MY SWAN SONG
Wow! Have you read Benka’s prosepoem? It’s lovely. Very accomplished, too. Thank you, Benka (are you a published writer in Serbia?). Do keep trying to get a copy of Chernobyl Strawberries – is there no British Council library in Knez Mikhailova (Belgrade) any more? If it’s still there, they’re bound to have it.
And James – learning English in the public toilets of Taiwan! What an original blog that was – and maybe a new activity to recommend to my students? Hmm. Not sure about that, James. Great blog, though!
Hyoshil, yes, your comments finally got through. I’ve been wondering how you were doing. It was good to hear from you, and Kirsti (as always) and Marianna and Adri and Ana Paula and Pary and all the others – too many to mention both bloggers and those of you who have written comments on our blogs. Thank you all so much.
Elena (Moscow) had an interesting question about PLR (Public Lending Right). Yes, Elena, public libraries are, of course, free in Britain. The money which is paid to authors whose books have been borrowed from public libraries comes from a special fund (PLR) set up by the government.
As an author, I also receive a small amount of money each year for the number of times parts of my books (articles, study materials, etc) have been photo-copied in schools and colleges. Language schools and other educational institutions, nowadays, have to buy an annual licence to photo-copy published study materials. The money which the schools pay for the licence contributes to the fund which is used to pay authors. I am an inspector of language schools as well as an author, and one of the first things I always check when I do an inspection is that the school has an up-to-date photo-copy licence!
This has been a great month. Thanks to Paul and his team at BBC Learning English we’ve all been able to catch up and go on exchanging our ideas, opinions, enthusiasms. I’ll miss you all. When I pass through Lincoln, I’ll remember Hyoshil; when I think about Serbia, I’ll remember Benka; when I’m in France I’ll speculate about Kirsti; when I’m in St Petersburg, with Lucy at Easter, I’ll remember our Russian friends (and, by the way, you are our friends no matter what the politicians, on both sides, say and do) and when I pass through Poland or the Czech Republic or, farther afield, when I’m in the Far East later in the year, I’ll remember all our friends from Warsaw and Prague, from India and Nepal and China (good luck with the Olympics!) and Korea… I wish you all the very best – especially good health, prosperity and serenity. Oh yes, and whenever I think about Spain I’ll feel guilty that I never managed to read Don Quixote – my fault entirely.
Bye,
STEPHEN KEELER
PS: Lucy sends her regards, too. She’s hitch-hiking to Amsterdam right now, and hopes to be in Dublin by the end of next week. I’ve just received a text message from her. They’ve been on the way six hours and have managed to cover forty-five miles. Suddenly, Amsterdam seems much farther away than usual.
SOME USEFUL WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
swan song
Someone's swan song is the last time they do something for which they are well-known.
prosepoem
A prosepoem is ‘a poem’ which is not written under the usual ‘rules’ of poetry (rhyme, metre, etc). It is sometimes called ‘free verse’. A prosepoem does not look like a poem, on the page.
accomplished
good; clever; skilful
original
unique; not like anything else; novel
got through
arrived
fund
a sum of money collected and used for a particular purpose
set up
established
annual
yearly
licence
permit; an annual licence is one which last for one year (and which has to be renewed annually)
contributes
goes (to the fund); is paid (to the fund)
catch up
to get up-to-date with each others’ news and gossip
farther afield
farther (or further) away
Comments
Many happy students whenever and wherever you appear! Thank you for all lessons, suddenly it won´t be so far when one may understand each other!
Stephen my comment to your Desert Island Discs blog earlier on. "Stephen your column touched me. You captured the essence of life in it. The mood swayed from one reality to another without any effort, the reader could easily move from mood to mood. My sincere compliments and thanks for aiding me to have a moment of serenity." This entry I sent to you earlier and I had been sending comments to all of your entries but the dammed Spam Manager ate them all. All the best what ever you are going to do. Warm regards to Paco and Marianna as well as everyone. And thanks Paul.
Hello Stephen! Thanks for your sincere and interesting columnes written with good sense of humour. I would like to believe that your last column at the moment isn´t your swan song at BBC Learning English. If you visit other places, other countries during this spring and summer you could share your impressions with us. By the way, if I were on a desert island I wouldn´t survive without the material of BBC Learning English, included your texts. They would be necessary. The world is full of English learners and one day certainly some fan of English language would come to this island and so we could practice English together. Best regards to Lucy.
Hi Stephen, I don't agree with you in everything. You know...music (it's my fault because I don't understand classical music) and I love D. Quixote but I don't want to see you and the dear friend Paco in duelling and yes...despite our leaders political decisions and cultural differences, I'll always consider you more than a teacher, but a friend...and that's all. I wish from the bottom of my heart this comment makes your heart happy and sorry if I write more than I should do. Please come back to these pages when you have a time. Good bye
Hello, Stephen! I don't know if I can cope with so much praise from you! I am not published here or anywhere else, (well, as you have already brought it up, I might as well start learning the grammar rules of my mother tongue as diligently as I learn English ones and see how far it will take me, but for now) I am just a careful and dedicated reader of your columns and its comments. It is incomprehensible to me how you have managed to gather people from every corner of the world to comment your stories. Every time I finish reading one of your columns, I need a map to see in which part of this planet all those countries from which people comment are. You have the magical powers to make people feel better when you speak to them. For this reason, you will be immensely missed in this blogosphere. I admire Lucy's effort to raise money for her charities. Lucy, don't give up, we are with you! Stephen, I wish you all the best and bye for now.
Hi,Stephen It seems that time is flying and here we are to say goodbye to you again.You don't know how much you have given me pleasure of learning English and made me laugh and sometimes you encouraged me to peep very different world which I have never been.I wish you the best of good luck where you are and whatever you are doing and take care of yourself.you will be always remembered one of the brightest star by me PS:i am so glad Lucy is doing very well and good luck to her and the finish.hyoshilxx
Hi, Stiven. What does your swan song mean? You will not blogging any more? It is a pity. I've got used to your blogs. I've improve my English by it. You mentioned your books (articles, study matirials etc.)in your last post. Wouldn't you tell me whether can I get this books. May be somewhere in the Internet. Anyway, I hope it's not your last post, buy for now.
Hi Stephan , i take my hat off for you and i keep my finger crossed for your all 2008 , hopes . i bid you farewell and hope to see you very soon best wishes and bye
Hi,Stephen This is the second version of my comment because one of my good friend has shouted at me you could re-write the letter better and she has helped me to improve .(THAAAANKS Fiona) It seems that time is flying and here we are saying goodbye to you again.You don't know how much pleasure you have given me learning English and you have made me laugh and sometimes you encouraged me to peep into a very different world which I have never been before.I wish you the best of good luck where you are and whatever you are doing and take care of yourself.you will always be remembered as one of the brightest stars by me PS:i am so glad Lucy is doing very well and good luck to her until the finish.hyoshilxx
Dear Stephen, I'm sorry I forgot to thank you for answering my question on the Public Lending Right. The photo-copy license sounds even more awesome! It's always pleasant to find that someone is closer to perfection than your own kin and country :) Dear BBC team, Paul and everyone else involved in the blogging service, Many thanks for your contribution! All the best, Elena.
Thanks for your generous remark, Stephen - of course we are friends, whatever the politics! Time flies, and things are bound to change for the better. It would be great to give you and Lucy a tour of Moscow if you dropped by at Easter.We could look at some places off the beaten track...There are also quite a few concert halls and excellent musicians to listen to. Inspired by your music notes :) I took my daughters to a concert of flute and organ music which was held in a catholic cathedral (19-th century, and as close to Gothic as it's possible to find in these parts of the world, with a good organ and fine acoustics) - the lights went out, the whole atmosphere was both much more relaxed than it is in a concert hall, and more appropriate... Hope to hear from you some day :) All the best, Elena All the best
Hello, Stephen. We said goodbye last year, we met gain here soon after. Now I believe it is quite possible that the farewell is just a - till next.
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