Should Parents Pay For Their Children's College Education by ZhiGang

Should Parents Pay For Their Children's College Education?

 Summary: Parents wants to give the best to their children and it has been a topic that parents usually discuss whether their children should shoulder the responsibility of footing college fees. Not all children are born with a silver spoon, college expenses can be a burden to some parents who are not able to afford it. However, parents give what they have to their children because they love them. Some even feel that it is an investment worth make on their children.

Opinion: In my opinion, I feel that parents should pay for the college fees. And it is our responsibility to do well for our education so that when we graduate, it will be our turn to take care of our parents. For now, studying will be our utmost priority as we will get a better job the next time when we enter the workforce. If we work and study now, it may affect our studies which is why parents should foot the bill now.

Youth and Media

Link to article on youth and media
Summary:

This article is about how media such as internet and television influences the youth. The youth may learn valuable lessons such as racial harmony, cooperation, kindness through media; for example, by watching certain shows. However, it was proven that although media may seem beneficial, it may leave a bad impact, such as violence, if exposed to it for long periods or if the youth uses media in wrong forms.

Opinion:

I feel that media is a very strong source of impact for youth. As their thoughts are not mature yet, they will be easily influenced by whatever they see or hear in media. Thus, parents should track their child's use of media so that the youth will not be led to the wrong direction.

China's Poorest Beat Our Best Pupils By: Sherman

Summary:
British schoolchildren are lagging so far behind their peers in the Far East that even pupils from wealthy backgrounds are now performing worse in exams than the poorest students in China, an international study shows. The children of factory workers and cleaners in parts of the Far East are more than a year ahead of the offspring of British doctors and lawyers. Researchers said the study, which looked at the performance of 15-year-olds in mathematics, showed countries to could overcome traditional social class divides to raise education standards among relatively deprived pupils. The report was published as a senior European Commission politician attacked the standards of British schools and warned that UK politicians must improve the education system before focusing on changing the country’s relationship with the EU. Overall, the UK was ranked just 26th for maths, 23rd for reading and 21st for science while China’s Shanghai district was the top-rated jurisdiction in each subject. The study assessed how students would be able to use their maths knowledge and skills in real life, rather than just repeating facts and figures. As part of the study, children were asked to name their parents’ occupation to determine its effect on pupil performance. Across the world, children whose parents work in professional careers generally outperform those in elementary jobs such as caterers, cleaners, factory workers and labourers. In the United States and the United Kingdom, where professionals are among the highest-paid in the world, students whose parents work as professionals do not perform as well in mathematics as children of professionals in other countries — nor do they perform as we as the children in Shanghai-China and Singapore whose parents work in manual occupations.

Opinion:

In my opinion, I believe that it has to do with the Chinese culture of discipline, hard work and not loosing face that fuels the academic performance of chinese kids. Many Asian children have very strict parents therefore urging them to study even harder. As the typical Chinese parent always says, without good grades, you are never going to be successful. Therefore, I believe that since all children want to be successful in life, they will all then study hard and achieve their goals.

Gradual erosion of Asian Culture- Yenyuen

SUMMARY: Among Asians, there is an ongoing debate about how western culture is slowly entering Asian culture. The older generation and the conservatives are upset as they have exercise a lot more influence on the lives of young people compared to the role of parents and other society leaders in the West. The most controversial area of the erosion of Asian culture is that Asian Women are beginning to entering into relationships with Western man as they find them more attractive and cool. Western men too, find Asian Woman attractive. This shows that people are moving up in the social ladder. Moreover, Asian Woman are beginning to follow Western fashion despite the fact that it does not look well on them. They argued that it is a form of self-expression and not because they are not proud of themselves.

OPINION: Personally, I feel that this will slowly erode Asian Culture to a certain extent. Technology and communication have allowed people to learn from other end of the world and it is no surprise that young Asians are beginning to follow Western fashion trends since it is more fashionable. During Chinese New Year, the Chinese are not allowed to be dress in black as it represent evil. However, due to fashion trends, Asian teenagers neglected the practices and instead, dress in black to look more fashionable. They may also argued that it is their freedom to dress the way the want when they have been suppressed for generations. Thus, I concluded that the western influence will slowly erode Asian Culture to a certain extent.

http://www.mynippon.com/dreamland/fukulove6.htm

Bilingual Chinese Singaporean by Sherman

Summary:
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew showed an increasing trend that show the fact that Singaporeans are no longer interested in their Chinese Language. He believes that many of them has made the wrong decision because they may get as many job opportunities than people who are bilingual. With the accelerated rise of china's economy, America may not be the dominant country anymore and many will start using Chinese. By being bilingual, we are prepared as we are able to converse freely with others without any language barriers therefore not affecting us greatly. To improve our language skills, we should practice our mother tongue everyday and not just learn it just to forget everything in the future.

Opinion:
I feel that learning Chinese and practicing it is a good habit. Practicing out Mother Tongue is just like talking in English. It requires effort and daily practice to get it right so that we can speak it fluently in front of others. During the past few years, many Singaporeans are influenced greatly by the west and the way they carry out their activities. This influence may be negative in the sense that we might stop learning Mother Tongue as it is of no importance.

Erosion of Asian culture due to westernization by ZhiGang

How Asian cultures are eroded away - Disappointing 
Summary:  A recent statistics have shown that youths in Singapore prefer to be Caucasian or Japanese. This statistics is becoming worrying among Singapore officials who see that globalization and materialism is eroding cultural identity and patriotism. Singapore culture has been changing as a result of globalization and the spread of cosmopolitan ideas through the internet. Young people nowadays are so much into the internet and it affects globalization which are felt in Singapore and it's eroding our culture slowly away.

Opinions: In my opinion, we should have a basic respect for our own culture. We are born who we are and we cannot change who we are. We should at least have the basic respect for our culture. However, everyone is going wayward which is really absurd. Why be another person if we despise who we are actually? It is very pathetic and ashamed to see how these teenagers are behaving this days. It is disappointing to see how they abandon their own culture.