h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hi.how r u?

could u please do me a favor? I'm looking for an e-pal for chatting, which is mainly for my course-intercultural communication. We can chat about anything you like.
you can add my MSN: [email protected], or we can chat here.

Thanks a lot. have a nice day!

Hello back, we can chat on here and am glad to help your course, what would you like to chat about?

Thanks so much.

But since my english is not so good, please ignore it or just ask me whenever you don't understand what i mean.

i'm now studying communication in HK. this website is recommended by my tutor, but i can't remember where she comes from, maybe Britain. so are you English?

Yes I am English and live on the outskirts of London. H2g2 is a good place to learn the English language as a BBC site. It is good you are doing a communication course although you English has improved a lot since you joined h2g2.

English is the official teaching media for universities in HK. This semester i have taken 6 courses all from my major and also i have lots of readings to do. I'm really dying in English.

I have just read your front page and learned that you are interested in photography. actually i'm taking an introduction course for photography. taking photos is really interesting. but my friend said one has to take lots of rubbish pictures before he can take good ones.

i have just found out that today is thanksgiving.though i don't celebrate it, i believe english do. Happy thanksgiving.

Thanks, but Thanks Giving is an American custom and not celebrated in England.
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Yes the more photographs you take the better you become. The advice I would give is mostly to look at the background of the photograph you want to take as a plain background is usually better as less distracting. Also a lot of photographs are taken from too far away so it is better to move closer and fill the frame.

Sorry i made a silly mistake. but maybe the U.S. is dominating the world.

thanks for your advice. i'll try next time. but the canon camera we borrowed from our department should be returned in December. I'm afraid I have to get back to my digital camera again.

it seems to me that you are a typical english gentleman. do you think so?

(sorry,the question is boring and straightforward)

because of my course i have to know more about you and your culture. i have to write paper in terms of ideology, socialization, forms of discourse and face system.(sounds very boring but i have no choice.)

Yes I suppose I am fairly typical I am neither very rich nor very poor. I won't give out my name or job details as shouldn't do that on internet, however I am divorced and have no children and 51 years old.

HK now is after the midnight, so i have to get to sleep now.

goodnight.

Of course you shouldn't. that's enough for demographic information. thanks, you are really nice. actually ideology is more important in intercultural comm. such as your opinion, belief, and attitude on certain issue.

do you like chindren? why don't you have one? it seems to me that westerns are more individulistic comparied with the Asians. usually people in their middle ages all have families and chirldren in my hometown--which is next to Shanghai. (do you know Shanghai in China? it is supposed to be the modernest city in China.)

Shanghai is well known in England and I expect around the world, I think it has been used in cinema films. The word Shanghai is a word that is catchy and easily remembered for English people.
I have no children as although I am divorced and have been married we didn't try to have a family. I neither like nor dislike children, although other peoples children always seem noisey where as if they were your own children they might not. I think that families are getting smaller in England over the years and people are chosing to have less children, more children mean more bills for food, clothing, etc.

The situation is the same in Hong Kong. the birthrate in HK is very low, and it is decreasing continuously. it seems that low birthrate is a common phenomenon in developed districts.

Actually, i have a sisiter who is nine years younger than me. my parents expected to have a boy, and then he could stay at home and take care of my parents when they get old. most people the same as my parents' generation prefer boys than girls because of this reason. it is possibly related to the undeveloped welfare in china.
Won't you feel lonely when other families are celebrating holidaies while you are alone?

Although some children look after their parents as they get older there are quite a lot of old peoples homes here who can look after them as it is a full time job particulary if the older person has dementia and likely to be confused and wander out of the house. I believe you can get some money from government if care for a relative at home. It is difficult for sons and daughters to look after elderly parents if confused as giving personal care to a parent if incontinent can be upseting as normally it is parents who look after the sons and daughters and not the other way around.
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My sisters/brother/parent all do Christmas meals and celebrtions so can go there for Chrismas. There is a big tradition of families coming together at Christmas in England, more so than any other time of year.

I see. people in your country have no need to worry about their life when get older. in my tradition, that's totally different. elders in old peoples home are mostly those have no kids or are abandoned by their children. almost no one wants to go there. if the parents are in the old peoples home, the daughters and sons will be looked down upon by others as filial piety is an very important part of confucianism. therefore, it's children's responsibility to take care of the parents.

which one do you value more, your self welfare or your family's (your parents,siblings)? how about love and duty relationship in the family? in china, people feel love through the duty. if the children are obedient to the parents, parents will feel that they are loved. however, in some other culture, the parents don't care about whether the children have done sth for them as long as the children love them.

Do I care more about my relatives welfare or my own?
I think you need to split that into two groups.
If I had children or was still married I would put their welfare above my own, however to be honest I would not put my parents or brothers and sisters welfare above my own welfare.
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As to children in Europe behaving differantly behaviour wise compared to those in China, I expect that is true as in Europe obedience isn't seen as that important and sometimes parents still love their children however badly they treat their parents.