China's one child policy

I read an interesting article some time ago in a newspaper. I had already heard about this theme but I did not know which effects it would have on the population and why it had been introduced - I am talking about "China's one child policy".

The official program initiated in the late 1970s by the central government of China. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China's enormous population. Since the Republic had been established in 1949, China promoted the use of birth control and family planning. In the years after 1949 it was voluntarily - everybody could decide on their own whether they wanted to have one child or two or three children. In the late 1970s China approached the one-billion mark and the government decided to implement a law reducing the number of new born children. Beforehand families with only one child had certain advantages. The education of their child was free as well as health care and they had to pay lower taxes.

Those who had two or more children were punished in a certain way. They even had to pay higher taxes and were not supported by the government at all. Many families, especially men, wanted to have a boy to carry on the name of the family. As a result of this wish many girls were left on the streets or even killed. A statistic shows that about 90% of all aborted are female. The result of the policy has been a general decline in China's birth rates. The policy brought along another problem. The gap between the number of females and males widened and there are not enough girls for marriage available now.

Smoking

Have you ever thought about smoking and its risks? Do you smoke regularly or only when you are out and about with friends?


I personally have never even tried to smoke a single cigarette. Why? First of all because I do not want to die from lung cancer or any disease related to smoking. I have never seen any advantage in being a smoker. In my opinion smoking should conflict with your common sense. On the one hand you pay a lot of money for the cigarettes and on the other hand they will cause diseases you might die from. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the human body and causes !87! percent of lung cancer deaths. There are many other diseases smokers are likely to get such as an emphysema, a heart disease or a stroke. Women who smoke are likely to suffer from pregnancy problems - the baby could die from sudden infant death syndrome.


There are multiple reasons why people start to smoke: 

1. Stress - when people are stressed at work or at school they often seek for a substance or element to calm them down

2. Peer pressure - it often happens at schools. Some of the older students smoke regularly and force younger students to try it at least one time. But once can be enough to start smoking. 

3. Boredom - I have talked to many friends and some of them told me that they had started to smoke because they did not know what to do in the afternoon when they were at home alone


Cigarettes contain nicotine which is an addictive drug. If you smoke a cigarette the nicotine is absorbed into the bloodstream and stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone adrenaline. Blood pressure is increased as well as the heart rate. The nicotine increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which affects the brain pathways that control reward and pleasure. Addiction is the result of smoking.


Are you still convinced of smoking now?

Progress check 1

This Friday, 8th November 2013 was not a normal day for me. I got up early in the morning, had a shower and focused again on learning for the first progress check. I revised all the grammar exercises and concentrated on the vocabulary again. I learned all the collocations and the synonyms of the words in the glossary and I went through my paragraph to avoid the mistakes I usually tend to make. 

I have not been nervous in the morning but the excitement grew with every passing hour until we could finally step into the classroom, have a seat and concentrate on the test. I took a deep breath and started to work. I was quite surprised by the table with the British and the American version of the words and unfortunately I could not remember all of them. 

The most difficult part of the test for me was the paragraph. I tried to write a cohesive text without using any linking words and I tried to elaborate the requested main arguments. I hope that my test will be sufficient and if not I will work even harder for the second progress check. 

My preferred dictionary

Having looked at a number of monolingual dictionaries in class this week, I have decided to buy the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. At the beginning the dictionary provides a short overview of its structure and explains how to use it correctly. It is a dictionary I can warmly recommend as it provides information on every single word. For me as a language learner it is important to know in which context I may use the words that I look up in the dictionary. For this reason I need to know for example whether a noun is countable or uncountable if I want to write a correct text or article. It is also very important for me to know whether a verb is transitive or intransitive. Every entry also comes with one, two or three stars behind it, indicating how often a word is used in general. I could not find any disadvantages to this dictionary and I will buy the Macmillan as it will be a great support for a language learner like me. 

Describing ourselvers as language learners

Dear Fiona,

This letter aims at giving you an overview about me as a language learner. The first time I got in touch with a foreign language was at the Secondary Modern School where I was taught by a very motivated and professional teacher. Later on, at the Secondary Vocational School for Commerce and Tourism I was able to improve my English and also learned Italian. I always wanted to work on texts, to write essays and summaries to improve my writing, but unfortunately she focused on many other exercises apart from that. My English teacher mainly talked in German during our English lessons and although we worked on grammar I personally never felt challenged by the tasks. The important thing for you to know is though that I tried to progress on my own by reading books and magazines and watching films in English. I tried to grab every opportunity to have a conversation with a native speaker or another English-speaking person. One of my weaknesses is that I probably have a more limited vocabulary than others at my age due to the facts I already mentioned above. Nevertheless I have chosen English for two main reasons: it is a vital skill in our society nowadays and I want to ameliorate my writing and talking. In conclusion I would like to point out that I am highly motivated and that I will try to accomplish given tasks thoroughly.

All the best,

Lukas 

"To be honest I was a bit shocked when Fiona brought the letter along with her corrections. I know that I am not really good at writing texts but I did not know that I made so many mistakes. I am glad that Fiona has given me a professional feedback, because this is the only way I can improve my writing in English. My aim is to avoid the mistakes I tend to make and to hand in a more professional version next time."