What did you win during the Winter Olympics?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama betted with each other on which team would win the Olympic men's hockey gold medal. Yesterday the Canadian men's hockey team won. Harper won a case of beer.
What did you win during the Winter Olympics?

I am not a gambler and so I didn’t win anything, but I learnt a great deal on Canadian culture.

Yesterday I watched the men’s Olympic hockey final game on TV. The Stadium was almost totally covered in red and white. There were many passionate Canadians among the fans. Some wore Canadian flag shirts and others even had a Canadian Maple flag painted on their faces. When the Canadian team won during overtime, the audience went wild and brought down the house. The Canadian hockey players were so excited, they hugged together. However, the US team had somber expressions on their faces and looked discouraged.

The atmosphere left a very deep impression and experience in my mind on what's Canadian culture.

field trip for shopping

Before the Chinese Lunar New Year our classmates went on a shopping field trip. The first stop was Food Basics where we learnt how to ask questions. We found out which groceries were stored in which aisle, and compared prices of different brand names in the same supermarket.

And then we headed to Johnny's Charcoal Broiled Hamburgers, where we bought and ate lunch. The manager has different marketing strategies in his store. Johnny's Hamburgers focuses on low price. The manager cuts down on decorations, tables and chairs. He wants customers to take out rather than to eat in. Johnny's Hamburgers is only a small eatery. It can’t develop big franchised chain stores. Johnny's Hamburgers' core competencies are low prices and fresh food.

Food Basics is a supermarket chain, currently owned by Metro Inc. Its marketing strategies also concentrates on low prices. Metro Inc. has two franchise chain supermarket systems, Food Basics and Metro. The two systems have different strategies. We can say Metro strategies are based on service and quality. They have different customers. Market segmentation is very clear; the company has two exclusive franchise chains to capture more consumers.

Tone Tai supermarket is owned by Foody Group. They have Foodymart, Tone Tai, Hong Tai, Long Tai, Fresh value and Long Food supermarkets. Their strategies are low prices and variety of Chinese groceries. Foodymart is very special in that it has a food court. Foody Group’s market segmentation is to attract Chinese-Canadians. My friends said, “In the recent years, Chinese fresh vegetables in the winter are becoming cheaper and cheaper because there are about 50 Chinese-Canadian supermarkets in the GTA and the competition allows consumers to be satisfied.”

web site for referance

1. Voice of America Learning English Word and Their Stories Program

2. BBC Learning English The Teacher Program

3. English to English Dictionary

4. English to Chinese Dictionary

5.Visual Dictionary Online

We must confess that

Cheating exists in everywhere not only in school. Nowadays, cheating is rampant. It is not only the school’s responsibility, but also the family and the society's responsibility. I must confess that I am always in two minds about that between morality and cutting corners. Cheating is a bad behaviour and not fair to the honest Joe. Would you like to be an honest Joe? I am swaying between cheating and to be the honest Joe.
Chinese culture has the idea that ”moral strength is less, human desire is dangerous, and we should keep your behaviour in the centre.”

three things

I have been to Ottawa, London, St. Catharine and Sarnia since I come to Canada.
I have seen ones hockey game in the Air Canada Centre since 2009.
I have been learning English in LINC school for 6 months.