Studies and my plans for the future Let me introduce myself. My name is … I am leaving school this year. My dream is to become a student of the Foreign Languages Department in the State University.
I want to study English, German and may be French. Knowledge of a foreign language opens a new world for us. If you know a foreign language you can speak with foreigners and it is a way for better understanding. If you know a foreign language you can read books in the original and in way you can better understand other people’s nature and culture. But for knowing English one should learn every day. So I read the texts, translate them, try to find key-words and retell them later. It is a very difficult work but I try to do my best. I learn new words by heart, work at grammar doing innumerable exercises and listen to foreign speech, trying to answer the questions. When I am a student I’ll do my best to master the foreign language I’ve chosen. After leaving the University I hope to become an interpreter and work at the foreign firm.
My future profession When they leave school, millions of young people begin an independent life. They can start a working career, go into business or continue schooling to receive a higher education. There is one institute or a few institutes in nearly every Russian city. There are dozens of them in Moscow and St. Petersburg. If you want to get a professional training you can enter a technical college. They say that there are over 2000 professions in the world so it is quite difficult to choose and make a decision. Some follow their own choice and some follow their parents advice.
I have asked myself a lot of times: «What do I want to be when I leave school?» A few years ago it was difficult for me to give a definite answer. As the years passed I changed my mind a lot of times about which science or sphere of industry to specialize in. It was difficult to make up my mind and choose one of the hundreds of jobs to which I might be better suited.
What are the main reasons for choosing your future profession? First of all it should seem interesting to you. An exciting job that you really like is an important component of happiness in life. Then you should consider the problem of earning a living. The most fascinating job will bring no satisfaction if you starve. And there is the very up-to-date problem of unemployment: you should choose a profession which will produce a job.
A couple of years ago I wanted to become a doctor. I thought it was a very noble profession. I was good at biology and chemistry in the 8th and 9th forms. I wanted to help people who had problems with their health. I know that a doctor should be noble in work and life, kind and attentive to people, responsible and reasonable, honest and prudent. A doctor who is selfish and dishonest can’t be good at his profession. I tried to do my best to develop good traits in myself.
Now I have already decided what to do. I’d like to be a teacher. I know that it is very difficult to become a good teacher. You should know perfectly the subject you teach, you must be well-educated and well-informed. An ignorant teacher teaches ignorance, a fearful teacher teaches fear, a bored teacher teaches boredom. But a good teacher develops in his pupils a desire for knowledge and love for truth and beauty. As John Steinbeck once said, — «a great teacher is a great artist and you know how few great artists there are in the world». Teaching might even be the greatest of all the arts. It is a great responsibility to educate children. I think that’s the reason why teachers are deeply respected.
More and more people realize that every educated person should know a foreign language. That’s why I’m going to become an English teacher. I liked English when we first started learning it, and it is still one of my favourite subjects. There are many English authors and they are so different and so interesting. We have had some Shakespeare and other British writers in Russian in classes of literature and I would like to read them all in the original. I will try to enter the department of foreign languages at the University.
You study 5 years at Russian universities. After your final exams you are a qualified teacher of English or interpreter. University education is deep and many-sided. Some students like a post-graduate course to follow an academic career. Most university graduates take up teaching and re¬turn to school. I know that a teacher’s job is quite difficult. A. teacher can’t say that he knows everything in his field. He goes on learning his subject during all his career to be able to answer any question. He should be an example of competence.
