Anonimowość w ankietach

O anonimowości w ankietach Akademosa

Drodzy Słuchacze!

Chciałbym  tym razem nawiązać do ostatniej ankiety oceny lektora, a chodzi mi o kwestię anonimowości.

Ankieta zawiera standardowo pytania o nazwisko  „studenta”. I słusznie.

Rzecz w tym, że w przypadku nauczania języka ogólnikowe uwagi na nic się nie zdają. Muszą być one indywidualizowane, bowiem każda osoba ma swoje problemy i potrzeby, które niejednokrotnie nie dają się sprowadzić do wspólnego mianownika dla całej grupy. Stąd konieczność przekazywania lektorowi wskazówek odnoszących się do konkretnej osoby. Prawda jest z resztą taka, że lektorzy sami świetnie zgadują, o kogo chodzi w danym przypadku, nawet jeśli nie podajemy  im czyjegoś nazwiska. Aaa, to chodzi o Panią… Takie wypowiedzi słyszałem w przeszłości wielokrotnie.

Zajęcia indywidualne już z definicji anonimowe być nie mogą .

I jeszcze jedna uwaga. W ankiecie zawsze będziemy zamieszczać pytanie o całościową ocenę lektora w skali od 1 do 6. Taka sumaryczna ocena da nam orientację, jaki jest generalny odbiór lektora przez słuchacza. Przeważnie jest bowiem tak, że  mimo pewnych uwag, słuchacz jest z zajęć bardzo zadowolony i ani myśli lektora wymieniać. My zaś takie uwagi, niejako owinięte w opinię ogólną, z przyjemnością lektorom prześlemy.

A teraz zapraszam do kolejnej lektury

Wojciech Gajewski

Why oud is more expensive than diamonds

Why not to buy oud instead of diamonds, you could ask. Well, it depends what you are looking for. One thing I know for sure is that always in the human history, man wanted to make impression on his family, peers and guests. All started with perfume and then with the time, men started to use the extraction of blossom water to production of aromatic oils, oud and incense.

What is oud?

Oud, also known as agarwood, is a dark resinous heartwood that forms in Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees (large evergreens in southeast Asia) when they become infected with a type of mold. In natural forest only about 7 percent of trees are infected by the fungus. As the infection progresses, the tree produces a dark aromatic resin in response to the attack, which results in a very dense, dark resin embedded heartwood (1). The resin is called agarwood or oud and is valued for its distinctive fragrance for incense and perfumes. Oud trees grow in the rain forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, northern India, the Philippines, Borneo and New Guinea. Usually the tree grows for 70-130 years. It reaches 40 meters in height and extends to 60 centimeters in diameter.

After the highest grades of oud have been put aside to be sold as incense chips, the remaining wood is used for distilling oud oil. Oud oil is distilled from agarwood using steam. The total yield for 70 kg of wood will not exceed 20 ml. The more infected the wood is, the more abundant is the oleoresin in the wood that can be distilled. Older trees have higher oleoresin content, and with the age it gets better quality.

How oud is used?

Incense is very popular in Arab tradition and is still widely practiced in the Gulf region. As a gesture of hospitability oud incense is passed amongst the guests at important gatherings. Saudi women walk around the house holding the incense burner to scatter the smoke in every room. They also wave their abayas and clothing above the smoke so it picks a long lasting smell. Oud is used in many Arab homes on special occasions, like weddings, special day of Jumma (Friday which is a holy day, like Sunday for Christians) or when expecting guests. It is also used to eliminate unpleasant smells like tobacco or cooking.

Types of oud

There are several types of oud and incense. The prices are defined depending on their source, quality and rarity. The most important types are: Cambodian Oud, Japanese Incense, Tibetan Incense, Chinese Incense, Indian Incense.

Cambodian Oud is the world’s most valuable fragrance. This dark oil has an otherworldly smell, spicy and a bit of piney allure. This type of oud is extremely rare and the price per one kilogram can reach even more than $1,500.

Vocabulary

blossom – the flower of a plant (kwiat)

incense – an aromatic gum or other substance producing a sweet odor when burned, used in religious ceremonies, to enhance a mood, etc. (kadzidło)

resinous – full of or containing resin ( żywiczny)

heartwood – the hard central wood of the trunk of an exogenous tree (twardziel)

evergreen – (zimozielony)

mold – a growth of minute fungi forming on vegetable or animal matter, commonly as a downy or furry coating, and associated with decay or dampness (pleśń)

resin – any of a class of nonvolatile, solid or semisolid organic substances, as copal or mastic, that consist of amorphous mixtures of carboxylic acids and are obtained directly from certain plants as exudations (żywica)