FSOT score breakdown

Job knowledge: 56.63
Biographic information: 58.85
English Expression: 57.59

Multiple Choice Total Score: 172.77

Your essay score was 8.

Space

One thing that has always kind of bothered me about Macau is the way that people here are really not aware of space. In most big cities, people go out of their way not to touch you, brush up against you, talk to you, make eye contact-- or just generally acknowledge the presence of others. It's interesting because it's so subconscious. Professionals can give full attention to their blackberries while navigating people and traffic with their peripheral vision. There's almost a code of personal space.

Not so in Macau.

Macau is one of the highest population densities on Earth. But still - people don't look when they step our from their homes or businesses onto the street. They stop suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk. They hang out with their friends, blocking the sidewalk in front of a crosswalk. They walk slowly, two or three abreast, down the very narrow sidewalk, making it nearly impossible to get by them. Even when I say, "excuse me" in Cantonese, they either don't notice or don't register that someone is trying to pass.

At first, I chalked it up to the typical casual/rude attitude of Cantonese people. (I know that is a huge generalization-- but you try getting on a bus in rush hour, ordering food from a restaurant, or renting an apartment. You will either be the target of or be extremely close to a woman yelling, ranting, screaming all the time). I read somewhere that 50% of Macau's population are relatively recent immigrants from the mainland. It makes sense now - this is why people in Macau don't act like city dwellers-- why they constantly bump into each other.

OK maybe I'm taking my armchair theories a bit far...but it makes sense to me.

Cool thing

Hi Holly,

I am Sammi(see you again).Now I have the other subject' s writting hw(American studies, I major in Translation C to E)


It is an essay (about 1000 to 1500 words) and i want to show you my outline first. pls give me some suggestions and correction.

The topic is African Americans in US society today‏

Sammy Vong


**************************************************************************

Hi Sammi,

It looks good. A couple of things that may be helpful:

1) While racism in the US today is not necessarily overt, some argue that it is 'institutional,' i.e. effectively created by subtle biased systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States#Institutional_racism

2) I don't think that Obama is an example of racism; he's actually a counter-example. People like Obama, Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice in politics or men like Stanley O'Neal in finance are examples of black people in America reaching the highest positions of power and leadership. The cultural importance of people like Tiger Woods (who succeeded in a very white, very upper-class sport) and Oprah (the world's wealthiest black person) should also not be ignored.

Overt racism in America has become (for the most part) socially unacceptable. This means that while people rarely make pejorative statements about blacks or other minorities in public or make openly discriminatory policies, this doesn't prevent them from racist thoughts and attitudes. To a certain extent, for most people,being 'anti-racist' just means being against racism in principle, and perhaps only superficially. This explains why companies choose minority of female CEOs, but other executive roles may only be 1 or 2% females or minorities. The real question for America right now is just how far we should go in correcting past injustices and the effects of institutional racism - which is why policies like affirmative action are so hotly debated.

Send me your draft when you are finished!

:)

Holly

Debate Workshop

We have a 4 day debate workshop in Macau now. It's nice because I get paid about half a months salary to attend. It is 9 am - 9 pm every day though. The downside is that I'm not actually doing anything. Actually, it's pretty depressing. The trainers aren't even getting paid.

I also am now pretty sure that the team won't be going to New Zealand or to the Philippines - there's plenty of money and enthusiasm from the students. The school is just too bureacratic, and the people in charge of the program are terrible at leading or organizing anything. I keep trying to push things, but I'm so junior that it's considered really rude and presumptuous. It makes a job that should be fun and rewarding really depressing.

I keep getting trapped into the cycle of feeling that it's my crappy attitude that is diminishing my experience. I looked at some photos from last summer, and realized that my summer was actually awesome, and I was really happy. I made the right choice by ending my contract early.