It's interesting when you think about how Japan is a nation that appreciates the virtues of silence and good manners, and yet when it comes to eating noodles, Japanese people can be the loudest in the world.

    According to lifestyle website grapee.jp, slurping when eating noodles is encouraged in Japanese culture. It's believed that taking air into your mouth can enhance the flavor of the noodles, and that it helps cool down the noodles. It's also considered to be a way to show appreciation for the dish. Sometimes, just making the noise alone seems to make the noodles more enjoyable.

    It wasn't until a new expression - “noodle harassment”,or “hu-hara” in Japanese - came out last year on social media that Japanese people started to realize that the slurping noise is making some foreign visitors uncomfortable.

    As a response, Japanese instant noodle maker Nissin introduced a so-called noise-canceling fork earlier this year. The fork, which looks like an electric toothbrush, is connected wirelessly to a smartphone. When the person using the fork starts to slurp, the fork sends a signal to the person's phone, making it play a sound to mask the slurping noise.

    “The fork is a solution to the 'noodle harassment' issue, particularly as the number of tourists visiting Japan increases,” said the company, according to Euro News.

    But is it really necessary?

    Dining traditions do vary. What's considered to be proper table manners in one country is likely to be seen as rude in another. In India, for example, people eat with their hands because they think in this way they build a connection with the food. However, people who are used to eating with utensils（餐具）might find it uncomfortable to get their hands covered with oil and bits of food. But this eating method is part of India's culture, just like Japan's slurping is part of its own.

    “So, if you are eating noodles, whether that's ramen（拉面）, udon（乌冬面）, or soba（荞麦面）, please slurp,” wrote the reporter Brian Ashcraft on blog Kotaku. “If anyone gets annoyed while you are doing that, pay them no mind because they're missing the point entirely.”

    A man was going to open a shop selling hats. He wanted a good sign to put over his shop. He wrote:

    JOHN BROWN HATTER

    Makes and Sells Hats for Ready Money

    The first friend gave him the advice that the word "hatter" wasn't needed. So John crossed out the hatter. Then he came to another friend for advice. This friend said that it was not polite to say "for ready money". So he crossed out "for ready money'.

    The sign now said:

    JOHN BROWN

    Makes and Sells Hats

    One day a friend was passing his shop. He saw this sign and said that when a man bought a hat, he didn't ask who made it. So John crossed out "makes".

    But when another friend saw "John Brown sells hats", he said "Of course you sell hats. No one thinks you give them away."

    So, at last the sign read:

    JOHN BROWN

    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.

    There was an earthquake this morning. I was working in front of my computer when it hit the city. The quake started with a sudden loud noise. I thought that something heavy in a neighbor's house probably had fallen. However, the walls and the floor began to shake. I finally realized it was an earthquake.

    My son Zac, a sixteen­year­old boy, was sleeping with his door locked. Being sixteen, he can sleep through any kind of noise. "Zac!" I shouted. "Are you OK?" But nobody replied. I was a little worried. I couldn't imagine that someone was able to get such a deep sleep. The house was dancing. There were waves in the swimming pool. I was afraid the house would come down. "Zac!" I yelled, knocking on his door with an open palm (手掌). "Zac! Wake up! It's an earthquake! We need to get out!"

    My son finally emerged in his underpants. We looked around the room. I knew that we should hide under a table to stop things from falling on us and stay away from glass. Unfortunately, none of our furniture was designed for hiding under. "Should we go into the garden?" Zac asked. "No, trees could fall on us!" I said. Actually, Zac had done earthquake drills (训练) at school. He must have been told to hide under a desk and cover his head. But we had nothing to cover our heads in the house.

    Luckily, before we took any action, the windows stopped moving and the pool calmed down. Everything went back to normal soon. But both my son and I knew what we should do, because we knew if there had been a really big earthquake this morning, we couldn't have escaped from it.

    "Mummy, I don't know what to play with." Steve interrupts his mother, who is talking to a friend, for the fourth time. "You've got a room full of toys!" his mother says, impatiently. In fact it is the jumble of toys which is to blame for four-year-old Steve's lack of interest in his dolls, cars and stuffed (packed) animals. Each morning he tips out three washing baskets of toys all over his floor, listlessly pulls out something and shortly after is standing at his mother's desk or following her into the kitchen saying: "Mummy, I am bored."

    A family therapist (心理医生) explains why children lose interest when they have a whole "toy shop" at home: "According to their brain development, little children are not in a position to judge the quality of a variety of things at once. There is always just one favorite toy for the moment. All the rest is left lying about." What can parents do to stop their children from being oversupplied with toys? Under no conditions simply make something disappear without the child's knowledge. If he/she takes no more notice of a toy, a parent can ask if it can be stored or given away. Be warned though the child will always say he/she wants it then! A talk with relatives and friends may also help. Lyn is the mother of four-year-old Jessie, and we like her way. A small set of shelves in her child's room holds the toys and books that are the current (at present) favorites. When it seems to her that her daughter is tired of these toys, they put them away in a box together and select some other toys from a cupboard in another room. The box of "old" toys goes into the cupboard. When her child says she is "bored", they also get something from her cupboard - it may be something she has had for some time but because she hasn't seen it for a while it is almost like a new toy.

    Some favorite toys stay out all the time, and there is collection of dolls which sits in the corner, but in this way Lyn has found that she has fewer toys to put away at the end of the day and her daughter always has something "fresh" to play with.

    A university in southwest China's Chongqing City set up a reading room as part of a campaign(活动)that stops students from taking their mobile phones with them in case the device distracts(使分心)them from focusing on their studies.

    Reportedly a student named Hu Xiaopeng taking part in the campaign studied 530 minutes without using his mobile phone. Unlike Hu, another one picked up his mobile phone in less than 20 minutes. "Having seen many students use their mobile phones in the library, a habit that shortens their study time and negatively affects their learning, we decided to open this reading room," said Zhang Shuran, the person responsible for the project at the university.

    Zhang added that students can keep their phones in appointed bags with numbers on them. The bags are placed on a desk near the door of the reading room. "Staff members at the reading room will check the phones when there's a call," said Zhang, adding that they will inform students when their parents or teachers call them, but will not tell students if an unknown person is calling or when there is a text message. Based on the time students hand in their phones when they come to the reading room and the time they get them back when they leave the room, Hu Xiaopeng from College of Animal Science and Technology of the university set a record of the longest time. Hu spent 530 minutes studying without using his phone. Though feeling somewhat surprised, Hu said, "It's bad to keep mobile phone with you when you are reading or studying."

    The campaign has attracted nearly 200 students since it was started a week ago. Some Internet users praised the campaign. One user named Liu Jingchang said, "It's good. I don't bring my phone when going to the library in case I get distracted."