Effective Communication

(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82100/effective_communication_in_the_workplace.html?cat=3)

Effective communication is a very important part of human interaction. Effective communication includes listening and talking carefully. I think effective communication is very important, because it trains us to be a better listener and a better talker, which make effects people's relationship. Good communication is to express information clearly and to get others information right.

Effective communication is really good for people to know about things, and by doing that, it's making less confusion. Less confusion makes people know about each other and what they are talking, and then the relationship will be better, and people will be more socialized.

To communicate with people are not just verbally, but also nonverbally. Both are important, to communicate verbally is to send message by talking, or making voice. To communicate nonverbally is to express the message by writing it down, or showing words, or like pictures.

Effective communicator is to express the message well by speaking and listening. To be a good listener, you have to listen carefully, and split the things people say and understands it. Also to reply the person that is talking to you when needed. To be a good speaker, you have to talk clearly so that people can understand, and maybe do some body languages or some tone changing so people know like when it's strong, important, and when it's not.

Effective communicators builds a great team, and so listening and talking carefully is very important.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture-Ending

Today we had finished the movie, Ben-Hur. The most excited and the part that interested me a lot was the chariot race. Chariot race is a race that people ride on a cart thing, and there are four horses in front of the cart to pull the cart. It is kind of a violent game, because you never know whether your cart will collapse or maybe you might flip out. When you fell off your cart, you might get squeezed or smashed by other cart too. The game starts with riders riding slowly around the court few laps, and the competitors will be lead by five riders. Four leading riders in a row, one in the front, and each of them has a flag on their hand. The riders wears special clothes, they have some protection on their body. They have metal thing on their wrist, they wear helmets on their head, and they also have different color long cape. The leader give a speech before the game, and then when he gave a sign, the game will starts. The riders has to race for 6 laps, and if they flip out, then they loose. Ben-Hur had 4 of his horses white, and it shows that he is the nice guy. Massala had 4 of his horses black, and he was wearing a black cape too, it shows that he is a harsh, evil person. He also had a sharp thing on his wheel, so he could poke others' wheel, and they will flip off. At the end, Ben-Hur wins, and he killed Massala(I guess). The story ends up with Jesus had been killed by the empire I think, because he had turn people into Christen we say now. People believe that Jesus' blood washes off people's mistakes and disease, so Ben-Hur's mother and sister was healthy again, no libersy(I don't know how to spell it). Jesus died, and later on people said that he was re-birth again.

Gaza hit by new Israel strikes

January 11, 2009, Israel had been sending more and new tank fire and air strikes into Gaza. The Gaza had been fighting for months, and the Israel had been fighting for 7 days. The war starts with Gaza, Hamas. The Hamas starts firing rockets into Israel, and there are more than four people have been killed by rockets fired. After the Hamas people fired rockets into Israel, the Israel starts sending soldier over, and they had start bombing areas to stop the rockets being fired by Gaza. Most people that lives in Gaza are Palestinians. Last week, there were more than 400 Palestinians have been killed, but they still haven't give up. So far, there are 820 Gazans and 13 Israelis have died in 14 days of fighting. I think Gaza should just stop now, and Israel should too, peace is the best thing of all.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture

Roman has a lot of things they are connected with Greek. Roman respect their leaders very well, so when they are welcoming the leader, they will have big parades, and everyone made a long path for the leader to go. In the parade, there are people playing formal serious music to show that important people are coming, and people spill/spray flowers to make the path look pretty, the important people such as leader ride on a cart thing with 3 horses pulling it. The palace of the emperor is really huge, and there is a long stairs to go up to the palace. The emperor usually sit in the center of the place where the emperor can see everybody on top. The palace looks really formal, solemn, there are 2 fire sets on each side of the emperor, there is also a big bird thing which I think they put it because it looks strong and hard to defeat, and they have their empire flags around the palace. The emperor is a really big and important person, so everything that he wants has to be done, even if it might be bad. When the emperor swing his hands around the crowd, everybody starts clapping and cheering, and when he make a stop hand gesture, then the entire crowd stops talking directly, this thing shows that the emperor has a lot of the power.

Roman soldiers, leaders, and emperor dine together a lot, it's like they are having diner party. In the diner party, there are people performing dancing, and after they watch the performance, they have kind of like maids to serve them food. There are rich man from countryside that likes horses. Roman people wears different clothes when they are having dinner, they wear a kind of robe with a scarf-ish thing tied around the waist.

There is a disease that is pretty bad in Roman, it's called the "Liversity", or something like that, it is a disease that his/her skin might get ruin or destroyed, because you are really sick, the disease passes, when the person has that disease breathes on you, then you will get the disease too. This is so far what I seen for Roman culture from this Ben-Hur movie.

Israel's troops are fighting in Gaza

January 5, 2009 Israel had sent their soldiers to Gaza to try to stop the Hamas group from firing rockets. Israel has been dropping bombs on Gaza, and they say they won't stop if the firing rockets attack don't stop. For now, neither side wants to back down, only the world leaders, they want Israel and Hamas to stop this violent fight. This fight has been for 10 days, I still don't think war is a good idea, because there will be so many die and get injured for no reason, so I think both stop attacking each other will be the best thing. Maybe there are some unfair treatment between Israel and Gaza, but I think they can discuss with each other about that. There are protesters around the world trying to stop the violence and stop blood shed. I think it's right, but I am not a them, so maybe I can't feel it, but that's just a advice/suggestion.

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture

We watched a film about Ben-Hur, it's about a tale of Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur. It's also a traditional film of the birth of Jesus Christ. A new governor arrived, and that governor was Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala, he's a tribune. At the beginning, they were really happy to see each other at a long time. But Ben-Hur think that Messala is using him to get benefits, and Ben-hur want to protect Jewish people, so they are separated, and they were against each other. Messala is not really a good friend, and he made Ben-Hur to be a slave. On the way with the salves(Ben-Hur was one of them), Ben-Hur met Jesus Christ. I think this is what we watched so far. In the film I saw some cool culture of them. Roman soldiers wears helmet(and they have those weird red feather stuff on their helmet), shoulder plates, woollen tunic, red toga, body armour, and dagger on the top. They wear groin protection, and sandals at the bottom. They also have some accessories, like sword, javelin, shield, and they wear those metal bracelet. For some reason that not important soldiers can't wear red togas, because togas are for important tribunes or tribune's friend or helper. At the scene when Messala was happy to see Ben-Hur, they played a game, and they just throw the javelins on a wood thing under the roof.

The Romans are like Greeks, they have their own slaves too(if he/she) is rich. Ben-Hur has two slaves for trading, and they trade goods for Ben-Hur. The slave-Simonides(I don't know whether I spelled it right) and his beautiful daughter. He doesn't treat his slaves like other rich people and tribunes, he doesn't punish slaves or treat them like low-class people. Simonides is a nice slave, he traveled around places and trade things for Ben-Hur. I found out that different people treated their slaves differently.

There is a scene when Ben-Hur's sister accidentally touched a broken roof brick, and it fall and injured a soldier. Ben-Hur, his sister, and his mother were very fast arrested by the Messala's soldiers and catch into Messala's dungeon. Ben-Hur tried to ran out of the dungeon to find Messala to release him or at least his mother and sister. Messala didn't listen to him, and even made Ben-Hur a slave.

The slaves walk in desserts, and dry path with pain and tiredness. If they fell, then they get leave in desserts until they die. There is one scene when the soldiers doesn't let Ben-Hur drink water, but Jesus brought him water and he saw him. Soldiers and tribunes keep the slaves alive, because they need them to work the big boat, and when they get back into one place, then they might get kill or something. There are a bunch of slaves rowing beneath the boat. They also have some special name for some actions. They also have rhythm when the slaves are rowing the boat, and there is one person who needs to sit in the front and play rhythm on drum for the slaves. Messala and his soldier treat his slaves like this, not like Ben-Hur.

UK is freezing!!!!

It sounds normal and usual that it's cold in winter, but some places in UK is freezing like Arctic overnight and it might get worse. The weather dropped to -11 degrees at the parts of northern Scotland and the south east of England. This cold temperature affects a lot of stuff, it affects flights, closing school in England, and delays on the road. The forecasters warn people to watch out for the path out door, because it might be really really slippery. There are many people had been in the hospital, because they fall by the slippery floor. Just a intimate reminder, everybody remember to wear very warm clothes, and wear big jackets, don't worry about people laughing at you. Healthiness it's the great thing in our life, so keep healthy, and eat food, exercise. :D

Kids are worrying about parents divorce..?

People found out that there are more children calling the ChildLine, because they worried about their parents will divorce. The Charity says that they are getting more calls from children after Christmas, because Christmas can be fun, but sometimes it bring stress and argues to parents. I think that maybe parents might get stress or argue sometimes, but it doesn't mean that they are going to divorce. They might just feel a bit depressed and things, and they move on. But I bet many of the kids will think that what if they separate? Will we ever see him or her again? Although maybe economic is the most important thing right now, but relationships are also important. Find a man or a woman that fits you, you don't get marry when you love someone in a sudden, be sure first, and then marry. Just in case any of the UK children look at my blog, I will put a number for them to let them know that you can call 0800 1111 across UK, and you can get help and advice from the ChildLine.