Reflecting(回忆) on the past about those decisions or actions that can't be reversed(推翻) and being occupied with thoughts of “What if?” is no way to live. But there are a few things in life I'd probably do differently if I had the chance.

    I once majored in architecture — something I had been crazy about for as long as I could remember — and then I suddenly had a change of heart. I made an appointment with my adviser, and told him I was no longer certain I wanted to pursue a career in architecture.

    “Don't give up on your childhood dream!” “He's right,” I thought. “I should just stick it out and I shouldn't disappoint the little girl who once loved architecture.”

    It was awful. I was agonized, holding on to a childhood dream that had long since faded. When I talked with a friend about it a year later, he asked: “Right now, what do you want to do with your life?” That's when I came to the realization that dreams change over time and that you should give up the childhood dream if it's not what you want as an adult. Luckily, it wasn't too late. After some serious thought, I changed my major to journalism. It wasn't something I had always imagined myself pursuing — but at that moment,  it was what I wanted.

    We grow up, and sometimes our dreams change — and that's perfectly OK. You just need to ask yourself every once in a while, “Is this still what I want?” If the answer is no, move on and start chasing a new one.

    When I was watching a sports event yesterday, I met with an amazing sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of pure courage and determination.

    The event was swimming. I watched a man dive off the blocks and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold — his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle.

    I heard the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes (划水) and you could tell he was worn out. But in those few awkward strokes, the crowd changed. No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and yell things like, "Come on, you can do it!" He did. The crowd went wild.

    Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to take part in the event. Even though he recorded the slowest time, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors—a man that gave his all, knowing that he had no chance but to compete because of the spirit of the games.

FOREIGN TEACHERS ARE NEEDED ALL OVER CHINA

Ad No.90374

Posted July 12, 2015 by Amanda

Expire Date August 12, 2015

Tag：Beijing Language Teaching Part Time

We are looking for Teachers, whose Native Language is English, willing to teach in China. Mostly schools are in South of China.

The Benefit package for ESL Teachers includes：

One-year Contract：1st September 2015 to 1st August 2016

Salary 4,000 RMB to 5,000 RMB/Month

Teaching load & schedule：20 teaching hours per week

A rent-free, fully furnished apartment with a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom   

Kitchen facilities provided, other electric appliances will be supplied, water, heater, microwave etc.

If you are interested, please read the information above and kindly send your application to attach the following documents (in doc or JPEG format)．The subject to be mentioned, as “teach in China”

1).CV/Resume（简历）

2).A copy of academic degree/diploma/certificate/or college transcript

3).A photocopy of the data page of valid passport

4).A recent color photo

5).A letter of recommendation or release letter from your previous Chinese school （Only if you worked in China previously）

6).Any other relevant information that you think might help your application

    ①What is a place where you could find old pictures of camels carrying people to Mecca, Saudi Arabia (沙特阿拉伯麦加),and also books about ancient Aztecs(阿芝 特克人) in Mexico ? It is all found in the World Digital Library (WDL). Its collection is available on the Internet.

    ②The librarian of the United States Congress, James Billington, established the WDL in 2009. And John Van Oudenaren is the director. They want it to include items that are both interesting and important, which encourages them to look for things from each country, each culture and each civilization. There are 170 partners in 79 countries sending material to it, including national or university libraries, museums and other cultural organizations.

    ③The library has 8,000 items, including whole books, ancient writings, music and photographs. Every item is annotated (注解)in the 6 official languages of the United Nations: English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian plus Portuguese (葡萄牙语).

    ④Anyone may search the World Digital Library by subject, time period, kind of document or area of the world, whose website is www.wdl.org. Since 2009, 25 million people have visited the website from 250 places. The greatest number is from Spanish-speaking countries. The users include schools, researchers and anyone interested. A teacher from New York City said happily, “It is really wonderful to have a site where every kid in the class, no matter which country he/she is from or where his/her parents were from could search and find something about that country.”

    ⑤Mussa Maravl is a researcher for the WDL from Sudan, who works with all the materials that are in Arabic. He recently published rare photographs of Mecca from 1885. “These camels are, you know, lying their heads on the ground, which is very unusual for a camel. It means these camels have traveled so long, so far and half of those are very thin, too, meaning they have exhausted all the fat they have stored.”

    ⑥Mussa Maravl believes the library provides tools for understanding, especially among Arabs, Muslims and the United States. He says the WDL is posting many items about important developments in Arabic and Islamic science.

    As anyone who freelances(做自由职业) knows, there are lots of advantages of working at home alone. But there are drawbacks too, like the potential loneliness. No wonder co-working spaces are becoming so popular: they permit self-employed individuals to feel like they are part of all office environment, while making them get some work done too. But renting a co-working space does cost money.

    Now a Swedish project is aiming to change that by turning people's under-used homes into temporary co-working spaces, available to freelancers for free. Hoffice was started by freelancers Christofer Gradin Franzen and Johline Zandra about a year ago in Stockholm when they invited a few people into their home office to work together. It was a great success, and the project has since spread to a number of cities in Europe, North and South America, Australia, India and Japan. Anyone can sign up and offer their home space as a free co-working space, or go to find a Hoffice near them.

    On a Hoffice day, everyone arrives and starts work at a certain hour. After 45 minutes, everyone gets up to take a break, stretch, do qigong or yoga for 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards, people can gather around again, and restate their intentions and goals for the rest of the workday, as a way to motivate each other. Meals can be eaten together at a certain hour, potluck-style(家常饭) or by bringing your own lunch.

    This process creates an encouraging and supportive work environment. As some freelancers describe,“By working at Hoffice, we give ourselves and each other the gift to spend our days in a social working environment, where we are extremely productive without ignoring our other human needs. We also make sure to give us and each other what we need to feel calm, happy, inspired and creative during the working day.”

    So Hoffice is not just about sharing space; it's also about a free exchange of ideas. And perhaps the best thing is that Hoffices are free to use.

    The belief that new technologies are causing the death of work is the idea that never goes away. Despite evidence to the contrary, we still view technological change today as being more rapid and dramatic in its consequences for work than ever before. But this is nothing new. People have always viewed the technological changes that take place during their lives as the most dramatic and dangerous that ever happened in history.

    In the 1930s, the British economist(经济学家) John Maynard Keynes predicted the widespread use of electricity would produce a world where people spend most of their time doing nothing. In the United States during the 1960s, the government repeatedly investigates fears that automatic machines would permanently reduce the amount of work available. In 1988, one Australian historian claimed that at least a quarter of the workforce would be without jobs within 10 years because of computers.

    Of course, none of these disasters came to pass in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, or anywhere else.

    Yet today, we are seeing the return of these predictions, with some experts claiming the world of work is once more undergoing radical(激进的)and unprecedented(前所未有的) change. They argue that robots and other workplace technologies are causing a reduction in the total amount of work available, or are bringing a more rapid pace of substitution of machines for humans than has been seen previously.

    But there is a little evidence to support such beliefs. Statistics show that the percentage of people in work, the number of hours they work, and how frequently they change jobs have remained remarkably constant over the past 20 years.

    This stability should not come as a surprise. There are good reasons why we should not expect new technologies to cause the death of work. New technologies always cause job losses, but that is only part of the story. What also needs to be understood is how they increase the amount of work available.

    One way this happens is through the increases in incomes that accompany the use of new technologies. With the introduction of these technologies, goods and services can be produced faster, which results in higher real incomes for workers. Higher incomes then increase demand for other products and consequently more workers are needed to make them. Additionally, while new technologies are likely to substitute for some types of workers, they will also increase demand for other types of workers, especially those with higher level skills and expertise.

    So, the end of work is no closer today than at any time in the past. But there is still a need to keep disproving the prediction, to reduce people's fears.