Best Buy in China

Best Buy’s failure in China is another example of a slow, arrogant major international player that didn’t understand China. Their own explanation of why they failed: â€Å"China’s demand for low prices without regard for service,† is clearly a lame excuse. By Fang Yu, China Entrepreneur magazine Best Buy shut down their nine stores in China on February 22nd, and within 48 hours fell into an unprecedented credibility crisis. Customers rushed to Best Buy stores on hearing the news and were locked outside security doors.They finally broke through the doors and went into the shops, partly to seek refunds on the extended warranty policies they had purchased. Because of quarrels with staff over return policies, the Shanghai Municipal Government had to send police to maintain order. Best Buy, which has always boasted it was centered around consumers, never predicted it would withdraw from the Chinese market in such a disgraceful way. Best Buy China top executives said the business closed because their model did not adapt to the Chinese market.Best Buy China president David Sisson said, â€Å"I have never worked in such a price-sensitive market. † Best Buy shops within China were forced to close after a five year struggle Best Buy explains its failure with the excuse â€Å"Chinese consumers pursue low prices rather than services. † This excuse shows that Best Buy still does not understand why it failed. This excuse does not take into account that China’s spending power is the fastest growing in the world.Home appliance expert and director of the Pal consulting firm Luo Qingqi argues luxury brands now entering into Chinese second- and third-tier cities, and the purchasing power for luxury cars in Chinese inland is no worse than in the first-tier cities. Ding Jie, a global partner at the Roland Berger consulting firm, notes that there are foreign retailers running excellently China. Why not Best Buy? Slow and arrogant Denn is, who has worked for ten years selling audio products, worked as an employee at Best Buy until it shut its doors.After signing a compensation agreement, he began to seek a new job. He first came to a giant domestic chain giant to be interviewed, but he felt the treatment he received and business culture was too different from Best Buy, so he started looking for jobs at foreign retail enterprises. Dennis says the experience of working at Best Buy was profound and lasting. It’s difficult for him to adapt to the performance-oriented culture of domestic enterprises that stresses absolute obedience and brute execution.Instead, he has become used to Best Buy’s â€Å"people-centered† culture: trying to win returning customers and promotion opportunities based on giving good service. He also became used to the sound of the English name that the store provided him with. The employee culture of Best Buy, which is not based on sales volume, enables the store to be peacef ul, without a feeling of fierce competition between the sales staff. However, observers believe this unhurried attitude is exactly what drove Best Buy to become a loser in China’s fiercely competitive home appliance market, which is dominated by the retailers Suning Appliance and Gome.When Best Buy entered China, Suning Appliance chairman Zhang Jindong said his company would ignore Best Buy for the next five years. Gome founder Huang Guangyu also said Best Buy could not compete with Gome in China because Best Buy did not have a sense of where to put its stores. People who participated in the press conference announcing the acquisition of Five Star Appliance by Best Buy in 2006 remember that Five Star founder Wang Jianguo was excited to announce the establishment of 300 stores annually with the financial backing of Best Buy.However, this plan was quickly denied by Best Buy top executives. Wang and his team eventually left the company. In the United States, Best Buy defeated th e second-largest retailer Circuit City, which used a consignment model, similar to Gome and Suning in China. Best Buy then entered the Chinese market with the arrogance of a missionary, ignoring the gap between its own model and the Chinese market. In Best Buy stores, the aisles are clearly wider than in Suning and Gome, the shelves aren’t as crowded, and fewer brands and models are on display.Best Buy’ believes the space should be left for consumers rather than products. Suning Shanghai top executives pointed out North Americans prefer open and wide stores, and don’t require a wide range of product lines ranging from cheap and generic to expensive top quality brand names. Best Buy’s style is more suitable to North Americans emphasizing individual freedom, and China’s market is more similar to Japan’s. Insiders recalled Best Buy’s first China president Lu Weimin knew the local market very well.The Chinese-born American, who graduated from a special class of gifted teenagers of the University of Science and Technology of China, better understood the rules of China’s home appliance industry than his colleagues. Lu Weimin helped to bring about the acquisition of Five Star. This helped Best Buy become a major retailer. However, Best Buy still did not want to give up the business model it developed and was proud of, and dreamed of restructuring more home appliance retailers such as Five Star into the Best Buy fold.This resulted in a two-brand operation over the past five years, so that the Best Buy management team’s resources and focus were diluted. Five Star former top executives recalled Lu Weimin pushed Best Buy to expand. Lu chose several properties in Shanghai, but, following Best Buy’s management process, all matters related to store openings must be reported to Best Buy International. Best Buy’s competitors were opening a new store every four or five days. Faced with the slow proces s of opening new stores, Lu hoped he could use financial muscle to expand quickly.For instance, Best Buy bid for Shandong Sanlian Commercial, which in the end was acquired by Gome. Many foreign executives who are not familiar with the Chinese market have a hard time understanding the importance and feasibility of quickly opening stores. An investor said he had heard a foreign executive of a consumer goods company laugh at his Chinese colleagues, saying, â€Å"What? How dare they plan to open 200 stores a year! † In fact, these scoffers generally only ever come to Shanghai and Hong Kong and have no idea of the width of the Chinese market.Managed by Best Buy, Five Star has expanded slowly (the number of stores has only grown to more than 160 from nearly 140 in 2006). Lu left Best Buy in April 2007, after he was made a figurehead. He had worked there for more than ten years. When the news of the closure of Best Buy stores was released, a departed top executive pointed out that i f the failure was a result of a poor business model, why did the Xujiahui store in Shanghai become one of the world’s top 50 stores, with an operating revenue of RMB 500 million, becoming profitable in 2010? The Xujiahui store’s property costs were denominated in U. S. ollars, and were the highest in the Best Buy system. One of the reasons for the success of the store was that its site was chosen when Wang Jianguo served as Best Buy global vice president. The superior location of the Xujiahui store was envied by competitors. Following in Wang Jianguo’s shoes, Best Buy sent many executives to China, who were good at IT systems and background management processes, but did not have experience in selecting sites and opening stores in unfamiliar cities. â€Å"We can say they are outsiders! At the root, it was caused by the people factor. If they had different people, the results would have been different. Missing its chance After stumbling through the first three ye ars, Best Buy made some changes. In 2008, Best Buy started to speed up its expansion in China, opening in Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Beijing to lift the total number of stores to nine. This change was rooted in a shift in government policy. In September 2008, the Ministry of Commerce issued a document shifting the approval process for foreign retail stores from the national to the provincial level. Best Buy, which had a good relationship with the Shanghai government, quickly opened more stores in Shanghai to consolidate its base.But compared with another retail giant, Wal-Mart, Best Buy again did not correctly understand the policy direction of the Chinese market. Wal-Mart quickly established wholly-owned companies (with taxes going to local authorities) in more than ten provinces in China, and quickly opened more than 30 stores in China in the first half of 2009, mainly in second- and third-tier cities. The new regulations of the Ministry of Commerce were intended to help forei gn retailers make investments in China. The Shanghai market, where land is expensive, ended up putting a lot of pressure on Best Buy.At that time, Suning only allocated 10% of its planned stores to central Shanghai and focused on opening stores in the suburbs, but Best Buy was making efforts to squeeze into the core business district, which was already full of the rival stores. The result was that the number of Best Buy stores grew, but diminishing returns did not cover the operating costs. David Sisson hinted at this when he explained that he shut down all of the stores in China because â€Å"the costs needed to keep one or two stores open are actually are almost the same as the cost needed to keep nine stores open. Best Buy missed its window for rapid development, and perhaps had no time to think about how to enter more deeply into the Chinese market because it was struggling with strong competition and high land prices in first-tier cities like Shanghai. Best Buy top executives were aware of the problems with the company’s expansion. Under pressure to make profits in 2010 (the 2010 third-quarter fiscal report shows Best Buy same-store sales fell 5%), Best Buy first adjusted the company’s global management structure.Best Buy global vice president and Five Star CEO Wang Jian told China Entrepreneur, â€Å"In 2010, Best Buy adjusted the organizational structure and set up the America region, Asia region and Europe region. One major reason for the adjustment is that Best Buy wanted to give full authority to enable it to be more localized in operation and development. † At that time, Best Buy’s attitude to Five Star changed. Best Buy encouraged Five Star to â€Å"open as many as stores as possible,† but Five Star also faced the problem of lagging development.When Suning and Gome completed setting up in first- and second-tier cities and started planning to enter into third- and fourth-tier cities, Five Star was still only opera ting in limited areas and never opened stores in Shanghai. In Best Buy’s last days, the low-price commitment could be seen everywhere, and even the consumers could feel the change. Claire, a loyal Best Buy customer who works at a foreign company in Shanghai, said, â€Å"Compared with the beginning, the number of salespeople in the store grew obviously. In the past, when you looked around by yourself in the store, no one would bother you. But at the end,] if you stood in front of an item for a while, a salesperson would come up to you. † Best Buy started taking the initiative to increase sales. Learning the wrong lesson After closing all of its China stores, Best Buy top executives said the lesson learned in the Chinese market is â€Å"price, price and price! † In the opinion of Best Buy top executives, Chinese consumers’ sensitivity to the price is so overwhelming that Best Buy’s â€Å"customer-centric† values were meaningless. However, Best Buy’s customer-centric philosophy and various design details were adapted by Gome and Suning, making Best Buy’s conclusion questionable.The Five Star top executive interviewed by this magazine said the Best Buy model uses its own staff, unlike stores using a consignment model. He gave an example. A 5,000-square meter store needs 260 staff, and in consignment stores, generally 200 come from the manufacturers. But Best Buy will not open a store until recruiting all 260 staff. Because of the emphasis on service, the training period for retail staff is longer, with a six-month to one-year training period for management. A shortage of talent was an important reason for Best Buy’s slow rate of opening stores.Home appliance expert Luo Qingqi believes Best Buy’s problem is not that is acted like a traditional retailer (as opposed to selling on consignment like Gome and Suning) but the product line. Products sold at Best Buy stores were mainly foreign. Chinese br ands such as Midea, which offers many popular product lines, did not appear on Best Buy’s shelves. Even the foreign brand Whirlpool cooperated more with Suning and Gome. â€Å"We are operating within the Chinese market and will notice which stores consumers like to visit, and use them as our main distribution channels,† said a Whirlpool employee.Ding Jie, a global partner of the Roland Berger consulting firm, believes Best Buys’ high operating costs were not its main problem, but rather that Best Buy cut itself off from the supply chain by refusing to adapt the consignment model. Ding Jie said most staff members at China’s consignment-based home appliance stores are employees of the manufacturers. â€Å"In China, consumers do not have strong core brand awareness, and the difference among home appliances is not big. Manufacturers focus on distribution channels that allow them to collect market information and determine market trends.Manufacturers and dist ributors cater to the needs of consumers with the collaboration of the entire industrial chain. † The Best Buy model serves consumers by being independent. But because there is no personalization and differentiation of products, it is bound to fail. According to Ding Jie, the main advantage of foreign retailers is their management model. But if they want to succeed in China, foreign retailers should let their local staff operate more freely and give them the power to adjust the business model. Many foreign retailers that failed in China might have succeeded if they empowered local staff.

Speech Class

Seven of Australia's nine provinces have long historical tradition predating the establishment f the republic of Austria In 1918: upper Austria, lower Austria, Astray, Corinthian, Salisbury, Tyro, and Overlarge. The provinces of Borderland and Vienna were established after World War 1 . Austria is located in a temperate climate zone with a central European climate influenced by the Atlantic climate. It has four seasons which all have typical temperatures and climatic characters. Some of the most popular sports In Austria are football, alpine skiing, and ice hockey.In Austria you can expect a first class musical experience with the multiple musical festivals they have throughout the year. There are many famous people from Austria a couple commonly known ones are actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the composer Mozart. Austria has three main religions, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim. The official language which is spoken by 98 percent of the population is German although, there a re very distinct differences between the many religion dialects. There are three other languages are taught alongside German In some bilingual schools.Austria is very strict about their family values. Some of the mall ones are 1 ) forming the basis of the Austrian social structure, 2) Families are usually small, and due to lack of migration, they are generally closely knit with a certain town or village, 3) Weekends are devoted to family activities which often take place outdoors, 4) Eating dinner every evening with the family is a norm, and 5) Sundays are for visiting grandparents for dinner, and/or enjoying a hike In the country as a family.Austrian are very conservative people, who are prudent and moderate In their behavior. Appearance Is very important, even when dressed Informally they are neat and conservative with the way they look and present themselves. Austrian customs are very simple, they include making eye contact during a greeting, a quick handshake is the most traditi onal greeting for them. Some older Austrian men kiss the hand of a female, but it is important to know that men from other countries should not kiss the hand of a female as a greeting.When you enter a room It Is appropriate to shake the hands of everyone In the room Including children Individually. Just Like us one of Australia's main holidays is Christmas in which they exchange gifts with their families, they also exchange gifts for birthdays regularly also. They celebrate something called The Feast of SST. Nicholas on December 6th of every year and the children receive gifts. You should open a gift when it is received and they are normally to be neatly wrapped. Now that I have told you about Austria I hope It has told you a little more about you.

Different Types of Chronic Bronchitis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Different Types of Chronic Bronchitis - Essay Example Chronic bronchitis can easily be prevented by not smoking and avoiding second-hand smoke, as well as pollutants such as too much dust. Many argue that the recurrent incidences of acute bronchitis can most definitely lead to the development of chronic bronchitis. Methods of treatment include the use of steroids and bronchodilators, as well as PDE4 inhibitors. Alternative treatments include antibiotics, pulmonary rehabilitation, supplemental oxygen therapy, home remedies and over-the-counter cough suppressants.   According to the Marshall Cavendish Corporation, â€Å"bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchi, the main airways in the lungs† (2008, p. 128). Bronchitis can be acute or chronic. Chronic bronchitis is one of the major forms of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). It is more serious than acute bronchitis. According to Arcangelo and Peterson (2006) â€Å"chronic bronchitis is a productive cough and sputum production for 3 months per year for at least 2 years, and an acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis is defined as worsening of respiratory symptoms such as a cough, sputum, and dyspnea† (p. 327).   Arcangelo and Peterson (2006) add that chronic bronchitis may be caused by a number of abnormalities of the bronchial mucosa. Chronic bronchitis patients are vulnerable to respiratory infections. This is due to the irritating substances they inhale and due to the fact that the substances are chronic, they lead to impaired mucociliary clearance. As nonciliated metaplastic cells replace ciliated epithelium and the mucous secreting goblet cells become proliferated, the result is impaired mucociliary clearance (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2006).

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The Climate for Change by Al Gore Pg. 301 - Essay Example children would want the people today to hear and recognize the truth of the prevailing situation, before everything might be too late (Laurence and Rosen 301). Al Gore was simply trying to show special concern on the preservation of life in this world. Based on his speech, this looks like the very reason in the first place why he initiated primary move of encouraging and informing everyone of the prevailing condition of planet earth in the advent of man-made contribution to the climate change. Thus, the entire speech of Gore consists of very important points in order to justify what he actually would want to convey to the people prior to convincing them so as they would create elemental actions for the preservation of life. The first point was all about addressing the climate crisis. For Gore, attending to this problem is just the same way on how one should do it with the prevailing concerns on economic and energy security crisis. â€Å"Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis (Laurence and Rosen 301). Gore was just actually emphasizing at this point on how exactly to simultaneously hit various opportunities with one essential decision. He was offering in as much as possible the best move to initiate in order to address both economic and environmental concerns associated with global warming issue. For him, it would be the best move to identify first the real cause of the problem and after that initiate an action plan as the basis of actual implementation for the solution-making process. So as for the second point of Gore’s speech, here are the important plans or suggestions that he presented to the people (Laurence and Rosen 302-303). For Gore it would be now the right time to invest in alternative sources of energy such as geothermal, wind, and solar energy. To implement this, Gore encouraged the executive

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Introduction to Radio - Essay Example Robert McLeash also asserts that the British radio is riven roughly 50/50 between radio stations owned and run by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and radio stations owned by commercial groups through license given by Ofcom. On the other hand, there are over two hundred stations owned and operated by the community, however, they are also licensed by Ofcom. MacLeash 2007 (14) also asserts that radio stations are characterized in the manner in which they are financed, and not by what they do. For instance, public service radio stations such as BBC operate under the terms of a Royal Charter and are funded by TV license fees. This fee is payable by people in the United Kingdom who watches live programming of television. The license fee is topped up by grants and revenues. On the other hand, commercial radio stations broadcasting in the United Kingdom are funded by payments made for advertisements. They broadcast on AM or FM via DTV, online and DAB (McLeish 2005, pp.13). The mod e of funding influences what is aired on these radio stations. This is explicated in the pressure faced by BBC to educate, be impartial, inform, as well as entertain since they rely on license fees. The first week also enabled us to learn the basics that an individual should know before embarking on recording of for radio or interviews. This is attributed to the fact that some background sounds such as wind, music or people talking in close range to the recording device can bring problems during editing. This is because they are difficult to edit out. In order to prove this point, we visited various locations within the university to ascertain that different reverberations have different effects on recording (Fleming 2002, pp.67). For instance, we visited two indoor and two outdoor locations in order to come up with the best neutral location and the best location with a background noise for recording an interview for radio. WEEK 2 Vox pop, an abbreviation of the Latin words vox popu li meaning ‘voice of the people’ is an extremely important source of news. In this type of news coverage, special researchers and news reporters go out into the streets with the intentions of seeking public views and opinions on matters of current public concern. They do this by asking thoughtful questions in order to: test public opinions and reactions, influence decision makers, stimulate public debate, forecast results of certain events, and promote a radio, newspaper or television station, among others (Crisell 1994, pp. 57). Vox pops have been used in the radio industry from the 1930s. It is also reported that in the initial decades of the 20th century, vox pops acted as a medium for the community to express their views. This is attributed to the fact that radio played an integral role in the community since it created a way for community members to provide, as well as receive opinion. In class we learnt how to make vox pop recordings. For instance, we were taught that questions should be asked with the recorder on pause; and that only responses given by the respondents’ should be recorded (Crisell 1994, pp. 69). Additionally, the responses should be put together in separate bands so that during compilation, the best answers should be at the beginning and at the end. In the middle of the vox pop, the responses should contain a mix up of opinions varying between female and male voices. WEEK 3 During this week we learnt how to edit the vox pops that we had made in the

Beneth the serface of developmental dyslexia Annotated Bibliography

Beneth the serface of developmental dyslexia - Annotated Bibliography Example In addition, the article presents the three strategies that constitute development of reading. The three strategies include logographic, orthographic and alphabetic skills. The logographic skills relate to the immediate recognition of familiar words. Frith explains that the process of recognizing words require component of salient graphic to serve as important cues. The article precisely defines orthographic skills as an instantaneous analysis of words into the orthographic units. On the other hand, alphabetic skills connote the use and knowledge of each grapheme and phoneme as well as their correspondences. The article extends to present the inherent failures that each of the three principles possesses. However, the article fails to provide a credible developmental model, which explains its limitation. Even though Frith presents substantial work in this article, a need still lies to present credible model, which can function to alert individuals to the existing fallacy that acquired and developmental disorders are

Social Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Psychology - Essay Example However, it is important to identify that at its root, the idea of constructing â€Å"the self† of the individual has roots in many other domains of knowledge (Danziger, 1997). As stated previously, the first thoughts of the idea of the self originated from that of philosophy and religion. The self was often described as the â€Å"soul† or consciousness of the individual. It was supposed to be something that could be observed. Locke was one of the first to develop this issue due to the high rates of development and increase in society. He had to make a distinguishing factor between the external self and the self-consciousness. As time progressed, ideas of the self began to change in develop. Cooley addressed this as a mirror principle in that the reaction to others is based on a mirror principle, which involves both internal and external judgment (Cooley, 1902). One of the key events in the development of the self in social psychology was through the humanist, Carol Rog ers. He postulated that the self constituted two components: the real and ideal selves. The real self was the true essence of who the individual is and the ideal self is what the person projects onto the world as a desire to be. The disunity in the real and ideal self is what causes the neuroticism and anxiety in the individual. The neuroticism can only go away once the real self and ideal self become integrated with one another. Being an American psychologist, he took the forefront in the development in this field of psychology, but moved the emphasis from awareness of self to the emotions and motivations, which play a part in the development of the self, both internally and externally. This represents the constructivist philosophy behind the social aspects in the influence in the psychology of the self. Another component of the self to observe is based on phenomenology, which goes into how does a person experience and interpret the external world. There are two aspects, which brin g these together: ‘being-in-the-world’ and ‘lifeworld’. These aspects argue that rather a considering the individual as a separate from the environment, it addresses it as a system of two identities in which the experiences taken from the environment shape the individual, which is a phenomenological effect. Edmund Husserl gave three criteria, which are used in describing the phenomenology of the self in society. The first step is to suspend expectations of the experience. The second step is to stay with the experiences, versus deductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. Lastly, the third step is in regards to treating everything equally. Again, as with Carol Rogers and humanism, the existential psychologists took up the task of providing constructs for phenomenology. The main characteristics where that each person is unique in that we all process situations differently, being actively engaged in the experience and having the freedom to choose as well as bei ng in the present moment. Psychoanalytic psychology, focused heavily on the development of the self. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud pioneered in this field. He focused highly on the construction of the self; he was primarily focused on the consciousness. He often described the consciousness in reference to an iceberg. The largest portion of our self, the unconscious, is located in the recesses of our mind and we are often unaware of it, even

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PSYCHOLOGY - Essay Example It is a perfect example of what life is all about, and how to lead a righteous life. The tests reveal a hidden bias just like it is meant to disclose. I completed two demonstration implicit preferences tests: one for skin tone and the other for age. Skin tone IAT reveals automatic preference for light skin compared to dark skin. I believed that my preference for light skin to dark skin was neutral. This means that I do not have any automatic preference for any skin tone. The results from the demonstration tests show that I have â€Å"little to no automatic preference between Light Skinned People and Dark Skinned People†. Age IAT is a test that often shows the level of automatic preference for the young over old people. In this test, I gave my answer as preferring old over the young. The results, however, indicate that I have a high level of preference for the young over the old. Strong automatic preference for the young over old is 35%, moderate automatic preference is 29%, while slight automatic preference is 16%. Overall results show that I have â€Å"a mo derate automatic preference for Young compared to Old†. From these results I have learnt that I have some hidden bias. This could affect intercultural communication because of the unknown bias towards certain communities or cultures. Ethnocentrism is the consideration of one’s culture as superior to others, so that, the culture and its practices are used as a standard for interpreting norms, communication, values and beliefs of other cultures (Wood, 2011). This means that any culture could be superior or inferior depending on the person interpreting the values. With this knowledge, however, it is important to recognize that every culture should be appreciated. A stereotype is a kind of belief about an individual or a group of people. It is a generalization of a group of people or individual that does not allow social variation or individual differences. Stereotypes arise from images found in mass

Discuss Shakespeares Essay Example for Free

Discuss Shakespeares Essay The women of Shakespearean literature have been known to have a strong emotional complexity, where each of them find themselves subject to adversities based around the powerful men who influence them. From Lady Annes striking romantic confusion in Richard III, to Violas challenges in morality throughout Twelfth Night, such a Shakespearean signature in portraying women persists in Hamlet; through Gertrude, a Queen dealing with her questionable actions and Ophelia, who struggles with the pressures of male authority. It should come as no surprise that although being a 16th century play, the exploration of female issues of tradition, misogyny, romance and mortality allows Hamlets treatment of women to maintain a highly significant relevance in todays modern world. Elizabethan women held very little social rights and power, with strict roles in child bearing and household duties allowing them to have very little say even within their own lives. Despite clearly being set in Denmark, Shakespeare who was writing during this time, extended this traditional roles to Ophelia and Gertrude. Ophelia in particular displays the role more strongly, with critic David Leverenz noting [Ophelia] has no choice but to say I shall obey, my lord'. In this example of Ophelias compliant nature, after her father, Polonius orders her to not give words or talk with Lord Hamlet- (I. 3), the reader is able to view the customary relationship between a woman and the male figures in her life. Though Gertrude does not give any particularly submissive dialogue, even she as Queen reinforces this relationship in her minimal speech in scenes for which she is not only present, but concerned. It is important for modern critics like Leverenz as well as critical feminist readers to recognize that Ophelia and Gertrude are not necessarily weak and passive in personal character, but instead they are reflection of women (especially royal women) who were oppressed of empowering traits by the socially acceptable customs. Readers should instead appreciate this traditional treatment of women, in not only allowing the men in positions of power to be focused on for the sake of theatrical entertainment and drama, but for also extensively juxtaposing with motifs of insanity, revenge, sin, and violence associated with the powerful male leads; King Claudius, the Ghost of King Hamlet and Prince Hamlet. Though Shakespeare has been regarded as a feminist due to his relatively respectful treatments of women, the existence of this respect in Hamlet has been debated ever since the plays inception. As previously stated, the traditional portrayal of obedient women cannot be taken out of context, however as the play increases in intensity, as does its treatment of women. In his very first soliloquy for which he reveals his anger towards his mothers marriage to his uncle two months after his fathers death, Hamlet makes the striking universal comment Frailty thy name is woman (I. 2). In an example of Shakespeares unparalleled literary craftsmanship, he supports this quote through their actions, how upon her husbands death, Gertrude immediately marries his brother and how after her relationship with Hamlet is doomed, Ophelia begins to go mad herself. The quote is also infamously regarded as the establishment of the plays theme of misogyny, the quote indicates how Gertrudes traditionally incestuous marriage to her late husbands brother has ruined his faith in women and love all together. In an almost Freudian pattern, Ophelia then becomes victim to his misogyny with Hamlets refusal to continue their relationship. More analytical readers would then go beyond this basic evaluation and then find possible interpretations of Hamlets treatment, or as it seems, mistreatment of women. Those sympathetic to Hamlets negative attitude to Ophelia would perceive it as a defense mechanism, where between his grief of his father and desire to please his father through revenge, he must then resort to such discrimination to avoid further pain. In contrast to this sympathetic reception, quotes such as Frailty thy name is woman and [tis brief, my lord].. as a womans love (III. 3) may be seen as to defy fictional character and be the manifestation of Shakespeares own personal opinion, though evidence for this in his marriage with Anne Hathaway is not very strong. Through either interpretation, it is undeniable that so far in the play the women have yet to find themselves in a state of happiness. Another significant aspect of Hamlets treatment of women, is how the currently negative treatment is extended to how Shakespeare portrays their sexuality. For instance, after Ophelia is warned to not lose your heart, or [her] chaste treasure open by her brother Laertes, she gives her virginity to Hamlet. When Hamlet discards marriage, she says with in a particularly distressed tone Quoth she, before you tumbled me, /You promised me to wed. /So would I ha done, by yonder sun, /An thou hadst not come to my bed -(IV. 5). During Act 3, Scene 2 when the mouse-trap play is taking place, Ophelia must also be subjected to Hamlets sexual innuendos such as Thats a fair thought to lie between maids legs. for which she cannot reply in order to remain as a respectable lady. Again, Shakespeare indicates another aspect of Elizabethan women, with how female sexuality was highly conservative and their virginity very strictly only being lost with marriage with those not doing so being thought of as a disgrace. The readers sympathy for Ophelia is therefore increased substantially, where, who then later tells her to get the to the nunnery (III. 1) which shows her as an exploited figure. Gertrudes sexual behaviour, more specifically her decision to marry Claudius, has come under immense scrutiny not only by Hamlet who defeminised her by saying A beast would have mourned longer , but also by critics viewing her as sinful and in blunt Elizabethan terms, a whore. Critic Rebecca Smith commented on how this view is commonly translated to stage productions where she is often played as a sensual and deceitful woman. For a balanced view on Gertrude, it is imperative to note how she too is attempting to deal with her grief and there is a great possibility she is doing this for reasons of maintaining her families power. As for being deceitful, Carolyn Heilbruns 1957 essay Hamlets Mother defends Gertrude, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew of Claudius poisoning King Hamlet. . As Hamlet progresses towards its conclusion, instead of the female characters developments becoming positive, the plot continues to prove devastating for them. Ophelia, upon the death of Laertes and Polonius, as well as Hamlets mistreatment seems to drive herself into madness and her death by drowning. Although truly saddening, the way in which Shakespeare presents her death reveals the beauty which has been overshadowed by tragedy. In expected Shakespearean style, the poetic announcement given by Gertrude uses beautiful naturalistic imagery to testament to Ophelias femininity, with When down her weedy trophies and herself/Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;/And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: /Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;(IV. 7). From that point on she is referred to as beautiful and sweet by Hamlet and Gertrude respectively, further emphasizing her graceful nature. To directly juxtapose with this, is the death of Gertrude, who poisoned by her son makes her last words with grace, No, no, the drink, the drink! -O my dear Hamlet! /The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. (V. 2). Her elegant demise in the midst of the blood and violence could be seen as her true nature also obscured by the plays tragic events like Ophelia, where Shakespeare perhaps reveals the real personalities of the women upon their death. However Gertrude sympathetics, may acknowledge that the murder and negative perception of Gertrude by Hamlet whose state of mind is generally perceived as mad and insane, calling her a wretched queen may in fact be incorrect because of this therefore proving her relative innocence. Shakespeare in both their developments and deaths, shows a treatment of women where through the violence of their deaths they still maintain a pleasant feminine quality that is given a focus that was previously absent in the play. No matter the perceptive of the reader on the plays treatment of women, they should be able to appreciate Shakespeares realistic portrayal, where although he took creative liberties in some circumstances, he gave true Elizabethan indications of female traditional roles and sexual attitudes on women. It was through writing with conviction (not only through staying true to the context but in showing Ophelias and Gertrudes emotion and complexity) that the play attains its status of one of the best of his classics. The two women are thought to be superficial, but considering the devices such as tone, juxtaposition and imagery as well as analysing their character intentions and behaviour it should be extremely apparent that this is not true and that they obviously do display depth. Secondly, I feel that in the question of whether Shakespeare was a feminist or even a misogynist that the answer cannot be found in Hamlet where his treatment of women in Hamlet is actually neutral. The female characters were designed not for the reader to be focused on who they were, but for what they brought out in other characters. More specifically, Ophelia and Gertrude were therefore created to see how romance, affection and love can truly drive a man insane.

Research on Work-Family Balance Essay Example for Free

Research on Work-Family Balance Essay Introduction The mastering of a foreign language opens the roads for the transit of citizens whether for work, business, or tourism purposes, as well as for cultural and informational exchanges of all kinds. In this light, the status of English as a global language in politics, economics, education and the media, especially the Internet, is widely acknowledged. Typically, ESP has functioned to help language learners cope with the features of language or to develop the competences needed to function in a discipline, profession, or workplace. (Helen. Basturkman. 2006:6) Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge. Learners must have access to the meanings of words which is technical, related to their subject matter. †¦knowing the technical terms†¦is not a sufficient condition for successful reading of specialized material. It was, in fact, the non-technical terms which created more of a problem. (Cohen et al. 1988:162) For many people vocabulary, particularly specialist vocabulary (or terminology), is a key element of ESP. Despite this, vocabulary studies and, in particular, the teaching of vocabulary appear to have been somewhat neglected in ESP( Laufer p-167, Swales p224). Reading, for students of English for specific purposes (ESP), is probably the most important skill in terms of acquiring new knowledge. It does, however, often pose learning problems, especially with respect to vocabulary. The psycholinguistic model of reading widely favoured in linguistics and cognitive psychology in the 1960s and 1970s considered that the main constructs underlying reading are making predictions and deducing meaning from context (cf.Goodman 1976:127). However, during the 1980s, the interactive approach to reading became dominant, in which it was proposed that successful comprehension is achieved by the interactive use of two reading strategies: the top-down approach (i.e. making use of the readers’ previous knowledge, expectations and experience in reading the text) and the bottom-up approach(i.e. understa nding a text mainly by analyzing the words and sentences in the text itself: cf. Sanford Garrod 1981; Van DijkKintsch 1983; Carrell 1988. Research in ESP reading (e.gSelinker Trimble 1974; Cohen et al. 1988) provides empirical support for the interactive framework, finding morphonographemic word-processing skills to be a major component of reading. It has also, since the 1980s, been broadly agreed among researchers (cf. Kennedy Bolitho 1984; Trimble 1985; Cohen et al. 1988) that for non-native ESP readers the most problematic element in comprehending scientific and technical (ST) texts is a set of vocabulary items that has been variously labeled technical and semi-technical. Whatever the name given to the words in this group, if they appear to hinder students of ESP in comprehending texts in their discipline, it is worthwhile for language teachers and ESP practitioners to seek ways in which learners’ lexical repertoires can be raised to at least the threshold level of skilled readership in their chosen fields. It is known to most second language learners that the acquisition of vocabulary is a fundamental and important component in the course of their learning. A good mastery of vocabulary is essential for ESP/EFL learners, especially for those who learn for specific purpose or expect to operate at an advanced level in English. ‘It is wise to direct vocabulary learning to more specialized areas when learners have mastered the 2000-3000 words of general usefulness in English’ (Nation, 2001:187). I will identify the types of vocabulary in ESP texts and their relative importance. I will provide an overview of some key issues relating to the teaching of ESP vocabulary. Types of vocabulary In teaching and learning vocabulary, it’s essential to distinguish between different types of vocabulary because different types of vocabulary need different focus and treatment or some types of vocabulary will be given priorities and emphases in teaching and learning according to leaners’ different aims of learning. 1. Core and non-core vocabulary One way of looking at the status of words in lexical fields is to consider whether some words are more core, or central to the language, than others. The idea that there might be a core or basic vocabulary of words at the heart of any language is quite an appealing one to language educators, for if we could isolate that vocabulary then we could equip learners with a survival kit of core words that they could use in virtually any situation, whether spoken or written, formal or informal, or any situation where an absolutely precise term, might be elusive and where a core word would do. (McCarthy.1990:49) As the word ‘core’ suggests, core vocabulary refers to those words that are more central to the language than other words and tend to be the most frequently occurring ones. ‘People prefer to use such words because they do have core meaning-potential’ (McCarthy, 1990). They are thought to be more ‘core’ because it is easy to find an antonym, also t hey are neutral in formality and usable in a wide variety of situations. Furthermore, an important point is that such words can be used to paraphrase or give definitions of other words. For example, (McCarthy, 1990) the following instruction is given : [decide which is the core word in the set of words: slim, slender, thin, emaciated and scrawny and we can easily figure out that ‘thin’ is the core word] Core vocabulary: words of neutral meaning in any lexical set; core words collocate more readily with a wide range of words, they may be used in a wider range of registers, and are usually involved in the definition of non-core members of their set. In ESP teaching, we may come across subject-specific vocabulary, which is non-core as far as the language as a whole is concerned. ‘This is because it is not neutral in field and is associated with a specialized topic’ (Carter, 1988:172).They are subject-specific core vocabulary; conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, limestone and dolomite, gypsum, phosphate, iron, oxide, crude oil, hydrocarbons-compounds, hydrogen, sulpher, oxygen and nitrogen, gaseous fuels, methane, synthetics, fossil fuels, igne ous rocks, metamorphic rocks. In fact that the need of ESP students is to learn such above mentioned core vocabulary in written and spoken language in their profession, ESP students with specific and academic purpose may need to acquire technical and semi-technical words in their specialist texts which are in need for them to learn and use it in speech and writing documents. Specialist vocabulary can be core in the job establishment where specialist use it frequently and in need, as well as during the ESP classes where ESP teacher and student’ fruitful interaction and it is very central for communication, especially, writing documentations where specialist uses core-specialist vocabulary as well as ESP student may learn that core vocabulary in texts which are full of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and which is central to learning. 2. Spoken and written vocabulary The spoken text is an example of what Ure(1971) calls ‘language-in-action’, that is , people are using language as an accompaniment to the action they are engaged in, and the feeling of lightness or heaviness of vocabulary is what Ure calls ‘lexical density’(McCarthy:1990:71) The written text is less dependent on physical context and its words make specific reference to items in the situation. Speaking versus writing is one important dimension affecting lexical density, but some spoken modes(e.g. oral narrative, or a formal lecture) might be lexically quite dense.(McCarthy.1990:71) Although most of the existing literature on vocabulary has grown out of the study of written texts. spoken texts seem less ‘dense’ than the most written texts in vocabulary items, which is characterized in language-in –action texts; repetition and lexical negotiation occur much more often in spoken discourse than in written texts; vague and rather general words are more frequently used in everyday talk than in written texts. Spoken vocabulary is what we got from written vocabulary to use orally, by contrast we can’t use full written information in speech as well as possible, there are a lot of written information in the past and in the present, for using significant ideas, at first, we should consider which is more available and more demanding for job and for daily life to use. ESP students who study the written texts, based on technical and semi-technical vocabulary, consequently, will product spoken vocabulary which is resulted from the information of written vocabulary. That’s why spoken and written vocabulary is essential in ESP courses. 3. Procedural vocabulary Vocabulary used to explain other words, to structure and organize their meaning. Procedural Vocabulary consists of words with a high indexical potential, which means that they can be interpreted in a wide range of ways. Identifying items in the lexicon that seem to carry a heavy work-load(e.g. the core vocabulary) must include a consideration of how some words are characteristically used to talk about other words, to paraphrase them and define them and to organize them in communication. Widdowson(1983) describes this kind of vocabulary as ‘procedural’. Robinson (1988) refers to ‘this simple lexis of paraphrase and explanation’ to illustrate procedural vocabulary and calls the procedural words ‘the main element in our interpretation and categorization of specific frames of reference’:Ver-mic-u-lite-type of Mica that is a very light material made up of threadlike parts, that can be used for keeping heat inside buildings, growing seeds in, etc.(McC arthy.1990:51) We need sense (relations between words) and denotation (relations between words and the world) in conjunction. However, learners at all levels will need to confront the procedural lexicon of the language they are learning (McCarthy.1990:52) Widdowson (1983:92) makes a distinction between words which are schematically bound and words of high indexical (or procedural –they are synonymous) potential. The schematically bound words narrow the frames of reference and identify particular fields; ‘hydrometer’ has low indexical potential and will occur in a narrow range of texts identifiable within certain scientific and technical fields (McCarthy.1990:51) Procedural vocabulary is characteristically used to talk about, paraphrase, define and organize words in communication. They are commonly used in dictionaries to give definitions. Students of Petroleum engineering may find them useful when learning other words for the accumulation of their vocabulary. It is true that students are required procedural vocabulary that helps them understand the technical vocabulary used in the process of establishing word meaning. The important role of procedural vocabulary lies, therefore, in the assumption that meaning is not static, but can be negotiated through interaction between participants hence, demanding when? and why? Because of unknown technical and semi-technical vocabulary, which is quite complicated to understand, and is the main tool in the texts to apprehend their own specialty. ESP teachers should give definitions by using procedural vocabulary, which may give a specific description of the word. On the other hand, to use procedural vocabulary, ESP students need to know, approximately 2000 vocabulary words. After having gained them, students are able to define the technical and semi-technical vocabularies which are very complicated to comprehend and to predict. However, with the help of procedural vocabulary use, I believe that ESP teachers, after having used the procedural vocabulary, could give the exact definition of the unknown word. Consequently, ESP students may guess what it is in L1. That’s why the use of procedural vocabulary is essential in ESP classes. 4.Technical and semi-technical vocabulary Many ESP teachers have found that vocabulary can be one of the major problems that effect students’ understanding of scientific and technical texts. According to Kennedy Bolitho (1984), Trimble(1985) and Nation (1990), the difficulty lies not with technical vocabulary as such but, as Cohen et al. (1988: 153) put it: †¦even students with mastery over the technical terms become so frustrated in reading technical English that they seek native-language summaries of the English texts, or native-language books covering roughly the same material, or do not read the material at all, but concentrate rather on taking verbatim lecture notes. ESP students generally find their difficulties in reading Petroleum engineering texts because of not knowing technical and semi-technical vocabulary in L2, and this does indeed appear to be one of their major problems in comprehending texts of their subject area, especially during second and third years of study. Many of the problems that the students encounter in using English are related to comprehension, and are caused by their limited knowledge of vocabulary, including crucially, a lack of awareness of polysemy. Increasingly researchers have favoured the view that such an area of vocabulary creates significant barriers to students’ understanding of (ST) texts, but the discussion has been complicated by the use of several different terms for what appears to be the same intermediate-level area of difficulty, for which commentators such as Cowan (1974), Robinson (1980), Trimble(1985) and Tong(1993a, 1993b) use the term sub-technical vocabulary, while others use non-technical with or without (cf. Barber 1962; Nation 1990; Tao 1994), and still others use semi-technical (St John Dudley-Evans 1980; Farrell 1990; McArthur 1996b). We cannot teach our scientific and technical students the whole of the scientific vocabulary: this is beyond the capacity of any individual. Nor do we normally want to teach them the specialized technical terms of their own subject†¦.what the English teacher can usually hope to do is to teach a vocabulary which is generally useful to students of science and technology-words that occur frequently in scientific and technical literature of different types. Some of these words will be technical ones, but many will not. The real justification for having highly specialized texts is to achieve face validity. Learners may be more motivated by them, because they make the language seem more relevant. But learners can be fickle. And if the use of such texts makes work in the classroom difficult, learners will soon lose their liking for such texts (Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters.1995:162) Coxed and Nation(2001) categorize vocabulary for teaching and learning into four groups of words: high frequency words, academic vocabulary, technical vocabulary, and low frequency vocabulary. They argue: ‘when learners have mastered control of the 2,000 words of general usefulness in English, it is wise to direct vocabulary learning to more specialized areas depending on the aims of the learners’ (p. 252-253).( Helen. Basturkemn.2006:17). According to Bloor and Bloor(1986), teaching a specific variety of English (ESP) can start at any level including beginners. Moreover, learning from the specific variety of English ( for example, English for doctors, English for hospitality), is highly effective as learners acquire structures in relation to the range of meanings in which they are used in their academic, workplace, or professional environments (Helen. Basturkmen. 2006:17) Sager(p-98) writes: terminology is an applicable field of study concerned with the creation, collection and ordering of the vocabulary of special languages†¦..this work is carried out by relatively few people for the benefit of all users of special languages. Sager notes the assumption that specialized communication can be made more effective If terms are formed according to certain prevailing patterns which have a predictive value. Alber-De Wolf( p-167) suggests that a good knowledge of term-formation processes improves the reading skills necessary for reading foreign LSP but most work in terminology is aimed not at teachers but at translators and, increasingly, at machine translation and the development of term banks( Ross, Thomas). Sager makes the important observation that terminology is not so fixed as might be supposed. (Pauline Robinson. 1991:27) Voracek compares terminology across the natural sciences and social sciences. He suggests that because political terminology can never be emotionally neutral, it can be hardly accurate and unambiguous and it will always cause problems for translators and interpreters. Economic terms, while emotionally neutral, also cause problems of translation across economic systems (Pauline Robinson.1991:27). In fact, technical terms which are used only in a specialized field are sometimes less troublesome than vocabulary that looks familiar. Students recognize the need to find meanings for technical terms, and most dictionaries define them. On the other hand, students assume they already know the meaning of an ordinary word, so they do not try to find a specialized meaning for it (Virginia French Allen.1983:88). Technical vocabulary is words or phrases that are used primarily in a specific line of work or profession. Similarly, engineer of petroleum engineering field needs to know technical words such as organic decay, conglomerates, clay schist , siltstone, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, phosphate, iron, oxide, crude oil, hydrocarbons-compounds, hydrogen, sulpher, oxygen and nitrogen, gaseous fuels, methane, synthetics, fossil fuels, igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks and may acquire technical and semi-technical vocabulary in the Petroleum engineering texts where they come across frequently, and words which most people outside of that industry never use. In terms of language content, there is little reason why , say, a Biology text should be more useful to a Biology than, say, a Physics text. There is no grammatical structure, function or discourse structure that can be identified specifically with Biology or any particular subject. Such things are product of the communicative situation (lecture, conversation, experiment, instructions) and the level (engineer, technician, manager, mechanic, university)there are only two ways in which the subject has any kind of influence on the language content We can distinguish four types of vocabulary: -structural: are, this, only, however; -general: table, run, dog, road, weather, cause; -sub-technical: engine, spring, valve, acid, budged; -technical: auricle, schist some, fissure, electrophoresis. Technical vocabulary was used far less frequently than the non-technical. These technical terms are also likely to pose the least problems for learners: they are often internationally used or can be worked out from knowledge of the subject matter and common root. (Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters.1995:166) Comprehension in the ESP classroom is often more difficult than in real life, because texts are taken in isolation. In the outside world a text would normally appear in a context, which provides reference points to assist understanding (Tom Hutchinson and Waters.1995:16) In terms of teaching in ESP, it is most important to make a distinction between the two types of vocabulary: technical and semi-technical because they are of great importance for learners to study English for specific purposes and academic purposes. Baker(1988) lists six categories of vocabulary, all of which relate to EAP. They are: 1. Items which express notions general to all specialized disciplines; 2. General language items that have a specialized meaning in one or more disciplines; 3. Specialized items that have different meanings in different disciplines; 4. General language items that have restricted meanings in different disciplines; 5. General language items that are used to describe or comment on technical processes or functions in preference to other items with the same meaning, for example occur rather than happen. 6. Items used to signal the writer’s intentions or evaluation of material presented (Dudley-Evans and St John. 1998:83). Dudley-Evans and St John (1998:83) suggest resolving the overlapping six categories (Baker, 1988:91) into two broad areas: A) Vocabulary that is used in general language but has a higher frequency of occurrence in specific and technical description and discussion. B) Vocabulary that has specialized and restricted meanings in certain disciplines and which may vary in meaning across discipline. It is quite clear that the first area would be referred to as semi-technical and the second area would be regarded as technical vocabulary. We can examine the following text to illustrate the difference among them below. Some extracts are taken from the texts of Petroleum engineering field, to analyze which is technical and semi-technical and what students of this area study during the class and what kind of information a ESP teacher should provide within the class. These texts are central in the heart of learning and there is a need, lack, desire of students to be competent with. In the second and third year courses, students of the Petroleum engineering field, in Karshi Engineering-Economics institute, the faculty of Oil and Gas, in Karshi, Uzbekistan, study this specialty in English during English classes. How may we inform them about the specific knowledge of their profession if we are not subject matter teachers? We are English language teachers who did not study the specialty of these students at all. Consequently, only the job for us to do is to teach these texts, which are written in English and specially contain technical and semi-technical vocabulary. 1. The thickness of the layers of sedimentary rocks may vary greatly from place to place. They can be formed by the mechanical action of water, wind, frost and organic decay. Such sedimentary as gravel, sand, and clay at the beginning and conglomerates, sandstones and clay schists later are the result of the accumulation of materials achieved by the destructive mechanical action of water and wind (extract from the text ‘Sedimentary Rocks’ M.Ya. Barakova.1977:74-75) 2.The most principal kinds of sedimentary rocks are conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, limestone and dolomite. Many other kinds with large practical value include common salt, gypsum, phosphate, iron oxide and coal (extract from the text ‘Sedimentary Rocks’ M.Ya. Barakova.1977:74-75) 3. Fossils are usually found in sedimentary rocks, although, sometimes they may be found in igneous and metamorphic rocks as well. They are most abundant in mudstone, shale and limestone, but also found in sandstone, dolomite and conglomerates (extract from the text ‘Fossil Fuels’ M. Ya. Barakova.1977: 108-109) 4. Liquid fuels are derived almost from petroleum. In general, natural petroleum, or crude oil, as it is widely known, is the basis of practically all industrial fuels. Petroleum is a mixture of hundreds of different hydrocarbons-compounds composed of hydrogen and carbon together with the small amount of other elements such as sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen. Petroleum is associated with water and natural gas(extract from the text ‘Fossil Fuels’ M. Ya. Barakova.1977:108-109) 5. Of gaseous fuels the most important are those derived from natural gas, chiefly methane or petroleum. Using gaseous fuels makes it possible to obtain high thermal efficiency, ease of distribution and control. Today, gas is widely utilized in the home and as a raw material for producing synthetics. (extract from the text ‘Fossil Fuels) (extract from the text ‘Fossil Fuels’ M. Ya. Barakova.1977:108-109) The technical vocabulary is quite obvious. The items are: organic decay, conglomerates, clay schist , siltstone, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, phosphate, iron, oxide, crude oil, hydrocarbons-compounds, hydrogen, sulpher, oxygen and nitrogen, gaseous fuels, methane, synthetics, fossil fuels, igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks, and etc. The semi-technical vocabulary items are as follows: mechanical action, liquid fuels, petroleum, industrial fuels, natural gas, raw material, layers, abundant, accumulation, destructive and chiefly, ease of distribution and control etc. As every specialist has their own specific vocabulary to use in speech and writing, the technical and semi-technical vocabulary is also the main source for Petroleum engineering students to go through. In fact, to succeed in comprehending the written vocabulary and spoken language in this area, ESP students should have access to these technical texts where they can find a way to know about this specialty in English. Technical and semi-technical vocabulary is the main instrument for survival in this area of study. As we can see from above, learners who will do academic study in English must focus on academic vocabulary which is variously known as ‘general useful scientific vocabulary’ (Barber, 1962) and semi-technical vocabulary (Farrell, 1990), because they need to exhibit a wide range of academic skills like reading about research papers in their own fields, listening to teachers speak about their work, writing academic papers and presenting oral or written evaluations of methods or results in many cases, or writing documentations of the industrial company where the learner may use technical words , which is very needful , and use it for communication with foreign company by doing export or import business. Technical and semi-technical vocabulary, which is used in this text, may not be occurred in the texts of other fields of study, for example, medicine, business, but it can occur in other parts of engineering areas. We may use general vocabulary in all fields of study where technical and semi-technical vocabularies of petroleum engineering field occur. With its importance shown above, technical vocabulary or semi-technical vocabulary should be given priority in teaching by ESP teachers because, according to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998:83), this type of vocabulary is used in general life contexts but has a higher frequency of occurrence in scientific and technical descriptions and discussions, especially in their specific field and conferences, meetings referring to specialty. ESP teachers should teach learners general vocabulary as well as technical vocabulary that has a higher frequency in a scientific field such as: -general: thickness, place, wind, frost, value, common, and etc. -petroleum engineering: organic decay, conglomerates, siltstone, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, phosphate, iron, oxide, crude oil, hydrocarbons-compounds, sulpher, oxygen and nitrogen, gaseous fuels, methane, synthetics and etc. -verbs: vary, achieve, found, form, derive from, include, compose, associate, obtain, utilize, produce. -collocations: destructive mechanical action, organic decay, accumulation of materials, hydrocarbons-compounds, associate with. The issue of teaching technical vocabulary It is often claimed that it is not the job of the ESP teachers to teach technical vocabulary (Barber, 1964; Higgens, 1966; Cowan, 1974). In general, we agree it is not but it may be the duty of ESP teachers to teach vocabulary in certain circumstances. Beyond the duty of ESP teacher In discussing the teaching of ESP it has often been said (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Higgins, 1966)that the teaching technical vocabulary is not the responsibility of the EAP teacher and that priority should be given to the teaching of ‘semi-technical’ or ‘core vocabulary’. The technical vocabulary is rather more complicated than the simple notion that the ESP teacher should not touch it. While in general we agree that it should not be the responsibility of the ESP teacher to teach technical vocabulary, in certain specific contexts it may be the duty of the ESP teacher to check that learners have understood technical vocabulary appearing as carrier content for an exercise. It may also be necessary to ensure that learners have understood technical language presented by a subject specialist or assumed to be known by a subject specialist (Dudley-Evans and St John. 1998:81) In any ESP exercise which exploits a particular context, that context will use certain technical vocabulary. It is important that both the teacher and the learners appreciate that this vocabulary is acting as carrier content for an exercise, and is not the real content of the exercise. However, students usually need to be able to understand the technical vocabulary in order to do exercise (Dudley-Evans and St John. 1998:81) How do we deal with this technical vocabulary? In some circumstances a term will be cognate with the equivalent term in the students’ first language and will not therefore cause difficulty. If the term is not cognate and is unfamiliar, then it may need to be introduced and explained before the exercise is tackled. In many cases there is a one-to-one relationship between the terms in English and the learners’ L1 and so it will be enough to translate the term into the L1 after a brief explanation (Dudley-Evans and St John. 1998:81) A technical word is one that is recognizably specific to a particular topic, field or discipline. It is likely that they can only be learned and understood by studying the field. Such words are considered to be the responsibility of the subject teachers. Strevens (1973:223) claims ‘that learners who know the scientific field may have little difficulty with technical words; but a teacher who may not have a great deal. We can examine the examples in the given text. Technical words like organic decay, sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic rocks, limestone, clay schist, methane and others are specialized words in the field of petroleum engineering, which may be quite easy for a student in L1, who studies the petroleum engineering. However, it is a different matter for ESP teachers. There are some other technical words that are quite familiar to learners even if learners are not studying the specific discipline to which the technical words belong because the words are widely, even internationally, known. Some very frequently occurring words in computer science, such as browser, program, log, hypertext and internet, are quite familiar to learners and these technical words have a high frequency occurrence in the texts of computer sciences and in information. The English teacher is an ideal informant, who may inform the students of the petroleum engineering field with the information of their profession in L2 for non-native speakers. Even if it is the beyond of his/her duty, the English teacher should certainly explain the technical and semi-technical words in L1 or in L2 for successful learning. As a matter of fact that English teacher teaches texts, which are full of technical and semi-technical vocabulary. That’s why ESP teacher should know the subject matter in L1 and in L2, if not, not be able to teach the students of petroleum engineering field because of not knowing specialist knowledge. Furthermore, even he/she can’t translate the text. As a result, no well-designed teaching will be done. A teacher of General English may not know the technical and semi-technical words because she/he is not a specialist of this area. For example, the English teacher who teaches medical students should know the medical terminology. If she/he does not know the technical vocabulary relating to medicine, how can she/he help the translation of meaning of medical treatments or drugs which is being manufactured in Foreign country, most medicine production instruction is written and explained, given information about medical drugs, and available devices in English. That’ why the role of Technical and semi-technical vocabulary is not only valuable in the Petroleum engineering field, but also important in other fields of study. The ESP teacher should corporate with subject matter teacher in order to know subject matter for successful teaching. Which vocabulary type should the ESP teacher teach? According to Hutchinson and Waters, (1987) ESP should be seen as an approach to language teaching, which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning. The main of their vocabulary acquisition is surely academic vocabulary and they mainly learn technical and semi-technical vocabulary of their specialty in texts, which are main support for learning their specific field through unfamiliar words. The text is an informant where has full of special information for learners’ desire, and learners try to predict what the word is about with his/her specific background knowledge and define the word. Nowadays, a lot of Educational grant programmes demand English knowledge as well as with specific disciplines, where learners study subject matter in English. That’s why learner, who is willing to study in European or US, Foreign universities and desires to make a progress in profession, consequently, needs to learn technical vocabulary. Learning technical and semi-technic al vocabulary is the most essential need for such desire, and teaching technical and semi-technical vocabulary is more demanding. Learnability Ease or difficult in the learnability of vocabulary is not unconnected with the notion of frequency, since the most frequent words will probably be absorbed and learnt simply because they occur regularly. But words may be easy or difficult for a variety of other reasons, and may need special attention or focus in teaching. 1. Words may present spelling difficulties. Even native speakers of English have difficulty remembering whether single or double consonants appear in words like ‘occurrence’, ‘parallel’, and ‘beginning’. Languages with more regular spelling patterns present fewer difficulties of this kind. 2. Words may present phonological difficulties, either because they contain awkward clusters of sounds ( English ‘thrive’, ‘crisps’), or because spelling interfaces with perception of what the sound is (English ‘worry’ is regularly pronounced by learners as if it rhymed with ‘sorry’). Such words may be effectively learned in all other respects, but pronunciation may remain a long-term difficulty, especially where old habits are ingrained. 3. The syntactic properties of words often make them difficult. In English, ‘want’ presents fewer syntactic difficulties than ‘wish’, ‘want’ is followed by an infinitive and / or an object; ‘wish’ may be followed by a variety of verb patterns in ‘that’ clauses, as well as by the infinitive. 4. Words may be perceived as very close in meaning by the learner, and therefore difficult to separate one from another. ‘Make’ and ‘do’ are notorious in this respect in English. Learners of Spanish often find it difficult to separate ‘ser’ and ‘estar’, which to the English-speaker seem both to mean ‘be’. The difficulty, or lack of difficulty, a word presents may override its frequency and/or range, and decisions to bring forward or postpone the teaching of an item may be based on learnability. Published materials handle features of learnability and difficulty in different ways.p-86 (McCarthy) Difficulty and learnability cut right across the notions of frequency and range. We cannot predict that just because a word is frequent it will be learnt quickly and thoroughly or, conversely, that, because a word is infrequent, it will not be easily learnt. Technical and semi-technical vocabulary has also difficulties for pronunciation and for communication to study.

Roles of MicroRNAs in the Cell Cycle

Roles of MicroRNAs in the Cell Cycle Evaluate the roles of microRNAs in the cell cycle and explain the consequences of disruption to microRNA activity in named diseases Introduction The presence and activity of various proteins are required in the cell cycle progression.(1) The regulation of these protein levels is vital for the understanding of the cell cycle control and its dysregulation. The dysregulation results genetic mutation related diseases. For instance, overexpression of cyclins or the elimination of CDK inhibitors or pRB due to genetic mutation are common cause in human cancer.(2) Therefore, the proper control of protein levels is crucial for the cell cycle. MicroRNAs are ~22-25 nucleotide non-coding RNAs.(3) It is post- transcriptional repressor of mRNA; control the stability and translation of protein-coding mRNAs. (1, 3). MiRNAs bind the 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR) of target mRNAs. The binding of miRNA- protein complexes to mRNA causes translation inhibition or destabilisation of target transcripts.(1) This is resulting in the downregulation of the protein encoded by mRNA. Figure 1 : microRNA as post-transcription inhibitor in protein encoding (4) MicroRNAs control the levels of numerous cell cycle regulators that controls cell proliferation.(1) The alternation of protein levels of critical oncogenes or tumour suppressor genes, which causes by miRNAs deregulation may also lead to proliferative diseases such as cancer. MiRNAs that linked to human cancers, known as â€Å"oncomirs†. These are divided into two group, those miRNAs that are upregulated in cancer which are likely to be acting as oncogenes and those downregulated in cancer which are likely to be acting as tumour suppressors.(5) Approximately 30-60 % of the human genome, regulated by miRNAs. As a consequence, any modulations of the target transcript expression, miRNAs can affect various signalling pathways and cellular process such as apoptosis, proliferation or differentiation. Therefore, miRNAs could consider as cancer targets. Besides cancer, some miRNAs genes cause or contribute in many inherited and genetic based diseases. For instance, miR-26b upregulated in Alzerimer’s disease, (6) miR 96 causes nonsyndromic progressive hearing loss (7) and miR -184 causes Familial Keratoconus with Cataract.(8) Nevertheless, some miRNAs’ genes are beneficial; display antiproliferative properties.(1) For example, the down-regulation of miR15s and miR – 16 – 1 in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, prostate cancer and pituitary tumours, leading to the inhibition of tumour growth and induce cell cycle arrest at the G1 ­ phase by target cell cycle regulators ( cyclin D1, cyclin E1, cyclin D3 and CDK6). (9) As miRNAs proposed to control the expression up to one third of all genes and possibly utilised as diagnostic and prognostic marker for many genetic based diseases.(10) Therefore, it is important to evaluate its role in the cell cycle and its dysregulation. The different roles of MicroRNAs in the cell cycle The understanding of miRNA has increased over the past 10 years, and particularly the involvement of miRNAs in cancer. Nowadays, cancer is a common disease, which occurs to one third of the population. There are lots of cancer treatments available, however to identify an effective treatment is still challenging.(9) Therefore, it is important to develop a new treatments with less side effect are greatly demanded. A greater understanding of miRNA could possibly lead to better diagnostic and treatment of cancer.(9) Let-7 Let-7 has an essential role in cell cycle and the differentiation of cell cycle terminals. Let-7 is coded by 12 genes; these are produced from the eight genomic loci. These 12 genes are located at a region, which is frequently deleted in cancer. Throughout the lung cancer examination, it has been showed that a low level of let-7 relates to the poor prognosis. The expression of let-7 induces the suppression growth of cell and human tumour cell lines.(12) Over-expression of let-7 in lung cancer causes the lowered cell division and stopped the progression of cell cycle. Ras, Caspase-3 and HMGA2 genes are targeted by let-7 for controlling tumour growth. Furthermore, let-7 represses number of cell cycle regulator gene: cyclin D1, cyclin A, cyclin D3, CDK4 and CCNA2, CDK6, CDC25A and CDK8. (13) MiR-15a/16 Chromosome 13q14 region is frequently deleted in more than 50% of the B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). This region of the chromosome includes the expression of miR-15a/16 cluster. Further studies have identified that miR-15a/16 is located at the 30 kb region of the loss chromosome in CLL. (14) In CCL patients, about 70% of the patients have miR-15a and miR-16 either deleted or down regulated; same applies to gastric cancer and pituitary adenomas cell lines. The miR-15a and miR-16 target cell cycle regulators such as cyclin D1, cyclin D3, cyclin E1 and CDK6, this causes the cell cycle arrest during the G1 phase.(13) miR-15 and miR-16 in colon cancer cell lines presented with a high level of down-regulated transcripts for gene related to cell-cycle progression. Moreover, the high expression of miR16 which leads to increase G0 and G2 phase accumulation through down-regulating the gene expression of cell cycle, CARD10, CDK6 and CDC27. These evidenced the miR15a and miR16 associated with complex gene expression.(12) Figure 2: Cell cycle and proteins that are involved in the cycle. (11) MiR-17/20 The miR-17/20 induces suppression of tumour growth in the breast cancer and human B-cell line; it encodes 6 mature miRs in a 1 kb region. MiR-17/20 target several cell cycle regulators, including E2F, Rb, c-myc and cyclin D1, for the time control of cell cycle. At G1 phase (figure 2) , Cyclin D1 and c-myc are induced and inactivation of E2F1 when bind to Rb. The transition of G1 to S phase of the cell cycle requires the miR-17/20 cluster.(13) The miR-17 family might involve in inhibit or promote cellular proliferation. In a low level of mitogenic stimulation, miR-17 possible involves in the E2F signalling maintenance to be at a level below threshold for proliferation. Furthermore, the missing miR-17-19 cluster has been identified in many malignancies, and disruption of miR-17 expression possible reduces the proliferation of certain breast cancer cell lines. The suppression of irregularly high E2F activation, the apoptosis response might be eliminated by the miR-17-92 cluste r, then this function as an oncogene. Subsequently, in various solid and haematopoietic malignancies are found to have amplificated and over-expressed miR-17 family. These have indicated that miR-17/20 play a essential role in cellular proliferation and progression of malignancies. (12) MiR-221/222 The regulation of cell cycle by miR-221/222, which it targets the CDK inhibitors. The miR-221 and miR-222 ectopic expression initiate CDK2, aiding the transition of G1 to S phase of cell cycle and p27kip2 and p57kip2 are negatively regulated which lead to increase tumour growth. This is frequently identified in human breast cancer tissues.(13) In addition, miR-221 and miR-222 act as a direct regulator of p27. The over-expression of this cluster increases cellular proliferation and allowed anchorage growth independently. The suppression of miR221 and miR-222 initiated G1 phase arrest in breast cancer cell lines. It is found that miR-221/222 is over-expressed in several human tumors. (12) Table 1: miRNA genes and clusters that target cell cycle regulators and its deregulation in cancer. (1) MiRNA related diseases Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) occurs due to the homozygous or heterozygous deletion of the chromosomal region 13q14.3. MiR – 15a and miR -16-1 are located in this region as shown in Calin et al’s study.(9, 15) This provided evidence that miRNAs might be involved in the pathogenesis of CLL and other human cancers.(9) These genes were found to be deleted in 68 % of CLL patients.(15) MiR-15a and miR-16-1 leads to the inhibition of tumour growth by negatively regulate BCL2; anti-apoptotic gene.(9) They also induce cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase by targeting cell cycle regulators ; cyclin D1, cycline D3, cyline E1 abd CDK6.(9) The deletion of miR-15a and miR-16-1 associated with CLL patients’ phenotypes; the loss of these two genes accelerates B- lymphocytes proliferation by modulating genes’ expression controlling cell-cycle progression.(9) As consequences, CLL clinical features occurs. Breast cancer breast cancer is oestrogen hormone dependant disease. Breast cancer occurs when the number of oestrogen receptors (ER) increase abnormally. Alb1 genes are oncogenes in breast cancer. It enhances the transcriptional activity of the ER and E2F1 and other transcription factors. (16) Alb1 is a rate-limiting factor for oestrogen. (16) E2F1 is involving in growth hormone–signalling pathway and mediated breast cancer cells growth. (16) From the Hossain et al’s study, mir-17-5p play a role of tumour suppressor, which controls the cell proliferation of breast cancer cells. (16) In cell culture experiment, AlB1 expression was downregulated by mir-17-5p through translational inhibition. This resulted in decreased ER and cancer cells’proliferation. As mir-17-5p binds to the cyclin D1 3’UTR in the MCF-7 breast cancer cells . It inhibits cyclin D1 expression, resulting in suppressed cell proliferation and cell cycle arrest.(9) Conclusion MicroRNAs are crucial in the cell cycle. The Mitchell et al’s study has shown that miRNAs displayed high stability in tissue from human plasma. (17) It is possible that miRNA might be useful biomarker to indicate disease state. Moreover, the demonstration of miRNA profiles are potential for distinguishing a development of tumour’s origin and miRNA that acts like tumour suppressor in cancer.(18) From Lu et al’s study, they have demonstrated that there are lower miRNA expression in poorly differentiated as compared to highly differentiate tumour; which is very interesting fact and provide evidence to shoe that possibility that miRNA could utilised in disease diagnostics. (19) Therefore, further researches should carry out to gain more understandings and invent more effective treatment. References 1. Bueno J, Marà ­a., Malumbres M. MicroRNAs and the cell cycle. 2011;1812(5):592–601. 2. Malumbres M, Barbacid M. To cycle or not to cycle: a critical decision in cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2001;1(3):222-31. 3. Carleton MC, A., Michele. Linsley,S.,Peter. MicroRNAs and Cell Cycle Regulation. Cell cycle. 2007 September 1;6(17):2127-32. 4. The image of microRNA [image on the internet]. 2013 [cited 2014 February 4]. Available from : http://www.fireflybio.com/introduction_to_microRNA. 5. Johnson CD, Esquela-Kerscher A, Stefani G, Byrom M, Kelnar K, Ovcharenko D, et al. The let-7 microRNA represses cell proliferation pathways in human cells. Cancer Res. 2007;67(16):7713-22. 6. Absalon S, Kochanek DM, Raghavan V, Krichevsky AM. MiR-26b, upregulated in Alzheimers disease, activates cell cycle entry, tau-phosphorylation, and apoptosis in postmitotic neurons. J Neurosci. 2013;33(37):14645-59. 7. Mencà ­a à ea. Mutations in the seed region of human miR-96 are responsible for nonsyndromic progressive hearing loss. Nature Genetics. 2009;41(5):609-13. 8. Hughes AE, Bradley DT, Campbell M, Lechner J, Dash DP, Simpson DA, et al. Mutation Altering the miR-184 Seed Region Causes Familial Keratoconus with Cataract. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 2011;89(5):628-33. 9. MicroRNA in Cancer: Spinger Science and Business Media Dordrecht; 2013 [cited 2014 February 2]. Available from: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/MicroRNA_in_Cancer.html?id=RS8qLrSkdkgC. 10.Yang MM, Joerg. Discovery, biology and therapeutic potential of RNA interference, microRNA and antagomirs. 2008;117(1):94–104. 11. Cohen B. The image of cell cycle [image on the internet]. 2013 [cited 2014 February 4]. Available from : http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/neoplasia-vii-cancer-critical-genes-and-familial-cancer-syndromes/deck/6316935. 12. Chivukula R, Raghu. Mendell,T., Joshua. Circular reasoning: microRNAs and cell-cycle control. October 2008;33(10):474-81. 13. Yu Z, Baserga R, Chen L, Wang C, Lisanti MP, Pestell RG. microRNA, Cell Cycle, and Human Breast Cancer. American Journal of Pathology, The. 2010;176(3):1058-64. 14. Cho WC. OncomiRs: the discovery and progress of microRNAs in cancers. Molecular Cancer [Internet]. 2007 2007-09-25 [cited 2014 Febuary 5]; 6(1):[60 p.]. Available from: http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/6/1/60. 15. Calin GA, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Bichi R, Zupo S, Noch E, et al. Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro- RNA genes miR15 and miR16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 2002;99(24). 16. Hossain A, Kuo MT, Saunders GF. Mir-17-5p Regulates Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation by Inhibiting Translation of AIB1 mRNA. Molecular and Cellular Biology. Novemble 2006;26(20). 17. Mitchell PS, Parkin RK, Kroh EM, Fritz BR, Wyman SK, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, et al. Circulating microRNAs as stable blood-based markers for cancer detection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105(30):10513-8. 18. Hydbring PV-B, Gayane. Clinical applications of microRNAs F1000Research. 2014. 19. Lu J, Getz G, Miska EA, Alvarez-Saavedra E, Lamb J, Peck D, et al. MicroRNA expression profiles classify human cancers. Nature. 2005;435(7043):834-8.

The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with promise :: Free Essay Writer

The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with promise and romance. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. There are many women and men in this world that state that they don’t need bind in holy matrimony in order to feel complete or happy about their lives. Obviously, these women and men don’t live in the world of Pride and Prejudice. Even the opening line declares a subtle truth so well that it get you thinking. At first one sees it as an ironic statement trying to open the book’s comedic and love-related atmosphere. However as one digs deeper you see there is more to this line than what meets the eye. This sentence can sum up the goal of many women in this novel who are in search of a single man in possession of a good fortune such as Ms Lucas, as it does sum up the plot in many ways. As it states that men must be in want of a wife, it subtly hints that the women in the novel are most likely looking or are in desperate need of a [wealthy] husband. This line also sets out little hints as to who are these men in search of these women? If one reads on the same page as this line is printed on, one notes that Mr Bingley, who has just recently moved into Netherfield, is one of those men "Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England†¦ . This quote states that Mr Bingley is a man of large fortune which is similar to good fortune, in fact even better. The meeting of each new male central character is attached to a descriptive sentence of his wealth and background. As we read along the novel we see that most of the women in the novel notice this wealth and also notice that these men are in fact looking after wives to wed and share their life with. The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with promise and romance. They can be referred back to this opening line of that he is looking for mutual affection in his life. There is a lot of truth behind this quote which sums up the behaviours of most of the male characters in the book; with the slight exception of Darcy who doesn’t seek love though is surprisingly revealed to it.

Ashes of Izalco-bookr report :: essays research papers

ASHES OF IZALCO By Claribal Alegria and Darwin J. Flakoll   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I found the beginning of this book quite confusing. I had a difficult time discerning who the main characters were and what was the plot. I also wasn’t quite sure when the Mother had died and it wasn’t until later that I realized the reason that Carmen was present was because she had traveled home for her mother’s funeral. However, once I got into the book and started to put the characters in context, I really began to enjoy it. This book has very sad overtones. It is concerned with the human struggle for happiness in life, or maybe just contentment. Just about every main character, present and past, seems to be involved in some inner turmoil. Carmen is struggling with her own identity and her unhappiness in her marriage to Paul. She feels she plays a role of dutiful wife as she was brought up to be, but that the marriage really has no strong foundation and she and her husband have nothing in common. Possibly a repetition of her parents’ marriage? She admits to being convinced by her husband to have an abortion. This must have been very traumatic to reconcile with her Catholic upbringing as she refers to it as â€Å"a crime†. She is searching throughout the narrative for answers to her questions. What has become of her? What should she do about her marriage? Her father? And one of the most pressing questions is her struggle to understand why her has mother left the diary to her? There are no clear answers for Carmen. As she searches for answers she is also experiencing the very early stages of the grieving process. She is angry. She doesn’t like at all that her mother has altered her view of her as a parent. Don’t we all think that our parents never make mistakes or have questions in their own lives? If Isabel had left the marriage when she was a child, Carmen would have been forced to deal with the issue of an imperfect world with imperfect people. As she travels through some very poignant reminiscences, she admits to her own self-absorption as a child. As an adult, she reflects on now seeing her parents more clearly as individuals. I, too, have personally had this experience in seeing parents differently from the adult perspective. Carmen appears to be wearing a mask in her own relationship that shows a repetition of her mother’s life.

Irish Stereotyping In The Late 1800’s Essay

Published in Puck, America’s first successful comedic magazine containing several types of cartoons, on June 26, 1889 a cartoon entitled â€Å"The Mortar Of Assimilation And The One Element That Just Won’t Mix† clearly shows an Irishman rebelling against the rest of the American crowd with a knife in his hand, expressing violence, and possibly alcoholism. Through further research I found that how poorly the Irish were treated during this time period. The cartoon â€Å"The Mortar Of Assimilation And The One Element That Just Won’t Mix† expresses the idea Irishmen just do not belong in America, despite the several other races intertwined into our country. This cartoon brings me to the question; Why? Why were the Irish labeled as such outcasts? I have discovered three main reasons to answer this question: The Irish were labeled as violent, drunk, and having strange religious views. One clear reason the Irish were labeled as outcasts is because of the violence they were stereotyped to portray. The Irishman holding the knife in the cartoon is a perfect example of this. The Fenian brotherhood was a group with one main goal to obtain all freedom and become an independent republic of Ireland. For many played the role of motivation in emigrating to the United States, played a large role in this stereotype. One article in particular, entitled â€Å"The Fenians In Ireland† published in The New York Observer And Chronicle on November 23, 1895, articulates a perfect example of the violence portray by the Fenian brotherhood. It wrote: â€Å"The Derry Journal contains the following account of a sense of terror and alarm which occurred in a quiet village, but a few evenings since in consequence of a farmer of reliable veracity knocking up his sleepy neighbors to defend their homes and their firesides against a host of bloodthirsty, who were in march for their well-stocked farmyards. After some delay a great number of the male inhabitants were brought together in a truly warlike style†¦. The supposed Fenians had disappeared leaving the mangled remains of one of their companions behind them.† Another reason the Irish were labeled as outcasts is because of their religion. At this point in history America was made up of mostly Protestants, however the majority of the Irish emigrants were Catholic. Most Irish children were put into parochial schools and religion was placed as a big priority in their lives. The Irish held on tightly to their religious ways, a main reason being that was the one thing that still tied them to their homeland. Roman â€Å"Catholic priests denounce the common schools, and set up their protests in the form of un-American parochial schools.† (The Methodist Review, 5 January 1889) Americans refused to accept this religion due to the differences in their beliefs and practices. Today, Catholicism is one of the United States’ most common religions, with much thanks due to the Irish emigration. . Catholics also weren’t able to run for any political office, so that ruled out most of the Irish population for a great while, until the Know Nothing Act took place and the United States was able to look past religion. â€Å"The curse of the Irishman in America is strong drink.† (The Chautauquan, 8 October 1887) Drinking was a big part of Irish cultures. Even wakes were associated with alcohol due to the celebration of the deceased’s life. Americans feared their mostly Protestant nation would soon die out if the mostly Catholic Irish all emigrated to the United States, another reason why the Irish were not treated fairly. Not only were the Irish viewed as hot-headed violent, people with strange religious views, they were also known to be unskilled and drunk. Americans viewed Irish as alcoholics due to the drinking that is weaved into their culture and ways of living. Much like our culture does today, Irish drank in several difference social settings, although the y did drink alcohol at someone’s wake before the funeral, which may have been what disgusted Americans the most. Americans saw alcohol has ruling over the Irish and they were merely the slaves. One should also note, this was during the time of the ban of alcohol in the United States, so to see one consuming alcohol at such high rates was highly alarming and it would not be long for one to create a bad reputation because of something so simple. Due to this, Americans also stereotyped the Irish to be unskilled and lazy, at times signs were even put into windows stating things such as, â€Å"Irish need not apply.† At this point in history, Irish were viewed much similarly to African Americans when it came to respect. Over time, the Irish were able to keep their customs without encountering further confrontation, and the United States was able to run as one country under many different religions and customs as it does today. Catholics were able to run for office and Catholicism soon became one of the United States’ top most common religions. The Irish were looked down upon by Americans for three main reasons; they were stereotyped to be violent, drunk, and had different religious views which were frowned upon by the Americans. The Fenian brotherhood played a big role in the Irish being stereotyped as violent. At times, it is possible Irishmen were stereotyped to be violent because they were also known to be drunks. The Irish were known to be drunks because of the drinking that is associated with their culture. The Irish emigration to America had a lasting effect on everyone that was a part of the country, without the Irish emigration to the United States, America would not be what it is today, with a beautiful mix of races, religions, and beliefs.