2009年12月15日星期二

To my dear AD501 and all new generation for AD501

Time flies. How fast this semester is. Until now, I still remember the first class clearly – on Sep, 8, I first met the genial full beard professor -- Bruce Berman and 14 other lovely classmates from different countries. The harmonious class atmosphere and happy conversations really make me feel relax. To be honest, I like this class mostly among all my classes this semester. Although I don’t talk too much in the class, I really enjoy every minute with the professor and classmates.

First, I really appreciate my professor – Mr. Berman. Thank you for your great help and motivation with my English study. I know my English level was relatively weak at the beginning of this semester. I can’t claim that my English skills have improved greatly, but I can proudly say my enthusiasm to English study has increased quite a bit. Through the business communication, I have formed a habit of writing down new words and reviewing them time and again. Besides, in my experience at business communication, I developed and improved my writing, listening skills, assertiveness and the ability to communicate with Native Americans well enough to exceed prior expectations. In addition, there's something I have to say. It is very enjoyable to talk with you. I am impressed by your deep understanding and friendliness to China. Do you know how exciting I was when you said you had collected the Chairman Mao’s Red Book for more than 30 years? In fact, I worship Chairman Mao very much, either his modern military thought or his great foresight. If you come to China some time later, I will be glad to be your guide.

Besides, thanks all my classmates. You are the best classmates I have known in BU. Perhaps for the small class, we communicate with each other more frequently than other classes. Even from different programs, we are closer than the classmates in the same program. Don't forget to keep in touch with me all the time. It’s my pleasure to know you all. My email is hjh8855@yahoo.com.cn (msn).

To all new generation for AD 501, I’d like to say it is a helpful class. But just as a Chinese proverb says, no man is his craft’s master the first day. You need to do much practice after the master gives you the basic instructions. You must push yourself to do much work after class if you want to become fluent. Insist on reading, writing and listening and feel free to communicate with Native Americans. For me personally, I strongly recommend you to subscribe to some magazines, such as Fortune and Business Weekly, which improve your reading skills as well as related to your programs.

The above mentioned are my personal experience of this class and the keys in passing the class and learning English well. Wish you all good luck.

2009年12月13日星期日

Influence by classmates

The advent of 21st century has witnessed profound changes in social, educational, technological arenas. The comparison of the influence on a child’s success between the classmates and parents has brought to popular concerns. There is a fierce controversy on the issue. People from all walks of life can hardly reach an absolute conformity. For my part, my view will identical with the former. My analysis will be well grounded by the following sound reasons.

First and foremost, no one can fail to take into account the fact that classmates virtually have common psychology and they can communicate with each other better than with their parents. Generally speaking, parents focus much attention on their children scores in China. Only under certain situations such as children getting a high score will parents be satisfied with them. Nevertheless, they will shout and punish their children rigorously. On the contrary, the classmates always consider each other in terms of friendship. They usually consider problems from their friends’ angle and will not upset or hurt their friends on account of they shared the same situations.

In addition, it is no denying the fact that the children always spend more time with their classmates than their parents which guarantees close contact with classmates. Due to the fact that they share most of their time together, they, definitely, can understand, sympathize and influence each other easier. A recent survey conducted by China Daily indicates that 72.3% Chinese students have mutual pressures, which stimulates identical understanding and tolerance. They attempt to study on basis of their teachers’ guidance and their parents’ wishes. Therefore their tasks are alike, to be good students.

To put all into one nutshell, all the evidences lead the strong support to my convincing conclusion that classmates play a significant role in the process of grow-up. Although occasionally parents have more influences than classmates, such as the children who live in remote areas where they nearly have no chance to study and contact with classmates, at most time, classmates are more important than parents in the process of success.

2009年12月8日星期二

Poem: A View of Taishan





Poem title: A View of Taishan (Poem written 1200 years ago by Du Fu)

Background: Taishan is one of five Sacred Mountains in China. Chinese people also called it Eastern Mountain. It is located in Shandong Province and closing to East China Sea. It is the place we worship our ancestors in Chinese history. It is also a mountain surrounded with a spectacular view and has been awarded World Natural Heritage by UNESCO(United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1987.

Poet:Du Fu--a distinguished poet in Chinese history. He was lived in Tang Dynasty, about 1200 years ago, which is the Golden Age of Chinese poem development. It is one of his early works when he was failed in the Imperial Examinations. But he was still filled with ambition at that time.

Original poem:
岱宗夫如何? 齐鲁青未了。
造化钟神秀, 阴阳割昏晓。
荡胸生层云, 决眥入归鸟。
会当凌绝顶, 一览众山小。

English edition:
What shall I say of the Great Peak? --
The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green,
Inspired and vivid by the breath of creation,
With the Twin Forces balancing day and night.
I bare my breast toward clouds billowing,
I strain my sight after birds flying home.
Do reach the summit I will
Holding all spectacular attractions in a single glance

Explaination:
The first 4 sentences describe the Taishan across the regions of Qi and Lu, two famous kingdoms in Chinese history, and the different scene of mountains in the two places to indicate the lofty mountains rolling all the way up to the sky. It also implies the mountain witnesses the years of vicissitudes and the rise and fall of different dynasties.

The fifth and sixth sentences reveal the poet’s feeling when he overlooking the spectacular views. The billowing clouds stir up poet’s upsurge of emotion and the homing birds broaden his range of vision.

The last 2 sentences signify his strong willingness to climb to the top of a mountain and enjoy all marvellous scenery. It also signifies the poet’s great ambition.

I like this poem because of the awe-inspiring effect and ambitious feeling of the poem, especially reading in Chinese. It is a very famous poem in China.

2009年12月7日星期一

Multianalysis of Internet

The advent of 21st century has witnessed profound changes in social, educational and technological arenas. Admittedly, internet is one of the greatest inventions to humankind and the world. However, we can not denying that there exists a fierce controversy over the comparison between the benefits and defects of internet. People from all walks of life can not reach an absolute conformity on the issue. As far as I concerned, my view of point will fall between the two extremes for the sake of perfection.

First and foremost, no one could fail to take into account the fact that the emergence of internet has completely varied the habits and customs of modern society. It makes the whole world become increasingly convenient and smaller. Undoubtedly, through internet, we can easily search and seek information whatever we want. By using internet, we can get to communicate with other people with ease, no matter where they live in or who they are. Moreover, the internet has promoted the freedom of speech and the freedom of information, which are the indispensable parts of a successful modern democratic society. Getting in touch with a great deal of information all over the world, one can gain advanced knowledge and latest skills, which are beneficial for the entirely life.

On the contrary, it goes without with any saying that internet also have some inevitable defects. One great thing about the negative aspect of internet is that there exists a great mount of adverse or even baleful information on the internet. Anybody with a computer can create websites and post information or pictures whatever they want to. For this reason, it is difficult to determine which one is correct and reliable and which is not. What is more, some unhealthy information will be quite hazardous to the growing up of children who are lack of ability to distinguish right from wrong.

To put all into one nutshell, we can not denying the fact what considerable progresses and contributions the internet has made for the advance and improvement of world. However, to be sure, internet exist a lot of troubles as well. To walk out these thorny problems, some effective measures must be taken without any delay. What the government should do is to enhance overall awareness of general public on distinguishing the useful information from the harmful ones and strengthen the regulation and supervision of internet to ensure the security of internet.

2009年12月6日星期日

Foreign students--a great competitive advantage of US

The United States has the most foreign students in the world. Advanced education platform and large numbers of well-known colleges and universities attract tens of thousands of excellent students all over the world. After graduation, most students will face the choice whether working and staying in America or returning to their homelands.

President Obama, whose father was a student from Kenya, clearly know the significance of foreign students to the US. As he said,foreign students is one of the country's "greatest competitive advantages.”In fact, no one could deny what considerable progresses and contributions foreign students have made to the economic development and social prosperity of USA in the past hundred years. Carl Guardino – the CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said the prosperity of high - technology and the Internet in United States is closely related to the foreign technology talents. Therefore the H-1B is essential to the prosperity of Silicon Valley. According to a survey, 25% of American new technology and engineering companies which found in the past 10 years have at least a founder who was overseas immigrants. This proportion is much higher in Silicon Valley. 53 percent of engineers in the science and technology enterprises in Silicon Valley are from other countries. In Silicon Valley‘s start-up companies, more than half of the Chief Executive Officers are foreign high-tech professionals. Without these foreign engineers, there would be no high-tech companies crowding in the Silicon Valley. High-tech foreign people usually have a great enterprising awareness. Many of them have achieved incredible success, for instance, Yahoo Jerry Yang, Jen-Hsun Huang -- Nvidia CEO, Boolean—one founder of Google and the list will go on. They are from different countries, receiving higher education in US, working hard in Silicon Valley and then founding large businesses which having created a large number of employment opportunities and technological innovation achievements.

As a Chinese, I am very proud of so many Chinese scientists and entrepreneurs’ great achievements for the economic and social development of United States and the far-reaching contributions to the social prosperity. Taking the field of life science as an example, a large number of Chinese life scientists are active in the frontiers of this modern subject. A recent survey indicates that the proportion of Chinese authors is more than 40% in the papers published in top academic journal, such as Science, Nature and Cells. The Nobelist Dr Wiesel, who was born in Sweden and has worked in United States for more than 50 years, puts forwards the idea that there are plenty of excellent Chinese talents studying in US, many of whom have been the leaders of the scientific research field. These Chinese scientists will make a great contribution to world biological development. Bright life resulting from life science is the joint effort of the scientists from different countries.

Some experts and scholars believe that because of the economic crisis in US and the increasingly powerful and prosperous of China, more and more Chinese students will come back to their motherland after graduation. It is a big loss to the US without doubt. Obama said, "one of the great things about this country is we get the best and the brightest talent to study here.” How could he let it slip through his fingers and stand to see his country losing what is one of the greatest competitive advantages? Perhaps in the near future, the H1-B policy will be eased, immigration policy will be reformed in order to attract more foreign students. Just as a New York Times columnist said: "the world's best brains are selling off, let us buy some more."

2009年12月5日星期六

My point of Obama's speech

On the evening of December1, President Obama made a speech about the Nation on the way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the famous US Military Academy at West Point. Obama made a deep analysis of the increasingly hostile environment in Afghanistan, the more and more severe terrorism and the potential threat. He conducted a detailed explanation for the necessity and urgency of troop increase for Afghanistan and expounded the amount of extra American troops sent to Afghanistan and the expected withdrawal timeline. He also announced the core strategies in fighting against Taliban and gave a detailed response to the most popular questions from all walks of life.

Undoubtedly, it is effective and necessary to do the adjustments to Afghanistan policy and proposal a new “surge” at this moment. Obama re-emphasized the importance of taking away the tools of mass destruction and illustrated the lofty ideal that helps the people all over the world to realize the dream of freedom. He expected to further strengthen the worldwide alliance for the common interests, reaffirmed the point that the US don’t want to be the world domination and expressed a desire of withdrawal as soon as possible so that US can focus on the recovery of US economics. To be honest, Obama’s speech is trying to meet the various needs in D.C. To satisfy the requirement of more troops in Afghanistan from the Republicans as well as to make the Democrats believe that the US tiring of the war will not let troops stay too long. He is trying to pacify the leaders of NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan with the promise that the US will not give up the war effort. In the meanwhile, he also brings pressure to bear on those leaders to keep their words.

However, just as some scholars’ predictions, Obama might face maximum trust crisis since taking office. Although I trust Obama’s policy is a necessary preparation for the final withdrawing of troops in three years, the surge may ruffle the Democratic Party, weaken the original part of his power. It will take the President who received the Nobel Peace Prize a long time to fix his public image that the creator of peace

Besides, President Obama must keep in mind the lessons of Vietnam. There are some similarities between the war in Vietnam 40years ago and Afghanistan war today. The difference is that the US’ economics strength, resources and international status are less powerful than they were once, while the participations of international affairs are more often than before. The abyssal fund demand and the uncertain schedule for leaving Afghanistan are potential risk factors. America is likely to face an uncertain situation in three years so that Obama may face a more difficult decision at that time.

In addition, I have to doubt whether US and his allies will achieve the goal of completely disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The facts have proven that the longer the troops of USA and his allies stay in Islamic nations, the more terrorists produced than killed. In my point of view, the Afghan government must negotiate with the Taliban and even provide appropriate placements. Even though, I still call into question the possibility of defeating Taliban. If the terrorists know that western countries be about to withdraw one day, their inner force will be prepared for that moment. That is the disquieting thing.

2009年12月1日星期二

The decision-making process in China

In China, the government's decision system is so-called democratic centralism decision system under the socialist democracy. However, because of the old China leaves us much more feudal despotism than democratic and legal. Personal superstition, patriarchal or parents’ style national psychology and thinking mode are deep-rooted. So for quite a long time, China's political and decision-making system in real social level was still the highly centralized system.

Anyhow, in the actual social level, the main defects are bureaucratic phenomenon, power phenomenon and privilege

Since the reform and opening-up, China has carried out a series of government decision-making system reform. Take my hometown --- Hangzhou as an example. Following is the current major issues decision system.

The principles of major issues decision are: scientific, lawful, and democratic.

The contents of major issues included several aspects: for instance, discuss local regulations (draft) and review the rules, Review the national economic and social development plans, annual plan, long-term plans, government investment plans and annual financial budget plan. Review the major construction projects, especially the government investment projects, government procurement projects which worth more than 1 500 000yuan. Review major policy reforms in relation to the social security, health, science and technology, education, culture and environment protection and so on.

The decision-making process is generally classified into three stages: decision-making preparation, decision-making submitted and decision-making feedback.

(1)Decision-making preparation included suggestions, investigation and study, the scheme, evaluation, assessment and comments.
(2)Decision-making submitted stage. It included submission, preparation of material, and review of decision-making and implementation of the decision.
(3)Decision-making feedback stage. The implementary department is responsible for reporting the new questions and performance of the bill to the leading department periodically, so that the decision could be tracked.

The problems in the decision-making process
1 The information collection and processing for the decision is incomplete and distortion.

It can be said that in China, most mistakening decision-making is due to the inaccuracy and incompletion. The reasons of this phenomenon are mainly in the following aspects: the first is the way of obtaining information is not scientific, some of Chinese government officials used to using typical survey method, holding the conversazione and so on. Some officials, even release the false information for so-called achievements, all mentioned above lead to the onesidedness and distortion of information.

2 Decision schemes are always low degree of democratization.
Democratic centralism is a basic principle in the process of decision-making. However some local government decisions more emphasize on centralism than democracy. Many decisions are still decided by the leaders, which are quite common. Some decisions are taken in the form of democracy in the surface, but actually some core personal opinions play a key role, which means the vast majority of people's opinions are aside. The so-called democracy is only an adornment.