How to Be Successful in a New Environment?

Perhaps, you are a smart person with good knowledge and creative ideas, but when you move to a new environment or have to work with some new people, it is not always easy for them to recognise you or respect you immediately. How can you get along with others? How can you get other people to pay attention to you and respect you?

Be curious and be willing to learn new things, knowledge and skills. Moving to a new working environment, you may need to deal with things that don’t belong to your own field. In such a case, people who are more willing to learn new things can become more flexible (灵活的) and be able to meet new requirements in their job.

Have a good sense of judgement on important aspects. Learning or working in a new environment, you need to have a good sense of judgement when joining a discussion or making a decision. You should consider what is virtually right, and look for long-term goals, and not be distracted (使分心) by small choices for the short term.

Be confident and make eye contact when talking to people. When you go out and meet people, it is important to look confident. For example, if you are going to an interview, but you don’t feel confident, what can you do? Before you walk in, think to yourself, “I own the room.” Then, walk in holding your head high and smile. Remember to look other people in the eye — it’s the key to creating a connection with people. Soon, you will feel as confident as you look.

Set clear goals and learn. When working together with others, it is important that you have a clear vision and a working plan to achieve it. Let people know what you stand for. You need to find out which ideas can really unite people and then express those ideas clearly. Also, treat your team members respectfully as equals.

Be helpful to others. When working, don’t focus on what is your work and what isn’t. After doing your own work, always be ready to help others.

A whooping crane is a large white North American crane famous for its loud call.

You may weigh more than a whooping crane, but maybe you aren’t taller than one! Whooping cranes can grow up to five feet tall. It makes them the tallest birds in North America. But even as tall as they are, whooping cranes weigh only about 15 pounds, because of their hollow （空心的） bones.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

Whooping cranes live in wetlands, wet prairies, and fields. They’re not picky （挑剔的） about their meals—they have a mixed diet and eat small fish, and insects, as well as grains and marsh plants.

CALL OF THE WILD

Whooping cranes really like to ‘whoop it up’ when they want to attract a mate （伙伴）. They call loudly and do what might look like a crazy dance to be eye—catching. They flap their wings, and move their heads from side to side quickly, jumping up and down.

A SPECIAL TRICK

These cranes are in danger, but scientists have used some very interesting tricks to help them stay alive. At first, they moved one group of cranes to Florida, but the cranes never learned to migrate （迁徙）. When they got to Florida, they didn’t know how to fly back home. Scientists did all they could do to make the number of the cranes larger, so they used a special trick with another Florida group of cranes. Scientists “taught” the younger cranes to migrate by having them follow a very light airplane from Florida to Wisconsin. After the cranes gave birth to their babies in Florida, they’d follow the plane back to Wisconsin!

Some whooping cranes stay in Florida all year round, some fly from Florida to Wisconsin, and others fly from Texas to Canada and back again each year.

Ryrkaypiy, a village with about 700 people, is located in the northeast of Russia. Standing on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, it has to brave both the Arctic’s cold weather and wild animals like polar bears. Most of the area’s polar bears live a few miles away from Ryrkaypiy. Only a few bears come near to the village now and then.

But last winter, over 50 polar bears went to Ryrkaypiy in search of food. The villagers were told to stay indoors to avoid danger. Now polar bears come to the village more often and in larger numbers than ever.

Although polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their life on the sea ice. The ice gives them a place where they can have a rest and catch fish. But as the temperature rises because of global warming, the bears have started to find their home disappearing.

Polar bears normally go onto dry land in summer, and return to the ice when the ocean freezes again in autumn. But over the past few years, the ocean has frozen later and later, and the ice area has become smaller and smaller. Unable to live on the ice, hungry polar bears have to look for food on land, including villages like Ryrkaypiy.

In some countries, polar bears are considered as endangered animals. If the earth becomes so warm that there is no longer enough ice for the bears to live on, there will probably be no polar bears.

Immediate action must be taken to protect both polar bears and humans.