The Borders Open Next Wednesday to Bulgarians and Romanians

Just a quick news update:

Next Wednesday, the first day of 2014, work restrictions in the EU on Bulgarians and Romanians will be abrogated. Unfortunately, many in the richer countries, i.e. the United Kingdom, seem to be opposed to these migrants, who they think will overrun their country. The mass majority of people who are moving abroad are highly educated young people. They will find jobs in those richer countries that pay a few times more than in their home countries. It does seem that they are bringing their skills and will likely contribute to society.

Seeing Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, what an interesting country. Before I started reading some blogs about living in Kazakhstan, I knew only a few facts about this country:

• Former Soviet Republic
• Somewhere south of Russia
• New capital city: Astana (moved from Almaty)
• There are (were?) a few "closed cities" in Kazakhstan
• Steppes, steppes, and more steppes (plus harsh winters)

Then, I started reading two blogs:

• Adventures in Kazakhstan
• Kazakhnomad's Blog (includes other Central Asian countries)

Before you start complaining about the conspicuous promotion of other people's blogs, let me just tell you that, as of the time of this writing, this blog has received a total of 96 visitors, mostly from shady SEO websites.

Anyways...

Guess what I found out? Normal life exists in Kazakhstan. First, the drivers seem aggressive and they have gas station attendants. Apparently, looking for foreign products (like peanut butter) is a pretty onerous task. However, everything is new and modern in the shiny new capital of Astana, which was just built by the government. Construction is going at a breakneck pace. Western franchises are setting up shop (literally). Might this be a auspicious harbinger for Kazakhstan?

Going to the hospital might not be such a negative thing. Apparently, all the doctors are at the hospital (which is a pretty reasonable statement, but of course, they might also be at home or in the library). If all the doctors work at the hospital, that means that you have to go to the hospital for medical checkups. I think that grouping medical professionals in one location is pretty efficient. It's like the concept of stratifying in Statistics; you group people in buildings based on profession.

One would expect people to speak Kazakh in Kazakhstan. That is totally true, however all the official documents have an equivalent Russian translation. In fact, it can be said that most official documents in Russian have a concomitant Kazakh equivalent. Russian is very prevalent in the major cities, probably due to USSR rule. It is also the language of instruction in schools.

Speaking of official stuff, let's segue into matters pertaining the government. In Kazakhstan, the traffic police technically can't give you a ticket if you don't understand what they're saying. I guess this might be useful to foreigners, but it also facilitates corruption. Demanding money from a foreigner is probably easier than explaining the traffic regulations that were violated. It might also be viewed as an expedite way for both parties to extricate themselves from this situation. However, I still do not believe this system will ameliorate the trust between the public and the police.

Apparently, the concept of cheating is very foreign to Kazakh students. (Obligatory disclaimer: I’m sure that not all Kazakh students cheat). Their willingness to cheat actually has an interesting rationale behind it that is inextricably linked to the history of Kazakhstan. Basically, Kazakhstan used to be a Soviet republic and therefore adopted some Soviet ways of thinking. One of these ideas was helping each other. It sounds so magnanimous on the surface, but has some far-reaching consequences. If you ruminate on the idea of helping each other, you will arrive at the idea of putting the welfare of the group before that of yourself. By aiding other students, everybody moves forward together. However, this aid is often given at the wrong time, i.e. during tests. Apparently, students in one class were so eager to aid a girl who was falling behind, that they did not stop to think about the possibility that they themselves were stymieing her intellectual development by not letting her think for herself.

Supermarkets in Kazakhstan function a little differently than the ones in the United States. I guess the main difference is that you have to bag your own groceries. I would not be able to do this seemingly easy task because I have a very acute difficulty in opening flat plastic bags. Wow, first world problems, right? Except most people don’t consider Kazakhstan to be “first world”. (That was a sentence fragment). Maybe in the cities, you could immerse yourself in a western lifestyle. Besides, the original definition of “first world” doesn't really refer to the country’s wealth.

Well anyways, that’s the end of this segment. Now that I look back upon it, I realize that the writing is very disjoint. Oh well. Next time, expect either Bulgaria or Albania (or maybe somewhere else?)...stay tuned!

Seeing the World Around Me

I had an uneasy time with the capitalization of the title of this post, but hopefully I got it right. Anyways...

I was listening to a song by the band Rubik called World Around You. It inspired me to write this blog post.

Although I am effectively confined to staying in my town, I am able to see the whole world from my window. By "window", I mean the window I have on my computer, and unfortunately not the one that has glass. Notwithstanding this, I am still able to get a glimpse at the world beyond my town. I read blogs about people living overseas (read: not in the USA). They often write about everyday life and I often voraciously devour their words, always eager for more. Anyways, the first country I shall examine in my next post about this subject is...(imagine a drum roll)...Kazakhstan.

Happy Holidays (Winter 2013)

Dear faithful readers (of which there are approximately one),
I hope y'all are having a wonderful holiday season. I read somewhere that the majority of people like to say "Merry Christmas", but also that "Happy Holidays" is gaining popularity with the younger generation...so, Happy Holidays! Today I learned a bit of calculus, hooray!

I Just Got a Certificate of Achievement in French

I just took the Duolingo French exam (it's online and kind of free). It comprised of dictation and translation, which is a nice test of oral and literary skills in French. I don't think I got every question correct (the test took around 20 minutes), but I still got a perfect score of 5 out of 5. I even got a signature from Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo.

Some background information
Duolingo is an online platform for language learning. I have been learning French for a few years in high school and I wanted to test my abilities. Basically, I played the first level to accumulate enough in-gate currency (lingots) to buy one try on the exam, which I then took. I didn't think I would get a perfect score, but you never know...

Here is what the certificate looks like:


My last name is not Black. I don't know the deal about the decimals. A sigfig issue, perhaps?

Walking and Memorization

There is a method of memorization called the Method of Loci. Basically, I use the method, or a version of the method, to memorize things.

Task (11 pm): memorize a page-long essay in French for a written composition exam the next morning
This is what actually happened.
First I wrote the essay in French. I would have to write the same essay word-for-word the next morning on an exam. Actually, the exam is to measure how well students can write in French, but in reality, everybody just writes the essay the night before (with the helps of notes/the textbook) and memorizes it.

Afterwards, I went for a walk...

If you have a big house, this is the perfect. But actually, any dwelling will work. You can even walk around in your neighborhood, or a place which you are very familiar with.

Basically, for each thing you have to memorize, pick a thing as you're walking and then associate the thing you have to memorize with the thing you see. After making these associations, walk back around in the same areas. When you see an object you made an association with, try to recall what you associated it with. Keep walking around a few times until you can recall everything perfectly. For me, I associated every sentence in my essay with an object while walking around my house. Then, I walked around and repeated the sentences.

Lastly, imagine walking around the same place in your head (this is why you need to be familiar with the location). You should be able to recall whatever you're memorizing through associations to objects.

Procrastination and Escaping from Reality

Procrastination is a way to temporarily escape from reality. Some people turn to alcohol, others turn to procrastination. The facts of reality may be too onerous for a person to deal with. Therefore, he will turn to procrastination to avoid these facts, at least for a short period of time.

While writing this, I am putting something off. I am procrastinating too. I have to review a whole semester of French tonight for my high-stakes exam tomorrow afternoon. I have only started reviewing a tiny portion of the material and do not want to face the prospect of staying up very late studying for my exam tomorrow. Therefore, I will write something on this blog so my mind will not be thinking about studying my exam.

Instead of writing, some people turn to other things that distract, such as video games and browsing the internet. These activities are a temporary pain remover, a distraction. It provides some respite from whatever the procrastinator is trying to avoid.

And now for a slight divergence from the script, the part you've all been waiting for...

A cure for procrastination?
It is up to the procrastinator to stop procrastinating. Does playing video games really help you? Doesn't it make you feel more tired afterwards? If you are tired afterwards, how will you do the homework that you are avoiding? The quality of the homework will suffer as a result of the fatigue of the procrastinator. This is just a short-term problem. Without good grades, how will the person get a good job? To kids and teenagers, not having a home or a steady source of food (called food security) may be intangible and unfathomable ideas that only happen to other people. But the threat is very real and the consequences dear.

A Temporary Arrangement

Hello and welcome to this blog, which has been baptized Kovikola. This blog is a continuation of my other blog, which is on a bit of a hiatus right now due to some major server errors. On this blog, I will be writing about my thoughts and thinkings, so expect it to be a bit discursive and maybe wordy.