How to Talk Money With Kids (2)

• How should you discuss the problem with older kids?
• How can kids contribute?

With 12- to 18-year-olds, you can broaden the discussion to include the banking crisis and other factors that contributed to the recession, Meyer says. Younger kids have the notion that they’re at the center of things, and adolescents by nature are especially egocentric. “They will think they’re responsible,” Meyer says. A cut in allowance might seem punitive, so the message that the child is not at fault needs to come across. Depending on the child’s age, “You can also ask them to bring some income by working a job or helping more around the house so Mom or Dad can work more,”  he says.

Kids can also contribute by taking over house cleaning or landscaping services previously done by a paid professional. “You’ll pay lower rates, and the money stays in the family,” financial consultant Denis Cauvier says. He also suggests implementing an incentive program to cut household expenses. Whoever comes up with a cost-cutting idea gets 10 percent of the savings.

That way, they’ll come to understand that a paycheck only goes so far, and decisions and sacrifices are part of responsible money management.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Getting Names Right 教學主題: 遇到難唸的人名時
Maybe you’ve noticed as a world gets smaller work coming into context with more and more people from different parts of the globe who have names that are well pretty tricky to pronounce.

If you meet someone face to face and they introduced themselves with an unusual or difficult name, you can politely ask them to say their name again.

By making an effort to say their name correctly, you show in that person honor and respect.

Which is good, unfortunately, you don’t always have the luxury of personally asking someone with the tricky name how to pronounce it.

Maybe you have to reach something in public. Give a speech,or a report or maybe emcee an event where you have to pronounce a difficult name. Cases like these, it pays to do some homework.

Right. If a person’s name looks like it would be tricky to pronounce, ask around or check to see if the person has a website. Sometimes you’ll find some pronunciation clues there.

Other times, if you are lucky and if the person is famous enough, you’ll find something on YouTube, where you can hear how the person’s name is correctly pronounced.

• Can you tell me how to pronounce your name?

Language Lab
egocentric adj. [ego字首-自我; cent 字根- 中心]
/ˌiːgoʊˈsɛntrɪk/
caring too much about yourself and not about other people : self-centered
- Larry is an egocentric person, who only cares about himself.
- School life helps children learn to not be egocentric and share with others.

punitive adj.
/ˈpjuːnətɪv/
intended to punish someone or something
- The politician is suing the newspaper for $500,000 in punitive damages for false coverage.
- Punitive actions were taken by the UN against the country for using biochemical weapons.

at fault
if someone is at fault, they are responsible for something bad that has happened:
- The police said that the other driver was at fault.
- Some people claim that it is the UN that is at fault.

implement v. [im字首-進入]
to take action or make changes that you have officially decided should happen 實施
- The government will implement the new tax policy next year.
- The committee is concerned about when their recommendations will be implemented.
implementation n.
- Implementation of the new law will be difficult.

incentive n.
something that encourages you to work harder, start a new activity etc:
- The teacher uses field trips as incentives to encourage his students to achieve better grades.
- In most companies, bonus payments are the biggest incentives for people to work hard.

mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20151017baacd4a1f2f9a38d426bdbcde8e9e18bd8e1d1a059618e2cf89356f0f50c8ca9c50.wma

[Advanced] What's Up With WhatsApp? (2) 2014/08/30

A wise investment?
At first, Facebook investors did experience what analyst Arvind Bhatia called "sticker shock" after learning that Facebook planned to shell out $19 billion for WhatsApp, a company that had declared it had no plans to make money any time soon.

But investors quickly shrugged off concerns. Shares of Facebook briefly hit a record high the day after the sale was announced.

Facebook is certainly not alone in placing sky-scraping valuations on unproven start-ups, analysts say.

Blogging service Tumblr sold to Yahoo Inc. for more than $1 billion. Dozens more start-ups are valued at $1 billion or more.

Facebook is quick to point out that WhatsApp reached 450 million users faster than any company in history.

WhatsApp's rapid growth — it adds 1 million users a day — and its hold on users — 70% log into the service every day — "are hard to match," Bhatia said. And WhatsApp is already twice the size of Twitter, which is currently valued at more than $20 billion.

WhatsApp's drawbacks
WhatsApp, like all consumer Internet companies, will be held hostage to people's fickle tastes. And although it may be wildly popular in Europe and Latin America, WhatsApp is overshadowed by rival messaging services in Asia. Line is tops in Japan, and WeChat is the go-to messaging app in China.

Then there's the matter of WhatsApp's strong aversion to the ways consumer Internet companies typically make money, namely through advertising. Koum reiterated that his company would never sell ads, and Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg backed him up.

Damodaran said it's anyone's guess whether WhatsApp will ever justify its eye-popping valuation."

He said. "The winners here won't be those with the most users. They will be those companies that are successful at converting those users into revenues."

Vocabulary Focus
sticker shock n.
an unpleasant surprise at the high price of something

shrugged off (something) (phr v)
 to treat something as if it is not important or not a problem

valuation n.
the act of deciding how much money something is worth, or the amount decided

aversion n.
a feeling of strong dislike or unwillingness to do something

eye-popping adj.
exciting, amazing or very impressive

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[Advanced] What's Up With WhatsApp? (1) 2014/08/29

This little company is worth some big money

The $19 billion that Facebook Inc. is paying for a smartphone application made jaws drop, even in Silicon Valley.

But analysts say the purchase of WhatsApp could pay off for Facebook as it takes on Google Inc. and other technology giants in the escalating arms race to be the next big thing in mobile.

The battle for mobile
Technology giants are fighting for their future as consumers switch their allegiances from personal computers to mobile devices. By 2015, 5 billion people are expected to be carrying around the tiny computers in their pockets.

As a result, nimble start-ups that have outpaced their grown-up rivals in building popular mobile services have become takeover targets.

Just last year Facebook offered $3 billion for Venice Beach messaging company Snapchat, but was rebuffed. WhatsApp, a tiny California company, was a far bigger prize.

With 450 million users, WhatsApp is the market leader in mobile messaging. Chief Executive Jan Koum says his company's goal from the start was "to be on every single smartphone in the world."

Facebook is betting WhatsApp can help it leapfrog competitors in messaging, the new communication medium of choice.

Survival at stake
The stakes could not be higher for Facebook. More people are communicating on their mobile devices rather than blasting information to hundreds of friends on social networks. Its very survival depends on its ability to latch onto the new ways people are connecting and sharing.

By that logic, the price Facebook is paying for WhatsApp isn't so bubbly, said David Wessels, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

"As a stand-alone company, WhatsApp is clearly not worth $19 billion, period," Wessels said. "But by no means would I consider this irrational. Would you give away 10% of your company to extend the life of your company?"


Vocabulary Focus
allegiance n.
support for a leader, country, group or belief

nimble adj.
quick and clever, acute in planning, devising or understanding

outpaced v.
to increase, move or grow faster than another thing

rebuff v.
suggestion, a request for help or an offer to help, often in an unfriendly way

leapfrog v.
to improve your position by moving quickly past or over something that blocks your way

latch onto (something) (phr v)
to become interested in an idea, sotry or activity, and to start to use it

irrational adj.
not based on reason or clear thinking; not reasonable

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Dollars, Euros and Funny Hats: The Rise of Unusual Currencies (2)

Online currencies
The world's most popular alternative currency, the bitcoin is used in online transactions by over 100,000 people worldwide. Any online company can choose to accept them, so bitcoins can buy video games, books and even socks! Bticoins are generated through "mining," a process in which computers run complex programs to record bitcoin transactions and keep the network secure.

Mining is regulated to produce the coins at a predictable, limited rate. This avoids creating too many bitcoins, which would decrease their value.

Other Internet users exchange stranger things, like hats from the video game Team Fortress 2. The hats were originally intended to make characters look distinctive. But players must pay for chances to find hats, and some unique ones are very rare. Thus, players trade hats among themselves for money, bitcoins or in-game items. Since people agree on the hats' value and trade them for other things, they arguably count as currency. By one extimate, items traded within the game are worth a total of US$22 million. That equals almost 60 percent of island nation Tuvalu's GDP!

Alternative currencies probably won't replace official ones, but they are changing society and economics.

Info Cloud
Here's a question for you friends, the word "internet" should it be capitalized or not?

Well, it's a place that people visit, and since place names are proper nouns, it should be capitalized right?

You would think, but now some writers are taking a different view on the word. They're saying the internet has become so common that it no longer warrants the capital 'I'.

Some prestiges publications, like the Economist and the Times of London, have already demoted the word "internet" from proper noun to common noun, now spelling it with a lower case 'i'.

So, how would we know when we should do the same?

When stylebooks tell us. Stylebooks are the accepted standard for proper English writing. They uphold conventional usage, yet they're flexible too, as is reflected in their annual updates and edits.

Part dictionary, part encyclopedia, and part textbook, stylebooks tell us things like the difference between a "robbery" and a "burglary", which words are politically incorrect, and when you should spell out numbers.

Check the bookstore or the internet for English styleguides like the "Chichago Manual of Style" or the "Associated Press Stylebook". If you're serious about English writing, they're essential.

Language Lab
transaction n.
trans- prefix: on or to the far side of something [= across]
a business deal or action, such as buying or selling something
- The stock transaction is now under investigation.
- The procedure of a loan transaction is carefully monitored.

predictable adj.
if something or someone is predictable, you know what will happen or what they will do - sometimes used to show disapproval
predict v.
to say that something will happen, before it happens
- The film was full of predictable plots, but it was still very popular.
unpredictable adj.
changing a lot so it is impossible to know what will happen
- unpredictable weather

distinctive adj.
dis- prefix opposite or absence of
having a special quality, character, or appearance that is different and easy to recognize
- Her distinctive taste made her the top stylist in the field.
- Many fans love the singer's distinctive voice.

arguably adv.
/ˈɑɚgjuwəbli/
it can be argued — used to say that a statement is very possibly true even if it is not certainly true
- Picasso is arguably one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
- Arguably, the vaccine should not be accessible to the public yet.


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Dollars, Euros and Funny Hats: The Rise of Unusual Currencies (1)

Money has more forms than you think

The exchange rate tables in banks and airports include many currencies but probably not Makkies or bitcoins. That's because governments do not back these alternative currencies. But all over the world, people are making purchases with alternative currencies, and if current trends continue, this may become more and more common.

Community currencies
Your country probably has its own currency, but does your neighborhood? Local currencies are appearing in communities in the Netherlands, the United States, South Africa and elsewhere. For example, residents of Makassarsquare, a neighborhood in Amsterdam, can earn "Makkies" for actions like cleaning up a public space or assisting an elderly neighbor.

For these good deeds, they receive "money" that can buy library subscriptions, movie and sport tickets, swimming pool visits and more. Residents also pay each other Makkies for favors like baby-sitting. The Makkie's inventors hope it will promote cleaner public areas, increase interaction among neighbors and encourage unemployed residents to use their skills.

In Belgium, the regions of Limburg and Diest have developed a similar system  - the "e-wallet." It rewards residents for eco-friendly actions by giving them electronic points to spend on public transportation, sporting events and other things.


Grammar Gym
That's because governments do not back these alternative currencies.
back - opposite of "front"
back - support
- Gina's family has backed her ever since she decided to go into politics.
- Timothy is not afraid to accept the difficult task because he knows his team will back him.


Info Cloud
In it's relatively short of history, English has borrowed thousands of words from 300 different languages. They're what we call "loan words".

Now, which language loaned English the most words? One source has French and Latin in a tie for first place, with Germanic languages not too far behind in second place.

Combined, these three languages account for over three quarters of the words we use in every day English.

Meaning, a majority of the words you see in today's lesson are not original authentic English words.  They're loan words, like the word "dollar".

To trace this word's origins, let's go back five hundred years to a little Bohemian town called Joachimsthal, a place that still exists in today's Czech Republic.

Joachimsthal had some silver mines, and when it came time to think up a name for their freshly minted silver coins, the Joachimsthalers chose the word "dollar".

And in 1533, "dollar" was first used in English.  Today there are close to 50 countries and territories that use "dollar" as their official currency unit, including Ecuador, Liberia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, just to name a few.

So, let's thank the Bohemian people for loaning us the dollar.

Language Lab

exchange rate n.

the value of the money of one country compared to the money of another country
- The exchange rate today is 29 NTD to 1 USD.
- Because of the rising exchange rate, our exports dropped last quarter.

alternative adj.
deliberately different from what is usual, expected, or traditional
- Timothy decided to quit chemotherapy and go for alternative therapy.
alternative n.
something you can choose to do or use instead of something else
- We had no alternative but to stay in an expensive hotel. 別無選擇, 只能....

subscription n.
an amount of money you pay, usually once a year, to receive copies of a newspaper or magazine, or receive a service, or the act of paying money for this
- The yearly subscription rate for the magazine is only $59.
subscription to
- Bob decided to buy an annual subscription to a golf magazine.

unemployed adj.
without a job [= out of work]
- Henry has been unemployed for three years.
unemployment n.
- The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% last quarter.


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