The GMAT : An exam with greater bargins than Apple

By Nana Zheng

 

Sixty years ago on Feb. 6 1954, more than 1000 people set down in the different places all over the world to take a test for the first time. It is the Graduate Management Admission Test, and usually we simplified it as GMAT. Actually, it is an entry exam to the best business school in the world.

Back then, the 1291 perspective students paid just $10 each to take the paper exam, and it only offered 3 times a year in 5 different countries, and candidates had to wait 3 to 4 weeks to get their results. Only 54 business schools accepted GMAT scores at that time.

Today, each test taker have to pay $250 to take a computer test of GMAT and if they want their results to be sent to more than 5 universities, there is an  additional $28 charge for each score report. The test is offered year around at more than 60 sites in 113 countries. Anxious test takers receive their scores within 5 to 7 days and more than 1200 universities all over the globe require GMAT for admission.

The growth of the test reflects the spectacular rise in popularity of the MBA degree; meanwhile, the GMAT becomes a hot product. For the organization of Graduate Management Admission Council, profit margins on the exam even are better than margins that Apple makes on the ipad and the iphone. GMAC says it collected $87.7 millions in fees in 2012, yet cost the organization only $45.7 millions to administer the test, according to the documents filed with the International Revenue Service. The effective percentage of profit on the actual exam is roughly 47.9%, nearly 11 points higher than Apple current percentage of profit. 

Such a non-profit organization can be so successful due to the fact that nearly monopoly on the entrance tests for graduate business programs. People have to take the test to apply for the best business schools. However, there is a question that whether you passed the GMAT that means you have sufficient professional business ability to be one of an excellent business school or not. Actually, some business deans also express concern that the GMAT fails to measure attributes of candidates that as important as quant and verbal skills. Even some experts consider that the GMAT mostly measures analytical skills, but if you think about the leadership, innovation, and creativity, the GMAT doesn’t measure that.

 

 

 

Surprising Facts About Our Duration Of Life―Do you know?

by Natsumi

Have you ever thought about how many years do you spend sleeping, eating, housework and other necessary actions in order to live? Here’s a surprising facts; you spend 26 years for sleeping, 46,800 hours for housework, 38,003 hours for eating, 99,117 hours for work in your entire life. Can you believe that? Only for sleeping, eating, housework and working, we have to spend more than 47 years! In addition, we have to go bathroom, we have to take a shower, we have to go to school, and many other things come with the territory for life. Moreover, you might have more things to do depending on your situation. For example, if you are live in urban city, you may use train a lot. It is said that you spend 653 hours for waiting trains in your life. If you are an elite business person, you may call your clients every day. According to Working Lives researchers at London Metropolitan University, people spend 4 years on the phone at work. These “hours for necessities of life” lists can be continued much more. It sounds scary――right? How many years left for spending with your family? How many years can you spend for your hobbies?

On the other hand, as regards your free time, you spend 115 days for laughing, 658 hours for getting romantic (dating), 5 months for complaining, 5 years on the net, 11 years for watching TV in your whole life. Wait…658 hours (less than just a month) for dating, and 11 years for watching TV? It seems ridiculous, but actually, we unwittingly spend time in front of the TV even though we know it is almost meaningless instead of talking with your beautiful wife/handsome husband or pretty children. If you spend 11 years with your family, you can get tons of special memories with them instead of laughing at stupid joking on TV shows. Plus, you use much longer time to complain than laughing. Is the life so hard that you cannot help grumbling?

If you take a second look at how you spend time, you can notice that you use your time how stupidly. If you can assign your life like how many years you will spend, you might not to spend your 11 years for TV. People always regret that they should have stayed with their family or should have spent time for joy, not working when they are dying. You are lucky to know the scary facts, from now on, you should reconsider how to spend your life; you can spend only 33 years for your own even if you could live for 80 years.

If you are interested in these fascinating facts, click following URL and take a look on the page.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fascinating-facts-about-how-we-spend-the-days-410973

Japanese――Too "Shy" People

by Natsumi

How do you think about Japanese people’s behavior? Generally, Japanese are really shy and silent, and care about other’s eyes too much. Thus, they behave too formal and don’t assert themselves. In most cases, foreign people think Japanese are so polite because of the reserved attitude, but some foreigners consider Japanese have no idea of their own. Plus, Japanese people usually have a hard time when they face to the situation that they have to say “no”, so it is too complicated for European people to communicate with Japanese people; Japanese people try to tell the negative opinion with half concealing opinion instead of saying “no” directly. Maybe you will hear the phrase “up to you” or “I have no idea” when you talk with Japanese people. It might mean that they don’t want to do the thing which is recommended by someone, but also they don’t want to say “no”, so they try to give the role to say it to someone. However, European people receive the words literally so they are often confused about what the Japanese mean.

Where does the Japanese behavior come from? According to the article The Reasons Why Japanese people get shy when talking with foreign people, “it is said that Western culture is guild culture and the Japanese one is culture of shame. Europeans and Americans will regulate the behavior in the interior of themselves, but the Japanese people to regulate themselves by the eyes of others. Many Japanese are not good at making a presentation in front of people, because they tend to be too much careful about the eyes of others.” Yes――I agree with this opinion as one of Japanese. However, why people care about other’s eyes? Can you assume the reason?

One day, one of my Chinese Friend, Yuwei, asked me about Japanese girls. She said “my English teacher told me that Japanese girls never accuse their friends like “you should not to be late for time” directly to the person, but they complain it to other friends. Is that true?” Sadly, It is true. If not always, it almost always happens between Japanese girls. They always try to find faults with others. That’s why they are scared of other’s eyes; they know that if they do something wrong, they will be blamed on someone. It seems ridiculous and strange, however, it helps to make relationship with friends or co-workers better because at least they cannot know that they are blamed by specific someone else.

Why is the Japanese culture so difficult to understand? Japanese people don’t assert themselves, or they even don’t want to show their real feelings. These characteristics often might be considered as immature in many countries, but they are considered as modesty and cooperative. Especially, “not to do outstanding things that spoil the harmony among people” or “do what you are supposed to do without being told to do so” are interpreted as virtue.

In short, it does not mean that Japanese have no opinion even if they keep silent at meeting. If you have a plan to come to Japan, you should remember it; or you will be confused about the attitude of Japanese people.

http://tokyopremiumrealestate.com/archives/547

Can You Kill Yourself For Just A Job Hunting?

by Natsumi

Have you ever seen the inside of the Japanese train in Tokyo, in job-hunting season? It might be full of students who are wearing black suits and white shirt with no pattern, having square black working bag. They must have black dyed, neatly combed or tied hair. All of them look almost same, it sounds strange; however, it is considered as formal job-hunting. If you want to get a job at ordinary company, you should dress up like that, or you`ll be regarded as a person who doesn`t have an ability to adjust to rules, regulations and the environment. These days, the job-hunting war is getting harder and harder in Japan and students are needed to spend harder time comparing to previous  decades.

Usually, collage students start job hunting at the same time; winter of junior in collage because Japanese government regulates companies about the start date of recruiting students. Until 2012, the annual job-hunting had started on October 1, but the scheduling will have been moved back to April 1 from 2015. It means the term of job searching will be shortened. Consequently, the period of job searching will be shorter, so people may consider that it`s good for students…but no in reality. It is going to increase the stresses of job searching extremely since students have to get job offer in shorter time. Moreover, university students have to write a graduate essay or report of graduate study. It takes so long time for every student, and of course it is so hard that a few students fail because of the luck of time. Nevertheless, as you can see, it is extremely hard for students to be successful at both study and job hunting. However, the people who failed to find a job will be considered as stragglers. 

As you know, Japanese people care other’s eyes too much――as a consequence, some students commit suicides; last year, over a thousand college students commit suicides and died. The Japanese suicide countermeasures of suicide officially announced that the severe situation of job-hunting market affects the number of students who committed suicide in these days.

Probably Japanese people are too serious about job-hunting――it is ridiculous; to die for job? No, in fact, people should find a job for life. Since I came to the US, I seriously feel that. Here in the US, people enjoy their life and their job. There might be a small difference, but they seem they are always happy. But in Japan, almost everyone complains about their job and keeps saying that they want to quit the jobs. If so, people should just quit and find new one. They should feel free for their life. To be too serious will bring bad result for our life, I believe.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/japan-annual-job-hunting-season-121102909.html

Time is precious

--by shaw

The author ， T.A.Chew, Written about a article about the time. The article is about writer's personal view of time. Also,it is most people's attitude of the time. Time is precious. We need to cherish our time in our daily life, and we must spend every day meaningful. Obviously, most people know this theory; however, how many can establish in the life. Thus, we need to remind us daily for the focus on the time passing.

Firstly, what's the time give human,and the answer must be variety. However, the most crucial answer must be the experience. Time is like a small knife, even it can't be awareness easily, but the small knife also can leave the mark on any ting. Experience like the mark which comes from knife. In the article, the writer said, her seventy years old father told him, he can feel he was seventeen like yesterday. How crude it is . After we walked a long time distance, we can still remember the yesterday which even is not exactly yesterday. In some situation, we can not remember what happened in last five minutes. Experience is the most important wealthy which comes from time.

Then, how can human cherish the time, and there is no correct answer. From the personal idea, a human can do what he like and a human is free in this world is the best to Cherise the time. Mentioned in the article, people have different way to spend time, playing video games,watching TV all can be the choice of humans activity. However, some people choose a different attitude and way to during the time. They select some meaningful thing to do what they are interesting in. They can use every minute in leisure time. Some people even become specialist in some field just because that is his leisure time's interest. In addition, some people have a positive method to face every day. They work hard, and they try their best to do anything. It is also a fantastic way to face the time.

Granted, human need to relax to feel comfortable, and a person can not live in a stressful task for too much time. No one can endure that, yet, why so many people can achieve success which is impossible by other people thought.It is because they really know the time is precious, therefore, they should focus on every thing for every minute. They also need rest, but when they finish the rest, they come back on their certain routine quickly. On the country, many people can not turn back immediately. some of them even have a u-turn after they have a stop for rest. That is the difference between the people who knows how to use the time and the people who have not a concept of how to spend time efficient.

In sum, This is an interesting and short passage, and it still explain the truth of the time. Time can not wait for human ,we need try our best to run after the time. That is the way how we can spend our life meaningful.

source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Life---Time-is-Precious&id=82703

 

The Sad, Perfect End of Kim Yuna's Figure-Skating Reign

By: Won Gyung

2014 Sochi Olympics game has been finished, and there was a big scandal in lady single figure skating. It’s about Kim Yuna who is a South Korea’s figure skater and the gold medalist in 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She was already a famous celebrity after winning the 2009 World Championships, but the Olympic gold medal made her a cultural icon. Yuna’s preparation for the 2014 Olympics had been covered in mystery. She’d left competitive skating for 16 months and entered just four major international competitions in the four years since Vancouver. This year’s Olympic figure skating competition attracted one of the deepest and most exciting ladies’ fields ever: there was Julia Lipnitskaia who won the gold medal in team event pushed her onto the short list of contenders for gold. Also in the mix was Kim’s longtime frenemy, Japan’s Asada Mao, the silver medalist in 2010.

On Wednesday, Yuna was 17th of the 30 skaters in short program, and her short program was Send in the Clowns; she showed “clean” program. However, her program was underscored, and Sotnikova, a 17-year-old, finished her short program a mere 0.32 points behind Kim. The next day, she got 149.95 score which was a 40 point jump from Sotnikova’s average score. The Russian audience continued to cheer and blow vuvuzelas through the next two skaters’ performances, but Kim took on the ice in silence. Yuna also showed cleam program in free skating that her program was Adios Nonino. Surprisingly, the crowd roared in delight when Kim’s overall score of 219.11 was announced, a shocking 5.5 points adrift of Sotnikova's 224.59.

After finishing the competition, most of people expressed that Kim Yuna was robbed the gold medal. In figure skating, there are injustices; illusions of impropriety are even more common in an arena fraught with politics and paranoia. However, the elegance and virtuosity of Kim’s performance were good enough to carry the day in Sochi. She left two gorgeous performances on the world’s biggest stage aging, and she made it look easy. She kept struggling with injustices in competition, yet she retires having never finished off the podium in her entire career. Yuna said “The judges give points and I can’t do anything about that”, “I did all I wanted to do, like I wanted to do it. … I’m just glad it’s over.” She officially announced her retirement after medal ceremony.

Kim Yuna is my role-model and hero. One of my hobbies becomes watching figure skating competition because of seeing her performance. I think she is not only a figure skater but also an artist. Even though if she won the gold medal, it would be a perfect retirement, the reason why I am sad is not she won the gold medal, but I can’t watch her beautiful performance on the competition anymore. However, I’m also happy because she achieved her last goal, and she is also happy. I will remember her passion and her beautiful performance forever. Adios, Yuna!

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/the-sad-perfect-end-of-kim-yu-nas-figure-skating-reign/283986/

A Joke Can Kill You

by Jiin, Lee

Have you heard about the game which is called ‘Neknominate’? This game which is oriented in Australia is that people drink enormous amounts of alcohol or drink strange concoction of different kinds of rum or cocktail, and then nominate their friends and ask them to outdo themselves. The nominated people should accept the challenge. If they refuge the challenge, they would be ridiculed by people.

The problem is that this game is lethal. Based on CNN, 5 men under 30 years old died because of this game. Doctors say that drinking a lot in a very short time is really harmful to our bodies and it can lead to the death. Especially, the mixed alcohol is more dangerous. Also, some people mix odd things such as dog foods, engine oil, gold fish, insect, and a dead mouse with alcohol; this is lethal toxic to our bodies.

However, this crazy game is spread all over the world through the social networks such as Facebook and Youtube. Due to the fact that social networks are so open cyber space, if the nominated people don’t accept the challenge, they are made fun of in public, and this makes people accept the challenge even though they don’t want to do that. Some people expected this situation would fizzle out but it didn’t. Rather, it is spread out very quickly through the social networks. 

So some people contend that schools have a responsibility about this trend and they have to teach the students how to deal with the peer pressure, and they also maintain that Facebook has a responsibility about this issue to some extent, so Facebook has to take a right action to stop this situation. However, Facebook says that they don’t permit people to post violent message like bullying but they cannot block people to post every contents that is unpleasant or controversial. They encourage people to report any posting which is opposed to the Facebook’s rule, but except that, there is nothing they can do for this issue.

From my opinion, I think both schools and social networks have a responsibility on this trend. Although children start this kind of games for fun at first, it can be evolved to bullying. Especially, if this kind of games is shown in public, children feel more pressure and stress. So, they cannot help accepting the challenge and it leads to another children’s torture. Therefore, schools should teach students how awful this kind of games are, how it can bring terrible effects, and how to deal with peer pressure. Also, social networks should take an action to stop this trend and prevent it. Unfortunately, there have been 5 men who died due to the ridiculous game. There is not a moment to lose.

 

Neknominate: 'Lethal' drinking game sweeps social media By Peter Wilkinson and Isa Soares, CNN (02/18/14)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/18/world/europe/neknominate-drinking-game/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Euthanasia, the death with dignity.

by Won so-yeon

Euthanasia refers to practice of ending someone’s life to relieve their suffering when patients will die soon or there is no way to survive. While euthanasia is legally prohibited in many countries, only a few countries allow restricted euthanasia or assisted suicide. For example, Oregon in USA legalized physician-assisted suicide but not euthanasia in 1997. To practice the procedure, the patient must be eighteen years of age or over and live in Oregon and be diagnosed that they will be die within six months because of a incurable and fatal illness. Also they must be able to decide the health service for themselves.

By the way, recently the legalization became issue because Belgium allows euthanasia for terminally ill children without age restriction. According to an article of TIME WORLD ‘Belgium extends euthanasia law to kids’ that was written by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, Belgium is the first country that remove age limit on euthanasia in the world. Because lawmakers think the children ought to have the equal right with adults to determine their life, the lawmakers passed the law that allow euthanasia to children in very rare cases of illness that give unbearable and irreversible suffering to patients. And the law is being supported broadly by public. A recent survey that was conducted by the RTBF broadcaster shows that 75 % of people who are resident of Belgium agree with the law. On the other hand, a lot of religious groups and pediatrician protest against the proposed statutory amendment legalizing the euthanasia of young children. They assert that euthanasia must be banned by law because the young children are lacking mental ability to make life and death decisions and they can be forced to choose death by parents or other people.

Euthanasia, is it a way for death with dignity or a tendency of a cheapening human life?

Personally, I support the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide, but only under strict restrictions. I argue that people should to be able to plan and organize their lives, especially when you are extremely ill because I think the life of patient who wait for not too distant death, suffering a tremendous pain is terrible. I will want to die as soon as possible if the things that I do every day is only going through pain in hospital, lying on the bed. And euthanasia is related to economic problem. The protectors of the patients have to pay a lot of money for the drug or medical service that reduce the pain but can’t cure the disease. Even though some patients live with the hope to get over their disease or enjoy their last time with family, some patients want to finish their agony. Everybody seeks different value of life with me therefore I think the patients have to make decision their self and have the right to plan their life.    

http://world.time.com/2014/02/13/belgium-euthanasia-law-children-assisted-suicide/

Team Work

By Jinny

There are a lot of things which are important and necessary for an effective team work, such as defining the duties, outlining the time, and encouragement for team members and so on. But what about the views in a team? If the members in a team could not reach a same viewpoint, can the team reach success?

With the development of science and technology, more and more works have to be done by teams, because the power of a single person is limited, while team work could achieve the goal effectively and efficiently. I think the reason is that two heads are better than one. Some people think that people holding different views can not achieve success as a team. But for me, I definitely don’t think so. There are several reasons to name.

Firstly, we all know that the people in a team seldom hold a common view with each other, because I think every person is an independent one, he holds his particular opinion toward some issues. It is normal that people in a team hold different views. The whole team could get together and share their opinions with each other, I think it is good for the team as a whole.

Secondly, our society has changed so fast that it leads people to gain different knowledge and experience. The team work could combine their different strength together and achieve the goal. Although the people holds different views, they could share their views with each other, and perhaps different views could help people broaden their thought and get better ideas. That is what people often say: two head are better than one.

The last but not the least, I think the team in which people have different views has much more choices to choose than the team in which people share only one opinion. Because the team has many different views and methods to achieve its goal, if one of the method fails, they could use another immediately, which provides a strong guarantee for the team to achieve.

All in all, although some people hold negative attitude toward the idea that people holding different views can achieve success as a team, however, all the factors mentioned above determined me to believe that it is reasonable to say that it is good for a team which has members that hold different views.

http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/20205/secrets-to-successful-teamwork-trust-accountability

OMG! Your teen actually talks to you?

By Jay

Every people have to pass an adolescent period and have different experience to pass the period. Inside the difference, there might be the common element such as conversation with their parents. According to CNN article by Kelly Wallace, parents are also surprised with difficulty of talking to children, especially, first kid parents.

Parents also have hard time to talk with their children who are at an adolescent period. Its common situation that children shuts their bedroom door with saying “Mom, you don’t understand what you are saying!” Moreover, this is the sign of conversation has ended. Although, most parents have crisis with talking about sensitive topics; such as sex, drugs, alcohol and bullying. To solve this problem there are three things which parents must know about.

First of all, be honest to your children. Tell your children what parents feel about them and let them know parents also feel difficulty of talking to them honestly. Don’t try to hide parent’s emotion to children, let them know about parent’s emotion and also know parents have hard time with talking to them. Although, try to be in their side by thinking how you were at your children’s age. In this way, parents can understand children’s side better and it will help to create bond of sympathy easily..

Secondly, while parents are talking to their children, parent’s role is to listen not doing too much talk. To hear how child saying, parents have to be quite and listen to their child. As article says that ‘Don’t try to be star all the time! Don’t have to be smart all the time! Step back and let your children became the star at the conversation!’ Encourage children to talk about them and ask children do they need advice.

Lastly, the environment of conversation is also important. Children will have places which they like and the situations which they feel comfortable like preparing dinner and quick car trips. Find that places and situations! If parents make comfortable situation and no pressure environment, children will talk to parents more things in relaxed surroundings. First time is always difficult; therefore, after parents open children’s mind, it will be easier to talk with them.

Having conversation with parents is always hard situation for children. To solve this problem, the suggestion that article gave could be right way to try. However, it can’t be perfect solution. There might be different reason that children avoid to talk to their parents; although, children are not same and has all different personality. Therefore, I believe parents have to know about their children such as what they like, what do they mostly worry about and so on. If parents try consistently, children will come to parents to talk.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/living/talking-to-teens-communication-parents/index.html?hpt=li_c2

What types of friends you cannot lose in your life

By Nana Zheng

According to statistic, people who have friends live longer than who those have not. Friendship is a relevant factor in our life. However, what types of friends do we really need to have? Different people like different friends, but those friends we cannot lose in our life usually have these 8 features, namely: loyal, fearless, honey, wise, and friendly. Based on the fact aforementioned elements, above 5 kinds of friends need to be in your life.

First, a loyal best friend. Sometimes a best loyal friend is the only reason you can keep sane. Everyone needs a non-judgmental friend who supports them no matter what. This is the kind of friend who knows your deepest and darkest secrets but still loves you and supports you. He is in the warmest place of your heart.

Second, a fearless adventurer. We live in a big world where there are so many places to see, people to meet, and so many experiences to be had. We all need an adventurous friend who will pull us out of our shells and introduce to our new ideas, cultures, philosophies, and activities.

Third, an honest confidant. There are certain situations in life where we need to hear the harsh truth. That is the honest confidant for. If you are in a rocky relationship and everyone is telling you that it is perfectly normal that you are back with that special someone, however, your honest confidant tell you “Enough, stop it. You deserve the better one.” Friends are supposed to be honest with each other. If you find someone who is really honest with you, you should hold on to this person! People like that are hard to come by these days.

Forth, a wise mentor. The wise mentor does not have to be someone who shares the same occupation or hobbies with you. It is simply someone who is a few steps ahead of you in life and has enough wisdom and patience to guide you in the right direction. It can be anyone- a colleague, a friend who is beyond their years or an older neighbor- as long as you look up to this person and want to be more like them.

Fifth, a polar opposite. Absolutely, we would like to make friends with someone who have similar hobbies, culture, even personalities. However, if we only develop friendships with others who follow the same beliefs, customs, and values as we do, we might be separated from other the rest of the world.

Pop culture in the Arab world

By Miu

 

In her lecture, Shereen El Feki talks about today’s Arab cultures.

Although proposers of crashes of civilization mention that Western culture and Arab culture cannot avoid crashing, today Arab countries are trying to introduce current Western cultures or different cultures from traditional Islam culture to Arab cultures.

 

One of the examples is 4Shab. It is a new TV channel which means ‘to young people’.

This channel is called an Islam version of MTV. It is being created by an Egyptian TV producer and he said he had created this channel to make young people under the influence of Islam to have a fulfilling life, and he said that the best way of that is using popular music video. The videos which are played on this channel are created to show the large-minded aspect of Islam for young people to face every hardship.

 

Another example is The 99. It is for younger generations.

It is the first Islam super heroes in the world which is created by a Kuwaiti psychologist. His purpose of creating these heroes is to extricate Islam from the impression of intolerance. The characters of ‘The 99’ are expressing ninety-nine characteristics of Allah like justice, wisdom, compassion and so on. For example, one of the characters, Noora is able to see through good and evil in human. Other character, Jami has a great power to invent. They created not only comic books but also a theme park of The 99 and creating TV animation is being planned.

 

These are one of the examples to be mixed different cultures. However she is not talking about crushing of cultures or a chaos of cultures without distinction. She sees that as engagement of different cultures.

 

Even though 4Shbab and The 99 look like new and attractive innovations, that have long history. Islam has taken in different cultures and made them fit in with their culture since ancient times to today. In the Koran, there is one sentence. ‘'We made you into nations and tribes so that you could learn from one another."

 

 

Why I chose this topic? –No reason. Sometimes we do something without reasons. However, this lecture was very interesting. In Japan, we usually do not have religion. To be precise, we have for just funeral ceremonies, but we usually do not care about our religions and we can change our religions if we want. (But because we do not care about religions so much, we usually have the same religion with parents. And parents have the same religion with their parents.) So, since I came here, I have been really interested in other religions and their cultures. I was surprised everything in this lecture but especially The99 is interesting. First, I was surprised that Islam culture did not have heroes until now! As you know, there are too many heroes in Japan. What a dangerous country, Japan! Now, seriously maybe it is Columbus’s egg. Many heroes will come to Islam countries. Islam countries will be dangerous like Japan… I wrote too many joking today. However it is really interesting lecture, so I want you to listen to it.

 

(Shereen El Feki: Pop culture in the Arab world/ Retrieved by: http://www.ted.com/talks/shereen_el_feki_pop_culture_in_the_arab_world.html)

Are human beings natually moral?

by Jiin, Lee

How do you think about human being’s nature? Are human beings good innately? Are human beings bad innately? Or are human beings neither good nor bad when they are born? Some people say humans are naturally good because they have sympathy, so when they see something that needs their hands, they are willing to help. However, other people maintain that people are born with vice due to the fact that on account of the selfish gene inside human beings, when people hear the news that other people succeed, they feel jealous and sometimes they wish that other people fail. Also, as we can see in our history, there have been many terrible accidents such as wars and genocide. On the other hand, the others claim that human beings are not born with either virtue or vice and their goodness and badness are created by the environment. It means that how their parents raise them and what they learn from the society contributes to build their characters.

Based on the recent research which was conducted by the Yale university, human beings are good innately. However, they are affected by the environment a lot. Researchers did an experiment that they showed 3 months olds babies that one doll which helped its friend doll and the other doll which interrupted its friend doll. And then researchers let the babies choose a doll to pay with. The result was that over 80% of the babies preferred the kind doll.

However, sadly, there was a limitation when it comes to rewards. Researchers showed the same situation to the babies but when they let the babies choose the preferable doll, they gave some snacks with the dolls. At first, they put 2 crackers with the mean doll and 1 cracker with the nice doll, and they let the babies choose the doll. In this situation, 80% of the babies chose the nice doll with 1 cracker. However, when they put 10 crackers with the bad doll, but with the good doll, they put 1 cracker than those with the bad doll, the result was reversed. Most of the babies chose the bad doll with 10 crackers. In other words, the environment is important to build human beings’ characters.

To put this issue into perspective, this experiment points out that human beings are naturally good but according to the environment, they can become moral or immoral. From my opinion, as a proponent of the idea that people are naturally moral, I believe that human beings are innately good but because they are easily subjected by the environment, it is important to make a good environment. In fact, this research gives us very hopeful message that if we educate children well, there could be more moral people in our future society. Therefore, we should more focus on the way to educate children.      

 

 

Do babies know right from wrong? By Paul Bloom (02/14/14)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/opinion/bloom-babies-right-rong/index.html?hpt=li_c2

Habits

--by shaw

From the article ,the 20 good habits you need to start in your 20s. it indicated that young people should do 20 habits in his 20s. It included some interesting advises such as always keep in mind that life is somewhat unpredictable, build courage to face your fears, be less busy and more productive and make your own destiny. The passage showed many education suggestion to teach young people how to cultivate his future life. That is no doubt that many advises which are in this passages in right; however, for me, i do agree some examples in the passages, especially, stay away from a routine based life, choose happiness and let the wrong people go.

It is a varied debate in China that student should choose a stable career after graduation or become more aggressive in his job choosing. in China ,many students want have a government position for a whole life job. Working at government, it means a young people never need to worry about his future life because it is guaranteed. However, there are a large number of students participate in the market to have a white-collar job. Not because they lack the ability to join the government, yet they have ambition to challenge their own life. May be some of them has to do that for they haven't qualify for the government job, but the majority want have a bright life in his future. According the passage, like mentioned in the passage: This is why you need to remember that to take advantage of the wondrous opportunities life has in store for you , you must get comfortable with the uncomfortable and choose the road that is most interesting, regardless of how complicated or uneasy it may be. A people should live under the sun, not in the dark. To break his limits is a basic way to break out self.

Choose happiness is a person choose to have a positive life. In the life, there are too many things to worry about. Relationship, job, family and so on, we can see in the modern society, high suicide record is very horrible. It shows how nervous and how heavy about the social pressure in the body. Apparently, becoming happiness, a person hard to do that on everyday, but it depends on you want to have or you don't want to have. Some people always like to complain the question, yet other have a clear target to handle with the problem. That why i agree that choose happiness is very crucial. If you want, finally , you may have chance to get, on the country, if you give up that, there is not any chance to access the winning.

The third, let the wrong people go is also remind us to forget. In the world, there is to  many unhappy things happens in our surroundings. Let it go, like my father told me, maybe one thing you feel that is so important, but, after ten years, when you look back, you would feel it is just a small rock on your growth way. So i appreciate my father told me that, working hard, precious the people whom you like, save the time, you can do many meaningful things. Therefore, let the wrong people go.

I suggest everybody read that article, which is worthy to be read.

source:http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/20-good-habits-start-20s/

How long we have to sleep?

by. Won so-yeon

How long do you sleep during the day? Do you think that is sufficient to support your life?

These days, many people suffer from the lack of sleep. Some people sleep as a just necessary thing and a waste of time. So, they struggle to cut down their sleeping time. Also sometime, people think that people who take a lot of sleep are lazy person and people who sleep less time are industrious person. Of course, I concede the fact that too much sleep keeps us away from completing things to do. But if sleeping is just a needless activity in our life, why we maintain the sleep with our lives for a long time which people has experienced evolution. I think because it is mightily important.

 According to an article of Wall Street Journal, an experiment that is performed by professor K. Anders Ericsson show the fact that the average American sleep six hours and fifty one minutes per day on weekdays while best performing people take a sleep for eight hours and thirty six minutes a day.

In accordance with an article ‘How Much Sleep Do You Need?’ that is posted at HELPGUIDE.ORG, it is good for adults over age 80 to take sleep for about seven hours thirty minutes to nine hours.

In addition to this, there are copious of research that was studied to know the relation between sleep and work efficiency. Among of them, for example, a study that was conducted by Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep deprivation make a loss about 63 billion in United States of America because lack of sleep lower productivity. Beside, some scientists argue that a lack of sleep about four hours cause trouble to the work as much as drinking six cans of beer.

 Sleeping well is as important as how long time did you sleep.

As for an article ‘How to Improve (and Increase) Your Sleep’, many people use electronic communications device before going to bed. But writer asserts that light which was emitted from that devices decrease level of melatonin and decline of melatonin disturb the sleep. Therefore, I would like to recommend avoiding the use of all electronic devices during one hour before sleep for you. Rather than shorten your sleeping time, you will be able to use your time more effectively when you are awake if you get a good night’s sleep for 7~9 hours.

1.) http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/12/19/how-to-improve-and-increase-your-sleep/?mod=trending_now_2

2.) http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm

To Stop Procrastinating

By: Won-Gyung

In Korea, “A resolution good for only three days,” as the saying goes. It means that people promise themselves about plans such as reading many books and doing exercise every day, but they give up their plan very soon. Not only people but also I am also doing same pattern repeatedly. Here is the article that can be helping people who are similar to me.

According to “To Stop Procrastinating, Look to Science of Mood Repair” by Sue Shellenbarger, if you've tried building self-discipline and you're still putting things off, maybe you need to try something different. She suggests check your mood. Timothy Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University, says that procrastinators tend to do other things which are not related to their real tough works for avoiding the anxiety or worry; however, that acts which so called “giving in to feel good” by experts make procrastinators feel worse when they face their dead-line. Psychologists and time-management consultants are focusing on a new strategy; the new approach is based on several studies showing that negative emotions can be caused attempting at self-control. It fills a gap among established time-management methods, which stress behavioral changes.

Dr. Pychyl suggests two ways that help procrastinators to change their mood to good directions. First of all, he advised that “just get started, and make the threshold for getting started quite low.” Second, he also advised procrastinators to practice “time travel”; time travel is to imagine their good feeling after finishing their work on time. Moreover, self-forgiveness can be one of mood-repair strategy. The important thing is procrastination will be caused by long-term problems, and the most procrastinators beat themselves up, repeating negative thinking.

In fact, I made a plan for 2014 on December 31st, 2013. First, reading ten English books; second, doing exercise every day, and third, trying to look on the bright side. However, I also can’t stick to anything. Two months later, on February, I decided to make a new plan. It’s very similar to last plan, but I focused on details. First, I made a book list that I will read, and plus I will write a short report about books. Second, before eating dinner, I will jump rope 1000 times on week day, and I will go jogging near my house on weekend. Finally, this resolution is as same as the last plan, trying to look on the bright side. I realize that negative thinking is not helpful for me to do something, so I will try to look on the bright side. I believe it will be a great help to me while I have stayed in US.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303933104579306664120892036?mod=WSJ_hp_Asia_EditorsPicks

Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

By Nana Zheng

This is a famous speech on Ted Talks by Amy Cuddy, and the speaker tried to convince us that we can shape who we are by body language. First of all, Cuddy said that we all are fascinated with body language, especially the communication and interaction about body language. As an illustration, how our nonverbal behaviors influence to others, and how others’ nonverbals influence us. Secondly, she mentioned we are also influenced by our nonvervals, our thoughts, our feelings, and our physiology. Thirdly, the speaker asked us two questions, one is “Our nonverbals govern how other people think and feel about us, but do our nonverbal govern how we think and feel about ourselves?” The other question is “Our minds change our bodies, so do our bodies change our mind?” Focus on these two questions, Amy described a story happened to her, and gave us her personal answers to those two questions. That is “Our bodies change our minds, our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”

According to Cuddy’s small story, I know that there was a car accident happened to her when she was 19, and that accident influenced her IQ seriously, so Cuddy wasn’t supposed to become a successful scientist even she wasn’t even supposed to finish her undergraduate degree. Doctors said she would struggle to fully regain her mental capacity and finish her undergraduate degree, however, she did it. She proved them wrong. Today, Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School. And, she is encouraging more and more people to believe themselves until they did it.

In my opinion, I agree with her. Nonverbal behavior can influence in lots of different ways. Some good nonverbals can help us  build an optimistic attitude, and an optimistic attitude is good for our life. Thereby, good body language can improve our life. On the other hand, bad body language might result in our negative feelings, so that we lose our heart and lack of passion. It is hard to do anything if you lack of confidence. Actually, I think not only good body language can help us, also a lot of other factors can improve us, such as confidence, courage, optimism, calmness, etc. We can call all of these good factors as positive energy. Not only other people can give you positive energy, but also can you support yourself positive energy. It depend on you how to look at others. Sometimes, maybe you know it is not fine but you still tell yourself it is ok. It is not cheating, but a persuasion. In other words, it is a kind of psychological suggestion. You can make you are more strong and optimistic by this psychological suggestion. As Cuddy said “Don’t fake if till you make it. Fake if till you become it.”

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara

By Miu Toyota

 

Hitomi Kanehara is one of the famous Japanese novelists. In 2003, her first novel, Hebi ni piasu (Snakes and Earrings) won the Subaru Literary Prize, and in January of the following year the Akutagawa Prize. Amazingly, she was just only twenty years old at that time. She became the youngest recipients of the Akutagawa Prize in history. Coupled with sensational story of this novel, she became a famous novelist quickly. 1.18 million copies of ‘Snakes and Earnings’ were sold.

 

She was brought up by her father who is a well-known translator. She loved reading books since she was a child. However she developed a phobia about school, so she absented almost all classes in junior and senior high years. Her novel was influenced by her life or her thinking.

 

Snakes and Earrings

This book is about relationship among three young people Lui, Ama and Shiba. One day, Lui, young girl and main character of this story, met Ama in night club. She was attracted to Ama’s sp;it tongue, achieved through surgery to make it look like a snake’s tongue.

She slept with him and started living with him. Because Lui also wants to split her tongue, Ama introduces her to Shiba, the owner of a piercing parlor. Lui begins by piercing her tongue and orders a tattoo for her arm: a design including a dragon and the two kirin, legendary Chinese animals, that decorate Shiba's arm. She then sleeps with Shiba, keeping it a secret from Ama.

The pure-hearted Ama really loves Lui. One day he fights a young gangster who is bothering her and ends up beating the man to death. Five months later, Lui completes a grand tattoo on her back. She begins to feel Ama's affections as a heavy burden. Soon afterward, Ama disappears after going to work and is later found as a dead body. Shiba is asking Lui to marry him, and although she begins to suspect that he was Ama's murderer, she moves in with him.

 

(Retrieved from: ‘Books from Japan’

http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/publications/item/405-snakes-and-earrings )

 

 

Today I introduced a Japanese novel. I just choose one novel which you can read in English. I like reading books (in Japanese), and I try to read books which won novel Prize. When I read ‘Snakes and Earrings’, I was surprised because her novel was unimaginable interesting compared with other novels written by new novelists. But after this novel, she tried to write many uncommon topics such as drugs, prostitution, psychological problems, homosexuality and paedophilia. Sometimes people hate her novels but I think that young woman can empathize with the character which she wrote.

Material wealth and spiritual wealth in a marriage, which comes first?

By Jinny

The debate between material wealth and spiritual wealth is certainly a controversial topic for a long time. A beautiful girl who said on TV shows that she would like to cry in BMW, rather than to smile on a bicycle attracted controversy in China in 2013. As far as I can see, this is a personal choice based directly on individual willingness, because everyone has his own right to pursue his ideal marriage. Maybe everyone has different ideas about this topic. But for me, I would like to say that spiritual wealth comes first in a marriage.

In the first place, in my opinion, the base of the marriage is not material wealth but spiritual wealth. The spiritual wealth includes love, responsibility, mental coincidence and so on. We are attracted by a person first because of his personal trait rather than his material wealth. We may be attracted by his conversation, gesture, intelligence, and even his appearance, nothing of these is related with material wealth. I don’t think anyone could fell in love with another person just because the person wears beautiful clothes or holds a lot of money. So marriage firstly comes from spiritual wealth, and without spiritual wealth, marriage even does not exist.

In the second place, the couple who have spiritual wealth could pursue material wealth better. If the couple already have spiritual wealth, they won’t usually quarrel with each other. Because they have love and compatible goals for the future. They can understand each other, and devote themselves, their time and their energy to the marriage. This kind of marriage could exist long and be steady. The couple could have more energy to pursue material wealth.

Some people may say, if people could not be full-up, they are far from getting spiritual wealth. But in this topic, we are talking about the marriage, so if people could get married, there won’t be food issue for them. What they have to do is working hard for their family and their future. Although there my be some material issue in a marriage, such as education for children, medical expenses, and daily consumption, this problem could be solved as long as the couple work hard.

All in all, in my opinion, the spiritual wealth is essential for a long and steady marriage. The marriage which only has material wealth not spiritual wealth is a tragedy. Because we are human beings, we could not live without love, and life is not only about money.

http://english.cntv.cn/program/crossover/20140103/100563.shtml

Standardized Testing

By: Beisenbay Mukhanov

Although standardized tests have been using in American education system for more than 150 years, they became mandatory tests after George W. Bush on January 8^th, 2002 signed the No Child Left Behind Act. However, the aforementioned way to evaluate student knowledge and teaching quality was always, and is, controversial issue. The following essay is the brief summary of an article written by Valerie Straus, the opponent of the usage of the foregoing type of tests for education assessment, and published in Washington Post on April 15^th, 2011.

In the reading passage titled “The Myth of Standardized Testing” the author calls readers to question whether the claims of the proponents of the tests in question are true. For example, such assertions as that high student test scores show high student knowledge and teaching quality, a standardized test score reflects a student leaning better than any other evaluations, or that the high importance of standardized test scores encourages students and teachers to work harder and improve their performances. The author maintains that all these statements are actually myths which were created to endorse current school reform relying on standardized test assessments, and in which many people believe. To support her argument, the writer cites on a new book called, “The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don’t Tell You What You Think They Do,” by Phillip Harris, Bruce M. Smith and Joan Harris. When the editorial was writing, Congress was considering changes in the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Therefore, Valerie Straus believed that points drawn in the book were especially essential at that time.

According to Ms. Straus, the aforesaid book explains why standardized tests are not the full and high objective evaluation of student achievement and education system, and why these tests encourage students to become “superficial thinkers”, and so forth. In addition, the book explores the influences of high stakes to standardized tests on school system. As an illustration, the foregoing tests cannot measure many educational achievements such as “creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, and integrity”, instead the teaching focused on test preparing does not leave enough time to learn these important and desired by many parents student abilities. Moreover, examinations of students of different ages show “a statistical association between students with high scores on standardized tests and relatively shallow thinking” because these students were mostly studied only how to deal with the tests that means “to seek the quick, easy and obvious answer”.

In conclusion, the editorial’s author asserts that because a new education proposal of President Obama’s administration to achieve by 2020 the situation when all students will be “college and career ready” is still based on annual test assessments, it would not lead to education progresses.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-myths-of-standardized-testing/2011/04/14/AFNxTggD_blog.html