China is the biggest market in the world, and many countries such as Germany, the USA, the UK and Russia do a lot of business in China. Let's have a look at some important tips to help you be successful when dealing with these nationalities.

    First, you must be punctual (准时的) with Germans. Even 5 minutes late makes a bad impression. Being punctual is also very important in the USA. In the UK, it's important to be punctual for business meetings, but nobody expects you to be on time for a social event. Half past seven really means a quarter to eight, or even eight o'clock! With Russians, you should always be on time, though it is not unusual for them to be one or even two hours late!

    It is best to dress formally and wear dark colours when you meet people from all the four countries. In Russia, designer clothes are very common. Don't be surpri if you go to an office in the UK on a Friday and find everyone wearing jeans. Many companies have “dress down Friday”, when people wear casual (随便的) clothes.

    In Germany, first names are only used by family members and close friends, so be prepared to use titles and last names. In the USA you will usually be invited to use first names almost immediately. The British are quite informal and using first names in business is more and more common, especially among younger people. In Russia, however, nobody uses first names, so use titles and last names.

    In conversation, the British and the Americans value humour, and both like to talk about sport. The weather is also a good topic of conversation with the British and the Americans, but avoid talking about politics. In Russia, say positive（肯定的） things about their country, but avoid making complaints. The Germans, however, prefer to get straight down to business!

    So, use these tips, and you will be on your way to a successful international business career!

New Zealand Education

Compulsory Education

Compulsory education starts at age 5 and ends at age 16.

Class Size

The number of students in a class is 30 students.

Classrooms

    Students from Years 5-8 stay in the same classroom for most subjects and move to other classrooms only for specific subjects. In Year 9, students take some courses With their homeroom class and some optional classes with students from different classes. Starting from Year 10, students no longer stay in the same classroom most of the time. They go to different classes according to their own choices and abilities.

Term Dates

    A school year starts in January and ends in December. There are four terms in a year. Each term is about 10 weeks.

Class Schedule

    School starts at around 8:30 and ends at 15:15. There are only five periods a day and a period is about an hour long. In the morning, around 10:30, there will be a 20-minute break when students usually have some snacks during this time. There is a lunch period at around 12:40 for about an hour.

Teachers

    Teachers have to teach students of different year level at the same time. Most teachers teach students from at least three to four different year levels. Besides, quite a number of teachers teach more than one subject. This is because the fact that many courses are optional.

    If Confucius（孔子）were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.

    While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal.  Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.

    But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.

In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy（哲学）. Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantages of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Westerners philosophy.  Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese.  So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States.

    Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers. 

    So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.

    Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.

    As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.

Dear Maya Shao­ming,

    To me, June 6, 1990 is a special day. My long­awaited dream came true the minute your father cried, "A girl！"You, little daughter, are the link to our female line, the legacy of another woman's pain and sacrifice 31 years ago.

    Let me tell you about your Chinese grandmother. Somewhere in Hong Kong, in the late fifties, a young waitress found herself pregnant(怀孕) by a cook. She carried the baby to term, suffered to give it birth, and kept the little girl for the first three months of her life. I like to think that my mother—your grandmother—loved me and fought to raise me on her own, but the daily struggle was too hard. Worn down by the demands of the new baby and perhaps the constant threat of starvation, she made the painful decision to give away her girl so that both of us might have a chance for a better life.

    Having a baby in her unmarried state would have brought shame on the family in China, so she probably kept my existence a secret. Once I was out of her life, it was as if I had never been born. And so you and your brother and I are the missing leaves on a family tree.

    Do they ever wonder if we exist?

    Before I was two, I was adopted by an Anglo couple. I grew like a wild weed and grasped all the opportunities they had to offer—books, music, education, church life and community activities. In a family of blue­eyed blonds, though, I stood out like a sore thumb. Moody and impatient, burdened by fears that none of us realized resulted from my early years of need, I was not an easy child to love. My mother and I conflicted countless times over the years, but gradually came to see one another as real human beings with faults and talents. Lacking a mirror image in the mother who raised me, I had to seek my identity as a woman on my own. The Asian American community has helped me regain my double identity.

    But part of me will always be missing: my beginnings, my personal history, all the delicate details that give a person her origin. Nevertheless, someone gave me a lucky name "Siu Wai". "Siu" means "little", and "Wai" means "clever". Therefore, my baby name was "Clever little one". Who chose those words? Who cared enough to note my arrival in the world?

    I lost my Chinese name for 18 years. It was Americanized for convenience to "Sue". But like an ill­fitting coat, it made me uncomfortable. I hated the name. But even more, I hated being Chinese. It took many years to become proud of my Asian origin and work up the courage to take back my birth name. That, plus a little knowledge of classroom Cantonese, is all the Chinese culture I have to offer you. Not white, certainly, but not really Asian, I try to pave the way between the two worlds and bridge the gap for you. Your name, "Shao­ming", is very much like mine—"Shao" means "little". And "ming" is "bright", as in a shining sun or moon. Whose lives will you brighten little Maya? Your past is more complete than mine and each day I cradle you in your babyhood, generously giving you the loving care I lacked for my first two years. Sweet Maya, it doesn't matter what you "become" later on. You have already fulfilled my wildest dreams.

    I love you,

Mummy

    Psychology has a new application in the field of medicine. Many doctors, together with their patients, are looking for alternative methods of treatment of physical problems. In large hospitals, modern therapy(疗法)seems to focus on the physical disease. Patients may feel they are treated like broken machines. Some doctors have recognized this as a problem. They are now using psychological therapy, in which the patient is working with the doctors against the disease with the help of medicine. The patient does not wait for the medicine and treatment to cure him or her, but instead the patient joins in the fight.

    The doctor knows that a disease affects a patient's body physically. The body of the patient changes because of the disease. He is not only physically affected, but also has an emotional response to the disease. Because his mind is affected, and his attitude and behavior change. The medical treatment might cure the patient's physical problems, but the patient's mind must fight the emotional ones. For example, the studies of one doctor, Carl Simonton, M.D., have shown that a typical cancer patient has predictable attitudes. She typically feels depressed, upset, and angry. Her constant depression makes her acts unfriendly toward her family, friends, doctors, and nurses. Such attitudes and behaviors prevent recovery. Therefore, a doctor's treatment must help the patient change that. Simonton's method emphasizes treatment of the "whole" patient.

    The attitude of a cancer patient receiving radiation therapy, an X-ray treatment, can become more positive. The physician who is following Simonton's psychological treatment plan suggests that the patient imagine that he or she can see the tumor(肿瘤)in the body. In the mental picture, the patient "sees" a powerful beam of radiation like a million bullets of energy. The patient imagines the beam hitting the tumor cells and causing them to shrink. For another cancer patient, Dr. Simonton asks him to imagine the medicine going from the stomach into the bloodstream and to the cancer cells. The patient imagines that the medicine is like an army fighting the diseased cells and sees the cancer cells gradually dying and his blood carrying away the dead cells. Both the medical therapy and the patient's positive attitude fight the disease.

    Doctors are not certain why this mental therapy works. However, this use of psychology does help some patients because their attitudes about themselves change. They become more confident because they use the power within their own minds to help stop the disease.

    Another application of using the mind to help cure disease is the use of suggestion therapy. At first, the doctor helps the patient to concentrate deeply. The patient thinks only about one thing. He becomes so unaware of other things around him that he is asleep, or rather in a trance(催眠状态). Then the physician makes "a suggestion" to the patient about the medical problem. The patient's mind responds to the suggestion even after the patient is no longer in the trance. In this way, the patient uses his mind to help his body respond to treatment.

    Doctors have learned that this use of psychology is helpful for both adults and children. For example, physicians have used suggestion to help adults deal with the strong pain of some disease. Furthermore, such treatment may help the patient with a chronic diseases. Suggestion has been used to change children's habits like nail­biting, thumb­sucking, and sleep­related problems.

    Many professional medical groups have accepted the medical use of psychology and that psychology has important applications in medicine.

The gentle giants of our oceans are whale sharks. It's the biggest whale shark and can reach as long as 41. 5 feet, and these amazing creatures are not only the biggest sharks, but they are also biggest fish of any kind.

Whale sharks have a lifespan of 70 years on average, and they spend their days gently swimming in the warm and tropical oceans.

Their teeth are the size of match heads, and while their jaws could be powerful, they have never tended to attack humans. Their teeth play no role in eating, as plankton (浮游生物) does not need to be chewed. They are to be found in numbers in the warmer oceans and they prefer the deep waters of open oceans. They tend to travel alone.

Several times a year they gather together in certain spots where plankton is plentiful. Those areas are all within a 30°north or south latitude from the equator. Sadly whale sharks are targeted by commercial fisheries at those spots.

How easy it must be for the fishermen to catch those beautiful creatures who can only swim at 3. 5 miles per hour! So great a loss in numbers have they suffered that whale sharks are now listed as one of the endangered species. Some countries have started to take measures to protect the whale sharks from extinction.

The Philippines, India and Taiwan have all banned the fishing, selling, importing and exporting of whale sharks for commercial purposes. However, the law doesn't seem to be effective because the hunting and killing still goes on today, especially in Taiwan and the Philippines. Each whale shark can fetch around $21,000. In parts of Asia they are known as the "money shark".

The mighty dollar wins again at great cost to our habitat, and we will not know what we have lost until we have lost it forever. Therefore, it is high time for us to do something for the whale sharks.