Little Miss Sunshine

      This movie is about a little girl called Olive. She participated a competition for Little Miss sunshine. It is a kind of motivational movie.

      Olive is my favorite character because of her lively and cute. There was a scene that when Olive knew that she would participate the competition, she was so happy that she became crazy. How funny it was! Another reason I like this character is that other characters were too noise for me whenever they quarreled with each other while Olive was quiet. During the trip to the competition, Olive was usually afraid of becoming a loser, but her grandfather tried hard to cheer her up, and then she felt better.  

      In the end of the story, although Olive didn't win the competition, she tried her best to dance on the stage won a lot of applause, including her families. Then she knew that there are something more important than winning the competition. That is, love and support of her families.

Politically Correct English

    Politically correct English is a new concept in the recent year. It can make language more respectful to all people. By using politically correct English, we will avoid some offensive words so that we would not offend others when we are talking.

    What is politically correct English? One case is that there are many words in English that put too much emphasis on gender such as "policeman", "stewardess", or "waitress", which end in "man" or "ess". It is better to use "police officer", "flight attendant", and "server". Another case is the issues of race and disabilities. For example, we should use "Native American" instead of "Indian", and use "person with a disability" instead of "handicapped".

    The goal of politically correct English is to treat everyone fairly. But there is another big problem. English has no gender-neutral singular pronoun to replace "he" or "she". Generally, when we use singular pronoun with unknown people, we often use "he". Though it means he or she, many people still visualize only a male. One solution is to use "they" to make the sentence plural. Another solution is creating a new gender-neutral singular pronoun to treat both genders fairly.

    If you don't want to offend someone, you had better know which words to use. Using politically correct English is a good way to show your respect although some people think that it has gone too far. Just to make others feel better.

Skipping Class in University

    Students skipping class in university has been more and more common. Almost every student has ever skipped class at least once. Adults must think this isn't really a good behave. But is it absolutely bad?

    There are some common reasons that university students skip class. First, they stay up very late because of homework, studying, or surfing the Internet, so they decide to oversleep. Second, they don't want to study in this class at all. They select this class just because they want to get the credit of the graduation. Third, they think that they have other more valuable matter to do rather than staying in classroom, etc.

    It is worth to skipping class if you have other more valuable matters to do. The principal of National Taiwan University said that he supports skipping class with intention. Like having a grand tour in Europe. Though it sounds a little ridiculous, but the spirit is worth learning. For example, I have ever skipped a class in Tsinghua to go to other university to attend to one of their class.

    Skipping class is not absolutely bad if you have other valuable intention. Not sleeping in the dormitory or playing computer games. If you can make your life more meaningful, sitting in the classroom will not be the unique choice.

Corporal Punishment

    Corporal punishment in school is a controversial issue in Taiwan recently. Decades ago, corporal punishment wasn't been discussed because most of the parents took it for granted and thought that it was necessary. However, more and more parents think that corporal punishment will cause bad influence on children, and even forbid it. In my opinion, I have some reasons to support  corporal punishment without excess.

    First, making mistakes must be punished. Just like the laws of a country. Different degrees of mistakes would have different punishment, so that the child would know what he or she did was not correct. As a result, children would behave with discipline.

    Second, corporal punishment is a great lesson. Before punishing, telling the reasons why the students would be punished can be another kind of education. If just punish without saying anything, it is possible that cause bad influence on them. It is a good way for students to learn a lesson.

    Last, corporal punishment is a great way to let students introspect themselves. In Finland, school punishes students by having them stay in classroom after school to introspect themselves. In New Zealand, they introspect themselves by cleaning the environment. Those who was punished would really understand they did something wrong.

    Corporal punishment in school is necessary, but it could not overdo. Maybe it is not perfect way, but it is efficient. It doesn't make any sense that many parents forbid corporal punishment. This must just make children more and more arrogant.