9/1 Topic I: Holidays and Vacations

For what presumably would be my last chance to host a discussion for this study group, let's talk about holidays and vacations!

Aside from public holidays, students have winter and summer vacations, while those in the workforce are entitled to minimum paid vacation days guaranteed by law. As we enjoy the time off, we sometimes neglect the effects of vacations. Researches have shown that "summer brain drain" might rob some students of skills gained during school year, and that, for workers, longer holidays do not necessarily translate to greater productivity.

In our meeting Wednesday, before commening discussion on the articles above, we could start by answering the following questions:
1. What is your favourite holiday? (For those who have lived abroad, please do share your experience of celebrating foreign holidays.)
2. What do/did you usually do in summer vacations?

Then moving on to the articles:
3. After summer vacations, have you ever felt the "summer brain drain" mentioned in the first article?
4. If you were the parent, would you enroll your kid in summer programmes? Or would you be fine with them not doing anything academic during summer?
5. Drawing from your personal experiences, do you think longer holidays translate to greater productivity?

And just FYI: Mercer issued a report on global comparisons on holiday entitlements, including Taiwan, and Time picked the world's seven lamest holidays.

Lastly, something irrelevant to my topic for this week: as I was browing through websites for inspiration, I came across a piece on the Top 10 Things Today's Kids Will Never Experience, which partially relates to our previous discussions on technology, internet, etc.

(Just to clarify: for our discussion on Wednesday, you DON'T need to read the last three pieces. I simply feel like sharing them with you guys.)