Newspapers and magazines are the best way of learning about a foreign country

[Alyssa]

Newspapers and magazines are the best way of learning about a foreign country.

Globalization has brought about enormous benefits as well as challenges towards our nation and its citizens. Nowadays, we need to learn more about foreign countries because of the increasing requirement for cross- cultural communications. From economics partnerships and business trades, to higher education aboard and migrations, newspapers and magazines do provide us with some information about the outside world, however, they are definitely not the best avenues. Personally, I consider that Internet as well as studying aboard are two other ways to learn about the foreign countries.

Admittedly, newspapers and magazines can assist us to find more about foreign countries to some extent. Stories or articles edited by knowledgeable and multicultural writers offer objective views and innovative perspectives about certain fields unknown to us. For example, we can learn from New York Times about the origin of financial crisis happening in USA in 2008. Also, we may get more details about the perseverance of Japanese from the foundation stories about Sony and Panasonic. However, just reading newspapers and magazines are far from enough to deeply and fully understand a foreign country.

Internet provides us with more instant and broad-scope information about a foreign country. By using the Yahoo search engine and typing into key words, relevant results would all appear in front of you within seconds. Take my boss for instance. He takes business trips to many countries so as to sign contracts about cargo delivery, however, he rarely has sufficient time to prepare. Therefore, he usually surfs the internet and finds information about the climate, transportation as well as customs of the target country. It only takes several hours, compared with spending a whole day in collecting dozens of newspaper editions.

Study abroad allows people to get to know another country first-hand. National differences are more than just differences in language, food, appearances, and personal habits. Therefore, if we experience cultural differences personally, we could come to truly understand where the cultures are coming from. For example, when I participated in the student exchange program in Singapore, I was deeply impressed by its mix-cultural environment where most of the habitants are from Southeast Asia. However, when I read about Singapore from magazines, I just thought it was an international trading center with little passing-on culture.

In conclusion, in order to better know about a foreign country, one has to digest its culture from several sources, not only the newspapers and magazines, but also the internet as well as studying aboard by self.

[Kitosdad]

[quote="Alyssa"]Newspapers and magazines are the best way of learning about a foreign country.

Globalization has brought about enormous benefits as well as challenges towards our nation and its citizens. Nowadays, we need to learn more about foreign countries because of the increasing requirement for cross- cultural communications. From economics partnerships and business trades, to higher education abroad and migrations. Newspapers and magazines do provide us with some information about the outside world, however, they are definitely not the best avenues. Personally, I consider that the Internet as well as studying abroad are two other ways to learn about foreign countries.

Admittedly, newspapers and magazines can assist us in finding out more about foreign countries to some extent. Stories or articles edited by knowledgeable and multicultural writers offer objective views and innovative perspectives about certain fields unknown to us. For example, we can learn from the "New York Times" about the origin of the financial crisis that occurred in the USA in 2008. Also, we may get more details about the perseverance of Japanese from the stories about the founding of Sony and Panasonic. However, just reading newspapers and magazines is far from enough to deeply and fully understand a foreign country.

The Internet provides us with more instant and broad-scoped information about a foreign country. By using the Yahoo search engine and typing in key words, relevant results will all appear in front of you within seconds. Take my boss for instance. He takes business trips to many countries so as to sign contracts about cargo deliveries. However, he rarely has sufficient time to prepare. Therefore, he usually surfs the (I)nternet and finds information about the climate, transportation as well as customs of the target country. It only takes several hours, compared with spending a whole day in collecting dozens of newspaper editions.

Study abroad allows people to get to know another country first-hand. National differences are more than just differences in language, food, appearances, and personal habits. Therefore, if we experience cultural differences personally, we could come to truly understand where the cultures are coming from. For example, when I participated in the student exchange program in Singapore, I was deeply impressed by its mix-cultural environment where most of the habitants are from South East Asia. However, when I read about Singapore from magazines, I just thought it was an international trading center with little passing-on of culture.

In conclusion, in order to better know about a foreign country, one has to digest its culture from several sources, not only newspapers and magazines, but also the (I)nternet as well as studying abroad.
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Not too bad Alyssa.

Kitos. 8/10
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