Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight's Listener Mail program. I'm Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I'm Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
On today's program we hear what you had to say! People from around the world listen to Spotlight. And many of them have different opinions. Some people share their opinions with us through email. But many of them share their opinions for everyone to see - on the script page of a Spotlight program. Today we look at comments about perfect communities, teammates, saying "I can," and the equality of women.
Voice 2
Our first comments today come from the program "Utopian Communities." In that program we told about communities that try to live perfectly. These communities try to live in peace, work together, and share property. Some of our listeners did not believe that a perfect community like this could ever exist. GelezniyDen wrote:
Voice 3
"I think that there cannot be a perfect community because people are not the same even if they are twins, born at the same time from the same mother. They will have different looks, feelings, emotions, etc... Maybe they will live together peacefully at first. But soon they will have a conflict with each other because people are different and all."
Voice 2
In that program we also told how people in these communities believe they must work toward perfection. They believe that through hard work and following the rules, they will not experience pain, sadness or suffering. Nyamsuren wrote about why he would not want to live in such a place:
Voice 4
"There is no perfect community. People are born with full freedom. But communities restrict our native freedom. Rules and laws make a better community. But it also makes life difficult. I need just freedom. I do not need a system and peaceful life without freedom. Communities they call perfect will restrict our freedom more."
Voice 2
These are interesting thoughts, Nyamsuren. Thank you for sharing them with us. Many of the utopian communities we told about in our program did not work. Making a perfect community is just too difficult. But we all can work toward making our communities better for the people living in them.
Voice 1
Kenhieuloilam was also thinking about community when listening to our program called "Teammates." In this program we told about two American baseball players from history. Jackie Robinson was black and PeeWee Reese was white. At that time, many people hated Jackie Robinson because of his race. They had racist thoughts and ideas. But through his actions PeeWee Reese encouraged people to stop their racism toward Jackie Robinson. Kenhieuloilam saw this as an example of how people must continue working in their communities.
Voice 3
"We are not perfect people. We try much to get better. And our communities get better. When the community gets better, the community will achieve more steps of the community developing history."
Voice 1
It is true that we are making history with our actions every day. People may not have as big an influence as PeeWee Reese. But we can all work to make our communities better in small ways. The program also reminded witchdalat about a song.
Voice 4
"After reading this story, I remember the song "The Earth is Ours" by the writer Truong Quang Luc. In the song there is this sentence: 'The earth is ours, yellow, black, white. Although be different from color of skin, we are valuable flowers. Any of the color of flowers are valuable and smell good."
Voice 1
What beautiful words and thoughts! Thank you for sharing this Vietnamese song. We would love to hear this whole song with its wonderful message. Thank you!
Voice 2
Some listeners agreed that changing our communities and improving our world can start when we are very young. In our program "The I Can Disease" we told about a school in India. There is a special education model in this school. It does not only require children to learn facts. But, it encourages children to have ideas and achieve real work in their communities. Vanes1717 saw the value in this kind of work.
Voice 3
"This program shows the power of encouraging children to change all around them. These children are growing up as active members of their community. They will feel the need to be a better human and improve the development of society. Teaching "I can" is a start to believe you could achieve anything you wanted to. This wonderful example will spread to other places and build a more human world and create a better world."
Voice 1
Finally, our last comment comes from the program "Equal Women, Better Society." This program was about an organization working to increase knowledge of women's rights in Syria. The leader of this organization believes that improving women's rights improves EVERYONE'S lives. Manh Tu says he has seen the result of improved women's rights in his own country, Vietnam. He writes:
Voice 4
"I come from Vietnam. In the past in Vietnam, women had to follow men, especially their husbands. They did not receive all the things they deserved to receive. Since 1986, my country began an overall economic reform. It is commonly known as 'Doi Moi,' or 'renovation.' Thanks to 'Doi Moi,' the living standard of Vietnamese people has been raised and the opinions about the places of women have gradually changed too. Women can take part in many social work like men. They are equal to man. I think the difficulties of lives often cause many problems. Therefore, I think the better lives are, the more equal treatment women receive.
Voice 1
Thank you for that interesting information, Manh Tu! Many people around the world have seen good things happen when all members of society receive equal treatment. In fact, many experts believe that improvement in any country depends on it. Thank you again for sharing your experiences.
Voice 2
And thank you to all listeners who have written to us and left comments on our programs. In this program we talked a lot about communities. Would you like to become part of an internet community? We have a discussion board on our website. There, people from all over the world can come and talk together. They can talk about anything they want.
Voice 1
You can also find Spotlight on Facebook. Five days a week we release a new short audio program called "Word of the Day." The word of the day comes from the day's program. We say the word and its meaning. Then we use it in a sentence. It is another way to practice listening and learn new words.
Voice 2
The writer and producer of this program was Liz Waid. The voices you heard were from the United States. All quotes have been adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at http://www.radioenglish.net. This program is called "Listener Mail 114."
Voice 1
If you would like to hear your thoughts in a Listener Mail program, please leave your comments on the script page of any program. Or you can email us at Radio @ radioenglish . net. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye! |