Reaction Essay: The Alchemist

In Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”, the author tells readers a story about how to confront dreams or follow Personal Legend which means the dreams people always want to accomplish. Through a shepherd boy whose name is Santiago, the author shows us the process of pursuing our own dreams: having a dream, understanding it, wanting to give up, insisting again, seeking for it, losing it, and finally fulfilling it.

For Santiago, he has a strong desire to know the world so that he becomes a shepherd. During his trip, he met the king of Salem who told Santiago his Personal Legend and asked him to pursue the dream of finding the treasure. In order to follow his dream, he began his adventure to the Pyramid. He wanted to go back when a thief stole all his money. Fortunately, he insisted on finding the treasure, and then found a job in a crystal store. After he had earned enough money, he continued to pursue his dream. With the help of the alchemist, Santiago reached the Pyramid.

However, he did not find the treasure, and even worse, he was robbed. He lost his all money, but the robbers told him that the treasure he was looking for was in the place he came from and not in the Pyramid. During his path to realizing his dream, he became matured and knew to listen to his heart, which was the most important treasure he got.

 

After reading “The Alchemist”, I know the reason why this book is one of the most bestselling books all over the world. I think it is well worth reading because listening to our hearts is vitally important to help us to realize our dreams. We all desire to fulfill our dreams, but few people know how to pursue dreams. According to the book, however, we have already known the way to realize dreams.

 

The fact is we give up our dreams because we are afraid to lose things we have owned when pursuing dreams. As a consequence, we no longer listen to our hearts. However, our hearts know everything. It is helpless to avoid listening to our hearts because we are the owner of hearts. When we listen to and understand our hearts, we will know how to deal with our dreams. Therefore, from “The Alchemist”, we can learn that the only thing we need to do to realize our dreams is just to try instead of the escape.

 

It is a fascinating story that tells me that no troubles will be permanent if you can control your own heart, and anyone can fulfill own dream as long as we can keep pursuing and never give up the initial dream.

Should the Chinese government take full responsibility for grads' unemployment?

For this project I studied the issue of Chinese grads’ unemployment and the Chinese Government.

 

It is important to learn because plenty of Chinese college students will graduate this year. There are so many grads and having jobs for them all is difficult. However, Chinese people are used to the government solving unemployment problems for new graduates, and I think it is unfair to let the Chinese government take full responsibility for this issue.

 

This project shows my opinion and hopefully could let you know more about Chinese grads’ unemployment. First, here is a video. In this video, I briefly summarize this issue and give my opinion. I have also attached ten vocabulary words which are helpful to understand this topic. This is my summaries about two relevant online articles, with links to the original articles. Finally, here is my argument essay which presents details about this issue.

 

I hope you learn something from this topic. Please feel free to post a comment and let me know what you think – either about your reaction to my project or to engage an idea you found interesting.

Thanks for watching!

Jing

Video for Chinese Grads' Unemployment

Argument Essay Chinese Government and Graduates’ Employment

Based on Labor Law of People's Republic of China, the Chinese government has an obligation to guarantee workers’ right of employment, and should promote employment. The Chinese population is more than 1.3 billion which is the most one in the world. As a result, the issue of employment is serious, especially for college students’ unemployment. Chinese People's Daily has shown that nearly 7 million Chinese college students will graduate this year. It is acknowledged by the government officials that the situation of grads’ employment is getting worse. The government has stated that the issue of grads’ employment has been prioritized, and it will create some jobs through policies or subsidies. Meanwhile, people are having high expectations for government measures. However, college students’ unemployment problem is complicated and a public issue, which cannot only require Chinese government to take full responsibility. In other words, Chinese people need to be aware that other aspects not just the government need to take charge of grads’ employment.

For graduates’ the unemployment issue, universities have an unavoidable responsibility. Universities should give correct guidance for students which can help grades better suit markets’ requirements. The fact is, however, Chinese universities do not match theory with practice well. That is, college students do not know how to use theories they have learnt in school to apply to real jobs. This phenomenon is caused by national conditions in China: universities are managed by party members instead of scholars because most of Chinese universities are public not private. Consequently, universities do not have enough freedom to choose what they should teach. It is necessary for universities to reform of university administration. College graduates need to learn useful knowledge from university education, which in some ways will decide whether they can find a job.

Despite the universities, the markets also are in charge of graduates’ unemployment. Nowadays, the job market does not have well-established system and sometimes has prejudice for graduates, such as where you graduate from and whether you have experiences. In China, large corporations prefer to hire the person who graduates from a famous university, especially American or European universities. Nevertheless, only a fraction of people can study abroad or go to top Chinese colleges, which is the primary reason that many grads cannot find a befitting job. Moreover, when companies are employing workers, they usually require people to have relevant work experiences which Chinese graduates normally do not have. As a consequence, a large number of grads cannot find a job owing to without work experiences. If the job market system can give more opportunities for college graduates, the problem of grads’ employment will be mitigated a lot.

Even though the issue of graduates’ unemployment is complicated and caused by different factors, grads themselves have a vital responsibility. The attitude of college graduates themselves is crucially important for finding a job. For instance, many modern college grads are over confident about themselves. They always want to find high-paying or easy jobs. However, it is hard to find this kind of jobs. In fact, high-paying jobs always are in large corporations which usually will not hire graduates, and easy jobs normally do not have high salary. It is unlikely for most of college graduates to find ideal jobs. Therefore, the problem of graduates’ employment is getting worse in the long turn. Essentially, find a job is own business, so grads should rely on their own effort. No one can decide the future of others; grads’ future depends on their own choices.

Some people believe that the Chinese government has an obligation and ability to take full responsibility for college students’ employment. Although it is required for the government to work to provide employment for graduates, the Chinese government cannot take full responsibility of this issue. Actually, and as I alluded to earlier, creating jobs is the work for job market or corporations, and the government can just give a helping hand to entrepreneurs. That means the Chinese government only can alleviate the problem of graduates’ unemployment without fundamentally solving this issue because it does not have the ability to do it. In other words, the government is not omnipotent; it cannot solve all problems which people expect it to do. Even though the government has given many programs to reduce grads’ employment pressure, these methods cannot work without external support.

Due to its huge population, China’s employment issue is much tougher than any other countries—for the obvious reason that there are so many people and having jobs for them all is difficult. Even worse, with the increasing number of graduates, finding a job will be more difficult than before. In the tough job market, many Chinese people are used to the government solving unemployment problems for new graduates. Nevertheless, it is unfair to let the government take full responsibility. The universities, the markets and grads themselves should also take charge of this issue. Unemployment of college students is not just caused by the government, so it is too naive to only blame the government. If Chinese people want to improve graduates’ employment in the future, everyone should contribute to solving this problem.

Annotated Bibliography for Chinese Grads' Unemployment

In the article “In China, College Education Comes at a Price”, the author Benjamin Carlson discusses the issue that it is hard for Chinese college graduates to find decent work. Firstly, he indicates that both US and China have the problem of grads’ unemployment, but Chinese issue may be even worse. Moreover, he says that low-skilled laborers can get higher wages than educated workers. As a result, many college graduates have accepted the migrant-worker lifestyle. For example, a graduate whose major is animation finally found a job as a real-estate agent because there are few jobs of animators. Furthermore, the author also shows that Chinese central authorities have tried to solve this problem by warning students not to choose majors with the highest unemployment rates and encouraging grads to start their own business, but the problem still exists. Finally, he gives an opinion of the Crothall of the China Labour Bulletin, which shows that the essential problem is the economic transition needs to take a very long time. It also points out that it is impossible to let all college graduates work as white-collar.

In the article “Governments Cannot Create Jobs, Growth Relies on Entrepreneurs”, author Sher Valenzuela discusses the relationship between the government and creating jobs. First of all, he points out that the government creates job through small companies, and the government does not do and have ability to do it. According to Valenzuela, however, the Obama administration does not help entrepreneurs create jobs. Actually, it is responsible for the “regulatory uncertainty”. Moreover, he thinks it is important for the government to build good environment for business and protect citizens. Finally, he indicates that the government has given enough programs, but people do not have a good method about how to use them. Valenzuela gives an example about a better way, the First State Moves. First State Moves in Delaware is designed to help people understand the program and its concept can be used in any state.

Vocabulary for Chinese Grads' Unemployment

DERIDE(v) [dɪ'raɪd]
Forms:derisive (adj), derisively (adv), derision(n)
Definition: to make remarks or jokes that show you think someone or something is silly or useless
Sentence: You should not deride children for their failures; you should encourage them to try again.

Words for Creating Jobs

CITE(v) [saɪt]
Forms: citation (n)
Definition: to mention something as an example, especially one that supports, proves,or
                    explains an idea or situation
Sentence: Can you cite another case like this one?


BURDEN(n) ['bɝdn]
Forms: burden (v)
Definition: something difficult or worrying that you are responsible for
Sentence: He eased me of my burden.


FOSTER(v) ['fɔstɚ]
Forms: fosterage(n)
Definition: to help a skill, feeling, idea etc develop over a period of time
Sentence: Experience and intelligence meshed to foster resilience.


EXCLUSIVE(adj.)[ɪk'sklusɪv]
Forms: exclusively(adv), exclusion(n), exclusiveness(n), exclude(v)
Definition: available or belonging only to particular people, and not shared
Sentence:The situation is not exclusive to Taiwan.


ENTREPRENEUR(n)[,ɑntrəprə'nɝ]]
Forms: entrepreneurial(adj)
Definition: someone who starts a new business or arranges business deals in order to make
                    money, often in a way that involves financial risks
Sentence:And you volunteered to become an entrepreneur.


From:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/30/governments-cannot-create-jobs/










 

Are we doing enough to sustain our environment?

In China, people are polluting the environment with toxins that cannot be absorbed naturally. For instance, a lot of poisonous smoke and waste water come from plenty of chemical factories. When people pass by a chemical factory, they always can see lots of smoke coming from its smokestacks dirty the air. Nowadays, the sky is not as clean as before. Moreover, many chemical factories just dump waste water straight into the river without any treatment. It causes serious water pollution. Dirty air and poisonous river have made thousands of Chinese people live in a terrible environment which is harmful for our health.