ZERO WASTE vs LANDFILLING

Forty million tones is the amount of household rubbish in 2020 (Collins, 2003). Two hundred billion VND is the amount of money that Ho Chi Minh City’s residence for rubbish land-filling and incineration. It is really about time for a new method to reduce the huge amount of rubbish each year, to save our money, and to save our environment. That novel method is zero waste. Although both zero waste and land filling have their own advantages and disadvantages, the former method is our best choice for the clean and stable future.
In perspective of short term vision, land filling seems to exceed zero waste in term of economy and policy. On the one hand, land filling’s techniques have been developed for quite a long time, so it does not cost a huge amount of money to establish the project. Actually, most countries in the world use this method in dealing with their rubbish problem including our country, Viet Nam. On the other hand, zero waste requires not only huge investments in term of finance and techniques researches, but also a close cooperation among public, companies and governments. First, the public’s awareness is the most important factor. Second, most importantly, companies actually have to change totally their production method. For example, a company producing fruit juice stored in portable boxes has to think about new designs of their products. The fruit juice box is made from metals, papers and polymers. How can firms design the products which are easy to be taken apart or do not need taking apart to be renewed? And finally, the government has to pass the law to encourage the residences to use these products as well as to make sure all the system runs fluently. For all of these reasons, it is easy to think that land filling has many more advantages than zero waste. However, this statement is only right in short-term point of view. Furthermore, despite of the mentioned above difficulties, many countries have succeeded in the zero waste projects, for example: Canberra with 59% its rubbish recycled, Edmonton and Canada with 70% (Collins, 2003). That is why we should take into account the effectiveness of these two methods in long-term when deciding what the most suitable method is for our future.
In the perspective of long-term vision, it is zero waste which is the best choice for economic, political, and environmental concern. First, we are running out of our natural resources. Therefore, zero waste gives us a valuable opportunity to prevent the shortage of these land capital in the future because most of the resources used can be reused or recycled. This method also creates new jobs, which brings economic profit to residences. Furthermore, the success in some countries in signing up to the zero waste policies, for example, Canberra, Toronto, California, and New Zealand, is the proof for its political feasibility (Collins, 2003). The zero waste projects are chances for governments, industry and public to come together and head towards a sustained development of the economy. Finally, applying zero waste, we can avoid all additional environmental problems from other rubbish dealing methods, for example, leakages and bad smells from land filling, or the pollutants and smoke from the incineration. Thus, the zero waste project is really suitable method, especially for Vietnam because of our high residence density, and our willingness to protect our beautiful nature.
In conclusion, although the landfilling has some advantages, zero waste is absolutely the best choice we can make. This is the way to save our valuable natural resources, to create new jobs, to protect the environment. It is true to say that heading to a sustained development in the economy means applying zero waste method.
References:
Collins, J. (2003, Oct 3rd). Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up. The Guardian Weekly. p.25.

The language is my partner on the way gaining knowledge.

The language, actually, should not be consider our obstacles in the way of gaining knowledge. In fact, it is there to serve us. However, this special "tool" sometimes does cause some problem in my Engineering courses. The vocabulary, the grammar and the way to present my thinking are my most important problems.

Although at this stage of study, I have not been required to do so much writing on Engineering subjects, I have encountered the language barriers when reading textbooks and understanding what my lecturers, my tutors delivered. Actually all the knowledge in Engineering courses are presented clearly and directly, so I always appreciate the efforts of textbooks' authors, my lectures, my tutors in trying their best to make everything understandable.

Nevertheless, the most obvious problem is that my vocabulary is not strong enough to quickly get the idea presented, which results in the slowdown in my reading, and listening speed. To overcome this problem, especially in MLE1101 course (Materials), I have learned that it is integral for me to prepare the coming lecture in advance by reading lecture notes, skimming the textbook, looking up the dictionary and asking the questions. Although these methods do not totally solve my problem in understanding materials, it actually helps me overcome the language barriers. Now, if I still could not get the idea, it is the knowledge issues not the language one. Of course, it takes times to remember new academic concepts even in my mother tongue. In addition, I still notice the weakness in my vocabulary, so I try to learn about five new words each day. I look forward to a day when vocabulary is no longer my fear.

Besides, the grammar structures and the way to express ideas effectively are other problem. When doing my lab report, I recognized that it was difficult to make the reader understand my idea easily. I have not had the proficiency in using English, so keeping translating what I want to say from Vietnamese into English leads to my unsatisfactory productivity in writing report. I will never forget that I have spent the whole day in the laboratory doing experiment and report which should take only 3 hours to be completed. Therefore, I believe that it is necessary for me to read sample reports as well as other materials and pay attention on how the ideas are presented. I will be familiarize myself with the logical thinking and writing.

In conclusion, the strong vocabulary, the accurate grammatical points, and the effectiveness in expressing ideas are three main targets I have to aim at. It is important for me to remember that language is the indispensable key to many doors in the way of gaining knowledge. And it should be my friend not my enemy.

SUMMARIZATION: "ENGINEERING - STILL THE "HOT" SECTOR?" (WONG, 2007)

The answer to this question about the potential of future Engineering careers is definitely yes. Engineering provides various and numerous professions in many sectors of the thriving industry to young graduates who possess both hard and soft skills helping them deal with their career challenges.

First of all, the unbelieveable development of industry and the expanding globalization offer Engineering students many places in today's ecomomy. The only hindrance is student's choices. It is the choices of students about their favourite professional fields, their interest of careers and their daring to challenge themselves with overseas projects that make remarkable differences.

Second, the young greaduates should know what qualities are required and what their career's challenges are in order to be well-prepared. The two most important qualities are the leadership skills and the awareness about environmental issues. The abilities to handle money and to cooperate with many types of people are also really significant. In brief, the employers not only look forward to the approriate academic knowledge but also hope to see good soft skills.

Finally, and most importantly, it is necessary that young graduates learn how to succeed in their interviews. The interviewers judge their candidates though their apperance basing on these quatlities: honesty, confidence but modesty, a clear career and life plan, and sufficient communication skills. Students should try hard in their university life so that they can appear with the best academic results as well as various experiences in extracurricular activities.

All in all, since the industry is expanding, more and more potential doors of future professions are opening to all young Engineering graduates who are well prepared and dare to seize these opportunities (Wong, 2007).

References:
Wong E.R. (2007, November). Engineering-still the "hot" sector? GradAsia Engineering 2008, p.4.

Useful Synonyms

When I do my assignment at CELC today, I find out these useful synonyms on chapter 14 of the book " Focus on Vocabulary" (Schmitt, 2005). I would like to share them with you.

• unavoidable= inescapable= inevitable
• end=conclude=terminate
• next= side by side with= adjacent
• yearly= twelve-month=annual
• result= conclusion= outcome=consequence
• gain=advantage=benefit
• almost=nearly= virtually
• yet= even so= nevertheless= nonetheless
• happen= take place= occur
• length=period=duration
• specialist=professional=expert

Hope that you can add more to this list. We all learn from each other.

Reference:
Schmitt D. and Schmitt N. (2005). Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic Word List. Pearson Education. NY 10606.

A half of my first semester is nearly completed.

It is wonderful to say that in this beginning of this academic year, I am luckily involved in the E02 group of EG1471. I have learnt a lot of things from my classmates and especially my tutor, Ms Fong.

I consider my improvement in academic writing style, for example, the citation, the format of academic essays... is the most important achivement I have until now. And, thank you Ms Fong who has helped my classmates and me understand the various grammar points, vocabulary as well as their pronunciation.

However, I find that there are a lot of things I have to do in order to meet this module's requirements. First, I have not try my best to increase my vocabulary (actually, I admit that I am a little bit lazy). Without strong vocabulary, I can not feel comfortable to express my idea and to maintain the academic style at the same time, which is the main cause of my first terrible assignment. Second, I am still not able to summarize and paraphrase an arcticle or a piece of academic writing properly. Of course, the shortage of vocabulary is a main reason; however, it is the lack of ability to express one idea in various way that makes me fail. Last but not least, it is necessary for me to practice speaking standard English. Although I always use English in studying but it is not a really good one. I had better focus on this weakness before graduating and finding a job.

To overcome these above weaknesses, I should spend more time on practicing English. First, it is important to improve my vocabulary espeacially the academic vocabulary relating to Engineering and Technology topic. Also, I should use the time wisely. Having a note book of vocabulary with me when moving around the school may be a good idea. Second, the more reading I do, the more ways of expressing idea I can have. Moreover, killing two birds by one stone, I can also broaden my knowledge through those books, and acrticles. Finally, it is important to speak properly not fast. Thus, slowing down my speaking speed and focusing on the grammar as well as my pronunciation may be one of the solutions.

There are many things I have to do so that sometimes, I wish one day had 48 hours. However, thinking again, I also want to complete this semester quickly and effectively since I miss my family so much.(oh, I have gone out of the topic).

Recess week has begun and I have another chance to redouble my efforts in the second half of this semester, so I had better focus on it instead of thinking about the scarity of time and my limited ability.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to Ms Fong, and my dear classmates. You have created a comfortable study environment. Although I have not remembered all of your name (especially the guy's names), I will always remember that we are in the same English class.

If you have any idea about ways of studying Englich, please tell me. I look forward to your comments. See you soon,

A sympathy analysis of resistance to new technology

There are various reasons for the resistance to new technology.
First, it is obvious that people are usually not eager to change what they have been familiar with. It is what we call " mind inertia" which mainly originates from people's fear of wasting time and money to discover new things. Second, and more important, the change itself sometimes make a lot of people worse-off, which is a certain reason for the resistance of technology. Dating back to the British Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, despite of the unbelievable thriving in industrial technology, the workers' living standard continued descending dramatically. Machines have taken places of human. Poor workers are fired, and blamed technology for their misery so that they broke any machines they could. As a result, this era of briliant development in technology, to the workers, becomes the most sorrowful one. However, we should sympathize with these poor people since " much fundemental change is painful and that which destroys old ways of life is more painful still" (Randall, 1995). Last but not least, misusing of new technology and its extremely severe consequences are the most likely causes of the global resistance to it. We and our following generations will never forget the two painful landmarks in the history of mankind: Hiroshima and Chenobyl. The wrong application of nuclear power, in specific, and of new techonology, in general, is so costly that it totally changes many people's the point of view toward this issue:' Is new technology what we really need for a better world?'. All in all, the resistance of technology can originate from many reasons and has different levels ranging from the most normal individual reasons to the most complicated one. Whenever the new technology can do harm directly or indirectly to humans, the resistance is still there. Thus, basing on this understanding, as future engineers, we must aim to the human welfare in all new technology we are trying to apply into real life.

Reference:
Randall, A.(1995). In Bauer, M.(Ed). Resistance to new technology: nuclear power, information technology and biotechnology. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

e-porfolio2: Common grammar mistakes

The tense is one of the most important grammar point in English. In fact, we have to say that without tenses, English is meaningless. Among 12 tenses in this global language, I sometimes confuse between the Present Perfect Tense and the Present Perfect Continuous one. They are similar in some way but also slightly different and easy to be misused.
The following information is retrieved from the book "Advanced Grammar in Use" (Martin, 2003)


Present Perfect Continuous vs Present Perfect:

In general, both of the two tenses mentioned above indicate " something that started in the past and which affects the situation that exists now." (Martin, 2003). They are also used to describe the repeat of events or activities. However there is some slightly differences in their meaning.

On one hand, "the Present Perfect Tense focuses on the effect of an activity or an event, or the fact that something has been achieved." (Martin, 2003). We also use this tense to emphasize the number of times that an activity takes place, and the result of a change.

On the other hand, the Present Perfect Continuous pays attention on "activities or events which may or may not be finished" (Martin, 2003). It is common to use this tense to emphasize activities which we have continued doing during a period of time. We also use the Present Perfect Continuous to describe the continuity of the change.

In brief, the Present Perfect focus on the achivement of an activity while the Present Perfect Continuous pay attention on an activity's continuity. And right choices of tenses can add significant meaning in our sentences.

Exercises: (Martin,2003)

1) Use these words to fill in the blank and pay attention to the usage of the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous tenses:

claim, disappear, give, move, stop

1. An important file ... from my office.

2. Dr Fletcher... the same lecture to students for the last ten years.

3. With thier win yesterday, Italy... into second place in the table.

4. For years he... that he is related to the royal family.

5. Good, the noise... , so I can start concentrating on my work again.



2) Connect the two clauses to complete these sentenses. Focus on the relationship between their meaning and the tense used in each clause:
a. I have swum...
I have been swimming...

...and I feel exhausted
...thirty lengths of the good.



b. I have visited Vienna....
I have been visited Vienna...

...three or four times before

...since 1990 and I have always felt very safe here.


References:
Martin. H (2003). Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. (Ms Fong, I am so sorry that I do not know how to creat an indent in this blog for the reference. I will ask my classmate for it. Thanks)