Surprise!
It just came suddenly out of the blue… a long-desired dream of giving color to our (and your) beloved newspaper came true.
We got the green light and started our adventure chasing a rainbow. We were given carte blanche, and were soon full of bright ideas. Soon we realised that we had looked at the world through rose-colored glasses: it appeared to not be such a well-lit path, as we were rather green (to tell the truth, real greenhorns), and, working with color was a gray area for us. We made our crazy plans, trying to use our gray matter as brilliantly as possible. Sometimes the whole idea seemed to be a white elephant and we thought it would not cost a red cent. We browned out, browned off; we saw red; we got the blues; we talked until we were blue in the face. At times we thought about giving up – raising the white flag.
But – as it is often said – every cloud has a silver lining – things improve in the end. And, finally, a red letter day came. We did it! And we think it is really worthy of a blue ribbon, that our colors are flying!
And we do hope this issue will tickle you pink. Read it, and you will be able to make others green with envy with your new bright insights into color.
And we can all go and paint the town red!
Now, it’s your turn!
The thing is, this issue of color will not happen only once in a blue moon. Starting from July 2010, ALL issues of our English will come out in COLOR (aka colour!). So, we have some time for improvements. As you can guess, we would greatly appreciate your help in this new era of English!
Please, answer some questions and give us an idea of your impressions and expectations. (You are welcome to expand on your comments and ideas.)
Sincerely yours,
The Editorial Staff of English
Questions:
On this issue:
1. What impresses you the most?
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. Which pages do you like in terms of design(s)?
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. Which pages do you not like?
_________________________________________________________________________________
4. Is the topic of this issue (Color) interesting to you?
_________________________________________________________________________________
About the future:
5. Do you like the idea of having a particular topic or theme in each issue?
__________________________________________
6. How many pages should it occupy?
_______________________________________________________________________________
7. Do you think we should use different colors for page-backgrounds to indicate the different language levels (E, I, A) of the materials published?
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. If we increase the number of pages and topics designed for learners, do you think realistically that your students will subscribe to the newspaper?
_______________________________________________________________________________
9. Do you think you will read issues together regularly at your lessons or use them as home assignments?
_______________________________________________________________________________
10. Are there other comments or suggestions you would like to make?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
We look forward to getting your bright ideas, colorful suggestions, even dark remarks, etc!
Please, send your replies to: eng@1september.ru by May 1, 2010. Or copy this page and mail it to English.
Important Note: This need not be purely altruistic help: All entries will be part of a lottery and ten of you will get prizes (surprises).
The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.
Hans Hofmann