There are some special traditions in Hawaii. People there are very friendly and always welcome visitors. They give visitors a lei, a long necklace of beautiful fresh flowers. Men wear bright flowered shirts, and women often wear long flowered dresses.
     In Hawaii you may find some traditional Chinese  Japanese and Philippine holidays  Of course  many holidays are from the United States. People call Hawaii the Aloha State. Aloha means both “hello” and “good--bye”. It also means “I love you ”.
     Usually when people from different countries, races or traditions lives together, there are serious problems. But in Hawaii there are few problems, people have learned to live together in peace.
     Hawaiians earn most of their money from tourists, most of whom come from the mainland and from Japan. The families of the first people who came from the U.S. mainland own the important banks and companies. Japanese are  also starting business and buying more and more land.

    When you are learning English, listening, speaking and writing are important, but reading can also be very helpful. When you read, you can not only learn some new words, but also you can learn how to use these English words. When you read, it gives you a good example for writing.

    Good reading tips:

    Try to read at the right level(水平). Read something that you can (more or less) understand. If you need to stop every three words to use a dictionary, it is not interesting.

    Try to increase the number of your new words. If there are four or five new words on a page, write them in your notebook. But you don't have to write them while you read. Instead, try to guess their meaning as you read: mark them with a pen. Then come back when you have finished reading to look them up in a dictionary and write them in your own vocabulary book. Then try to remember them.

    Try to read regularly. For example, read for a short time once a day. Fifteen minutes every day is better than two hours every Sunday. Fix(固定) a time to read and keep to it. You could read for fifteen minutes when you go to bed, or when you get up or at lunchtime.

    Read what interests you. Choose a book or a magazine about a subject that you like, because you are going to spend time and money reading it. So, choose an interesting book. You can also read newspapers. There are many English newspapers in China. For example, 21st Century Teens. It is easy enough for you to understand it. There is something interesting in it.

    When you are learning English, you find it not clever to put an English sentence, word for word, into your own language. Take the sentence "How do you do?" for example. If you look up each word in the dictionary, one at a time, what is your translation? It must be a wrong sentence in your own language.

    Languages don't just have different sounds; they are different in many ways. It's important to master the rules for the word order in the study of English, too. If the speaker puts words in a wrong order, the listener can't understand the speaker's sentence easily. Sometimes when the order of words in an English sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence changes. But sometimes when the order is changed, the meaning of the sentence doesn't change. Let's see the difference between the two pairs of sentences.

    "She only likes apples." "Only she likes apples." "I have seen the movie already." "I have already seen the movie."

    When you are learning English, you must do your best to get the spirit of the language and use it as the English speaker does.

    Close contacts between Japan and the rest of the world were created in the twentieth century. In the last forty years, business contacts between Japan and the West have become very important. Many foreign companies now have offices in Japan and Japanese businessmen do business around the world. Differences between Japanese and Western ways of doing business, however, often bewilder foreign businessmen and make doing business in Japan difficult for foreigners.

    The American businessman, for example, wants to start talking business immediately. He does not want to wait. The Japanese businessman, on the other hand, likes to arrive at decisions after giving them serious thought. Another thing foreign businessmen have difficulty in understanding is when a Japanese means "Yes" or "No". This is because of cultural differences between Japanese and Western society, which make it difficult for a Japanese to say "No" directly.

    In the USA, it is easy to say "No" to something one does not want to do. But in Japan, it is very difficult to say "No". To refuse an invitation or a request with "No" is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly. So instead of saying "No" directly, the Japanese have developed many ways to avoid saying "No". These can help them avoid hurting other people's feelings. However, this often makes their ways of doing business rather difficult for foreigners to understand and follow.

    In American schools there is something called Homecoming Day. Many high schools and colleges with a football team have a homecoming game. This can be the most important thing of the year except graduation of commencement day(毕业典礼日).Students plan Homecoming Day for many weeks in advance(预先).

    Several days before Homecoming，students start to decorate the school. There are signs to wish luck to the team，and many other signs to welcome all the graduates. Many people still come to Homecoming twenty or thirty years after their graduation.

    The members of school clubs build booths(摊位)and sell lemonade，apples and sandwiches. Some clubs help to welcome the visitors.

    During the day people like to look for teachers that they remember from long ago. Often they see old friends and they talk together about those happy years in school.

    Everyone soon comes to watch the football game. When the game is half over，the band comes onto the field and plays school songs. Another important moment is when the Homecoming Queen or King appears. All the students vote a most popular student as Homecoming Queen or King. It is a great honor(荣誉)to be chosen.

    Homecoming is a happy day，but it is not perfect unless the football team wins the game. Even if the team loses，the students still enjoy Homecoming Day. Some stay at the school to dance，and others go to a party. For everyone it is a day worth remembering.