Recent methods of language teaching / learning focus on communicative approaches that are close to narrowing the gap and increasing the motivation for language learning. At present we can observe lots of examples of intolerant behaviour among teenagers. To overcome this inability they should be taught how to be tolerant and reconciled despite different points of views, values, likes and dislikes. Nowadays when Russia and living in Russia became popular among foreigners,teenagers have to show the knowledge of their national history, famous places, traditions; national music and dance.
Baltassi in brief
On the green expanses of Eurasia in a region of forests, lakes and fields, cultivated from ancient times along Shoshma river stands a village that will soon have been there for a 800 years. This is Baltassi, one of the most important industrial and cultural centers of the Shoshma region. Situated as a result of historical circumstances, only one hundred kilometres to the north-west of Kazan, Baltassi is the centre of the multi-national district that occupies the area between the Shoshma and Vyatka rivers. The people are Kazan tatars,the descendants of the Volga Bolgars, the Finnic tribes and others.
Many medieval historians knew of the state of the Volga Bolgars, which flourished from the 9 to 12-th centuries. The twilight of Volga Bolgaria began in 1236 when its great trading towns were destroyed by the invasion of Batu Khan grandson of Genghis Khan, which became the part of the Golden Horde. Around the middle of the 13-th century the population of Volga Bolgaria, afflicted by invasion, plague and drought began shifting to the north of their country, settling in some places that had long been inhabited.
The great medieval traveler Al-Muslimi passed through Baltassi in 1396, and this date is considered as the date of founding Baltassi. Up to the end of the 18-th century it was the region of handicraftsmen producing soakers, brushes, jackets, wadded jackets, glass, clay and wood products. The first madrasah was found in Baltassi in the 19-th century where students studied mathematics, foreign languages and religion, and which was closed during the revolution. The new Soviet school was opened in the 20-th years of the 20-th century. Nowadays Baltassi is an industrial centre of our district, which has the Fur-factory, the incubator, the Bakery, Tsypjas museum and so on.
Fur factory
At the beginning of the 20-th century there were many industrial artels in Baltassis District. The homemade work was very popular, they make soakers, brushes, sacks, hats, caps and wadded jackets. The Fur factory was organized in 1932. In 1958 three large artels were formed: The Red job, Red fur-maker and Baltassis industrial centre. The conditions of the artels were low and in 1961 there was built the only Baltassis industrial centre. Since that moment it became the center of local industry. The production was very popular, raw material was obtained from Ivanovo. The centre has high-gualified technology and workers. The Fur factory has survived in market conditions also. Nowadays they produce the same production but the raw material is obtained from Kirov, Ioshkar-Olah, Naberezchnie Chelny and Kazan factories “ Melita” and “Sunar”.
The Bakery
The Bakery centre is one of the most important industrial branches, which was founded in 1968. It is located in the East part of Baltassi. Soon other three bakeries were founded providing the whole district for the bread. The bread is made by Russian technology. The most part of technic was obtained from Kazan metal plant. The bakery is provided with the flour from Shermordan and Arsk elevators. The farmers of the district conduct the contract with the bakery and grow corn too.
Since 1990 the bakery burns gas. In market conditions it has to decrease the number of baking bread because of competition between Kazan and Arsk bakeries.
Incubator
Every farm needs poultry farming that’s why the incubator was organized in 1986. They use the machine “Pyatigorsky Y-55”. The incubator is a machine for hatching chickens, ducklings and goslings. It has the certain temperature, humidity and provided the maturity of the embryo in the egg.
In the historical development of the mankind two different incubations exist, the natural and artificical types were known more than 2500 years ago in China and Egypt Those incubations were held in special places and kept in a great secret.
The creation of the machine-incubator became possible after the developing of simple autonomy.
When the operations choose the egg, they’ ll prefer middle sized, because large eggs very often have two yolks. The eggs shell is light sensitive and from one period of maturity the embryo begins to perceive the light. The mirage is conducted 2-3 times at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Hens eggs conducted at the 6-th day, but the eggs of other birds-at 8-10 days. The incubator is warning in the case of disconnecting, reserve stations are conducted at that moment.
The Black Lake “Kara kul”
Lakes take the important role in the hydrographic timetable and the landscape of the Tatarstan.The total amount of them is about 8,500. The number of the lakes decreased after the flooding by the Kuibishev and the Nizhnekamsk hydroreservoirs. One of the most famous lakes in the district is the Kara kul lake, which is located in three kilometers to the north-west of the Baltassi.
The name of the lake came bake to the medievals, when it was surrounded by the virgin forest. The water in the lake was rather deeper than in nowadays. The branches of the tress closed the sun, so the water looked very dark. People were afraid to go to the lake, it was a very dangerous place. But in real the water is greenish-blue and there is no such great forest around. The lake was formed in the medievals, has the Karst origin, not so large in sguare and the deepest bottom is 20.5 metres. The form of the lake is oval, the shore is not so steep. The water is pure cold, with high mineralisation. The Karst origin links with the deposits of carbonates and sulfates such as lime, plaster, unhydrid and moving bottom waters. The Karst relief is widespread in the districts having the nearest mountainous deposits. Very often the Karst is formed with the helping of the deep ravine and wells. The diametre of them is about 100 metres. If Karst ravines open the bottom waters, they will be filled with water and become the lakes, like the Kara kul. The real bottom of the lake is 40.5 metres, the longest area - 235 metres and the widest -170 metres. It uses the bottom waters and melted waters also.
As the lake has pure cold water, it also has mechanic ruins such as branches and roots of the trees, sapropel, diatomit. If the lake has different plants it will be marshland soon.
The character of the lake changes the defence of the climate. Ferrum, carbonates, roots of the trees, sapropel, diatomit and other organic wastes are accumulated in the lake, because it is located in the moderate zone. In summer the lake’s temperature becomes low very suddenly. In winter the highest waters of the lake frost but the deepest waters have rather high temperature and don’t frost. In the 50-th years of the 20-th century the bottom of the lake was 27-29 metres, so we can say that it has marsh in the bottom. But the water in the lake is crystal clear because of the stream.During the whole year the water of the stream flows into the lake.
The lake has a great influence to the nature. It changes the relief, builds bottom and shore, filled it’s ravine with marsh , salt and even the deposits of salt, marshland valleys.
The lake Kara kul also has the influence to the climate. It decreases the heat in summer, the frost in winter, waters the shore. The lake is the place of living alife organisms, different types of fish, rich vegetation; one can see rare plants which are in the Red Book. Rich vegetation is located in the shore of the lake-up to 1 metre one can see different plants; up to 4-5 metres-seaweeds.
Tsypja’s museum(excursion)
Well, here we are at Tsypja’s historical museum. We can take photos of the exhibits, but not to touch anything. First of all we see the gallery of the pictures by Demyanov D.A. He was our local artist. He liked to paint the landscape of the district and we can admire at his pictures.
And now, as you see, there is an archeological hall in front of you. First of all we see fish bones and this large fish bone was used as a needle in ancient times. People always were inventing tools, which they needed. That knife, axe and combs were made of stone. In ancient period there were first painters, we can prove it by the painted bone of mammoth. The needle that was made of the fish bone is about a thousand years older than a knife. That’s unbelievable. I think at first people used what they could find around them. That’s why bones became useful tools when people realized that tools were worth having they thought of improving them. They also started using other materials such as stone and wood. They didn’t have any machines that could help them. That’s why the first tools were very primitive. The life in the past was very hard but very important for our civilization.
Our ethnographical hall acquaints you with national suits of local people ( tatars, udmurts, marys and others); the national dresses of young girls before married; the trunk with attachments, the samovar and the production of local industrial artels of handicraftsmen in the grocery.
As a mirror, the costume reflects the way of life of the ancestors – ploughmen and cattlemen; climate and geographical peculiarities; trade routes, religion. The national Tatar costume has advanced along a complicated path of historical development. The most ancient type of Tatar footwear was leather footwear; they cover the head with a cap. In the 19–th century the men’s clothing consisted of a white shirt with a stand-up collar, trousers “chalbar”, a kazakin coat and jilyan jacket.
Women’s clothing was various and richly decorated. A tunic like a shirt transformed into a dress “ kulmyak”.
The next hall is devoted to the events of the 20-th century; the civil war in our region; machine guns, weapons.
We also have the branch of local writers. Medvedev Georgy was born in the village M.Losi. He wrote the book “Losinskoye Pole” about collectivization . He was repressed in 1937. And you see that not so long ago we could return his name and his books.
The second storey of our museum is devoted to the Great Patiotic War, you can see the photos of our heroes such as Habra Rakhman, Garifullin and others, the letters from Brest, war trophies, flasks, kisets and the military dynasty.
And now our excursion has finished. Thank you for coming.
Goose party (Kaz umesi)
(A school theatre)
The goose calls goslings sitting in a large basket.They gather around her and begin to dance. Suddenly the old woman go out with a broom and take them to the river.
Leader: So summer goes back and the golden autumn comes. Our goslings have grown already and “Kaz umesi” begin in the villages. Goog afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!
Father-goose: Well, mother goose let’s acquaintance with us.
Mother-goose: I must go everywhere,calling them “ Kijgak, kijgak”. I love them very much, they are so nice, so pretty; but very different!
Father-goose: and I’m father goose and the tallest of my family. I can do everything, but I’m lazy.
1 gosling: I can play and dance very well,so my parents call me Shuktugan.
2 gosling: I’m so pretty that every moment like to look into the water and admire about myself. So my relatives call me Nechke-byll.
3 gosling: I go so fast that everyone call me Zilbazak. But they don’t know about the wind in my head.
4 gosling: I’m a great eater and everywhere I find something tasty. They run to me at that moment and call me Tamle-tamak.
5 gosling: I’m afraid very much and they call me Sak. But they don’t know about my leaving feathers.
6 gosling: Don’t think that it’s my fault of her leaving feathers. We only play together.
Uncle goose: They go everywhere with me with the words “Dear Uncle, dear Uncle”. But if I ask to do something, they won’t like to do it.
II action
2 leader: The green grass grew along the Shoshma river and our goslings had grown very guickly there.
1 leader: I say, who is the best dancer? (Tatar national dance)… Oh, I see all of you dance very well.
2 leader: And who is the best singer? (The geese sing “The goose feather”). Thank you very much, your singing is rather well.
1 leader: Tatar people liked to grow geese from medieval period. Pillows, made of goose down were very popular and showed the know-how of the hostess. In nowadays it has the same meaning in the villages. In the deep autumn when the weather becomes rather cold people celebrate “Kaz umesi”. It’s similar to Thanksgiving Day in the USA. In previous times it was very popular to participate there for girls. Even the hostess were noticed by some girls ”If you call me for “ Kaz umesi” I shall mow you wheat”.
2 leader: After plucking and cleaning the internal organs of the geese the girls went to the river to wash them. The boys went after the girls with accordion playing lovely music. After washing the geese the hostess met them with hot tea, pancakes and sweets. In the evening they gathered at the “geese party”.
III action
Hostess: You’re welcome, dear guests!
I-st girl: Your geese were well fattened this year.
Host: Thanks heavens! And I hope that it will be rather good food.
2-nd girl: But how did you have so many geese?
Hostess: In the spring I saw wild geese and found one feather in the yard. I picked it up and put to the goose nest; may be it helped. (Soon the boys came with the singing of lovely song).
3 girl: Let’s pluck feathers.
4 girl: And we’d like to make feather bunches.
5 girl: Let’s do it with the singing.
Host: Thank you very much.
5 girl: Tomorrow there will be “Kaz umesi” at my aunt. Don’t forget to come.