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I’ve lately been writing about some more serious topics so I decided to mix it up a bit with something kind of ridiculous.

Cool thing is that when it comes to learning English, you can learn just as much from totally ridiculous stuff as you can from learning about more serious topics. Of course it’s essential to be able to discuss pretty much anything, if you truly want to say your English is “good”.

By the way, I’d suggest never saying your English is “fluent”. It sounds super weird. For some reason, the word “fluent” seems to be used a lot more by non native speakers than by native ones. It’s better to say “it’s not bad” if someone asks. If you say “it’s really good” it looks like you are bragging and showing off, even if your English is amazing.

Anyway…..

I was playing around on Facebook and someone posted a link to the article below. It’s about a hotel in NYC (New York City). (By they way, you can actually say the letters (N.Y.C) to describe New York City, just like you can say “L.A” for Los Angeles.

For example, you could say, “I lived in N.Y.C for 2 years before moving to L.A”

….. This is a luxury hotel made up of all windows. One weird thing is that people can see inside the windows as well as outside. This includes the people who are using the bathroom (and bedroom…)

I’ve personally never seen this hotel myself and think that just a bunch of “Peeping Toms” took these photos and made an article about it, but it’s pretty scary to think that people can be taking videos and photos of you doing anything. I like a bit of privacy and I would guess that the hotel guests do too. (Although, I’m sure the view outside from the rooms is great!)

In case you were wondering, a “Peeping Tom” is a person who tries to watch other people doing private stuff. Peeping Toms usually try to see other people when they are naked.

A father could say to his daughter, “Don’t change (your clothes) near your bedroom window, there are a lot of peeping Toms out there”

You get the idea.

I’m curious, would you stay at a hotel like this? Do you believe it’s really how they are describing in the article, or do you think these were photos taken from far away from a peeping Tom? (Remember, these are supposed to be from the 18th floor. I can’t imagine how people on the street could see them)

Here is the article: NYC Hotel

I admit, it’s a bit ridiculous, but kind of funny. Love to hear your thoughts!

I just read an interesting article about South Korea. Some senior person in the country advised some students to NOT go to college and just start working right away.

(First of all, I know not to take international news too seriously. I’d love to hear some opinions from Koreans as well as people from other countries.)

The idea of the article, which I’ll link to below, is that too many Koreans are very educated, but they are trying to get the same good jobs. The concern is, that there just aren’t enough jobs at Samsung, Kia, and the other top Korean companies. Unfortunately, not all jobs are “university jobs”. Some people need to do the other types of jobs that don’t really require higher education.

South Korea is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. That means, a very high number of people living per square kilometre. (South Korea has over 500 people per square kilometre. China has about 135, and Canada has only 3!) That’s just one reason it’s so competitive.

Koreans are very educated and it’s a very competitive country. Students study 12 hours a day to try to get degrees from the top schools. In the past, a great degree from a top school almost guaranteed you a high paying job in Korea. Now, it’s not the case.

(Again, I don’t really know, I’m just reading the news)

So, if it’s so difficult for Koreans to get jobs, even with an amazing degree, what should they do?

Is the same, or similar, kind of thing happening in your country?

I think this is something that is happening all over the world. University degrees are getting less and less important. This doesn’t mean “don’t go to school” but it does mean that “university is not enough”. You need to be “special” in some way. You need to differentiate yourself.

If school isn’t enough any more, what is? I don’t believe this is a problem for Korea only. A friend of mine was paid $500 USD last month to speak for 1 hour to a group of international MBA students in China. His job was to tell these students “don’t expect a good job just because you got your MBA and learned Chinese) It’s not that easy any more!

To get better jobs, everyone needs to do different stuff from the “normal people”. It makes no sense for everyone to have the same job. Unfortunately, we can’t all be rich. When countries get richer and richer, more families can send their kids to school, but then degrees mean less and less because more people have them.

At the end of the day, employers are looking for people who can “add value” and bring lot’s of money into a company. People who have the right attitude for business and are creative, are much more valuable to a company than those with a good degree (a piece of paper)

It’s the same idea with English. Who cares what it says on your test score? (Ok, some people do) but a lot don’t. It’s your real level that matters.

Here is the article: Korean University Advice

I’m VERY interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions. Please keep using this site as a place to actually challenge yourself and improve your English.

I’ll write some thoughts after I hear from several of you guys.

Thanks!

Thanks for all your comments on my last post. For anyone who didn’t yet read it, here it is: Asian Girl Dating Choices Part I

I first saw this article on someone’s Facebook page. I noticed a lot of comments and a strong reaction. I wanted to get a debate “conversation” going with you guys and I thought this would be a good article to elicit some emotions.

I have mixed emotions and several thoughts about this article. Remember, this is an English learning website and we should be able to respectfully agree or disagree with each other. I don’t expect everyone to share my views, but at least they will help your English.

First of all, I think this girl was trying to make a popular article. Any writer knows that if you write something more controversial, something that will make people more emotional, you will get more readers. I don’t believe she wouldn’t date an Asian man in real life, if she found the perfect guy. Who knows, maybe her heart just got broken, maybe she had a few bad experiences, maybe Asian men don’t really like her. Maybe she’s jealous of other Asian women who are physically better looking. I don’t know, but I can imagine many possibilities.

One thing I find a bit “funny” is that some people find it so offensive. Here is my point. If a white guy said, “I only like dating Asian girls because they are sweet and pretty” it would be the most boring article in the world. No one would be talking about it. People would think, “ya, that’s normal. Lot’s of white guys are like that”. No one would think that the white man is a racist to white girls. No one would think he’s got serious emotional and self esteem problems. People would just think, “so what, he likes Asian chicks”.

So my question is, “Why is it any different that an Asian girl wrote that”? What is so interesting about that? She is allowed to date whoever she wants. We all are.

People are treating this girl like she’s an emotional psycho. It’s not like she’s super hateful and wants to kill or hurt anyone. She just seems to be happy dating certain people based on her experience. AND… She’s probably making decent money at writing emotional blogs that people read.

I’d love to hear your thoughts guys. (Please don’t get angry with me if you disagree. I’m the least racist person ever. I’m just playing devil’s advocate and want to give you guys a place to practice debating and arguing in English) I’m very curious to hear what you think of these opinions. Please share with your friends too and let’s get more people writing and discussing stuff.

First of all,

The purpose of me posting this is to get a debate going and help you improve your written English. I want to help you make your points clearer and sharper using English. This kind of practice will help your writing and your speaking big time. The idea is to help you feel like you won’t always say things like, “I know what I want to say but I just don’t know how to say it well in English”. We’re going to be doing a lot more of this in the VIP section coming up. This is a free one for you guys to get the idea of practicing your debating skills and proving a point.

I want you to read the article and then tell me what you think of this girl. Is she a racist? Is she wrong for thinking what she thinks? Should she be allowed to have her own opinion? Is this unhealthy thinking? Please explain what you think and how you feel when you read this. There is a lot of stuff to talk about and I’ll share my thoughts after I hear from you guys.

Remember, I didn’t write it. These are not my thoughts. I’m just sharing something to talk about together in English. I’m very interested in this discussion and I think it will be helpful. Here is the article from this girl:

This Asian Girl Won’t Date Asian Men

Please share your thoughts after reading. These debates WILL improve your English fast!