WHY IS TAOBAO SO ATTRACTIVE
By: Afra Lin
What I miss the most about my home China is Taobao, which is an online shopping app in China. Taobao is super popular in China. Many people stay up late for grabbing favorable products from millions of people. Products can be sold out in a few seconds during the promotion event. But why are so many people crazy about it?
Let’s compare online shopping Taobao to traditional shopping. After a whole day of work, people definitely don’t have extra energy to go shopping. If they do they are likely to buy nothing for reasons like price, color, style, etc. My mother is the kind of person who has a lot of requirements for her clothes. It must have a collar on it and it would be better to be dark. So for my mother, it is a better choice to go shopping online. There are more products you can find and a filter symbol you can choose online. Clicking on it, you can select what types of items you would like by deciding the range of price.
But how could Taobao be outstanding among many online shopping apps? Firstly, what the most modern Chinese care about is how fast they can receive it and how little they will pay. Taobao satisfy these two needs perfectly. If you bought one pair of shoes in Taobao, you can receive it the next day. I found that some people would even write a bad review of a product when they have to wait for five days. And also, the product in Taobao is normally cheaper than that in the grocery store, not to mention there would be a promotion in Taobao sometimes.
My elder brother has set up a shop in Taobao, he would lower the price of his products as low as possible as he could in order to compete with other shops. Moreover, there are more kinds of products you can find in Taobao, not just the necessities of life. You could find services like people who will correct your homework or play video games with you or making head portraits in cartoons for you, something like that. There is someone who willing to serve if there is a demand, even not that huge of demand. Everyone can set up a shop on Taobao if they want, (it doesn’t require too much skill the process is simple) tedious process).
DIFFERENCES BETWEENÂ THE SCHOOL OF GUATEMALA AND MAINE:
By: Pedro Lopez
One of the main differences is the mathematical level they have. Although the level of this school is quite high in geometry, the level of Guatemala is higher. Another thing that is very different is the subjects, here they are the same Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday. In Guatemala, they are different every day of the week and are 8 periods of 50 minutes, not 4 of 80 minutes. Or you can also choose what you want to receive and in Guatemala, they are all mandatory. In each subject, we use a different notebook and here all the blocks it is preferable to write it in it. And one of the biggest is transportation, here I am walking and I am walking to school, for the safety there is and in Guatemala we use a bus to go to and from school, apart from that here we can use any type of clothing and there it is an equal uniform for all people every day.
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Differences between the school of Guatemala and Maine:
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Una de la principales diferencias es el nivel matemático que tienen. A pesar de que el nivel de este colegio es bastante alto en geometrÃa, el nivel de Guatemala es mayor. Otra cosa que es muy diferente son las materias, aquà son las mismas lunes-miércoles-viernes y martes-jueves. En Guatemala son diferentes todos los dÃas de la semana y son 8 periodos de 50 minutos, no 4 de 80 minutos. O también tu puedes elegir que quieres recibir y en Guatemala son todas obligatorias. En cada materia utilizamos un cuaderno diferente y aquà todos los bloques es preferible escribirlo en el mismo. Y una de las mayores es el transporte, aquà vengo caminando y me voy caminando al colegio, por la seguridad que hay y en Guatemala utilizamos un bus para ir y regresar del colegio, aparte de que aquà podemos utilizar cualquier tipo de ropa y allá es un uniforme igual para todas las personas todos los dÃas.
BEST OF LUCK PEDRO!
STUDYING ABOARD PROS AND CONS
By:Â SamuelXu/Mingshuai Xu
With the rapid development of China in the past decade, studying abroad has become a popular upsurge to connect with the diversified world. As an exchange student from China, I found numerous differences between the USA and China.
Initially, the education system is different between China and the United States. The general high school schedule in China is from 7:30 am 10:50 pm. All students live on-campus in a dormitory. Piles of homework and a lot of knowledge can be a little overwhelming. Some international schools and famous public schools have slightly different schedules (not quite as long).
China's high school life is spent accepting new knowledge and infinite practice. Especially when students are close to the final exams, you will see piles of practice papers flying around like snowflakes during the exam times. The advantage of the Chinese education system is that it is easier to cultivate students who have been admitted to famous schools, and at the same time, let them master knowledge more firmly.
In China, it is only when students enter college that their lives are relatively their own. Many of them have more free time to do other things. Compared with foreign universities, Chinese universities are relatively difficult to be accepted into, but it's easy to graduate once you are enrolled.
The high school in the United States, on the contrary, is relatively easy. Early school hours give students more time to arrange their own affairs and to cultivate and develop their outside interests like sports, theater, music, etc.
In learning and life, the United States encourages students to find and master knowledge independently, which is different from the education tradition of China. I think the advantage of doing this is to make the students' independent innovation ability stronger. It is worth mentioning that from the perspective of American cuisine with respect to Chinese cuisine, the Chinese prefer spicy or intense flavors. There are different cuisines in Southeast and Northwest China. Therefore we have a noticeable difference in our palates.
China has hundreds to thousands of ways to cook food. For instance, a mortal fish can be prepared by various methods, such as steaming, frying, stewing, and simmering. Nevertheless, there are not so many ways of cooking food in America. The taste in America is relatively light. Thus, in the first month, the different food preparation methods made me a little uncomfortable.
Generally speaking, living in the two countries has its advantages. When I came to Stearns High School, I liked the colorful activities. Like selling candles in town, Halloween parties, football, and basketball games. The students here are also very warm and friendly.
I am looking forward to learning more in the next few months as I experience life here more closely.