1.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree
without roots.” (Marcus Garvey) How do you understand this statement?

When I think about it, there shouldn’t be a single person who doesn’t know about their
grandparents or further family members’ history, origin and culture. People from a very
young age are taught about their home countries and it basically goes without saying. Some
people might say that youth is world’s roots. It is important for them to build knowledge on
children, so they would grow out to a smart and beneficial generation. Like roots for a tree
are important for the plant to grow, then give goods. So, you could say generations build
family trees. Roots are the first, the oldest and the most history observed family members,
who I believe, we could call history. Without them there wouldn’t be the past, present and
future, there would simply be no roots. It’s quite impressive how much all generations are
related to each other. ‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and
culture is like a tree without roots’ Marcus Garvey once said. So, the same things go for
origin and culture, which is built by our first-lived relatives and developed by ones that came
after them. So, if we think threw everything again, if there are no old relatives, so called
roots, there wouldn‘t be a posibility to continue what they started, in other words tree
would grow only for someone to look at it. There wouldn’t be any benefit, if cultures or
origins didn’t have history. There would be no people who could tell stories, rely on, inspire
with it. So, how I understand what Garvey once said is quite complicated, but I’ll still try to
conclude it and put it in the simplest words: we have to know about our history, origin and
culture, like tree needs roots. Roots also can represent new generations, who can be
beneficial. And most importantly, we need roots to continue growing in every way. This is
how I understand Marcus Garvey’s words.

2. What advice would you give to a foreign friend who wants to learn your language?

First of all, I’d like to shake my foreign friend’s hand for choosing to learn Lithuanian. There
are some people from other counties who recognize how beautiful it sounds, but many give
up learning, because it is one of the most challenging languages to learn in the world. Even if
I had to learn it like it isn’t my mother language, I truly don’t think I could keep up with all of
the strange-sounding words and I would basically be overwhelmed by all the grammar,
punctuation, inflections and all the other strange things that, when I think about it, other
languages don’t have which is pretty cool. So, if my foreign friend is ready for this long road,
I’d recommend him learning a full, correct Lithuanian alphabet, where are some letters that
his language probably doesn’t have like š, č, į, ė and so on. Then if he had mastered those,
I’d say to try reading and work with pronunciation. If he tries translating some words along
the way, it’ll be easier to move on to vocabulary which is the next thing I’d recommend him
to do. In he hasn’t given up at this point the last thing he’ll need to put all the
determinedness and will to is grammar. As I warned before, Lithuanian grammar is
especially hard because of the language’s uniqueness. I think that all the little details in it
are hard and need attention. There are some more things that I’d like to tell him before he
starts doing anything. Before you start, you might think that you are ready to overcome all
the incoming obstacles, but I think that you will feel overwhelmed. Either way, you should
be strong, keep being motivated and prove others that learning Lithuanian language is
worth the trouble. So, in conclusion, the advice I would give my foreign friend who wants to
learn my native language would be based on a structure that he should follow to learn in
order to make it easier. And of course, I’d like to help him, because it sounds like nothing
but fun to teach a foreigner friend Lithuanian and I’d be honored to help a person who is
interested in such thing.

3. Do you like to work with music on, or does it make you lose your train of thought?
What other things help or prevent you from concentrating?

Working with music sounds fun, but no, most of the time I cannot listen to it while working.
By most of the time, I mean while doing important homework that need me to be
concentrated, for example math. There are times that I have quite boring homework that
don’t require much effort, like simple presentations, where I have to look for information on
the Internet, or exercises from Lithuanian language lessons for which I learned all the rules
by heart or just memorized it to that point where I can do two things at a time which
includes listening to music while working. Sometimes it’s fun to work with music on and
sometimes I don’t feel like doing it, so there is no such thing as disliking or liking it. So, my
point is that it really depends on what subject I am working on to tell if music makes me lose
my train of thought. Although it also depends on what volume I am listening and how much
I like that song. Now, what are other things that help or prevent me from concentrating. I
gave much thought about what could help me concentrate and the only thing that came to
my mind and It’s just a quiet atmosphere. I believe there is no such thing that could help me
get more concentrated other than that. Then there are actually a few things that makes me
lose my train of thought and stops me from being concentrated. Loud noises not only do
those things, but also annoys me the most. I cannot stand someone being loud when I’m
working. The other thing is someone passing by my desk, especially when they walk past me
behind my back. I don’t know why but if someone does that I can’t get hold of my thoughts
or concentration. So basically, these are my thoughts on listening to music while working
and what helps/prevents me from being concentrated.

4. What possible problems could be caused by firing off an e-mail without thinking about it
first?

5. Recall a cultural event that impressed you very much. Why was it memorable?