F2F Class Notes (Ally)[R]

Vocabulary

cereal: 玉米片

oatmeal：麦片

tremendously：巨大的

observant：很有洞察力的

considerable：大到足够纳入考虑的

taken into consideration： 纳入考虑
ie. To watch American TV is an important thing to take into consideration.
ie. It’s important to take watching American TV into consideration.

expectancy：期望

perceived：注意到; 意识到; 察觉到; 将…理解为; 将…视为; 认为
ie. He is so tall so he’s perceived as a giant.
ie. I think being content with what you already have is way more important than perceived happiness.

take a leaf out of sb‘s book： to learn from someone

harmony：和谐，和弦

content：happy 满足

How are you feeling today? Our emotions can vary considerably depending on many factors, including our health, wealth, relationships and where we live. But sometimes we need to take a step back and think about what happiness really means and how we can find it.

Maybe we should take a leaf out of Finland’s book– last year the UN’s World Happiness Report found the country to be the happiest place on Earth. The report looked at ‘subjective well-being’. That’s how happy people feel they are and why – based on factors such as, economic strength, social support, life expectancy, freedom of choice, generosity, and perceived corruption.

This is just one way of measuring happiness. Research has also suggested that while personal feelings of pleasure are the accepted definition of happiness in Western cultures, East Asian cultures tend to see happiness as social harmony, and in some parts of Africa and India it’s more about shared experiences and family.

Author and journalist Helen Russell has been looking at the positive characteristics of a country’s population to see what makes them happy and found Japan to be one of the most content. She told the BBC that this was due to their concept of wabi-sabi – “this traditional Japanese concept around celebrating imperfection… it’s this idea that there is a beauty in ageing, it’s to be celebrated rather than trying to disguise it.” So, basically, we should be happy with who we are and rejoice in our faults and individuality. That’s something to put a smile on our faces!