Human Right

Human right is certain right that everyone should have merely because of being a person. Because of its abstract concept and the lack of universal standard, this global issue always causes intense debate. The first human right movement launched in the 18^th century, and quickly became political rhetoric worldwide. On 21^st century, human right movement rapidly growth as political tool, and to a certain degree, China is pointed by this ‘political weapon’. I do not want to make any comments on it, only to introduce to my Chinese friend what China is in the eye of western people.

There are many issues used by western country to indicate the lack of human right in China, some I agree but the others I cannot find a clue. Here is one of the issues.

Freedom of Speech

The 1982 constitution of China guarantees freedom of speech, however, there is a doubt that whether Chinese government put this law into practice. Some said that the Chinese government put those who criticize the government in prison for the reason of the protection of state secret. The Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China is also condemned for having too much authority because it censor the news, books and films too heavily. Another condemnation is that Chinese government is said failed to live up to their promise to issue permits allowing people to protest by withdraw or suspend the application of protesting.

I think china might have a certain degree of human right problem but I do not think other countries have the qualification to criticize China. Anyway hope for peace on earth.

Why China must only be ruled by the Communist Party

China is widely criticized by many western and American media for its single official ruling party—the Communist Party. They mainly focus on the same topic that the human rights of the Chinese are strictly limited. For instance, in China, the right to vote, the right to know the truth, the right to say things, the right to move around, and these words all seemed quite unfamiliar to most Chinese. Foreigners always think it incredible that the Chinese are prevent from some certain websites and you have to stay silent even though you are dissatisfied with the government. In spite of all these unreasonable things I have mentioned, I have to say that ruled by the communist Party is the most proper choice for China to develop.

As everyone knows, after the universal declaration of human rights, the term “human rights” began to come into our sight. But if every Chinese began to vote for their leader, every Chinese have access to all the information, every Chinese began to demonstrate against the government, just imagine what china will be with such a huge population. It takes a long time for china to develop to the present standard after many tough events like the anti-Japanese war, the Cultural Revolution and the June fourth incident…the modern society is 21^st century is no longer the world when the famous universal declaration of human rights was signed, the competition is now much more fierce and you have no choice to lose. Though many problems like bride and corruption still exist, there is no doubt that Chinese are living a much better life since the 18^th century. Once grand revolution takes place, some other anti-China groups will definitely take the chance to break in and Chinese will probably lose their current life for the sake of these so-called democracy and human rights. Hence we can’t take the risk to revolute when the definition of human rights or democracy is still rather vague and not mature in most of the Chinese’s mind.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” This is the first article of the famous universal declaration of human rights and it sounds really fantastic and magnificent. But due to China’s special history and national condition, in the end I still firmly hold the opinion that China will develop to her fullest under the dominion of the communist party.

Traveling by public transportation in Singapore

The first hostel we lived in was Parry Hall, a place where access to the Internet is very poor. We did not have any lessons in the beginning, so aside from attending all sorts of co-curricular activities, we spent most of our time in the hostel.

All of us wanted to have a quick access to the Internet. However, all we could do was just to sit before our laptops, waiting for the respective website to come out and putting up with the unbelievably (incredibly) poor and slow Internet access. Sometimes the Internet in the Hostel even had some problems and didn’t work! We could do nothing but wait until someone had it repaired.

Weeks passed and we moved to Eton Hall, and we thought the Internet here might be better. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. We have to go to the canteen to surf the Internet. Also, the Internet here doesn’t seem much better than that in Parry Hall. Although we could log in our QQ here, opening a single website still seems an eternity and extremely tough work for the Internet here. To make matters worse, so many people wanted to surf the Internet at the same time. So, you can imagine what can happen next.

We all share the feeling that the Internet is quite helpful to both our studies and our recreational interests. As a result, nearly everyone in our group bring their laptops to NUS every school day. After lunchtime, we will take out our laptops and enjoy the free, fast and convenient Internet our university provides for us. We can do almost anything we want, while in NUS. Watch a movie, chat online, browse through websites, etc; we really benefit from the Internet service in NUS.

However, how many of us realized we can actually do much more things, some more meaningful than others, on the Internet? Here, I would like to give an example. Each time I open my web browser, the Search engine, Google, will come out first. One day it suddenly occurred to me that by changing the setting, I can have a good read of the news in English on the website. So I can practise my English and be in touch with the news at the same time. What a good way to study English!

You see, Internet is not just used for chatting, playing games and so on. On the other hand, it can also be turned into a good tool to study English. In conclusion, make good use of the Internet.

Whether students should have a tablemate of a different gender

Whether students should have a tablemate of a different gender

In most schools in China, two or three students in the same row sit together. You may wonder whether they have the same gender or the opposite gender. The answer is very clear: they have the same gender.

So why do teachers put students of the same gender together instead of the opposite gender? It is because they think students can study better if their seats are arranged in this way. When students study in middle school and high school, they are during their adolescence. That means they want to make friends or even fall in love with a person with the opposite gender. And if they really fall in love, they will spend much time on things that have nothing to do with their studies. As a result, they grade may fail. Teachers do not want this kind of things to happen. So they think if they make students of the same gender sit together and separate those of the opposite gender, the possibility of students’ falling in love will decline. Then students will have better grades.

But do things really work as teachers think? The answer is no. Take my class in high school and our neighbor class as an example. In our class, students of the same gender sit together, while in their class students of the opposite gender sit together. Many teachers thought our neighbor class was taking a risk, but to their surprise, our neighbor class did much better than our class in the Entrance Examination. So what is the reason?

In fact, putting students of the opposite gender together has many advantages. Firstly, the encouragement from people with the opposite gender is much more inspiring than that from people of the same gender. Secondly, when students study together, they do not want to share things that are good for their studies with others, because they think others are their competitors. But one usually will not regard a person of the opposite gender as his/her competitor. So such kind of things rarely happens among people with the opposite gender. And when students with the opposite gender sit together, they will help each other, thus, there will be improvements in their studies.

To summarize, I think teachers should let students with the opposite gender sit together if they really want to improve their students’ studies.

Should men and women be equal totally?

Nowadays a lot of people hold the opinion that men and women should be equal, which I cannot agree with. As far as I am concerned, it is impossible for men and women to be equal totally, nor is it necessary.
First of all, men and women are born differently, which leads to the impossibility of feminism. For example, men are physically stronger than women, therefore, a lot of outdoor work, men can do it while women cannot. Likewise, there are a lot of work women can do while men cannot. The apparentest one, giving birth to a baby, is always the work of women. It takes a long time to give birth to a baby and bring him or her up, and during this time man can do a lot to develop himself while woman is just devoting herself to her family, which limits the career development of the woman. There seems to be the same opportunities for men and women but actually from the moment we were born men and women were heading in different directions.
On the other hand, I do not see the necessary for men and women to be equal. As I have mentioned, men and women are born differently, which means that men are good at some certain kinds of work while women do the others better. Why not we just do something we are good at? Men do outdoor work and some others and women do in door work, which can make things more efficient. We are born differently so we should do some different work, if not, why did God create two kinds of people?
I cannot deny that there are some women who do well in "men's career" and some men who do well in "women's career", but they are minority. Generally speaking, gender roles are important to our society. Men and women are both important, but they cannot be equal.
We should respect our nature and just do well in what we should, never push ourselves.

My sixth blog : the gender roles changing nowadays

Though it is a common and familiar topic among us, I still want to express my opinin. Most of time, my friends say I am open to accept new things. However, referring to the gender roles, I still have some traditional thoughts in my mind.

   For men, they are still the main force in the society and could be the winners in most fields. they should take more responsibilities for the society and are required to strong enough to support the whole family, No matter whether his wife could earn money or not. If a man has no work to stay at home and bring babies up, I think the man could get successful all his life, and he would be looked down on. However, to be frank, I do not deny that there are really men like that and the phenomenon has become common. I just hold my original thoughts and have no comments. Man must be competitive and powerful while working, and can be calm to control the situation facing terrible conditions, and true man can always show their gentle characters and logical mind instead of fear and cowardice.

  For women, on the one hand, though they are asking for equality all the time, it is fact that they are kind of weak in some extend, perhaps at the ability, or strong feelings or something else. And in the reality, I can find the successful women anywhere, but the number still takes the minority. On the other hand, I do not support the idea that women should be stay at home to take care of babies or do the chores as well. They also should have their own career in some field.

Sometimes, people think that my idea is so controversial, but I always consider that the society is developing and the roles should be changed to a better direction that people can get better life. And I hope one day we could build up a real balance between men and women to let the world developed more quickly.

human rights violations and national security

On the peaceful Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Hawaii, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an assault on Pearl Harbor, then, Japan and America fought to each other. But there is a question, how about the Japanese people who were living in America when Japan and America were at war?
In fact, they are interned or be putted in prison without charging them with a crime, but for national security reasons.
By the order of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, all the people of Japanese ancestries who lived along the West Coast of United States and in the Washington D.C. along with more than 1000 Japanese who lived in Hawaii, totally about 110,000 people, are forced by American Government to leave their home and live in internment camps, regardless that more than half of them are American citizens. Many of the camps were in the dessert or rural areas. Some of the Japanese were shot to die. However, the internment ceased in 1944 and every internee got $25 and a bus ticket home. 40 years later, in 1988, President Reagan said sorry and paid money to these Japanese who suffered from the human rights violation.
Since even F.B.I and Mr. Roosevelt didn’t know the attack, it’s safe to say that few of these Japanese nobodies should take the responsibility for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
National security was used to justify human rights violations in Second Word War. Now, National security is still used to justify human rights violations in the name of War on Terror or whatever. We can see how vulnerable the human rights are, especially when national security is under threat.
The reason of that is very simple. It’s the nation who protects the human rights. In the worst situation, when the nation want protect it, we get protection; when the nation needs our human rights, it just takes them away.
But in my opinion the country and the people should trust each other. We should be tolerant toward some human rights issues. Meanwhile, the government should pay more thinking when it deals with national security problems. Besides, there should be effective ways of communication between the people and the government.
In conclution “Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”
Or 神马都是浮云, 稳定压倒一切

my fifth blog: Love and the internet

With the development of technology of the Internet, I think love can be conveyed through the Internet as well, which really enriches our daily life. And personally, I reckon that there are three types of love which have fully showed what I am saying.

First, we can convey love to our parents by Internet. It is popular among us that the chatting software has been widely used, and we also benefit from it. When we miss our parents, we could talk with them on the Internet. What is more, the Internet even provides us of the chance to have a video talk by face to face. Second, we can deliver love between friends and other acquaintance by Internet. When we surf the Internet, I am sure that everyone will check the mailbox or the chatting website such like renren or facebook to scan how everything or everybody is going. Actually it is a way to show our care about others as well as to pass love to them.

Last but not the least, we can pass our love to the people in need though the Internet. There is always lots of news about poor people who need our help such like money, cloths, or something else on the Internet. What is more, some websites are built specifically for some important issues as well. Personally, I consider that the Internet make it much easier for us to know and realize how urgent the situation is for the poor. And we are able to send our money though the Internet. 

Above all, we can realize how important the Internet is related with love. And at the same time I want to come up with a common phenomenon as well that many people are keen to the Internet love. Though some people refuse to accept it and announce that the Internet is not a virtual world so that we cannot believe anything, we cannot deny that there are lots of successful examples because of it. 

As for us, we should know the Internet well, and make full use of it , including delivering our love, but not being addicted to it ,anyway.

computer in our life

Computer in our life

Computer has become an essential machine in this era of information. It makes our life convenient and colourful, but it also can bring trouble to us sometime.

Computer is a great machine in our life. . As computer has so many functions, it is wildly used in many domains. Such as business and education. In our daily life, with the internet we can search for the information we want, which makes our study and work easier. It is able for us to chat with our friends who are far from us as well. Computer, with which we can watch movies and play games, is also a convenient source of entertainment .

Every coin has two sides, though computer really has many advantages, it also has some disadvantages. With the help of computer people do things themselves less and less, as a result people became lazy. In addition, many adolescents are addicted to computer games, which will keep them away from the real world. For this reason, some adolescents, who can not control themselves, will lose their future even their life.

Totally, we should balance ourselves when we use the computer and get what we really need from the internet.

Something About Love （1）

That year, you loved a person.
It started when the object of your affection made you feel the emotions that you had never dared to admit you wanted. Maybe it was just a movie or an amusement park between you two. Somehow, it was he who opened the magic world in front of you. It was the first time that a person outside of your family did something for you, and just for you. For this reason, you were at lost at the sea of excitement and the love.
Obviously, you were so deeply involved in your love and could not get out of it.Naive as you were, you regarded he as the shining and warm sun light, and he was the whole world of you .Therefore , in your mind ,you thought you could do everything for him.
However, as time goes by, you started craving that attention with the hungry obsession of any junkie. What was going on? You asked yourself, but could not find the answer. Just frustrated, you were concerned, and you did not understand. When it was withheld, you turn sick, crazy, not to mention resentful of the dealer who encouraged this addiction in the first place but now refused to give the love that you had experienced before for free.
You cannot find ways to go back the old happy time.
Meanwhile, the object of your adoration was now repulsed by you.Nonethless; you did not feel well at all. He looked at you indifferently like someone he had never met before.
Your love finished. But you could not get out of it ,still.
You were a mess.

Don't be addicted to the Internet

My classmates in China just had a one-month winter holiday in celebration of the Spring Festival. The QQ group (a kind of chatting room) of my class in high school suddenly became active since the holiday began. Much to my surprise, I noticed that the monitor of my class kept talking about an online game every day from morning to night. I was astonished because in my impression he was such a hard-working student that he would study whenever it was possible. When I talked with my friend about our monitor’s unbelievable change, we both appreciated that we were not that interested in the Internet for the moment since we had played computers too much in the past.

From my perspective, the Internet closely resembles the dreams in the movie Inception(盗梦空间), both of which are fantastic and colourful. What’s more, we can do things that we cannot even imagine in real life, which is the same as in dreams. Consequently, their similarities lead to the same result that it is easy to get lost. However, just as dreams, no matter how fantastic the Internet is, no matter how colourful, it can never be real life and it can never replace the reality. Therefore, when we surf the Internet attentively, it is more advisable to keep in mind that there are things that are more important for us to pursue and they are things we can never afford to lose.

Five ‘C’s of love

There are five popular 'C's considered as the basis of love—car, credit card, cash and condo. Is it true? I do not think so. True love is pure and is never built on material foundations. I prefer another five 'C's of love—compatibility, chemistry, characteristic, common version and community.
Firstly, two people shall have many things in common, which equals to compatibility. Certainly, there are differences between two unique persons, but they should have more similarities than differences. In the bank of love, differences can be compared to loan you taken from the bank, while similarities are compared to your bank account. If you lend more money than what in your account, you will go bankrupt sooner or later. Therefore, people should 'deposit' more similarities in the bank of love to make up for the differences.
Chemistry means the special connection you feel with the other. He or she may not be shining as the movie star, but you feel comfortable staying with the person. As the saying goes, beauty is in the eyes of love.
Besides, characteristics can decide if the person suits you. Usually a couple have similar characteristics. For example, suppose an active girl who likes parties very much has a boyfriend who prefers peace. Maybe they can tolerate the difference at the beginning, but as time goes on, she would think he is rather boring or he could not stand her any more, either. However, it is still possible that the characteristics of a couple are quite different, because they can complement each other.
Next is common version, including the same value of things and the same pursuit in whole life. Maybe they are both Christians and devote themselves to god, so they can support each other on this way; maybe they both have a dream to travel around the world, so they can fulfil their dream together.
Last but not least, community can give person all-round view of the other. When a couple stays alone, he or she may behave carefully and hide their true personalities. However, in a community, you can know a person better through his or her attitude to friends and families. Besides, you can consult people who are experienced or know both of you well in the community. People need advice, because love may blind them.
In conclusion, the solid foundation of love is built by five "C"s together—compatibility, chemistry, characteristics, common version and community.

The similarities and differences between Greek gods and Chinese gods

Chinese culture differs a lot from the Greek one, so it is amazing to find that there are so many similarities between Greek gods in Greek myth and Chinese gods in Chinese traditional myth. First of all, they all have a holy system in which different gods play the different roles and control the different aspects of normal human beings’ society, which is quite different from the subsequent Christian style. The two all have a king of all gods as well as a powerful queen. The interesting thing is that both the two queens are famous for their jealousy toward young couples and this common feature is recorded in each other’s story. In addition, they both have a god in charge of oceans and seas, the Greek one called Poseidon and the Chinese one called the dragon king. There are many more examples, namely the god in charge of death, the god in charge of love and marriage and so on and so forth.

However, the differences are also significant. Basically, the Greek gods who share many similar characteristics with normal people are more humanised, while the Chinese gods are supposed to behave more decently. In stories Greek gods often do what they like, some of which even cause serious disasters to human beings. Meanwhile, there are stories that those who violate the holy rules such as falling in love with normal people are severely punished in Chinese myth. This difference also can reflect the modern difference that the western society emphasizes more on individualism while the Chinese society emphasizes more on commune.
Those similarities and differences between gods are probably due to the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures.

Like Shadow

Today, I watched the drama performed in UCC named like shadow by Chinese drama group. It was fantastic!

It tells about a rebelled girl who is encountering a great revolution in her family, trying to figure out the truth behind her mother’s murder and her father’s disappearance. While her father and mother kept showing up around her, exposing numerous incredible secrets and finally led to enormous inspiration in spirit. The whole story didn’t follow the chronological way of narrating. It’s scaring but also a cliffhanger. It’s my first time to watch a professional drama show but I like it a lot. I was so impressed with the two main actors’ passionate performance. What’s more, the lighting facilities, stage setting, the music, everything is so perfect.

In this show, Mengru, the heroines, pretends that she has a beloved boyfriend when she first met Daqiao, her potential husband. In the following years of their marriage, she keeps pretending that this boyfriend is so rich that he takes her to travel around the world and provides her a cozy room in a castle in Provence when she has a fight with Daqiao. Daqiao gets so angry but Mengru says that the boyfriend is just an imagined figure. All she has done is just a stupid way that girls would do to prove her value in order to attract the boy she likes. In my opinion, this hook is definitely stupid. I myself would never do such things. I think falling in love with someone is the most sweet and natural thing in the world. If you can win a lover over by simply telling him or her that you have a good market then this one must not be your Mr. or Miss right. People say that couples in love have less intelligence. Maybe in terms of love, we need to feel by heart rather than brain.

On top of that, the drama made an analogy that there are actually some angles and invisible persons in our lives. Some angles keep running on their way that they lose themselves. So they get stuck in the gap between heaven and the world and become an invisible person. I quite agree with this idea. Nowadays, everybody is racing. They do everything in haste even without a short stop to enjoy the process of living. They would not even spare one minute to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it. It then cost their wings of flying to heaven to make them feel regret. None of us would like to regret about what we have done. So please take a breath, and enjoy life more.

This drama is really incredible. It deals with those realistic issues in our daily life. It teaches us a lesson about love and makes us have more deep thoughts about our lives so I highly recommend it.

The story of Dove

Dove is a well-known chocolate brand, and there is a romantic story behind the name ‘Dove’. It was the spring of 1919, when Princess Charlotte from Luxembourg married Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma. It was a big ceremony so that the 18 year-old boy Leon, who worked for Luxembourg for years, was very busy during that time. His worked for such a long time that his hands were full of wounds. One day, when he was washing the dishes an angle voice came into his ear ‘That must be hurt, isn’t it?’ This beautiful sound was made by Princess Bazzar who was a distant relative of Prince Felix. It was the first time these two youths met.

After the lonely boy Leon met the kind Princess Bazzar, they became very close soon. The ice-cream was luxury at that time, so Leon made ice-cream for Princess Bazzar late at night. They ate ice-cream and talked with each other happily every night and fell in love with each. However, due to the big gap of status, neither of them showed the love in their heart.

Tragedies always happened to beloved ones like Leon and Bazzar. Few months after, Luxembourg decided to ask Princess Bazzar to marry a prince from another country to gain the friendship between the two countries. Leon was restless when he heard the news and got more restless after a few days without seeing Princess Bazzar at all. His last chance to connect to Princess Bazzar was the ice-cream he made. So he used hot chocolate to write ‘Dove’ on the ice-cream which stand for ‘Do you love me?’ However, what Leon had not consider about is the hot chocolate made the ice-cream melt and when the ice-cream was serve to Princess Bazzar , she could not figure out the letter on it. Leon missed the last chance and Princess Bazzar left him to married the prince from another country. Leon deeply regretted and he decided to make chocolate with ‘Dove’ on every piece. That is the origin of ‘Dove’—Do you love me?

Love and the Internet

Nowadays, the technology is advanced and gradually Internet becomes an quite important part in our daily life. We can use it to search for the information whatever we need; we can use it to chat with our best friends freely; we can also use it to buy different kinds of things. It is very convenient and reliable for us. But do you think that we can believe the love on the Internet?
From my perspective, the world on the Internet is quite virtual, so the love on the Internet is undependable. Internet is just a platform for people to pretend to be the people they present. If you chat with a person online, the profile of her may reveal that she is twenty-five years old and now works at a famous company as a general manager. However, her profile in real life may surprise you. She may be already forty years old and just a worker who sweeps the street every day, and it also has the possibility that she is a male.
So on the Internet every thing is uncertain, we cannot trust a person without any hesitation. Especially, we cannot believe the love on the Internet easily even though you think you know the things about him or her quite a lot.

To read an English book

This week, I came up with an idea to read a English book to improve my English. So I went to central library to borrow some books. I went for the book I would like to read most-Harry Potter, while I find all these books gone. Then I thought for a while and decided to read another novel which is easy and interesting to read. So I looked for it on the shelf of Harry Potter and finally I find a book of novel with a green cover which interests me. Regardless of some troubles I had during the process of borrowing, I got it after all. I brought it back to hostel and happily began to read the book, but I found it neither easy nor interesting to read after I finished reading some pages.
The next day, I went to the library again to return the book and then borrow another. I first went to Harry Potter again but found nothing. Then I decide to read some books I have read in Chinese before, just like Fairy Tales of Green! So I search the book’s name on the computer of library, but no result came out. I was sad but had to look for another book. Soon I found a book named Other Stories. I turned to the content and found it showed some separated stories just as Fairy Tales books. I felt a little comfort and borrowed the book. But again after I had finished some pages, I found it no interest. And I still keep the book now but do not read it anymore.
I think you know my feelings. It is really hard for me to read an English story book or novel. But I still need to improve my English, to know more vocabularies. While I decide to start the certain book by Harry Potter or Fairy Tales of Green, which I could reading without stopping. I am looking for the two kinds of books now. If you can help me, please do so!

Kick Yang Xin's Ass

It’s hard to know what the children’s emerging brain is thinking about.

When I was eight or nigh years old, I had many friends with the same age. A big boy named Yang Xin who is tall, strong, good looking and always smiling. Yang Xin is also the big brother of one of us. However, for a long period, we boys had a dream: kick Yang Xin’s ass.

Yang Xin is so tall and strong that we all afraid of him, let along go and bit him. Finally, I suggested that we should make armor and weapon to arm ourselves.

We picked numerous small branches as raw material. Owing to the fun of weaving or the eager to hunt Yang Xin or both, we spent a whole day on these branches. Regardless of the difficulty of weaving, we boys managed to fix these branches together and tied them over our body and arms. Some of us, including me, even equipped helmets. One boy suggested that leaves should be clear away in order to make our figures less mass. But we got no time to finish this work, because Yang Xin is drawing near.

All of us stopped talking and stared at Yang Xin who is strong and bold, wearing an ugly smile. We stood in his way with all equipments. I took a deep breath and yield as loudly as I can:"Yang Xin, stop!" Obviously, my voice felled to distort his rhythm of walking. Even the worse, an angry expression replaced his stupid smile which might be something better for now. That tall, strong, terrible bloke kept walking towards us small green warriors wearing branches and leaves, sticks in hands. I grasped my thin stick tightly and felt the death silence over the battle field. Our enemy gazed at us, pacing step by step. Suddenly, a scream tore the hostile atmosphere off. Yang Xin's little brother let out it when he begun to run for his life. Some of us joined him immediately. A second later, all of us turned back and ran, shrieking in different ways. Thanks for that , I understood a Chinese idiom," throwing away the helmet and getting rid of the armor" for that's what I did.

Love is a choice

The first time I saw this sentence, a lot of things popped into my mind. One of them was about a couple I knew in China.Their love story is quite unbelievable, at least, for me, and it helped me have a better understanding of love.

The man was an American who used to be an entrepreneur and earned a lot of money, but he was cheated by the other cmpanies and became bankrupt later. The girl was a Chinese and worked in a game company in China as a common staff who answered the phones from customers. And this was how they got to know each other-the man bought the game and once called the company due to some problems, and it is this girl who answered the phone. They fell in love afterwards. Regardless of the long distance and entirely different backgrounds, they were in love for five years without seeing each other face to face even once. Five years later, the man flew to China and married that girl. Recently, they have given birth to a cute boy in China and planned to go to America next year.

Living in two countries is already a giant obstacle for lovers, let alone they had never met. Nevertheless, the couple chose to believe in and stick to their love. The girl chose to be with the man even he was a loser in business. The man chose to marry the girl in spite of the distance. What I have learned from their story is that thinking twice and listening to your heart before making every choice for love, because different choices can lead to the ways that poles apart. Once you make up your mind, go for it and never regret.

my fourth blog : host family

This week, it was so special that there were so many things which I need to do, and the most impressive thing was the host family party.

At first, when we just got on the bus, it began to rain heavily, which decreased my excitement at once, because the rain never ended with my good mood, just hoped that I could enjoy the party without the border of the rain.

On Arriving at the station, we found that there were a number of host families waiting for us and we could meet lots of friends, which brought us a kind of relax. As far as I knew there were 14 tables with nearly forty people, and most of them are our SM3 students from the NUS and NTU. Through the host family, I think I gained so much, especially friends and the difference of culture in different places . And it was the first time that I knew “yusheng” with the meaning of good health, happy life, and prosperous work. The person who could raise them high with chopsticks will be blessed, so we were so excited to play with it, but the pity was that the food was sped around the table.

After that, it was the high time that we started to sing songs. Firstly, the host family together sang the old songs, most of which I even did not know at all, but the atmosphere was so high that we clapped with the rhythm. At that time, everyone forgot the age, all being full of energy and excitement, especially an old grandfather, even spread his hands to wave. From him, I realized that the energy had nothing to do with age at all, the attitude and the mind related, instead.

During that time, we also had games which was really a fun . Everyone laughed, and at that time, we were lucky enough to hear so many different accent to say the same words , which was amusing .

At the end of the party , we had a group photo, and it was so warm that I felt like at home. Because of the host family, I get to know more people and did not feel lonely at all. Thanks very much.

The disadvantages of internet towards love

It is interesting to put love and the internet together as the theme, which will absolutely appeal to some friends, and they maybe concentrate on “love” specially. But for me, my viewpoint is that the disadvantages of internet towards love.

With the stunning achievement of the internet, we live a much more convenient life ever. Despite of that, some social problems pertaining to the internet float. The problem that makes me worried about most is that internet blocks the transmission of love. I heard about a piece of news that a Korean couple left their several months’ child starving to death, just because they could not help surfing the internet! This is perhaps an extraordinary example, but many people nowadays cannot express their love in real life. What a pity! We should be aware of this phenomenon.

There is no doubt that the internet benefits us in many aspects, but the internet becomes a monster if we are addicted to it. Only if we live in reality can we obtain true love.

my forth blog : host family

This week, it was so special that there were so many things which I need to do, and the most impressive thing was the host family party.

At first, when we just got on the bus, it began to rain heavily, which decreased my excitement at once, because the rain never ended with my good mood, just hoped that I could enjoy the party without the border of the rain.

On Arriving at the station, we found that there were a number of host families waiting for us and we could meet lots of friends, which brought us a kind of relax. As far as I knew there were 14 tables with nearly forty people, and most of them are our SM3 students from the NUS and NTU. Through the host family, I think I gained so much, especially friends and the difference of culture in different places . And it was the first time that I knew “yusheng” with the meaning of good health, happy life, and prosperous work. The person who could raise them high with chopsticks will be blessed, so we were so excited to play with it, but the pity was that the food was sped around the table.

After that, it was the high time that we started to sing songs. Firstly, the host family together sang the old songs, most of which I even did not know at all, but the atmosphere was so high that we clapped with the rhythm. At that time, everyone forgot the age, all being full of energy and excitement, especially an old grandfather, even spread his hands to wave. From him, I realized that the energy had nothing to do with age at all, the attitude and the mind related, instead.

During that time, we also had games which was really a fun . Everyone laughed, and at that time, we were lucky enough to hear so many different accent to say the same words , which was amusing .

At the end of the party , we had a group photo, and it was so warm that I felt like at home. Because of the host family, I get to know more people and did not feel lonely at all. Thanks very much.

Never be controlled by the Internet

The Internet has changed our ways of living completely. We can say that the modern society has totally been controlled by the internet and it will collapse definitely without the Internet. Though Internet plays an important part in our work and study, it can never control human beings.

I once watched a short MV on the facebook entitled “Pay attention to the scenery around you instead of your phone”. I was deeply moved by this MV. In the MV everyone was addicted to their mobile phones and never cared about the surrounding environment. Such things do happen in our really life. Since the mobile phone has a quick access to the Internet, we can log into the Internet anytime wherever you are. There are too many people who surf the internet as long as they have time, even when they are having meals. There are also too many people who can’t wait to surf the Internet as long as they sit in front of their study desk. I used to be one of these people before I came to Singapore. But thanks to the poor internet facilities in Eton Hall, the Internet is no longer so attractive to me anymore. Every day I will just bring my laptop to NUS and check my emails and surf the internet for a short time. I think that’s enough for me. After I get out of the jail of internet, I have more time for myself to enjoy music, reading, communicating with my friends. I firmly believe that the colorful world will bring me much more than the internet.

My view on the technique of clustering

My view on the technique of clustering

We have been introduced three techniques to build up our reading rate recently. They are previewing, skimming and clustering. As I have been using the technique of clustering since I was in high school, I am going to talk something about this technique.

Actually, I did not learn clustering from any book. I just picked it up in the process of reading. I read many passages when I was in high school. As I read more and more passages, I became more familiar with them. Gradually, I formed the habit of reading three or four words at the same. I found this technique very useful. Not only because it enabled me to get more information with less time, but also because you can read the passage as a whole and comprehend it better when you read fast by using this technique.

Although clustering is a very effective technique for reading, it has some advantages that you should pay attention to.

First, you should not involve yourself too much in this technique when you use it. You know, you divide a sentence into several parts of three or four words according to the sentence’s structure when clustering. But if you think too much about how to divide the sentence and neglect what you are reading, you will not catch the idea and cannot comprehend the passage well.

Second, clustering is not applicable when the passage you read contains many new words. Clustering is used around the premise that you know the words well and get their meaning as soon as you see it. If a passage contains many words that you are not familiar with, you cannot get the meanings of three or four words together. And after you use clustering, you will find you get nothing of you have just read.

So you see clustering is not always a good idea when you read. Choose whether to use it according to the condition and make the best of your reading rate.

The day I leave Dalian

It was a sunny day, a day I would leave Dalian back home to prepare for going abroad.
We eleven girls in my class took part in a party held by our class adviser in the afternoon. When it turned to dusk, we girls went back, for my aunt would pick me up to the harbour at 8 pm. We eleven girls walked in a row in the campus, singing and laughing, which was quite unusual in a Science and Engineer University and surely drew a lot of attention. But we just enjoyed ourselves and regardless of the sight of others. We were too happy to be together and very sorry when thought of separation. We did not drink a lot that afternoon, but it seemed we were all drunk.
When we stepped at our dormitory, we found our boys in our class, standing there waiting for us. They knew I would leave that night, so they came here to see if they could help. Although just three months, we had taken part in a lot of activities together and I loved them very much. We took photos and hug with each other, at first we were smiling and later crying. It was really sad to say goodbye to someone who you might never see him again in the rest of your life.
The happy time was usually short, it was 8 pm already. When the car started, they called "We love you, Xuhuajun" all together, again and again. My tear was pouring, I really wanted to jump off the car to be with them but I could not. So I called them in the car and on the ship, kept talking and talking, until there was no signal since I was on the sea.
I looked at the moon, the same moon they were looking at, saying goodbye to them. That night I was totally sleepless.

blog 3 My attitude towards internet

My attitude towards internet
Today, internet has become an essential part of our daily life and it has both advantages and disadvantages.
Internet benefits us, students, a lot.
If you want to read certain books like the history of time or look for some information, you can turn to Internet for help. The Internet has opened every major library and database to students around the world. Hence, information comes not only in print form, but also in multimedia. You can get audio and video data. You can get information about event in the past as well as events that unfold as you watch your computer monitor. Furthermore, you don’t have to spend hours pouring over card catalogs in the library and looking at the shelves. You can type in a few key words in your search engine, and the engine will search the entire www to find information on your topic. This research is done for you instantly on the Web.
Apart from helping you do well in your studies, Internet provides you with a convenient cheap means to communicate with others. We often use QQ and Renren to keep in touch with our friends in home. When a friend of ours uploads a new post, we give some comments. When chatting with our friends, we try to share their happiness and sorrows by sending some congratulations and coming up with aome possible solutions.
On the other hand, internet has bad effects on us. We may be cheated by some “friends” made friends with through the Internet. We may be attacked by some hackers and let our personal information out. We may get addicted to nets games and pay little attention to our studies.
In sum, internet is a tool created by human beings and we should learn make the most of the internet and not be controlled by it.

Internet and us

The first hostel we lived in here is Parry Hall, a place where Internet access is very poor. We did not have any lessons at the beginning, so apart from attending all sorts of activities, we spent most of the time in our hostel. All of us wanted to have a fast Internet speed very much, however, what we could do was just sitting before the laptop, waiting the website came out and putting up with the unbelievably poor Internet access. Sometimes the Internet in hostel even had some problems and it didn’t work! We could do nothing but wait until someone had it repaired, then we would suffer from the Internet day after day.

Some time passed and we moved to Eton Hall, and we thought the Internet here might be better. Unfortunately, we are wrong. We have to move to the canteen to surf the Internet. Also, the Internet here doesn’t seem much better than that in Parry Hall. Although we can log in our QQ here, opening a single website still seems a tough work for the Internet here. To make matters worse, so many people want to surf the Internet at the same time. So, you can imagine what will happen next.

We all share the feeling that Internet is quite helpful to either our study or recreation. As a result, nearly everyone in our group brings their laptops to NUS every school day. After lunchtime, we will take out our laptops and enjoy the free, fast and convenient Internet our university provides for us. We can do almost whatever we want there. Watching movies, chatting online, browsing websites, etc, we really benefit from the Internet in NUS.

However, how many of us have realized we can actually do much more things, some of which are more meaningful, on the Internet? I would like to give an example. Each time I open my web browser, the Search engine, Google, will come out firstly. One day it suddenly occurred to me that I can have a good view of the news in English on the website. So I can practice my English and know what is happening these days at the same time. What a good way to study English!

You see, Internet is not just used for chatting, playing games and so on. On the other hand, it can also turn into a good tool for our English studying. In conclusion, make good use of it.

The third blog: Accept and respect

              

With the unprecedented development of the high technology, the world becomes smaller and smaller, leading to that the different cultures are gradually spread all over the world. Everywhere we can always find the cultural shock in different ways. So I think it is the time that we should face the reality and adjust ourselves to accept the difference in cultures, and so people are , actually .

From the daily life, we can notice that many people have been used to the difference in culture , and show their respect towards it. For example, when people who are free thinkers meet women who are the followers of Islam, they do not show their surprised expressions on the scarf at all , and they may pay attention to avoid doing something that will offend the Moslem .

This is focus on the religion. There is still another example about the gestures.

Most people know that the gesture of V-Sign is popular for the meaning of victory or two (here ,we ignore the directions that the palm point ),actually ,sometimes we do not notice the directions at all when we use the meaning of two. However, for people from Greece or somewhere else, they regard the gesture when the palm is towards the speaker as a rude aggression, so people have known that and been cautious about what they have shown to others or the person’s nationality they are talking to . And I consider that there are also lots of aspects which can show our cognizing about the difference in culture .

In the society, we could meet those things that may exist the cultural shock at all times, and just show our respect and get rid of being engaged in trouble. With our acceptance and respect , I think our life will more wonderful surrounded by different cultures .

My impression of Singapore

The climate of Singapore is really amazing and surprises me most. During the day time, you can always enjoy comfortable and energetic warm sun shine .But ,if you guess Singapore rarely rains due to its position that it is close to the equator, you make a big mistake .Singapore do not really have distinct seasons and Singapore is warm all year around ,but it rains frequently .Anytime and anywhere ,you could meet an unexpected light rain,which would not accompanied by lightings or thunders,and just lasts a short time.Although the suddenly rain may sometimes worry me, it is really cool after a rain .The changeable and comfortable climate of Singapore is really an interesting thing.

Chinese New Year's Eve

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the whole families are supposed to gather and eat the "reunion dinner". This “reunion dinner” has a very special meaning to all the Chinese people. The family is the foundation of Chinese society, the annual reunion dinner shows the love and honor to each family member, and this kind of love and honor each other make the family relationship between closer.

However, this year, I am away from my family and I am alone in Singapore. So, when the Chinese New Year’s Eve is around the corner, I am almost at a loss. To my surprised, my host family should invite me to join them and eat the “reunion dinner” together.

6:00 p.m. Wednesday

We (I, Qian Hang and Lv Shu min.we are in the same host family) arrived at the Buangkok Mrt station where my host family live around. Then my host family came and took us to his house. They live in an edifice near the Mrt station. Actually, when I entered the house, I missed my own family. Their house is somewhat like my house: both in a high level ,almost the same proportion…

7.00 p.m.

After some talking, we began our reunion dinner. I know my host family has two sons and a grandson, and the younger brother of the wife of their first son also came that day.

Before dinner, because my host family is Nazarenes, they did the pray first. And this is my first time to experience the pray in real life. We all closed our eyes and we put our hands make a fist before our chest. They prayed many things including the food, the wealth and the fortune that the God had given them.I felt their sincerely grateful and thankful deeply ,and I thought I am somewhat be influenced by their pray.

The first dish we ate called”Lao yu sheng”.In my own opinion; I was not really enjoy it because I thought the taste of it was strange, but since my host family and Lv Shu min appreciated it. So, I just considered this as a culture-shock. Different people always has different preference, is not it?

However, the next courses are really delicious. One food was something like Peking duck, and another one is like vegetable soup called “Pen cai” because it included cauliflowers, xianggu .Moreover, we ate fish and “Dong po” meat.

Although all the dishes are not the same as I eat in my hometown every year,but I enjoy the meal with my host family ,I appreciate their kindness to invited me to share their “reunion dinner ”with me.

What an unforgettable and meaningful reunion dinner!

Cross-cultural Misunderstanding

I used to hear people complain about misunderstandings that are caused by culture differences, but on that time I could not make out of it. Now I am in Singapore and have experienced it by myself.
The thing happened like this. One day I went out with my friends for shopping .Because of the coming of Chinese New Year, we bought a lot of things such as food ,fruits, new clothes and so on . Unconsciously, a whole day had already past. Carrying the heavy things, all of us became very tired and we did not want to walk any more. So instead of walking to the faraway MRT station, we were going to take a bus. It was the first time for us to take a bus .Certainly we did not know that the bus would not stop at the bus station unless someone presses the button. As an unexpected end, we got off at the bus stop which is a little far from our dormitory, and with the heavy things we had bought walking back.
Owing to the differences of countries' cultures, unexpected things happen quite often. It can be seen that knowing the cultures is very important for us.

A Way of Nonverbal Communication That is Universal

One of my favorite American TV series is called Lie to Me. Based on Dr. Paul Ekman’s research, it shows us a brilliant way of helping us to distinguish lies from truth.

As we know, nonverbal cross-culture communication may always bring a lot of misunderstanding. But according to Dr Paul Ekman, the microexpressions of seven basic emotions are universal.

Microexpression is facial expression that normally lasts less than 1/15 seconds. By observing people’s microexpression and comparing it to the basic pattern, we can get people’s hidden true feeling.

The seven basic emotions are Sad, Anger, Surprise, Fear, Disgust, Contempt, and Happy. Apparently, happy and contempt are the most distinguishable emotions on the face. When we are happy, our both lip corners rise with the corners of the eye wrinkling while showing contempt, there is only one corner of the lip is raised. Other emotions like Anger, Fear, Surprise, Sad, and Disgust have its own unique features, but they are often confused with each other. For example, I often confuse surprise and fear, anger and sadness. Now, let me introduce the rest of the emotions to you. Feeling sad, our both eye brows would pull together and go up while upper eye lids drop. Besides there is emptiness in the eyes and lip corners are slightly pulled down. In terms of fear, our eye brows are raised and pulled together, with raised upper eyelids and tensed lower eyelids, and our lip slightly stretch horizontally at the same time. When we are surprised, our eyebrows are raised; eyes are widened while month is open. Feeling disgust, our nose will wrinkle while upper lip is raised. When it comes to anger, our eyebrows go down and together with eye glaring and lips narrowing.

On top of the seven basic expression, there are also some basic reactions that can give us some cues. For example, when we are truly surprised, the expression would never last more than one seconds or it is just faked. So even if someone’s micrioexpression match with the basic pattern, he/she may still be lying.

So, scientifically, Dr Paul Ekman emphasizes the point that human can not distinguish emotions 100% accurate most of the time. To make a judgment you need more than microexpression. So unless you get full marks in Dr Ekman’s test, my advice is never haste to make a judgment. What’s more the question we should ask is not simply whether people are lying, it is why they are lying.