Nếu con bạn đang ở độ tuổi từ 0 đến 3, hay chính xác hơn là vẫn chưa biết nói tiếng Việt, thì bạn đang có một cơ hội tuyệt vời để nuôi dạy một em bé song ngữ. Bảy năm trước, khi con gái đầu của tôi chào đời, vợ chồng tôi đã đặt ra một mục tiêu: trước khi vào lớp 1, con có thể giao tiếp tốt bằng cả tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt. Tôi đã tham khảo một số tài liệu về việc nuôi dạy trẻ song ngữ. Tuy nhiên, phần lớn những tài liệu đó đều đến từ các gia đình mà bố mẹ có hai ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ khác nhau. Ví dụ, chồng là người Mỹ, vợ là người Nhật. Trong những trường hợp như vậy, họ thường áp dụng phương pháp One Person, One Language. Nghĩa là mỗi người sẽ nói với con bằng ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ của mình. Đây rõ ràng là một phương pháp rất hiệu quả. Tuy nhiên, gia đình tôi lại không có hoàn cảnh đó. Tôi có trình độ tiếng Anh khoảng C1, khá mạnh về từ vựng và ngữ pháp nhưng phát âm vẫn còn

A Otters have long, thin bodies and short legs ideal for pushing through dense undergrowth or hunting in tunnels. An adult male may be up to four feet long and weigh around 30 pounds. Females are typically smaller. The Eurasian otter has one of the smallest noses among otter species, with a distinctive shallow ‘W’ shape. The otter’s tail, often referred to as a rudder or stern, is thick at the base and tapers toward the tip, flattening out—this forms part of the propulsion system when swimming quickly underwater. Otter fur consists of two types of hair: stout guard hairs that form a waterproof outer layer and a dense, fine under-fur that functions like thermal underwear. This fur must be kept in good condition through regular grooming. Saltwater reduces the fur’s waterproofing and insulation qualities. That is why freshwater pools are important for coastal otters. After swimming, they wash off the salt in these pools and then rub themselves dry against vegetation. B Scent is important for hunting on land, for communication, and for detecting danger. An otter’s sense of smell is likely similar in sensitivity to that of a dog. Otters have small eyes and are probably short-sighted on

A It has been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management. Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the book’s publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered the father of “modern management,” Drucker authored 39 books and numerous scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of society—business, government, and the nonprofit world. His writings anticipated many major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan as a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. B Drucker believed that writing was the foundation of all his work. His first book, The End of Economic Man: A Study of the New Totalitarianism, was published in 1937 in Europe and examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War II, he published The Future of Industrial Man, offering a social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors invited Drucker to study its management practices. He accepted

A The Irish elk, also known as the giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), was once thought to have died out around the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,500 years ago, along with other large mammals like toothed cats, mastodons, giant sloths, and woolly rhinos. However, analysis of ancient bones and teeth by scientists in Britain and Russia shows that this massive herbivore survived until about 5,000 B.C.—more than three millennia later than previously believed. This finding suggests that additional factors beyond climate change likely contributed to the giant deer’s extinction, such as hunting or habitat destruction caused by humans. B The Irish elk earned its name because its well-preserved remains are often discovered in lake sediments beneath peat bogs in Ireland. It first appeared about 400,000 years ago in Europe and Central Asia. Using radiocarbon dating of skeletal remains and mapping the locations where these remains were unearthed, researchers concluded that the Irish elk was once widespread across Europe before the last “big freeze.” As the Ice Age ended, the deer’s range contracted to the Ural Mountains, in what is now Russia, which marks the boundary between Europe and Asia. C According to Professor Adrian Lister of University College

A Onion growers in eastern Oregon are adopting a system that saves water and keeps topsoil in place, while producing the highest quality “super colossal” onions. Pear growers in southern Oregon have reduced their use of some of the most toxic pesticides by up to two-thirds, and are still producing top-quality pears. Range managers throughout the state have controlled the poisonous weed tansy ragwort with insect predators and saved the Oregon livestock industry up to $4.8 million a year. B These are some of the results Oregon growers have achieved in collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU) researchers as they test new farming methods including integrated pest management (IPM). Nationwide, however, IPM has not delivered results comparable to those in Oregon. A recent US General Accounting Office (GAO) report indicates that while integrated pest management can result in dramatically reduced pesticide use, the federal government has been lacking in effectively promoting that goal and implementing IPM. Farmers also blame the government for not making the new options of pest management attractive. “Wholesale changes in the way that farmers control the pests on their farms is an expensive business,” says Tony Brown of the National Farmers Association. “If the farmers are