What are the reasons for losing a variety of languages and culture?

Culture is the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings. And languages are the cornerstones of a culture, defining who we are as a people. Just as the world is becoming less biologically rich, it is also becoming less culturally and linguistically diverse. There are a variety of reasons for the loss of cultures and languages.

1.      Loss of Culture

a)        Technology

Technology has now created the possibility of a global culture. With the invention of telephone, fax machines and the internet, communications are no longer limited by time and space. Quick transportations such as airplanes have swept away the old national boundaries and shortened the physical distance among people.

b)        Impact of global media and entertainment.  

Global media and entertainment companies shape understandings, values and dreams of ordinary citizens wherever they live. Local cultures are falling victim to a global culture. Few students in China like or even understand Beijing Opera; instead, they prefer Hollywood films and international stars.

The United States dominates the traffic in information and ideas. American music, American movies, American television, and American software are so dominant, so sought after, and so visible that they are now available literally everywhere on the Earth. This American culture is influencing the tastes, lives, and aspirations - in other words, culture - of virtually every nation.

c)         Globalization - Economic cooperation and foreign trade

Foreign investment and international trade are taking place around the globe. This economic globalization has lead to a global culture. For example, a global fast food and drink culture has been spread all over the world by companies like McDonald's and Coca-Cola. In the meantime, local food and drink cultures are becoming less distinct and some weak ones will be gradually lost.

d)        Immigration

Immigration has led to a more homogeneous society. Immigrants give up their own cultures in adaptation for the host country’s culture.

e)        Physical damage done to communities either by natural disasters, disease or war.

War in Iraq destroyed not only its regime but also a culture that has developed for thousands of years. American ideology will be transplanted there.

2.       Loss of Language
The world now loses a language every two weeks, a rate unprecedented in history.
The intricate combination of politics, genocide, geography and economics conspire in the demise of language.
Linguists estimate that in 100 years fewer than half of the world’s 6000 languages will still be in use. Will this mean a more peaceful, communicative worlds or an aird linguistic desert, subject to the tyranny of the monoglot yoke?

Computers are widely used in education，and some people think teachers do not play any important roles in the classroom. To what extent do you agree?

Computers can be a good aide to teachers in the classroom but they can never take the place of teachers.

1.       An important role of teachers is to encourage students to learn. However, computers are not capable of this spiritual encouragement.
A teacher will notice that a student is not interested in a certain subject and does not listen carefully in class. The teacher will talk with this student after class and find out the reasons why this student is not interested. Then the teacher can tell the student the importance of this subject and motivate the student to learn harder.

2.       Teachers have different approaches to teaching different students and will adjust the content or style of teaching according to the needs of different students. However computers only have fixed programs.
A teacher can even design a tailor-made study plan for a particular student according to his or her needs. But computers view every student as the same individual.

3.       Apart from academic teaching, teachers are also concerned about the psychological growth of students and often teach students about moral integrity. In contrast, computers are just machines and do not have feelings or emotions.
Teachers will teach students about such virtues as love, honesty, moral integrity and friendship etc.

4.       Computers are machines after all and machines break down sometimes. If students depend too much on computers for studying, they will feel at a loss when these machines go wrong and don not work properly

5.       Learning and teaching is a highly interactive process. Different students will have different questions during different stages of teaching and learning. And the teachers will have to answer them accordingly and in different ways. But computer programs are pre-designed by programmers without knowing all the varying circumstances during real teaching and learning and therefore cannot give satisfactory answers to all these questions.

Nowadays, the maps of cities are updated frequently. With the development of city, more and more suburbs become parts of the city. When the cities in the world are amplifying constantly, people discuss the topic hotly, the causes and consequence of the enormous cities. Different people have different answers by their respective views.

In my opinion, the evolution of society and the development of economy result in the growth of the vast size of cities. Since the number of population in every city is increasing continually, people need a large amount of space to live in. With the progress of the technology, the output of crops rises sharply. Fewer and fewer farmers are required, as a result, more and more villages urbanize. The growth of the cities brings us many huge changes.

There are more job opportunities in the cities. For instance, China will hold the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The government is amplifying the size of Beijing to build new gyms in order to hold it excellently. Obviously, people in the cities could gain a lot of new jobs.

Of course, the enormous size of cities also has bad effects. Pollution is becoming more and more serious all over the world with the amplification of the cities. For example, the poisonous gas sent off by factories and automobiles has made the air unhealthy for people to breathe. Water waste keeps pouring into rivers and lakes; as a result, many water species are dying out. Furthermore, more people the city have, more rubbish we can find.

In a word, since each coin has two sides, we should be acquainted clearly with the reasons why the size of the cities has grown enormously and what it will bring us. Thus, we could make full use of the positive effects and overcome the negative effect

Some people think that machine translation is highly developed in today’s society. Therefore it is not necessary for children to learn a foreign language. What’s your opinion?

(Sample 1)
With the rapid development of modern science, computers have been playing a more important role in our daily lives. It is such a worldwide trend that there is no exception for Chinese.

Many people regard the computer as the magic machine. It can solve many problems quickly and efficiently, and best of all, it can translate all kinds of languages. By using the computer you can just put ail the original versions into it and then you will get the fast translation. So some parents raise doubts about the necessity for their children to learn foreign languages so hard any more.

At first thought, it seems that the computers can really help us to do so. But if you look in- sue the matter deeply, you may find a different answer. First of all, machines can never replace mankind. Computers are created by man and are controlled by human brains. We can never rely too much on machines; otherwise we will become the slave of them one day. On the contrary, we need to enrich our knowledge as much as possible so that we can catch up with the fast pace of the world. It is very necessary to learn more languages so as to upgrade our abilities to follow the progress of the world.

And furthermore, it will do good to children if they learn more languages. Both their brain and their thinking modules can benefit from it. When they grow up, they can easily accept various kinds of cultures and communicate with foreigners, which can favorably enhance the mutual understanding and develop international brotherhood.

So, we can clearly see that, though computers can be good translators, people still need to learn more languages with a view to improving their abilities and facilitating their future communication with people from other cultures.

(Sample 2)
An argument occasionally these days is that some people often think machine translation can take place of the children's study of a foreign language. As far as I am concerned, I can't totally agree with this opinion.
It first comes to the point that machine translation is not high efficiency. The human language is so complex that nowadays no such machine can translate one language to another sufficiently and totally. The machine can only provide some words or pieces of half-baked sentences. So we human beings, especially children, may not rely on this kind of machine, at least recently.

On the other hand, if the real machine that the whole sentence can be translated completely turn to reality, children should not be taught not study a foreign language.  The reason is the language (especially speaking) is made up of not only the grammar and words but also tones and mood. And when children are studying a language, he is not discovering an unknown area, but wild his logic and ideation. Additionally, even if the machine will be out of work one day occasionally in future, he can talk with other foreigners freely.

Frankly, the loss of language sensitivity is much popular these days. Many people's speaking and grammar is terrible. Children often study wrong speaking from annoying TV programs and untrained broadcasters. The invention of translation machine will make it worse. The problem whether to teach the boys and girls foreign languages or not needs to be treated seriously.

In a word, in modern society the translation machine is stealing our sensitivity of the language. People should do something to prevent the loss of language ability, especially in the childhood.

New scientific inventions have dramatically changed the way people live. Motorized flight is one of the key inventions in the history of technology. However, as far as I am concerned, the impact of motorized flight can be not considered the greatest among all inventions.

Apart from the motorized flight, other inventions have contributed enormously to our everyday life as well. Especially since the “industrial revolution” took place, our lives have been made much more convenient by inventions such as trains , computers and internet. Each invention has its different functions and works in different fields. As a result, it is hard to compare that which one exerts greater impact. Even a pair of chopsticks has impacted for almost 5000 years on the habit how people eat in China.

In addition, we should not only focus on the motorized flight itself to announce that it is the most important invention. Admittedly, it made the dream of human being become true, which people had been dreaming for so long to fly in the sky. From thunder and lightning to the electrical light, from the invention of the wheel to the car,and of course, without the invention of the screw; nail; hammer and motor, there will be no airplane.

In conclusion, the steps of inventing new products will never stop in our fast-developing society. Without suggesting all the inventions are equally good, I think we should not ignore other small inventions as well, because every invention can be our friends and support our way of life.

With the process of globalization and interaction among different nations, a variety of native languages and cultures have been lost.

What are the main reasons for and effects of this phenomenon? And what can countries do to save the great loss?

During the past two decades, the trend of globalization has been gaining momentum. Giant, multinational corporations produce and sell their commodities in almost every country. Meanwhile, with the increasing interaction among different nations and the dominance of English as the most preferred international language, cultural gaps have been largely bridged and a number of native languages have been lost. Although this phenomenon may be a necessary step to economic prosperity, the great loss of many native languages and cultures is to be lamented. It is obvious that globalization and the economic development in many countries are the culprits. In order to communicate with a few industrialized nations, whose languages are mainly English, French and German, many developing countries have to sacrifice their own native languages, and some of them even adopt English as their only official language, as in the case of Singapore, where the pre-dominant language in all mass media is invariably English. Without effective communication, opportunities for free trade and prospects of economic advancement are very slim.

However, the sacrifices that these countries make for globalization are far too great because the loss of their native languages and, subsequently, their cultures and traditions, are virtually irretrievable. For example, before the American continent was discovered, there were thousands of native Indian languages. But since the USA established itself and started to explore its western territories, hundreds of these languages, together with their unique cultures and customs, have been vanishing every year. This is certainly a devastating catastrophe to the world’s lingual diversity and cultural heritage.

Should rich countries help poorer ones? 

Today, the world is becoming more and more closely linked. Trade has increased and the movement of people between countries is greater than ever before. However, billions of people still live in poverty, and in many places, the gap between rich and poor is widening. This essay will look at the arguments for and against helping poor countries.

There are many reasons for helping poor countries. First of all, there are humanitarian reasons. Like individuals who give to charity, many countries feel it is their religious, social, or moral duty to help people in other countries who are suffering from famine, drought, war, or disease. However, many rich countries also donate money for political or diplomatic reasons. They want to maintain a relationship of dependency with the recipient, or simply to influence the government and direction of the country. A further reason why many countries help poorer ones is for economic reasons. The donors may want to control the supply of commodities such as oil, water, or wheat. Alternatively, the richer country may want to ensure markets for their own products, whether these are planes, computers or shoes.

However, aid is not necessarily the best way to help a country. For one thing, billions of dollars of aid often goes missing, into corrupt governments or inefficient administration. A second point is that many foreign aid projects are unsuitable for the target country. Many agencies build huge dams or industrial projects that fail after a few years or that do not involve the local people. Furthermore, much aid returns to the donor. This can be in the form of expensive specialized equipment and experts from the donor country.

There are many other ways we can help poor countries. Opening up trade barriers, so that poor countries can sell their goods is one way. Another is to remove subsidies so that imported goods from poorer countries can compete fairly. A third method is to forgive debts. Many poor countries have huge interest repayments on old loans.

The needs of the poorer countries may seem obvious. However, although our humanity makes us want to help eliminate poverty and suffering, we must examine the real needs of poor countries and implement solutions that will benefit both them and us.

373 words

Education: Losing Its Value 

Today, more and more people are attending third level education, and many go on to post-graduate degrees. People specialize in subjects that were not dreamed of a century ago. However, the result has not been an increase in real knowledge, but a cheapening of education. In this essay I will discuss how education has become devalued.

Education is now something that can be purchased. Like a powerful new car or an architect-designed house, a degree or a post-graduate degree has become a luxury that everyone wants. But when everybody has something, that thing becomes worthless. Gold is sought after because it is expensive and hard to find, but if everybody changed their attitude to gold, its value would drop.

In the same way, education, like the currency of a bankrupt country, is becoming devalued as more people have degrees. It takes ever-higher qualifications to get a job. Once a degree-holder was respected and listened to. Now he or she is just another job-seeker or employee.

One effect of the rush towards degrees is that knowledge becomes less important. Other factors, such as influence, are more central in getting a job or a promotion when everyone has a qualification. A further point is that people lose respect for themselves. Since everybody has a degree, even degree-holders feel that what they have is almost worthless. More seriously, the pressure to have degrees results in a drop in quality. When thousands of people study in a college, the professors cannot possibly maintain standards. Furthermore, we need to question whether advanced education is suitable for everyone. Does our entire population really need to spend years in school and college just to do fairly simple jobs?

In conclusion, there are many negative aspects to the increased emphasis on qualifications. If we want to maintain the value of education, we need to examine the emphasis we put on degrees.

313 words

Many people believe that human activity is causing the earth’s temperature to rise.  They say that this global warming will have dreadful consequences for our environment, such as drought and flooding. 

What should governments do to help prevent global warming?  Give reasons for your suggestions.