1. Is it ever okay to lie?

Lies have always been part of the fabric of social life, they are important in many ways such as maintaining social ties. A study published in the Journal of Basic and Applied found that 60% of people had lied at least once during a 10-minutes conversation. Personally, I agree that telling the truth is not always essential and it is also necessary to tell lies sometimes. Hereby, I wish to put forward two arguments to justify my point of view.

First and foremost, lies could be conducive to relationship. Lies could help people to smooth over awkward and embarrassing situation. Let’s imagine if you have arranged to meet somebody early in the morning and you didn’t manage to wake up on time so that you are late. Probably, you will not be telling the truth but instead, you will make up an excuse, for example, traffic jam holding you up. People lie because you consider being late because of sleeping in as an act of irresponsibility and irreverence. By telling lies, people could avoid embarrassment as well as shifting the responsibilities to other shoulders that they feel less guilty of their fault. Your blame is shifted that the person affected by your act of irresponsibility will not be irrigated and raged that much. To wrap up, telling lies can help people to maintain good relationship by avoiding discord.

Secondly, telling lies can prevent people from unnecessary nuisance as well as safeguarding their privacy. Coming across people doing questionnaire on your move, and they are likely to ask about your personal information such as phone number and age. You may not want to disclose your personal information yet you may find it harsh to reject their request explicitly. In such an occasion, lying could give you a hand as you can make up your personal information. By doing so, not only could you avoid the embarrassment, you could also protect your private information.

Those who are against these ideas may assert that lies damage relationships and trust. They do have a point in thinking like that as lying destroy one’s integrity. However, this case isn’t always true. As mentioned before, lies could actually be conducive to good relationship. Sometimes lies could uphold the other’s self-esteem and endow the others with self-confidence when necessary. On top of that, white lies could keep people in bliss of ignorance. In short, fibs not only help you to maintain good relationship, it also helps to protect the fragile egos.

To conclude, lies not only prevent you from unnecessary nuisance as well as protecting yourself, lies are could also be beneficial to relationship. Therefore, I think it is okay to lie.

2. Hong Kong

Hi Sandra,first of all, welcome to Hong Kong :D

I am a local student and I have always wanted to share the situation of Hong Kong with international students like you. I am more than willing to share with you the obstacles teenagers and young people face nowadays. However, I will make a brief account of the economic situation of Hong Kong beforehand as the problems we face are closely affiliated with the economy of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has always been known as a service-oriented economy with low taxation, free port trade and well-established international financial market. The market of Hong Kong enjoys high extent of freedom as the government adopts the free market economy policy and Hong Kong has remained as one of the freest economies of the world. However, this seemingly advantage has actually caused a lot of socio-economical problem. The freedom of Hong Kong’s economy has hatched a lot of monopolies and oligopolies in different industries, property market in particular. Having a large population in a small area, the land supply is exceptionally tight that the land price has been skyrocketing throughout the years. Together with the oligopolies of property market as well as hot money flowing mainly from the mainland, the situation further aggravates.

If I am to pick a crucial problem faced by the younger generations, I would say it is to buy a flat. In the past, many of our older generations managed to buy a flat of their own by migrating from public housing to self-owned apartment under the Home Ownership scheme offered by the government, then, with the appreciation of value of the self-owned apartment, they were able to switch to private housing. This was a conventional route taken by the older generations to acquire upward mobility. However, in 2002, the Home Ownership scheme was suspend. Under high inflation rate and the soar of property price, it was like a remote dream for the younger generations to possess a flat of their own. Even if the scheme is restarted, the demand of flats still outweighs the supply of it such that it seems impossible for younger people to purchase a house.

There are way too much to tell, feel free to talk to me if you want to know more. Wish you a good life in Hong Kong and UST.

3.

Out of 79572 candidates of the 2014 Hong Kong Diploma of Secdonary Education (Abbreviation:HKDSE; FYI: the public exam taken by most of the local stduents in Hong Kong), only 26307 of them attained the minimum requirement to get a university degree and were eligible to apply for an university place. Eventually. only around 16000 students managed to acquire an university offer. Under the competition with non-local students, less than 20% of local students could further their study in universities. People in Hong Kong have been condemning the education system for such a devastating situation. However, is university education the only pathway to succeed in life?

We, the privileged ones, are lucky enough to receive proper scholling which instills us with knowledge and contextual understanding of the world we live in, that we can be exposed to ideas that we may not have come across ourselves. However, is what you are learning is actually what you want to learn, and is what you are studying fit in with your ideal career?

Those who hold university degrees often receive greater privilege in life, be it in work or personal relationship. They are deemed to be better workers and could yield way higher sum of income. However, less than 20% of local students could further their study in universities. People in Hong Kong have been condemning the education system for such a devastating situation. Such an emphasis on acquiring a university degree has exerted great frustration for students. For those who are less able in study, they worry that they will fail in getting a decent or well-paid job without a university degree. For those abler students who managed to get a university place, in order to making a better living in their career, they may pick courses of study which are against their true passions for learning.

In Hong Kong, a lot of people assert that taking Arts or Science in university equals to falling into the career of being a teacher as there is small room of development for arts and science as Hong Kong focuses on business while the salary of teachers in Hong Kong is just mediocre. So many of the Hong Kong students would prefer studying business as it can endow us with more possibilities as well better salary, irrespective of their genuine thirst of knowledge and curiosity.

I wonder how do you guys choose between your interest and the prospect? Which one is more important and why?