The Important Chinese Holiday in Fall

In Taiwan there are three most important festivals in the whole year, such as the Chinese New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. We have a reunion in the Mid-Autumn Festival. The special food we have to eat is moon cakes and pomelo (or shaddock). When is the Mid-Autumn Festival? It is on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. The moon will be a full moon. Currently, families will find an outdoor place to have a BBQ and hang out with each other. We enjoy the glorious full moon and have good food with our family members. After BBQ, we eat moon cakes and pomelos. The government will have a beautiful firework show that night. That night will be a beautiful night because we can get together with our family, have good food and amazing fireworks under a bright full moon. In this busy society, we don’t have time to relax and hang out with family. We all cherish this festival in the fall season. This is an important day for Chinese people.

Holiday (Fluency Ex.3)

My favorite holiday in Saudi Arabia is Ramdan holiday and it starts on the 18th day of Ramdan until the 7th day of the next month, which is Shawal. The best part of this holiday is the last day in Ramdan and the next seven days of Shawal because we usually celebrate the first day after Ramdan with the whole family, including relatives and neighbors in one house. Then we travel to our farm, which is far, about 140 miles from Riyadh where I live. Before we go there we know how many families are coming and we usually invite relatives, close friends and neighbors to spend a great time there. There are the main house and some other small houses around it for the guests. We have many activities to do there, but the amazing part is when we ride the horses and challenge each other, especially my cousins because we used to do that when we were children. Other things we enjoy very much are when we play volleyball, soccer, and drive the jeeps in the middle of the desert with the soft sands. At night we usually make a big barbecue party and there are many kinds of foods we eat like kabab, reish, awsall, kabsa, homos, and magloba. After that we light a fire and stay around it talking about many important topics, having funny discussions and making a strong challenge for the next day. Finally, I really miss this holiday this year because I am in the US, but on the other hand, I am investing in my mind and my knowledge, which makes me feel fine in different ways.

Friendship

Hamad
Mr. Leverett
Fluency Ex#2



Friendship is important to people; that means nobody can live without friends in life. There are many friends we can see in life. For example, some of them just need me for personal interest; after they finish and take what they need they will leave me alone. Others are different, they are like my brothers but are not my brothers. They are beside me when I need them. They help me when I need help, if I need any service they just do it for me. They respect me and respect my family and country. I remember some story, which is when I was in high school, two friends studied in the same class when they began school. Their names are Ali and Nasser. Ali was from South Saudi Arabia; Nasser was from east Saudi Arabia. Nasser had a big family and his father was sick; during the last level his father died and he got low grades, because he was busy with his father. His brothers and sisters were smaller than he was and his family income was low. He tried to find a job. However, he did not find it. His friend Ali’s family had a big company; when Ali learned Nasser’s story he helped Nasser by giving Nasser a job and gave Nasser a loan to improve his situation, feed his family and buy a house and car to make Nasser’s family happy. That story was a good example of friendship. I hope everybody could be similar to Ali.

Music

Music

In the modern world, music is a fashionable culture or style. Most of teenagers, young and older adults like music. There are many different kinds of musical styles such as pop, country and rock. My favorite style is pop music.

I love music because it does not make my life boring. Music also helps me to release stress due to studying, and it leads me to follow the fashionable direction. For example, when I hang out with my friends, we turn on the radio or CD player and dance together with music. Moreover, if I feel stress from studying, I will listen to music and forget a lot of unhappiness, which makes me more comfortable. Next, I can learn more fashionable information from musical singers such as clothes and musical style. Finally, music is an important part of my life and I like it.

How technology changes our life and communication

Gin

EAP2

Technology

As long as time has passed, our technology has been advanced more and more in many fields. It not only helps our life become easier but also changes it a lot in different ways such as traveling, shopping, communication and so on.

To travel from somewhere to somewhere else has come to feel shorter, although the distance has never changed on the map. People started traveling much more, and met friends more often. It was a good big jump for all people; however, until the advent of internet, it completely washed out our everyday life. We shop through our finger tips. We click a key, then we can watch movies. We can find anyone for chatting. The internet pulls everyone closer in communication and makes it easier to chat at any time, but makes people be social less and less. Especially, the majority of internet heavy users have hidden behind monitors. In Taiwan and Japan, we call these internet heavy users dwelling men or dwelling women. It means staying in the home all day long, doing everything, and doing work at home, shopping at home and neglecting social affairs. Those people who neglect a normal society become clammy and cold for everything. They lose their social abilities. They do not even know how to read a person’s mind by their face changes and body language. They may also believe everything is true which shown on internet. The worst thing is their population of dwelling men and women is increasing.

Technology’s progress makes our life easier such as by internet and makes us get more resources, and communicate with someone easily. If we are not able to control ourselves well and use the internet in a good way, the technology will endanger us.

The Moon Festival

EAP2
Gin

The Moon Festival

There are many festivals in Taiwan and most of them are interesting such as the Chinese New year, Rice Pudding Festival and the National Birthday. Of course, all Taiwanese can get days off with pay. It is a little bit hard to pick the one that I like most from them; however, if we only focus only on the fall season, I would like to say “Moon Festival”.

Moon Festival is a really important day for Taiwan. It has been counted by the farming calendar. It is celebrated on August 15th. Most Taiwanese have 2~4 days off and a bonus from the company for it. It is like a second New Year of the year for us because all of the Taiwanese will go back to their home to see parents and relations. It does not matter where we are. On this day, Taiwanese have a big feast, moon cakes and a special fruit in its eve. Some people will choose to B.B.Q outside. During the feast, we would like to tell others what we have done this year, what will be our goal in the future, and exchange some of our current information, job situation or just chat.

We usually do fireworks on the eve night of this day, too. In Taiwan, it is legal to do it anywhere. As you guess, it is also the busiest day for fire fighters. If you conceive in the Moon Festival that every shopping mall and department stores are closed on this day, you are totally wrong. In Taiwan, Taipei is a sleepless city. Those stores and companies operate 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, but they only take a short day off; it is just about 4 hours of break and then they reopen before 12 o’clock at night. After the dinner, we will probably go out together to watch a special TV program, to see a movie, to go to Karaoke for singing songs and just lay down on the grass or ground and watch the Moon and stars. These activities will be continuous until the mid night.

The Moon Festival has also a special meaning for me. It is my birthday, too. My family and relations always celebrate my birthday for me. That’s why I love to have the moon festival from all holidays.

A New Communication Way Among Youths (FE3)

It is doubtless that today younger people are influenced by computers, and that computers have become one necessary part in their lives. Youths meet people and seek information through the Internet. Moreover, they love to share their lives and characters with their friend in a virtual world. According to all these reasons, youths develop a way to communicate easily and quickly, in secret, and hide the side from their parents or family.

The one reason is that teenagers have their own individuality and sometime their thinking is hard to accept by adults. Therefore, spending time with the same generation is the only way to seek the identification for adolescences. However, some people claim that young students are confused with the new language and correction. In my point of view, it is hard to define how serious the problem is.

Another reason is for saving time. The meaning of communication is letting people who talk with you understand what you want to express. For example, when some people chat with their friends on MSN which is communication software that connects people who are in different places by the Internet, they use “U” as “you” or “coz” as “because”. In the present day, time is money. Definitely, using specific and short words instead of long one is a very helpful tip for saving time to do other things or chatting more.

In conclusion, the new communication way is accompanied with the advancement of the Internet. People can find one private place they can focus on without disturbance. The new language may be one part of my life in the future.

Holidays

In my country the holidays occur mostly from July to September when children from high school go for what we call a big vacation after finishing the school year and students from university get done with the academic year too. In this period, the weather becomes cooler and dryer, but people always enjoy this time for having some fun. Others organize some culture activities; they go camping, vacation, and even hiking. In addition, the state in that time often opens the center of activities called "Fikin", which means the International Funfair of Kinshasa, where there are diverse activities such as music every Sunday and Saturday by some famous musicians of the country, comedies, exhibition of arts, shopping, and selling of children's toys for plays and games, and advertisements of some cellular companies like Vodacom and Celtel.

Also, most parents take advantage of that moment to bring their children there for enjoying the holiday too and to visit some other places and things they have never seen before. During this moment in that center, some tribes prepare their traditional food for people to taste, for example, one tribe called Les Bayombe may prepare a mixture of rice, beans, and manioc leaves with pepper.

Technology Converts Language Skills

Using computers is very popular in Taiwan, even my 5 year-old nephew can use a computer. For young people, teenagers like to chat on-line or send a lot of interesting articles to each other. They prefer to use abbreviated words or funny words, which have similar sounds with the original ones and have different meanings sometimes. They feel joyful to use these new words to show their humor, cute and young style. However, if you are older than twenty-five years old and still use these words, people might think you are childish. Moreover, nowadays, teenagers use these words to communicate with friends and classmates for a long time and can’t use formal words. When they have examinations or writing works, they might use the wrong words, or have wrong idioms, which become big problems for young people. For example, using strangge words when applying to a school, finding a job or writing a public article, they would not get good grades or good job. After senior high school, there is a big examination for students to distribute to colleges in Taiwan. Writing is one part of the Chinese subject. Some students’ essays are so strange because they use abbreviated words or funny words. These students’ essays become examples in the News every year.

A Fall Holiday (fluency exercise 3)

In France, we have different fall holidays like in November “Toussaint”, February “Winter’s holidays”, and April “Paques”. I will talk about the winter’s holidays. During this holiday people generally go to the mountains to practice skiing. Generally people rent a chalet for a week, and during the week they go to ski and play in the snow.

The older adults and teenagers practice skiing or snowboarding or anything else that gives this sensation. For the younger people and their mothers, they play in the snow, do toboggan and some learn how to ski.

During this holiday, the symbol is more pleasure, relaxation, and forgetting all stress of the life in the city (work, school, etc). In France, we have a lot of speciality foods and it depends where we are, the region in France. Nevertheless, the most popular food during this season is “fondu savoyarde”; it’s a dish with cheese, Savoyard cheese melt, accompanied by potatoes and French pork butcher’s, and we drink wine with this dish.

Everybody likes this holiday in France. Teenagers go there to be together; adults discover the snow with their children. The mountains during this season are very pleasant.

Fluency Ex #3 (A Fall Holiday in Korea)

In Korea, we have Thanksgiving day which is called Chu-suk. The Korean Thanksgiving day is similar to the American Thanksgiving day but there are some differences.

When we think of Chu-suk, we always come across the full moon because the date of Chu-suk is August 15 in the lunar calender in which we can see the full moon. In the Chu-suk, the family gets along and greet each other. Because of busy work, we can’t meet each other, so meeting family is important during Chu-suk. Whenver Chu-suk comes, we wear the Han-bok which is made up of cotton or silk fabric. The representative food is song-pyon because we shape the dough for the song-pyon which is made up of rice cakes. After making it we steam it, then eat. It is so delicious that I can eat it all day long. When the night comes we go outside and make a circle and then we turn around as we sing a song.

Fluency Exercise#3

We know Internet is a great communication between people. Usually people choose an easy way to get their ideas. Also, we have general common words we use every day. I believe many people change their language because they are trying to do it quickly and make it easy. I am using and love that idea when I am using the Internet to save time and almost all of my friends use it. Usually when I am using Internet text, I try to shorten my words as much as I can. For example, I change some words like: you, “u”; are, “r”; and have, “v”. Sometimes, I like to use pictures, such as phone, angry or happy, smiley, small. Also when I am using Arabic type, I try to shorten my sentences. I think each language changes it.

Technology (Fluency exercise # 3)

With the development of technology, new communication ways have developed for people's convenience at the same time. For example, many people send e-mails and instant messages with computers and cell phones. However, there is an interesting fact some young people do not use correct grammar. That is they tend to make what they want to write be short. For example, some American teenagers say "ily," which means "I love you". Actually, this situation happens not only with young people, but also with some seniors. The more the world becomes industrialized, the more people want their life to be fast. So, they try to write what they want to say in a short time. Because of that, their sentences are changed into strange sentences. In addition, other people who do not use the strange language cannot understand what it means. Sometimes, it looks like a kind of secret language.

My Favorite Musical Group

EAP2
Gin

My Favorite Musical Group

Air Supply, a musical group, debuted in the 1970’s and I started to listen to their music at the age of 13. The group consists an English guitarist, Graham Russell, and an Australian vocalist, Russell Hitchcock. They are in the minority of groups, which are over 30 years old and then still publishes new albums, even now.

Their lyrics are all about love, easy to sing and simple to remember, in which are used many beautiful words and phrases. They usually present the listener with a deep mind. They made people show bravely their true feelings to their lovers in the shy ages. Air Supply’s music was soft and made people relaxed and comfortable, but not fall asleep in the Rock and Roll era. Russell Hitchcock, a singer in the group, has a special and higher and brighter pitch voice than others, and always brought people access into an empty and endless space.

I love this group; it not only performs outstandingly, but also it was the first I know and listen to when my country was so closed. I expect the musical group to keep on going and release new songs.

Video Games

I believe video games are one fun option for children and adults. Many children around the world follow video games, but there are many dangers to video games. Some of them may request violence. Usually children like to do what they see. When they see video games, it may affect them. I have a brother who likes it so much. I and my father buy it for him but we have to see it before we give it to him. I think the leader of the family should see the video games before children see it. I really like video games.

Technology

Technology has totally changed our language now. We do not use complete sentences when we are typing or chatting on the computer. For example, in my country we have to type all the phonetics to make a word. But now we do not do that often. Now, we just type one phonetic that has the same pronunciation or the same meaning instead. When we are chatting or typing e-mails to friends on the computer, we often do that. Aother example, we created some new as another vocabulary from just one English alphabet. We made a new meaning for them in our language. This way is also for convenience in typing. But now everyone says those new words often, whether they are typing or not. In my country we say “Q” to describe some foods that have much elasticity. Technology really changed our society a lot, but it also gives us convenience.

Technology

On the internet these days many people try to write in arabic language but by the English keyboard even if they know the English language. They use English numbers as replacing the Arabic letters if the keyboard is English. It has become popular to do such a thing. For example number 2 when they use it in a word they pronounce it as "A" and the number 6 they pronounce it like the letter "T" in Arabic language. Also, particularly the young people trt to avoid the old words and try to us a language that is used only between them. The emails are regular and people mostly use numbers to make their emails. For example, someone uses 86 and writes a word with it that means a time or history that is important for the person. Not just in the internet field, but also in speech, people use many words the old people do not use because of the process of technology. For example, there are many people who exchange some videos between themselves by a new technology which is the Bluetooth and this word is used a lot between them. This is considered a new word that was not used before ever.


Redha

Language Change - Fluency Exercise #3 -

Nowadays, using the Internet is the most popular communication tool in Korea. People from young children to adults use it. So we use a variety of new words. Korean words have too many derived words, so we can say something so many different ways with the same meaning, such as saying "hello", we can use hallo, hullo, and hollo instead; pronounciation is different but it could be the same meaning. However, there are some problems; for example teenagers who just started learning Korean and use the Internet a lot of the time with new chat words forget the normal way to write down Korean words. They just write down new words because they don't know what is wrong with them. It is a big problem in Korea; Korea is strong with information technology but that makes people sick from the Internet.

Most children and teenagers are addicted to the Internet; when they come home from outside, they start the computer and do the Internet. They do not exercise with their friends; they just like to play online games with strangers or their friends. They don't like to play something with a ball or something outside, so most of the children's average heights are taller than adults, but they are weak. That is a big problem now in Korea.

Fluency Exercise #3

Holiday
In Taiwan, we have many special and meaningful holidays. People like the holidays and enjoy celebrating them. We prepare food, join the actions for the public people, and families gather together. Moon Festival is the most important festival in the fall, and this particular holiday is about the timing. There are many festivals all about the sun and moon, because Chinese people depend on cultivation. People in China respect the weather and phenomena of the sky, so they celebrate the climate change regularly during the festivals. Moreover, on this day the moon is the most rounded in the whole year; it also means that the weather will become colder after this day. During Moon Festival, the whole family meets together and sees the bright and circular moon. Therefore, people eat unique cakes, moon cakes, and they have many flavors you can choose, like sweet, salt, and so on. Everyone likes eating and you can see the shop put different kinds up to sell. We usually sit outside, talk about anything, eat moon cakes and BBQ, and enjoy time with family. The Moon Festival is a festival that everyone likes in Taiwan.

Fluency Exercise #3

Korea's fall Holiday (Hangawi)

I'm from South Korea; so I would like to talk about a fall holiday in Korea. Also known as Hangawi, it is a day of thanksgiving for a good harvest. This is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea. Families traditionally receive new clothes on this day and they pay their respects to their ancestors with wine, rice cakes, and newly harvested fruits and grains. Most families come home from all across the country to celebrate that day together. The day is not complete without the half-moon shaped rice cakes called "songpyon". Activities are held such as making Tduk, which is Korea's traditional style of rice cake, or making Songpyon, which is another type of Tduk.

Fluency Ex #3

My country is South Korea. There is a big holiday in fall similar to Thanksgiving day in the U.S. It is called "Chu-sok" in Korea. It symbolizes thanks for the harvest. During this holiday, first, we usually hang out with all of our relatives and play traditional games. A tug-of-war is one of the traditional games. In this game, people pull a rope from each side. However, today people usually just hang out with relatives and talk a lot. Next, we prepare special food for ancestor-memorial service but we actually eat all of the food. These foods are very delicious because there are many tradtional foods. "Songpyun" is one of the traditional foods. It is made up of rice. Finally, many people visit their family graves at that time. When they go to their family grave, they bow and set the table for their ancestors.

Internet

Hamad
Mr. Leverett
Fluency Ex #3

Do you know how the first people discovered Internet? Do you know how the first person discovered e-mail? There are many questions people ask themselves about the Internet. The first people who discovered Internet were by American army who used it between centers to send and receive messages and information to soldiers. The American army gave it to the people and they improved it to make its operation very fast and clear. The first person who discovered e-mail was a young guy from India. He came to the United States to study computer science, and when he needed to connect with his family it was difficult, because technology was not advanced in the past. So, he made two e-mails, one to him and one to his brother. After he finished school he contracted with Microsoft to and some of its programs. Internet has many advantages, which are important. So, I will talk about some of them. First, the Internet is a way to help students and workers during work without loss of money and time. For example, when students have classwork or homework and they nedd to do it,so they just look for any websites to search by Google for information. When students look for homework’s writing, they just go to the Internet and click on Google and begin to look for any article or information they need to complete it; that means they will save money by not buying any books and save time by not having to go any place. Another example is that Internet helps workers during work. When workers in a company or government have a lot of files and information about their work, that they need to save, they just save files and information on computer that they need, and go back for them when they need them. Second, Internet makes people in a small circle, which means people have all the news around the world, what happened from the Middle East to North and South America. Another thing is that it helps countries to connect together by sending information. For example, when the students need study in a university in any country they should send their educational records to it to get admission, and they send it by Internet. When students need to go to study, they should have a visa to enter the country. So, the country, that will receive them it needs a visa, so, it connects with their country to send and receive their information; this requires Internet. Internet is important technology, nobody live without using it.

WEATHER CHANGING

Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East. It is considered as one of the hottest are in the world in the summer. In the winter Saudi Arabia usually gets few days of rain and it gets very near reachng zero degrees. However, Saudi Arabia has noticed changes in the weather. Recently, the temperature in Saudi Arabia has gotten higher than before during the summer. It was between 50 degrees and 55 in the hottest days, but now it is going beyond the 60s. Also, in the winter rain quantity is getting much more than before with frequent days which are considered uncommon in that area. the experts said the changes are one of global warming's results.

by khalil

Favorite singer and Musical group

My favorite singer is Koffi Olomide; he is from my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his musical group is called Quartier Latin International. I like this group because it is one of the most famous groups in my country. They show internationally the culture of our music. They are the first group in Africa to play a big concert in Bercy, one of the biggest activities room in France, which can receive more than 16,000 people. Furthermore, Koffi Olomide has created his own style of music that we call tshatsho, a soft and romantic music which almost every musician of the country, and even those of foreign countries, have tried to imitate.

When Koffi's music is playing most of the women are in joy, because he is the most famous artist in my country that many ladies and women like. They nicknamed him Papa Fololo, which means"flower father", and Papa Sucre, which means "Sweet father"; he has many of those sorts of nicknames. In 2005, during Kora, the biggest Afican musical festival that takes place in South Africa once per year, Koffi was elected as the best artist of the decade.

Actually, in his career he has earned 3 golden discs, and published sixteen albums under his name. Koffi and his musical group are counted among the most famous musicians in the African musical story. Some of the titles of his bands are: V12, loi, force de frappe, danger de mort, ultimatum, wake up,and maggie. But the list is long.

Environment (FE2)

Taiwan is my home country and I have spent almost my whole life in this island. When I was a young child, I remember it was very cold and rained a lot during the winter. Besides, we always called the rainy spell in early summer the plum rains.

However, it has changed forever and unexpectedly. People never need to wear heavy clothes in order to defend themselves from the cold. Moreover, the blooming of flower was out of order in that we have an early antheses. All of these symptoms showed us that global warming changed the weather.

Although most people do not think it is a serious problem, warmer weather can damage the agriculture and make farmers lack in their harvest then lose their jobs. All of these not only affect a particular group but all the humans.

In conclusion, people have to face this problem and find out solutions such as seeking new natural energy instead of oil that decreases the emission of carbon dioxide. Although I prefer the warm weather, I would like to see my country just like before.

environment

In the modern world, countries are developing so fast, while the environment is suffering from destruction badly in the developing world such as China, Thailand and India. In fact, countries want to strengthen their economy: they should be using natural resources to produce goods and services, but they forget to care about the balance between the environment and the economy. In addition, humans play an important role in destroying the environment. Moreover, people waste energy when they do not turn off the lights, do not shut off their computers and heat meals using the microwave. These activities let out harmful waves. As a result, there has been an increase in global warming, so people face the effects of climate change, which makes longer winters, rising sea levels and dangerous natural hazards such as floods, hurricanes and storms. On the other hand, animals are on the edge of extinction. Therefore, in developing countries, they should prevent destruction of the environment, and have a strategy to manage between their environment and economy.

Global Warming Effects in Taiwan

The weather has changed the last few years so the mountains are different now. There are many mountains on a small island, like my home country, Taiwan. As global warming became worse, the weather varied widely, which caused more heavy rains, storms, and typhoons than in the past. If made the weather warmer and warmer, and has resulted in large temperature differences when the weather shifts. Moreover, the mountain soil suffered from too much water, which caused trees to loosen and create landslides! I heard of landslides in geography class when I was a senior high school student. At that time, all of my classmates and teachers could not imagine the situation because we didn’t have this disaster in Taiwan before. However, a big landslide happened in 1999, which damaged a lot of houses, farms and roads and we lost many people.

That’s an example of my home country suffering from global warming. If the condition can’t be controlled on time, my home country might not have mountains and sink in several decades.

Technology and Our Life

In this modern century, new technology brings us convenience; we can talk with our friends at any time and any place by using cell phone. We can record our special life by using video cams. Internet is also very convenient in this century. We can communicate with our friends by email and instant massage. Chat rooms on the internet are also another way to make friends; however, new technology also brings some problems in our daily life.

Cell phones are very convenient for us but they also bother us. People can use cell phones anywhere. When we want to have a quiet place, cell phones always ring in this quiet place. For example, when we watch a movie in the movie theater, cell phones always drive us crazy when we want to pay attention to the movie. Chatting on the internet is very popular in our age. There are also dangerous crimes from the chat room. Because people use nicknames in the chat room when they talk with strangers, something bad will happen when they go out to see each other. So new technology can be good or can be bad. We have to keep the positive side and prevent the negative side. New technology must become our good friends.

By jeremy

Technology (Fluency Ex.2)

I have used a cell phone since 1997 and I really can’t live without it. In the first 3 months I was very careful in dealing with the machine itself. I thought it was something very strange to carry a phone in the school and to contact my family and my friends anytime I wanted. To be honest, I was also scared to use it because someone told me that this technology would destroy my mind. The call charge was very expensive, but now it is getting cheaper because it is not a new thing now. There are many positive points for using cell phone like you can contact the people anytime you want-when you walk, when you drive, and when you work, which means there is no special time or place you should stay in to call. One more advantage I faced myself is one day I lost my way in the desert in Saudi Arabia and I called one of my friends and he told me some signs to get to the right way and thank god I made it. On the other hand, there are some negative points with using cell phones like you can’t escape from people during your normal day. Sometimes when I look for some privacy during my normal day I really can’t have it because if I don’t answer my calls, my friends get angry and say, "You don’t want to contact us", but I don’t, in fact I just want to relax. Finally, the cell phone is something like the water in my life; I couldn’t live without it.

Fluency Exercise #2 (Music)

I like music and dance because I can forget my stress. When I listen to the beat and rhythm, I can feel alive. Besides, I like to see the dancer who shows their ability with dance.

My favorite group is the Pussycat Dolls. The team is made up of 5 women, and they are very good at dancing. I like Nicole who is the leader of the Pussycat Dolls because she has a boyish voice, which attracts me. They design their postures very well. Their songs are never boring, even listening to them everyday. The "Beep" is an expressive song; that song's melody is a little fantasy. They pursue the sexy image, and I think their goal came true.
http://www.pussycatdolls.com

Global Warming is a Serious Problem

The weather in my country did not have much change but the weather around the world is changing. In my country, it is always raining and sometimes it is very hot. Sometimes floods hit my country in a really bad way. Global warming is very dangerous because it can affect everybody in this world. For example, there are so many animals dying in the arctic because of the temperature rising. Animals like the polar bear are now endangered because this species is getting fewer and fewer. Moreover, the sea level on the earth is getting higher too because of the ice melting at the Arctic. This is very dangerous because it can cause floods and disasters in the future. Maybe people that are living in this world today do not realize it but in the future it will be really serious if they do not take this problem seriously. This is why global warming is very dangerous for the human race right now.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

FRIENDSHIP
friendship is the stongest relation that could happen for two people or more. It does not necessarily happen for non-relative people. It could be between brothers or sisters, also it can be between spouses. the reason it is the strongest relation is that it dose not depend on ay any kind of material desires. Althaugh, many people can not feel others pain or happiness.but good friends do. Good frineds never wait until you ask for help, because they know when they should be there for you. Furthermore, some good frineds care about their frineds more then theselves.yet,we can not know whether someone is a good frined or not unless we have experience with them.

by khalil

Environment (fluency exercise 2)

In France, the change of climate is a real problem and everybody knows that. During the last four years, the temperature has increased and the seasons have changed too, which means that during the spring season the temperature is like the temperature of the summer season. Also, we didn't really have a winter season, because the temperature was very hot for this season and we had little snow.

This change of weather had a bad impact on the French economy, and not just during the winter, but also during the summers for the French wine harvest crop was very bad. But it's not only an economic problem; this hot temperature has had a bad effect on the old people. Two years ago, a lot of old people died because of this increasing temperature.

So finally, the weather change in France is like other countries and that affects the economy, and increases the death rate of the old people, and this change comes from the increased pollution due to cars and factories. So it's important to react and quickly.

Technology (FE1)

The progresses of technology has changed our life style and improved our life quality. In my opinion, the using of computer is an important part in our daily lives. For example, the innovation of computers and the internet allows people to get new and useful information immediately. Today, students can grasp the content of textbook by the internet and need no papers.

In additional, from flight tickets to hotel reservations, from clothes to shoes, we can order anything we want by the internet. Moreover, people can make new friends who are from other counties in an easy way. Compared to the people who lived in the Middle Age, modern life is like a miracle from God.

However, there are some problems that accompany with the life improvement. For example, people are used to getting anything from the internet such as news, music and movies even relationships. The consequence of relying on the computers makes people rather spend their time with the computer than with families and friends. Moreover, it makes people separate from the real world. Although technology is an essential tool for all people, however, it is hard to say whether it is good for humans or not.

Seoul, the Biggest City in the World

Seoul, the heart of Korea, has 10,356,000 of population. Compared to all of South Korea's population, it is about one fourth. Due to the population of the city, Seoul has numerous problems. The air is stuffy almost every day, there are too many cars on the road, and the streets are full of trash. Lately the government of Seoul is trying to make it better; they have worked out the restorations of Chunggye Creek and Seoul Forest. Seoul accomplished two successful jobs, but still it needs a lot of work. Too many people in limited space caused increase of living cost, and it caused pollution of the city too. Too many cars and factories generate chemical gases, and the gases are all around people. The air pollution can cause some diseases such as asthma and allergies. We should make Seoul clean, and it needs the voluntary help of the citizens.

My favorite singer

My favorite singer is Hamasaki Ayumi. She is Japanese. I began to like her when I was a middle school student. Now, I am 20 years old, but I still like her very much. I began to like her because I found her songs are to be good listening. First, I just like her songs, but later I began to like all things about her. For me, she is very beautiful, fashionable and she is an excellent singer. I like her songs because I feel her songs are her own style of songs, having her personality and her style. An important point is that every song’s lyrics are written by her. And she also participates in every CD’s production process. That’s why I said she is an excellent singer. Of course, she has a very good skill for singing songs, also. Now, she is very famous and popular in the Asian area. I hope one day she can be very famous and popular in the world.

Technology (Fluency exercise #2)

Have you ever sent messages to your friend with your cell phone? It takes a very short time to deliver it to your friends and it is easy, also. It is so convenient that many people use cell phones for connecting with their friends. However, it causes some problems for teenagers who are in adolescence. Adolescence is the period that many teenagers cannot control themselves in. Because of that, it happens that many teenagers send messages to their friends whenever they want, even in class. So, it affects their school life and regular life in a negative way. Sometimes, they cannot attend class because they had chatted with messages with their friends until the morning. In addition, the cell phone causes an electron wave that causes people to have low eyesight. Actually, many teenagers have glasses because of the electron wave. These are some problems about using cell phones and sending messages.

Technology (Fluency Exercise #2)

In these days, there are many kinds of communications technology such as chat and cell phones. Those technologies not only make our life more convenient but also save time. However, it also brings big social problems, especially for people who don't have to hang out with other people. There is also the anonymity of being online. First, people can be alone in their houses if they use many communication technologies. Actually, they enjoy their life even if they don't meet other people, such as friends. It's very dangerous for their personality because it can cause a mental disease, so we shouldn't use communication technology every time. Second, online, anonymity is a huge problem because it allows someone to tell slander easily. For example, in my country, anonymous people damage many entertainers because they make a rumor online. Because of those problems, we have to make a new communication technology with consideration. For instance, a display phone is better than cell phone and chat but it's not sufficient. We need to try to make something that makes people hang out with each other. Also, the government should encourage companies that make communication technology to make new technology.

Environment - Fluency Exercise #2 -

- Environment -


Korea's weather has been changing for 10 years. Some facts are that animal species are changing such as bugs, fish, birds and so on. Many of them are coming from foreign countries. They cause new illness to Korean people. In the case of fishermen in the sea, they are almost bankrupt because of fish species changing due to global warming.

Moreover, our native animals cannot live with new species, because the new species are big and strong, and they don't know about their habitat. So native animals are killed by new species. New species are breaking down the ecological pyramid, such as: the frog from America eating our snakes; "Bass", the fish from America, eating everything under the water; it doesn't make any sense. Our native species can find just a small area or become extinct. We have some good things from global warming, but more things are bad for us. Those things are a big problem nowadays in Korea.

Fluency Exercise #2

Technology
Every young person has his/her own way to communicate or show themselves with convenient technology. For example, some people have blogs to put up pictures, and to write articles to put up to tell people what they think. However, I think it has become more and more convenient to show yourself excessively and post some sex photo or aggressive articles, which brings some important problems. The problems are dangerous and can't be ignored. The Internet is really unsafe to put personal photos or information on. Some people think that they can look it up and keep a password, but there are many people who have the skills to test the password or destory the safe protection. The Internet is not safe anymore. When other people get your personal information, crimes of stealing the identity of other people make the society worse. On the other hand, everyone can post their different views on the public Web; it is easy to bring some fright and quarrel. Not everyone can receive the different viewpoints from us. There are also many gossips to distract the truth. People spend a lot of time in the untruth or talk about the unnecessary things. New techology makes our lives more convenient and give us more ways we can show our opinions. When we use these ways , we have to pay more attention to protecting ourselves and reducing the terrible accidents that take place.

Fluency Exercise #2

My Favorite Music

I like all kinds of music, but nothing is more important than hip-hop music to me. Though I like all kinds of hip-hop groups, I really like the Drunken Tiger. They are a typical hip-hop group in Korea, and most people who like hip-hop music believe that they are a front-running group of the Korean musical world. I like to listen to Drunken Tiger because they often take a defiant attitude towards the rotten society and they always do it in their own way. Hip-hop never makes me bored and it dispels the gloom, as well. I listen to hip-hop music intensely while studying at home and working on the computer, even before going to bed. Hip-hop music is my friend and a tonic as well.

Drunken Tiger website: www.dt-love.co.kr

Cell Phone

Hamad
EAP2B
Fluency Exercise #1



Cell phone is an easy way to connect with many people. When people need to connect with their friends they could not, because they did not have good technology that allowed them connect in the past. However, people helped themselves by discovering cell phones. It has two advantages that make a lot of people use it. First, a cell phone has easy and clear technology that makes people understand it. For example, old and young people can use it, because it has numbers and two colors, green, which means it is on, and red, which means it is off. In fact, cell phone is smart technology, which allows people to use it without any problems. Second, many people can use it during their jobs. People use it when they are in companies or government. For example, a lot of workers use it with some technology; if they need to save any information, they just save it in the cell phone’s card. They can send files that they saved or copy by fax or any copy machine. Cell phone helps lot of people to connect with the world ; it improves their skills by using technology that it has and it helps them during their jobs. Nobody can live without a cell phone now.

technology

In the modern word, technology plays more important role in our daily life, and it gives people information conveniently and usefully. There are many different kinds of technologies such as computer, cell phone and internet. First, computer helps people to do much work, and it is easy to deal with working problems in that files can be collected and office paper can be made by computer. Second, cell phone is more common in the world; it is easy to contact with people such as friends, colleagues and customers. For example, people who are far from their hometown, or who miss their family and friends can not contact them. They can use phone that share their feelings very conveniently, and also they will not feel alone. Next, internet makes a great change for making our lives more fun. It can be used in a variety of ways, such as meeting, charting and shopping; people can do these online. For example, people can use internet to do their business and earn a lot of money. Moreover, people can buy anything because internet connect throughout the world, they can buy special things which are made outside their countries. In addition, people can chat with their friends online or they can make friends from different countries, and also they can see each other though video camera online. Finally, technology makes a big change in the world, and it improves our life with more advantages.

Environmental Problems (Fluency Ex. 1)

There are some serious environmental problems in Saudi Arabia. Pollution is one of the main problems in Saudi Arabia, especially in two cities, Riyadh and Yanbo, where the factories are. Saudi Arabia is not a green land based on the weather; I can say it is a yellow country where you can see a huge desert without trees or grass, because the weather there is really hot, and sometimes I feel like I am boiling under the sun. Moreover, in the summer we have like a sandstorm, which covers the grass and the green lands. In the last five years I have started to notice that the exhaust from cars is rising up, which makes the streets uncomfortable to drive or to walk in. One more important problem in Riyadh, which is the capital of Saudi Arabia, is the stuck streets or the rush hours, and unfortunately it continues from 7 am until 10 pm. The government in Saudi Arabia is trying to grow trees and palms, in order increase the green lands, and digging in the lands to get water from a deep point. And there are many people who try to buy lands around the cities and grow huge trees and palms to avoid the sandstorms or at least to decrease the consequences. Also, many programs on television are asking the government to build underground train transportation or to affect the buses transportation to face the matter of using the cars too much.

technology

In the past twenty years people around the world have not been able to communicate like they communicate right now. It is awesome that people in this modern world can communicate whenever they want, wherever they want. This is what technology can do for us. It makes our lives a better place to live. Moreover, right now people can communicate even if they are thousands of miles away. For example, I communicate with my parents back at home in Malaysia using the internet. It is so easy that we just go to the computer and online and we can have a conversation together. Furthermore, we even can see our face on the computer. The biggest change in my life that I couldn't imagine was that this time would come that we could communicate this easily. Wherever I go I can communicate with everyone. I have a cell phone that can communicate with everybody around me, even with my parents back in Malaysia. Also, even with the cell phone we can see our faces in the cell phone using the video call connection. This is awesome, that the technology in this world can do such a thing that makes people happy in everyday life.

fluency Exercise #1

In Korea, many people suffer from yellowsand, which comes from China. That makes people have illness. The government has a plan, which is planting trees in China.

We have floods every summer. Lots of people lose their house and family. The government gathers volunteers to help the flood sufferers. Nowadays, architects design houses, which have no room on the first floor.

We have trouble with the red tide. That killed the fish. The fishermen couldn't earn a living because of dead fish. The government throws the yellow soil on the red tide.

Friendship

In friendship it is better to have a friend who has good characteristics, such as kind, helpful, servable, christian, easygoing and respectful. When you have a close friend in whom you are sharing your entire secret, he becomes like your family member, and your friendship goes beyond itself. Therefore, a close friend assists you when you are in difficulties; he is close to during suffering, for example, when you lose your family member (father, mother, uncle, brother or sister). In addition, in the situation that you are broken down but you need money for doing something very crucial in that moment, a good friend may help you by giving or lending you some money to satisfy your needs. Having a good friend next to you, is one of the most important ways to be assisted in different ways. Also, a good friend is the one who understands you better; he can be the only person who makes your temper come down when you are in anger.

Environment ( fluency exercice 1)

In France, the biggest problem is the pollution produced by car, because of so many people using their cars for themselves to go to their job. This pollution produced by these people created some cancer for young children or other problems of breathing for the oldest people or people working outside, and has started to increase the temperature. So for all these reasons, the new president of France made in place a project to push people to use transportation like bus or trains because they are electric so no pollution is produced.

After that he put at our disposition a bike that we could rent for a few euros a day, a week, or a month or more if we want. All of this he had put in place a few months ago to decrease the pollution in the big cities like Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, etc.

To conclude, all the people in France are happy and agree about this project, which is very appreciated; now we hope that this project will influence other countries, because this problem is not only in France, it's all over the world.

The Influence of Technology in the Daily Life

In this modern time there are many technological inventions that you use every day. I think that computers and cell phones are influencing your life every day. I had my first computer when I went to university. Until now I use computer every day and a computer is a part of my daily life. I can’t leave the computer for a long time; otherwise, I will feel something is wrong. I also can’t leave my cell phone for one day, because I am afraid that I will miss someone who needs to contact me. These two inventions are very important for my daily life.

Computers also are very important for everyone because everything requires us to use computer, such as a supermarket, universities, all kinds of companies, and any kind of stores. Computers make them more officious in their work and help them make more money. Cell phones also change habits of connecting with other people. People can walk and talk to their friends at the same time. They also can connect with other people anyplace. So these two technological productions are very important for everybody. They influence people so much in daily life.

By Jeremy

The changing of communicating technology

The development of technology is changing so fast. As I remember, the telephones were dialed in a circle. After that kind of telephones, there were push-button phones. It’s really convenient to use telephones to talk with others far away from you. The fee is cheaper and cheaper as time goes by. Even now we may communicate with families and friends overseas, and we can see each other by web-cam with no fee. Communication can be done by internet work, which was hard to imagine until it appeared.

For my parents and old relatives, they were so surprised to talk to me with computer and they wanted me to guess who was speaking in the first call. In the old generation, communicating technology is probably the biggest change in their life. Of course, the great change has also surprised me.

Fluency#1

Many people take a long time to choose good friends. There are many types of friends between the people. The main point is personality of the person. I have to sit and meet much time with my friends before I choose them. One important thing we can look at is trips. Trips usually let us see who is a good friend. Also, when we are working in one place, we should choose the best friends and stay with them. Sometimes you may meet with someone who has a bad temper. You have to leave her or him quickly. The person who does not have experience, they should ask their father.

Fluency Exercise #1

It's important to me that a characteristic of a good friend is friendliness. No one wants his/her close friends to be hard to communciate with; moreover, the kind person is popular with everyone. My close friend and I take care of each other and we are willing to spend time for each other. if I am sick or have trouble, my close friend can sacrifice her time to help me and give me help. I had a traffic accident, and my friend was worried about me and took care of me all day long. Some people are selffish; however, I don't think this a characteristic of a close friend. I think the close friend can give you a real recommendation and just want you to be in a better situation. Although the advice is too serious for me, my close friend still gives it to me and help me to solve the problem. Finally, whatever decisions I make, my close friend can always help me and go with me. We believe in each other do the best and the right thing. These are the characteristics of a good friend.

Environment.. Exercise#1

In my country, there are many environmental problems such as air pollution and water pollution. First, the air pollution is serious in my country. Actually, the air is very dirty because of air conditioners and many cars in the city. Then, in the countryside, air is also dirty because of much companies' smoke. Second, we have water pollution. We can't drink normal water in the countryside. We have to buy water to drink or buy a machine that changes the water condition to better. Because of these problems, the government tries to solve these problems every day. For example, the government encourages citizens to recycle their products and makes laws to reduce the use of personal cars. Then, people also try to help these problems. For instance, they separate their waste and throw it away. If we don't try to solve that, we're going to get many big problems. Also, it will affect people's health later. Thus, we have to think about making a good environment.

Friendship

At first, the characteristics of good friends should match each other. They should tolerate each other, and communicate with each other. And the important thing is they must help each other. Generally when people get problems they usually will go to get help from a friend. And if they are not good friends sometimes they will get rejected, but if they are good and close friends usually people can get help. Good friends usually will do their best to help friends to solve problems. And another important thing is good friends will listen to friends. Sometimes friends will feel sad and depressed. Good friends will listen to a friend's feeling and give them some advice to help them get better. Therefore, since common friends will not to do these for each other, at least a good friendship should follow these details first.

Technology (Fluency Exercise #1)

Chongmin Jeong

In Korea, there is a high quality of technology so that it helps us communicate with each other easily. Actually, because Korea is not really a big country and does not have enough resources for industry, many people have considered the technology industry. As a result, a high level technology could be developed in a short time. Recently, people can communicate with each other with cell-phones that have a lot of abilities. Most of them can play movies or TV shows. It was impossible to watch any videos or TV shows when I wan a child. Moreover, if my mother wants to see me from a distance, I can send my picture so that my mother could see my face on the phone. It is so convenient that people can communicate with each other. Also, people can send the picture to not only their mother, but also their own web blog with wireless. With this convenient way, people can decorate their own blog easily.

Fluency Exercise #1

People have different opinions about a good friend. Some people choose friends with whom they have a lot in common. Others make friends with people much different from themselves. I think that a good friend is similar to me, and "a friend in need is a friend indeed." A good friend also has much in common interests with me. A good friend guides me into the right path when I have a bad habit or a difficult problem. For example, I have had 5 good friends for 11 years. They and I always try to help one another, and I also try to act in good faith for them. Although we live different lives, we always desire to be happy with one another. When my grandmother died of disease, my friends mourned my grandmother's death like their grandmother's death, and they always defended me from sadness. I believe that I can make a good friend if I always trust the friend and I devote myself to the friend.

Fluency Exercise #1 -Technology-

Nowdays, many people use communication technology in their life, but I do not much like those things, because of addiction.

First of all, people use cell phones anywhere and everywhere. It makes life easy in that they can have conversations anywhere. So they always take it in their pocket. But here is some problem; some people can't live without cell phones; if they left cell phones at home or somewhere, they can't do anything.

Next, we can use messenger system by computer. So we can meet people from anywhere. We can do many things with messengers, but some bad people use messenger for their own purpose such as kidnap or rape. That is such a big problem.

Third, we can use text message. Some people do not much like to take a call, so some of them use text messages. That is an easy way to send their own emotion or what they want to talk about, but they will be lazy.

In conclusion, they have many kinds of communication technology in the world; those things make people's lives easy, but by using them too much, people will become addicted to them. We should take care of those things for ourselves. We have to handle those things for our healthy life.