Sweetheart friend I find that there is a major difference for two youngsters in becoming boyfriend and girlfriend between my country and western countries. Last time, a friend of mine told me that he fell in love with a girl and he could also feel that the girl had a crush on him. So he asked the girl to be his girlfriend. But unexpectedly, the girl said no. He was very depressed and confused with the situation. He could feel the affection to him from the girl but why the girl refused him? He asked me about it. I told him that he was too straight and the girl just needed time to make this ‘big’ decision. He told me that he really couldn't understand it. I think most boys would meet the same situation if they behave so straight. Because we have different cultures, girls in China are not likely to promise to be a girlfriend of a boy the first time they meet no matter how much they like the boy. The reasons are various, from my perspective, the most important reason is that girls always think of marriage when they confront a relationship with a boy. So they are actually choosing a husband in their heart. Once becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, they would strive to maintain the relationship and develop it to marriage. So I think the major difference is that Chinese girls choose a lifelong partner before boys become their boyfriends, while western girls prefer to develop a relationship first and then choose the right person through the interaction. If you are a foreign boy and fall in love with a Chinese girl, don't be hurry, just be patient. Give them time to make decision:)

Time Management Recently, I found that I have been wasting time. It seems that I was very busy and didn't have time to do something I wanted to do for a long time, like drawing and learning something new. But when I thought back, I couldn't figure out any meaningful things I have done. This fact illustrated that I didn't use time efficiently. I have been using an app on my phone to record what I have done everyday for the last week. The report showed that I have used too much time on entertainment, like surfing on the internet. Using this kind of app reminds me to use every minutes effectively. This week, I stop using the internet consciously and spend more time on fitness. I hope I could improve myself as I wanted gradually.

I miss my girlfriends so much We had a party in our apartment the day before yesterday. It was the best time I have ever had since I came to the Netherlands because I really enjoy spending time with friends, especially girls. Although this time there were only two other girls, I still felt very happy to have fun with so many friends. I cherish every opportunity I stay with those friends, they make me feel warm whilst adapting to this unknown country that is miles away from my hometown. These friends made me miss my girlfriends so much. I have many girlfriends and I have never though what did they mean to me before I left them. We sought for tasty food, went shopping, watched movies and most importantly, we chose a quiet place and chatted of our life at weekends. I took this life for granted and never thought what would my life be like without them. But after I came to the Netherlands, I don't have any opportunity to make new friends. I begin to miss them so much. I miss the time we sat together and chatted with laughter. I hope I can make some new girlfriends here in the future. But it seems that there is always a wide gap between eastern and western people. Also, I don't know what their life is like, do they like chat?

A book I am reading Recently I am reading a book named the road less traveled and I really enjoy reading it. It is about psychology. The reason I got interested in this book was that I found I was becoming temperamental and I thought maybe I need to read some relevant book to help me with my mental health. Finally it turned out that this book is far more than a simple instruction which help people with mental problems. The author analyzed the reason that people got mental disordered from his clinical experience, then he listed some vital elements that would affect the mental development of a person. From his perspective, the childhood experience would strongly affect the subsequent life of a person. For example, if a child doesn't got enough attention from his parent, then this child would probably do something to call the attention from his parent. If his parent keep ignoring his demand. Then a feeling of not being loved by his parent would come into his mind and this child would stop asking attention and begin to hate his parent. After this child grows up, any behavior that doesn't show full attention to him from his spouse or friends would give him the feeling they don't love him. we can conclude from this book that the childhood experience is very important, we should never ignore the demand from children. Of course, there are many elements that affect the mental development of a person and mental behavior has always been a complex issue. But I do believe the childhood experience plays the most important role among all the factors. I hope more parents could have chance to read this book and find a proper way to bring up their children. And if someday I had a child, I hope I could be a good mum:)

How to stop translating? I am a Chinese native speaker and like many Chinese people, learning English could never be easy for me. Recently I found that every time when I wanted to say something I was actually translating sentences from Chinese to English. It was OK at the beginning but now I feel that I am hitting the wall. I want to improve and I know I have to stop translating. But it seems that I would starting doing the translating thing automatically every time when I was talking with other people. Only after the conversations could I realize that I was translating again. Should any of you have met the same situation and do you have any way to overcome it? many thanks to you!

I really want to improve my writing in English I have been paying attention to improve my listening and speaking but recently I really want to improve my writing. However, I have no idea about how to achieve it at present. I talked it with my friend today and he told me that grammar would be more important in writing compared with speaking. At the very start, I was told not to pay too much attention on grammar in order to encourage me to open my mouth and to eliminate my hesitation. But now I have a very big grammar problem. I would always feel confused by some expressions. I am so afraid of making mistakes when I need to write something. My friend told me that the best way is to try to practice more, just like speaking. I think it's very advisable and I just started here. Also I really want to get some other recommendations from you, should you have any advise in improving writing, please kindly tell me. I would really appreciate it.

Doing volunteer works makes me happy I am now doing some volunteer works and this kind of life really makes me very happy. My everyday life is enriched and my vision is broadened during the process of being a volunteer. Yesterday I gave a lecture to the high school students. They are very lovely and eager to learn. It turned out that I have worried too much before I went to the school. The students were well behaved in the class and many girls asked me to take pictures with them. I think they like me very much:) It's really an impressive experience and I hope I could have a chance to meet the students again:)

My first notebook entry Hello everybody, I am a Chinese and I am learning English now. I just moved to Netherlands two months ago as my husband works here. I really want to improve my English, especially oral English because I am so hesitate to speak out. I am also very willing to teach you Chinese and introduce Chinese culture to you. I like reading and travelling and I am curious about different cultures. So our conversation could be related to many different aspects. If you are interested in communicating with me, please feel free to contact me! Best regards， Meng