Lawyer in Canada, 65. Passionate about learning languages, listening to classical music, jazz, old time standards from the 40s and 50s, Benny Goodman and crooners. I collect recordings of great performances in classical music and jazz. Lover of poetry and literature, and classic movies and musicals. I am looking for friendships with interlocutors from all over the world, preferably people with similar interests. Would love to teach you English or French in exchange for Russian and Ukrainian. I especially need practice and guidance in French to top up my level from advanced to fluency. I try to avoid political discussions. But if you ask me, I will tell you my views. Open-minded and tolerant people are always welcome!

Please do not bother communicating with me if you will not want to have a video call with me. I am here to find real people to talk with, not abstract lines on a screen. Not ghosts....Of course, people are busy and cannot always make time for video calls, so it would be wonderful if we could do so from time to time.  If you are strictly against video calls for your own reasons, I will respect your position. But, please do not waste my time or yours by conversing with me.

Человеку нужен человек,
Чтобы пить с ним горьковатый кофе,
Оставаться рядом на ночлег,
Интересоваться о здоровье.

Чтобы улыбаться просто так,
Чтоб на сердце стало потеплее,
Чтобы волноваться: «Там сквозняк!
Надевай-ка тапочки скорее».

Человеку нужен человек,
Позвонить ему, послушать голос:
«А у нас сегодня выпал снег.
Как ты без меня там? Беспокоюсь!»

Чтобы был приятель, друг, сосед,
И еще сопящая под боком,
Без которой счастья в жизни нет,
Без которой очень одиноко…

Cultured, open-minded people preferred.  I would love to hear from fellow collectors of recordings of great performances in classical music and jazz. for example Deutsche Gramophone or Verve Recordings.

I would like to improve my Russian and French. and recently Ukranian. I am a native speaker of English, so I can help you improve your English.

Studying foreign languages, listening to classical music and jazz, observing and studying people from a distance and, if permitted, from up close

Glenn Gould's Interpretations of Bach's works, Keyboard Concerti and Partitas, the Italian Concerto, etc., Les Miserables (the Musical), Beethoven, all 5 Piano Concerti, Violin Concerto, Symphonies 3, 5,6,7, 9, Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1, Violin Concerto, Brahms, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerti 1 and 2, Chopin, Piano Concerti Nos 1 and 2, Rachmaninov, Piano Concerti 2 and 3, Mendelsohn Violin Concerto, Dvorak, Symphony No.9  (From the New World), Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, Elgar, Cello Concerto, Mozart, Most of his Piano Concerti, Don Giovanni, the Magic Flute, anything by Gilbert & Sullivan, Carmen (Bizet)

Amadeus, Amélie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Gone with the Wind (but only as a Technical Work), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? In the Heat of the Night, To Sir-With Love, 12 Angry Men, Schindler's List, Moonstruck, the Pianist, Network, Ordinary People, Chicago, Casablanca, Charley, Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris, Love and Death, Manhattan (creepy subplot)

Sopranos, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, All in the Family, The Big Bang Theory, Beverly Hillbillies, The Ed Sullivan Show

Les Miserables, Notre Dame de Paris (Hugo)Anna Karenina, War and Peace (Tolstoy), Crime & Punishment, the Idiot (Dostoevsky) Evgeny Onegin, The Queen of Spades, some independent verses (Pushkin), The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, The Sound and the Fury, Schindler's List, Hamlet, Madame Bovary (Flaubert)

Don't be afraid to make mistakes, mistakes are the parents of improvement. I will soon add some poetry here. Mostly in Russian. I love Russian Poetry, Ukrainian Poetry too! I can also add English poems.....

Il faut savoir encore sourire
Quand le meilleur s′est retiré
Et qu'il ne reste que le pire
Dans une vie bête à pleurer

Il faut savoir, coûte que coûte
Garder toute sa dignité
Et, malgré ce qu′il nous en coûte
Il faut savoir encore sourire
S'en aller sans se retourner

Face au destin qui nous désarme
Et devant le bonheur perdu
Il faut savoir cacher ses larmes
Mais moi, mon coeur, je n'ai pas su

Il faut savoir quitter la table
Lorsque l′amour est desservi
Sans s′accrocher, l'air pitoyable
Mais partir sans faire de bruit

Il faut savoir cacher sa peine
Sous le masque de tous les jours
Et retenir les cris de haine
Qui sont les derniers mots d′amour

Il faut savoir rester de glace
Et taire un cœur qui meurt déjà
Il faut savoir garder la face
Mais moi je t'aime trop
Mais moi je ne peux pas
Il faut savoir
Mais moi je ne sais pas!
                                         C. Aznavour