2012/2013 Academic Year Calendar - International Institute ...

FEBRUARY 2013
Translation for days: Chinese (Mandarin pronunciation)
SUNDAY
xing qi tian
3
10
Chinese New Year* –
Year of the Snake
Seollal* – Lunar
New Year
NORTH KOREA &
SOUTH KOREA
17
24
MONDAY
xing qi yi
Presidents’ Day
UNITED STATES
4
11
18
25
Independence Day
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
TUESDAY
xing qi er
Carnavales de
Cajamarca ends
PERU
5
12
19
26
WEDNESDAY
xing qi san
Ash Wednesday –
Lent begins
6
13
20
27
THURSDAY
xing qi si
Valentine’s Day
UNITED STATES
7
14
21
28
FRIDAY
xing qi wu
Carnavales de
Cajamarca begins
PERU
1
8
15
22
SATURDAY
xing qi liu
2
9
16
23
Selling Cell Phones: Yangzhou, China
Communicating through technology
A performer draws a crowd of potential customers on a
hot afternoon in Yangzhou. The products are the newest
Nokia cell phones. A couple of years ago, China reported
that there were more than 700 million mobile phone
users—double the total U.S. population! Phone owners
may own multiple phones for different purposes, and
no one can do without. People in China’s rural regions,
for example, find phones essential for conducting their
micro businesses.
DID YOU
KNOW?
• Chinese Information Highway. According to
research on the Chinese blogosphere, there are more
than 450 million users of the Sinophone Internet
who spend more than 40% of their free time in
cyberspace. Instant messaging makes up 77% of the
leading uses by “netizens,” people who frequently use
the Internet. Only music tops this category at 79%.
Values, ideologies, and meaning are transmitted via
the Internet—a highway that is also affected more
and more by political and commercial challenges.
Era 8, 20th century since 1945
• Camel Caravans. One of the most famous routes
for trade was the Silk Road, a network of pathways
linking Asia with Central Asia and Europe. Although
high-speed Internet transmits information today
anywhere in seconds, 1,000 years ago it would have
taken six months via camel caravan to send music
and ideas from Beijing to Samarkand.
Era 4, 300–1500 CE/AD