– Hello Dave! Could you tell me about your interest in building tiny houses and how the idea was born?

(Audio 1) – It’s kind of a trend in North America building small houses… I love building things with wood. Also, I have been into minimalism like a lot of people these days. My inspiration4 is to create a small, lightweight5 (but strong) very inexpensive home that can be easily disassembled6 and moved. The design can be used for a variety of things like storage, a workshop or a sauna; whatever really.

The idea came about when I moved from Canada. I quickly realized that I am a very fussy7 person. I don’t like living in places with funny smells, so I made a small camper for the back of my tiny truck to live in (photo of the camper). Shortly thereafter8, my wife and I went to live in the forest. The truck was only used for sleeping in, so we had to create a covered area under which to cook and live.

The harsh winter forced us9 to build a stronger and more insulated10 construction structure. We loved living in the forest so much that we no longer wanted to go back to the city. This realization eventually gave birth to the idea of building a tiny11 movable home. I am not the kind of person who normally makes plans, so I just started building. The result of my pursuit12 was the 12 sq.m place we live in today. It has a kitchen, a shower, a toilet, a wood oven, running hot water and a foldable13 bed (photo of the house).

We feel very comfortable here, but the house is not movable and we decided to build another [portable] one. In the planning we realized that it did not have to be so big, and we asked ourselves: “What is the smallest size of a house would we still be comfortable in?” This is where I started thinking about and planning micro houses (6 sq.m hexagonal14 modules). The space could be extended15 in size by linking modules together. These buildings will be appealing to the people who like to live in nature or enjoy alternative lifestyles. This house can be maintained off-grid16 or connected to existing utilities17. There didn’t seem to be anyone doing what we have done, so we set out to be the first people creating “do-it-yourself ” disassemblable, modulate18, micro houses.

– Do you want to show people how to build such houses?

Documentation is very important

(Audio 2) – I am currently in the process of making detailed but simple construction plans and posting them on YouTube. Our first 6 sq.m micro house is almost19 finished. Why this size? Because we realized this was the minimum amount of space that could be comfortable for two people. It will allow them to cook, keep warm and sleep comfortably. We found that the hexagonal shape and having lots of windows make the space very enjoyable. The roof is the hardest part to build in a house. I was inspired by the shape of an egg – so actually the structure of this roof is really strong.

Standing on the buckets

I am trying to make the house construction as easy and as cheap as possible. It can be built with a kitchen, a bed that converts to a couch and a small toilet for just under 1000$. The design will allow to easily attach several modules for more living area. The next step is to provide plans on adding another module. In the second module, there will be an additional couch bed, a closet for storage and a shower. After that, I will publish plans for building an inexpensive, very compact, and highly efficient rocket stove20 to heat the space with. However, you will have to ask a welder21 to build it for you.

– The world seems to be changing at a great pace today. What is a larger picture where your project fits into?

(Audio 3) – As human beings, we are traumatized22 today by living in crowded places, by following society programming of getting higher education and finding a well-paid job. The mainstream media bombards us daily with negative news. The social media like Instagram or YouTube are hardly reliable sources of practical or useful information. It is extremely difficult to discern between completely honest and less reliable23 sources. I have great respect for the people who are sharing their ideas with honesty and integrity24. I would like to follow in their footsteps25 in providing information. Not just thinking: “How can I make money from this?”

the instruments you need

Our idea is to start providing trustworthy26 information because we want to treat others like we treat ourselves – with care and respect. We try to understand our common needs as human beings and cater for them. We have multiple27 interests that we will gladly share with our audience, because these are universal quests for people of different walks of life and generations. These insights are won through years of reading good books, listening to other people and observing nature and life. After all we belong to a senior generation! Among the topics that we like to cover on our channels are about:

how to provide a beautiful and convenient space for living;

how to find your place in society by following your natural gifts and inclinations28;

which nutritional regiments29 and health-promoting products are beneficial for whom;

our opinion about the true nature of reality and how to go through life with enthusiasm and joy;

how to start knowing and loving ourselves because this is the true foundation of a fulfilled30 life.

This path can start for anyone with a very small step – by learning how to live a more simple life in a tiny house!

– If someone wants to get a hold of you, how can they do that?

(Audio 4) – We have just started a YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6GhSVkDiOEiMUxizPEge-g

and an Instagram @the_bubble1.0 channels. There are so many new ways of sharing information these days. It would also be interesting to create a forum for people to discuss micro house construction and to connect with like-minded31 soulmates.

Interviewed by Karina Darbinyan

Read the full article in the print version of the magazine – order here -> https://www.englishmagazine.ru/Buy-EnglishMag

Glossary 

1. camper [‘kæmpə] дом-автоприцеп
2. currently [‘kʌr(ə) ntlɪ] теперь, в на­стоящее время
3. unique tips – уникальные советы
4. inspiration [ˌɪnsp(ə)’reɪʃ(ə)n] вдохновение
5. lightweight [‘laɪtweɪt] лёгкий
6. disassembled [ˌdɪsə’sembl] разборный
7. fussy [‘fʌsɪ] привередливый
8. thereafter [ˌðeə’rɑːftə] после этого
9. forced us – заставил нас
10. insulated [‘ɪnsjəleɪtɪd] изолированный
11. tiny [‘taɪnɪ] крошечный
12. pursuit [pə’sjuːt] стремление
13. foldable [ˈfəʊldəbl] складной
14. hexagonal [hek’sæg(ə)n(ə)l] шестиугольный
15. extended [ɪk’stendɪd] расширенный
16. off-grid – автономный
17. utilities [juːˈtɪlɪtɪz] удобства (электричество, ото­пление)
18. modulate [‘mɔdjəleɪt] регулировать
19. almost [‘ɔːlməust] почти
20. rocket stove – суперэффективная печь
21. welder [‘weldə] сварщик
22. traumatize [‘trɔːmətaɪz] травмировать
23. reliable [rɪ’laɪəbl] надёжный
24. integrity [ɪn’tegrətɪ] целостность
25. footsteps [‘futsteps] стопы
26. trustworthy [‘trʌstˌwɜːðɪ] надёжный
27. multiple [‘mʌltɪpl] множество
28. inclinations [ˌɪnklɪ’neɪʃ(ə)ns] склонности
29. regiments [‘reʤɪmənts] подразделения
30. fulfilled [fʊlˈfɪld] полноценный
31. like-minded [ˌlaɪk’maɪndɪd] здесь: одинаково на­строенный

Writing in English is a huge problem for more than a billion people around the world, and that number will keep growing. A great team from Sicily started up Ludwig because they think that if English is supposed to be the universal language, then it should belong to everybody and not only to those born in English speaking countries. “It is about giving everybody in the world the same opportunity to communicate.” – explains CEO, Antonio Rotolo. Ludwig team was happy and honored to take part in our EnglishMag project and we are really grateful to them!

Why people need Ludwig

Antonio, Federico and Roberta each have long experience in studying and working in English, and precisely because of this, they came up with Ludwig. “If you have to write a formal email to a professor, or if you have to submit an application for a project of the European Fund, or something of this sort, you need to be perfect in your writing. If you are a non-native speaker, it doesn’t matter how well read you are- you’ll always have some doubts.”

Ludwig started to solve this specific point because, Antonio shares, “existing tools like Google Translate, Word Reference, and others are very useful, but they are either unreliable or do not help me put words and expressions into context.”

How it all started: from university archaeology to archaeology of words

The idea for Ludwig developed out of Antonio’s rather unusual journey into research. He started studying law, but soon realised it was not for him and switched to archaeology. He shares that upon hearing this news, his mother screamed, “Archaeo- what? That is not even a job!” Yet, despite maternal doubts, Antonio kept to his path. He went on to study at the University of Granada, then at MIT, and finally went to Germany to pursue his academic career.

Antonio says that archaeology is, in a way, highly relevant to the idea of Ludwig. “Archaeology is the study of society through material culture, and it has a very global approach to problems. I studied a little bit of everything, from historical sciences, linguistics, and geography to physics, chemistry, and botany.” Antonio argues that this variety of competencies made him, “A great specialist in nothing, who could, therefore, experiment in basically everything.” He found out that his skills could be applied not only to the past, but also to the present. The numerous perspectives he studied the human being from helped him look at communication from different points of view, leading him to focus on how to democratise the English language.

Dear EnglishMag subscribers! If you want to have free access for one month, just send us a message to mail@englishmag.ru and we will send you a Ludwig Guru promo code!

NOTE: You have to be the subscriber of the magazine (International 3USD one-time payment)

Interview with Ludwig CEO, Antonio Rotolo

– Why have you and your team decided to make this corpus-based service? 

Writing in good English is a daily pain for millions. One huge problem with English writing is that we confuse formal (i.e. orthographic) correctness text and good writing. It often happens that a formally correct sentence doesn’t make any sense in the real world. With Ludwig, we help people write better, which means both grammatically correct and with meaning. We do this by letting our users compare their best guess of a sentence with reliable examples coming from good sources of English from which one can take inspiration. Imitation is one of the brain’s most used methods to acquire knowledge, why don’t we leverage our ability to learn by imitation when it comes to writing?

Ludwig helps the user during the creative process and in learning by doing. Ludwig’s approach is far from academic, it doesn’t focus only on grammar and never gives a univocal answer. Ludwig simply puts the user in the condition to critically understand the answer to a writing doubt.

– How much time did it take to analyze all the media sources? Can you send the list of a the media services you use?

I’d say three of years, but it’s a never ending task. We are constantly growing our sources of language and expressions. The sources we mainly make reference to are: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Guardian, The BBC, Forbes (to name a few). Those are the backbone of Ludwig, then we also have sources in different linguistic domains to cover as many linguistic niches as possible. For example, we make reference to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and hundreds of scientific journals from 200 different scientific fields.

–  Can you share the statistics on Top5 countries that are using Ludwig.guru? And in August 2016 you had 10,000 page views a day and 75,000 users on a daily basis from 168 countries. I think you have much more clicks nowadays!

Our top 5 countries are US, India, UK, Canada, China. So far in 2019 we had 7.5M, and we  had 16M since launch.

– The free subscription has some limitations – no more than 10 searches per day, even with login credentials… can you suggest to change to 20-30 searches per day for registered users? 

Free users have 3 free searches per day, registered users 8 searches per day. We experiment with numbers, so that they are not set in stone and actually change quite frequently.

Giving 20-30 free queries per day would be unbearable from a business point of view. We are so used to get free stuff on the web that we often forget that when we are not paying for a product, then we are THE product (or better said our data is the product being sold to others). At Ludwig, we are very sensitive to this topic and decided that we would be transparent and fair with our users’ data. Our policy is simple: we don’t make money on our users’ data. Unfortunately we still have to pay the bills and put bread on the table. The best option we came up with, was to ask users to pay for the service. Some liked it, other didn’t. We have a weird relation with web services: if you have a beer and are charged $5 you won’t probably blink, but if you are asked to pay the same amount for a tool that makes you more productive, you’ll probably freak out. We think we have a reasonable price.

Also, we wanted to be completely free to grow Ludwig in the direction we wanted, not in the direction an investor might have wanted. For this reason, we decided not to raise money from venture capitalists and to bootstrap Ludwig with what we had (plus a 25k€ grant and from Telecom Italia and a small loan from the Italian Government). I’m not saying we are against VCs nor that we won’t raise money in the future. It wasn’t the moment for us and we wanted to challenge this narrative. Unfortunately, all comes at a price: differently from startups from Silicon Valley who are replete with cash, we have to be sustainable with our cash flow. It’s a different way of starting and running a company but is the way we did it.

I think a lot of people got this and appreciated it a lot, in fact there are users who bought subscription from us for the sake of supporting us. Being a tiny (we are a team of 6) and independent startup fighting against big companies is like being sort of David in a world of Goliaths. We receive a lot of empathy from people and hundreds of warm messages (and it means a lot to us).

– When are you planning to launch Ludwig app on Android and iOS?

We are a small team and we have to be very careful on what we develop first. Nowadays a lot written content is produced directly on the browser (e.g. Gmail, Google Docs, WordPress, etc.). We decided that a Chrome Extension was more urgent than a mobile app and we are about to launch the Chrome Extension in a few weeks. Nevertheless, we hope we’ll be able to launch the mobile apps before the end of 2019.

– What are the main goals of Ludwig Guru? I think one of the main goals is to make people more intelligent, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, we can’t make people more intelligent, but we try to offer them all the pieces they need to make an informed decision autonomously.

I dream of disrupting the monopoly of English people over their own language. If English is de facto the language of the world, then it should belong to everybody. All humans should be able to communicate on the same level and have the same opportunities. We are making the English language more democratic, we are helping people write and achieve their goals in life. I take pride in telling you that Ludwig is used by a journalist in Myanmar to report about the conflicts in his country, by thousands of researchers from hundreds of universities in the world to write down their findings, by a Franciscan fray that is on a mission in Kenya.

Dear EnglishMag subscribers! If you want to have free access for one month, just send us a message to mail@englishmag.ru and we will send you a Ludwig Guru promo code!

NOTE: You have to be the subscriber of the magazine (International 3USD one-time payment)

find out more how to use Ludwig guru with the example by Polina Kordik – https://vk.com/wall-80289923_9825 

Have you ever had a dream of being an actor or an actress? I think almost everyone had such a dream in childhood. The filmmakers of ‘Lost in memories’ gave the children from Voronezh the opportunity to fulfill their dream.

It is not just a children’s entertaining film, it is a project stylized as Soviet cinema and executed in the best qualities of Voronezh artists.

A catastrophically small budget was not an obstacle for the film crew. For the sake of the idea, they themselves led the excavators and mapped out the landscape of the set and also fought with unpredictable weather conditions.

This adventure film allows you to trace the transformation of the personalities of children. Changes in their internal qualities occur gradually. The more difficulties they have to overcome, the stronger their character becomes and more powerful is their fortitude. Isn’t it so important to teach this to the younger generation?

The premiere takes place in the Voronezh cinema hall “Youth” on November 21st, 2019. The film crew shared with us their emotions and impressions from the filming of such an unusual picture.

Interviewed by Svetlana Kustovinova

Ваш фильм называется Потерянные в воспоминаниях, скажите, как пришла идея создания вы решились на это?

Андрей: Однажды, 6 лет назад, когда мы открывали киностудию мы сразу имели такой наполеоновский план мы хотели создать что-то большое, и чтобы у нас был какой-то серьезный итог. Мы шли к этому с начала создания студии. И в какой-то момент мы поняли, что готовы к полнометражной картине, но это было не в один момент. Набор ребят сделали до того, как конечная идея сформировалась. Дети целый год занимались с опытными педагогами из театров. Педагоги на протяжение целого года учили детей готовили их к работе с камерой.

Your film is called Lost in Memories, tell me, how did the idea of creation come about? 

Andrei: Once, 6 years ago, when we opened a film studio, we immediately had such a Napoleonic plan, we wanted to create something big, and so that we had some serious result. We went to this from the beginning of the creation of the studio. And at some point we realized that we were ready for a full-length picture, but that was not at one moment. The set of guys was done before the final idea was formed. Children studied with experienced teachers from theaters for a year. Teachers throughout the year taught children prepared them to work with the camera.

Самое просто первое правило – чтобы дети не смотрели в эту камеру. Дети привыкали ко всем правилам на занятиях, поэтому выход на площадку уже не был таким стрессом. На мой взгляд, сказалось ещё то, что на протяжении всего года ребята сближались с преподавателями, которые принимали участие в съёмках фильма, поэтому дети чувствовали себя на съёмочной площадке, как на обычном занятии.

The simplest first rule is that children must not look into this camera. Children got used to all the rules in the classroom, so access to the site was no longer such a stress. In my opinion, it was also affected by the fact that throughout the year the guys became close to the teachers who took part in the filming of the film, so the children felt on the set as in a regular lesson.

Как выбирались локации?

Я вам честно скажу, что картина наша нетривиальная, и у нас даже некоторые локации выбирались раньше, чем прописывались сцены в сценарии. Есть такая категория кинокартин… мы выбираем место, которое подходит под синопсис, под общую канву нашей истории, и продумываем как оно может повлиять на общую картину и как мы можем там взаимодействовать и само место является как-бы действующим лицом.

How were the locations chosen?

I will honestly tell you that our picture is not trivial, and even some locations were chosen earlier than scenes were prescribed in the script. There is such a category of films … we select a place that fits the synopsis, the general outline of our story, and think about how it can affect the overall picture and how we can interact there and the place itself is like a protagonist.

А вы можете привести пример?

Андрей: Например, Меловой карьер в Острогожском районе – замечательное место. Я думаю, что после выхода нашего фильма многие захотят снимать кино в этих местах. Мне очень понравилось руководить экскаваторами.

Can you give an example?

Andrei: For example, the Cretaceous quarry in the Ostrogozhsky district is a wonderful place. I think that after the release of our film, many will want to make films in these places. I really enjoyed managing the excavators.

Артём: Самым сложным оказалось найти контакты нужного человека. Всё остальное пошло по наитию.  Когда мы объяснили, зачем нам нужно попасть в карьер, нам сразу сказал: «Да, ребят» Мы пришли на огромную площадку спросили: «А можно вот это убрать?» и нам ответили: «Да, без проблем», -привезли экскаваторы, которыми мы сами руководили.

Ирина: Казалось, что мы высадились на другой планете и строим новый мир и по сути мы его и строили.

Андрей: Неизвестно, что было интереснее съёмки или подготовка к этим съёмкам. В этой локации мы прописали целых три сцены, каждая со своим сюжетом, очень захватывающим и интересным, которые зрители могут увидеть в кинотеатре.

Artyom: The most difficult was to find the contacts of the right person. Everything else went on a hunch. When we explained why we needed to get into the quarry, he immediately told us: “Yes, guys”. We came to a huge site and asked: “Can we clean this?” And they answered: “Yes, no problem,” the excavators brought in, which we ourselves led.

Irina: It seemed that we landed on another planet and are building a new world, and in fact we built it.

Andrew: It is not known what was more interesting to shoot or to prepare for these shoots. In this location we have written as many as three scenes, each with its own plot, very exciting and interesting, which viewers can see in the cinema.

Любопытные факты:

Хоккейная сцена появилась из-за того, что Настя играет в хоккей

Настя: Очень трудно было снимать сцену в ледовом дворце, казалось бы, я в своей тарелке, я на льду… когда нужно было забить гол у нас вот не летит, и не летит – Ворота ни рядом!  А когда не надо – мы забиваем, радуемся. И понимаем вдруг, что это в кадр не попало.

Сurious moments:

Hockey scene appeared due to the fact that Nastya plays hockey.

Nastya: It was very difficult to shoot a scene in the ice palace, it would seem that I was at ease, I’m on the ice … but when it was necessary to score a goal here the puck just doesn’t want to fly there- The gate is not near! And when it’s not necessary, we score, rejoice. And suddenly we realize that this did not get into the frame.

Ребята вдохновлялись как раз советскими фильмами такими как Приключение Электроника. У них была задача сделать его не в компьютерной графике, а поставить именно интересную историю, живое приключение.

The guys were inspired just by Soviet films such as Adventure of the Electronic. They had the task of making it not in computer graphics, but to deliver precisely an interesting story, a lively adventure.

Interviewed by Svetlana Kustovinova

Part 2 will be available soon!

Продовольственная и сельскохозяйственная организация Организации Объединенных Наций (ФАО) и Фонд Дня посадки деревьев признают город Воронеж городом деревьев

Мы рады поделиться с вами некоторыми идеями и целями разработчика Яндекса и преданного руководителя лаборатории машинного интеллекта (Александр Крайнов)

Vocabulary

to be crucial for – to be very important for smb/smth
proper – correct, suitable
enjoy – to have pleasure
to be familiar – easy to recognize
failures – the fact that smth/smb not succeeding
make (made/made) sense – to be clear and easy to understand
timing – the ability to do smth at exactly the right time

Vlad: Yandex – well-known company for a long time in every place, and about the services that are being developed, you need to raise one question… now the topic of ecology is relevant, last year was the year of ecology in Russia and the topic does not go by the wayside. Maybe we should do some recycling service for garbage processing?

Влад: Яндекс – известная компания, уже долгое время на всех ресурсах, и по поводу сервисов, которые сейчас разрабатываются, нужно поднять один вопрос… сейчас тема экологии актуальна, прошлый год был годом экологии в России и тема не уходит на второй план. Может быть, стоит сделать какой-нибудь сервис Recycling по обработке мусора?

Alexander: it’s so far away from us that we don’t produce or collect, so…

Александр: это настолько от нас бесконечно далеко, что мы не производим и не собираем, поэтому…

Vlad: well, but maybe Moscow is simpler in this regard, more precisely, it is cleaner here, but by region the problem of garbage is considered global ..

Alexander: I understand that this is global, and this is sad, but Yandex is so infinitely far from the problem of garbage … in our office there are paper handles (or pens) – all I can say, nothing more.

Влад: хорошо, но может быть Москве в этом плане проще, точнее, здесь чище, а вот по регионам проблема мусора считается глобальной..

Александр: я понимаю, что это глобально, и это печально, но Яндекс настолько бесконечно далек от проблемы мусора… у нас в офисе ручки из бумаги – вот все, что я могу сказать, больше ничего

Alina: Yes, this is a positive thing. Look, here in December 2016, a woman from South Butovo launched such a program as”Good caps”. At the time of July 2018, there were more than 8000 VK subscribers. The main collection center is Moscow, and about 15 cities across Russia collect plastic caps, mostly collected in orphanages, as well as in schools and universities, and there are special points where they are taken. Then they are processed, and the received sum goes to charity – wheelchairs, chairs.. but this project requires a sustainable development: edition some maps, the appearance of new spots, and this is hard to follow, because it is one of the public VC, and made up there people change and go. Initially, the topic of “Good Caps” came from Spain – a girl from a poor family fell ill with cancer, and needed money for treatment.. in many countries this point is practiced. Therefore, it would be interesting for Yandex to think that it would, although perhaps, place some points on maps, where it would be possible to engage in garbage processing.

Алина: да, это положительный момент. Смотрите, вот в декабре 2016 года женщина из Южного Бутово запустила такую программу как “Добрые крышечки”. На момент июля 2018 года там была более 8000 подписчиков ВК. Основный центр сбора – Москва, и порядка 15 городов по всей России собирают пластиковые крышечки, в основном собираются в детских домах, а также в школах и ВУЗах, и есть специальные пункты, куда они вывозятся. Далее они перерабатываются, и полученная сумма идет на благотворительность – инвалидные коляски, кресла.. но этот проект требует посильного развития: редакция каких-то карт, возникновение новых точек, и за этим тяжело следить, потому что это один паблик ВК, и состоящие там люди меняются и уходят. Изначально сама тема “Добрых крышечек” пришла из Испании – девушка из бедной семьи заболела раком, и требовались деньги на лечение.. во многих странах практикуется этот момент. Поэтому было бы интересно, чтобы Яндекс подумал о том, чтобы это было хотя, возможно, разместить бы какие-то точки на картах, где можно бы было заниматься переработкой.

Alexander: and, as it is very simple, Yandex provides all the opportunities for this, please: There are Yandex maps, there are people’s maps, you can put the tags, mark… Any person can do.

Александр: а, так это же очень несложно, Яндекс предоставляет для этого любые возможности, пожалуйста: есть Яндекс карты, есть и народные карты, можно самому ставить метки, отмечать… может делать любой человек.

Vlad: It turns out, even now it is possible to put labels, for example, “here garbage collection”?

Влад: Получается, даже сейчас можно ставить метки, например, “здесь сбор мусора”?

Alexander: Yes, now there are people’s maps on Yandex, where you can put labels, leave any comments, you can leave marks on the map, look at this map and markup, and there is nothing specific, i.e. all tools are provided.

Александр: да, сейчас есть народные карты на Яндексе, где можно ставить метки, оставлять любые комментарии, можно при наличии какого-то ресурса оставлять метки на карте, смотреть эту карту и разметку, и здесь нет ничего специфического, т.е. все инструменты предоставляются.

Vlad: In this regard, yes. Maybe there is some kind of its own Yandex production?

Влад: в этом плане да. Может, есть какое-то свое у Яндекс производство?

Alexander: No.

Vlad: is something planned? For example, Amazon, which went far, .. they have a lot of 3D printers

Alexander: There is no production, and will not be, at least in the foreseeable future.  We have enough to do.

Александр: нет.

Влад: планируется ли что-то? Например, Амазон, который далеко пошел,.. у них в наличии много 3D-принтеров

Александр: своего производства нет, и не будет, по крайней мере, в обозримом будущем. У нас хватает дел.

Alina: Last year, as far as we understood, you made a bet on cars, for example, Yandex taxi, which originated relatively long ago and carsharing, which appeared earlier.

Алина: в последний год, насколько мы поняли, вы сделали ставку на машины, например, Яндекс такси, который возник относительно давно и каршеринг, который появился ранее.

Alexander: look, we don’t bet on cars or not cars, we look where there is an unclosed need that we can close, and we do it, because when Yandex taxi appeared, there was no normal taxi in Moscow, even in the country. There were endless lines of “bombing”, there were people who vote on the sidelines, in general, using a taxi was extremely uncomfortable, painful. And we changed the world in this place, and life just became better – that is, people had the opportunity to move comfortably, and now you will not meet a voting person. As for car sharing, at the beginning, we made our application, not our car sharing, which showed that anyone using the car could have gone. And many complaints fell upon us, and people do not care what they used, and it became a Yandex problem. And through this awareness, many improvements have been made to the current carsharing.

It is much easier to show by example what good car sharing is, at least try to show. Just say, “you’re so smart, try it yourself.” Here we took, tried and made! This way, we move from the problem: there’s a problem, we need to solve it, that’s all.

Александр: смотрите, мы не делаем ставку на машины или не машины, мы смотрим, где есть незакрытая потребность, которую мы можем закрыть, и это делаем, потому что когда появился Яндекс такси, никакого нормального такси в Москве не было, даже в стране. Были бесконечные очереди бомбил, были люди, которые голосуют на обочине, в общем, пользование такси было крайне некомфортным занятием, мучительным. И мы в этом месте поменяли мир, и жизнь стала просто лучше – т.е. у людей появилась возможность передвигаться удобно, комфортно, и сейчас не встретишь голосующего человека. Что касается каршеринга, мы в начале сделали свое приложение, не свой каршеринг, которое показывало, что на любой – не своей машине можно было уехать (?), и на нас обрушилось множество жалоб, и, людям же все равно, чем они воспользовались, и это стало проблемой Яндекса. И через это осознание произошло много усовершенствований текущего каршеринга.

Гораздо проще своим примером показать, что такое хороший каршеринг, по крайней мере попробовать показать. Просто сказать “вы такие умные, сами попробуйте сделайте”. Вот мы взяли, попробовали и сделали! Т.е. мы двигаемся от проблемы: есть какая-то проблема, нужно ее решить, и все.

Alina: okay, and one more question. How often do you analyze the current problems?

Alexander: continuously, always. In general, we are a company that measures everything that it does, that’s all we do, we measure it to the accuracy of some numerous shares. We are a company that has grown to machine learning, and machine learning is impossible if there is no clear goal and method as we approach it. If we talk about a constant measurement of search quality, if we talk about some things we do for the user and we have constant monitoring and we look at how people react to what we do. If people react badly, then we change something. In short, all measurements are done thoroughly.

Алина: хорошо, и еще один вопрос. Как часто вы проводите анализ поиска текущей проблемы?

Александр: непрерывно, всегда. Мы вообще компания, которая измеряет все, что делает, вот все, что мы делаем, мы измеряем с точностью до каких-то многочисленных долей. Мы – компания, которая выросла на machine learning (машинном обучении), а машинное обучение невозможно, если нет четкой цели и способа по мере приближения к ней. Если мы говорим про постоянное измерение качества поиска, если мы говорим про какие-то вещи, которые мы делаем для пользователя и у нас постоянно проводятся мониторинги, и мы смотрим, как люди реагируют на то, что мы делаем. Если люди реагируют плохо, то мы что-то изменяем. Одним словом, все измерения делаются досконально.

Vlad: Regarding the staff… How many people are working in Yandex at the moment and how much worked a year ago for comparison?

Alexander: I don’t know the exact figure, need to look at the site. In general, Yandex is an open company, and all the information is there. I will carefully assume that 8 thousand is working, but again, this is my guess.

Влад: по поводу состава… сколько работает человек в Яндексе на данный момент и сколько работало год назад для сравнения?

Александр: точную цифру не знаю, надо посмотреть на сайте. Вообще Яндекс – открытая компания, и вся информация есть. Я осторожно предположу, что тысяч 8 работает, но опять же, это мое предположение.

Vlad: Many people actively use Yandex Disk application. The application is good, but some improvements are constantly needed … but still, it is nice that there is such an effective work. And how many people work in the technical support of Yandex Disk?

 Alexander: I do not know.

Влад: многие активно пользуются приложением Яндекс Диск. Приложение хорошее, но постоянно требуются какие-то доработки… но все равно приятно, что есть такая эффективная работа. А сколько человек работают в техподдержке Яндекс Диска?

Александр: я не знаю.

Vlad: since there is a delay with answers .. maybe you need to increase the customer support team?

Alexander: Yes, it may be necessary .. I am not an expert in technical support, so I can not say.

Vlad: About Yandex and Google. Google is older than Yandex ..

Влад: поскольку бывает задержка именно с ответами.. может, нужно увеличить состав?

Александр: да, может быть, и нужно.. я не специалист в техподдержке, поэтому не могу сказать.

Влад: по поводу Яндекса и Google. Google старше Яндекса..

Alexander: Yandex is actually older than Google. 21 years since 1997.

Vlad: Sergey Brin – the founder of Google?

Alexander: Yes.

Vlad: Maybe he is familiar with some of the Yandex board members?

Александр: вообще-то Яндекс старше Google. 21 год, с 1997 года.

Влад: Сергей Брин – основатель Google?

Александр: да.

Влад: может, он с каким-то составом Яндекса знаком?

Vlad: Is there any personal contact with Sergey Brin now?

Alexander: what for? no

Vlad: but is there any Yandex plans to enter the international market? for example, there is Yandex.fr

Alexander: Yandex, when necessary, enters the international market. Firstly, Yandex exists in Turkey, well, in addition to all the CIS countries, and some Yandex services exist in different countries, for example, Yandex taxi works in Finland, and most recently appeared in Israel and Serbia.

Влад: а с Сергеем Брином сейчас есть какой-то личный контакт?

Александр: а зачем? нет

Влад: а вот есть ли какие-то планы у Яндекса по выходу на международный рынок? например, есть Yandex.fr

Александр: Яндекс, когда нужно, выходит на международный рынок. Во-первых, Яндекс существует в Турции, ну, помимо всех стран СНГ, и отдельные яндексовские сервисы существуют в разных странах, например, Яндекс такси работает в Финляндии, и совсем недавно появилось в Израиле, также в Сербии работает.

Alexander: Well, it seems to me that there is no cooperation .. there is normal healthy competition, and in general I want to say that extremely few lucky countries, and our country in the first place, have competing search engines. It is great for us that there are both Yandex and Google, because the quality can grow only in competitive conditions. If there was no one else, and the quality of work of another company would be much worse. Due to the fact that Yandex has a competitor like Google, we work very well. Due to the fact that Google has such a competitor as Yandex, the quality of Google in Russia is very high. Countries where the search engine has 99% of the market – there is a different quality from there. Why should someone improve, if it is normal?

Александр: ну, сотрудничества, мне кажется, нет.. есть нормальная здоровая конкуренция, и вообще хочу сказать, крайне повезло тем немногим странам, и нашей стране в первую очередь, что есть конкурирующие поисковые системы. Очень здорово для нас, что есть и Яндекс, и Google, потому что качество может расти только в условиях конкуренции. Не было кого-нибудь и качество работы другой компании было бы гораздо хуже. Благодаря тому, что у Яндекса есть такой конкурент, как Google, мы работаем очень хорошо. Благодаря тому, что у Google есть такой конкурент как Яндекс, качество Google в России очень высокое. Страны, где у поисковика 99 % рынка – там качество со-о-овсем другое. Зачем улучшать, если и так нормально?

Alexander: Yes. But not only Sergey Brin – here the nationality does not really matter, in fact, there are not so many search engines in the world at all, therefore the heads of the companies are familiar with each other.

Vlad: Is there some kind of mutual cooperation between Google and Yandex?

Александр: да. Но не только Сергей Брин – здесь национальность никакого значения не имеет, собственно, сильных поисковиков в мире вообще не очень много, поэтому главы компаний друг с другом знакомы.

Влад: а сейчас идет какое-то взаимное сотрудничество между Google и Яндексом?

Vlad: Yandex.fr also operates in France..

Alexander: not yet. Well, I mean, normal full functioning… well, we can’t do everything at once.

Alina: Please tell us, as we understand, Yandex and Google are the two main competing search engines, but there are also companies like Yahoo and Bing, and they are objectively less successful than the first two. In this regard, the question is: What is the result of success, which is the distinguishing feature that differs Yandex and Google in the visual arena, which is known and enjoyed by almost everyone?

Влад: Yandex.fr тоже функционирует в Франции..

Александр: пока нет. ну, в смысле, нормально полного функционирования.. ну, мы не можем сделать все сразу.

Алина: скажите, пожалуйста, как мы понимаем, Яндекс и Google – это два основных конкурирующих поисковика, но есть же такие компании, как Yahoo и Bing, и они объективно менее успешны, чем первые две. В связи с этим вопрос: чем обусловлен успех, что является такой отличительной чертой, которая выделяет Яндекс и Google на обозримую арену, о которой знает и пользовался практически каждый?

Alexander: if someone knew the answer to this question, there would be much more such companies. Apparently, there is a combination of many hundreds of different factors, there is no definite answer.

Alina and Vlad: Thank you very much for the interview!

Alexander: Thank you!

Александр: если бы кто-то знал ответ на этот вопрос, таких компаний было бы существенно больше. Видимо, тут комбинация из множества сотен различных факторов, однозначного ответа нет.

Алина и Влад: спасибо большое за интервью!

Александр: спасибо!

Andrew Walkley, the author of great Student’s book Outcomes (https://www.eltoutcomes.com by National Geographic Learning) made a great workshop for English teachers “Teaching Lexically” on 12-13 October 2019
It was possible with the DNSchool founder, Dmitriy Nikitin ;)

A great workshop by Andrew Walkley was held on 12-13 October 2019 in Moscow! and it’s really logical that it’s “sold out”!
“In these workshops we looked at how we can develop speaking and readings skills based on a lexical view of language and learning. On day one we looked at speaking skills with a particular accent on lower levels and exploiting students existing knowledge (in L1 and L2) to teach new language.

On the second day we looked at developing reading skills and using texts to develop vocabulary and automaticity along with speaking and critical thinking skills. Everyone came away with some new frameworks for lessons and some practical activities as well as some theoretical ideas that underpin teaching lexically.”

DNSchool: Фото с тренинга Andrew Walkley, который прошел в выходные, готовы! В Этот раз снимали в четыре руки! Пару рук оказалось у Ирины Федорычевой и Владислава Тищенко из * English Mag Magazine журнал по английскому *
Коллеги, спасибо за классный weekend, находите себя, отмечайте коллег! ;)
Лара Мартынова, Christine Mezhova, Виктория Сикстель, Анна Ермягина, Анита Модестова, Света Мурари, Дмитрий Никитин

#WalkleyMoscow19 #dnschool

More photos from DNSchool workshop can be found here – https://vk.com/album-139902156_269388578

Part 2 will be available soon!