My name is LiuBin, English name is Jack. I live in Dalian, Dalian is a beautiful city. I have make up my mind to make my self a somebody to contribute to my hometown.

Though I am not good at playing football, but I like to watch it quite well, in China, the English football league is so famous that even a small boy can speak out a football star’s name. My favourite team is Manchester United, I admire their spirit, they are strong, they never give up, they are men! By the way, Liverpool’s Torres is my favourite star, he is wonderful. I think the reason why England football league is so popular among Chinese people is that we have a too weak football league. How I wish our team could be as strong as England’s.

Of cause I don’t intend to be a football player, in fact, I’m trying to learn Japanese well, so I can go to Japan one years later. Going to Japan is a good choice to Chinese students, because it’s cheap.

I began to know Cheng in senior high school. He first impressed me with his poor English. In an English class, our teacher asked him to read a word that he didn’t know how to pronounce, he should spell it letter by letter. However, he did quite well in history, and he always got the highest mark in every history quiz.

At first, I didn’t like his manner at all. He was always behaving like a leader, which made me very uncomfortable. While gradually, I came to realize that he was an interesting guy. He admired the great people in history, and he had ambition to be somebody. He studied harder than me, and he was determined to make an official career. In our busiest third school year, we studied together, talked together, and had lunch together. Our friendship came naturally.

After we went to different college, he often calls or texts me. He is busy studying and getting an upper position in the student union. Once on QQ, he said to me that it was really complicated in the college officialdom, and he missed his old friends. While I believe he is certain to overcome all the difficulties and be somebody, because he is a strong guy who is fighting for his dream.

The world cup is the highest level of football match which is held every 4 years. It is a football banquet where football fans from all over the world gather together to enjoy the thrilling games. Modern football derives from the UK, and then spread all over the world, becoming a worldwide welcomed sport.

I started to watch the world cup when the Chinese national team finally got through the finals in 2002. In spite of the fact that our team did not do well in the game, I got attracted to this wonderful party. I remembered it was held in Japan and South Korea and whose final champion was Brazil. Through the whole 64 matches, I experienced passion and excitement given by each team’s performance.

And then the 2006 German world cup came. I didn’t miss one match. The only thing I did every night was waiting and waiting until the next morning at about 3, and then secretly opened the TV in case that I would annoy my parents. The time lag was actually no problem to me, because I hardly slept during that period of time. I enjoyed it!!

The game is amazing. I believe football and the world cup will always be a part of my life. And I hope more and more people would enjoy themselves in the world of football.

• #Spam My name is Polya. I live in Russian Federation. My hometown is Kazan. You know, I would like to visit your country in spring. #Spam #
• @SoniaT Yes, we're back. Will consult her. I'm sure she'll be interested. She's out with some uni friends tonight. Do you have my email adr? in reply to SoniaT #
• Just joined #peoplebrowsr based on @alexcg and freedom from #gfw restrictions. Wondering how it'll compare with #hootsuite in reply to alexcg #
• Proof of tech.Podcast of 3 student speeches http://ow.ly/qia1 via dropbox and wordpress. Podcast rss http://ow.ly/qib5 coming to iTunes soon #
• @AlexBowman Re #drupal pre-approval. Does @daliandalian do that already or is it something that would need to be configured? in reply to AlexBowman #
• Still feeling geeky to be using wireless internet outside the confines of my home. #
• Why is the Flickr Uploader so BAD! Why don't you deal with ERRORS in a better way so as to not mess up my photo number order! #
• Podcast RSS Feed has been approved on iTunes see http://ow.ly/qtMA visible in a couple hours. Searchable in 1-2 days. Fantastic! #
• Podcast RSS Feed has been approved on iTunes see http://ow.ly/qtNQ visible in a couple hours. Searchable in 1-2 days. Fantastic! #
• I Have 10 Whuffies. Check my Whuffie bank Account http://whf.me/clarkalastair #
• Photo's from My and Miaos trip to Chester are up on flickr http://ow.ly/qAOt except the uploader did them out of order. Bu Hao! #
• Method for learning English from From Our Own Correspondent http://ow.ly/qAWz #
• @rww What do you think of Pixelpipe TOS? I felt that they had too much power over content submitted through their service http://ow.ly/qBex in reply to rww #
• Wish I had an #iPhone RT @papajohn: Google just included Gmail in Google Sync. http://bit.ly/XqZyD #
• Picasa finally has local to computer face recognition. Fantastic. http://ow.ly/qBVw #
• Student Written Speech on the Generation gap between '90s children and '89 child. http://ow.ly/qOmN #ac.com #
• @AlexBowman #Spam on my blog is just some dumb examples of what people are sending. there are ways to get un-blacklisted if that happens. in reply to AlexBowman #
• @AlexBowman The student in that speech is complaining with someone a year younger than the. Seems a bit ott. in reply to AlexBowman #
• @BillGlover Advice Taken re posting spam on blog. Might set something up on a free host. Already had warning on Blogspot blog. in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover Posting the odd spam email does drive search traffic, and a few odd hits when I get so little anyway seems like a big deal. in reply to BillGlover #
• @billglover I'm not the one spamming. It's recieved emails, more of a "why would people believe this sort of stuff". in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover Granted that I wouldn't want my domain/ip blacklisted for future freelancing. There's a simple workaround. Turn txt to pictures. in reply to BillGlover #
• A speech one of my students wrote about Phones Killing Letter Writing http://ow.ly/qYea makes reference to love letters written by great ppl #
• Just been to Foreign Experts Mid Autumn Day Concert in Zhongshan Square, Dalian. Quite good, would have preferred something more traditional #
• Apparently I can "pull the birds" – comment on my blog http://ow.ly/r3a3 #
• @AlexBowman Who are you reading that's made you think it's trash? If It was me you were referring to, I'd just say for you to stop reading. in reply to AlexBowman #
• Another student speech on my blog titled "The Most Special Teacher in Our Life" referring to parents. http://ow.ly/r7JM #
• Exhausted! Day 3 of 6 day teach-a-thon that I have to do cause of Chinese National Holidays! #
• Miao got all 7s on her IELTS English Test. Could and should have done better but still very good and enough for English Uni. #
• @billglover ARG! Mac OSX software. You make me all interested in some software I haven't seen then it's not on windows in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover Except that you can run Windows natively or in VM in a legitimate way. Where as for me, if I do that I'm breaking licensing. in reply to BillGlover #
• @AlexBowman Why staying up so early? and if you want to be pedantic the time was 3:01AM according to the tweet on Hootsuite. in reply to AlexBowman #

People always say that parents are the first teacher of their child. Children live with their parents from their childhood until their adulthood. During this period, young adults start to become more and more mature from physical and mental. This stage is the period of young adults who are influenced most easily in their whole life. So the family is the most important influence on young adults.

The family can have a crucial influence on young adults’ lives. There is a proverb what says that “like father, like son”. Parents’ behaviour always becomes young adults’ specimens. Parents’ jobs also influence on their children’s careers in the future. We often see that there are many “doctor well-known family” and “politician well-known family” around us. Education of family is an important way to influence young adults’ mind. Young adults’ morals usually take shape because of family’s education and these morals usually follow them all their lives.

Besides the influence about careers and morals, the family also can influence on young adults’ psychology. A questionnaire proved that every delinquent has a family that not harmonious. Most of their psychological problems come from their family’s bad ambience, bad relation between they and their parents, or the pressure that their parents give them. Because of these influence, they begin to commit crimes. If every young adult lives in a harmonious family and enjoys the happiness that their family brings to them, the society will be more stable.

Altogether, either careers and morals or psychology, the family is the most important influence on young adults. Also we can say the family is the most special teacher in our life.

Today, with the popularization of phone, especially the mobile phone, people tend to speak more and write less. When we need to contact our business partners, a call is more useful than a letter. When we feel like to tell our friends something, instead of picking up a pen, we pick up a phone.

As people tend to use phones more than pens, some people suspect that phones will take the place of letter writing. After all , the phone is cheaper, faster, and more instant than letter writing, they say.

As far as I am concerned, this will not happen. However, widely – used it is today, the phone will not kill letter, because in no way can a quick phone conversation convey and accomplish as much as a deliberate, well-word letter does. See, there seems to be no better device than letter writing to express heart-felt and profound love, a fact underlined by the enormous love letters of great men and women.

The post-’90s-born Chinese are born after us and also disputed after us. Though we don’t have so many differences at age problem, there is a clear gap between we two generations.

Take my own experience as an example. All the students living around our dorm are freshmen. Since the day they moved in, the quiet and tidy environment began to fade away. One day, one of my roommates got a bad sick and very much needed to have a rest. Unfortunately, several post-’90s girls were talking loudly and laughing hysterically just outside our room. I opened our door and asked if they would please speak in a lower voice, one girl turned back and glanced at me, then said “Well, all right.” I thanked them, however, the moment I returned my room and closed the door, I heard that girl said to another, “Why should we quiet down?” And you can imagine that the volume resumed at once. We brought up this problem several times, but they never changed their attitude.

These children were born in the years when the one-child policy was totally put into effect. They’re all only children, who don’t compromise or give in easily.

I recently read an article which says experts indicate that young college students finding it hard to live with roommates is a characteristic of the 1990s generation. And in my opinion that’s because they lack the consciousness of cooperation and responsibility. Parents gave them too much love which leads to selfishness. They began to touch new things at a very early age and their behaviour gradually turned to be more open.

These post-90′s-born children are becoming less and less traditional in many ways. They have a much too strong sense of self-centricity and show little respect to the elders. They’re eager to touch fresh things but have frail will that can stop themselves going downhill. That’s why even if we post-80s are not much older than these children, sometimes we cannot understand them.

However, I still believe that this generation also have their advantages. They are still young and have a longer way to go than us. I hope sooner or late they will show the huge potential of this new generation and realize the duty they need to face and what’s more, let the world intrigued by their power and creativity in the future.

After the French had left Moscow, two peasants went out to search for treasures. One was wise, the other stupid. They went together to the burnt part of the city, and found some scorched wool. They said: “That will be useful at home.”

They gathered up as much as they could carry, and started to re-turn home with it. On the way they saw lying in the street a lot of cloth. The wise peasant threw down the wool, seized as much Of the cloth as he could carry, and put it on his shoulders. The stupid one said, “Why throw away the wool? It is nicely tied up, and nicely fastened on.” And so he did not take any of the cloth.

They went farther, and saw lying in the street some ready-made clothes that had been thrown away. The wise peasant unloaded the cloth, picked up the clothes, and put them on his shoulders. The stupid one said, “Why should I throw away the wool? It is nicely tied up and securely fastened on my back.”

They went on, and saw silver plate scattered about. The wise peasant threw down the clothes, and gathered up as much of the silver as he could, and started off with it; but the stupid one did not give up his wool, because it was nicely tied up and securely fastened on.

1. This is a fable. Do you think this story sometimes really happens in our daily life?
2. Have you ever heard of similar stories to this one? Share them with other group members or classmates.
3. Do you think the stupid person in the story is really stupid? Why?

From Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s “The Long Exile, and Other Stories”

George had stolen some money, but the police had caught him and he had been put in prison. Now his trial was about to begin, and he felt sure that he would be found guilty and sent to prison for a long time.

Then he discovered that an old friend of his was one of the members of the jury at his trail. Of course, he didn’t tell anybody, but he managed to see his friend secretly one day. He said to him, “Jim, I know that the jury will find me guilty of having stolen the money. I cannot hope to be found not guilty of taking it – that would be too much to expect. But I should be grateful to you for the rest of my life if you could persuade the other members of the jury to add a strong recommendation for mercy to their statement that they consider me guilty.”

“Well, George,” answered Jim, “I shall certainly try to do what I can for you as an old friend, but of course I cannot promise anything. The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me.”

George said that he would quite understand if Jim was not able to do anything for him, and thanked him warmly for agreeing to help.

The trial went on, and at last the time came for the jury to decide whether George was guilty or not. It took them five hours, but in the end they found George guilty, with a strong recommendation for mercy.

Of course, George was very pleased, but he didn’t have a chance to see Jim for some time after the trial. At last, however, Jim visited him in prison, and George thanked him warmly and asked him how he had managed to persuade the other members of the jury to recommend mercy.

“Well, George,” Jim answered, “as I thought, those eleven men were very difficult to persuade, but I managed it in the end by tiring them out. Do you know, those fools had all wanted to find you not guilty!”

1. What lessons can we get from this story? Explain your answer.
2. Have you heard any stories which are similar to this one? Share them with your classmates.
3. If you were George, when you learnt what had recently happened, what would you do?

In every class that I teach at Dalian University of Foreign Languages, I get 4 or 5 students individually to give a 3 minute speech. In this podcast a student talks about a two player version of tetris, another talks about the relationship between your sleeping positions and your personality, and finally another talks about staying up late. To find out more visit my blog at alastairclark.com where you can also find other written speeches from my students.

This particular post is a proof of technology. That is to say that I can get the WordPress Podcast plugin to function as intended and submit my feed to iTunes for review.

[podcast]http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/845910/FolderC/DW_C0093.mp3[/podcast]

Edit: Everything seems to be working fine. My feed has been submitted and more podcasts to come soon I promise.