1 . Your child is unique, but what all children have in common is natural curiosity and an innate(天生的) ability to learn. Our brains are active all the time, and a baby’s brain is the busiest of all. Research has shown that babies begin to understand language about twice as fast as they actually speak it. By exposing children to other languages at an early age, you are giving them the opportunity to make use of their natural ability to hear and recognize the sounds of other languages, and their ability to make sense of what they are hearing.

Communication is something that children do to help them achieve something else, and they are unaware of the large amount of learning taking place. They take everything in through their senses, making connections between what they hear, see, smell, taste and touch. As long as we provide the right conditions, their learning and development will take place in a natural way.

In your child’s early years, the emotional environment is just as important as the physical environment. Children learn when they feel secure, happy, valued and listened to. This is central to any learning experience in a child’s early years, including learning an additional language. Your child has a trial-and-error approach to their development, and making mistakes is a valuable part of the learning process. Their progress isn’t held up by a fear of getting something wrong, and very young children are simply working their way towards getting it right.

The long-term benefits of learning another language go beyond being able to communicate with others. Studies suggest that children learning an additional language tend to score better on standardized tests because learning languages develops listening, observation, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These are skills that are of lifelong benefit, both personally and professionally. Encouraging children in a love of language at an early age prepares them well for school and for life.

2 . Can you imagine there being a community where boys and girls growing up together can finally speak different languages? In Ubang Nigeria, it really happens. It’s not exactly clear what percentage of the words in the men’s and women’s languages are different, but there are enough examples to make sentences sound different when spoken by the opposite sex. For “clothing”, men use the word “nki”, while women say “ariga”; “kitchi” means tree for men, while women say “okweng”. These are not just some slight pronunciation differences, but totally different words. “It’s almost like two different lexicons (词汇集),” a language expert, Chi Chi Undle said. “There are a lot of words that men and women share in common, but there are others which are totally different depending on your sex. They don’t sound alike, and don’t have the same letters. They are completely different words.”

Interestingly, both men and women are able to understand each other perfectly in Ubang, as both boys and girls grow up around their parents and get to learn both languages, but by the age of 10, boys are expected to speak in the male tongue. It seems that there is a stage the male will reach and he discovers he is not using the rightful language. When he starts speaking the men’s language, you know the maturity is coming into him.

No one really knows how or why the double-language tradition of Ubang began. Chi Chi Undie believes the two languages are the result of a “double-sex culture” where men and women operate in two separate spheres (范围) and live in separate worlds that rarely come together. However, she admits this is a weak theory, as the double-sex culture is present in many parts of Africa, where there are no different languages for men and women.

Today, with English words constantly entering the lexicon of young Nigerians, Ubang’s two languages are in danger of being lost forever. Worse still, neither the male nor female language is written down, so they both rely on young people passing them down to the next generation.

3 . Although many Chinese students say that their knowledge of English grammar is good, most would admit that their spoken English is poor. Whenever I speak to a Chinese student they always say, “My spoken English is poor.” However, their spoken English does not have to remain “poor”! I would like to suggest that there may be some reasons for their problems with spoken English.

First, they fail to find suitable words to express themselves because of a limited vocabulary. Obviously the better answer is to expand their vocabulary. However, you can speak with a limited vocabulary, if your aptitude is positive. Others will follow you as long as you use the words that you know.

Second, they are afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes they make mistakes when they are speaking because they are shy and nervous. Yet students should remember that their goal should be FLUENCY (流利) NOT ACCURACY (准确性). Your aim in writing is to be accurate following the rules for grammar and using the right words and spelling them correctly. However, in speaking your aim is fluency. You want to get your message across, to talk to someone in English, as quickly and as well as you can, even though sometimes you may use a wrong word or tense, but it doesn’t matter because the person you are speaking to will understand you and take into consideration any mistakes he hears.

The third reason is that not enough attention is paid to listening. You have one mouth but two ears! All that hearing was necessary for you to start speaking.

Forth, most Chinese students are reactive (反应式的) rather than proactive (积极主动的) language learners. Instead of actively finding out opportunities (机会) to improve their spoken English, they passively wait for speaking opportunities to come to them and wonder why their English always remains poor. If you have this proactive outlook, then you will see English opportunities wherever you go.

If you do not use your English out of the classroom you will forget what English you know. Remember: USE IT OR LOSE IT! You can learn how to speak English better by speaking English more.

4 . The oceans occupy most of the Earth’s surface — about 70% — to the point of giving our planet its unmistakable colour. As such, they can tell the state of the Earth’s health: to observe them is to know where we stand.

In terms of climate, the warming and acidification of the oceans have harmful consequences for marine life and for land: there is of course the rise in water levels which threatens communities settling along the coasts. There is also a risk that is even more worrying since the oceans are no longer able to perform the climate regulation function that they have long fulfilled. As far as biodiversity (生物多样性) is concerned, the diagnosis is even more alarming.

We are well aware of these interacting crises, in particular thanks to the work of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. We also know where we must act. However, we still have to reflect matters and cooperate widely in order to manage the unavoidable and prevent the uncorrectable.

COVID-19 affords us this opportunity to come together and set up ambitious programmes of action. This is true for climate; it is true for biodiversity; it is also true for the oceans, as the United Nations Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, explained: “If there were ever a tide in human affairs that should be taken, this is it.”

It is indeed our responsibility to seize this moment. We must firstly learn more about the depths, which remain largely unknown to us and still hold many secrets that only we can reveal. Secondly, we must give free rein to imagination and innovation, which we need in order to deal with this worrying situation. This is why we have made innovation the theme of 2020 World Oceans Day. We must also seize this moment to sound the alarm, perhaps more widely than we have done so far, because no technical solution can replace a widespread, personal understanding of the threats to the oceans, their mysteries and their beauty.

5 . A new study found that some methods for measuring a species’ generation time might underestimate (低估) the likelihood that some species would die out.

A species’ generation time is how long it takes for a generation to be replaced by its mature offspring (后代). This is different for every species and dramatically impacts how quickly a species can respond to changes in its environment. The generation time of a mouse is only a few months, whereas the African elephant has the generation time of 22 years. The longer the generation time, the slower a species can adapt to environmental changes and therefore it may be more likely to go extinct.

In some risk assessment models, population reduction is measured on the scale of three times a species’ generation time. If a species is believed to mature and produce offspring in five years, then how much its population has declined will be measured over a 15-year interval. But if a species’ generation time is underestimated, so is the threat status of the species.

We tested the influence of errors in different measures of generation time, including those used by the IUCN Red List assessments and found that these errors could potentially lead to an overly optimistic assessment of extinction risk for some species.

To overcome this, we compared different types of errors in seven commonly used measures of generation time. We proposed a new estimate which predicted a species’ generation time from its body mass and reproductive lifespan.

Still, the lack of data is a tough problem for making accurate calculations. We’re planning to explore how to fill some of these knowledge gaps by comparing survival and reproduction data from wild and captive (被关起来的) populations, using data from nearly 1,200 zoos and aquariums over 40 years, on more than 21,000 species.

6 . Young Chinese are increasingly making their voices heard and influencing world opinion as they take on more important roles in international organizations and global projects. At a ceremony in Beijing, singer and actor Karry Wang was made the National Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by Erik Solheim, the organization’s executive director.

“The youth are no longer merely onlookers when it comes to environmental action, nor should they be. I will spare no effort to do everything I can to take care of our Earth, and I invite everyone to join me in generating a wave of positive action,” Wang said in his speech after the appointment. In 2016, Wang widely publicized the Wild for Life campaign, reaching 400 million viewers.

Beyond drawing attention to wildlife, he called on his followers to pledge to reduce their electronic waste through social media. Within 24 hours, his post was shared 1.67 million times and more than 400,000 followers signed the pledge. “Our actions will soon be the leverage to change the world.” Wang says, calling on the younger generation in China and around the world to raise their awareness of environmental issues.

Erik Solheim says, “It is inspiring to see the strong and determined voice of Chinese youth when it comes to the environment. When young people set their minds to change, it is incredible to see the great things that can be accomplished. We are very excited to work with Karry Wang to create even more awareness about the environmental problems and solutions.”

According to a UN report, young people’s participation will help achieve the sustainable development goals in the Asia-Pacific region set for 2030. Besides Wang, other UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors include actress Li Bingbing, Ellie Goulding and celebrities from all walks of life both from China and abroad.