One day, I heard an American boy said to a Chinese girl student, "You speak very good English. " But the girl answered, " No, no. My English is very poor. " The foreigner was quite surprised at the answer. Thinking he had not made himself understood or the girl had not heard him clearly, he said, " Yes, indeed, you speak very well. " But the girl still kept saying, "No. " In the end, the American boy could not understand and didn't know what to say.

    What's wrong with the girl's answer? She didn't accept a compliment(夸奖) in the same way as the American people do. She should answer, "Thank you" instead of “No". She really understood what the American boy had said, but she thought she should be modest. In the west, people will feel proud and confident when they are praised. So if someone says the dishes you have cooked are very delicious, you should say, "Thank you.”

    Inour country, we think being modest is a virtue（美德）and being proud is a bad thing, but in my opinion, being confident does not mean being proud, so sometimes you should be confident instead of being modest.

    If you are modest and say, "No, I'm afraid I can't do it well", while working in a western country, the others may think that you really cannot do it. If you often say, “No”, you will certainly be looked down upon by others. When asking for a job, if one says something like‘'Yes,I can certainly do it”instead of “let me have a try”，he or she will expect to get it. So in the west, you should be brave to show your self-confidence。

    Today we can use the Internet for many things: shopping, business, writing letters, talking to people, getting information and so on. In recent years, a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There's no real word for it yet, so we call it e-talk.
    People don't like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases into a few letters， acronyms(首字母缩略词). Acronyms are often used in chat rooms. Some are as follows:
    BRB (be right back), BTW (by the way), LOL (laughing out loud), IMO (in my opinion)
    People also use many abbreviations. They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations include info (information), pic (picture), puter (computer), sec (second), etc.
    We usually don't see people when we communicate on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keyboards to draw "feelings", such as:
:-)  (happy)     ;-)  (joking)       :-(  (sad)        :-O  (surprised)
These days, many public discussions have picture feelings, for example:
    
(happy)           (sad)            (angry)           ( (cool)
    There are even whole new words, like "newbies"(someone who is new on a chat board or forum). When you write something bad about someone else, it's called "burning" the person.
    It takes time for people to get used to e-talk. Also, different groups on the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbies sometimes have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.

    In England, people often talk about the weather because they can have four seasons in one day. In the morning the weather is warm just like in spring. An hour later black clouds come and then it rains hard. The weather gets a little cold. In the late afternoon the sky will be sunny, the sun will begin to shine, and it will be summer at this time of a day.

    In England, people can also have summer in winter, or have winter in summer. So in winter they can swim sometimes, and in summer sometimes they should take warm clothes.

    When you go to England, you will see that some English people usually take an umbrella or a raincoat with them in the sunny morning, but you should not laugh at them.

    If you don't take an umbrella or a raincoat, you will regret (后悔) later in the day.

    You may know the English letters A, B and C, but do you know there are people called “ABC”? You may like eating bananas, but do you know there are people called “banana persons”? If you don't know, I will tell you about it. They are some Chinese people like you and me, but they aren't in China. Why do people call them like that?

    If we call somebody an ABC person, we mean he or she is a Chinese but was born (出生) in America. Sometimes, people also call them “banana persons”. A banana is yellow outside and white inside. So if somebody is a “banana person”, he or she is “white” inside and “yellow” outside. By saying that, we mean he or she has yellow skin(皮肤) but does things in an American way. “Banana persons” were born in America and they live in America for a long time, so they think like Americans and do things like Americans. However, these people still have Chinese blood(血统). Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents are from China. They all have black eyes and black hair, so they look like us, Chinese people.

    There are many famous “banana persons” in America. They do very well in America and they are really great in their own fields.