周六聚會地點: 快提café 6:40PM-- 9:00PM新北市板橋區文化路一段387巷10號 (沿著新埔捷運站1號出口左方向前走約100公尺 經過新埔郵局看到康是美 從信義房屋旁的巷子進入) 連絡電話: 0976217450 Billy
說吧!英文讀書會 完全免費 練習英文 交流知識 交友談心的平台 我們歡迎 老朋友
新朋友 不設限 只要您想學英文 100%歡迎您 直接到聚會地點參加 地址在本會網頁上
不用錢的日子
A year
without money: A German woman's adventure
LEIPZIG,
Germany – For one year, Greta Taubert renounced our consumer society. Eating,
drinking and dressing without spending a cent, the 30-year-old German woman
wanted to see what life would be like if the economic system collapsed.
The
first thing she badly wanted after her 12 months of consumer abstinence?
"Tights," she replied spontaneously, nursing a cappuccino in a cafe
in Leipzig, a city in what used to be East Germany.
"And
toiletries," she added quickly, pushing aside a strand of her long blonde
hair.
Gone
now are the homemade deodorants, face creams and toothpastes, all guaranteed
100% organic.
"I
even made my own shampoo," she said. "But I started to look like a
Neanderthal. My friends told me, 'Now you're going too far'," she laughed.
For
an entire year Taubert, a freelance journalist, swapped skirts and trousers at
second-hand clothes exchanges and tilled the soil to grow cabbage and potatoes
in a community garden.
For
a holiday, she hitchhiked some 1,700 kilometers (more than 1,000 miles) to take
time out in Barcelona, albeit in a squat.
Having
endured the extreme experience, she wrote a book, "Apokalypse Jetzt!"
– German for "Apocalypse Now", the title of Francis Ford Coppola's
epic 1979 Vietnam war movie – which came out in February.
In
the book, she recounts her life far from the clothes racks of H&M, the
cardboard boxes of discount supermarket chains, and from the considerable waste
of modern consumer society.
日本人為何不生育？
出生率的下降加上平均壽命的增加是日本人口正在減少與老化的主要原因。日本是現在全世界平均壽命最高與出生率最低的國家之一。為什麼日本人會減少生育？日本家族計畫協會發現有
為數不少的日本年輕人不願意投入戀愛和婚姻關係中。
It can be attributed to the domination of
traditional gender roles and its unique "Otaku" culture. Japan has
historically been (B)patriarchal. Men are expected to be the primary income
earners in a household while women are considered main caregivers for children.
Women are also responsible for house chores. However, as computer games and
Manga cartoons flourish, Japanese men and women seem to be drifting apart to
different worlds.
這可以歸因於受到日本傳統性別角色以及其獨有的「御宅族」文化所支配。傳統上來說，日本是父系社會。男人被期望成為家中收入的主要來源，而女人負責照顧小孩，同時也要負責家務。
但隨著日本電腦遊戲和漫畫的蓬勃發展，日本男性與女性似乎逐漸分道揚鑣。
Anita Rani, a BBC presenter, explores this
very special "Otaku" culture in Japan. She interviewed one man, aged
39, who has been dating a virtual teenage girl for several years and now finds
himself too emotionally connected with his virtual girlfriend to meet a real
woman. "It's (C)platonic." he says. This is what leads to falling
birth rates in Japan. Many men would rather be in virtual relationships than
fulfill gender roles and deal with the challenges that real relationships might
bring. For Japanese women, the Otaku culture has made it more difficult for
them to meet suitable life partners. What’s more, it's a challenge for them to
strike a balance between work and family life after getting married.
英國 BBC 新聞台主播安妮塔‧瑞妮到日本探索其特殊的「御宅族」文化。她訪問了一位已與虛擬女友約會數年的 39 歲日本男性。他認為自己投入過多的情感在他的虛擬女友身上，以至於他無法去接觸真實世界中的女性。「我們之間是柏拉圖式的愛情。」他說道。日本出生率下降的原因就在此，許多男性寧願投入虛擬的戀愛關係，也不願意去面對傳統文化對性別角色的期待，還有處理真實戀愛關係所帶來的種種挑戰。對日本女性而言，這樣的文化讓她們更難找到適合的對象。同時，如何在結婚之後維持工作與家庭之間的平衡，也將會是一大挑戰。
Such demographic change is not without
consequences for the Japanese people. The Japanese government has spent large
sums of money supporting social services ,to take care of the elderly which has
only added to the government debt. In the near future, Japan will not have
enough workers to support its economic development. It will take both social
and economic policies to tackle the demographic problem.
這樣的人口結構改變也帶來一些後果。為了照顧老年人口，日本政府已經投入龐大資金在社會福利，導致政府債務增加。在不久的將來，日本將會缺少足夠的勞動人口來支持經濟發展。
人口結構的問題將要透過社會政策和經濟政策的雙管齊下才能獲得解決之道。
Part1.
Questions:
What do you think about this woman?
Could you go a year without spending money?
How to stop spending too much money?
How to spend money wisely?
Steps to stop compulsive spending?
Why is saving money so important?
How to save money? Money saving tips?
Part2.
Questions:
Reasons why young people don't want to get
married?
Why young couples don't want to have kids?
Disadvantages of late marriage?
Why people married late these days?
What do you think the "otaku"
culture?
Do you think “the income” is one of the
reason that young people don’t want to get marry?
How to take care of the elderly?
Do you think the lives of the elderly were
better or worse?
0 意見:
張貼留言