“Asia's Challenge 2020” Essay Prize

    DESCRIPTION

    What is the most important challenge facing Asia over the next decade? Why? What should be done about it?

The best answer in 3,000 words or less will win a prize of 2,500. Two runners-up will be awarded prizes of 1,000 each. These three prize winners will be invited to Singapore for an expenses-paid awards ceremony. The winning articles will be posted on Time.com.

    PURPOSE

    The main purpose of the essay prize is to generate fresh ideas for tackling key challenges to Asia's continued competitiveness and development, as well as encourage young professionals to make an impact on public policy and business in Asia.

    SELECTION CRITERIA

    The essay will be judged according to creativity, innovation, rigor of research and writing, as well as achievability of idea. It can be focused on one or more areas relevant to Asia, such as macro-economics, business, international relations, trade and investment, education, healthcare, urban development, science and technology, and energy and the environment. The essay must be written in English. It should not have been previously published in English in a publication with broad international circulation.

    CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS

    The candidate authoring the essay must be under 32years of age as of December 31, 2010. The candidate must be an Asian national.

    SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

    The essay should be submitted electronically to prize@asiabusinesscouncil.Org. by August 31, 2010. Prize winners will be announced in September 2010.

    The submission should contain the candidate's full name, nationality, and month and year of birth. The essay should include a title and word count.

    Four smart ways to help build your children's vocabulary

    “Johnny next door can name his colors, but Gloria can hardly even say her own name. What am I doing wrong?”{#blank#}1{#/blank#}But the good news is that children really are born to absorb the language around them. The following are some ways to help build your child's vocabulary.

Never use baby talk

    Young children understand so much more than they can initially repeat.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Of course you are not going to start speaking to a baby in difficult English, but it's important to speak to them the way that you'd speak to anybody else. Even if your child can't or doesn't use the same vocabulary when he talks, it is helping his language development.

Follow your child's lead

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Trying to turn her attention away from the clown (小丑) so that you can point out the word for “elephant”, is not only frustrating, but also it's probably not doing much good. Instead of driving the conversation, you'll be more successful in making words “stick”, if you look at what your child is paying attention to.

Encourage any kind of reading.

    Even young kids who haven't yet learned to read will memorize books that they've often heard. So go ahead and have your child “fill in” words as you're reading together.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}For older children who are already readers, it's important to let them choose their own reading material.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    At two years of age, some kids may only use about 30 words while others may be able to use 300 words. But there's very little evidence that those children with 30 words at age two will have worse outcomes by the time they are five or six years of age.

A. So don't talk down to them.

B. Correct pronunciation gently.

C. Don't panic if your child is slow to talk.

D. It will help with their vocabulary development.

E. That sort of comparison can lead to a lot of parental anxiety.

F. Let's say you're taking a trip to the circus with your young daughter.

G. The best thing that parents can do is really just talk to their children all the time.

Hobbies Help Cure Addiction to the Internet

    While some parents have expressed concerns about the amount of time their children spent surfing the Internet during the summer break from school, it wasn't a problem for Yin Qiming.

    Instead, the 37-year-old Shanghai resident and his daughter divided their vacation between cyberspace and the 8-year-old's other interests.

    “My daughter has many hobbies and I and her mother respect her choices, so we accompany her to classes she enjoys, such as learning to play the drums and drawing,” he said.

    “She loves to play outside with her friends, so she doesn't think the Internet is a must-have thing in her life.”

    Yin added that he rarely imposes a time limit on his daughter's online activity.

    “She sometimes uses WeChat (a popular instant-messaging tool) on my mobile phone, but only to contact her mother,” he said. “Once she has her own plans every day and realizes that the internet is just a part of life, she won't become addicted to it.”

    Li Lin, a primary school teacher from Liaoning province, expressed a similar opinion.

    “We do some homework online, including reciting stories, and the children use the Internet frequently every day of their lives,” she said, noting that the children's online activity is limited to 30 minutes a day at school.

    “We should make better use of the Internet to provide children with more knowledge and help them to grow up,” said Li, who has a 10-year-old son.

    The key to preventing children, especially those at primary and middle schools, from becoming addicted to the Internet is to limit the time they spend online and to ensure that they know cyberspace cannot replace traditional forms of communication, she said.

    Mao Feizhu, a psychologist from Fujian province in southeast China, said people overestimate the influence of the internet.

    “Many people, even some parents, believe the Internet plays a big role in our daily lives, and many things can be completed online, but that's not completely right,” she said.

    “We can use social applications to talk or play basketball games, and even share what we are thinking about, but sometimes it's impossible for our emotions to be accurately reflected in this way. What children need is emotional communication and real physical exercise. After all, love cannot be bought on the net,” she said.

    Perhaps, the best way to stop young netizens spending too much time online is to encourage their other interests but also accompany them when they go online: “We should use the Internet, not become its slaves.

    Internet slang refers to a variety of slang languages used by different people on the Internet. It is difficult to provide a standardized definition of Internet slang due to the constant changes made to its nature. However, it can be understood to be a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often begin with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate(补偿)for small character limits. Internet slang consists of a number of different ways of speaking, sub-languages, expressions, spelling techniques and idioms that have obtained most of their meaning on the Internet.

    Love it or hate it, there is no escape from Internet slang. It has become popular among the teenagers. Just like US teenagers use “LOL”(laugh out loud) when commenting on a funny video, China's post-00s generation, a group born between 2000 and 2009, like to use “XSWL” (laughing my head off). Acronyms(首字母缩略词) and shortened expressions may be popular as they offer shorter ways of communicating. For teenagers, they could also allow them to communicate in their own way.

    Understanding the most common acronyms and texting symbols can help to decode and decipher any text message, email or instant message online. Here are some of the most popular symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms you are likely to stumble upon when texting or receiving messages and chatting on line. OMG: Oh my God; BRT: Be right there; TTYL: Talk to you later; JK: Just kidding; G2G: Got to go; NMU: Not much, you? RBAY: Right back at you; IDC: I don't care.

    Some people think that Internet slang affects the language negatively. However, Melbourne University linguist Rosey Billington doesn't agree.

    “When you are able to use language in a creative way, you show you are linguistically knowledgeable because you know the language rules well enough to use words in a different way.”Billington told News.com. Au .Her view is supported by two linguists, Lauren Spradlin and Taylor Jones.

    Does Using Technology in the Classroom Help College Students?

    Almost anywhere in the world, you are likely to find people doing the same thing in public places, on trains and buses or wherever else you look. They spend their day looking at laptop computers, smartphones or other personal electronic devices. They are thinking mainly about their electronic devices, and not much else.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} More and more college students have no problem walking into a classroom and immediately opening their laptops. Others may spend an entire study period with a smartphone in hand. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But recent research suggests that using technology during class time may harm college students' ability to remember and process the subject material they are learning.

    Arnold Glass, a professor in Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and a student researcher investigated the issue of divided student attention. During half of their daily class periods, the students in their study were permitted to use any electronic device as much as they wanted. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The students' academic performance was measured in several ways throughout the semester. They took a short test every day, longer tests every few weeks and a final exam covering all the class material. The researchers found that the average daily quiz results showed no evidence of harmful effects from the use of technology. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They showed that all the students performed poorly on questions covering material taught on days when they were permitted to use technology in the classroom.

    Glass says that it shows the use of electronic devices in the classroom prevents students from processing information. The students hear what the professor is saying. But they might be buying things online or reading unrelated emails at the same time, for example. So they are not thinking deeply about the subject matter as they are hearing it. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. The same can be said about the world of college education.

B. However, the average results of the larger tests and final exam told a different story.

C. And that, Glass says, makes it harder for the information to enter their long-term memory.

D. Technology, in general, is not the only way that students find to distract themselves in class.

E. But even if technology is helpful to some students, there are times when it needs to be turned off.

F. Some students argue that the increasing use of technology can have many helpful effects on society.

G. During the other half, researchers closely watched them to make sure no one was using any technology.

 German artist HA Schult is an unusual artist who uses trash(废物) to make sculptures. "We are living in the time of garbage," says Schult. "I created a thousand sculptures of garbage. They are a mirror of ourselves." Here, Schult was talking about his 1,000 trash sculptures in the form of humans. He first exhibited them in 1996 in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

"They are social sculptures," he explains. "They are not only sculptures for the eyes. They are sculptures to spread the idea that we live in the time of garbage." So far, Schult's social sculptures have been on show in Paris, in Moscow's Red Square, on the Great Wall of China, and in the desert next to the Pyramids of Giza near Cairo.

 HA Schult's work is unforgettable. Although his work has had a big influence on the art world, Schult remains modest about his creations. "Artists have to learn every time. We are not important. All that counts is the time in which we are living."

 Trash art has been around for years. But it seems that only the popular artists are regarded as true artists when working with trash. Why can't common people be considered artists when they use the same things and change them into some form of personal art? Maybe it's because we all have our own preset ideas of what art is and isn't, or whom artists are or should be.

 You can be an artist like Schult if you try. Look at used metal cans. What might be done with them? Imagine them in any number of new uses, or imagine them simply as an art form. What about boxes or clothing? Boxes can usually serve as new storage containers and houses for pets. And clothing? Imagine taking old clothes and turning them into hats or hanging organisers.