That is the question. Hamlet's monologue

I have been working as an English tutor for many years and preparing my students for both entrance and final exams. I can say that any exam is a serious test for an applicant, and the Unified State Exam in English is one of the most difficult exams in a secondary school. After all, this is not only a graduation, but also an entrance exam to the institute! Therefore, preparation should be approached with all responsibility.
In order to pass the Unified State Exam in English with a high score (84-100), you must have a level of knowledge not lower than upper-intermediate. This is the level you need to focus on if your goal is to enter the leading universities in Moscow.

A lot of literature has been published to prepare for the unified state exam. Basically, these are manuals with a set of approximate options for the Unified State Exam in English. Such manuals are very useful at the last stage of education, when the child has already developed a certain grammatical, lexical and conversational level, many topics of the program have been studied, and the teacher’s goal now remains to orient the student to a new form of testing. An experienced teacher understands perfectly well that without the formation of a solid theoretical foundation based on knowledge of various competencies, no amount of coaching will help in choosing the right answer. For this purpose, there are various textbooks by both domestic and foreign authors. Both have their pros and cons. Therefore, when choosing textbooks, I always try to use those tasks that are most useful in teaching a particular child and can give the best result. Do not forget that any experienced tutor will also refer to his teaching aids, developments and ideas.

Listening is a type of speech activity that causes the greatest number of difficulties not only for those who begin to learn a language or prepare for various types of exams, but also for those who find themselves in a foreign language environment and are forced to make independent decisions. To begin, you need to answer the following questions:
1) What is listening and how does it differ from listening?
2) Why does this type of speech activity cause the most difficulties?
3) How is teaching listening related to the formation of related language and speech skills?
Firstly, Listening Comprehension is the process of perceiving and understanding speech by ear. Teaching students to understand speech by ear is one of the most important goals of teaching English. In situations of real communication, we are faced with listening as a completely independent type of speech activity. Often, in addition to listening to speech, we perform other actions: we observe, speak, write. Any audio recording provides information for discussion, which, in turn, involves further development of speaking skills. Therefore, listening is a means of learning. It is simply impossible to draw a clear line between listening and speaking in this case. Even the term speaking initially presupposes listening skills.
Secondly, listening difficulties include:
A) difficulties caused by listening conditions (external noise, recording quality, poor acoustics)
B) difficulties caused by the individual characteristics of the source of speech (lack of practice in listening to the speech of people of the opposite sex, different ages, features of diction, tempo, pausing)
Thirdly, psychologists note that when listening, internal pronunciation of speech occurs. The clearer the pronunciation, the higher the level of listening. Anyone who has the habit of internally speaking and recording information will understand and remember it better. The exam, which tests listening comprehension of English speech, is perhaps one of the main problems. The reason is not only that audio cassettes are not listened to throughout the entire school course (which is 11 years), but also that students do not know how to correlate key words in questions and audio recordings and choose answer options only because the same words are heard in the texts, and they forget that the correct answer, as a rule, is expressed synonymously. Plus, in any exam, limited time is allocated to complete the task. Add to this the anxiety that is natural during an exam, and the exam goes worse than it could.
Reading, from my point of view, is the section that causes the greatest difficulties for applicants. Even if the student knows the format of the tasks, one should not forget that the texts for testing are provided authentic, and those who do not have a good lexical and grammatical base will not be able to show linguistic intuition, since the tasks are formulated in such a way that the use of a synonymous series can confuse the child. to no avail. A limited amount of time is allocated for the English language exam, and children simply do not have time, they are in a hurry, plus anxiety - and again unwanted mistakes. Therefore, in my lessons, I pay special attention to the study of authentic texts of various topics and complexity, which certainly leads to improved listening, speaking, and writing skills. Fiction, classical, English literature, offered for listening and subsequent discussion, encourages children to independently study the work.

Grammar and vocabulary are not the problem of one or two students, but the problem of 90% of all who decide to take the Unified State Exam in English. In lexical tasks, synonymous series can confuse even strong students. Therefore, special attention is paid to knowledge of spelling rules and the skills of their application based on the studied lexical and grammatical material, to the understanding of synonymy, antonymy, lexical compatibility, polysemy, further expansion of the scope of meanings of grammatical means studied previously, and familiarity with new grammatical phenomena, to compliance existing norms of lexical compatibility in English; I teach how to find and form related words using the basic methods of word formation, recognize that words belong to parts of speech based on certain characteristics (articles, affixes, etc.);
Written assignments. This includes writing a personal letter of 140 words, and writing an essay on a given topic expressing your point of view (200-250 words). In this type of assignment, it is important to follow a strict structure, using arguments to prove your point. It’s not easy to come up with arguments and often it takes a lot of time to analyze the topic, the essay has to be rewritten, and everyone understands that the more topics a student understands, the more chances he has to get a top score.
Speaking is inextricably linked with cultural competence, the meaning of which is the creative assimilation and comprehension of everything valuable both in the culture of one’s own people and in other cultures. Only a small proportion of students have a high level of cultural competence. Others are characterized by a low and average level of this competence. Consequently, it is necessary to organize special work on the formation of cultural education in the learning process, namely, in the process of learning a foreign language. To develop this competence, it is necessary to organize special activities that would allow focusing on the relationship between culture, education and communication. The oral exam in English (as well as the written one) has its own structure. Therefore, to successfully pass this type of test (20 out of 20), you should follow it. Of course, for those who have fluent speaking skills, coping with this task is much easier.
It should be noted that the most important task of the Federal State Educational Standard (FSES) is the formation of universal (meta-subject) educational activities that provide schoolchildren learning a foreign language with the ability to learn, the ability to independently work on the language, and, consequently, the ability for self-development and self-improvement. Therefore, the most important task of any teacher should be to develop student motivation and self-confidence.
Today, the concepts of “meta-subject” and “meta-subject learning” are gaining particular popularity. This is understandable, since the meta-subject approach is the basis of the new standards.

Kuznetsova Tatyana Vladimirovna, English tutor

Fight the fears within yourself: 5 ways to prevent pre-exam fear from ruining your life

Turn your fears into your wisdom
We all have both positive and negative experiences. This is natural, but often we fail in the fight against negative experiences - with mistakes that brought us pain - and they haunt us and prevent us from being happy. We are afraid of making mistakes again, and this does not give us the opportunity to enjoy life and therefore we are in constant tension. To achieve happiness, reduce stress, and move forward toward your dreams, you need to confront these fears. One of the worst fears we have to fight is constantly expecting failure. When we cannot free ourselves from the negativity that the future may bring us, we allow it into today's life. By clinging to our fear, we limit our potential and our future. Correct perception and the ability to realize what haunts us, including in relationships with people, allows us to learn valuable lessons that help us avoid serious mistakes in the future. If we are able to overcome past mistakes and forget about them, we become more resilient to stress and adversity and realize that we can cope with them. But sometimes we are not fully aware of what worries us. Surprisingly, fears can have a beneficial effect on us, forcing us to change and look at life in a new and more constructive way. The ability to overcome fears makes us stronger and more resilient to ups and downs. Successfully combating fears within ourselves determines our ability to be happy, improve ourselves and enjoy everything that life gives us. And here's how you can do it.
1. Be able to pinpoint the cause of your fear.
Before you can fight your inner fears, you need to see them. There is no need to endlessly say that you cannot cope with the problem, play games with your subconscious, become despondent and irritate those around you. Find time for yourself, be left alone with yourself and find the objective reason for your fear.
2. Be objective.
Having named the reason for your fear, move to a more objective plane, try to think more rationally. Ask yourself what exactly caused this experience.
3. Keep things in perspective.
Remind yourself that failure, pain, disappointment and other negative feelings are an integral part of life. But you are strong enough to not let your anxiety make you a hostage to the situation. Think about the future of your problems. What happens if you win? Or what happens if you lose?
4. Start developing your small business plan.
Often it is difficult for us to do this because we do not have such experience. But think about it, what are we losing? A little of your time and a couple of sheets of paper? Take a notebook. Write down what problem you have, use an arrow to the left to indicate the reason, and use an arrow or several to the right to indicate ideas for overcoming the obstacle we call fear. If you have no ideas, you can ask your parents or teachers for advice. You, of course, have friends who also experience these same problems. It's always easier to act together.
5. We begin to act.
When we constantly cling to anxiety, we limit our own capabilities because we avoid risks and new endeavors due to fears. We think in terms of “I can’t”, “I shouldn’t”, “I won’t succeed”. But it should be the other way around. You have a clear understanding of your problem and you know how to overcome it. Go ahead and don’t forget: you have your own business plan and its implementation depends only on you.

To understand Shakespeare's intentions in tragedies, the monologues of the heroes pronounced at the climax of the action are especially important. The most important for understanding the tragedy is Hamlet’s monologue “To be or not to be” in the first scene of the third act. We learn about Hamlet's goals long before this monologue, after Hamlet heard from the ghost about Claudius' crime. For Hamlet, the duty of revenge for his murdered father immediately turns into the task of correcting his age: for this purpose, he erases all other desires and feelings from the tablets of his memory. Putting on the mask of a madman, he influences those around him in such a way that it causes fear and remorse in the criminal king, and awakens in Gertrude a consciousness of guilt and inner anxiety. But Hamlet promised the ghost to immediately fly on wings to take revenge on the murderer - but he does not fulfill this promise. He himself does not understand what is preventing him from immediately fulfilling his duty and killing Claudius. The answer to this question is given in the monologue “To be or not to be.”

V.P Komarova "Shakespeare and Montaigne" Chapter III

This monologue has been translated into all languages of the world!

The organ sounds - Sebastian Bach

To be or not to be, that is the question. Is it worthy
Resign yourself to the blows of fate,
Or must we resist
And in mortal combat with a whole sea of troubles
End them? Die. Forget yourself.
And know that this breaks the chain
Heartache and thousands of hardships,
Inherent in the body. Isn't this the goal?
Desired? Die. Lose yourself in sleep.
Fall asleep... and dream? Here is the answer.
What dreams will you have in that mortal sleep?
When is the veil of earthly feelings removed?
This is the solution. That's what lengthens
Our misfortunes last for so many years.
And the one who would endure the humiliation of the century,
The lies of the oppressors, the nobles
Arrogance, feeling of rejection,
Slow trial and most of all
The mockery of the unworthy at the worthy,
When it's so easy to make ends meet
Dagger strike! Who would agree
Groaning, trudge along under the burden of life,
Whenever the unknown after death,
Fear of a country from which none
Didn't come back, didn't bend my will
It is better to put up with familiar evil,
Instead of trying to escape to the unfamiliar!
This is how thought turns us all into cowards,
And our resolve withers like a flower
In the sterility of a mental dead end,
This is how plans die on a grand scale,
Those who promised success at the beginning,
From long delays. But enough!
Ophelia! O joy! Remember
My sins in my prayers, nymph.

Translation by B.L. Pasternak

The monologue “To be, or not to be” is perhaps one of the most famous fragments of Shakespeare’s legacy. Even a person who has not read Hamlet has probably heard the words “To be or not to be - that is the question?” - this expression is constantly repeated in our speech. At the same time, the text of the famous monologue itself is one of the most difficult passages of Shakespeare’s work to translate and still attracts the attention of many Russian translators.

HAMLET'S MONOLOGUE. ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATIONS

1. Original English version

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether "tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, "tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there"s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor"s wrong, the proud man"s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o"er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.-Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in your orisons
Be all my sins remember"d.

2. Russian translation options

Translation: Vladimir Nabokov

To be or not to be - that is the question;
What is better for the soul - to endure the slings and arrows of furious doom
or, on a sea of disasters, take up arms to end them?
To die: to fall asleep no more, and if sleep ends the melancholy of the soul and a thousand anxieties,
characteristic of us - one cannot help but yearn for such completion.
Die, fall asleep; fall asleep: perhaps dream;
yes, that’s where the jam is, what dreams will visit us when we free ourselves from the husk of vanities?
Here's the stop. This is why adversity is so tenacious;
After all, who would bear the scourges and mockery of times, the contempt of the proud, the oppression of the strong,
vain pain of love, laziness of the law, and arrogance of rulers,
and everything that a worthy person suffers from the unworthy,
When could he, with a thin dagger, achieve peace for himself?
Who would groan and sweat under the weight of life?
- but fear inspired by something beyond death - an undiscovered country,
from whose borders no traveler has ever returned,
- it confuses the will and makes us prefer earthly torments to others, unknown ones.
So consciousness makes us all cowards, in the bright color of natural determination
the pallor of weak thoughts falls, and important, deep undertakings
change direction and lose the name of the actions.
But now - silence... Ophelia...
In your prayers, nymph, remember my sins.

Translation: Boris Pasternak

To be or not to be, that is the question. Is it worthy
Resign yourself to the blows of fate,
Or must we resist
And in mortal combat with a whole sea of troubles
End them? Die. Forget yourself.
And know that this breaks the chain
Heartache and thousands of hardships,
Inherent in the body. Isn't this the goal?
Desired? Die. Lose yourself in sleep.
Fall asleep... and dream? Here is the answer.
What dreams will you have in that mortal sleep?
When is the veil of earthly feelings removed?
This is the solution. That's what lengthens
Our misfortunes last for so many years.
Otherwise, who would bear the humiliation of the century,
The lies of the oppressors, the nobles
Arrogance, feeling of rejection,
A slow trial and most of all -
The mockery of the unworthy at the worthy,
When it's so easy to make ends meet
Dagger strike! Who would agree
Groaning, trudge along under the burden of life,
Whenever the unknown after death,
Fear of a country from which none
Didn't come back, didn't bend my will
It is better to put up with familiar evil,
Instead of trying to escape to the unfamiliar!
This is how thought turns us all into cowards,
And our resolve withers like a flower
In the sterility of a mental dead end,
This is how plans die on a grand scale,
Those who promised success at the beginning,
From long delays. But enough!
Ophelia! O joy! Remember
My sins in my prayers, nymph.

To live or not - that is the main question:
Isn't it more noble to endure - by blood,
The slings and arrows of the ugly lot,
Or rise against the oceans of troubles,
With weapons, ending them?
Sleep, die;
No more;
By the word “sleep” I mean completion
Heartache, thousands of shocks -
They are the inheritance of the flesh. This is death
What should we earnestly desire?
Oh, to die and sleep;
Don't dream in a dream: a mysterious question -
In my post-mortem dream will I see the light,
When I leave the old dress of life -
This riddle torments my mind: nuance,
What makes misfortune last;
Who among the living could endure forever
The scourge of fate, the mockery of the proud,
The pain of trampled love, delayed justice,
Office power, liar's contempt,
What do simple-minded people get?
Whenever the lot could have been fulfilled
Just with a knife?
Who would endure hardships,
Groaned, sweated under the terrible burden of life,
Whenever he cultivates horror before death,
Of an unknown country, from whose borders
Has anyone ever returned?
He would not confuse the will,
He would force us to endure certain hardships,
Why run away to others unknown in nature!
So reason instills cowardice in us,
And so much excitement that heaven gives,
Withers away in the pale plaster of thought,
And enterprises of enormous scope
They lose their passion from fear.
Their names are gone. Hey, be quiet!
Ophelia! O nymph! Remember
In my prayer all my sins are mine.

Reviews

In general, I liked it, but I liked it not as a translation, but as an independent work. It’s not like Shakespeare here somehow, but rather like Russian. Still, the spirit of an Englishman of that era should be heard in the translation. You have your own experience of the situation. This is good for you as an author, but for Shakespeare it is bad: his worldview is distorted, especially since he puts this worldview into the mouth of Hamlet - after all, people of royal blood with their predilection for some pompous statements. Your pomposity has been reduced, and with it, by the way, all metaphysics has been removed. By changing “to be or not to be” to “to live or not to live” (with the corresponding continuation of this attitude throughout the entire passage) in the eyes of the philistine majority, you did not do anything special, but only expressed yourself more clearly. But this is only “as if”. In fact, you imperceptibly shifted the emphasis from the metaphysical level, where being is an endless mystery and the goal of all thoughts, and theological, where God is being itself as it is (the idea of being in its pure form), to the mundane level. As follows from my entire analysis of Hamlet, this approach is fundamentally wrong, although it will most likely find support among the masses who are not accustomed to thinking about serious things.
I think you are much more interesting as an independent author, rather than as a translator. All the best to you.