Here is some must-know information from a handbook on how people behave in doing business in some countries.

In Brazil

    Brazilians are warm and friendly. They often stand close when talking and it is common for them to touch the person on the shoulder. People often greet each other (particularly women) with light cheek kisses. Schedules tend to be flexible, with business meetings sometimes starting later than planned. But to be safe, be on time. Meals can stretch for hours—there's no such thing as rushing a meal in Brazil. Lunches also can start in the mid to late afternoon. Brazilians are social, preferring face-to-face communication over mails or phone calls.

    In Singapore

    Singaporeans shake hands when they meet and often also greet each other with a small, polite bow. Business cards should be offered and received with two hands. Arriving late is considered disrespectful. So be on time. Efficiency(效率) is the goal, so meetings and dealings often are fast-paced. Singaporeans are direct in their discussions, even when the subject is about money. Rank is important and authority is respected. This determines both people interact in meetings. For example, people avoid disagreeing outright with someone with a higher rank.

    In the United Arab Emirates

    In the UAE, status is important, so the most senior or oldest should be greeted first with their titles. The handshake seems to be longer than elsewhere. So, do not pull away the handshake. Women should cover themselves when it comes to dress. Men also tend to be covered from neck to elbows(肘部) and down to the knees. People do not avoid entertaining in their homes, but they also hold business meals at restaurants. Touching or passing food or eating with your left hand is to be avoided. When meetings are one-to-one, if your host offers you coffee, you should refuse. It might seem odd, but it is a cultural tradition. Coffee should only be accepted if it is always set out or presented.

    In Switzerland

    The Swiss tend to be formal and address each other by last name. They also are respectful of private lives. You should be careful not to ask about personal topics. Punctuality (守时) is vital, something that comes from a deep respect for others' time. Arrive at any meeting or event a few minutes early to be safe. They also have clear structure in their companies. Higher-ups make the final decisions, even if others might disagree. Neat, clean dress is expected. The Swiss follow formal table manners. They also keep their hands visible at the table and their elbows off the table. It is polite to finish the food on your plate.

    A Japanese company, Next Technology, has created a robot dog that can tell you how bad your feet smell, by using a powerful sensor fixed in its nose. If you feet don't have a bad smell. Hana-chan will happily wag its tail, if it's exposed to feet that are mildly smelly, it'll start to bark, and if they give off an extremely bad smell, it'll just fall over like the smell caused it to faint(昏倒).

    Foot odor (脚臭) is a big deal in Japan, where it's a custom for people to take off their shoes whenever they enter someone's home. In fact, exposing others to bodily odors can be considered annoyance in Japan. Some of the most brilliant minds in the country's tech industry have been trying to solve this problem. Last year, Thanko started selling axmpit (腋窝) fans designed to keep people's armpits nice and dry Now, we have Hana-chan.

    The robot dog has a special sensor for a nose, and can tell you if your feet smell just by sniffing them for a few seconds. According to some media reports, Hana-chan can help solve the problem of extremely smelly feet by spraying them with air freshener, but it's unclear whether this feature comes built-in, or if you'll have to pay extra for it.

    According to researchers at NextTechnology, the idea for Hana-chan was inspired by a person who desperately wanted some way to know if his feet smelled. "He told us his daughter had said his feet were smelly, " NextTechnology's Kimika Tsuji said. “But he didn't want to know how bad the odor was because he would feel hurt. That's why we developed this cute robot. "

    You may be able to make Hana-chan faint with your smelly feet, but it can have the same effect on budget-conscious people. NextTechnology plans to start selling the feet-smelling robot dog for ￥100, 000 ($9, 280) next May.

    We are looking for a full-time nanny to help care for our young children. This position is suitable for people with 3 years or less teaching experience that are looking for a new direction or a break from teaching. It is also suitable for school leavers.
    Responsibilities will include:

    Helping us take care of our young children

    Handling small projects and light housework as needed

    Please apply by sending your resume(简历) to prudolph@architects.com.

    Pre Kindergarten(幼儿园) Teachers

    Are you energetic and believe that children learn best through play-based activities? We do, too. At Montgomery Child Care Association, we try hard to provide the best early care and education for children. Our salary(薪水) and benefits package is one of the best in the industry. An AA (a two-year college degree in the US) or higher in Early Childhood Education plus previous experience with children in a child care setting is preferred.

    Consider a career with us! E-mail: resumes@mccaedu.org.

    Learning Center Instructor

    School on Wheels is a non-profit(非盈利的) organization to support the educational needs of homeless children. We are now searching for an experienced teacher to instruct children during the after-school program at our Downtown Los Angeles Learning Center.

    You should have 3 + years teaching experience and excellent communication skills. Knowledge of the Spanish language is required.

    Please apply by e-mailing your resume to administration@schoolonwheels.org.

    Special Education Teacher

    An exciting teaching opportunity is offered by De LaSalle Academy, a non-profit school for 96 students with special learning needs. De LaSalle Academy has very high expectations for teacher performance, particularly in the areas of teacher-student-parent relationship, classroom management, high level of understanding of disabilities of the student and the ability to recognize student needs.

    If you are 25-35 and have experience in special education, you could be the person we are looking for.

    Please e-mail to imoreau@delasallefm.org.

    "Fast fashion" means clothes which are inexpensive but look like the latest designs. One reason for the success of fast fashion is the rise of the social media. A report by the investment research firm Bernstein found that Millennials—people born in the 1980s and 90s— wanted to wear a variety of clothes in the photos they posted on social media. As a result, many businesses which offer trendy and low-cost clothes are growing.

    But the situation is changing now. Maxine, a woman in her early thirties, looks in her closet full of clothes, but she has nothing to wear. She says she hates always shopping for what is in style.    Instead, she wants to buy fewer clothes that she can wear over and over. "Other people want the same thing." she says.

    So Maxine and a business partner, Soraya, started a "slow fashion" clothing company called Zady. "Slow fashion" means clothes that last a long time. They often feature classic colors and shapes, and are made from natural materials.

    The terms "fast fashion" and "slow fashion" are related to "fast food" and "slow food": fast food is still popular in the U.S., but many restaurants increasingly offer high-quality, more expensive and relaxed meals.

    Like slow food, slow fashion also aims to use sources that are good for the environment and workers. Maxine says people in her generation want to know where their clothes come from and who is making them. To answer Millennials' demand for information about the products they buy, Ms Maxine's company, Zady, includes details about the history of the brands. It also describes the process in which the clothes are made. Maxine says Zady aims to tell shoppers where their clothes come from, where they go, and how they impact the world.

    The international business H&M is answering Millennials' demands in another way. It has created a recycling program for clothes. Shoppers who bring clothes they no longer want to H&M stores can receive a discount on new things they buy. An H&M spokesman says, "We have a clear vision to avoid and minimize waste that goes into landfills."

    On a hot summer weekend, Jorge Ayub saw the public beach north of Boston already crowded with nearly 1 million people drawn to the annual sand sculpture festival. Traffic on the nearby road was heavy, bands played music loudly, and later that night fireworks would light up the beach.

    And on the sand were four pairs of tiny shorebirds. These chicks(小鸟) were still too young to fly and a precious addition to the national endeavor to save a bird once down to 139 pairs in Massachusetts. It was Mr. Ayub's job. "Everyone made it," Ayub, a coastal ecologist reported at the end of the long weekend over the nests.

    Once common, piping plovers(笛鸻) were hunted and then squeezed out of their habitats(栖息地) by coastal development until, in 1986, the federal government listed the Atlantic Coastal birds as threatened. The bird's recovery has been halting. After three decades, the Atlantic population stands just under the 2,000-pair goal set by federal law.

    But the star has been Massachusetts, which has seen plovers increase to 687pairs from 139 pairs in 1986. One reason for that: "chick-sitting" in which conservationists sometimes spend all day watching over the birds.

    That progress has made Massachusetts the only East Coast state that decided to relax some Endangered Species Act restrictions: for example, to reduce the fenced-off areas and vehicle limits that have annoyed residents(居民).

    “Look at the stretch(一片土地), "Anyb says. "We had six nesting pairs between here and that bathhouse 600 yards away. By regulation, each nest should have 100 yards of fencing. We could have put up fencing and closed the beach all the way to the bathhouse."

    Instead, the plovers are surrounded in much smaller areas by "symbolic fencing". None of the 52 seawall entrances to the beach are closed. "If we put up too much fencing, people will be upset, and they are going to destroy it or walk right through the nesting areas," Ayub says. "By opening the beach, people are happier and the species does better."

    When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars-Venus stereotypes(定式)keep reappearing. On average, women are more cooperative, kind, cautious and emotionally enthusiastic. Men tend to be more competitive, confident, rude and emotionally flat. Clear differences appear in early childhood and never disappear.

    What's not clear is the origin of these differences. Evolutionary psychologists think that these are natural features from ancient hunters and gatherers. Another school of psychologists argues that both sexes' personalities have been shaped by traditional social roles, and that personality differences will shrink as women spend less time taking care of children and more time in jobs outside the home.

    To test these hypotheses(假设), a series of research teams have repeatedly analyzed personality tests taken by men and women in more than 60 countries around the world. For evolutionary psychologists, the bad news is that the size of the gender gap in personality varies among cultures. For social-role psychologists, the bad news is that the change is going in the wrong direction. It looks as if personality differences between men and women are smaller in traditional cultures like India's or Zimbabwe's than in the Netherlands or the United States. A husband and a stay-at-home wife in a patriarchal(男权的)Botswanan clan(部族)seem to be more alike than a working couple in Denmark or France. The more Venus and Mars have equal rights and similar jobs, the more their personalities seem to separate.

    These findings are so unbelievable that some researchers have argued they must be due to cross-cultural problems with the personality tests. But according to new data from 40.000 men and women on six continents, David P. Schmitt and his colleagues conclude that the trends are real. Dr. Schmitt, a psychologist at Bradley University in Illinois and the director of the International Sexuality Description Project, suggests that as wealthy modern societies level(使平等)the barriers between women and men, some ancient internal differences are being developed.

    The biggest changes recorded by the researchers involve the personalities of men, not women.

    Men in traditional agricultural societies and poorer countries seem more cautious and anxious, less confident and less competitive than men in the most progressive and rich countries of Europe and North America.

    To explain these differences, Dr. Schmitt and his partners from Austria and Estonia point to the hardships of life in poorer countries. They note that in some other species, environmental stress tends to extremely affect the larger sex. And, they say, there are examples of stress decreasing biological sex differences in humans.