Com-Com Weather Report

Person of the Month

An interview of Ying Wang

This months person of the month is, Ying (Cecilia) Wang, a graduated student of COM-COM, she has gone on to study at a University in Australia, where she is currently attending business classes.

Question 1: What do you think was the most difficult challenge you faced when you first started at COM-COM?

Answer 1: The most difficult challenge I faced was pronunciation and I could not express myself smoothly. As in pronunciation, you must practice each letter exactly, while expressing ourselves depends on how much English thinking you have built up.

Question 2: What did you like most about your studies in COM-COM?

Answer 2: I can spend a whole day in a real English environment.

Question 3: Do you feel that there is a benefit of studying overseas?

Answer 3: In my view, the benefit of studying English overseas is language environment. Firstly, I have TV and radio in English almost 24 hours per day. Secondly, I have to speak English because there is nobody who can understand Chinese. For example, I tend to study with non-Chinese students, and then have no chance to speak Chinese. Thirdly, words and terms which are used by Australians are different from the vocabulary in the books that we learn from.

Question 4: Do you find culture causes problems in your communications ie. with other students and Australians?

Answer 4: I am not sure I just feel Chinese people are usually shy. Generally speaking politeness and directness seem to be a western style. So if you are shy it is almost impossible to make western friends and if this is the case then YOU ARE THE SAME AS STAYING IN CHINA.

Question 5: What method would you advise a new student of COM-COM to use in studying English?

Answer 5: You can learn a pretty good pronunciation by recording your own voice and practice everyday in the beginning stage. The lowest level is that at least others can understand you. The better your pronunciation, the more confident you will feel. Talking with foreigners who cannot speak Chinese as soon as possible is the second stage. In addition, I would like to suggest that the foreign teachers keep the original style of their home language. If students cannot understand you, please just explain, but do not change into Chinese English style. Teaching English is much different than from working as a customer service representative.

Question 6: What do you think a person needs to know before they go abroad to study?

Answer 6: Academic writing skills, how to search for resources on-line, how to give a presentation, how to read a map, and the confidence to speak to foreigners in English.

Hellos and Goodbyes

In this section we shall have some of the new students and graduating students that have entered or left the month before

Welcome to COM-COM

Society Corner

com-comsociety@hotmail.com

This area will provide the link for creating clubs or groups or outings in COM-COM

Here we hope to help students to start their own club, group or activity. If you are interested in participating in a club or group for example, a book club, a singing club, a music club, a hiking club, a chess club, etc. Then let our society organizer know, and we will do our best to help organized it and help you find members.

Just contact us at com-comsociety@hotmail.com

Hmmm! I did not know that?

Interesting or unusual stories from China or the world.

A Romance Surviving the Test of Sixty Years

When Finny's Smile was released in major cinemas across China, the leading character's experiences struck a sentimental chord with audiences, most of whom were moved to tears. The movie is based on a true story about an Austrian woman and a Chinese man, and their 60-year marriage in China. Unfortunately, the real life protagonist of this story, Frau Gertrude Du-Wagner, passed away in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, one day before the release of the movie.

"I Want to Marry Him!"

In January 1931, Du Chengrong, a handsome 24-year-old, was dispatched to Vienna, Austria, by the Chinese government for advanced police training. During his spare time, he liked to go roller-skating. One day, when he was practicing his unskilled moves at a skating rink, he slipped and fell to the ground. A beautiful, blonde girl near him couldn't help but laugh. This was how Du and Wagner, then 16 years of age, met for the first time.

From then on, it was common to see a Chinese man and an Austrian girl roller-skating hand in hand or taking a leisurely stroll in the parks of Vienna. It was during these outings that they fell in love with each other. Du, from a literary family, never got tired of talking about the long history and beautiful landscapes of China, which inspired Wagner's interest in the ancient country.

After finishing the training program two years later, Du reluctantly bid farewell to Wagner and returned to China. Staying behind in Austria, Wagner was tortured by lovesickness, and tried everything to persuade her parents, who resolutely disapproved of her decision to move to a country that was far from home. "I want to marry him," she decided. "He is my love and happiness."

Love Never Fades

In December 1934, 18-year-old Wagner embarked on a steamer with a one-way ticket for a reunion with her beloved Du in China. On February 24, 1935, they got married, and Wagner adopted a Chinese name, Hua Zhiping, which implies how Du and her met in the boundless world and her determination to settle in China.

Their love has survived the test of time and overcome adversities. When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression started in 1937, the couple, together with their five children, had to leave their home and flee to a safer place. In the following decade, the family traveled around China and didn't settle down until 1949, when they returned to Zhejiang, Du's native home. From that moment, Wagner's role as a distinguished foreign guest changed to that of an ordinary, rural housewife.

Wagner had never lived in the countryside before, but to make life more comfortable for her family she made every effort to acclimatize to her new living environment by learning from the local women. In addition to doing household chores such as cooking and washing, she also raised pigs, chickens, and rabbits. Every year, she made several pairs of cloth shoes for each member of her family.

It was her husband's love and her children's dependence that allowed Wagner to cope with such tough conditions. For Chinese, rural women, lighting a fire for cooking is routine, but fearing the smoke would hurt his wife's eyes, Du Chengrong kept her away from the kitchen and did it himself. Every time they carried a bucket of water, Du covertly moved the pole to his side in order to shoulder more of the weight. Her husband and grown-up sons never let her work in the fields either. They did all the farm work themselves.

In the eyes of their fellow villagers, the family was no different from others. They would farm during the day and rest when the sun was setting. There was one thing that others really admired about the family: They lived in perfect harmony, without any quarrels. The couple walking hand in hand along the village's paths in the early evening as the sun set was an admirable scene. Besides the birthday of each member, the family also celebrated Christmas, a holiday that was unfamiliar to the villagers.

"My Home is in China!"

When Wagner left home as a young girl, she never expected it would be so hard to return to her motherland. The years of war as well as China's later political isolation left her cut off from Austria, with little chance of ever seeing her parents again.

In 1974, she was allowed to return to Austria, but when she heard that she could only go alone, she gave up the chance. "I won't go back on my own," she wrote in a letter to her younger brother. "I want to return with my husband."

In 1990, Du Chengrong died of an illness. To relieve herself from the grief, Wagner decided to return to Austria. By then, she had been away from her home country for 56 years.

Many were surprised to see her come back to China, leaving her country of origin after having regained her Austrian nationality. In her old house in Zhejiang, Wagner said in pure local dialect, "My home is in China, where my husband's tomb is and my children are."

On February 26, 2003, a rainy day, Wagner passed away at the age of 86. After 13 years of separation, she was once again reunited with her husband.

The couple's love story started at a skating rink in Vienna and ended in wide acclaim. As Vienna's mayor once said, their story "not only testifies to the friendship between the Chinese and Austrian people, but also sets a sterling example of everlasting love and family harmony."

Challenge Corner

A English challenge section or chess challenge or puzzle

Win Two Free SA tickets ,by completing one of these two challenges by emailing the answers to comcomchallenge@hotmail.com or drop it off at your local ComCom front desk, with your name and id number or email address.

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Across

1.My little brother is the ___ sheep of the family.
3. He's rarely so pessimistic! Why is he in such ___ mood today?
6. Do we have to go through all this ___ tape to get his permission?
7. I bought this at a ___ elephant sale.

Down

1. That movie always makes me feel ___.
2. Congratulations! You passed your math examination with flying ___.
3. He has a ___ thumb and likes to garden.
4. He has a ___ streak in him and is often afraid.
5. Look at him! He has become ___ with rage.

The Ransom (This is a true police story from Taiwan)

A rich man's son was kidnapped. The ransom note told him to bring a valuable diamond to a phone booth in the middle of a public park. Plainclothes police officers surrounded the park, intending to follow the criminal or his messenger. The rich man arrived at the phone booth and followed instructions but the police were powerless to prevent the diamond from leaving the park and reaching the crafty villain. How did the kidnaper get away with the valuable diamond?

Study Buddies

comcomstudybuddy@hotmail.com

This space is reserved for people looking to meet people, just name, sex and what are you interested in.

Here you just need to send an email to our study buddy coordinator so that your personal information like your own email is protected. If someone asks to contact you, we will forward the request to the person you would like to meet, if they are willing to communicate to you we will give them your email at this time. Your privacy is very important to us, but at the same time we wish to help everyone make new friendships. Just send us an email at comcomstudybuddy@hotmail.com

Manager’s Message

This area is for the managers of the various branches to give a personal message to their customers and students.

Dear students of Com-Com Nanshan,

My name is Christina and I am your manager for Nanshan,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for spending your valuable time to study in Com-Com Nanshan. I am so proud of that progress that all of you have made over the past few months. Keep on trying and you will continue to make even greater progresses. Please also feel free to talk to me any time when you are in Nanshan, my office door is always open to my students.

Best wishes,

Christina Wang,

Manager of COM-COM

English Nanshan Branch.

Ripping Confusion from Western News

Examining topical Western News Article for truth or fiction

HARBIN, China, Nov. 25 - A toxic 50-mile band of contaminated river water slowly washed through this frigid provincial capital on Friday, leaving schools and many businesses closed, forcing millions of people to spend a third straight day without running water and raising fears of a long-term environmental disaster. Yet a local newspaper seemed just as concerned about a disaster that did not happen. "There Will Not Be an Earthquake in Harbin," promised a large front-page headline in The Modern Evening Times. The strange headline, coming as nationwide attention in China is focused on the dangerous benzene and nitrobenzene spill that contaminated the local Songhua River, seemed to have been a misprint. But, instead, it was an effort to dispel the wild rumors that mushroomed after Monday, when city officials pointedly did not mention the spill of the liquid chemicals in their initial public notice shutting down the municipal water system. The city tried to convince the public that a shutdown was necessary to conduct routine repairs on the pipes. Suspicions instantly erupted. There had already been an inexplicable rash of rumors that the government had detected signs of an earthquake. Now those rumors escalated, and enough people panicked that officials had to confirm the spill, but the public relations damage was already done. It seems that in their efforts to hide a chemical spill, Harbin officials may have helped fuel unfounded fears of an earthquake. The provincial earthquake bureau has since issued a reassuring statement that no tremors are predicted. "They were trying to lie and get by," Qi Guangzhong, 64, said as he walked on a promenade beside the brown waters of the Songhua on Friday. "The government wanted to hide this. "The earthquake rumors, if bizarre, are just one of the consequences of a government

response that appeared secretive and misleading at a time when China is eager to prove to the outside world that it is a candid international partner on issues like containing avian influenza. In the Chinese news media and on the Internet, public anger seethed this week over the spill, in which an estimated 100 tons of benzene and nitrobenzene poured into the river after an explosion at the state-owned Jilin Petrochemical Company in Jilin City, 236 miles upstream from Harbin. One citizen has already sued the state-owned company responsible for the spill, seeking a symbolic $2 and a public apology, state news media reported. The public dissatisfaction came as the central government on Friday sent an inspection team, including disciplinary officials, to investigate the spill and its aftermath in Harbin. "The presence of disciplinary officials in the team indicates punishments of irresponsible acts are on the way," the official New China News Agency reported. At the same time, teams of environmental officials began gauging the potential damage on the Songhua as signs appeared that the immediate crisis was easing. Readings taken from the river showed that the toxicity of the water was steadily declining as inflows of water and the progression of the spill diluted the toxicity. On the streets of Harbin, life seemed normal, if somewhat surreal, given that a major metropolitan area of several million people had almost no running water or usable toilets and that thousands of residents seemed to have fled. But the public anxiety from earlier in the week eased noticeably after the arrival of truckloads of bottled water to prevent shortages in drinking supplies. City officials, reacting to initial reports of price gouging, put a freeze on water prices. At several corner markets, boxes of water were stacked high outside. On one street, a crowd of people stood around a fire truck, waiting for water. “We’re not worried," said a teenager playing on a swing set at a playground near the river. Harbin officials have said the water system could be restored as soon as Saturday, when the slick of polluted water is expected to move past the city on its slowly moving path through northeastern China toward Russia. But it seemed more likely that the system would remain shut down for several days as officials determine the potential environmental and public health risks. The river supplies more than 80 percent of Harbin's public water supply. Scientists in China have already warned of potentially dangerous long-term hazards as the benzene seeps into the soil near the riverbed or is ingested by fish and other marine life. The chemical factory, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, the country's largest oil company, produces benzene, a colorless liquid derived from petroleum. Drinking liquids with high levels of benzene can cause illness or even death. Benzene is also considered a carcinogen, and is linked particularly to a variety of leukemia and lymphoma .Ma Jun, an environmentalist in Beijing and author of "China's Water Crisis," said the chemical spill had exposed enormous potential problems that existed all across China after decades of rampant industrial development. In fact, one person was killed Friday in an explosion at another chemical plant, in Sichuan Province. "We're in the process of quadrupling our economy," Mr. Ma said. "The risks are also growing. Pollution discharges are rising. We need to face the reality that we are becoming a society at risk. "Mr. Ma also blamed the chemical plant for initially denying the spill. “Instead of informing the downstream cities and communities that they were in the path of danger, it just kept denying the toxic spill," he said. "This denial is not acceptable.” Chinese health officials were sharply criticized for covering up the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which originated in southern China in November 2002 but was not acknowledged by the authorities for several months, and then only after it had spread to Hong Kong and Beijing. Since then, the government has earned growing praise from international health officials for being more open and responsive about public health outbreaks, like avian influenza. Lately, however, scientists have begun to question the low number of bird flu infections listed in China, which has reported only three, compared with 91 in Vietnam, with less than a tenth the population. On Friday, the roles played by different government agencies in the chemical spill began to emerge in a flurry of articles published in the Chinese media. The different accounts, including some from the official New China News Agency, suggest that officials in Jilin and Harbin had initially sought to prevent news of the explosion from reaching the public. After the explosion that caused the spill, factory officials initially announced that the accident posed no threat of air pollution. Officials also denied at that time that any benzene had spilled into the Songhua. Apparently, government officials in Jilin also initially denied the chemical spill to their downstream neighbors in Heilongjiang Province, home of Harbin. But Jilin officials finally told their peers in Heilongjiang on Nov. 19, according to a Shanghai newspaper, The News Morning Post. Meanwhile, China Youth Daily reported that local environmental officials in Jilin had first sought to dilute the spill by dumping reservoir water into the Songhua, rather than telling the public. By Monday, officials in Harbin were preparing to announce the shutdown of the water supply but feared news of the chemical spill would incite a public panic, according to The News Morning Post. So they made the announcement about the maintenance work on the pipes. In serious accidents like this one, provincial and local officials often wait for cues from the central government in Beijing on how to respond publicly. It is unclear if top leaders played a role in the official subterfuge about the spill. Some unconfirmed reports said Prime Minister Wen Jiabao eventually ordered disclosure of the problem in Harbin. The official English-language newspaper, China Daily, published an unusually blunt commentary that singled out the chemical company for criticism. "We do not know what is behind the cover-up," the commentary stated. "It might be because they were afraid that they would have to pay money for the losses the pollution has incurred in Harbin, and it might be because they were afraid of losing face. “But the fact is they have brought shame on themselves by covering up the truth." The China Daily commentary portrayed Harbin officials as innocent victims who had responded effectively to the crisis. But many Harbin residents were immediately suspicious when city officials announced that the water would be stopped for maintenance work. Mr. Qi, the man walking along the river, said the timing was too strange: Why would the city do routine work when the subzero temperatures of winter are about to begin? Standing beside the river, Mr. Qi said he had first learned of the explosion by watching a Shanghai television station. "People are angry," he said. "The consequences could have been grave if people had started drinking the water and dying. Then, he gazed at the brown, partly frozen waters. "It looks the same today, maybe even a little better," Mr. Qi said. "The pollution is always heavy in the river."

Color Expressions

Across

Down

Of Modern Poetry

Wallace Stevens