Hey, everyone! It’s Binh here! I spent the summer in Europe. I'm back with a blog about the things I learned there.
1. DO bring money to use toilets in France.
In Vietnam, sometimes we have to pay to use a toilet at a bus stop on the highway. (1) Make sure you have change if you need to use public toilets.
2. DO finish your food in Italian restaurants.
Italian people are proud of their cuisine. However, when I was in Italy, sometimes I couldn't finish my food. The waiter often asked if there was a problem. I learned that in Italy, (2) .
3. DO be on time in England.
English people are almost always on time. In Vietnam, (3) .
However, it's rude to do this in England. Make sure you're on time.
4. DON'T stretch or yawn in public in Spain.
People in Spain find it disgusting to stretch and yawn in public. I love to do both after a delicious meal. However, if you visit Spain, be polite and avoid doing this.
5. DON'T put your hands in your pockets in Germany.
People in Germany don't like to see hands in pockets (4) . It’s rude to them and they think it means you're a very lazy person. Try to keep your hands by your side, like you're a business person attending an important meeting.
So, there you go. People in Europe do things very differently. (5) ? Write a comment and let me know!
Binh Nguyen August 27th, 2023
(Adapted from ILSW)

Hi, everyone! Vy from Ho Chi Minh city here, with a report to share. (6) . We’re studying cultural norms and how they can be very different in other countries.
• Japan: In Japan, punctuality is really important. People often arrive early to show they have good manners. Japanese people usually bow instead of shaking hands, (7) . Japanese people always take off their shoes and change into slippers when they enter a home. They keep slippers for guests, too, which I think is very kind. If you go to Japan, you should be careful when writing. It's taboo to use a red pen to write somebody's name because it is thought to be very unlucky.
• France: French people often arrive late for parties, which is pretty similar to things here in Vietnam, but it’s very different from Japanese culture. However, French culture does have some differences from Vietnamese culture. (8) ! It's also rude to ask someone about their age or their family, which I find so surprising.
• India: In India, people always take off their shoes when they enter homes or temples, which is similar to Japan, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. However, there is one thing which is very different. (9) . So in India, it's taboo to use the left hand for eating, shaking hands, or passing things to other people. So that's (10) .
(Adapted from ILSW)

The chart shows (11) . These cities are Atlanta, Charlotte, and New Orleans. In general, the population in each city increased over the 60-year period. During this time, Atlanta had the most significant change in population. It rose sharply while the population of Charlotte had a steady increase. New Orleans's population fluctuated over the period.
The population of Atlanta in 1950 was around 500 thousand, (12) . It then had a sharp increase by about 2.5 million people between 1990 and 2010. Similarly, Charlotte's population went up over the (13) . It grew steadily from 100 thousand to 500 thousand between 1950 and 1990. (14) .
The population of New Orleans had some fluctuation between 1950 and 2010. (15) , when it went from 700 thousand to 900 thousand. It then fell back to 800 thousand in 1990 before slightly increasing to one million in 2010.
(Adapted from ILSW)

EXERCISE 2:
Urbanization is the movement of people from the country to cities and the growth of urban areas. It happens because there are often more opportunities in cities. (16) . Here are a few problems caused by urbanization and some ideas to solve them.
Poverty: Urban areas have a higher cost of living, (17) . These areas have high crime rates and only basic sanitation, and the people living there often have no access to healthcare. A solution for these issues would be to increase the number of social workers and police and have them provide service to these areas. (18) , and have the city government build better quality, low-cost housing.
Pollution: Large populations create lots of waste. This can be too much for sanitation services to handle, so some areas can get very dirty. One option is to have volunteers clean up these places and have more trash cans installed. (19) .
(20) : People in cities often use private cars to get to work and school. This leads to heavy road congestion and causes lots of air pollution. To solve this problem, many cities don't let people drive private vehicles in the city center. This can reduce the amount of traffic by making people use public transportation.
In conclusion, urbanization can cause a lot of problems for people living in cities. Poor living standards, unclean environments, and congested traffic are just some of the issues. Solving the problems of urbanization is one of the biggest challenges for modern society.
(Adapted from ILSW)