Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 56 - Critical thinking - bias

page 56

What is it?

Among other things, critical thinking involves being able to: 

• distinguish fact from biased opinion
• to recognize when arguments need further support
• and to identify when ideas need further exploration to be seen as valid. 

The critical thinking focus in unit 3 of Skillful is on bias.  

The relevant Lexico definition of bias is: "Inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair." 

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Questions

The three concluding questions that Warwick and Rogers ask us to consider are: 

1. In which situation(s) might someone present a biased argument? 
    
2. Why is it important to keep bias out of academic writing?
    
3. How can you combat biased arguments in your work? What specific strategies can help you to avoid bias? 

Although you might disagree, I thought that these were ranked in order from least to most important, so that the second and third probably deserve more words than the first question. 

You have 16:00 minutes to plan and write a response to all three questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• planning = 3:00 minutes (Cover all three topics. Get ideas. Organize your ideas.)
• writing = 10:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 3:00 minutes. 

Avoid language such as "question 1" and avoid numbering your paragraphs. You want to write one piece of work, probably in three paragraphs, or perhaps four, that covers the issues raised in the three questions. 

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the chosen question at the start of your response to it. 

This is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL, where it's important that your independent writing response makes sense independently of the question to which it must respond.  

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Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 53 - Critical thinking

What is it?

Fracking — the future? (pp. 51-52)

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes the reading "Fracking — the future?", Warwick and Rogers (2018, p. 53) invite us to discuss two follow-up questions related to the controversy surrounding the use of fracking to obtain fossil fuels for energy.  

This time, choose one of the two topics to respond to. That is, choose only one of the two questions for your initial comment. 

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Questions

1. Based on the arguments in the text, do you think fracking is a good way to meet global energy needs?
    
2. Profits often drive environmental decisions. What can be done to better control this?

You have 10:00 minutes to plan and write a response to one only of the two questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• planning = 3:00 minutes (Choose your topic. Get ideas. Organize your ideas.)
• writing = 5:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 2:00 minutes.

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the chosen question at the start of your response to it. 

This is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL, where it's important that your independent writing response makes sense independently of the question to which it must respond.  

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Nat: in the bubble?

Summary

    According to “Australia and New Zealand to start quarantine-free travel” (2021) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the move on 6 April 2021 that “Australian and New Zealand residents will be able to travel between the two nations without having to quarantine from 19 April 2021” Australia and New Zealand will bring in "green zone" conditions for people who entering between their country. “Ms Ardern also warned that travel arrangements could change if there is an outbreak” - similar to how Australia has on two occasions briefly halted travel from New Zealand. This travel bubble is believed to be a world leader and the second in the world, after one opened up between the islands of Taiwan and Palau last week.

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Response

As we know, the pandemic issue from Covid-19 is a world problem. It affects people's health and the world economy. Every country is trying to keep infection rates near zero, but it is very hard work and less possible while people have to go out for their jobs and routine lives. As far as New Zealand and Australia have contained Covid outbreaks and kept infection rates near zero, they praised such aggressive responses as key to opening the travel bubble. A travel bubble is very interesting for me because it could help the economy, tourism and other industries. It means people can travel to another country without having to quarantine. It would make people want to go abroad for traveling more because doing a quarantine is expensive and not worthwhile. If they do quarantine for 14 days and travel only 3-4 days, it affects their budget very much. As I am working in the tourism field, many people do not go abroad for traveling if there is still a requirement to quarantine.  Also, the benefit of the travel bubble will make many people who lost their jobs reunited. I did not agree about the travel bubble because I thought if there is an outbreak, it would be a new pandemic and uncontrollable, but New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shows that she planned the coping and solution if there is an outbreak. It means the world can do it and plan too. She also gave the details of the travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia very clearly and made me understand it better. I also expect that they would be successful in the travel bubble as the second in the world after The islands of Taiwan and Palau made it. Then the world will see and follow their ways to solve the economic issues of the world. I recommend everyone to learn or read for more information about the travel bubble. I believe that it would help the economic crisis in many countries.  

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Question

What do you think about a travel bubble? Do you think does it work if we do in Thailand? 

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Reference

• Australia and New Zealand to start quarantine-free travel. (2021, April 6). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56645990

Gubgib: Nike, H&M VS China

Summary

According to “Nike, H&M face China fury over Xinjiang cotton concerns” (2021), Nike and H&M have been boycotted by Chinese after they announced a statement separately that they were concerned at using cotton picked in Xinjiang by Uighurs. Their statements were made because of the reports that Uighurs have been forced by China to work in Xinjiang’s cotton fields, which is a human rights violation. However, China denied this and posted videos on Weibo to show that the Uighur have not been forced, but they work for high earnings. Nike and H&M statements made Chinese angry , and they fought back against both companies by boycotting and posting messages with the hashtag “I support Xinjiang cotton”, then the main Chinese e-commerce platforms stopped selling H&M’s products. In addition, Chinese celebrities also announced to terminate their contract with the brands to protect China's dignity.

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Response

After reading “Nike, H&M face China fury over Xinjiang cotton 'concerns'” I think it is very interesting because China is the biggest market in the world that all brands want to break into and both companies are already success in China and one of their main revenue is from China, so announcing the statement to express their concern about the Uighurs who was reported that they have been forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang might have negative effects to them.

I do agree with the branding policies according to China violated the Uighur Muslims human rights by forcing them into manual labour in Xinjiang’s cotton fields, which is an unlawful action to abuse the labour. They need to be treated equally. Moreover, China claims that illegal actions such as forcing Uighur Muslims to work hadn't been done, as in my perspective, It is very suspicious that China denies the accusation but later on the state media CGTN shared a video on Weibo to show that the labor fought for this jobs and were not forced to do it. Therefore, I do believe that the labour had been abused by China and it needs to cease, so I do agree with the branding policies.

In addition, I admire Nike and H&M, according to the BBC, they got bad effects by Chinese such as boycotts and also were withdrawn from the top three Chinese online platforms. Both companies will be affected by the lower revenue or in the worst case all their revenue in China will be gone. However, in my opinion this action still has some good sides for the brands, especially for Nike. In the past they had a scandal that Nike had child labour in their factory in Indonesia, so this action shows that Nike does not support and does not ignore human rights violation, which is a good image for the brand. 

In conclusion, I do agree with Nike and H&M to show their concern about the Uighur Muslims human rights even though they got negative effects from their statement. And I hope the Uighurs will be treated as humans soon. 

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Question

If you were the CEO of Nike, would you announce the statement to express the concern about the Uighur?  

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Reference

• Nike, H&M face China fury over Xinjiang cotton 'concerns'. (2021, March 25). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56519411

Emma: BBC News

Summary

Gigi Hadid's Instagram

“How Instagram’s influencers changed the model industry” by Cristina Criddle (2021), says that although beauty brands have used influencers to promote products on Instagram for a long time, the model industry is adapting itself to offer modelling services that match with demand from brands and customers since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred last year. Recently, many beauty and fashion companies have recognized influencer marketing on Instagram as a promising marketing strategy to promote their products, because not only can they lower costs of marketing, they can also analyze the effectiveness of the advertisements by using online analytic tools such as Instagram insights and blog analytics. In addition to that, consumer preference has changed, as they prefer content that reflects their real life. Therefore, the beauty and fashion companies were requesting the modelling agencies to supply regular models who can ‘act like’ the influencers on Instagram to advertise their products. 

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Response

Regular models

I think COVID-19 pandemic is the major accelerator of almost everything in the 21st century. Before it happened, I couldn’t imagine how germs, tiny organisms, have significant impacts on our society. We cannot even see them by our eyes. I still remember a discussion with my colleagues three years ago where we talked about how new technology such as artificial intelligence and robotics could disrupt the economy and society in 2021. None of us expected that we will be facing the disruption from coronavirus in that year. At that time, we were working really hard to prepare Thailand for a cashless society. Even though it was not our real goal, I was a bit proud that we could enable the mobile banking services to be ready for use during the pandemic. That’s great, isn’t it?

The examples of some professional models in the news article reminded me of one of my friends who works in the fashion industry, as she needed to adapt her business a lot because of COVID-19. Like those models, she needed to learn many new skills, especially digital marketing. She needed to learn how to shoot photos and film herself and find topics to create content and then post via her Instagram and TikTok. Right now, whenever we get together for lunch, she loves to share many insights on digital marketing with me. However, I don’t think I can work on that like her, because I think that marketing in the digital world is hard to understand and I think it requires a lot of creativity—I mean how to find and create content that people would enjoy. For me, I am more confident when dealing with traditional marketing than digital marketing. However, someone advised me that I should do multiple careers, and I think it is time for me to rethink my career for the future, Let’s say in the next five years from now, because the job that I am doing now may have disappeared in the near future.

______________________ 

Question

What would make significant changes on our economy and society in the next five years for now?

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Reference

• Criddle, C. (2021, April 3). How Instagram’s influencers changed the model industry. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56592913 

Peter: An equal piece of pie please

Summary

But India is developing
non-carbon energy sources

In “Climate change: Net zero targets are 'pie in the sky'”, Matt McGrath (2021) says that in contrast to the urgent cooperation urged by the United Kingdom and US special envoy on climate change, John Kerry, India’s minister for energy, Raj Kumar Singh, has complained that it is unfair of already developed nations, who caused most of the carbon emissions that now threaten to push the Earth over the danger point of 1.5C, to expect developing nations to sacrifice their own development to save everyone else. Mr Singh has also ridiculed commitments by developed nations and China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 as unrealistic promises that merely sound wonderful, but are really “pie in the sky,” emphasizing that the desire of 800 million people who don’t even have electricity to rise to the same standard of living enjoyed by people in developed countries cannot be denied. 

This is version 3. If took some work to get the word count down from the initial 163 words to the current 148. Yu can also see my Google Doc for this summary. An example of my planning for an earlier summary paragraph, which I usually do in MS OneNote, although paper works perfectly well, is also online. 

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Response

To be honest, this article is not the one that most interested me: that was an article about an exciting new discovery in particle physics. I chose to summarize and respond to this one because it's closely related to the topic we have been reading about for the past couple of weeks: energy. In particular, it talks about sources of energy, whether they are sustainable or not and whether they are carbon neutral or better. The research on muons is high energy, but not so close to our recent topic.

My mum - I hope my appetite is
half as healthy when I'm 90.

As I read the BBC News article very closely so that I could summarize it, I was reminded of how complex the climate change challenge is. Unfortunately, it might also be crucial for our species’ continued existence on Earth as we know it. When I think about it, it seems so very distant to be worrying about things that might happen by 2050 or 2060, by which time I’m unlikely to be around to worry at all. My family history is, however, in my favour, but 90 is still very old, and like my 90 year old mum today, if I’m still here at that age I might worry more about lunch today than the global situation of tomorrow. 

And that is perhaps part of the problem with climate change. As the Indian minister points out, 2060 seems a long way off, and it’s easy to make promises for that distant time, especially when the people making those promises and the decisions are more likely to be older people than the young who will be inheriting whatever planet their parents leave them in another 30 or 40 years. 

I also agree with the main point that the Indian minister of energy made: it is unreasonable to expect the people of poor nations to stay poorer because they do not take full advantage of cheap fossil fuels to grow economically. If the rich world wants the less developed nations to rapidly reduce their use of fossil fuels, then the rich world must pay them to do that. That would mean much higher taxes paid in the developed world, but I haven’t seen any nation rushing to do that. On the contrary, in the US, and in my own country, the rich already complain about paying taxes to help the less well off have a decent standard of living. Sadly, this seems to be human nature, and unless we defeat the human nature that mindless nature and our ancestors gave us, it might shortly lead to a very unpleasant reality for all of us. I hope I am wrong. 

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Question

Are the rich people in your country happy to pay higher taxes to help others bear the cost of problems for society such as climate change or Covid-19? 

______________________ 

Reference

• McGrath, M. (2021, April 1). Climate change: Net zero targets are 'pie in the sky'. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56596200 

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 48 - Critical thinking

What is it?

A biomass energy plant (p. 48)

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes the reading "The oldest energy source", Warwick and Rogers (2018, p. 47) invite us to discuss two follow-up questions related to the controversy surrounding the use of biomass as a renewable energy source.  

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Questions

• Based on the arguments in the text, do you think it is a good or bad idea that more and more biomass energy plants are being built?
• Can you address their arguments well enough to persuade people on the opposing side to change their minds and agree with you on this controversial issue?
   
• What should a company proposing a new biomass power plant have to prove before they are allowed to build it?

You have 15:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the two questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• planning = 3:00 minutes (It's usually a good idea to plan before you start to write.)
• writing = 9:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 3:00 minutes.

A helpful strategy

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are answering or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But you need to rewrite (paraphrase) the idea in the question as a statement. 

Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. This is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Earth: an introduction in three parts

A book, film, or TV series enjoyed

"Beauty and the Beast" (2017)

People have been enjoying watching movies and films these days, with film potentially being one of the earliest forms of TV series. Many movies have attractive plots giving a brilliant performance and lively scenes. When you watch it, you will experience such different things that you never imagined before.

To be honest, I am a movie person. I have spent at least about two hours a day watching films online because I think it is one of my best friends that always stays with me. Although there are several films that I have enjoyed, one of my favorite movies forever is Beauty and the Beast. Before watching “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), an American musical romantic fantasy live-action, I had watched  “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), an animated feature film by Walt Disney. I am a big fan of it. I have been watching it several times each day until the lyrics of the beginning song in the movie stuck in my head. I really love the rhythms and tones of the song, especially when Belle sings about her life in the village.   

Watching a live-action movie of Emma as Belle and Stevens as the beast made my dream come true because they performed their roles extremely well. Also, the Beast’s castle and the village are absolutely beautiful and stunning with French Rococo combining with white and pastel colors, which suited perfectly with the fantasy plot. Another reason why I love this movie is because it teaches me we should not judge people from the outside.  For me an enchantress is the most important person, who gives the prince a lesson and without her, he will become a person who is selfish and judges people from their outsides. Everybody has their kind hearts even with the beast who looks ugly from the outside, but is very kind and generous from the inside. I would recommend you watch it once in your life.

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And a book, film or TV series not enjoyed 

Six years ago when I was studying at university, it was an outstanding period for  fantasy and science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Jurassic World, Avengers, The Martian and Jupiter Ascending. Once I talked to my friends about these films, just a few of my friends watched “Jupiter Ascending” (2015). Although the scene and actors are alluring and attractive, after watching, we thought the same thing that it quite bland and monotonous.

"Jupiter Ascending" (2015)

Jupiter Ascending is a space opera film about Jupiter who is a genetic signature as the next in line for an extraordinary inheritance of the cosmos. Honestly, after watching it for more than an hour, I could not get the core idea of this movie. Although it has creativity to present highly advanced in technology and structure, I thought the plot was too broad and uncoordinated . The huge scope made it hard to understand which important points we should focus on, whether the fight among the royalty or control the balance of the cosmos. After watching it, I was still confused about its concept and did not give me lessons of the story. The memory of this film that came into my mind was a topless main actor showing off his six pack and the gorgeous costumes of the royalty. 

All in all, although I did not enjoy watching it, it was a good movie to kill time. The sound and visual effects are startling, especially the outer  space scenes, which makes us keep watching until the end. If you just want to watch it for relaxing, I would recommend you to watch it because it is one of the good choices to kill time. 

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A regular habit 

After moving alone to the Northern part of Thailand four months ago, my regular routine is doing my

Household Chores

housework. Actually, the thing that I hate the most is doing the chores, such as cleaning room, washing clothes, washing the car, washing dishes, arranging the bed, cooking and buying ingredients. Before I moved here, I hardly did these activities at home because my mother did and I just helped her with some small jobs like drying clothes. At first, I thought it was going to be fun, but after four months I was so tired after coming back from work. I really miss my mother so much right now.

Doing my housework is not one task which I do, I also read books for preparing to study at university
again. I made a schedule for reading all of my forty books a year before the exam and it just started last month. On weekdays and Saturday, in the morning I read a book an hour before going to work. After coming back, I review and continue with the same chapter from  the morning for about two hours. On Sunday, I read a different book from weekdays and continue to read for approximately six  hours. After reading a book for a month, I feel very exhausted because I have to work, do my housework and read books. It is very difficult to balance all of these activities. However, I believe that after I get used to it, I will manage my time and my life better. 

These regular habits teach me that nothing is easy at first, but if you start doing it regularly, it is easier for you to manage time for doing multiple jobs. My aim right now is that I will organize my time, task and feel better. It is impossible to survive doing a single task in this competitive world. Indeed, it becomes increasingly difficult to work and stay alive without multitasking skills.

My regular routine is reading a ton of books.

Gubgib: an introduction in three parts

A book, film, or TV series enjoyed

Back in 2010 I was really excited to see Disney princesses since I had grown up watching them, but this Disney princess is different from the others. This princess is Rapunzel from the movie called “Tangled”. When I watched it for the first time, I was really surprised that the Disney animation had  changed because of the new technology they used. Tangled is the first Disney Princess which is a digital 3-D film. All the characters and background look totally different from the older princess. In addition, the details such as flowers and animals are so beautiful that they make every scene charming and I cannot take my eyes off the screen.

 Moreover, I was impressed again by the story which Disney has created in a new version of Rapunzel, I watched Rapunzel in a Barbie version when I was young, but Disney’s version is completely different, and I enjoyed it more. I will not talk about the original of the brothers Grimm that is too scary for me, so I decided to believe in Disney’s version only. If you think the princess is about beauty, dancing, a prince or something like that, you are wrong. The adventure scene of Rapunzel is so exciting and cannot be predicted. Besides the story, the soundtrack is also good. The most famous song is “I see the light,” which  won the 54th Grammy award, in the lantern scene.

I really enjoyed this movie and I want to recommend it to people. This princess movie is not for girls or kids only, everyone can watch and enjoy it whoever you are. After watching it for the first time, I became a fan of Rapunzel. If you want to watch a movie to entertain, I hope Tangled will be one of your choices. Maybe you will enjoy it like me.   

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And a book, film or TV series not enjoyed 

I hardly watch Thai TV series or films. I do not mean they are not good, but I am more into Korean series. In 2016 while I was scrolling my Twitter feed, I found a tweet that recommenced a Thai comedy TV series called “Diary of Tootsies”. This TV series is the story of a group of friends, which is three gays and one lesbian, who are heartbroken on the same day and vow to find their soulmates before the New Year. In each episode they show me about their friendship. This series has become famous by quotes from the dialog and people bring it to their life. For example, the word “At-ta-rod” means funny in slang”. I really enjoyed it and watched all the episodes in both seasons.

In 2019, the producer team announced they would make a movie which is related to Diary of Tootsies called “Tootsies & The Fake”, so I wanted to watch it. However, I did not enjoy watching it. I might set too high expectations because I am really watching the series version of it. About the story, I think they are pressing the joke to make the dialog famous as happened before. It made some jokes not work, and the plot can be guessed, which  make it quite boring, and in the movie it has a rape scene in a funny way which is I do not like the most. I think rape is not a joke to make fun with, and showing it in the movie might be a model for some children to follow.

Even though I do not enjoy watching it, I watched it till the end. Overall, the movie is not that bad. It can make you laugh and forget the time or if you want to watch something to entertain you, this movie suits you. You may love it instead of me. 

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A regular habit 

My regular habit when I stay at home is to start in the morning. It always begins with having breakfast while I am scrolling my twitter feed to update the trends in Thailand, and as I am a big fan of k-pop, I always check their news on twitter. My first meal cannot be done if I do not drink a glass of milk. I do not drink coffee because it is still too bitter for me.Then I usually surf on the internet. After I turn on the computer and wait for it to be ready, I always go to the kitchen to fill a bottle of water and take it with me to the computer.  

When the computer and a bottle of water are ready, I start surfing the internet and visit websites by steps. First, I begin with Facebook to check the notification and message, I prefer to use it on the web than on mobile. Then I scroll the feed for about 15 minutes to find something interesting. Then I visit YouTube to watch some videos. I mostly watch about baking bakery like cakes and cookies, k-pop song performances and these days I like watching machines making dessert because I think it is amazing and It is hard to see it in my real life. I spent most of my time with YouTube. It is more than an hour.

Recently I started learning English at AUA, so Gmail is the third website I always visit these days to check my homework and in case it has something I need to prepare before the class and for sure I do homework after that. I try to finish homework (if any) before noon because my family has lunch on time at midday. Then, I turn off the computer to have lunch. These are my regular habits in the morning. 

                                                machine making cake video

Nat an introduction in three parts

A book, film, or TV series enjoyed

  
My favorite kinds of movies are romantic films, comedies and historical movies. When I was very young, I watched one movie named Titanic but I could not remember all the storyline. It was my luck that in 2012, they made an original version into 3D and I could watch it in the theatre that time. After that Titanic became my favorite movie ever. The movie tells the dramatic story of the Titanic with Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet as the main actors. Titanic is the name of a British ship passenger liner that traveled from England to New York in 1912. Four days after leaving Southampton, before heading west to New York, it hit an iceberg then of the passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died.

The movie shows the love story of one couple, Jack and Rose, who had first met during the journey and impressed each other before trying to escape from the ship, which was sinking into the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg. The creator made the scenes while it was sinking so real. Inside the ship so many people were trying to run out of their rooms to the rooftop floor to move to the lifeboats, but it was not possible to transfer everybody into lifeboats on time and there were some people who gave up and stayed in their rooms inside the ship. It was kind of the last minute of their life. The acting of all the actors are very good and realistic. After watching these scenes, I realized that the director worked very hard for it. They tried to make these scenes very similar to the reality.

In addition, the creator cared about all the details, interior work and ornaments of the ship. It makes Titanic seem alive again. They also showed the real video of passengers when the ship was leaving the pier from England. This video moved me and a lot of people who watched it. The main leaders are so good they did such a great job on this film. Titanic showed a beautiful love story, very good songs and an extremely sad ending but impressed me a lot. I can say that Titanic is a masterpiece of cinema.

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And a book, film or TV series not enjoyed 

    I did not enjoy Cinderella (2015). Cinderella (2015) is a romantic fantasy film with a live action adaptation of Walt Disney's 1950 animated film. I am a fan of the animated version, I can say that I grew up with it and I am upset with the live version. The graphics of the live version are good, but the main characters acting and some storylines are different from the animated version. 

     Cinderella is the name of a girl who lives in France. She has one mother- in- law, who is very mean to her after her father passed away. She is a sweet girl who has a very good mind and the animated version mentioned that she is always kind even to her mother- in- law and two sisters- in- law, who are rude to her make her sad because she is a good girl from her deep heart. Her imagination is being a princess and living in a palace with happiness. In my opinion, the animated version tells her character very clearly while the live version in 2015 cannot do better and also added some additional scenes which makes her look like an aggressive girl sometimes. The scene in the palace of the live version is especially disappointing. It should be a huge and luxurious palace which is very wealthy, but the live version changed the storyline of the wealthy palace to be a small palace of the city, and the prince should marry with a princess of another rich city to make his city sustainable, but he finally chooses to marry Cinderella. From this scene as I compare with the animated version, it is totally different from the animated version. Anyway Cinderella (2015) is not bad. It is a phenomenon of a film remade from an animated version to a live version, but it is not enjoyable for me.

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A regular habit 

 I like playing a mobile game every day. It has become my habit after I started working from home because I have some free time which I had used for a journey to the office or to go back to my home before. I currently have a routine of waking up in the morning, checking my phone and playing a game then getting ready to work. After work, I also play it a little bit. It has advantages and disadvantages. It can boost my mood and also help relieve stress. This affects my mental health. In addition I also have new connections with people from the game. It is very nice for me to have connections with new people. Some people from the game are nice. We share the technique of the game and share some stories about life sometimes. The disadvantage is it is a waste of time if we cannot manage the time well, and the game will control you if you do not control it. The kind of game also affects your moods. I like soft and fun games such as farm management games or puzzles.

Moreover, it is an escape from our sometimes boring lives. We can forget about all the troubles and get into the second world. I heard some people say that games give us a sense of accomplishment. The feeling when we complete a good game or get rewards from games is a good feeling that we try hard to compete with competitors in a game and finally win. We probably do not have this feeling, or it is difficult to have it in our real life. Some people feel like they have done something that a lot of people never be able to do. I see that games are another kind of art in the world. If we use it in a proper way, we will gain the benefits from it.

Chight: an introduction in three parts

A book that I have enjoyed 

"Three Kingdoms" is a historical novel that I often follow. Whether in the form of a book or in a movie, I have enjoyed the chronicle of the great war. And it is rich in all fields of wisdom in politics, military, as well as various tricks.

Reading the Three Kingdoms has also encouraged me to absorb science, knowledge, lessons, thinking and practice, as well as seeing the results of decision making in various forms for effective application in business management in the present day.

Many people sayl, not only in business management, that they can take advantage of the "Three Kingdoms" to apply. In fact, whether it is a story in terms of life, work, thinking or  decisions, if you know how to apply it in a good way, it will likely benefit yourself more or less.

From reading the Three Kingdoms, in my attitude I found that Some people may be familiar with the term "Battle a hundred times, winning a hundred times" is probably the best. But in some ways, "he knows, we know, a hundred battles without defeat" seems to have a more extensive cause and effect. Because in some cases, being in a situation that is not defeated is already in a very successful position. There is no need to win, without opening the way to retreating or making friends.

All of the commentary that I have mentioned are all beneficial from the “Three Kingdoms” addiction, so I invite you to try and touch it once.

A film the I have not enjoyed 

Some movies are fun and some are not. One of the movies I did not enjoy is “The Mist.” Its story is about a group of people in a small town, the survivors trying to escape from the enormous fog that has covered the city. It intimidates the survivors by constantly absorbing things and the lives of the people of the city. It does this without any warning; no fixed place, no fixed time. 

The movie focuses on a group of survivors in a supermarket. These people were divided into two main groups. One of the groups wanted to share water, food, and supplies with other people outside the supermarket. The other group, however, did not want to share and wanted to keep the supplies for themselves.

Due to the disagreement, chaos begins. They started fighting and killing each other for the supplies, the only ones left was a small family of 2 parents and 1 child. The family left the supermarket, taking supplies and a gun with 3 bullets. Suddenly, A huge storm appeared before him. The man, the leader of the family, decides to do something to prevent everyone from being absorbed by the storm. He decided to fire his gun at his wife. Then at his son. But while he was about to kill himself on the last bullet, the storm disappeared and a confused ending was cut, showing the man as the only survivor of the town.

From all of this I said It's a very bad story in this movie. The experience that I got after watching the movie was so muzzy, giddy, and dizzy. From then to now I am still confused, what the writer and director of that movie want to convey.

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My regular habit

At the moment I am studying for my PhD. So each day I have a lot to do and it is part of my success in my studies. At first, after waking up every day, I had to read at least one academic journal on a topic of my interest that day. And after I finished reading, I washed myself up and got ready for the day. 

During the early afternoon, I was usually at university to meet with a professor. With each meeting, I have to report the progress of my discovery and summarize my new findings. The professor will then lead to a funny debate on the topic we were talking about. Until around 1 pm every day, Me and the Professor will go for a meal together at the college cafeteria.

4 PM to 5 PM in the evening will be the time for me to take a nap. I, then, have to go for a part time job between 6 PM to 8 PM. I work part-time as a tutor on robot programming for high school students, who are interested in engineering studies. 

At around 9 PM, I will return to my accommodation to take a shower and prepare to read a book during the night. I often read inevitable academic articles to support the literature review which will be included in the thesis. Every night, I usually spend time until midnight and then get a good night's sleep, preparing for my fresh, new tomorrow.

From what you read, my daily routine may seem boring. But for me, it was fun; I get to learn something new every day. In my opinion, I think university life is very entertaining and challenging at the same time.

Emma: an introduction in three parts

A book, film, or TV series enjoyed

I think that most of us can change our interests over lifetimes. I mean we might have been interested in sports when we were young, but when we grow up we might be interested in music instead. I am in that group of people and now I am fascinated about designing experience. Recently, Yu-Kai Chou’s ‘Actionable Gamification’ has become my most favorite book. 

My interests on gamification started six months ago when I was given ‘a special project’ at my last job. It was about how to improve customer experience. Most of my colleagues and I found it was challenging to work on that assignment, as we thought that customer experience is abstract, hard to understand and difficult to measure. Although I have worked in the field of client services and relationship management for a long time, I found it is very challenging to design engaging experiences on digital platforms. Like most companies, I had to put in a lot of effort to develop a mobile application that customers would love and could not live without. Therefore, I started working on my project by studying mobile applications from many successful companies such as Airbnb, TikTok and Linkedin, and I discovered that the companies mentioned how they apply psychology in video games to create engaging digital experiences on their mobile applications. I thought that this was brilliant!

I used to think that we cannot learn anything from video games, but reading ‘Actionable Gamification’ changed my perspective toward it. According to Yu-Kai Chou, the author of the book, game designers apply a lot of theories from behavioral science and psychology to make players engage and become addicted to the video games. I agree with Yu-Kai Chou that when we ask people the reasons why they enjoy playing video games, they will give opinions such as video games allow them to be creative, it builds teamwork and they can take on challenges. Now, I have discovered the secret of addiction to video games!

                  ______________________ 

And a book, film or TV series not enjoyed 

In my free times, I often watch movies. I can watch all kinds of films but Deadpool is the worst movie that I have ever watched.

I am a big fan of superhero movies, but I am very disappointed with Deadpool, because it seems to me that the producer of the movie wanted to use sex and violent scenes as the selling points. Although I understand that superhero movies contain killing and fighting scenes, I think the protagonist’s motivation for fighting is low. While other superheroes like Spiderman, Ironman, Superman and Batman, fight for justice and save the world, Deadpool fights for himself. In the movie, Deadpool is unfortunate and is abused by dishonest antagonists that make him lose his normal life. Because he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, whatever help is offered to him, he will accept.   It is not wrong, but I do not get a sense of being a part of something bigger than oneself, and this seems to me that Deadpool fights with no purposes. This might be the reason why the producer created many silly scenes in the movie.

I love watching superhero movies because I want to feel a sense of being chosen to do something greater than ordinary people. I can recall the famous quote from Spiderman "With great power, comes great responsibility. This is my gift, my curse.” It feels like he is chosen to do something bigger than himself. Huge missions are calling him and he needs to scarify his personal life to protect the whole society. After watching this kind of movie, I feel motivated and empowered to handle challenges in my daily life. I think I am influenced and motivated by the psychology in the superhero movies and I work hard and really care about the greater good. If I could ask Spiderman a single question, I would ask him how to make a balance between his personal life and his great missions, as I do not think that he needs to scarify his personal life for the greater good. 

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A regular habit 

When I arrive home after work, I usually allocate at least 30 minutes of my times to practice meditation.

I began my journey on  the trainings of my mind 13 years ago, as I had difficult times to take control of my emotions. I mean my mind was like the weather that kept changing: The sky was so blue when I heard good news; It rained when someone disappointed me; There was a storm when someone betrayed me. I realized that my mind was the source of unhappiness. Fortunately, one day while I was discussing meditation with my colleagues, she invited me to attend a meditation course at Wat Dhammamongkol. With my eagerness to learn, I then quickly accepted her invitation. We visited the temple and we had a good chance to meet Luangphor Viriyang Sirintharo, the master of meditation instructor, as he used to teach Dhamma and meditation to the public on Sunday. Before I met the abbot of the temple, I had learned meditation from books, but it was very confusing. However, the abbot was able to simplify the practice of meditation and his teaching was very expansive. I really enjoy his teaching as it explained through analogy as well as by way of comparison so that it was easy to follow. 

In my routine practice of meditation, I begin with sitting with both legs folded back to one side, and then I pronounce “I go for Refuge to the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. I hereby pay tribute to my parents and teachers. May all Bless. Lead my mind into concentration.” After that, I recite in my mind “Buddho Dhammo Sangho” three times. The third step is that I check my posture and keep my body erect. When I feel ready, I close my eyes while reciting “Buddho” comfortably in the mind for 30 minutes. During this, if my mind wriggles away with various thoughts, I’ll bring it back and attach it with the reciting word “Buddho”. Finally, I can feel the power of the stillness of my mind.