Science and the environment: 2 essays

So we do in-class essays every so often. These tend to be shorter than full weekly ones for Monday reports, but longer than the ones I write on daily homeworks or preparing for tutoring reports.

Here are two that I did in the unit on environmental stuff, they're both about science and environment stuff.


随着科技发展，越来越多人买电脑，手机等。这样，电子垃圾增多了。因为电子垃圾对环境污染造成了严重的后果，所以我们要解决电子垃圾得问题。

那么，我们会怎么解决呢？根据“从个人做起”的想法，个人会用可充电的电池，长一点时间用以各手机等。这样，个人扔掉的电子垃圾会减少。

但是，个人不会从根本上解决电子垃圾的问题。公司应该多开发可以回收的产品。而且，公司应该愿意修自己的产品，不让的人多扔掉。

不仅个人，公司要来解决电子垃圾的问题，而且国家政府要来解决电子垃圾的问题。因为个人难以让公司做应该做的事，所以国家要采用规则让公司开发可回收的产品。而且，国家要资助开发可回收产品的研究。

如果个人，公司，国家合作解决电子垃圾的问题，电子垃圾会减少，对环境又帮助。


And here's the other one.

有人认为科技发展越快，环境问题越严重。他们拿空调的发明，塑料袋的制作，车的使用等当他们的例子。反而，科技发展得越快，科技找解决环境问题的做法也越快。因此，我们不应该把环境问题归咎于科技的快速发展。

对环保来说，科技的快速发展是一柄双刃剑。人们滥用塑料袋对世界造成白污染。人们为了方便多开车又带来了不便（交通阻塞）又带来了环境问题。公司，为了挣钱，给世界巨大的污染问题。从企业革命开始，科技的快速发展及人类得经济选择一起带来了越来越严重的环境问题。

但是，科学也带来了一些解决环境问题的方式，即回收，太阳能，水能，风能。人们不使用这些方式来解决一些环境问题不是科学的问题，而是社会的问题。有一次，加拿大的一家公司提供完全没有排放的一辆车。没有人买这家公司的车。这不是科学得问题。我们不应该责备科学：环境问题是人类的问题。科技只当人类的工具。

Chinese Practice

Chinese, primarily education, should be trigger free?

 

为了帮助贫困问题，这些年轻人甘于放弃好的工作机会。他们宁要帮助贫困问题，不看重自己的工作。

之所以英语横扫了中国，是因为在国际贸易现在多用英语，而且是因为科学现在多用英语。中国要开拓国际市场，所以学贸易的人都学英语。而且，企业靠科学，科学多用英语。因此，中国也注重科学，科学家要学好英语。

在高考决定孩子的命运这样的情况下，出国留学是反对你不同意的决策。如果孩子生病，考得不好，他就不能上好的大学。这是应试教育和高考风靡一时的一个问题。在全球化的推动下，这个学生可以出国留学。孩子知道除了考高考以外，还有机会上大学会营造放松的氛围。因为只有钱的学生才可以出国留学，所以留学有如高考：有一些好的学生可以用这个做法读大学，但是也有很多好学生无法读大学。

随着全球化及科学的快速发展，教育越来越重要。父母为了孩子的成功要营造对学习好的氛围。为了进入好的大学，学生甘于化过长时间学习。但是，社会需要的教育反其道而行之。随着科技快速发展，人需要的知识也快速改变。由此，学好怎么自学宁应该普及，不比化太长时间学什么内容。例如，我和我的外公都是工程师。我们两个人，上大学的时候学到完全不同的知识。他的学习没有电脑软件，而我的教育靠软件。甚至我上初中的时候，没有我现在用的软件！因为科技发展的越来越快，所以我未来的工作会需要完全不同的软件或者做法。而且，个人可以上网查什么内容。如果我已经知道背景，也学好了怎么最好上网查事情，什么信息都容易找到。归根到底，学生最要学好怎么学习，大部分的内容在其次。

中国父母认为子不教，父之过，所以父母有责任教孩子。因为美国父母包括很多文化不同的父母，所以难以说“美国”的父母是不是这样认为的。但是，美国父母与中国父母在家庭教育的内容是不同的。在美国，如果孩子做不道德的事情，人们会认为这是父母的责任，但是上学的问题是孩子或者老师的责任。在中国，好像父母认为孩子读书的问题也是他们自己的责任：子不教，父之过。在道德的方面，中美两国父母同意：子不教，父之过。在读书的方面，中美两国是不同的：如果美国学生因为父母不让他学好所以有教育问题，人们才会认为这是父母的错误。如果父母没有来帮助孩子学习，这件事不是父母的责任，父母真的做什么事，害得孩子的学习，才能说这是父母的错。而在中国，帮助孩子的学习也是家庭教育的一部分。总之，中美两国家庭教育的不同点不是家庭有没有责任，而是家庭教育应该包括什么内容。

Different People Value Success Differently

Copying the starting point from earlier, since it's only a few paragraphs. It was written on August 27, 2013, and I'm adding/finishing posts based on both of the ideas I have of where I might have been going. The first such post is here, talking about translation related stuff. These are the original couple of paragraphs.

每个人想要的成功或许不同。

I saw that as someone's background for their laptop on the train to the airport to orientation for my study abroad program. Yes, I read Chinese, and also I can write and speak. I've actually got a tag for things about China/Chinese, and another for things that are in Chinese

Anyways, this was translated as "Different people value success differently." Which is true. It's not exactly how I would translate it- my understanding is that this is about what people think success means more than how they feel about success, but it works. [I am not saying the translation is bad or wrong. The meaning I think the original is saying is one of the meanings the translation can have, it just seems easier to get a different reading from it than the one that I think is intended.] I'd have translated it to "Different people have different ideas of what success is."

 

I'm guessing that I was going to talk about translation, like I did yesterday, or about the actual content of the thing. Because both of the translation possibilities (“Different people value success differently” as per this person's computer screen and “Different people have different ideas of what success is” as per my own understanding of Chinese) are things I could talk about.

Different people valuing success differently I think means people attaching different levels of importance to this thing called “success.” I don't think it's about different definitions. I think it's that for any given definition of success, different people will have different ideas of how much it matters to them. If your definition of success is “college education and not in poverty,” it's something I'd like to achieve for myself. I wouldn't demand that other people get the college education if they don't want to, and I'm aware of the nature of poverty. Getting out once you're there isn't easy, and it's not always possible. But that's in the “definition of success” part, not the “how much you care about success given a definition” part.

Another definition I've seen, thank you Radical Neurodivergence Speaking for this one, is “college degree and a full time job.” I don't actually care about this one. If I can support myself part-time or by mixing part-time stuff, that's fine with me. If I do it by writing fantasy novels (ha ha not likely but this is November and I'm writing fantasy for NaNoWriMo so let me dream, especially since I'm actually well aware this isn't likely so you're not telling me anything new,) that's fine with me. So I don't put all that much personal value on “success” if that's what success means. Whoever made that definition clearly does put value on that definition of success.

So yeah. It's kind of important to realize that for whatever version of success you have in your head as what you want, well, not everyone's going to care about reaching that version of success themselves. If your idea of success for an autistic person is “can pass for neurotypical,” I'm making no effort to reach that goal. Not sorry, not on my to-do list.

Now for the “different people have different ideas of what success is” bit. I am apparently echoing myself, because I didn't actually need to check to make sure I'm using the same personal translation consistently. Yay echolalia.

For me, success looks like self-supporting, enough time that I can do at least some writing (getting any money off my writing is optional, but would be nice,) probably an educator of some sort, someone other than me does things like making sure that food and laundry and organization happen because I'm not great at that, and friends. I don't care much if I'm generally interacting with said friends online, though I'd like to be able to see any given friend in person at least once every few years and a friend in person at least once a month or so. Online contact needs to be possible pretty consistently- that's something I want daily. Kids will probably be a thing at some point, at which point “be a good mom” is a goal, pretty much as defined by kid-once-grown. Or kid-most-of-the-time. I've no illusions that I'll be perfect, but being able to admit it when I mess up should help?

Oh, and I don't want to live with my parents. It's not personal, I just need my own turf. A sibling might be OK once they're old enough to have their own place, but... not as a “I live at their place” kind of thing. It'd need to be a “we got a place together” kind of situation or a “they crash at my place” kind of situation. And I need my own room. That's not optional, long term. Might not need to be where I sleep every single night, but I need a room that's mine that I have the right to kick everyone else out of if I need to.

So there. That's an Alyssa definition of success. I've actually got a decent number of those things, and I think it's totally possible for me to get the rest over time. I probably need to finish college and get a job that's more full-time than what I currently have before I can do it, but I think those are goals I can meet.

The ideas of success that I listed as examples or from other people? Some I will meet. Some I won't meet. Some I'd like to meet (I do prefer not to live in poverty, thank you very much.) Some I give no cares about. Because different people have different ideas of success.

This is autism

I've actually talked about this sort of thing before. On Tumblr, I have a "This is what autism looks like" post from about a year and a half ago. I'll be reblogging myself to get it out there again. I've written some poems that are relevant, too. They're copied and pasted at the end of this.

Anyways.

What is autism?
It's always a person or a group of people. There is no autism detached from the person- there's no way to split off "this is the autism and this is the person." Any metaphor that tries is going to be a bad metaphor. So I'm not going to do that.
It's also probably a lot of different things, because seriously this isn't specific. There were a lot of ways to meet criteria in DSM-IV-TR. There were 3129 different ways before getting into single criteria that can be met in different ways and known traits that aren't on the DSM list.
Even when the core bits are the same, presentation isn't always going to be the same. It might not even be all that similar.
Autism is better understood as a foundation everything else gets built on (kind of like a neurotypical makeup is a foundation that a neurotypical person's mind/personality is getting built on) than as... probably most of the things I've seen it understood as. Environment and experiences and such are going to affect what happens from there, just like with neurotypical folks (and with allistic folk who aren't neurotypical.)
So what's autism?
It's all the A/autistic people and the people with autism and the undiagnosed who think they're just broken or wrong and the undiagnosed who've gotten along OK. It's all the people whose minds and thoughts and experiences are built and reacted to using an autistic foundation instead of one that's close enough to "average" or "normal" to get called neurotypical.
Autism is people. It's not an outside force stealing them away. It's people, right around 1% of people.

Now have the poems woot.

Anniversary

I stand in front of you.
I tell you exactly who I am.
I am a college student,
And I am Autistic.

And yet, and yet, and yet you assume,
I must be a parent,
I must be writing about my child,
An anniversary of diagnosis must be for my child.
No, it's for me.
An anniversary of diagnosis must bring back sadness.
No, it is a victory for understanding and hope.
An anniversary of diagnosis is a difficult day.
No, I want a cake. (Or ice cream. Ice cream is good.)
An anniversary of diagnosis is a day to reflect.
That much, at least, is true.
But what to reflect on, what to think?
Autism: 0, You: 1?
This is not zero-sum
Defeating autism?
We're not separate.
Remembering that my child (what child? I have no child yet) is still my child?
How could I forget that?
How could a different neurology cause anyone to forget that?


Autism Is

Autism is a word for the ways I will never, can never be normal.
It is also the word for "why this doesn't bother me."
Autism makes me a foreigner in my own country.
It also protects me from culture shock, as I am accustomed to being "other."
Autism makes it harder for me to find friends.
It also keeps false friends away.
Autism makes it harder to take notes in class.
It also means I don't need to.
Autism makes mint, strobes, sirens painful.
It also allows me to stim.
Autism makes oral speech less natural to me.
It also provides my abundance of words.
Autism means challenges.
It also means solutions, if only I am allowed to use them.

China and the WTO

Oh hey talking about China and the World Trade Organization because assignments.

This is the "presentation" I gave by typing it without looking at dictionaries or my notes or Google translate or Nciku or anything else, since speech wasn't really working when I was supposed to present. I started by flapping a lot and eventually gave up on the whole speech thing, typing this. The grammar should be fine, if a bit simple.

中国1995年开始申请入世。中国为什么要入世呢？
第一，虽然中国二十年前改革开放，但是中国公司开不拓国际市场。加入贸易组织会帮助中国公司开拓国际市场。例如说，联想开拓美国的个人计算机市场是中国入世后才发生。
第二，中国出口会被超大的关税。如果中国入世的话，中国产品被的关税曾下。
第三，中国的两极化问题越来越重要。在中国入世的推动下，中国农民更容易把农产和特产卖给国人。
中国2001年才当贸易组织的第143成员国。入世后，中国市场有巨大的改变。有一些中国公司开拓了国际市场（例如联想），也有跨国公司开拓了中国市场（例如星巴克）。从2001年到2007年，中国的纺织品和衣服出口增加高达220%。现在，中国出口总额是世界最多的。虽然中国还有过严重的两极化问题，但是农民把产品卖给外国人有帮助。
短期看，中国入世给中国经济带来大的改变，长远看入世会继续对中国生产深刻的影响。谢谢大家。  

This is the one I wrote as a report ahead of time. There were several words and grammar points I was required to use, and I probably messed up several of them. It's how I learn, right? 

中国入世不是一件小事。中国1995年申请加入世贸组织，2001才入世。中国入世经历了六年的时间。那么，中国为什么要花那么多时间，那么多力气入世呢？中国原先不是世界市场经济和多边贸易化体系的一部分，哪怕改革开放了二十年，中国仍然被排斥在世界经济之外，中国仍处于局外者的状态。因此，入世会让中国的经济进一步发展。与此同时，在加入世贸组织之后，在世界经济的推动下，中国对外贸易的风险降低了。因为在世贸组织成员国当中，每个国家都需要遵守关于贸易的条款和法规，这样就等于刺激了中国经济的发展，中国公司由此受益。从2001年到2007年，中国纺织品和衣服出口增加多达220%。表面上，这只是纺织业的进步，而实际上，中国所有的出口都有这样的趋势，根据这一事实完全可以判断中国的进出口总额是怎么改变的。短期看，这是纺织业的快速发展；长远看，加入世贸组织，为中国公司开拓国际市场提供了良好的机会。而且，入世也让跨国公司更容易的开拓中国的市场，给中国人更多选择。中国从加入贸组织收益巨大：现在，中国国内生产总值排在世界第二，超过除了美国以外的所有国家。中国的出口总额排到世界的第一，跟所有的欧盟出口总额接近。因为中国加入了贸易组织，所以中国的关税下降了，但进出口额增长了。因此，虽然关税少了，但是中国政府从关税得到的钱增长了。
除了上面谈的以外，中国政府也希望加入世贸组织会对经济两极化问题有所帮助。经济结构的二元化造成中国总体的发展不足，东部沿海地区先进的工业化、城市化经济和中西部落后的农村经济同时并存，差距很大。如果有什么政策会对农民有所帮助，中国政府一定会尝试。加入组织给中国8亿农民以发展机会：例如农民可以出口农特产。只有8亿中国农民从入世中受益，才能说中国从入世中受益。