How was everything going？I，together with my parents plans to take a trip to Canada for a week during the summer vacation. We hope to make the full use of this opportunity to experience the naturally beauty of Canada and learn more about its culture. We don’t want to go to places where are full of tourists and shoppers. Because I am writing to ask help. We hope you can tell them where to visit. Besides, can you give us some advices on how to finding hotels which are not expensive but comfortable? I would be grateful if you could give me an early reply.

Yours,

Li Hua

   We often focus on building relationships with others but we forget the important first step: being friends of ourselves. 【小题1】. How can we have good relationships with others if we don’t even have good relationships with ourselves?

The problem might be worse than we expect. Maybe we don’t like ourselves without realizing it. Here is a simple checklist: Is there anything you don’t like about yourself from these lists?

Your past: Maybe you have made mistakes in the past which you feel bad about. 【小题2】 . Even if that happened in the distant past, your mind still has a reason not to like yourself.

Your background: You might wish that you were born in a different family, or that you had different background. 【小题3】. They seem to get whatever they want effortlessly because of their background.

Your personal characters: You might have some personality traits that you don’t like. For example, you may be an introvert（内向的人）and you don’t like it; you wish you were an extrovert. Others might have better achievements than you, and no matter how hard you tried, it might seem impossible for you to match them. 【小题4】. Is there anything that resonates（产生共鸣）with you? All these give reasons to the idea that you don’t like yourself. That in turn makes it difficult for you to be a good friend to yourself.

【小题5】. Here are some tips:

Forgive yourself.

Accept things you can’t change.

Focus on your strengths.

Write your success stories.

Stop comparing yourself with others.

Always be true to yourself.

   Getting to know other people is a typical activity in our daily lives. Even if you're good with people，there are likely times when you're stuck for something more to say and start wondering what topic to bring up next. 【小题1】

Talk about the other person.

The biggest secret to being a good conversationalist is simply allowing the other people to talk about themselves. Why? 【小题2】

Ask about work.

This one can be a little tricky because the conversation could end up sounding like a job interview. Still, if you can handle it carefully and keep it short and sweet, it can lead to an interesting discussion.

【小题3】

This is where it starts to get more personal. It’s up to you to carry on the conversation using these questions in a proper way. Do you play or follow any sports? What do you like to read? What kind of music do you like?

Ask about their travels.

Ask the person where they’ve been. Even if they have never left their hometown, they will likely be happy to talk about where they want to go. If you had a chance to move to any other country, which one would it be and why? 【小题4】 How did you like it?

Know what to avoid.

You know the old rule: never talk about religion, politics, money, family problems, or women’s age with people you don’t know well. 【小题5】 So you should stay extremely clear.

—George Orwell