Free Write 5-Hong Kong Event

These days there is a big event in Hong Kong that many Hong Kong residents protest for more freedom of electing their own leader. Hong Kong residents were supposed to be able to freely elect their next chief executive in 2017. That was considered momentous in Hong Kong because its current chief executive isn’t elected by the people but by a 1200-strong committee stacked with Beijing loyalists. Last month, Chinese government announced that it would allow only Beijing-vetted candidates to participate in the 2017 election, sparking widespread anger.

China now has two systems in one country—socialism in the mainland, and capitalism in Hong Kong as well as Macao. It is hard to contain two totally different systems in one body and to keep a balance. I can’t say that which side is right because it is basically a very complex question. I am just curious about what the Chinese government will do the next step, if it will bend its original attitude to release the policy?

Free Write 4-A Game

One of my friends ever told me that the way of thinking is different between the Westerns and the Orientals. He provided a game test to prove it. The game is about to divide bear, monkey and banana into two groups, which means one in one group and two in another group. His answers are that Orientals always put monkey and banana together; while the Westerns always put the two mammals together. I think this game is very interesting. What is your answer of this game?

Free Write 3-National Day

October 1^st is our National Day in China. When I was in China I was really really really looking forward to that day because we could have a 7-day-off vacation to celebrate the birthday of the nation. Actually people don’t have a real 7-day-off vacation, but a 3-day-off. In order to stimulate domestic demand, the government tries to make the vacation longer. Hence, it combines two weekends before and after with the 3 days to become a 7-day vacation. With a longer break, families are able to consider a travel far from home, and the travel expenses can bring a large amount of revenue to local people——that is the stimulation of domestic demand. However, we always have to work or go to school for 7 days continuously after the long break to make up the days on vacation. It could be stressful to keep intense in work or study for a long time; and it could be difficult for people to recover from the long break immediately into busy work or study.

Career Services Write-up

I don’t know if it can be counted as one kind of career services. I went to the career fair in Tempe campus two weeks ago and I learned a lot from that. Before I came I had heard from my friends majoring in Computer Science that few employers there were searching for students in our major. However, I still wanted to attend the career fair and to learn something helping me prepare for my application in the future. In addition, I also wanted to have a look that if there are any good internships for me.

I have been to one career fair last semester in Downtown campus but I found that the career fair this time was much bigger and much more formal. Everybody here got dressed and talked with employers whom they were interested in. At the career fair I saw a lot of companies that I hadn’t heard about and I had a general impression about the process of application.

I think next step for me is to revise my resume in career center and start to have a good knowledge about companies and organizations I am interested in. Besides, the last but the most important thing is to improve my English skill.

Free Write 2 - Education

Today I had a discussion with my co-worker in the organization I am interning for and our topic is about education. After our conversation, I find that there is a big difference about high school education between China and USA.

In China, three years in senior high school is the hardest time for teenagers because of the College Entrance Examination in the end. In order to enter good universities, students have to try their best to get high credits in that examination. That sounds unfair, but that is also fair to some degree.

In addition, unlike here, students have fixed classes in senior high school. In another words, there exist no required classes and elective classes in Chinese senior high school. Students have the same courses and teachers in one class, and there are always 50-60 students in one class. When students get in the second semester or the second year, they will be divided into two groups according to their own willingness. Students who love science will take Chinese, English, math, physics, biology, and chemistry exams in the end. Students who love arts will take Chinese, English, math, history, politics, and geography exams in the end.

However, the education system in the USA is totally different from the one in China. Students can get more freedom to pursue what they are interested in here, and grades are not the only measurement to students. But I know that the system here cannot work in China because of a lot of reasons. Furthermore, there are still a lot of problems in the USA education. 

I think it is interesting to compare two countries in some aspects.