Vietnamese IT More Than 20 Years Ago

Chi Le

Reading the article, "Cubans Forward to Using Internet," I remember the situation of Vietnam in earlier years of 1990s. This was the stage of an economic embargo of the U.S. over Vietnam, which was similar as Cuba now.

In that period, the Internet was not popular, so we, a programming group, could connect computers together based on local network to share files and printers. I remember the operating system which was set up in the computers was MS DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), and later it was Windows 3.x. In that time, we also made an accounting software to manage foreign currency which was transferred to Vietnamese through my company while banks didn't have the function. Software which helped to develop the accounting program was Dbase and then Foxbase.

In that time, computers were not common because they were too pricey and imported from foreign countries in strictly surveillance, portable hardware more than official hardware. I fortunately worked for a state-run software company, which joined with Vietnamese living in the Germany, so I had a good opportunity to acquire knowledge of the new technology. We had also made some applications, which were sold in the Germany market. However, the company failed finally. One of reasons of failure maybe is from the following.

I remember we could not directly make a call phone to foreigners, so to contact, we must wait for the post officers to connect on our behalf. The assisted connection took no less than 30 minutes to connect, and such a call's cost was too pricey.

The event which Cuba and the U.S. are approaching a diplomatic tie evokes my memories about the passed period of the economic embargo of the U.S. over Vietnam.

Tragedy of a "Golden" Daughter

Pan’s parents, Huei Hann and Bich Ha Pan, arrived in Canada as political refugees from Vietnam, and Jennifer Pan, 28, fed her parents lies about her success and then hired hit men to kill them. (Court exhibit)

Under pressure of parents' requirement to study excellently, a daughter in the family, a Vietnamese family living in Canada, lied her parents for a long time about the study's performance from high school, university, and to getting a job. In fact, she didn't graduate from high school, and of course, she never went to a university.

When her parents discovered the fact, they prevented her from cell phone, laptop, and dating with her boyfriend. She became angry and plotted a plan to kill them.

Three hired hit men joined into the plan. They staged a murder by shooting her fatal mother and severely wounded her father in front of her witness. However, the police disclosed their guilty.

The story happened in January this year, and the Ontario court sentenced the daughter and her three hired hit men.

The story caused a storm on the Facebook in amount of immigrant Asian children living in America and Canada. They shared their childhood over the story and attributed their parents' high expectations to lead spoilage of fear. The expectations put burdens on Asian American children to cause long-term and chronic affects for bearings of failure. The accumulation of lies because of the girl felt changes to be impossible.

A lot of comments struck on the parents who have not cared of their child like people, and they have molded their child based on their expectations, rather than the child's expectations, and then they would dependently live through the child's life.

There are some other ideas. When the parents discovered the fact of the daughter's study courses, they should not go to extremes which immediately have pressed to a prevention against their daughter, maybe the story was not so tragic. On the other hand, if the daughter understood her parents' hardness and expectations, she should turn the failure into a lesson to recover, rather than to ruin her own life and parents.

In the case, the both sides went to extremes.

Chi Le

According to Washington Post

The Ambitious Guest by Nathaniel Hawthorne

One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just said. The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister, who were only five and six years old.

A very old woman, the family's grandmother, sat knitting in the warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the fire's light from its tiny bed. This family had found happiness in the worst place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long.

The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night. No other family lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They enjoyed each other's company, and often had visitors. Their house was built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the Saint Lawrence River.

People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped at the family's door for a drink of water and a friendly word. Lonely travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to share a hot meal. Sometimes, the wind became so wild and cold that these strangers would spend the night with the family. The family offered every traveler who stopped at their home a kindness that money could not buy.

On that December evening, the wind came rushing down the mountain. It seemed to stop at their house to knock at the door before it roared down into the valley. The family fell silent for a moment. But then they realized that someone really was knocking at their door. The oldest girl opened the door and found a young man standing in the dark.

The old grandmother put a chair near the fireplace for him. The oldest daughter gave him a warm, shy smile. And the baby held up its little arms to him. "This fire is just what I needed," the young man said. "The wind has been blowing in my face for the last two hours."

The father took the young man's travel bag. "Are you going to Vermont?" the older man asked. "Yes, to Burlington," the traveler replied. "I wanted to reach the valley tonight. But when I saw the light in your window, I decided to stop. I would like to sit and enjoy your fire and your company for a while."

As the young man took his place by the fire, something like heavy footsteps was heard outside. It sounded as if someone was running down the side of the mountain, taking enormous steps. The father looked out one of the windows.

"That old mountain has thrown another stone at us again. He must have been afraid we would forget him. He sometimes shakes his head and makes us think he will come down on top of us," the father explained to the young man. "But we are old neighbors," he smiled. "And we manage to get along together pretty well. Besides, I have made a safe hiding place outside to protect us in case a slide brings the mountain down on our heads."

As the father spoke, the mother prepared a hot meal for their guest. While he ate, he talked freely to the family, as if it were his own. This young man did not trust people easily. Yet on this evening, something made him share his deepest secret with these simple mountain people.

The young man's secret was that he was ambitious. He did not know what he wanted to do with his life, yet. But he did know that he did not want to be forgotten after he had died. He believed that sometime during his life, he would become famous and be admired by thousands of people. "So far," the young man said, "I have done nothing. If I disappeared tomorrow from the face of the earth, no one would know anything about me. No one would ask 'Who was he. Where did he go?' But I cannot die until I have reached my destiny. Then let death come! I will have built my monument!"

The young man's powerful emotions touched the family. They smiled. "You laugh at me," the young man said, taking the oldest daughter's hand. "You think my ambition is silly." She was very shy, and her face became pink with embarrassment. "It is better to sit here by the fire," she whispered, "and be happy, even if nobody thinks of us."

Her father stared into the fire. "I think there is something natural in what the young man says. And his words have made me think about our own lives here. It would have been nice if we had had a little farm down in the valley. Some place where we could see our mountains without being afraid they would fall on our heads. I would have been respected by all our neighbors. And, when I had grown old, I would die happy in my bed. You would put a stone over my grave so everyone would know I lived an honest life."

"You see!" the young man cried out. "It is in our nature to want a monument. Some want only a stone on their grave. Others want to be a part of everyone's memory. But we all want to be remembered after we die!" The young man threw some more wood on the fire to chase away the darkness.

The firelight fell on the little group around the fireplace: the father's strong arms and the mother's gentle smile. It touched the young man's proud face, and the daughter's shy one. It warmed the old grandmother, still knitting in the corner. She looked up from her knitting and, with her fingers still moving the needles, she said, "Old people have their secrets, just as young people do."

The old woman said she had made her funeral clothes some years earlier. They were the finest clothes she had made since her wedding dress. She said her secret was a fear that she would not be buried in her best clothes. The young man stared into the fire. "Old and young," he said. "We dream of graves and monuments. I wonder how sailors feel when their ship is sinking, and they know they will be buried in the wide and nameless grave that is the ocean?"

A sound, rising like the roar of the ocean, shook the house. Young and old exchanged one wild look. Then the same words burst from all their lips. "The slide! The slide!" They rushed away from the house, into the darkness, to the secret spot the father had built to protect them from the mountain slide. The whole side of the mountain came rushing toward the house like a waterfall of destruction.

But just before it reached the little house, the wave of earth divided in two and went around the family's home. Everyone and everything in the path of the terrible slide was destroyed, except the little house. The next morning, smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the house on the mountain. Inside, the fire was still burning. The chairs were still drawn up in a half circle around the fireplace. It looked as if the family had just gone out for a walk.

Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on that terrible night. But no one ever discovered who the stranger was. His name and way of life remain a mystery. His body was never found.

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

People who are high ambitious but lack of knowledge are causing damage over other people. The husband in the story always has an ambition to make his wife perfectly beautiful, for him not for her, and its result is too tragic.

His ambition is hidden in the sentences, "She hoped that for just one moment she could satisfy her husband's highest ideals. But she realized then that his mind would forever be on the march, always requiring something newer, better and more perfect." In the story, it shows that the girl is not only a wife, but also a sample in his scientific experiments. Finally, without any different way, she accepts to die in his hand. The story concludes because of unmeaningly perfect ambition, he throws his happiness.

---

A long time ago, there lived a skillful scientist who had experienced a spiritual reaction more striking than any chemical one.

He had left his laboratory in the care of his assistant,washed the chemicals from his hands and asked a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days new scientific discoveries such as electricity seemed to open paths into the area of miracles. It was not unusual for the love of science to compete with the love of a woman.

The scientist's name was Aylmer. He had so totally given himself to scientific studies that he could not be weakened by a second love. His love for his young wife could only be the stronger of the two if it could link itself with his love of science.

Such a union did take place with truly remarkable results. But one day, very soon after their marriage, Aylmer looked at his wife with a troubled expression.

"Georgiana," he said, "have you ever considered that the mark upon your cheek might be removed"?

"No," she said smiling. But seeing the seriousness of his question, she said, "The mark has so often been called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so."

"On another face it might," answered her husband, "but not on yours. No dear, Nature made you so perfectly that this small defect shocks me as being a sign of earthly imperfection."

"Shocks you!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt. Her face reddened and she burst into tears. "Then why did you marry me? You cannot love what shocks you!"

We must explain that in the center of Georgiana's left cheek there was a mark, deep in her skin. The mark was usually a deep red color. When Georgiana blushed, the mark became less visible. But when she turned pale, there was the mark, like a red stain upon snow. The birthmark would come and go with the emotions in her heart.

The mark was shaped like a very small human hand. Georgiana's past lovers used to say that the hand of a magical fairy had touched her face when she was born. Many a gentleman would have risked his life for the honor of kissing that mysterious hand.

But other people had different opinions. Some women said the red hand quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty.

Male observers who did not praise the mark simply wished it away so that they did not see it. After his marriage, Aylmer discovered that this was the case with himself.

Had Georgiana been less beautiful, he might have felt his love increased by the prettiness of that little hand. But because she was otherwise so perfect, he found the mark had become unbearable.

Aylmer saw the mark as a sign of his wife's eventual sadness, sickness and death. Soon, the birthmark caused him more pain than Georgiana's beauty had ever given him pleasure.

During a period that should have been their happiest, Aylmer could only think of this disastrous subject. With the morning light, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and recognized the sign of imperfection. When they sat together in the evening near the fire, he would look at the mark.

Georgiana soon began to fear his look. His expression would make her face go pale. And the birthmark would stand out like a red jewel on white stone.

"Do you remember, dear Aylmer, about the dream you had last night about this hateful mark?" she asked with a weak smile.

"None! None whatever!" answered Aylmer, surprised.

The mind is in a sad state when sleep cannot control its ghosts and allows them to break free with their secrets. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had imagined himself with his assistant Aminadab trying to remove the birthmark with an operation. But the deeper his knife went, the deeper the small hand sank until it had caught hold of Georgiana's heart.

Aylmer felt guilty remembering the dream.

"Aylmer," said Georgiana, "I do not know what the cost would be to both of us to remove this birthmark. Removing it could deform my face or damage my health."

"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought on the subject," said Aylmer. "I am sure it can be removed."

"Then let the attempt be made at any risk," said Georgiana. "Life is not worth living while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror. You have deep science and have made great discoveries. Remove this little mark for the sake of your peace and my own."

"Dearest wife," cried Aylmer. "Do not doubt my power. I am ready to make this cheek as perfect as its pair."

Her husband gently kissed her right cheek, the one without the red hand.

The next day the couple went to Aylmer's laboratory where he had made all his famous discoveries. Georgiana would live in a beautiful room he had prepared nearby, while he worked tirelessly in his lab. One by one, Aylmer tried a series of powerful experiments on his wife. But the mark remained.

Georgiana waited in her room. She read through his notebooks of scientific observations. She could not help see that many of his experiments had ended in failure. She decided to see for herself the scientist at work.

The first thing that struck Georgiana when entering the laboratory was the hot furnace. From the amount of soot above it, it seemed to have been burning for ages. She saw machines, tubes, cylinders and other containers for chemical experiments. What most drew her attention was Aylmer himself. He was nervous and pale as death as he worked on preparing a liquid.

Georgiana realized that her husband had been hiding his tension and fear.

"Think not so little of me that you cannot be honest about the risks we are taking," she said. "I will drink whatever you make for me, even if it is a poison."

"My dear, nothing shall be hidden," Aylmer said. "I have already given you chemicals powerful enough to change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried and if that fails, we are ruined!"

He led her back to her room where she waited once more, alone with her thoughts. She hoped that for just one moment she could satisfy her husband's highest ideals. But she realized then that his mind would forever be on the march, always requiring something newer, better and more perfect.

Hours later, Aylmer returned carrying a crystal glass with a colorless liquid.

"The chemical process went perfectly," he said. "Unless all my science has tricked me, it cannot fail."

To test the liquid, he placed a drop in the soil of a dying flower growing in a pot in the room. In a few moments, the plant became healthy and green once more.

"I do not need proof," Georgiana said quietly. "Give me the glass. I am happy to put my life in your hands." She drank the liquid and immediately fell asleep.

Aylmer sat next to his wife, observing her and taking notes. He noted everything -- her breathing, the movement of an eyelid. He stared at the birthmark. And slowly, with every breath that came and went, it lost some of its brightness.

"By Heaven! It is nearly gone," said Aylmer. "Success! Success!"

He opened the window coverings to see her face in daylight. She was so pale. Georgiana opened her eyes and looked into the mirror her husband held. She tried to smile as she saw the barely visible mark.

"My poor Aylmer," she said gently. "You have aimed so high. With so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the Earth could offer. I am dying, dearest."

It was true. The hand on her face had been her link to life. As the last trace of color disappeared from her cheek, she gave her last breath.

Blinded by a meaningless imperfection and an impossible goal, Aylmer had thrown away her life and with it his chance for happiness. In trying to improve his lovely wife, he had failed to realize she had been perfect all along.

Tax Dollars Will Be Useful in School behind Bars

Chi Le

I believe people who are educated always are good in every different situation, including in a jail. Moreover, when prison inmates really repent of their sins, they need to have an opportunity to restart life afresh. The opportunity is given through education, better than from labor jobs, which many prisons are applying over the inmates. If they are paroled with no career, skill, or degree, it is really difficult for them to reintegrate in the free society. Because social benefits of the rehabilitation are over money, I agree that institutions should provide college education programs to prison inmates from available tax dollars of the California state.

An inmate who is a model of a success earned his bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University while still being in the prison, and now he gets a job in Northwestern University for a study on inner-city Chicago violence. The inmate, McElrath-Bey, got a bachelor’s degree behind bars and integrated into the society with a job in Northwestern University. According to Matthew Fleischer, McElrath-Bey’s success is a model of college education in a prison. He was in the Illinois Department of Corrections when he was 14 years old. And then in the Department, he realized the power of education. After he graduated with a GED, he continued to take college classes in the prison. He felt discovering more than about himself with realizing education as therapeutics. He wanted to be free and self-mastery when he came out. I think his success is only one, but for our society is two because the society loses a crime and adds a useful person. So, Pica has reasons to say, “Every dollar we spend on higher education in prison sees an 18 dollar return” (Fleischer). Pica’s reasons are included the whole society, so the social benefits should be invested by the government from the available tax dollars, rather than from companies. Clearly, the inmate’s rehabilitation brings a big social signification, and it also proves a need of providing college education programs to other prison inmates.

College education programs help inmates have a big opportunity to rehabilitate and reintegrate after they come out. Simply, the programs help to make a big goal for inmates to reeducate and decrease violence. According to “Inside San Quentin Inmates Go to College,” Richard Gonzales tells about an inmate, Chris Deragon, who has served 15 years and is eligible for parole next seven years. Deragon is taking college level courses and hopes to get out of the prison to recover his life. He knows that he is being punished and should not have the right to an education, but he says, “If I'm released onto the street and I'm not educated, then you're just releasing another criminal” (Gonzales). So, the college education program in the prison makes a goal for Deragon to restart his life, rather than there are inmates who fear a day to be paroled without an education, a skill, a means of living. Moreover, Richard Gonzales quotes a state of Scott Kernan, managing day-to-day operations at California's 33 adult prisons, who used to experience a violence, says that the college classes and other programs help to be safe for staffs and make prisons safer. Bobby Evans, who is a tutor for other inmates after earning his degree in the prison at San Quentin, says that new arrivals from other high-level prisons feel a calmer air at San Quentin and don't want to destroy it. So, it's what changing life is (Gonzales). Richard Gonzales concludes, “The program may be helping to change attitudes inside the prison, but there are no rigorous studies yet that show.” Therefore, the college education programs are a big goal for inmates to strive for their useful life and decrease violence.

In another case, a father graduates from college in the prison without a hope to be able to find a job as an ex-con after being paroled, but he is inspiring for his daughter to pursue a goal of a community college. Simply, he is a model of his daughter to restart her life. Richard Gonzales tells about Felix Lucero, who went to prison when his daughter, Desiree Lucero, was just a year old. After 17 years, his lessons in school behind bars changed his relationship with his daughter. He said, “The more I learned stuff, the more I wanted to give it to her” (Gonzales). When Desiree Lucero has downfall in high school, she turns her mind to the father what he did in the prison. And then she realizes she can restart her life as her father began 17 years ago. Her father is a model of restarting life afresh and is inspiring for her. So, the model is great for what a prison inmate makes for her daughter after finishing some lessons in school behind bars.

However, there is a different idea which doesn’t agree to provide more money than to prisons. Hansook Oh and Mona Adem say that because of lack of fund to college, the public four-year institutions increase tuition and fees to lead low-income and poor students cannot afford to go to school. They add that $1 billion allocated to prisons is too much if compared higher education received, and “charging students more for their studies, the government will gain more money and use it to supplement lacking tax revenue.” In fact, according to Association of International Educators NAFSA, in 2012-2013 academic year, foreign students in the United States contribute about $24 billion to the national economy, including $3.7 billion here in California State, and the amount is increasing yearly. Moreover, the government is still prioritizing public education and making the institution very affordable. I believe that all low-income and poor students in California have a fee waiver to ensure access to the college, and a financial aid helps the students fund their higher education as a subsidization of the federal government. Cleary, the California government has full of its duties for higher education, so it should also have a strong budget of college education programs for prison inmates. Therefore, using tax dollars available to provide the programs to prison inmates is the best resolution.

I believe many people don’t mind paying their taxes to those who are using them to make the society better. I advocate providing education programs to prison inmates who have a desire to be educated because the inmates will restart their life significantly, such as McElrath-Bey, Chris Deragon, Bobby Evans, and Felix Lucero. And then the taxes are used significantly to help the prison inmates rehabilitate and reintegrate to the free society. In the prison can be an ideal place for study, of course, people don’t want to jail to learn, but if they are in jail, they have more time, accept fate, and calm in mind. Through papers, I know many world leaders used to study in a prison, such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. So, a prison could be a good place to practice one’s will and ideal to fulfill a great intention.

Reference

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/20/137176620/inside-san-quentin-inmates-go-to-college

English as Lifelong Learning

Chi Le

I've been using English for my job since I lived in Vietnam. However, I only read comprehension some articles in the fields of information technology and computers, and I rarely use English for any other fields. Due to the need to integrate and work, when residing in the U.S. four years ago, I determined that I should spend more time in pursuit of learning English. Once settled in, I started to enroll in college. In the first days at college, with poor English, I was really difficult to communicate with everyone. This led me not to understand lectures and requisitions of instructors; however, reading comprehension skill has helped me, and I began to feel more confident after one semester. Moreover, while being an ESL student, I am always challenged to study other subjects, such as law, business, philosophy, and English to complete the ESL classes.

Sometimes I think an ESL student as a disabled, and schooling at ESL classes is like to restore missing functions of the disabled. Clearly, they cannot effectively use four English skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. they can listen to but not understand and say but people not to understand. Then they can read but not understand and cannot properly write what their thoughts are. These are the most violent initial challenges which they meet.

Fortunately, when living in Vietnam, I have learned and used English, but also just reading comprehension and some knowledge of English grammar. My reading comprehension skills help me study some subjects well, such as mathematics and accounting, which professors require only reading comprehension and calculating; otherwise, some other subjects that require me to listen to professors and take notes for exams are really difficult for me.

However, in general, the courses in college are at a very basic level, so they are not really difficult for me to study. Eventually, the most difficult subject is still English. Moreover, being likely to transfer to a UC, English will continue to concern me as the important subject. In addition, I have to spend time on my work as an accounting programmer for a company in Vietnam. The work which I have been still hired since I started living in the U.S. comes to me every evening to 12:00 am next day through the Internet. Finally, it is sure that my English cannot be fluent as a native person, so I will meet some of the challenges in the future. The challenges ahead of me are much different to integrate into the community, know the law, acquire new knowledge, and respond to natural disasters.

ESL learners often have a limited English vocabulary or improperly use vocabulary in context in their papers. Through my work, I usually read many articles in English, but my vocabulary from reading is limited only in a field that I'm working. When reading articles or papers in other fields, my vocabulary is not enough to understand immediately those articles. In that case, I turn to analyze sentence structures and look up dictionary some key words. Then I continue to enrich my vocabulary. Although I can read comprehension well and always extend my vocabulary, in my papers I sometimes use improper words, causing confusing and misunderstanding readers. For example, in one case I use the word “appointment” instead of “dating” which their meaning is too different. Moreover, I often think with my first language and then translate to English. This causes confusing readers because sentence structures are too different between Vietnamese and English. The translation of a sentence is easy to put words in misnomer, as the example above, or creates a complex grammatical structure of the sentence, being difficult to understand because the sentence was described earlier in Vietnamese structure. And then, I am trying to write some long sentences with many phrases, but it seems I haven’t succeeded. I believe that I have good knowledge of English grammar and strengths in reading comprehension, but weaknesses in listening and speaking skills, so I'm trying to practice the weak skills daily. Someone recommended I should listen to the English radio a lot and practice pronunciation, so I have been practicing the skills since the last semester. Obviously, I have found myself more improvement in English, such as less afraid to communicate with other people, although it's not yet like I expect. In study for various subjects, I usually take online or hybrid classes because I believe in my reading comprehension skills.

I like to study hybrid and online classes, and I've learned a lot of the classes past semesters. I notice that hybrid and online classes, any other disciplines, often require students spend more time for reading comprehension more than if compared lecture classes. Maybe, lecturing compensates for reading. In contrast, the hybrid classes don’t spend much time to travel back and fore, and learning time of students is more flexible. However, the classes require students have self-discipline in learning and a serious schedule of learning. A timetable which is not clear and not taken seriously can lead to a late submission of homework and exam. This lateness is inevitable if online students are neglected and unserious. Consequently, online classes require students have high self-discipline in learning as well as awareness of learning by themselves without by others. I think colleges should remind students who must have self-discipline before enrolling online or hybrid classes. On the other hand, professors teaching online classes should have a clear and stable schedule and avoid disorder. I believe that writing essays on the computer helps students approach actual life better in comparison with writing handwritten essays because nowadays people almost use papers from word processing software. During writing on the computer, I can write comfortably because I know I can reorganize and correct vocabulary after writing. One sentence is written in the first paragraph before reorganizing; it can move it to the last paragraph after reorganizing. Moreover, I have to expose my idea quickly, so I can write some words in my first language, and then I will find English words to replace after correcting. Clearly, those cannot be fulfilled upon handwriting. Of course, there are other factors which need to be analyzed particularly to realize what to teach writing better, but computers and the Internet really are essential for my papers and work.

In the study process, the Internet helps me a lot in finding information, and sometimes it also helps me correct some grammar errors. Because today there are many websites, teaching English grammar, I easily search problems of grammar which I suspect in my writings. There are also several websites and word processing software that automatically corrects the English grammar, but they are not entirely accurate. Moreover, if I suspect a phrase is an idiom upon reading papers, I just search the phrase plus a word "idiom" on the Internet. Immediately I will have a result after that. In addition, for an ESL learner, I determined that learning English is a job for life; therefore, in any cases communicating with anyone or anything, I try to learn English when I can. For example, during reading books of accounting, if I meet a sentence or a phrase which I can use for my papers, I immediately mark the phrase. As the following sentence, “Its profit margin is unusually high in comparison with the industry average of 8% and J.C. Penney’s 1.4%,” I mark a phrase “in comparison with” which I believe it can be used in your papers.

As ESL students, I encounter many difficulties for communication, integration into English society which can cause to lose confidence in study and life. With persistently striving, I regain confidence after one semester in college and learn better. In addition, I determined learning English should be pursued as lifelong learning, to integrate and to overcome the cultural differences as well as job search. Therefore, in the future, I will still have to concern English though I finish ESL classes.

Which Is a Way of Management?

Mr. Obama told supporters in 2013, “insurance companies have to spend at least 80 percent of every dollar that you pay in premiums on your health care — not on overhead, not on profits, but on you.”

I think the Obama's statement is the principle of calculation to evaluate the increases. It can be calculated by the total of all spending of an insurance company over the health care divided by the total of the company's income. The result of division has to be about 80 percent. The number is not difficult to calculate and can be controlled.

Obama explained the calculation that it is "not on overhead, not on profits, but on you." I think the calculation causes the insurance companies to decrease their profits, but not loss. In the fullness of time, they can improve a way of management to increase profits, instead of claim of increase rate.

To any new Act, except a course of fulfillment, it is always difficult to manage.

Chi Le