics “a tiresome subject” . As for the revolution, all he can say about it is that it was “tedious and unnecessary” . In Kinbote’s attitude, there is some of Nabokov’s own indifference towards social and political issues. On the whole, the theme of exile is treated in the novel with certain coldness and detachment, but there are passages, which by their warmth and profound lyricism can be compared to The Gift. For example, Kinbote comments on his roommate who gets up early in morning and plants flowers with a very curious name: Heliotropium turgenevi. “This is the flower whose odor evokes with timeless intensity the dusk, and the garden bench, and a house of painted wood in a distant northern land” . Even aside from the reference to Turgenev, it is clear that this land, for Nabokov, is no other than Russia, – not the monstrous police state in the vicinity of Zembla, but the real, immortal, beloved Russia of Nabokov’s memory. And this short passage retains more emotional freshness and power than colorful descriptions of Zemblan mountains that have no counterpart in the author’s childhood recollections.

It seems that, to Kinbote, being in exile means not so much the loss of the homeland as the loss of his name and title (which he now has to hide), and thus partially the loss of his identity, and in this way his isolation and detachment is more complete than that of Fyodor in The Gift. One of the critics of Pale Fire interprets his behavior as follows: “…he is trying to get the poet John Shade to confirm his identity, to validate the Zemblan reality which is his hope of salvation by turning it into a poem” . With maniacal persistence Kinbote keeps talking with Shade about Zembla: “I mesmerized him with it, I saturated him with my vision, I pressed upon him, with a drunkard’s wild generosity, all that I was helpless myself to put into verse” . Kinbote calls his relationship with the poet “friendship”, but, in fact, he cannot care less about Shade as a human being with his own hopes and sorrows. While commenting on the poem, he utterly neglects the parts about Shade’s wife and daughter. Sybil Shade, who protects her husband from his neighbor’s intrusions, for Kinbote, is just as annoying obstacle in the way, and to him, the tender lines that Shade devotes to his wife are nothing but “embarrassing intimacies” . Kinbote haughtily deals with the theme of Shade’s daughter, Hazel’s, suicide, obviously a very painful and personal subject for the poet, as if it was merely a stylistic device: “The whole thing strikes me as too labored and long, especially since the synchronization device has been already worked to death by Flaubert and Joyce” . When Kinbote feels lonely and afraid in his empty house, he wishes that Shade had a heart attack, – just to have an excuse to come over and escape loneliness and fear. At the end of the novel, when Shade has been mistakenly shot by the assassin, his “friend” is in no hurry to call for help: instead, he rushes to hide the poem, which, he thinks, contains the story of his own life.

In comparison to Kinbote, John Shade appears to be a much more appealing character, and he possesses some traits that bring more human warmth into his image: he can be lazy, he likes hearty meals, brandy and wine; he loves his wife and daughter and is generally more tolerant towards people who are not as bright and talented as he is. Nabokov gives his character some of his most cherished thoughts. For example, Shade, who is also a teacher of literature, expresses his views on teaching: “First of all, dismiss ideas, and social background, and get the freshman to shiver, to get drunk on the poetry of Hamlet or Lear, to read with his spine and not with his skull” . However, since Shade’s personality is seen in the novel only through Kinbote’s uncaring eyes, his inner world is more or less concealed from the reader. It is only through Shade’s poem that one can glimpse into the questions, which preoccupy the poet. The poem, on the whole, is a painful, difficult search for meaning, an attempt to make sense of the whole puzzle of human life and death, to find a way of transcending one’s mortality. No human thought or emotion can relieve one from being trapped in one’s own finite world. Everything fails except art: art for its own sake, art that contains a unique, perfectly harmonized inner reality, which can be perceived as a reflection of a greater pattern:

I feel I understand

Existence, or at least a minute part,

Of my existence, only through my art,

In terms of combinational delight…

“Combinational delight”, indeed, is important not only in Shade’s poem but in the whole novel. As in The Gift, artistic detail is a focus of concentration in Pale Fire, but here attention is focused on an even subtler level where language itself is analyzed. Pale Fire is an example of extremely dense prose where individual words are more than just carriers of meaning: they become, in a way, themselves a subject of the novel. One of Shade’s warmest images of his family together is a memory of the evenings when both he and Sybil helped their daughter to understand really obscure words from her English textbook. A difference of one letter in the words “mountain” and “fountain” becomes crucial in the story of Shade’s attempt to penetrate the mystery of the hereafter. The book is filled with examples of word play, often involving several languages, and references to numerous works of literature (some of which are likely to be Nabokov’s own inventions). In Shade’s poem, there are such peculiar combinations as: “Fra Karamazov, mumbling his inept all is allowed” , which is a mixture of Alyosha Karamazov, Raskol’nikov, and, perhaps, Italian painter Fra Angelico with his intensely spiritual religious art. But nobody in the novel is more involved in digging into words than Kinbote. He is constantly preoccupied with deciphering literary allusions, musing over interplay of words, meanings, rhymes and sounds. Nabokov mentioned in his lectures that a dictionary should be a necessary attribute of a good reader, and, ironically, Kinbote, who can hardly be called a good reader, dutifully follows the lines of Shade’s masterpiece with his dictionary. For the most part, he is obsessively searching references to Zembla and his own life story in the poem, but sometimes he simply takes aesthetic pleasure in certain lines of it:

“Lines 131-132: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by feigned remoteness in the windowpane.

The exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some half-remembered sorrowful song…” Shade’s commentator genuinely enjoys the magic of words, and so does Nabokov, whose multilingualism, artistic sense and incomparable mastery of language found full expression in the creation of the truly marvelous poem, as well as other parts of the novel.

Perhaps, the refined world of literature allows Kinbote a way of escape from his troubled personal reality, and so it does for Shade, and, to a degree, for Fyodor in The Gift, and, ultimately, for Nabokov. In his commentary, Kinbote recounts an episode when someone in the presence of Shade tells a story of a mad railroad worker, who “thought he was God and began redirecting the trains”. “That (“mad”) is the wrong word”, – he (Shade) said. – “One should not apply it to a person who deliberately peels off a drab and unhappy past and replaces it with a brilliant invention” . Still, comparison of Nabokov’s novels shows that the most “brilliant invention” becomes truly alive only if the light of one’s own human experience, however “drab and unhappy”, illuminates it from within. In Pale Fire the walls sheltering Nabokov’s private world of memory and feeling are thicker than in The Gift, and the novel follows more closely Nabokov’s ideas of art as elegant deception, an entirely invented world which should be approached on aesthetic rather than emotional grounds. This is the major difference between Pale Fire and The Gift.

Time is likely to be one of the factors behind this change: Pale Fire was written almost twenty years later than The Gift, as greater and greater distance separated Nabokov from his Russian past with which he had stronger emotional bond than with the years spent abroad. Another important factor is, probably, language. Nabokov was very proud of his English works and repeatedly called himself an American writer, but sometimes he provided his readers with unexpected revelations such as: “My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language, my natural idiom, my rich, infinitely rich and docile Russian tongue, for a second-rate brand of English” . In another interview, when asked which language he considered the most beautiful, Nabokov replied: “My head says English, my heart, Russian, my ear, French” . It is possible to say that for him Russian conveyed emotional power, while English had more of an intellectual appeal, and this is one of the reasons why Pale Fire, written in English, appeals to the brain more than it does to feelings.

One of the most striking confessions that bridges Nabokov’s inner world with his public self exists in a poem. An Evening of Russian Poetry, written in English in 1945, is a rhymed presentation of a public lecture which Nabokov gives to an audience of American students, predominantly female. Russian poetry is the theme of the lecture, but Nabokov approaches it in the way typical for him: he does not talk about schools, trends and periods. Again, he speaks of letters, shapes, individual intricate details, and hidden tenderness shines through his words, staying invisible for his listeners. They ask him questions about his favorite trees and stones, echoing that insensitive critic from The Gift, whose “discussion of Koncheyev’s book boiled down to his answering for the author a kind of implied questionnaire (Your favorite flower? Favorite hero? Which virtue do you prize most?)” In Nabokov’s discussion of Pushkin and Nekrasov everything merges and melts together: the sky and the grass, the beauty of verse and human feeling, – and inevitable theme of exile. Nabokov speaks of memories, saying openly: “I must remind you in conclusion that I am followed everywhere and that space is collapsible” . His private tragedy is lost on his young listeners, whose innocent inquiry prompts what becomes the most remarkable ending of a poem:

How would you say “delightful talk” in Russian?

How would you say “good night”?

Oh, that would be:

Bessonnitza, tvoy vzor oonyl i strashen;

lubov moya, otstoopnika prostee.

(Insomnia, your stare is dull and ashen,

my love, forgive me this apostasy.)

All of Nabokov’s carefully hidden private world that, he insists, “cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern”, is suddenly revealed in these poignant lines: long nights, loneliness, the feeling of guilt over abandoning one’s language and nostalgia for inaccessible, unforgettable, “unquenchable Russia”.

Bibliography

1). Kernan, Alvin B. “Reading Zemblan: The Audience Disappears in Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. Vladimir Nabokov (Modern Critical Views). Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 101-125.

2). ???????, ????????. ???. ??????: ??????, 1990.

3). Nabokov, Vladimir. The Gift. New York: Capricorn Books, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.

4). —. Lectures on Literature. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1982.

5). —. Pale Fire. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.

6). —. Poems and Problems. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1970.

7). —. Speak, Memory. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.

8). —. Strong Opinions. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1973.

Elena Koutcherova
http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/unquenchable-russia-or-forbidden-themes-in-nabokovs-prose-204030.html

In the Bible: When Joseph Decided to Divorce Saint Mary

This is a new series (1-19) of Verse No. in the Bible versus the Quran.

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament says Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

—————-

The verse No.19 in the Old Testament is Genesis 1:19

The verse continues talking about the creation of the heavens and the earth, it says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Now, in the process of the creation of the heavens and the earth, We are in the fourth day after God has created the sun and the moon in that fourth day.

Hence, we have three days passed with three evenings and three mornings.  These first three days with their three evenings and three mornings happened before the creation of the sun and the moon (See articles 9-18 of this series).

How would or could that happened?

—————-

The verse No.19 in the New Testament is Matthew 1:19

The verse continues talking about the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, and Matthew lists Jesus’ ancestors, the verse says: Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly or it says: And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly

Here again, the Bible deals with Saint Mary as if she was an ordinary woman. She was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant and because he was a righteous and a jut man and unwilling to put her to shame, he did not want to expose her to public disgrace. So, he decided to divorce Saint Mary!

On the other hand, the Muslims’ faith about Saint Mary, peace be upon her; is that

She lived and died as a “Pure, Untouched, and an Outstanding Virgin Woman”. although the Bible  insists that she was pledged to be married to Joseph, then she married him and then she had babies from him and then those babies are the brothers of God!

—————-

Verse No.19 in the Noble Quran is Chapter 2:12,

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW), 2:12

The verse says:

Verses 2:8-20 are talking about the hypocrites

Verse 2:8 (See article 15) states that the hypocrites say: ‘we believe in Allah and the last day, ‘ yet they are not believers.

Verse 2:9 (See article 16) says: They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not.

Verse 2:10 (See article 17) says: “There is a sickness in their (the hypocrites) hearts which Allah has increased; for them there is a painful punishment because they lie.”

Verse 2:11 (See article 18) says: when it is said to them: Do not corrupt in the land;  they (the hypocrites) say: we are only reformers.

The verse 2:12 continues talking about the hypocrites; it says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

The meaning of verse 2:12

They are indeed the mischief mongers by being a hindrance.

Truly they are the agents of corruption, but they perceive, this, not.

but they do not perceive; They herein refers to both the hypocrites and their followers. The hypocrites do not sense that they are the agents of corruption. their followers do not know that their leaders mislead them.

==========

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Noble Quran in Four different Translation

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament

Genesis 1:19

New International Version:

19] And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

New American Standard Version:

19] There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.  

English Standard Version:

19] And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

King James Version:

19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament

Matthew 1:19

New International Version:

19] Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

New American Standard Version:

19] And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

English Standard Version:

19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

King James Version:

19] 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran

Chapter 2: 12

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW)

QARIB: but it is they who are the evildoers, though they do not sense it.

SHAKIR: now surely they themselves are the mischief makers, but they do not perceive

PICKTHAL: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

YUSUFALI: of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realise (it) not.

==========

It is very premature to ask this question:

Is the Quran quoted from the Bible?

Wait and you will see.

Prof.dr. Ibrahim Khalil
http://www.articlesbase.com/women’s-issues-articles/in-the-bible-when-joseph-decided-to-divorce-saint-mary-669645.html

Verse No. 19 in the Bible Versus the Quran

This is a new series (1-19) of Verse No. in the Bible versus the Quran.

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament says Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

—————-

The verse No.19 in the Old Testament is Genesis 1:19

The verse continues talking about the creation of the heavens and the earth, it says: And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Now, in the process of the creation of the heavens and the earth, We are in the fourth day after God has created the sun and the moon in that fourth day.

Hence, we have three days passed with three evenings and three mornings.  These first three days with their three evenings and three mornings happened before the creation of the sun and the moon (See articles 9-18 of this series).

How would or could that happened?

—————-

The verse No.19 in the New Testament is Matthew 1:19

The verse continues talking about the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, and Matthew lists Jesus’ ancestors, the verse says: Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly or it says: And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly

Here again, the Bible deals with Saint Mary as if she was an ordinary woman. She was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant and because he was a righteous and a jut man and unwilling to put her to shame, he did not want to expose her to public disgrace. So, he decided to divorce Saint Mary!

On the other hand, the Muslims’ faith about Saint Mary, peace be upon her; is that

She lived and died as a “Pure, Untouched, and an Outstanding Virgin Woman”. although the Bible  insists that she was pledged to be married to Joseph, then she married him and then she had babies from him and then those babies are the brothers of God!

—————-

Verse No.19 in the Noble Quran is Chapter 2:12,

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW), 2:12

The verse says:

Verses 2:8-20 are talking about the hypocrites

Verse 2:8 (See article 15) states that the hypocrites say: ‘we believe in Allah and the last day, ‘ yet they are not believers.

Verse 2:9 (See article 16) says: They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not.

Verse 2:10 (See article 17) says: “There is a sickness in their (the hypocrites) hearts which Allah has increased; for them there is a painful punishment because they lie.”

Verse 2:11 (See article 18) says: when it is said to them: Do not corrupt in the land;  they (the hypocrites) say: we are only reformers.

The verse 2:12 continues talking about the hypocrites; it says: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

The meaning of verse 2:12

They are indeed the mischief mongers by being a hindrance.

Truly they are the agents of corruption, but they perceive, this, not.

but they do not perceive; They herein refers to both the hypocrites and their followers. The hypocrites do not sense that they are the agents of corruption. their followers do not know that their leaders mislead them.

==========

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Noble Quran in Four different Translation

Verse No. 19 in the Old Testament

Genesis 1:19

New International Version:

19] And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

New American Standard Version:

19] There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.  

English Standard Version:

19] And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

King James Version:

19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the New Testament

Matthew 1:19

New International Version:

19] Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

New American Standard Version:

19] And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

English Standard Version:

19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

King James Version:

19] 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

—————-

Verse No. 19 in the Noble Quran

Chapter 2: 12

Surah AL-BAQARA (THE COW)

QARIB: but it is they who are the evildoers, though they do not sense it.

SHAKIR: now surely they themselves are the mischief makers, but they do not perceive

PICKTHAL: are not they indeed the mischief-makers? but they perceive not.

YUSUFALI: of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realise (it) not.

==========

It is very premature to ask this question:

Is the Quran quoted from the Bible?

Wait and you will see.

Prof.dr. Ibrahim Khalil
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/verse-no-19-in-the-bible-versus-the-quran-669637.html

Philippines Outsourcing Forecast in 2008

A LOT happened in 2007, it is mixed with good and bad scenario. Investment continues to be a big wave in spite of the political bickering which cannot be set aside. Despite the odds in the Philippine business arena, the country continues to spread its wing and gain reputation from the potential foreign investors. The Philippine government hurdle the trials in surviving from the economic dilemma last year, but ready to face the New Year.

In line with this, one of the most talked about forecast in the Philippine economy is about outsourcing industry. The question is, if what would the forecast in this industry be in the current year and beyond. Contact centers contributed millions of pesos as per recorded by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and other concerned government agencies. Graduates easily landed on a job because of the opportunity it offers to the Filipino people. It is exceptional knowledge that English proficiency and outstanding customer service skills are among of the few reasons why Filipinos are known to this.

Based on the 10-point agenda highlighted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and to quote: "The creation of six million jobs in six years via more opportunities given to entrepreneurs, tripling of the amount of loans for lending to small and medium enterprises and the development of one to two million hectares of land for agricultural business."

It means to say that the Philippine Government wanted to fill-in jobless Filipinos because of the outsourcing jobs. A call center in the Philippines is noted to be the answer in the crisis which is the major concerns of all government agencies from the local and the national scene. Mrs. Arroyo vowed to strengthen the operations of world class call center companies in the country.

However, if the government is serious about its plan then eliminating, or intensifying drive against graft and corruption should be done accordingly. If the country intensified its campaign against this war, it will ensure to protect the benefits of the booming economy because of the operations of largest call center companies in the country.

The Cabinet vowed today to wage an intensified campaign against graft and corruption to ensure that the benefits of the growing economy would trickle down to the people, especially the poor, unmarred by corrupt practices. To prove this campaign, the Cabinet members led by Her Excellency proposed the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) to crack down on grafters, including the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

The President signed RA 9485 last June 2. RA 9485 states that heads of government offices are accountable to the public in rendering fast, efficient, convenient and reliable services. It also requires agencies concerned to act on pending papers within five working days involving simple transactions, and a minimum of 10 days for complex cases.

Another notable action done by the government was the call for the immediate passage of the Right to Information Act, Whistleblowers Act and House Bill 3003. The HB 3003 seeks to compel the government to publish the income tax returns of all government officials, whether they are elected or appointed, in a move to lessen if not eradicate corruption.

This is a good development because it shows that the national government is concerned about the protection of the investor no matter what happened. If the country is an investor-friendly then giving the opportunity to bind the relationship in terms of customer service business will be a great one.

Meanwhile, it is attractive also to call center investors if there will be enough allocated budget in the year 2008. In addition, the President appealed to the Congress for the passage of proposed PhP1.227-trillion national budget for 2008 the soonest possible time.

The immediate passage will not hamper the delay in the implementation of the government’s priority projects and programs.

However, news reports revealed that the Congress did not approve the proposed PhP1.227-trillion 2008 budget before it went on its Christmas recess last December as the Senate questioned the amount of P13.5-billion supposedly inserted by the House of Representatives.

Breakdown of the proposed 2008 national allocation is P91 billion higher than the 2007 general appropriations of P1.126 trillion. Of the P1.227 trillion allocations, P11.5 billion will fund infrastructure projects mentioned by the President in her State-of-the-Nation Address.

It was tackled that the national budget will focus on priority sectors like infrastructure facilities, education, health, science and technology, including housing and salary adjustments for the state workers.

With the presentation tackled above, it only means that outsourcing industry will remain as one of the top revenue contributors in the country. If the national leaders will stick on their promises, no doubt that in the shortest time allotted, the country will gather the fruits of its labor. And also, the country will continue to boost its honor as one of the top leaders in the outsourcing business.*

Roberto L. Bacasong
http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/philippines-outsourcing-forecast-in-2008-363707.html

Are We Really One World? German Au Pairs and Cultural Differences

With the rising costs of childcare, American families are hosting au pairs in staggering numbers.  There has been an increase in the number of au pairs with nearly 22,000 young women residing in the USA last year, up 44% from 2004!  This is a dramatic increase and the trend appears to be growing despite the weak economy.

The French term, au pair, denotes a young woman who “lives as an equal” with her host family. Au pair agencies recruit young women from over 55 countries, with China as the newest “hot” placement for sophisticated American families seeking to expose their children to Mandarin.

Despite global connections between countries and the politcally correct phrase “we are all one world” cultural differences exist across Europe, Asia and South America - top areas au pair agencies recruit from. These cultural differences add flavor and spice to the host family’s year with their au pair and both benefit from cross-cultural experiences.

Knowledge of cultural differences is critical to a host family’s success with their au pair -American behavior may be viewed as rude or insulting to an au pair, and Americans can often misinterpret an au pair’s interactions with their children, etc. 

One of the more popular countries that Americans prefer when hosting an au pair is Germany.  Let’s take a look at why this is true:

The idea of traveling to the United States to become an au pair is a very familiar concept in Germany.  These young women are motivated by several factors including a desire to become more independent, to improve their English skills, and to experience American culture.  German youth are fascinated with American music, TV programs, Hollywood stars and movies.  In addition, young German women know that a year abroad that improves her English is a significant plus on her resume, greatly increasing her job potential once she returns home.  Therefore, the au pair program continues to be a highly popular gap year for young women who usually return to Germany to continue at University.  Approximately 37% of all au pairs who arrive in the United States are from Western Europe and 23% of that number are from Germany (although in recent years, that trend seems to be declining).

German Culture

• Young people in Germany have much more freedom from their families to socialize and date compared to their American peers.  Socializing with friends is very important and German youth go out to pubs from the early age of 16.  If your German au pair likes to go out and socialize, do not misinterpret this as ”party girl” – she will most likely be sitting in a Starbucks talking with other German au pairs or visiting our nation’s famous sights to expand her knowledge of America.
• Curfews are not common and there is generally a relaxed and accepting attitude between parents and their adolescent children. 
• German youth are generally open-minded, well mannered and tend to be ambitious regarding their careers.
• Germans take family life very seriously and most German families eat together for all meals, including lunch.  Government rules allow all shops and businesses to close each day for from 12 noon to 2 o’clock so the family can come together for lunch.  No one is late for meals.
• Germans are very private people and greatly value their time alone. It would not be unusual for your German au pair to keep her door shut while she is on her time “off” and during these times you should make sure the children are not barging in and bothering her. She may interpret this behavior as  very rude and intrusive.

Childcare

• Discipline techniques include talking to the child, taking sweets away, taking away television or video privileges, or sending the child to their room.
• Corporal punishment is forbidden in Germany
• German au pairs tend to be highly organized and responsible and catch on quickly to the family’s routine.
• Applicants obtain their childcare experience through formal training (in kindergartens, etc.) and babysitting for friends and family.
• German parents (either mother or father) typically stay home with their young children at least until they are old enough to attend kindergarten. Working at home is very common for German parents.
• Your German au pair will expect the children to treat her with respect, to comply with her instructions and to follow the house rules.  Unruly or bad behavior is a sign of disrespect and a child who is overly indulged by parents (with toys, sweets, privileges not earned) is considered spoiled as result of poor or failed parenting.

Driving Skills

• Most West German au pairs are excellent drivers.  They receive their license at age 18 and the test is much more demanding and time consuming compared to their American peers.  Most driving pupils need 20-30 lessons in order to pass the test and there is an hour practical driving test!  If any German fails the test more than 3 times, a psychological test is then required by the state.
• Most parents have a car for the teen to practice on and they support their teenagers in getting the license and becoming good, safe drivers.
• German au pairs are exclusively sought out by host parents for their excellent driving skills making them one of the most popular au pairs.

English Skills – West German Au Pairs get an A+

• English is a compulsory subject at the age of 10, but many children start as early as kindergarten.  As a result, German youth have competent English skills with many having no or a very slight German accent.
• German au pairs are popular with host parents for their English skills. Host parents typically expect them to help the children with homework and German au pairs are generally very competent in this area.
• West Germans’ proficiency in English is generally better compared to Germans from East Germany – East Germans get a C- in English!

  Health

• Germans are typically very healthy.  They have good medical and dental insurance.
• Most young women are not inoculated or tested for TB (tuberculosis).
• Eating disorders are not very common in Germany.
• Most young people in Germany eat meat and lots of vegetables and fresh foods are preferred to fast foods/processed foods.  A  growing number of German youth are becoming vegetarians and you should ask your au pair if she eats meat.

Religion

• The two most common religions in Germany are Catholic and Protestant
• Most young people in Germany do not practice their religion on a regular basis

 Other Useful Information

• Most German families have at least one computer with access to the internet and most young Germans have their own cell phones; contacting prospective au pairs is relatively easy during the interviewing process
• Family members usually speak English and can take messages from you if the au pair is not home which is a great plus for you as a host parent.
• German students end their academic year in June and most of the young women apply to arrive in the USA during the summer months but before our school term starts here in the USA so plan to have your German au pair arrive in early or mid August so she can sign up for fall courses at your local college.  
• German au pairs are typically serious students and will expect to sign up for courses immediately upon arrival. German au pairs will expect flexibly from her host parents so she can attend her classes without interruption.
• West Germans are generally more educated, are more experienced drivers and possess better English skills compared to East Germans.
• Generally, German au pairs have less trouble assimilating into American culture and do not generally suffer from culture shock.  They genuinely like American culture and look forward to their year abroad.
• Most Germans will not extend beyond the 12 months – they will return home to continue their education, start a business or look for a professional job.

With the growing trend of using au pairs as their #1 childcare option, American families are competing with one and another for au pairs who are responsible, mature, good drivers and who speak good, competent English. German au pairs generally meet all of these criteria while adding old world charm mixed with a youthful and modern perspective.  Germans are proud of their culture and are usually delighted with our America experience – a wonderful combination for any host family!

Edina Stone
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/are-we-really-one-world-german-au-pairs-and-cultural-differences-712711.html