Why do we need to improve our language skills?

We need to improve our language skill because it can help us to create new thoughts.

Our brain can be compared to a hardware of a computer. To fully utilize the computer, a good software is needed. The software can help produce useful output, such as good ideas and creative thinking. In fact, a high command of language is like a good software, it can help produce good output.

Thus, the aim of improving language skill is to upgrade the function of our software, i.e. our language skill. This results in developing a better thinking and new thoughts.

Letter of advice

Dear Sandy,

I am sorry to know that you have a difficult time with your parents. I can see that you are upset about your strict parents who do not allow you to go out in the evenings. You are also worried that you will lose your friends soon.

As you are a teen girl, your parents do not want you to get into trouble and they also want you to be safe. This explains the reason why they are strict.I think you can do something to stop their worries.

First of all, it is always good to let your parents know more about you. For example, you can talk to them more often. Enough communication may help reduce their worries and they will realize you getting more mature. At the same time, you can let them understand your friends and your relationship with them. Besides, you can introduce your best friend to your parents so they will not be afraid of the bad influence. Moreover, I think your parents still see you as a immature teen so they will be worried about your safety.

You are also worrying about that you will lose your friends because of you not going out with them in the evenings. In my opinion, you should tell them your situation. At least they will not be angry with you if they really want to be your friends. Maybe they can even help you to persuade your strict parents. You can then improve your relationship with them.

Hope that the situation between you and our parents will improve very soon. And my advice can be useful to you.

Yours,

Wilson

Letter Writing

Scientists are warning about the need to save energy for the sake of the environment, yet some students don’t care enough to change their habits, such as recycling papers, save water and lights. Why haven’t they changed? What kind of activities should schools adopt to encourage students to change?
Write a letter to your school newsletter. Start your letter with the title, “Dear Editor”...

Dear Editor,

There are warnings by scientists about the need to save energy for our environment. Hong Kong government also started to pay a close attention on environmental problems in 80's. I am writing to give my opinion about encouraging students to change their habits for saving energy.

We all know that global warming and environmental problems are getting worse. Our parents’ generation did not receive any education about keeping our earth clean. If we ignore the problems, we will not be able to live in the clean world.

Students should be aware of the damaging effects of their bad habits on the earth. However most of them may not want to change their lifestyle because of laziness.

As students, we can suggest different ways to help people save energy and natural resources, such as to recycle papers even after the papers used on both sides. School should also consider using electronic mails or e-messages, or e-copies instead of printing hard copies.

Moreover, the excessive use of air conditioners and lights is another main source of energy wasting. We should encourage students to turn off the electrical appliances when they are not in use.

I await the time that all students start making effort to change their lifestyle so to save energy and help solve the environmental problems.

Yours faithfully,

Alvin

Essay

Television has become an essential part of entertainment for most of the bourgeois families in Hong Kong. Watching TV programs is the main activity of most children apart from playing computer games. Watching funny cartoons help students relaxed from heavy school work. This eventually helps them perform better. I would like to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of TV-watching for children and give my views on the subject.

Watching TV helps youngsters not only learn different subjects but also entertain themselves with the funny programs. However, most of them watch only the entertaining programs. Hence parents always prefer their children going out with her friends to staying home and watching television. They beleive that at least the youngsters can improve their social skills, such as getting a good relationship with their friends.

However, more time will be wasted in playing computer games if children are not allowed to watch TV. If a student is not allowed to watch TV, he will spend his time playing more computer games. As a result, more time will be spend on computer entertainment. Some teachers argue that they would rather have their students doing homework in front of a TV than doing nothing while playing computer games.

In fact, more parents would also rather have their children watching TV programs than playing computer games. They consider TV programs a better entertainment than computer games. It is easier for them to control their kids to stop watching television than surfing the internet.

I have reached a conclusion that watching television is a better means of entertainment than playing computer games. We should not totally stop children from watching TV.

Essay

Television has become an essential part of entertainment for most of the bourgeois families in Hong Kong. Watching TV programs is the main activity of most children apart from playing computer games. Watching funny cartoons help students relaxed from heavy school work. This eventually helps them perform better. I would like to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of TV-watching for children and give my views on the subject.

Watching TV helps youngsters learn different things in the world and entertain themselves with the funny programs. However, most of them watch only the entertaining programs. As a result, parents always prefer their children going out with her friends to staying home and watching television. At least, the youngsters can improve their social skills, such as getting a good relationship with their friends.

More time will be wasted in playing computer games if children are not allowed to watch TV. If a student is not allowed to watch TV, he will spend his time playing more computer games. As a result, more time will be spend on entertainment. Some teachers argue that they would rather have the students doing homework in front of a TV than doing nothing while playing computer games.

In addition, more parents would rather their children watch TV programs than playing computer games. They consider TV programs a better entertainment than computer games. It is easier to control their kids to stop watching television than surfing the internet.

I have reached a conclusion that watching television is a better means of entertainment than playing computer games. We should not totally stop children from watching TV.

Newspaper Article

Students bid for chance at Lunar New Year profit Budding entrepreneurs, many of them in school uniform, went head-to-head to bid for stalls at the 2010 Lunar New Year bazaar in Victoria Park.

//-->BeatriceSiu Friday, October 30, 2009
Budding entrepreneurs, many of them in school uniform, went head-to-head to bid for stalls at the 2010 Lunar New Year bazaar in Victoria Park.
They are hoping to turn a buck from the 2010 fair, amid signs the city is on its way to economic recovery.
New Method College was the highest bidder for a themed dry goods stall at HK$41,000.
A supervisor of extracurricular activities at the school, surnamed Cheng, said the experience will teach students how to do business. "Making a profit is not our aim. What's more important is to teach the students how to run a business and cooperate with their partners."
Student Cheng Wing-hong said profit was not his main motivation.
"I am happy even if I make little money. All I want is to learn from the experience," he said.
Wilson Tam Chin-wai, 23, took eight attempts before he won out with a HK$30,000 bid, eight times more than the opening price.
"As Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day are on the same day, I hope more lovers will buy my products," he said.
Tam is investing HK$300,000 in the stall and hopes to double his money.
The fair opens on February 8 and interest in the auction was likely boosted by auspicious dates. It closely coincides with the first day of the Year of the Tiger - February 14 - which is also Valentine's Day on the Western calendar.
On Wednesday, keen bidding saw the most sought-after fast-food site fetch a 10-year-high price of HK
$490,000 after opening at HK$230,180. A Mr Leung yesterday secured two stalls with bids of HK$60,000 and HK$40,000 respectively, five to seven times more than the opening price.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department auctioned eight themed dry goods stalls and 284 dry goods stalls yesterday.
Leung Yui-hung, a chicken biscuit hawker, secured a dry goods stall with HK$60,000, six times higher than the HK$8,740 opening price.

Comprehension Questions

Holistic Learning

Smart people don’t just learn better. They learn differently. While many students get caught up in memorizing facts, intelligent learners know to seek the bigger picture and connect the facts together. This form of learning I call holistic learning.

Holistic learning is basically the opposite of rote memorization. Instead of reciting lists of facts, rules or formulas, you seek to connect ideas together. Instead of having separate boxes in your head for geometry, algebra or ancient India, you deliberately link facts together, so they form a bigger picture.

1. What is holistic learning?
Holistic learning is the kind learning where the learners know how to understand what he learn by using and forming pictures to connect the facts and information together. In other words, holistic learners learn and understand the materials the first time they study.

Excessive studying shows you aren’t learning holistically. It shows that you didn’t learn the material the first time. If you properly link ideas together to see the bigger picture, studying should only be a brief refresher.

How to Boost Your Study Habits

Holistic learning isn’t like a brainstorming technique or mind-mapping. It is fundamentally changing how you look at the process of learning and how you absorb information. As such, there isn’t an easy ten step program to master it.

There are some tools that can help you shift your learning habits so they become more holistic:

Visceralize 感官和動作集中學習- You’ve probably heard of visualizing, right? Visceralizing means taking all of your senses and connecting it to information. Studies have shown that people remember more vividly information that comes to us in an emotionally aroused state. Linking feelings, senses and imagery to bland ideas makes them more real. You probably counted on your fingers when learning numbers, why can’t you do the same when you are learning now?

Metaphor隱喻 - The heart of holistic learning is relating things together. Metaphors are literary devices that link two things that normally don’t go together. Come up with metaphors to describe more complicated ideas in simpler terms.

Ten-Year-Old Rule十歲法則 - Explain ideas to yourself as you would to a ten year old. Sure, this isn’t always possible in your last years of a medical degree or learning how to apply neural networks to computer AI. But the idea is that you should be able to “dumb down” an idea enough so it seems obvious to yourself.

Trace Back 引用 - Put away your books and start with a random fact or concept. Then relate that idea to another concept in your subject. Keep doing this tracing pattern until you’ve linked many ideas together. The Gupta Dynasty reminds you of ancient Greece which reminds you of Socrates, reminding you of Confucius…

Refresher Scan 快速復習 - Scan through information in your text book. Notice whenever you encounter information that you either don’t remember or weren’t 100% sure about. Quickly link that information back to existing ideas through viscerlization and metaphor. If your refresher scan is turning up more than a few points per chapter, you haven’t learned it thoroughly enough.

Compress Information壓縮信息 - Not all information works well for holistic learning. A common point cited to me is learning anatomy for first year medical students. Anatomy involves learning arbitrary Latin names for hundreds of different elements of your body. There often aren’t clear patterns and constructs, just a dry list off acts. When encountering information such as this, your goal should be to compress it. Find ways to group information into smaller chunks of memory through pictures or mnemonics.

Write寫下有關聯想 - Take a piece of paper and write out the connections in the information. Reorganize the information into different patterns. The key here is the writing, not the final product. So don’t waste your time making a pretty picture. Scribble and use abbreviations to link the ideas together.

List two of the learning habits and explain how they help learners to learn better.

One of the learning habit is called virceralisation. Learners can benefit when they use feelings, senses, and imaginary to bland ideas and information when they learn something. This helps them remember better and more vividly because information that comes to them in an emotionally aroused state.

The other habit is called "Metaphor". Learners can benefit when they use metaphor to link two things to describe more complicated ideas in simpler terms.






Scott Young is a blogger on learning, productivity and habits. You can check out his website here. If you want to learn more about Holistic Learning, download his free e-book: Holistic Learning: How to StudyBetter, Learn More and Actually “Get” What You Want to Learn