An essay about teatre I would like to tell you about my last visit to the theatre. It was several years ago in Novosibirsk in a very popular private drama theatre, which is called "Afanas'eva's drama teatre". I like this teatre for its very unusual atmosphere. For example, it is situated in the centre of the city, but in a basement of the building. It has just one small hall, so you can clearly see faces of actors and actresses. As tickets' price is low enough it is always overcrowded. Sometimes the administration of the theatre even has to provide the hall with extra chairs for some guests. But the main advantage, which attracts theatregoers is undoubtedly exciting performances.Those one, which I wanted to tell, is called "Green zone". This modern drama play tell us about people, their feelings, their dreams. The lifestories of characters of the play were plausible, so I could ralate to and empathize with them. This play was so touching that some women and even men were crying at the end. I was totally impressed by music, decorations and costumes, besides the actors playing. Do I say this performance is my favorite? Yes, I do. I not only have already seen it for 3 times by myself but also I presented tickets to all my friends and relatives for their significant dates. If you were lived in Novosibirsk I would also recommend it to you! Friends, correct me, please :)

Describe a decision you made that wasn't popular and how you handled implementing it. I’m a BA, my daily tasks are implementing new system’s modules, reingeniiring business processes, correcting user manuals and so on. So, I can say that almost all my decisions are unpopular in greater or lesser extent, because people don’t like changes, which are related to their work. Even if changes will optimize their work, their first reactions are resistance and disagreement. That is why I try always separate my duties from my feelings at work. I just do my best according to a project plan. In this case when I hear that someone says «I hate this…» or «This is awful..» it doesn’t hurt me at all. I understand that this statement doesn’t relevant to my competence or me personally, people just need some time to get used to innovations.

What do you do when disagree with someone at work? As for me, I think that it is quite normal when colleagues have different point of view on the same issue. And this situation is not frightening or frustrating for me. Firstly, when I faced this problem I try to synchronize our glossary. Often people say the same thing in different words and it causes misunderstandings. Secondly, when we have checked our glossary but still have different points of view, then I try to give all my arguments. After that, I use active listening technic to get my opponent arguments. If we can’t meet agreement in 20-30 minutes I offer to escalate problem. Because we can’t waste too much time for negotiating. Our responsibility is to inform our bosses or Project Manager (in case of Project interaction). I write down our both approaches to the question in the minutes of a meeting, sent it out to my opponent to confirm it and after that forward it to our bosses/PM. Friends, correct me, please!

A non-business project (part 2) When the day X was happened we were very nervous, but it is in vain. Our dog-girl was acting like a dog-angel and a TV star at the same time. She was not afraid of groomers, cameras and vanity at all. To our surprise two or even three TV channels visited us that day and showed the videostory in prime-time. We got a lot of calls afterwards, but the most important thing was that this dog-girl has found home and family. The bottom line was reached!!! We repeated this project several times, and everytime after projects the number of happy pets was increased. Yes, I can’t measure the success of this project in figures, but money isn’t the only success rate. P.s. «AnimalLiberty» is still exists, you can look photos here http://animalliberty.ru/galleries/258

A non-business project (part1) Sometimes at the job interviews interviewers ask me about my «the most significant project» where I do my best as Business Analyst. I always describe one of my projects from the previous jobs: about system implementation, business- processes reengineering, creating some useful features for top managers of something like that. I usually focus on the profits that companies have received when my projects were successfully completed. But yesterday, before falling asleep, I thought what if I will tell them about very efficient, but non-business project, when answering on this question. It was several years ago, I was a member of animal protection organization «AnimalLiberty», which we had established with my friend. We were helping homeless animals – move them from the street to the shelter or placed temporarily into the volunteers’ flats and tried to find them home . We were constantly writing ads about them on our site, telling their stories, asking for money in order to pay for their therapy. The main problem which we faced to was the understanding that people emphasize us, sponsored us, but they didn’t want to take the animal from the street to home. But we hadn’t enough temporary homes for all animals we wanted to help. We had to do something… We started to analyze what was the main reason people didn’t want to take our animals. After some discussion we’ve gotten the answer. Our animals were not in their best shapes – their fur wasn’t shiny after months of wanderings. And it was a little bit scary for some people to take bid ugly dog at home. People even couldn’t imagine how beautiful dogs can be after shower and grooming. It was a big adventure for us but we initiated our Project «New grooming is the start of new Life in the real family». We phoned a lot of grooming salons and asked them to take part in our Project. The most of them refused, but one accepted our offer. It was really the first step on the road to success. We had some friends in mass media and would like them making a video about this event. We wanted the whole city knew this story. Those of you who have a dog can confirm that just a few dogs like grooming, but most of them hates it. So, one of the most risky points of our mission was to choose the right dog. It wasn’t easy at all...

Looking for synonyms for the most used words Friends, I would like to ask you. Now when I take skype lessons or ask you to correct my notes, I would like to give a feedback. However, I have no many ideas how to say these words/phrases in different ways: - Thank you - A lesson/talk was useful/interesting! - I would like to clarify something... Could you give me some synonyms (phrases or sentences) for them, please :)

Where to go on vacation Hi, Maria! I’m very happy that you have a 2 weeks vacation next month. The most pleasant fact about your vacation is that you have an opportunity to travel not just spending time at home. As you know, travelling is my favorite hobby, so I slightly envy you. Of course, it’s a joke  Let us go back to your question - what countries and cities I would recommend you to visit. You has given no details for me, so I will offer two different variants for you. If you prefer to spend your vacation at the beachfront, then I advise you to go somewhere in Thailand. If you would like to have more activities and sightseeing then you should go to Amsterdam. Now I’ll give you some more information about both of these tourists places. As for Thailand (for example, Pattaya), there are perfect gold sand, warm and purest oceanic water (almost like in the bath), delicious seafood and, the last but not the least, Thai massage. People are friendly and smiling, atmosphere is relaxed. Actually, you can combine two types of amusement there – swimming and tanning in the daytime (or make some beauty-treatments) and dancing/drinking cocktails/meeting with new people in the evenings. Nightlife is full of different events there. Amsterdam is completely different. The first thought of people when they hear about this city is something about drugs and Red lights district. However, this is just one side of the city. If you look at it from the other side, you can see a small old European city with beautiful houses, narrow streets and channels. There are many activities for all tastes also: a great number of interesting museums and huge and lovely parks (The Vondelpark is my favorite). It’s interesting just walking through the streets and looking at buildings. I know that you are fond of flowers and birds, so I have good news for you. When you plan to be there ducks give birth to ducklings, so will be able to make fabulous photos. Moreover, the spring is time of tulips flowering in Holland, so you will have a chance to visit the flower park, which is called Keukenhof. I hope that this information will help you to make the right choice. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me. Friends, correct me, please. Sorry, this letter is turned out bigger than I've expected...

A note about procrastination while writing working papers Once I had to write a document, which I don’t like to write. Fortunately, I had no exact deadline, so I procrastinate this work for several weeks. My boss sometimes asked me about this paper, I assured him that I worked on it. But this wasn’t really truth… Every next day I hated this document more a more, but it was still in his infancy. I’ve decided to ask a piece of advice from my more experienced colleague – what does he usually do when he doesn’t like to write document or when he doesn’t know exactly what a document should contain. His answer has seriously changed my attitude to such an activity as writing documents. He said that when you had to write a document (especially a document you didn’t like to work on) you should do it as fast as you could. Because your real thoughts to this question you can formulate for a few working hours and after than you decided to invent something brilliant. The more you keep the document in your work the more complete document your boss expects from you. As far as you do not like to look incompetent employee, so you try to improve something, but don’t know how to do this and just play for time. Most likely when you will have sent your non-perfect document after a month «hard work» to your boss he will not appreciate it. Time will play against you in this situation. The more correct approach is to write down your thoughts and ideas and sent it out to your boss with explanation that it is not the final version of the document, but just a draft to discuss together. Alternatively or at the same time, you can sent your draft out to your colleagues and arrange a meeting with brainstorming. In both of these situations, the chief and associates will not wait something amazing from you, but the work on document will be more efficient. A hundred to one the document will be finished in a shorter period. Be gratefull for corrections and your ideas on this topic :)

Friends, could you recommend me a book to improve my everyday vocabulary? I'm looking for a book in the original to improve my vocabulary. But I would like to learn/remember not bookish words but everyday words. I think over the books of Stephen King or Arthur Hailey now. What would you advise me? Or maybe it makes sense to choose another author?