Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[iheartnyvai]

[color=indigo]Hi everyone! My name is Vaimoana, I'm a 19 year old English teacher from NY [color=indigo]now teaching in Jilin City, China. I am interested to know for one of my classes-- from any country! What is the worst/best thing about the people in your country? What is most important to them? What inspires you-- why do you wake up in the morning? Thank you for any answers, I can't wait to hear back! [color=indigo]
_________________
"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens." -Baha'u'llah

[guDga]

Hi!
I'm from a little country in Europe called Lithuania. If you ask, what's the worst thing about Lithuanians, I would say that they are envious. But that's more like a joke � Lithuanians josh that if you see a neighbor's house on fire and you're glad, then you're a real Lithuanian . If to talk seriously, I think that many Lithuanians wait until someone will take care of them and blame the goverment for not doing so, instead of taking care of themselves .
As for the best thing � Lithuanians are very proud of their country . Really! I'm only 14 years old(Lithuania declared it's independence 15 years ago), but I could talk about all of our fights for independence, our pride etc. etc. and other good things about Lithuania for hours ! So don't want me start!
_________________
`If our brain would be simple enough to understand it, we would be too dumb to understand it.`

[Manuel]

Hi I�m from Argentina, the worst thing from Argentinians is that they don�t get involved with serious tasks and expect a lot from the goverment, without trying to participate.WE are friendly people, and luckly, we have a beautiful country, but with great problems, too.
I wake up everyday with the hope of something new arriving. Unfortunetely, it never comes. I�m 15.

[cigarette]

I wake up in the morning because I have finished my sleep and I am going to start my new day.

the worst thing is up to indivual. for me, it would be that I couldn't date my girlfriend anymore(but I bet it never happens)

I wish you taught English in SiChuan, China. then I could learn english from you. me and my girlfriend are looking for an hourly English teacher. and you are just 19, but you teach english? you must be very smart. I wish you were my teacher.

[cigarette]

[Manuel]

You live in a rich country. you can pay your taxes without any trouble. If you lived here for a while you would know what poverty is.

[stellara]

i don't think german politicians actually try soo much to pay its debts back.. there are many effective ways to do so and germany uses maybe one or two of them, but uses some really inconvenient methods.. it's not done with raising the taxes, but they should differ between the rich (i mean really rich) people and the poorer ones. the rich usually pay almost no real taxes because they always have a way to avoid them..

it's also unbelievable what the politicians actually earn for doing aahm... not really useful things most of the time for instance, the income of someone who isn't politician but does in his job more or less the same than an equated politician is about one third lower.

and it isn't as if other countries had no debts.

greets
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[stellara]

you're right, but on the other hand, the rich people have the money to afford higher taxes. okay, i'm not really against an increase of the value-added taxes because it's lower than in our neighbour countries anyway.
I'd prefer the first method.

see, i know there's a difference if you earn 1 or 1.5 million euro each year, but is this half million really so essential when you'll earn another million every year?! you can't spend this much anyway.
contrary to that, for a middle-class family it is important if there's, let's say, five thousand a month or if it's four.

you know what i mean?
greets
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[stellara]

hmm.. not really. i don't know how china was ZeDong Mao

do you mean it would be better if there was the centralism again in germany? hm, i don't think that's a solution. i find the free ecomony system quite okay, myself. don't you?

greets
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[asterix]

Germany's economy has not done well since it joined the EU. The monetary policy tied to the use of the Euro means that the German government cannot really control it any more.
Germany should have stayed with the Deutschmark.
France, too, is having similar problems, but of course, are cheating.

[stellara]

in what way is France cheating?
greets
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[asterix]

The announcement by the Luxembourg-based agency Eurostat completed a series of decisions, beginning with the approval last fall of a 37.5 billion-franc ($6.59 billion) transfer from the state-owned company France Telecom to the French Treasury, that set the ground rules for countries attempting to meet the single-currency deficit and debt criteria this year.

Eurostat has given the green light to virtually all of the controversial accounting techniques employed by member countries, techniques that Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy bluntly labeled as "tricks" last fall. The political storm over the decisions has clearly caused some squirming at the normally obscure agency, but Eurostat officials defended their actions as purely technical.

"I know some governments believe other governments use accounting to cheat," said Alberto de Michelis, the director of Eurostat. He rejected the criticism, however, saying Eurostat was merely trying to ensure that all 15 EU countries apply the same accounting rules. He added that political assessments about rule-bending are best left to politicians to sort out.

Mr. de Michelis also pointed out that some of the agency's decisions have had a negative impact on the finances of national governments. Indeed, one ruling on Friday will increase Germany's budget deficit by as much as 5 billion Deutsche marks ($2.96 billion) this year by requiring the government to put on its books certain road and railway investments made by private-sector companies.

New York Herald Tribune.

France cheats, and Germany pays up.
Same old story.

[Manuel]

You don`t like France, do you?
Anyway, I think that the countries that belong to the EU should be concerned about the EU as a group and don�t be so individual. I mean, you�re talking if Germany lost two or three millions ( I suppose it�s more than that) in the last years by changing the Deustchmark to the Euro, and you are not realizing the way this thing helped poorer countries as Lithuania, Belorus,etc., by making their economies grow. The point is: you're the richest economy in the world; stop worring about your country and think now as Europe. Try to help the rest of the world.

[Sing-a-long]

My country (Norway) is very very beautiful and I never tire of looking at its beauty.

Norwegians are very proud people and very proud of their country.

I wake up in the morning because the day always has something new to teach me.

SAL

[dengzihong]

i am from china. i like my country, not only because i am a Chinese, but also i like chinese historical culture , chinese food , chinese hospitality.
i think what are the worst things in china are as follow:
1. very huge number of Chinese population. over population can lead many problems such as traffic , resource, housing , natural environmental
protection and so on.
2.poverty also is one of the worst things. in China , many people who are still in poverty level. their income per year is only 800 dollar, it is difficult to live their life.
i want to make friends from any country.my msn is [email protected]