F2F Class Notes (Vicki)

Write about the negative effects of technology (use your personal examples)

What was the time that you were most proud with your children?
I have two kids. One is a boy and the other is a girl. My son is kind and my daughter is clever. Both of them have their own personalities. I think they are totally different but both are good. We love them and they love us, too. Every day when I wake up, I can hear their talking and laughing. In my opinion, to be happy and independent is very important throughout during one’s life. It can support them the whole life. As parents, we teach children when they are young. But when they grow up, they have to face problems and solve them by themselves.

Last time, I brought my daughter to study swimming. After the class, she went to the bath room Then she changed her swim suit and took a shower herself. Another mother saw her and knew she was only 4. She was surprised how independent she was. I was proud of with her at that time. In our home, even though they are young，we let them do things that they can handle. I am proud with the time that they try their best to solve problems. They don’t need to be the best. But some qualities inside are beneficial for them. Personality and positive attitude will be precious.

Vocabulary

flip phone – the phone that folds and unfolds

slide phone – the screen slides up

via – through
i.e. I will talk to you via email.

signal – 信号
i.e. There is no signal on the subway.

mutual – both agree; same
i.e. It was a mutual decision from the both of us.
i.e. The feeling is mutual.

pleasantry – small talk
i.e. We exchanged pleasantry just now cause we haven’t seen each other for a while.

misinterpreted (adj.) – misunderstood
i.e. It is very easy to be misinterpreted by someone if you have an accent.

intonation – 语调

convey – communicate
i.e. She has conveyed with me about the details tomorrow.

sister-in-law – brother’s wife

The telephone was an amazing invention. People could finally speak to each other instantly from one home to another. The mobile phone took this technology further, meaning we could make contact with people to and from almost anywhere in the world. But despite having the instant ability to talk to one another, it seems many of us prefer to communicate by text.

I don’t mean we have taken up letter writing again. Although a handwritten letter has a personal touch, sending it by snail mail is too slow to satisfy our desire to keep in touch immediately. But what our smartphones now allow us to do is enable us to communicate in any number of quick, cheap but silent ways. A study in the UK a few years ago found 49 per cent of teenagers preferred to send a text rather than speak to someone.

Certainly sending an SMS, text or message via a chat app means we can compose what we want to say, and we can be more efficient in saying it – especially if we express ourselves by using emojis. It can also be quicker than having to chat with someone, although I feel you can still end up wasting time by having a full discussion by text! Text messaging also allows privacy – other people can’t overhear your text if you’re in a public place such as on a train.

But texting instead of talking can seem antisocial; we may even forget the art of pleasantries. A text can be misinterpreted too because you miss out on a speaker’s intonation. Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott told the BBC: “We always speak with melody and intonation to our voice… you take that channel of information out of communication, you lose another way that sense is being conveyed.”

Of course texting and talking is the worst thing to do. Who deserves your attention when two people are communicating with you? It’s then we have to decide who has the most interesting thing to say!