Hussain Maashi
In last year Saudi Arabia introduced taxes for the first time. these taxes were only used for products that are bad for public health like soda and cigarettes. The prices of those products get higher and people were upset about! Me too at the first time but after a while I realized that it was a good thing because I saw my brother smoke less and people start looking for the bad effects of soda to know why it's price get higher like cigarettes!
I remembered all of this last week when we read about the laws to reduce the use of these products. In my opinion this laws are for the best of our community but it should be in public areas only (like working places) because it is effecting other people too. But when it comes to personal life I don't think companies or organizations have the right to control it.
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Dr. Moniza’s lecture about the culture differences was incredible! She is a great speaker and presenter. The information she gave us were so important especially for us, international students. For me, the most interesting part of her presentation was when she told us about her story when she first come to Macomb. When I were lessening to her I was thinking about my self! Everything she said felt the same for me. The first impression of the new place, culture shuck, making new friends and starting a new life. Because I still new here and still going through this process her information was very valuable to me. The other thing was her rich academic knowledge and experience. Listening to her experiences ether when she was a student or when she became a professor give me a view from both sides. Last week we read the article "Addicted to Phones" by April Frawley Birdwell (2007) and I was amazed by the information in that article considering that it was published more than 10 years ago!
I thought that problems with using phones came out when people start using smartphones! But the source of the problem that the writer discussed in his article was the desire of people to be in touch! Whether by phone calls and text messages or by apps. To be honest I feel sometimes that I'm addicted to my phone. I feel that I spent most of the day reading things and watching videos on my phone. I know that is wrong and I hope I can change this behavior soon. Because of my feelings I was looking on the internet sometimes and reading about this problem. There are a lot of researches, articles and personal experiences for people who left their phones for a while and how amazing their life's become! I think we all should try this experience to have an amazing part of our life back. The writer said "Addicted also causes changes in the brain" which seems completely true to me. Our brains are flexible continuous behavior could change it over time, just like how we got our instincts. The idea of patterns is to allow the reader to understand what's written! For example, if a writer is writing about a problem he/she would use a use a problem-solution pattern where he/she describes the problem and then gives the solution.
there are tons of patterns like the previous example and by using them the writers could give a clear texts for the readers. I think patterns are the same in Arabic language "my first language" because I couldn't think of any different ways of writing! In scientific writing you could find all patterns also, but perhaps the most commonly used ones are problem-solution, cause-effect and definition. patterns are extremely important to understand what you read and by understanding them we can understand the overall idea of the text we read and also it helps us summarizing it into smaller ones if we need. During my undergraduate studying time I wrote a few papers. I wasn't alone and my professor helped me all the time editing, finding sources and explaining the right way of writing without plagiarism. I really don’t know much about child labor in Saudi Arabia. The legal age to work in Saudi Arabia is from 15 to 18 years old for summer part time jobs and more the 18 years old for fall time jobs. But sadly I have seen some immigrant children who are working under age! Some immigrant parents who work in jobs like, for example, washing cars, selling on the streets and on farms. Many of these parents are illegal immigrants and couldn’t find a legal jobs so that’s why they bring their children to help the make more money. But still in my opinion children are children and that’s not their fault! There parents should understand that if they want the best for them.
My parents raised me to choose what I’m comfortable with! During school they were just checking on my homeworks and told me do what you like after that. My father used to play games with me when he was helping me doing my homeworks and trying to challenge me:) When I got High grades at school they were giving me presents and make me feel more confident about my self!
Even when I failed at medical school I was so confused how to tell my mother about it! But when I told her I didn’t like it and this is not what I want she told me to choose what I like:) where I knew that she really wanted me to study medicine. This, in my opinion, is the right way to raise my children. I really didn’t like Chua's parenting style and in my opinion anyone could choose what he wants when his parents give him the right directions. Recently in Saudi Arabia many supermarkets start providing organic food because of the increased number of people who are looking for it.
It's not a new idea in my hometown because there was not a lot of supermarkets when most of the older people were born and raised. People like my grandparents and even my mom when she was young used to get their food from organic sources only. Every family used to have their own farm in the past and some of them still having them so far. When supermarkets came out people left their farms but now many people are looking for organic food and spending more money on it. Many older people tell me that most of the traditional dishes test different when they use organic food. My grandparents used to produce organic food in their farm but after they passed away no one take care of it but now my uncle lives there after his retirement and start producing organic food again. Moving to the United States of America was one of the biggest shifts in my life. I have lived in four different cities in Saudi Arabia in the last 2 years. Some of them might have a different weather and the traditions of the people who live there are a little bit different from my home town, but the overall feeling was the same. The United States on the other hand is way to different. I have traveled to many countries but visiting some place for few dyes as a tourist is different from living there.
The image I had about the USA before I came here was really different, I thought it is a dangerous country and people might not be friendly with me. But the first thing surprised me about American people was how friendly they are! I started making conversations from the first moment I got here. In Saudi Arabia people are usually not that friendly specially with strangers. Due to many reasons our diet has changed a lot in the past few years. There are so many factors changed it like the Industrial revolution, working of women outside the house, and going into the modern fast life. People start eating most of the time outside of the house due to work. Restaurants found a new business and the culture of fast food was born. So we have no one to blame for that change.
Our bodies need all major supplements to function well like proteins, vitamins ...etc and to get all this supplements we have to make sure that our diet has all of them. A good diet protects our bodies from harmful diseases and helps us being healthy. So, in my opinion the ideal of healthy diet is not a strict rules that deprive us away from eating our favorite food but instead of that helping us to understand what's the good and what's the bad. When I moved to the United States one of the first things I noticed is teenage workers in fast food restaurants and coffee shops. Almost everyone works there is a teenage. Which is really different compared with my country. Teenagers in high school almost never work during their school time and rely only on their parents. In high school I never worked. In fact, I never got a job until I finished college 2 years ago! The usual age of work is after high school if someone decides to not go to college. In college study is free for everyone and you get paid every month. It’s not a lot but it helps students to not worry about anything other than studying.
I think teenagers should focus on their schools without any distraction. In my opinion school and work are hard to be together. Although I have never worked in a fast food restaurant, but I know someone did and I asked him once about his job and he wasn’t happy about it! Long working hours, salary is really below average and they always want you to leave after few months. I think that’s why it’s not a common kind of work in my country, because most of the people who tries it already finished high school and looking for a nice job. What surprises me when I read the article is the number of teenage Americans who are working and the different impacts of the different kinds of jobs on them! I think teenage students in high school are too young to work and if they must work it should be a traditional part-time job like the few examples mentioned in part two. In that case it will a training more than a job. |
AuthorHussain Maashi Archives
April 2018
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