Money Can’t Buy True Happiness

Masayuki Sato
 
Money - we spend it every day and by using it we can get everything. Eating meals in a restaurant, buying necessities of daily life, getting on the train or using utilities, all of these need money and we use money like exchange of equivalence. However, can we buy happiness with money? Does happiness come from money? It’s easy to answer these questions. 'Absolutely Not.'
 
Sometimes we feel happy through using money. When we receive salary, for example, we feel happy. Of course this is a part of happiness but I think it is surface, not true happiness because this is temporal so gradually we tend to forget that feeling. True happiness comes from our mind, not money. When we buy a gift for somebody and give it to him or her, the receiver gets a feeling of joy. We spend money buying the gift but actually the thing the recipient feels happy about is that we gave it to him or her. It means money doesn’t buy happiness. Far from it, even though we don’t use money, we can get the feeling of happiness. Just being with the person who we love, getting a marvelous result in an exam by studying hard, being praised, these things exemplify my statement.
 
I mistakenly stated about money in the opening sentence: “By using money we can get everything.” It is definitely false because money can’t buy true happiness. Without clinging to money, I’m going to search for true happiness.

The Kind of Rude Behavior that Infuriates Me

Naoko Miyoshi

There are two situations which I think are rude and which infuriate me. The first situation applies to houses, restaurants, and everywhere where people eat.

In Japan, to stick chopsticks into rice is very rude, because a long time ago people stuck chopsticks into rice for people who died, and also these look like the 'sotoba' that surround graves in Japan. So if you do that to someone who is from Japan, he (or she) feels very uncomfortable. Even if you do it to your rice, it makes people annoyed, and I think it looks not so nice or good. So I think nobody should do it.

The second situation is in trains. I’ve seen some women applying make up in the train. When I first saw it, I was so surprised, because that woman put her make-up box on the seat next to her, brushed her hair and started to applying make up.

Moreover an old woman was standing next to her, but she pretended that she didn’t notice her. I think applying make-up is rude, but not giving a seat for a elderly person is more rude. She should have removed her make-up box for the old woman and stopped applying her make up.I was made annoyed by her. Then a conductor was coming and attended to her, so she removed her make-up box. I think those behaviors really annoyed me. We should care about other people.

'Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess.' --Edna Woolman Chase

Masayuki Sato
 
All though the ages, human beings, especially the younger generation, have cared about their fashion and tried to follow trendy fashion by wearing beautiful clothes, having a nifty bag and changing to a cool hairstyle. It must be a struggle for many young people to choose what to wear every day. Edna Woolman Chase who was editor in chief of a fashion and lifestyle magazine named Vogue in the USA said “Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess.”
 
I’m not exactly sure what her statement means. But in my thinking, this is true. Fashion is not something human beings have until we obtain clothes or shoes or etc. In order to get these kinds of goods, we must pay money and buy them. Therefore fashion can be bought. On the other hand, “style one must possess” she said. Style is the sense of fashion. I think it is a thing human beings originally have and each person's is different, some are tasteful but some tasteless. Depending on the person, the style is different. Style isn’t bought but possessed.
 
It is hard to change our own style but it is easy to change fashion. We can show fashion freely and as we like by buying some stuff.

Fashions, after all, are only induced epidemics. -- George Bernard Shaw

Ritsuko Araki

 

Yes!! Absolutely!! It is not too much to say that nothing is more

ridiculous than fashion. Nowadays, people, especially young people, are too

subject to other's fashions. I think one of the reasons is that we have

many opportunities to see other fashion in a lot of advertisements in this

world, for example, in magazines, on TV shows etc. In fact, we should decide by

ourselves what we wear. It is nothing to do with others. 

 

Most young people sometimes feel anxious when they don't have what

others have. They  feel that it seems to be out-of-date although being

old-fashioned is not illegal. People often say that we have to keep our

originality because we are all different, & no one is the same. But actually,

people are going in the opposite direction to what we suggest.

I can't say that fashion is valueless but I can't say that it is

valuable. Practically, fashion trends are passing through very quickly. In

this situation, how many people keep clothes for many years? I think

there must be few. People are just looking at the present fashion

trend. If so, how wasteful that we try to follow the trend!! This is a kind

of disease!! 

Wake up, guys!!   

A love of fashion makes the economy go round. ——Liz Tilberis

Wei Jing Yan (Sally)

When we are talking about fashion, the first thing that occurs me is about fashionable clothes. Because people usually dress to show their style different people have different styles, but they all want to be in fashion. As they always want to have their own style, people spend more and more money on their clothes, especially women.

Firstly, I think the degree of  people's financial condition is the most important thing to decide how much money they can spend on fashionable things. Generally, wealthy people often look very fashionable. Even though they have no idea about fashion, they can employ designers to help them be a fashionable person. So here we can find a job named designer. If you are a famous designer, you will have your own brand. And you will earn a lot of money from customers. And the designer will change the clothes' styles for each season. That's why we can see fashion week when the season changes. So, if the rich people want to follow the trend, they need to buy fashionable things all the time, especially clothes, because I suppose this is the most straight forward way to show their thinking of fashion.

Secondly, some people who don't have enough money also want to be in fashion. Maybe they will go to buy some cheap clothes and wear  those in the right way. But this means they need to buy a lot, because cheap clothes are usually bad quality.

Thirdly, no matter who spends money on fashion, the economy will go around. It's just like a kind of business. As long as a person has a love of fashion, he or she is the part of the group who makes the economy go around.

In a word, a love of fashion not only makes the economy go around, but also makes fashion careers carry on and make people's life vivid all the time.
        

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.” --Henry David Thoreau

Jakob Haferland

Fashion as a Religion – is this how far we’ve come? I think it’s true. We can find this phenomenon throughout society. We all are concerned, not just about what we wear but also about how we look and how other people look at us. The city is cluttered with fashion shops, hairdressers and gyms. All to improve our look, to change the way people look at us.

Isn’t that sad? Isn’t it pretty pathetic how we judge people because of what they wear and how they look, but everyone does it, even if he tries not to. 

So we make fools of ourselves as we follow every new trend, as we buy the latest fashion, or also things like the newest technical device or what the TV tells us is chic. And we’re just doing it to impress friends or under the sheer pressure to be accepted. Isn’t that ridiculous? Isn’t there more to life than just impressing others while we are lost inside?

But we keep going, trying to be part of the common public and making fun of everyone who is a little bit different, everyone who breaks this given frame – everyone who is free! We even laugh when we look back at people, how they were wearing out the old fashion trends. We laugh at people that are like us, just 20 years older. We laugh at a picture of ourselves!

 

The love of money is the root of all evil?

Kota Sato

It’s too difficult to say whether having money is positive or negative. Of course, as people earn lots of money, their sense in thinking about money gets worse and they also might lose their ability to control their desire for money. For example, to get a large amount of money, some people may try some illegal ways like tax evasion. In the other cases, people use their money just for something which satisfies them like buying lots of clothes of expensive brands or wasting a large sum of money on casinos or expensive bars.

However, I suggest there are lots of ways which prohibit people from going on the road to all evil. In the word, of course there are many people who have a large amount of money and try to use it in helpful and effective ways. For example, in 2005 Bill Gates who was the president of Microsoft donated seven hundred and fifty million dollars to the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization which is a global organization for saving children’s lives and the health of people throughout expanding the vaccination program for children. Moreover, he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 and he retired from the presidency of his company confirming his devotion to charitable activities.

As for me, I’m not interested in money, so have never thought I want to get lots of money. Considering the example of Bill Gates, I guess he doesn’t love or have a deep attachment to get money and I can agree with his way of the usage of money through charity. As a result, I do think and hope the love of money need not mean being addicted to it, but people should control not only themselves but also money.  As we see in the case of Bill Gates, people have lots of ways to use money and it might be rather difficult not to be able to find a good way to use money if you have a large amount of money.

The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil?

Abdullah Kalantan

The love of money means that individuals want more and more money than they have.

Nowadays, money has become a fundamental prerequisite for everyone in order to get a better life. Unfortunately, some people have forgotten the importance of spiritual things ; for example , manners, honesty, generosity, nobility, and kindness. These immaterial things make a person respected by others and dignified. Instead, they have become more interested in and concerned about money and they want more and more money. We see people fight and kill each other in order to get money; furthermore, we hear that some families have been split apart as a result of fighting for money. In other words, they are becoming greedy. So, that is one aspect of loving money which is evil.
 
Another aspect is that some people have so much money that they don't know what to do with it. Probably we have heard about some celebrities and famous rap singers and how they use their money on drugs such as weed. For example, Snoop Dog, who is a world-famous weed smoker, had sang about weed and included weed-smoking scenes in some of his video clips (His fans know that very well and I'm one of them).
 
Finally, as I said, loving money means wanting more money. Therefore, some people, who already have lots of money, start illegal businesses in order to increase their wealth; for example, drug trafficking and arms trading.  
 
However, I must say that the love of money is not the root of all evil. Because some people, although they love money so much, know how to use their money properly. Some money-loving people for instance, donate their money to charity and and help poor people. In addition to that, some people invest their money and that can help society indirectly as it can help the economy of their country.
 
So, In my opinion, the love of money is not always bad and having a lot of money has its advantages and disadvantages depending on how individuals use the money.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

Ritsuko Araki

About money, there are some kinds of people in the world. People who can manage how to spend money well, people who waste their money, people who are rich originally, people who got poor suddenly, for example, by losing a job, and so on.

Under such a situation, some people lend money to somebody else and others borrow it. Lending and borrowing money are not always bad but not always good, I don't like these actions though. I think, normally, they are performed in trust. We can’t do these without trust, especially lending money. Who can lend money to people he or she can’t trust? It must be nobody.

But actually, neither a borrower nor a lender would feel comfortable in that situation because the action of borrowing could make the borrower nervous of the lender and, at the same time, the action of lending gives fear to the person who lends the money. Fear means, for example, something like worrying if he/she is sure to return the money to me or not, and when he/she will pay the money back to me, and so on.

My parents often say to me that one mustn’t lend money even to a very close friend and also if we lend money to somebody, we should think the money will never return to us. Lending is giving. I couldn't understand what they meant as a child but now, I really understand it because I know money sometimes makes people lose control and both lending and borrowing money sometimes causes a 

big problem and can bust up people’s relationship.

The most important thing for us is to control our financial conditions well by ourselves. If we can do it, we don’t need to lend or borrow money anymore. It leads everyone to happiness!!

Money makes the world go round.

Naoko Miyoshi

Money is an essential thing for everyone to live. When people try to go to hospital, grocery shopping, etc. Some people grow some vegetables by themselves, but that kind of people is quite unusual I think. Even if that kind of people are growing food, they live in a house and use a lot of energy, like gas, water, and electricity. So they must pay some money to some energy companies, and it makes a world go round as well. My opinion is extremely simple, that sentence which is "Money makes the world go round" is true, I totally agree.

But I also think money alone can't make the world go round. What is necessary? It is the users of money! In my opinion, it's absolutely reasonable, but people can chose how to use the money. It can change the world. If people use money for good things, the world will be getting better. For example, If people give some money for charity, many people who live in poverty can be helped and money users will increase, so we can make the world better. But if people use money just for themselves, many people will still be poor and they can't use money. So we can't make the world go round smoothly.

I think money makes the world go round but how it goes round all depends on the purpose of the spending. If I had enough money, I would use money for poor people or in some other way which I think good.

Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.

Jakob Haferland

I think this old idiom is still true in today’s world. What it says, that if you can handle small amounts of money you won’t have to worry about the big amounts, is still applicable to our lives.

Another saying tells us: ‘He who doesn’t care for a cent, is not worthy of having a dollar’ (translated). It might describe it a bit better as it says if you don’t spend your cents carefully you won’t have much success with your dollars. And I think this is absolutely true.

Getling a small amount of pocket money as a child and training or practicing, by having to think about what you’re spending money on is very important in developing a sense for spending money. If you never have to save money as a child, if you have enough money all the time, you may not appreciate what it means to be able to spend money or what it means to save money.

Most if us won’t have the luxury to spent our money on whatever we want, most of us will have to tighten their belts sometimes in life or will need to save some money over a longer period to afford things like a house. And saving money starts with the little things. Do I really need to buy this right now? Even if it just costs a few cents? I want to save, but it’s just a coffee, just an ice cream. What difference does a few cents make? Not always easy to say, but if you can make the right decisions in these questions you will be alright when you need to decide whether you can afford a house or not.

 

Responding to Nietzsche & Haley

David Santos Martinez

"In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad."  - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don't know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it." - Sir William Haley.

 

First of all, I have to apologize because I couldn’t start talking about this controversial topic with only one choice from all those sentences which are, in my opinion, as ingenious as true.

The reason why I have chosen two of these statements is because neither of them was giving me a full description of the effort that education should do but a part of it.

The first factor we must bear in mind is the individuality of education. We are all completely different people who learn to interpret and assimilate concepts in particular ways. So trying to teach thirty people with all these unique features in the same class is nothing but a waste of time if our purpose is to form fully prepared members of the society ready to face the day after tomorrow with effectiveness. Unfortunately, this is the case we live nowadays, and the idea of an educational system in which students are taught individually can only be conceived in our imagination.

Now, about the second declaration, we must see that another key factor during the education of the pupils is the stimulation of curiosity. Very often, in the schools, the content of each subject is exposed in a very curt and monotone way which, obviously, can turn the most interesting topic into a boring one. Whereas the same topic, done in an active way in which the class gets completely involved by arousing its interest and where the students are moved by the intrigue of knowing the final answer, can be absolutely fascinating. However, to reach this point, the system (the government) should “create” this kind of fantastic teachers, and the main problem of doing this is that training a teacher who just shows the contents of a certain subject requires much less time than instructing a teacher who knows how to attract the students.

For me, taking deeply into account the ideas of “individuality” and “curiosity”, the perfect educational system could be built, but the problem is that the requirements are far beyond our possibilities at the moment, so, meanwhile, the teachers will be opening the doors and you will have to enter by yourself (another sentence from the list), and don’t turn your back, because, as I see it, a slightly bad education is better than no education at all.

"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." -Carl Rogers

Kota Sato

Basically studying means getting information to live safety and intelligently, I think. In our lives, there is lots of information which we can learn in schools and this information sometimes provides us useful hints to decide and understand what is required or asked. I’ll show some examples to prove my idea.

People tend to misunderstand that studying means something like homework in their lives and it is not interesting and useful. However I simply think studying gives some hints which make us realize the right way to grow up.  When we read some difficult books or foreign books, we always use dictionaries to find words which we don’t really know and then we can continue to read them easily. As well as in this case, we can learn lots of useful and helpful information from studying and studying means not only the subjects in schools but also some parts of subjects which you research from books or any other resources on the Internet.

For example, when a man gets a strong disease, lacking in knowledge or information about it, he may be in danger of losing his life. To prevent his disease from getting worse, at first he has to identify the way to get over it and its characteristics. Secondly, he would be advised to read some studies related to the disease and try to get information from books or some resources and then start organizing this information. Finally, he can get a good understanding about his disease and also can have a good way to get over it. Summing up he tries to learn some information to save himself and if he doesn’t do that his life might be gone.

In my case, the reason why I’m here is to give me chance to extend my way of thinking and this experience will be good education for my future. In other words, the experiences in New Zealand make me educated and think more widely for my future.

In conclusion, I want to say learning something is not our duty or something difficult but just useful and helpful ways to help us make decisions and understand our lives. 

"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change" - Carl Rogers

Abdullah Kelantan

There is another example which says "Don't give me a fish, but teach me how to fish". The quotation above illustrates this thought, therefore I found it very illuminating.
 
To explain the example about the fish, the person who said those words is trying to say don't give me a ready-made concept, but teach me how to innovate and so find new ideas.
 
In my opinion, there are two kinds of learners. Firstly, the innovator, which is a process when the person dedicates himself to absorb information and ideas from different sources and to develop these ideas. However, the second kind is the copier, Which is a process when the person just absorbs the information and ideas from different sources and does exactly the same.
 
I believe that they are both educated, but one is more educated than the other.
 
I think that a person who can just copy what he has learned is a talented or skilled person but not really educated.  However, the person who can invent new ideas  or develop old ideas is a creative thinker and more knowledgeable. For instance, he adopts an old idea or what I call "the basic idea" , and then he tries to develop and evolve that idea.
 
Furthermore, I think a creative thinker is more valuable and beneficial for his society than a person who just can copy.

Some scientists and professors have developed a concept or an idea that has been discovered by ancient civilizations such as the Greek, the ancient Egyptian, or the ancient Chinese. Those scientists or professors inspire and motivate me to be a creative thinker not just a copier

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

Naoko Miyoshi

That phrase made me really impressed, because this is exactly the human what I want to be. Everyone wants to be happy, get money, resources and hopes. I also want to be happy. However when I considered about it, happiness is not just having money, resources, and hopes. For example, if you have enough money but you don’t have any friends or family members, can you say “I’m happy” to someone? In my opinion, I can’t say that, because even I have enough money, I’m not happy if I don’t have any people by my side. I like people and I’d like to take care of the people who I think are precious. Actually I’d like to get money and hope, but if someone who is by my side was going to leave me because of my money or some other reason like that, I would definitely throw it away. I don’t need money without my valuable people. If I can live with them, I can say “I’m happy!” to someone, even I don’t have money, resources and hopes. Happiness is not a thing. People can’t live alone, and we all need someone who is precious. Of course we need money to live, but it’s not as important as the people who are with you. I do want to enjoy my life with people. Finally when I go to die, I want people to cry.

A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear. --Stockdale

Ritsuko Araki

It is usually hard to understand and interpret somebody’s saying. The saying I chose is this one. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure if I got it exactly. But when I looked at it, my interest went to the last word, “fear.” I thought it was pretty interesting that this word was used under the situation of education.
  
As you can see, this saying consists of two sentences. The first one is about a liberally educated person and the second one is about an illiberally educated person. It may be easy for people to understand the first part, but what is difficult to get may be the second part. I think there are some ways to interpret depending on each person.
  
I considered the word “liberally” as much or plenty. If so, it’s natural for this kind of person to meet new ideas with curiosity and fascination because usually, the more we study, the more curious and fascinated we can get. On the other hand, a person who doesn’t study very much could have more fear in any cases than a person who does. The reason I think so is that an illiberally educated person has less knowledge than a liberally educated person. A liberal one must be able to have more confidence than an illiberal one. To have little confidence could lead to fear.
  
Studying or learning hard is really important but if we need it, we have to do it with a lot of fun, I think. Cramming lots of knowledge just for exams unwillingly seems to be sad. And also, it is not happy at all to have fear in education. I wish people can learn many things happily like me!

The Teacher’s Role

Masayuki Sato
 
When you look at a classroom in a school, one teacher stands in front of students and teaches some subjects. Students learn many things, not only the academic skills but also morals and manners etc, from their teacher. In other words, you can say a teacher is one of the persons who has the biggest impact on children. But all teachers don’t always have a good influence on students. Some can’t teach in an effective way, behave badly or just talk by themselves in the class. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), who was a writer and politician in Britain, said this: “The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”

If teachers talk dogmatically in the class, students may feel bored or can’t be interested in studying. Dogmatizing is one-way teaching so the idea or thinking of students is not reflected and also it is possible that they stop their thinking in the class. As Edward Bulwer-Lytton said, teachers should suggest because if they do that, students can think about the suggestion and try to find out the answer. Letting students think is one of the most important things in school education, I think. Plus, letting students join the class actively is important as well. Just listening to the teacher’s voice and sitting on a chair are quite valueless and meaningless for students. Getting students involved in the class; this is a significant thing for teachers.
 
Bulwer-Lytton also talks of inspiring the listener with “the wish to teach himself.” Giving this kind of impulse to students’ hearts by teaching is a good way to motivate learners to study more and develop an ambition for learning. All the good teachers I have seen have had this ability. It is fundamental for them. Teachers are required to make the creative classes where students get to have an ambition for learning.
 
Students must relate to teachers for a long time in their childhood. Teachers have a responsibility to nurture their students and tell them many things which are necessary for their life. To be the best teacher as in the quotation, teachers should devote their time to develop or progress their teaching skills.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad – Friedrich Nietzsche

Troyi Yeung

In the past ten years in Hong Kong, the area of education has changed considerably, but most of the changes are positive. The education today compared with the previous generation is relatively good with small classes where teachers and students can have more space to learn.

There are lots of disadvantages of large class sizes. Because there is only one teacher in a big class, only a few of the students can be taken care of. There is not enough interaction between teachers and students, so not all the students participate while they are learning. Once they can’t keep up with the lessons, they will start to give up on their studies. It is also difficult for the students to understand and to absorb a large amount of data and information in a short period of time. Large classes also make the differences between the top and the bottom students visible. This makes the students suffer from high pressure. As for me, I love a small class size more than a large class because teachers can have more time to teach and I can have more time to understand what I have learnt. I studied in a large class when I was in secondary school, and I never had a chance to ask questions because my teachers couldn’t see me when I raised my hand.

In Hong Kong, if you go to an extra tutorial they will also suggest you to get a private teacher in order to pursue better learning results!

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies

Jakob Haferland

It is important that 

students bring a 

certain ragamuffin 

barefoot irreverence 

to their studies; 

they are not there 

to worship 

what is known, 

but to question it.

-- J. Bronowski

I think there is a lot of truth in 

these words. Education is not just 

about learning by heart what is 

written in the books. It is about 

exploring things. It is about being 

hungry for knowledge. And that is the 

important task teachers have to deal 

with today, to give their pupils an 

appetite to discover what the world 

out there is like, how it was and 

how it is going to be.

 

Teachers have got to make their 

students want to learn, they’ve 

got to make them desperate 

for more.

 

And as a student it’s important to ask! 

Asking questions and searching for

answers -that’s what education and 

science is all about as well, even 

things which seem to be proven or 

theories without a doubt. It’s 

never wrong to question or reconsider 

things under new circumstances, 

another point of view, with new 

scientific knowledge or simply with 

a new idea.

 

I always had a questioning mind when 

I was at school. Often I got a 

funny look for questioning things and 

sometimes I didn't really 

think through the things I asked, 

to be honest. But if I hadn’t got the 

point, or when I could see that even 

the teacher hadn't got it, I

asked: Not to appear smart, 

but because I was interested.

It is just as the old saying tells us: 

There are no dumb questions, 

only stupid answers.

The kind of rude behavior that infuriates me

Kota Sato

Recently people are lacking in consciousness of other people and their circumference. I really get infuriated by the fact that people are getting more and more selfish. I sometimes feel infuriated and sad about their behavior. I want to show some examples of the behavior and prove the situations.

When I was a little boy, I was taught to use something valuably which I borrowed from someone, by my parents, so I have followed their teaching and thought that it is natural and proper. Some people, of course, understand it. However there are other people who don’t care about this consciousness and use something poorly that they borrowed, as their own. For example I sometimes lend my CDs or books to my friends and when I receive them again, they are sometimes damaged or broken. Moreover, there was a case in which I couldn’t get my products again.

In another case, I sometimes see people in cars throwing away cigarette butts on the road and they seem not to feel guilty in their mind. I think they don’t want to make the inside of the car dirty, so that they decide to pollute the earth rather than dumping the cigarette butts in an ashtray. I really think it is too foolish. This is the reason why now we are getting to hear the words which warn us to think about environmental problems frequently. While those who throw away cigarettes allow themselves to make the earth worse, they can’t allow themselves to be dirty or to have trouble.

How Should Men Treat Women?

Ritsuko Araki

This time, I'm talking about this topic focusing on Japan. I'm not sure

about other countries except Japan but in my country, in general, it is

thought that men have to deal with women more carefully than women do men,

whenever or wherever they are. Especially, in the work place, this subject

is very important to know today, I think.

Now, many Japanese women are sensitive about the behaviour of men. Just a

small action of a man could cause a huge problem. For instance, if he says

"How is your work going?" putting his hand on her shoulder, back or waist,

even though of course he doesn't have any bad intentions towards her, 

sometimes it is called sexual harassment. Whatever he

says, when she feels uncomfortable, it is already a problem.

I think that women are too sensitive about it. Once, a body touch used to

be a kind of communication. However now, such a habit is no longer 

allowed.So as good manners, men shouldn't touch women's bodies even 

easily or lightly when greeting. This makes me a little bit sad because 

I feel that men and women are getting further apart in the work place. 

So I don't know whether it is exactly good manners but this is the 

present condition in Japan.

Manners Children Should Learn

Masayuki Sato

Manners are things we must have and learn. Recently it seems that many people, even adult can’t observe manners; Using mobile phones in the train, not saying “Thank you” despite being helped, breaking some public things, or being unable to greet someone when they meet them etc. All of these manners are acquired in the childhood so teaching manners to children is significant. In this article, I’m going to write about the four manners which should be taught in childhood.
 
First of all, we should get children to greet in everyday conversation. Greetings are the basis for conversation. Also if they don’t do that, they may be considered cold fish or people who have no sense of propriety. In society, greeting is absolutely imperative so children must make it into a habit.
 
Secondly, we should tell them to show their appreciation heart to others. As I said in the first paragraph, many people can’t say thank you nowadays even though someone helps or supports them. When someone does something for them, having gratitude for that person is natural and necessary in building up good relationships, and we must say thank you. Ungrateful people are some of the worst people. We mustn’t let children be ungrateful. Similarly, cherishing family and friends is an important thing that we must tell children. The mind of not cherishing others leads to a violent and cold heart, I think. That is to say, this results in bullying in school or hitting or fighting others easily. Even the basis of war is caused by this mindset.
 
The next one is not breaking public things. Young people, especially men, tend to break something easily because breaking can be the proof of force and it is the thing many young boys need. This impulse of breaking is very dangerous because if they have this mind, it is possible that they lose having the value of things.
 
Of course, as we grow up we can learn manners and stop the rude manners. However, what children learn in early life easily remains. It is hard to forget it. So we should teach good manners to them and not let them struggle about manners after growing up.

The six most important things a child should be taught about manners

Troyi Yeung 

In Hong Hong, there are still traditional people, especially the elderly, and they pay attention to the education of their children or their grandchildren because their behaviour represents their family.
 
Firstly, they will pay attention or indicate by their first sight at the children. Will the children greet  people loudly or clearly? That is the question inside their heart , because Chinese people think a polite child will greet people in a loud and clear voice, but of couse in a polite way. Secondly, children must know how to use chopsticks in a proper way, if not they will be hit by a wooden stick or a ruler! (I'm one of them, but I still don't know how to use chopsticks in a traditional way). Thirdly, children must behave quietly and must not interrupt or talk about the conversation of the adult or elderly because the elder people suppose the children don't understand what they ar talking about. Besides, children must finish their meal or have as much as they can because that is the way to show politeness and show that they love the food, even though you detest it or you are full, it is a must to finish it! ( I hate this rule, it usually makes me sick). Children should pretend they love going to school and they love studying or reading because older people use this to show off to their friends, this is about the face of the older people. They usually use their child's results at school to compete with other people's children. Although I think it is silly and unnecessary, older people just love to compare with others. I think they put too much pressure on the children. Luckily,  the government encourages the parents not take the score too seriouly. Education is about the process and what the children learn, but not the score or ranking. The most important thing is children must not open any drawer or the frigde in someone else's house because this is about privacy. This is also important to different ages of people, you must ask for the owner's permission before using them. A child invaded my privacy by going through my things last year, so i hate children now.
 
Nowadays, children are being spoiled, so they don't usually follow the rules. Since the law for protecting the children issued, children are more powerful than their parents!  Most of the children become impolite, for example they will swear at the older people, smoke when they are only eight years old...etc. Although I think the traditional way to educate chidren is too harsh, that is the most useful way to make them behave!