An article about my country in the English speaking press

The newspaper article I have chosen was from New York Times and I was really attracted to it. The title called "Non-Asians Show a Growing Interest in Chinese Courses".

This article shows that now days in America, Chinese Language is not only offered in Chinese-American International Schools, it also getting popular in public schools even in heritage schools. More and more non-Asian students enrolling in Chinese classes to learn Chinese language, history and culture. For instance, nearly 6,000 public school students, out of 421,000, study Mandarin in Chicago and the number is keep increasing. Furthermore, many American parents are willing to send their children to learn Chinese, they also expect to have this kind of program in their communities as well.

In my opinion, because the world is becoming a global economy, I think it is very necessary to learn a foreign language. And as we know that China has become the factory of the world and Chinese people are playing increasingly important roles worldwide today, also Chinese is the language of nearly 1/4 of the World's Population. Therefore to take advantage of this huge economic shift and opportunities, learning Chinese is a great “long-term benefit” to the children.

The Impact of Globalization on Culture

Globalization is one of the most charged issues of the day. In China, people have more opportunities to cooperate and exchange because of globalization. Since people can experience different cultures during international cooperations and international exchanges, many of them believe that globalization benefits the development of their native culture. However, it also brings some negative effects on Chinese culture in terms of native language, traditional views and some native cultural industries.

For instance, the native language is gradually changed by loanwords because of globalization. The standard words and phrases are ignored by the young generations. Using loanwords is treated as a kind of fashion for them. Those informal language are appeared often even in some formal scenes.

In addition, some traditional views which are important parts of native culture have been influenced by western culture because of globalization. The most obvious problem is early sexual behavior. Because of the impact of western culture, young people start to admire extreme individualism and hedonism, which are harmful to the development of society.

Finally, thanks to globalization, people have all kinds of choices to watch movies. However, people would choose overseas films rather than films made in China. This is also harmful to the domestic film industry. Another example is that the traditional opera, Peking opera, is being forgotten by young generations since they are attracted by western opera and pop music.

In conclusion, although globalization brings lots of economic benefit to China, however it also has many harmful effects on Chinese culture in terms of native language, some traditional views and some native cultural industries. People should realize these negative effects while taking part in the international cooperation and exchange and should try our best to reduce them.

Class Report -- Language

In this part, my assignment is to collect and arrange information from my classmates' blogs which is about their “language”.

There are 11 students in our class. The reason why we are study English is because of all the students in our class came from different countries, and none of us is native speaker. Therefore, we learning English in order to improve our language skill and adjust to life in an English speaking country. Furthermore, Tim, Choi, and I mentioned that be good at English will help us to find a better job here. Theresa and K.D also said learning English here is in order to help them get into their tertiary study smoothly in the future.

Students in our class came from five countries, and we all speak English as the second language. One interesting thing is, except speak our mother tongue and English, Sopheng can also speak Tai and Duu can speak national language of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

All students have been learning English for couple of years. Ally has been learning formal English for 2 years. The rest of us have been learning around 10 years. However, it seems not very systematic.

The students in our class are all very modest about their weakness and strength in English study. Aki thinks that she needs to improve speaking and listening, K.D said more speaking practice is very important to him. Both Jessie and Theresa mentioned that they should raise ability of academic writing. Duu and I consider our weaknesses are vocabulary and grammar.

All about me

Welcome everyone! So happy to see you guys come to visit my blog here. I'm audrey, from Shanghai, China. I came to New Zealand alone and have been living here for 3 years. Fortunately, I became a New Zealand permanent resident two months ago. Before that, I was an international student just like most of you. Now I am 21 years old. Currently, I rent a flat at St Johns with my boyfriend, a silly dog Vela and an arrogant cat called Koda.

I still remember the first time I put my feet on this enchanting land. I was so curious and excited. Wearing a knitted scarf and cotton-padded jacket, dragging with a huge baggage, standing at Auckland airport. It seemed pretty funny and weird because people were all wearing shorts and T-shirts at that time. After I took off my clothes, changed time on my watch and had dinner under the sunshine. I knew my life has changed and I would face on many new challenges in the future. I felt excited as well as worried.

Time goes by so fast. Last year, I got my bachelor degree in graphic design from AUT University. And now I have a part time job in Wendy's ice cream store and also learning English in Unitec at the same time. My first language is Chinese and I have been learning English for 10 years, however it was quite informal and disorganised. I know that for living in an English speaking country, learning and improving language always important to me, that’s why I’m here having English course after I have got my bachelor degree. I love to communicating with people and sharing their experiences. It’s good for my speaking and listening skills. But vocabulary and grammar are my weak aspects, I should spend more time on improving them.

Anyway, I am so pleased with my life right now. Taking care of my pets, enjoying movie and music. Spending some time on drawing and graphic design. My aim is to finish this course successfully and then get a design job in a local company.