Japanese Propaganda

Yes, I agree that the worst problem Singaporeans faced during the Japanese occupation was living in constant fear of the Japanese rather than Japanese propaganda. The Japanese had claimed that they were liberating Southeast Asia from colonialism, but in reality they were far harsher rulers than the British ever were. In addition to civilian casualties, many cruel acts were committed by Japanese troops, particularly by the Kempeitai. The Kempetai were the Japanese police. Commoners were made to bow to them as they passes, if not, they would be punished by kicking, hitting, and many more. The Japanese, to ‘purify' the commoners and not have ‘unloyals' going against them, introduced a system called Sook Ching. There were secret informers all over the island. When asked by the Japanese to select and ‘accused', they would simply point to anyone. These people were rounded up and taken to a deserted place to be shot and killed. The local people lived in fear at that time because they did not know who worked for the Japanese and who did not. This caused distrust of the people. People no longer knew who to trust, as the secret informers were well paid and they had a high chance of not being rounded up for shooting. This was unfair to Singaporeans as people were being killed for small matters like not bowing down to the Japanese when they pass. This then caused many people to lose their closed ones. Japanese propaganda during World War 2 was designed to assist the ruling government of Japan. Singapore was then renamed to ‘Syonan-to'. Propaganda Campaigns were carried out to influence people to pledge their loyalty to Japan. Students in Singapore also had to learn Japanese in school. Children were marched to school where half their time was spent on indoctrination on loyalty to the emperor, and frugality, obedience, honesty, and diligence. Teachers were instructed to teach â€Å"Japanese science† based on the â€Å"Imperial Way†. Students were given more physical education and required to perform community service. Those who left school after completing six years were required to attend night school for Japanese history and ethics, military training for boys, and home economics for girls. Radio stations were controlled by the Japanese so that only local broadcasts were allowed. Singaporeans did not have any freedom and everything had to be done according to the Japanese's ways. I feel that the worst problem Singaporeans faced during the Japanese occupation was living in constant fear of the Japanese rather than Japanese propaganda. People were killed for small reasons, like not bowing down to the Japanese. They did not dare to go out, and didn't know who to trust, fearing that they would get killed. But Singaporeans didn't have to die during the propaganda, even though they had to follow the Japanese's ways and suffer. Therefore, I think that the worst problem that the Singaporeans faced during the Japanese occupation was living in the fear of the Japanese.

The Analysis of the Uk Supermarket and Tesco

The analysis of the UK supermarket and Tesco Introduction: The role of supermarket is becoming far more significantly in daily life. Consumers could see different kind of brands and variable goods. The role of the supermarket is tried to satisfy the consumers’ demands. Since the supermarket came out, the advantages such as low price and cost, much convenience made the supermarket develop quickly. As a consequence of the rapid development, the supermarket plays an important role in the retail industry. It not only saves large amounts of labor capital and operating cost, but improves the shopping environment.In this essay I will make a specific analysis of the UK supermarket system through economic theories. Firstly, I will analyse the situation of the UK supermarket via Five Forces Model (Michael Porter 1979). And then, I will select the largest supermarket in UK, Tesco, to analyse the strategy of this firm by using the value chain (Michael Porter 1985). Tesco is the largest Br itish retailer both by global and domestic market share. And it is the third largest retailer in the world followed the Wal-Mart and Carrefour.Tesco opens around 2,440 stores and employing more than 400,000 people. Tesco has entered into areas such as clothes, electronics, financial services, internet services and gas stations. Currently, the market share of the retailer in UK is more than 30 percent. As of March 2008, Tesco could be found in every postcode of the UK. Five forces analysis The aim of the five forces model illustrated by Michael Porter (1979) is to analyze an industry to determine that which forces can influence the industry strongly so that the firm could make the best position in this industry.And the five forces include: the threat of new entrants; the power of buyers; the power of suppliers; the threat of substitute products and the competitive rivalry among the existing companies. Threat of new entrants Firstly, the threat of new entrants is rather low. It is pre tty difficult for new entrants to enter the UK supermarket because of many barriers such as economies of scale, capital requirements of entry, cost advantages, differentiation, etc. There are many supermarkets in UK and the four largest Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrison account for 75. percent of the UK supermarket in the 12 weeks ending 1 November 2009 (Wikipedia). For new entrants, it is difficult to occupy the market share of the UK supermarket in current structure. The first barrier is that small scale of supermarket could not create high margin. It is necessary for the entrants to consider the capital requirement according to the large scale of the operation. Many supermarket firms like Tesco and Asda have the cost advantages in supplication factor and other economic factors.It makes a large barrier for new firms to enter the market because of the disadvantages in cost requirement. Comparing the existing firms, the new enters need more cost and capital to establish the new brand and the access to marketing channels in order to attract the consumers. The existing supermarkets have built the famous brands, stable consumer groups and distribution channels. The strength of the brand name and channels could be a very powerful mean to build a barrier to entry. In order to keep the market stable, government also has the ability to establish a barrier.For instance, if the government can make a determination that how many supermarkets could be established in one region, as a result, the entrants will not be limited to build new facilities. And the new entrants may require many licenses from the government of other legal branches in order to operate. That is also a type of barrier for entry. The existing companies will make a specific analysis aim at the threat of the new entrants and then publish relevant measures to prevent the entrants to enter the supermarket system. There are so many barriers for new entrants to enter the supermarket system that the threat of them is rather low.Power of the buyer Secondly, the power of the buyer is not strong as well. People need their daily life products, so they must do shopping. For the large supermarkets, there are many factures influence the buyers’ selection such as the comfortable shopping environment, convenient transportation, free parking, etc. However, because of the homogeneity of these factors, what the consumers concern more is the price of the products. Different company makes different price strategy based on the respective position. Clubcard of Tesco is the company’s customer loyalty programme – the way of saying ‘thank you' to consumers.It is pretty popular that the number of active member increased over 15 million from 13 million at the start of 2008/9. Clubcard is a main reason for consumers who prefer the Tesco rather than other competitors. Power of the supplier Thirdly, the power of the supplier is also low. The majority of the products in different s upermarket are homogeneity. Many large firms like Tesco and Asda have the unified operating style and advanced purchase measures. So, there are many suppliers for the supermarkets to choose and purchase products.And because of the small retailers’ purchasing power is much lower than the supermarkets. At last, most of the products will be sent to the large supermarkets. Threat of the substitute Fourthly, the threat of the substitute is not high. As the substitute of the supermarkets, the small single retailers are pretty convenient for consumers. People could buy fresh seafood, vegetable and fruit from the respective markets instead of the supermarkets. And there are many advantages about the retailers, for instance, many small retailers are built near the residential areas, the range of products is pretty full.However, since the operating cost is high, if the retailers want to obtain margin, they have to make the price higher than the supermarket. But as the industry leader, there is no doubt that the Tesco Group would not give up the share of small retailer market. So the Tesco Express and One Stop came out. The Tesco Express stores are neighborhood convenience stores whose average size are about 200  m2, stocking mainly food with an emphasis on higher-margin products and everyday essentials. They are established in busy city centre districts, small shopping precincts in residential areas, small towns and illages. And the size of One Stop is much smaller than the Express. At the end of its 2010-2011 financial years, the number of the Tesco Express and One Stop were 1285 and 599(Wikipedia). Because of the famous brand of the Tesco, most people prefer to buy the daily products in the Express or One Stop. According to Datamonitor (2010), there are 960 Express stores which sell approximately 7,000 products and 170 Metro stores which sell a range of food products in villages and city centres.As a consequence of the brand and more types of products of the supermarket, the threat of the substitute is rather low for the supermarket. Competitive rivalry among the existing firms The last one is the competitive rivalry among the existing firms. And the threat of competitive rivalry is considered very high in the UK supermarket industry. The four largest supermarkets Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Morrisons account for 30. 5%, 16. 9%, 16. 3% and 12. 3% of the UK supermarket in the 12 weeks to 27 December 2009. (Wikipedia) And the market share of ASDA increases from to 16. % during the year 2010/ 09, meanwhile, Sainsbury’s share rises to 16. 3% and Morrison’s reaches 12. 3% from 11. 3%(Euromonitor, 2010). The competition of these firms is pretty strong in this industry in order to win the market share and the competition could make the market develop much faster. It is very significant for these firms to create many innovative measures to obtain more market share. Most products are homogeneity for consumers so that the seller sh ould pay more attention to the piece and quality of the products.Hence, based on the quality guarantee of the goods, firms try to occupy more market through the lower price and better services. By the analysis above, the threat of the competitive rivalry among the different firms is highly strong but other threats are not strong enough. So, the supermarkets in UK should figure out more effective measures to attract consumers in order to occupy the market. Value chain analysis The value chain was developed by Porter (1985) in order to analyze a firm to state the sources of competitive advantage. There are two activities including primary activities and support activities. The primary activities are those that concerned about physically creating the product or service and transferring it to the buyer, together with any necessary after sales service. The support activities are those activities that are necessary to ensure that the primary activities can be completed. The support activi ties can affect any one or more of the primary activities. † The primary includes inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales and service and the support activities includes firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement.The first primary activity is the inbound logistics. It is considered that the inbound logistics includes receiving goods from suppliers, storing goods, transporting goods and taking goods to the shelves. Tesco uses the leading position as the key power to reduce the costs from the suppliers and keep the stable of consumers’ selection. Meanwhile, it also improves the efficiency and the distribution system. As well, the company provides more effective way to control and reduce the costs of damaged goods. As a result, it could avoid the extra costs be transferred to the consumers.It needs to think about its operation active. The firm could do many operations such as providing products and service and keeping the shelves full as the daily task. In order to gain more competitive advantages, it is necessary for the company to take a consideration about reducing the operating costs. Tesco makes full use of the intelligence technology (IT) system in order to make the company control the operative cost effectively. This firm has spent more than 76 million pounds on narrowing the operation time by the digital program by the 2010. And during the 2009, the profit of the Tesco was reached 550 million pounds.The measure of Tesco provides much convenience for staff to operate the service. Accompanied by the operation, they will have outbound logistics problems. It is concentrating on delivering the goods to the customer. Currently, Tesco adds the home delivery service. However, there are many methods need to be improved such as parking facilities, handcarts, staff and systems to get competitive advantage. If it could be implemented more effectively than other firms, it would mak e their consumers save more time. And the staff could make the facilities available and convenient for consumers to get quickly.Tesco has the leadership and effective outland logistics. The company has invented many measures to satisfy consumers’ demands like the small Express and one-step stores and fast door-to-door delivery service. It is very important to considering the marketing and sales. The next one is the marketing and sales. As the leading company, Tesco has its strategy to attach to consumers. The Tesco Clubcard is invented to attract more people to go shopping to Tesco instead of other competitors. Consumers who keep the cards can get much discounts and integration. Actually, advertisement is necessary as well.Tesco could attract more consumers by the advertisement via the television, radio and local newspaper. And they could get much information about the products and discounts. After selling, service becomes the most significant active. As the principle of fast and easy, when the consumers enter into the supermarket, the warm shopping environment may make them relaxed. Various sectors are responsible for their respective responsibilities; staffs provide the best personal service to consumers so that consumers can go shopping easily and comfortably. All of these reflect the intimate service for consumers. Here are the support activities.The procurement is the procedure of obtaining the various contributions to the primary activities. The key point of the firm infrastructure is planning, finance and controlling the system to improve the firm’s strategic ability. The company should focus on improving the establishment of the infrastructure so that consumers could go shopping more convenient. The human resource management includes recruitment management and staff development. The aim of the Tesco is to add differert types of schemes and develop the recruitment plan, then train more excellent staff to provide the best service for consum ers.The development of technology is a significant competitive advantage for a company. The advanced technological level could add higher brand value. Tesco is the first supermarket that invented the self-checkout in UK. And it provides great convenience to consumers. Conclusion: In this essay, I analyse the UK supermarket industry by using Five Forces (Michael Porter 1979) firstly. Through the analysis, it is clearly that the threat of new entrants, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers, the threat of substitute products are pretty low for UK supermarket industry.The firms in UK do not pay much attention to those threats above. The power of competitive rivalry among the existing companies is very strong. The competition among the existing supermarkets is rather drastic. All companies need to figure out effective strategies in order to prevent their consumers changing their brand selections. And secondly, I analyse the value chain (Michael Porter 1985) of Tesco. As the largest retailer in UK, Tesco has an excellent industrial chain for supply and demand. The primary activities could ensure the firm can gain more margins by perfect supply chain management, operation, sales and service. Read also: Reed Supermarkets: a New Wave of CompetitorsThe support activities like great human resource management, advanced IT system provide support to ensure the primary activities could be operated. With the excellent primary activities and support activities, Tesco obtains more than 30 percent market share in UK. Reference Porter, M E (1980) Competitive Strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors (Free Press) Johnson, G and Scholes, K (2007) Exploring Corporate Strategy (Prentice Hall) Besanko, D Dranove, D Shanley, M and Scharfer, S (2007), Eonomics of Strategy (Wiley) Porter M E (1985) Competitive Advantage (Free Press) Tesco available at ttp://www. slideshare. net/j4g2r/tesco-presentation Growing the UK core available at http://ar2011. tescoplc. com/business-review/growing-the-uk-core. html â€Å"Tesco share turnaround (plus an update on grocery price inflation† available at TNS Global http://www. tnsglobal. com/news/news56F59E8A99C8428989E9BE66187D57 92. aspx Euromonitor (2010), ‘Industry Profile – Food retailing’, Euromonitor International, 2010 Tesco available at http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Tesco Tesco (2010), ‘Annual Report and Review 2010’, Tesco. Available at http://ar2010. tescoplc. com/en/downloads. aspx

MGMT 4370 Organizational Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGMT 4370 Organizational Design - Essay Example In the financial year ended December 2010 the company had made revenues of US$ 99.9 billion and had employed 426,751 employees worldwide. Over the years IBM has continued to shift its business mix, exiting commoditized segments while increasing its presence in higher-value areas such as services, software and integrated solutions (IBM, â€Å"International Business Machines Corporation SEC Form 10-K† 1).Currently, the company provides integrated solutions that leverages information technology and the company’s knowledge of business process to offer a diverse portfolio of services ranging from enterprise software to consulting to implementation of services to financing. To enable it to offer each of these services competitively, IBM has divided its major operations into five major business segments: Global Technology Services, Global Business Services, Software, Systems and Technology and Global Financing. IBM’s business model is built to support two principal goals: first is to help its clients succeed in delivering business value by becoming more innovative, efficient and competitive through the use of business insight and IT solutions; and secondly, is to provide long-term value to its shareholders (IBM, â€Å"International Business Machines Corporation SEC Form 10-K†

Where the red fern grows by Wilson Rawls Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Where the red fern grows by Wilson Rawls - Essay Example The story is about Old Dan and Little Ann, two coonhounds bought by Billy when they were tiny puppies, how the three grow up together and help each other out on the path of life; and the life that the dogs and Billy lived with each other, and how they were always on the lookout for one another. Finally, when Old Dan dies due to injuries and Little Ann due to the grief, Billy has a revelation as he learns the true meaning of life. This paper helps to give an insight, through various examples from the book, of how Billy tried to persevere and train his dogs, and in the process, how he matured as a person himself. Thus, it helps to portray how a person must learn to accept suffering and make sacrifices before he is truly mature.   In the beginning, when Billy was a young boy, he wanted two coonhounds so badly, that he was willing to spend a good amount of time working to earn enough money in order to be able to buy them. Through a number of odd jobs, Billy is able to earn $50 to suffi ce him for the puppies. With this example, one can easily see that hard work and perseverance paid off as Billy sacrificed his time to work and earn so he could finally buy them. Furthermore, one can witness Billy working hard to train the puppies, along with his grandfather, as he taught the dogs all about racoon hunting so that they could kill enough racoons to make the family business of selling racoon fur grow and develop.

Mental Illness and Suicide in Juvenile Detention Facilities Research Paper

Mental Illness and Suicide in Juvenile Detention Facilities - Research Paper Example Department of Justice, 2009). A study conducted in California revealed that close to 32 percent of detained male juveniles had post-traumatic stress disorder (Hayes, 2009). The study also found that these youths experienced high levels of distress, depression and anxiety while exhibiting lower degrees of impulse control, restraint, and suppression of aggression (Hayes, 2009). Another study conducted in Mississippi established that at least 66 percent of detained juveniles had mental disorders, with more than half suffering from multiple mental disorders such as substance abuse and conduct disorders (Hayes, 2009). Through the study, Hayes (2009) noticed that 60 percent of the youths detained in juvenile correction centers in Virginia had mental health treatment needs. This situation was similar in Georgia where it was reported that about 61 percent of the juveniles in correction centers had mental problems (Samaha, 2005). The following are the statistics related to the disorders that U.S. youths in juvenile detention facilities experience. Between 50% and 90 % experience conduct disorders, 46 % attention disorders, 6-41 % anxiety disorders, 25-50 % substance abuse, 32-78 % affective disorder, 1-6 % psychotic disorders, and 50 % co-occurring mental disorder and substance abuse disorders. These statistics show that the juveniles exhibit signs of conduct disorder. This disorder is characterized by aggressive physical conduct aimed at injuring others and non-aggressive conducts aimed at causing damage to properties, theft, violation of rules and deceit (Hayes, 2009). Hayes (2009) also notes that Juveniles in detention show high rates of physical, sexual and emotional abuse than their counterparts in the community. According to a past study, Juveniles in Maryland were associated with high rates of physical violence which stood at 35 percent, and sexual abuse at 18 percent (Hays, 2009). Hayes (2009) asserts that

Virtual Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Virtual Community - Essay Example Phish fans wanted to be a part of Phish.net. They wished to share, listen, and receive information about the band. But, they also wanted to be connected to a larger "community" of people representing the ideas characterized by the band. Phish.net members established "norms to direct behavior in the larger Phish fan community" that carried beyond virtual boundaries into actual venues (Watson 112). Phish.net was able to "prove to record industry executives that as a group they were worth listening to because of the collectivity's large size and tight coherence" (Watson 127). c) Virtual communities have louder voices, are more capable of assigning principles, and are better equipped to influence change. But, there are also potential negative consequences associated with online communications. Online communities can become so large that they alienate the standards and ideas upon which they were originally founded. They require no commitment and little accountability. And, there is a general lack of the intimacy that binds off-line communities.

Rating takes priority over 'quality' when it comes to television Essay

Rating takes priority over 'quality' when it comes to television programming provision. Discuss - Essay Example s, due to the introduction of innovative modalities such Cable Television, Satellite and Broadband Television and due to the multitude of channels available, the television industry worldwide has become extremely competitive1. Broadcasters and channels, in order to maintain their position in the industry, often face a dilemma as to whether to adopt an audience-oriented approach, thereby maintaining quality of programmes produced, or a market-oriented approach, focusing on ratings and the business generated and compromise on aspects of the final product2. In order to attract more viewers there is often a trade-off between quality and ratings thus jeopardizing program quality. This paper discusses the various measures of assessment of television programs including their quality and ratings, and elucidates whether ratings are prioritized over quality in the current competitive era of television programming. Television viewing can be best described and explained as being pervasive in nature and television programmes have a significant impact on the lives of the viewers as they help the audiences in formulating their views, opinions and notions regarding various matters. According to Strivers (1994)3, mass media plays a significant role in shaping the public opinion and perceptions, in both a negative and a positive manner. This has important implications for the media, including the television industry as the media has to play a very responsible role in relaying constructive notions of the society only. In addition to that, one of the integral purposes of television programming is the provision of entertainment. Entertainment can be defined in several different ways. Gripsrud (2002) states that the purpose of provision of entertainment is to capture the audience’s attention and making them ‘so engaged in/by something, that we mentally leave our immediate surroundings to some extent (pg 276)’4. The aforementioned discussion serves to underscore the importance

English settlement in the Americas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

English settlement in the Americas - Essay Example The colonization had made Spain the wealthiest nation, during the later years of the 1500s. The inflow of the English was triggered by the need to colonize and explore the Americas, after they saw that Spain was growing extremely rich during the sixteenth century (Benedict 1996). However, the colonization and the exploration style of England was different from that of Portugal and Spain, as England privatized its exploration, through granting letters of Marquis and charters to the individuals that captured English colonies as economic strongholds. This paper will explore the motives behind the development of English settlements in the Americas, both from the perspective of the settlers and official policy formulations (Starkey 1998). The motives included mercantilism, which is the economic outlook of integrating private and government efforts, towards fostering economic development. The aims of the system included managing all the components of American trade, including transport, pr oduction and retailing – under the control of England. ... There was also the spread of Protestantism, partly due to Henry VIII’s pursuit of getting a male child. After the death of Edward in 1553, Mary I took over, and she started killing Protestants, so that she could restore England to Catholicism. On one occasion, she commanded the execution of 300 Protestants for heresy, and had them burnt. During the time of fleeing England to avoid persecution, and after the reign of Elizabeth, the English settled in the Americas – and in the process realized the goal of expanding their religious coverage (Spielvogel 2000). The English sought to expand the coverage of their religion, as there was the common view that Spanish Catholicism was evil. As a result, the attacks staged on Spanish ships by Sir Francis, while in the American waters were hailed as a heroic act, and not pirate activity. The demolition of the Spanish armada paved way for the English explorers to colonize the Americas, which was also an effort to contain the spread of Catholicism. The development of English settlements in the Americas was also triggered by the population increase of the 1500s. During the time, England passed laws on enclosure, making all land private, which made it very difficult for commoners to feed their animals at public lands. The shift towards privatizing land resulted from the increase in the price of wool. As a result, land owners decided to stop the competition for provision of wool by increasing their farm lands and to increase their wealth through the trade. The shift increased wool production, but also led to an increase in the number of landless people, who has sustained their livelihood by grazing at public lands. Also, between 1530

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Strategic management - Essay Example Organizations usually keep much attention in the maintenance of the strategic plans implemented for dealing with the crisis situation by providing the staff with regular training to acquaint them with essential skills to manage such situation. At often instances, engagement of a Crisis Management Team (CMT) for dealing with the situation is deemed beneficial and strategically effective. CMT’s primary responsibility is to resolve the obstructions of crisis completely and assist the organization to regain its previous smoothness in performing its operations (European Interagency Security Forum, â€Å"Crisis Management of Critical Incidents†). Notably, CMT does not follow the management structure of work. According to the strategic plan for the crisis situations, there exist three stages, which encompass before crisis, during crisis and after crisis situations. CMT, thus, assists with the development of various strategic plans to deal with these stages in the most effectiv e manner. In the first stage of crisis situation, i.e. before the crisis, the organizations try to identify the types of crisis that might occur at a given period of time and make plans accordingly. Similarly, during the crisis, the CMT looks after the specific organizational operations affected by the crisis. Also, the time required for the resolution of the crisis is kept in consideration by the CMT. Concerning the stage after crisis, CMT studies the causes responsible for the crisis and take precautionary measures so as to avoid similar circumstances in future (Boin and Lagadec185-191). Thesis Statement. This essay intends to discuss the role and the significance of strategic management in crisis situations and its implications on organizations. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PREVALENT CRISIS SITUATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS Organizational crisis can be referred to particular situational obstacles, where the causes and consequences of organizational non-performances are unidentified at the initi al stage and are therefore, capable of imposing major threat to organizational performances even though the chances of a crisis occurrence are relatively lower. It has often been proclaimed that the remedies to the crisis must be made early in order to prevent any adverse consequence of it on the organization. It is worth mentioning that not all the crisis situations are preventable within the organizational context, such as the crisis arising from external environment. It thus, argued that organization should have the sufficient competency to proactively manage these non-preventable crisis situations. The objective of the crisis management does not end with the resolving of the problem but it also involves identifying measures so that such crisis would not occur again in the future. Thus, the best way of deal and manage the crisis situations is to believe that every crisis has a life cycle. This life cycle process is termed to be a vital approach for coping up with the organization al crisis. It means that the strategy of crisis management must be divided into various segments so that an effective approach can be formulated and implemented by the organization for its

Strategic retail plan for Spinneys Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic retail plan for Spinneys - Essay Example This paper will conduct a situation audit for Spinneys. The plan will involve doing an analysis of the company internal and external activities. This will mean doing a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threats) analysis. The plan will assist in developing the mission statement and assist in developing the core values of the business. The plan will help in developing goals and suggest ways of accomplishing those goals. Spinneys require an effective, strategic plan to continue growing and improving. The plan assists in monitoring and evaluating the company capabilities. The plan will provide crucial information required to update and improve the company in general. A situation audit for Spinneys will commence with a frame work evaluating the objectives, strategy and capabilities of the company (George, 1987). The frame work will assist the company gauge its’ strength, know its areas of improvement and how to relate with the external environment. Spinneys mission statement is to create value to customers, employees, share hol ders and all partners. This mission statement is not effective as it does not give a continued direction and focus of the supermarket chain stores (Steen & Avery, 2010). A vision statement should show hope for the company and customers. Spinneys vision statement states the desire of the company to grow in Lebanon. The statement has failed in that it does not show any hope for the customer. The value statement is equally valuable in a situation audit. It depicts the fundamental values of a company. Spinneys’ value statement which include - Respect, Integrity, Customer Satisfaction, Team Spirit, Performance and Corporate Citizenship combines the interest of all stakeholders. The external analysis of Spinneys Company is favourable. The company stake holders have a positive impression. Spinneys Company enjoys volume sales. This has

African influence on Western Culture Essay Example for Free

African influence on Western Culture Essay Africa, a continent with a not so peaceful history, has always been mysterious and amazing, all at the same time. â€Å"Afri† was a Latin name used to refer to the Carthaginians who lived in Northern Africa from the 9th century B.C to the 7th century A.D when the last Punic culture was destroyed in the Arab conquest. Before I start recounting my general point of view on the topic above, I would like to share a brief opinion about multiculturalism. Defining it is not that simple. Some people refer to multiculturalism as a word that describes society where many different cultures live together in peace. But is it always like that? What about inherent racism and fear? Over the last few years, lots of people have been exploiting it in order to abuse other cultures and discriminate people who are different from them. In a normal world, they would be reprimanded and heavily fined. In most countries, that’s not the case and even the authorities do not care about them. On the other hand, all cultures deserve respect, including the African ones. Cultures have been developed over centuries to allow people to live together, reasonably and peacefully. Multiculturalism can mean a country accepting some practices it tends to object to, but it can also mean that a culture becomes exposed to other ways of living, which could have quite a bad impact on the other dwellers. In conclusion, we must learn that accepting people as they are is of great importance. It is important to respect each other, and one should know that living by moral standards is one irreplaceable thing.

Urbanization And Home Ownership In Bangladesh Economics Essay

Urbanization And Home Ownership In Bangladesh Economics Essay Bangladesh is a developing country and has a population of 160 million. Urbanization process has increased rapidly. In 1891 only 2 percent citizens lived in the cities, and in 1961 this number increased to 5 percent. Baxter (1997, p) shows that citys population was 9 percent in 1974, that increased to 10.6 percent in 1984 and 17 percent in 1992. In Bangladesh education, employment, healthcare and other social aspects are centralized in the cities, especially in Dhaka. As a result Dhaka is facing a huge rate of rural urban migration. Takehiko Nomura (1996, p12) provided that Emerging urbanization and the population explosion will bring more social troubles to the world: poverty, environmental degradation, and shortage of housing, food and water- factors capable of creating instability around the world. According to New Internationalist magazine (issue 386,p 18) amongst the population of the top sixteen cities, a big proportion live in slums, between 40 percent and 50 percent in Jakarta (Indonesia), and a third in mega- metropolises like Dhaka ( Bangladesh), Kolkata (India) and Sao Paulo ( Brazil). In developing countries government intervention is very little about housing issues. Low and middle income group especially who are not in the public services go for self-help housing construction, or live as tenant. But now a day there is a lot of obstacle to find a plot of land. Datta and Jones (1999) provide evidence that people purchase via family and friends. Sometimes they apply for a plot in a government or self-help housing association project. In Chandigarh (India) there are two types of housing, one is public or semi-public housing which is provided by government or semi- government organization for their employees and the other is private housing that is occupied by the owners themselves or rented to tenants, (Sandhu 1985). There is evidence that (Ray Forest 2002, p2) urbanization rate is higher in East and South East Asia. It comes along with economical and social changes. This growth rate is putting pressure in the real estate market. As a result prices have gone up by 20 percent. Augus, Doling and Lee (2002, p 179) have provided evidence that households in Asia have lower standard than that in western countries. Construction industries in Asia could not add sufficient new housing of a standard level with those economic levels. In Hong Kong it is a common feature that people are living in an apartment of less than five hundred square feet. They cannot afford larger floor space. It is stated that (James Lee, Ray Forest, and wai Keung Tam 2002, p20) individual home-ownership is a new trend in East Asia. Only exception is Singapore, where government supported home-ownership ideas through its efforts in 1960s. It is further mentioned government of Taiwan and South Korea gives housing provision the secondary importance to the central goal of economic development. The Japan Housing Corporation is trying to develop large scale housing sites to construct housing for middle class workers in the cities. In Japan housing investment reached 12990 billion yen in 1978. 94 percent of it came from private sector investment. Housing sector is dominated by home-ownership and private renting. Government gives subsidy for low-cost public rental housing to the low-income families. Evidence shows that (James Lee, Ray Forest and Wai Keung Tam, 2002, p 38) National Housing Authority does not play an important role concerning housing issues in Thailand. Rich families build their own houses, whereas middle income group depend on private sector. But Housing Bank provides loans for both developers and individual purchases. Housing is a fundamental concern in human life. Byrne and Diamond (2007, p527) concluded that Housing provides a necessary foundation for physical and social life. It provides shelter, security, recreation, and wealth. It plays a central role in the health and well-being of its occupants and also supports their employment and educational endeavours. Among the poor there is a severe shortage of adequate, affordable housing. Housing costs in relation to households income and the quality are the issues that come to centre- stage in policy debates, (Marsh and Mullins 1998, p1-2). Government around the world is facing a fundamental debate about their role to the group who find it difficult to secure adequate accommodation for them. This issue varies between societies. Demographic and social changes influence the housing market. The demand for housing varies with the size of the families, and the age and other characteristics of the population. Generally large families need more spaces. If they decide to spend less on housing but still want more space, they have to compromise with quality. Economic change determines the type and quantity of housing. It also determines consumers ability. Technical and organizational changes in the housing sector can affect the cost. Housing finance institutes also play a very important role and their change affect housing sector as well. Price of building materials, availability of land, labour cost influences the market function. Changes in the government policy directly influence housing market. They can make it easy for low or middle income group by providing subsidies or creating special fund from where people can get secured loan. Marsh and Mullins (1998, p5) provided that A prime example in Britain is the personal subsidies paid to low-income tenants through the housing benefit system: throughout the 1980s housing benefit was seen as the main component of government policy towards housing and yet the housing benefit system is the responsibility of the Department of Social Security. In Britain central government rely upon local authorities about housing. Housing associations help implementing policies which is formed centrally. Meyerson and Terrett (1962,p70) gives evidence that in U.S.A. government provides better homes to low- income families through public housing. In order to do that The Housing Act of 1949 extended its aid for low rent housing program. Government can monitor private sectors activity concerning the quality issues. Besides through its fiscal and regulatory policy it can influence them. It can try to influence the amount of property of particular types that is produced and consumed. Sometimes it can negotiate pricing policy as well. Countrys economy always plays a vital role. And changes in this sector create a strong impact in citizens life. If unemployment grows people may not afford individual and independent households. Housing expenditures varies in different countries. Meyerson and Terrett (1962, p60) have provided that in developed countries the first and largest item in every familys budget is food and beverages. But in the developing countries the largest expenditures for the families is housing. It is further mentioned housing expenditures vary with occupation and education within each income class. Affordable housing refers to low-cost homes to either rent or buy, (Ratcliffe and Stubbs 1996, p482). It can be considered for the people in low or middle income group. Normally it is related to large- scale housing project. In the developed countries it is often seen as new settlements and urban villages. They are meant to be low- cost housing. Ratcliffe and Stubbs (1996, p486-491) further mentioned that a new settlement is a private sector sponsored new town where 2000 to 10,000 people can live. An urban village is a mixed-use mixed-ownership urban development based on public- private sector co-operation. It covers about two hundred acres. It not only provides housing but also provides small businesses, shops. It develops community feelings among people. In multi- family buildings people maintain personal relationships to manage the property well. This practise can be reflected in the national level, (Byrne and Diamond 2007). Consumers attitude towards housing aspects need to be considered to understand the housing market function. It has evidence that (Meyerson and Terrett 1962, p86) customer thinks about the number of the rooms, not about the floor spaces. They will prefer a three room house rather than a two room house of greater dimensions. Customers also put their attention on improvements in equipment and layout. They want information about its relative value, and its conformity to codes and ordinances. They consider the characteristics of their possible neighbourhood. Some people want to live far from the madding crowd. But they like to earn their living by working in the metropolitan labour market. They think improvement in the transport system can make it possible for them. Home building is supported by a group of people and institute, such as building materials suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, architect, labour and lending institutions. Meyerson and Terrett (1962, p106) describes a large-scale builder activities that Since he produces groups of houses from similar or identical plants at one location during a single undertaking, he is in a position to obtain important economies in the purchase of land, the mass construction of structures, the purchase of supplies, and the scheduling of labour and equipment. The case of Dhaka: It provides evidence that (Islam, 2004) home ownership rate is very low in Dhaka. It can be compared with some Indian cities, such as Delhi or Bombay. Rents are very high in Dhaka. Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has fixed rent in different zones, but it is not followed properly. Bangladesh has the National Housing Policy which was formed in 1993. It was amended in 1999 and in 2004. Government does not directly involve itself in the housing sector. Baker (2007) provides that government acts as facilitator or enabler and trying to increase the access to land and housing. It is trying to modify infrastructure both for the individual and the private sector. Through Bangladesh Bank (BB) it is trying to promote housing finance institutions. Islam (2004) shows that out of one million units in Dhaka metropolitan areas private sector housing companies delivered 48 thousands housing units, public sector contributed 100,000 units and co-operative sector delivered only two thousand units. Baker (2007) has provided that main consumers of private sector housing are upper and middle income groups. He further added their minimum income should be fifteen thousand (Bangladeshi Taka) per month. Land prices are very high in Dhaka. It is considered to be the main obstacle both for self-help housing construction and private sector housing companies. Baker (2007) provides evidence that it can be compared with the suburban of New York. Dhanmondi is the most expensive area where the price stands at 3500 taka per square foot, (around$60). In Gulshan land price stands at 3194 taka per square foot, and in Baridhara at 3000 taka per square foot. Land in the less expensive area (such as Pallabi, Shamoli) is around 1600 taka per square foot. It is notable that there is a real scarcity of developable land in Dhaka city. Public land occupies some colony for public service holder, military cantonment and other government related institutions. But it is accepted that the use of public land is badly managed and need to be addressed to make the maximum use.

The Development Of Technology In Travel Industry Tourism Essay

The Development Of Technology In Travel Industry Tourism Essay According to unknown, 2012 in the hospitality industry, it is absolutely vital that companies stay on top of consumer demand in an attempt to maintain their competitive advantage. In the current technologically driven business industry, it has become increasingly important for businesses to utilize every bit of information and data collected from current and potential customers when examining ways of remaining competitive in the hospitality industry. Pertaining to (William et` al, 1999) delivering quality service in the hospitality industry can be a major challenge facing hospitality managers in the opening years of the next millennium. It will be an essential condition for success in the emerging, keenly competitive, global hospitality markets. While the future importance of delivering quality hospitality service is easy to discern and to agree on, doing so presents some difficult and intriguing management issues. Since the delivery of hospitality service always involves people, these issues center on the management of people, and in particular on the interactions between guests and staff, interactions that are called service encounters. In the eyes of our guests, our hospitality businesses will succeed or fail depending on the cumulative impact of the service encounters in which they have participated. Hospitality industry would include hotels, restaurant and other related tourism organizations. This means that the tourists have to encounter with staffs, therefore the industries have to have good customer representative that can communicate with their guest and help them resolve their issues. There are three elements in the hospitality which motels. Includes restaurant that provide beverages and food entertainment by the theatre and accommodation provide by the industrial service. In the service delivery in the hospitality industry and service delivery in other businesses there are little are no differences because they both have good customer service which is very important in both industries, they both provide quality service to increase their revenue and to ensure that they satisfy their customer needs and want in the industry. The significant impact on the development of technology in travel and tourism industry Technology in travel and tourism industry in today world control and deliver swiftness and power your need to achieve your business ambitions. It is also delivers effective solution to meet their customers precise business needs increasing profit and work rate improving customer relation and decreasing cost. However you can depend on technology with the travel and tourism industry to improve the communication process. When communicating with technology you save time and money wisely and disengage from computer frequently to communication in person and help people to keep in touch with co-workers and traders in need of information. therefore technology in the industry improve the communication process, poorly design are in appropriately use technology can inner communication with workers more than it helps and it can be used in the industry to find explore analysis to exchange and present information responsively without discrimination, it also increase internationally and has speed u p the process of globalization. According to Rosendo (cuyasen, 2012), New Technology and media has changed the way of tourism. Travelers turn to the internet to research on potential destinations and do bookings online. They even include sharing their experiences of the trips they go to. The executive director of Ctrip.com said that consumers know more about the industry and travel businesses cannot make money from the information gap anymore. The past ten years has empowered consumers greatly. A great majority of travelers do their search online for bookings, travel guides and visas. According to John Liu, the executive vice-president and head of Greater China at Google, 85% of travelers do their research on the net and the average traveler does 55 online searches before a booking. Comparing and looking for information is very easy now and all kinds of information are available on the internet. Pertaining to Keith Evans, (Evans, 1999-2012) with the explosion of technological advancements in the mid and late 20th century, tourists discovered increasing access to a growing array of destinations. From promoting destinations and attracting traveler attention to enabling instant reservations and payment collection, communication technology continues to exhibit a significant impact on the tourism industry and travel in general. Communication technology plays a considerable role in travel and tourism, as much of modern tourism revolves around the ability of tourist destinations to communicate their benefits to potential visitors and the ability of those visitors to reach out to points of interest at the destination. Advantages and disadvantages of technology in the travel and tourism industry According to leelingz, (leelingz, 2011) nowadays, technology has advanced in tremendous leaps and bounds. We cannot imagine the world without technological advances such as computer, televisions, and machines and so on. However there are some advantages and disadvantages of technology. First of all, technologies play a very important role in society because it makes life easier to live on and less time consuming. Technology has the ability to create shortcuts in working. People do not have to do all the hard labor anymore. People use technology to plan their trip which makes it more convenient and easy. They can research destination to their own pace, shop around for the best fares and hotel deals, and make reservations right from your computer. On the contrary, technology also brings harm to our society. The booming of industrialization and development causes pollutions to our world. For example, the smoke from the vehicles and machines affects the quality of air and destroy the ozo ne layer. In addition, technologies also create financial problems in families because most of the technologies are expensive like computers. People that cannot afford to buy this kind of technology will live in a stressful life. On my views the important of technology in the travel and tourism industry is to get information through research, help to increase the organization revenue, to get information across to their customers and other related organizations, delivers great speed, reach audience that is physically separated from the sender and increase access ability and openness in an organization and bad part about technology is that it can create tension and conflict, easy to be over used, often lack privacy and can seriously drain employment productivity. But in my case without technology the industry could not keep up their infrastructure to keep attracting the visitor and keep the place in order. Community base tourism According to (oikos, 2009) Community based tourism is tourism in which local residents (often rural, poor and economically marginalized) invite tourists to visit their communities with the provision of overnight accommodation. Community based tourism enables tourists to discover local habitats and wildlife, and celebrates and Respects traditional cultures, rituals and wisdom. The community will be aware of the commercial and social value placed on their natural and cultural heritage through tourism, and this will foster community based conservation of these resources. Community-based tourism affords travelers with rare opportunities to experience local communities first hand. Its distinctive in that it provides an alternative to development thats not sustainable, giving rural and poor communities an additional source of income. In supporting community-based tourism, you can immerse yourself in the day-to-day lives of local and indigenous people while helping them to preserve their environment and cultural heritage. The residents earn income as land managers, entrepreneurs, service and produce providers, and employees. At least part of the tourist income is set aside for projects which provide benefits to the community as a whole. Tourists will spend time near areas that are rich in culture and biodiversity, and, at the same time, will get to know the locals at the grassroots level. Many successful experiences in development countries prove that tourism can become a leading sector for the people who conserve natural resources and live on it. Local people of these countries jointly cooperate in Community Based Tourism and this gives not only economic benefits for them but also becomes an example of community involved decision making. A community by definition implies individuals with some kind of collective responsibility, and the ability to make decisions by representative bodies. Localsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ participation, traditional culture, cross-cultural issues and raise of local income are basic principles of tourism and it is fundamental to get more in depth for development countries where tourism is dominantly operate by great foreign companies. Usually familiesà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ interviews make obvious that locals are interested to take part in tourism activities but they donà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t know how. Often the creation of Community Based Tourism is the best solution for local people or at least a great help for them for example in these countries where the main income is from livestock and the desertification, the spread of unproductive land deprived of vegetation, is one of the main concerns. Community Based Tourism is the jointly planned and managed tourism activities of local group: this new business never can be the main or only income source of the communities and cooperatives but can be additional income possibility. Issues like generating additional incomes for locals and reducing impacts on environment are included in the government policy about tourism, but there has been little implementation and no integrated policy at the national level. The pros and cons of community base tourism Base on the information of (mozer, 1995-2012)Advantage -depending upon implementation some of these can turn into disadvantages. Employment- (1 emp/1000 tourist) labor intensive, few administrative positions, little upward mobility. Infrastructure development -roads, water, electricity, telecom and cybercom, but not necessarily local priorities. Cultural preservation- economic incentives to preserve food, fashion, festivals and physical history, but these tend to be superficial elements of a culture. Environmental protection- econ incentives to preserve nature, wildlife and urban cleanliness. Foreign exchange .generates resources to import food, pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer goods. Development of health care services -those these arent always available to local people. Disadvantages -depending upon implementation some of these can turn into advantages. Cultural destruction-(modernization world mono-culture), freezes culture as performers, loss: language, religion, rituals, material culture. primary products- sun, sand, surf, safari, suds, ski, sex (little value added, neo-colonialism) Environmental destruction -game drives, resorts: golf, ski, beach, desert, world as playground, SUV. Marginal employment -low skill, low wage, menial services, prostitution, drug trade, gambling, hustlers. Low benefits -no job security, no health care, no organizing, and no work safety rules or environ standards. Development of illegal and/or destructive economic activities- markets for drugs, endangered species, etc. Outside hiring- skilled middle and senior management recruited out of the area and transferred in. Concentration employment -walled resort enclaves. seasonal employment Outside decision making-decisions made outside of the area, corporate dollars corrupt government. Unrealistic expectations-divert young people from school and brighter futures. anti-democratic collusion- industry support of repressive governments Land controlled by the elite -people relocated, agriculture eliminated, prohibited from N.P. negative lifestyles (STDs- substance abuse, begging, hustling diverted and concentrated development -airport, roads, water, electricity to tourist destinations, development not accessible to locals little forex stays in country -airplanes, vehicles, booze, hot air balloons, generally have foreign owners package programs Cruises -eat and sleep on board so the economic benefit to the ports-of-call is very thin and limited. Unstable market -fickle, affected by local and world events, generally highly elastic. Health tourism -traveling to get medical procedure at lower cost has its own set of unique challenges, which include: Determining the credential, skills and quality of the facility and personnel. Language communication challenges on topics requiring a lot of details, sometimes even when both parties seemingly speak the same language. Different cultural issues and expectations around health care and the body. Post-treatment complications, after the tourist has left the facility.

Benefits of ESL and Bilingual Education Essay -- essays research paper

In order to help those non-native people to be successful in the United Sates, there should have some kind of programs to help them to learn English effectively, but also to maintain their native language. Bilingual Education and ESL programs are systems that developed since the mid 1900s in the United States to reach the goal of helping non-native people with the language. There has been the argument of whether these programs are effective and necessary to maintain to help the non-native speakers. Therefore, it is important to find a way to secure the Bilingual Education and ESL programs are helpful to non-native people to learn English and maintain their native language. According to the overall practice of these programs in the past experiences and my experiences as a bilingual student, the combination of Bilingual Education and ESL programs is the best way to go about. The debate over whether to have the bilingual education maintained in the school system has never stopped since the first practice of the bilingual education in the United States. There were people support the bilingual education, and also have people against the bilingual education. The supporters are argued the bilingual education is necessary to help the non-native students to learn the English while also encourage them to maintain their native language, because the knowledge of two languages will benefited a lot for their future, and they will be more competitive than others. While the others said the bilingual education is not a good way to help the non-native speakers to learn the English effectively because it focuses too much on their native language and failed to teach the English to them. ?Research speaks of increasing numbers of students i... ...glish and can understand very well in class. As a whole, Bilingual Education should not be abolished because immigrants need this program to help them to be successful in the United States. The goal of bilingual education is good because it helps immigrants maintain their native language. This will benefit them a lot, and it also can help new immigrants to adjust into the new culture smoothly. Therefore, Bilingual Education should not be abolish but improves its function to be more applicable to the immigrants to maintain their native language while embracing English. In order to get full individuality in the public, get involved in the society and be socially advantaged, one should focus more on mastering the English skills. Lastly, the combination of Bilingual Education and ESL programs are the best way to go about to reach the goals of both of these programs.

Kingstons China Men :: Maxine Hong Kingston China Men

Kingston's China Men Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men contains many fables and parables from the Chinese Culture. In "On Mortality" Kingston reveals the story of human mortality and the reason for this mortality. The story focuses largely on human emotions and reactions towards the situations that people find themselves in. It also raises questions about the role of women in the Chinese culture and the attitudes of the culture towards them. The main character, Tu Tzu-chun, is forced to go through a series of tortures that are all illusions. He can not speak or react to the events that he witnesses, which he believes he can do. It is only at the last of the nine hells that he cries out in horror at the sight that he encounters. As he cries out, Tu is removed from the hells he is in and informed by the Taoist that he has ruined the chance for all humans to be immortal. The Taoist informs Tu that "[Tu] overcame joy and sorrow, anger, fear, and evil desire, but not love..."(121). hat, though, constitutes this idea of love? During the illusions, Tu could not "overcome love" when he was reincarnated as a woman and faced with the murder of her young child, yet when he was still himself he quietly watched his wife be ground into bloodmeal. He did not cry out at that sight, reminding himself that it was only an illusion. How could he not react to this incident to his own wife, yet react to the death of a child he does not yet know? Both incidents were illusions and both would seem to involve love but Tu only reacted to one of them. Is it because he was a woman that he cried out at the sight of a child being harmed? Did he not cry out at the death of his wife because she was a woman? The role of the female in this story reveals a sense of inferiority towards women. These questions that the story raises show how women were viewed as inferior and weak in the eyes of the Chinese culture. Kingston's China Men :: Maxine Hong Kingston China Men Kingston's China Men Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men contains many fables and parables from the Chinese Culture. In "On Mortality" Kingston reveals the story of human mortality and the reason for this mortality. The story focuses largely on human emotions and reactions towards the situations that people find themselves in. It also raises questions about the role of women in the Chinese culture and the attitudes of the culture towards them. The main character, Tu Tzu-chun, is forced to go through a series of tortures that are all illusions. He can not speak or react to the events that he witnesses, which he believes he can do. It is only at the last of the nine hells that he cries out in horror at the sight that he encounters. As he cries out, Tu is removed from the hells he is in and informed by the Taoist that he has ruined the chance for all humans to be immortal. The Taoist informs Tu that "[Tu] overcame joy and sorrow, anger, fear, and evil desire, but not love..."(121). hat, though, constitutes this idea of love? During the illusions, Tu could not "overcome love" when he was reincarnated as a woman and faced with the murder of her young child, yet when he was still himself he quietly watched his wife be ground into bloodmeal. He did not cry out at that sight, reminding himself that it was only an illusion. How could he not react to this incident to his own wife, yet react to the death of a child he does not yet know? Both incidents were illusions and both would seem to involve love but Tu only reacted to one of them. Is it because he was a woman that he cried out at the sight of a child being harmed? Did he not cry out at the death of his wife because she was a woman? The role of the female in this story reveals a sense of inferiority towards women. These questions that the story raises show how women were viewed as inferior and weak in the eyes of the Chinese culture.

To what extent do you regard The Shield Of Achilles as characteristic E

To what extent do you regard The Shield Of Achilles as characteristic of Auden’s work as whole? At first glance Auden’s poem the ‘Shield of Achilles’ appears to be focused on the classical world. The poem’s classical nature is first indicated by the title- Achilles was of course a famous Greek hero, and throughout the poem there are further classical references, many of which Auden has taken from Book XVIII of Homer’s Iliad- ‘Marble well-governed cities’ (l.3), ‘†¦athletes at their games’ (l.46), ‘Hephaestos, hobbled away’ (l.61). However, the poem also combines these classical details with the modern world- ‘Proved by statistics’ (l.17), ‘Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot’ (l.31). Although there is this unusual combination of classical and modern, the poem can be seen as timeless: Column by column in a cloud of dust =================================== They marched away enduring a belief Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief. (‘The Shield of Achilles’ ll.21-23) Here the army who are ‘enduring a belief’ (l.21) that they are doing good can be as easily applicable to the modern day (i.e. the situation in Iraq) as to classical times. The timeless nature of the poem can be said to be a characteristic feature as it appears in other poems such as ‘Gare du Midi’: ====================================================================== †¦clutching a little case He walks out briskly to infect a city Whose terrible future may have just arrived. (‘Gare Du Midi’, ll.6-8) Here we are led to believe that a man is about to unleash a terrible weapon on a city and although the poem was written in December 1938, its proleptic nature allows the poem to be much more in tune with the w... ...atures, it is perhaps impossible to outline a characteristic Auden poem. ‘The Shield of Achilles’ lacks many features that would make it characteristic. For example, poems such as ‘Moon Landing’ and a ‘Walk After Dark’ are rife with colloquial (‘Mneh’- ‘Moon Landing’, ll.22) and recherchà © (‘Lacrimae rerum’- ‘A Walk After Dark’, l.30) language, whereas ‘ The Shield of Achilles has none, instead the language in the poem obeys the poem’s principle of contrast- it alternates between classical and modern language. Therefore it’s reasonable to say that there are many re-occurring themes throughout Auden’s poems, but not that there are entire poems which are ‘characteristic’. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] It is notable that ‘Ist September 1939’ appeared on many websites after the September 11th attacks in 2001.

Of Mice and Men †Did George have any alternative than to shoot Lennie? Essay

Of Mice and Men tells the story of two men, George and Lennie, who seem to be uncannily paired in a society of loners. Lennie is very tall, and very muscular with massive strength, but also appears to have a major learning handicap. George is shorter, and far less strong, but has the greater intelligence of the pair. Their companionship is rare, and even though George sometimes threatens Lennie that he will walk off and leave him, George never does. George sometimes becomes frustrated with Lennie and momentarily believes he would be better of with out him, so he could stay in one place for longer and spend his â€Å"fifty bucks at the end of the month on what ever he wanted†. They do seem to rely on each other for more than companionship however. Lennie relies on George because of his lack of intelligence, and George carries on the companionship because of the thought that Lennie would die if he were not there to care for him. Lennie also craves a parent figure, someone to care for him, and someone to one day give him something soft to touch and some rabbits to look after. The reward George has for this is hard to see, but eventually you see why they are together. Lennie represents company and security to George. There was also a promise George gave to Aunt Clara, a character that is talked about little and never seen, that he would look after Lennie, and that promise seems to mean a lot to both characters. At the end of the novel, George is still looking out for Lennie. Lennie never hurt anyone due to being mean or cruel, just out of not knowing his own strength and out of defence when he was afraid. George knows this. But in the society in which ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set, the penalty for a death is death, and anyone who is weak, crippled or old with no use any longer was killed. This is shown clearly when Candy’s dog, his best companion was shot. This is almost foreshadowing of what is going to happen. There are three pairs on the ranch, Curley and his wife, George and Lennie, and Candy and his dog. Curley’s hand is crushed by Lennie, and Lennie later kills his wife, ending in Lennie’s death. Candy’s dog is shot when the other men believe he has no more use on the ranch. After all that Candy and his dog had been through and all the years of loyal service that his supposed best friend had performed for Candy, when pressured into a decision, he chose to defy his loyal companion and make the decision on when he should die. Candy later is angry that he did not kill his dog himself. George has the same belief than Candy, when he killed Lennie he seems to oppose that belief. George knows that in this society, when they find Lennie they will hang, bludgeon, beat and torture him to death. George does not want this tale to end in a painful death for his lifelong companion, and therefore he does not want Curley and the group of other ranch hands to find him alive, because the consequences will be far worse. George realises that the other options are to send Lennie from his side into a mental institution where he would be a danger to himself and a danger to others, or to run to the next town again, to complete the cycle once more and to have again someone else killed and to again have to run from another gang. George realises that they are both not options he is willing to try. George also realises that Lennie will one day realise that they will never have their own land, and the dream of providing for themselves will never come true. â€Å"All kin’s a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there† (p. 54). There will never be any rabbits to tend to and if George and Lennie remain together they will never have enough money, because they are always on the run. George did not kill Lennie out of spite, not because of his thoughtless, innocent, act had dashed George’s hopes of having a small farm. Simply because the other options were so much worse. Lennie died believing that one-day they would have their own farm, with rabbits and alfalfa and enough to live on for them both. A happy place, with the sun and the rain and no one to boss them around. Just a place where they would belong. And Lennie died believing the dream that many other men had died dreaming of. But there are two sides to the story, and people also believe that George should have tried to spare Lennie’s life. Due to his apparent lack of loyalty to Lennie and his selfishness he chose to take Lennie’s life. It is significant to the story how George decides to kill his friend. He does not even give Lennie a chance to get away from his pursuers but instead he shoots him in the back of the head just like what had been done to Candy’s dog. This shows how, after all of the loyalty and love that both of these creatures had given to their respective â€Å"friends†, both of the superior creatures decide that they don’t need them any more and choose to end the dominated creatures lives in a less than honourable manner. However in Candy’s case it was more a cause of not being able to stand up to the other men on the ranch, but in George’s case, it was George either trying to spare Lennie, or to give up on the companionship because of greed and the belief that the universal dream was obtainable without Lennie behind his back. When the other men find George, he manipulates the situation further, telling them that he murdered Lennie out of self-defence when he wrested the gun that Lennie supposedly stole from him. He rids himself of any blame for the killing. Slim senses George’s feeling of remorse over the situation. However, the book ends with Carlson wondering why George is upset, once again demonstrating that the other men cannot comprehend the bond of friendship between George and Lennie. Although Steinbeck is not trying to say that you can never trust the people that you call your friends, he is saying to be careful of those who call you a friend but only think of themselves while saying it. I, however, do not believe that George killed Lennie out of greed, I believe that the remorse George shows towards Lennie’s death is valid and enough proof of that. I imagine George in two ways at the end of this novel. My wish is that George somehow gets enough money to buy his farm with Candy, and they live the dream. The probable ending is that George continues living, trying to scrape enough money to one day have his farm, but gives up hope, realises the dream will never happen and follows the other men, spending his fifty bucks in the cathouse and drink, to drown his sorrows.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 29

My Movie's Montage Explaining how I learned Tiffany's routine and became an excellent dancer would be difficult – mostly because our rehearsals are long and grueling and extremely boring. We do the same little things over and over again endlessly. For example, if I had to lift a finger in the air for the routine, Tiffany would make me do it a thousand times every single day until I could do it to her liking on command. So I will spare you most of the boring details. To make things even more complicated, Tiffany has forbidden me to document our rehearsals in any thorough manner that would allow others to steal her training techniques. As she wants to open up a studio someday, she is very guarded about her methods – and her choreography too. Luckily, as I am starting to write this part, I remember that in every one of his films, whenever Rocky needs to become a better boxer, they show clips of him doing one-arm push-ups, running on the beach, punching slabs of meat, running the stairs of the art museum, gazing at Adrian lovingly, or being yelled at by Mickey or Apollo Creed or even Paulie – all while his theme song plays, which is perhaps the greatest song in the world, â€Å"Gonna Fly Now.† In the Rocky movies, it only takes a few minutes to cover weeks of training, and yet the audience still understands that a lot of preparation went into the actual development of Rocky's boxing skills, even though we only get to see a few clips of the Italian Stallion working hard. During a therapy session, I ask Cliff what this movie technique is called. He has to call his wife, Sonja, on his cell phone, but she knows the answer and tells us that what I am trying to describe is called a montage. So that is what I am now going to create below, my movie's montage. Maybe you'll want to play â€Å"Gonna Fly Now† on your CD player, if you have a copy handy – or you could put on any song you find inspiring – and read along to the music. Music is not required, however. Okay, here it is, my montage: In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, squats, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"Crawl!† Tiffany yells. So I crawl on the hardwood floor of her dance studio. â€Å"Crawl like you have no legs and you haven't eaten for two weeks and there's a single apple in the middle of the room and another man with no legs is also crawling toward the apple. You want to crawl faster, but you cannot, because you are maimed. Desperation flows out of your face like sweat! You are so afraid you will not get to the apple before the other legless man! He will not share the apple with – no, no, no. Stop! You're doing it all wrong! Jesus Christ, Pat! We only have four weeks left!† â€Å"Jeanie,† I hear my father say. He is in the kitchen eating his breakfast. I am on the basement stairs listening. â€Å"Why does Pat close his eyes and hum every time I mention the Eagles? Is he going crazy again? Should I be concerned?† â€Å"What's this I hear about you missing the Saints game?† Jake says through the telephone when I call him back sometime after 11:00 p.m. He has called two nights in a row, and the note my mother left for me on my pillow read Call your brother back no matter how late. IMPORTANT. â€Å"Don't you want to see what Baskett does this week? Why are you humming?† â€Å"When you are a dancer, you are allowed to put your hands anywhere on your partner's body, Pat. It's not sexual. So when you do this first lift, yes, your hands will be cradling my ass and crotch. Why are you pacing? Pat, it's not sexual – it's modern dance.† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"I'm Okay, Pat. I'm fucking fine. You're going to drop me a few times while we're learning the lifts, but it's not because you're not strong enough. You need to center your palm directly at the base of my crotch. If you need me to get more specific, I will. Here. I'll show you. Put out your hand.† â€Å"Your mother tells me you will not discuss Eagles football with your – why are you humming?† Cliff asks. â€Å"I did not mention that certain saxophonist's name. What's this all about?† â€Å"I never thought I would say this, but maybe you should consider taking a break from your dance training and watch the game with Jake and your dad,† my mother says. â€Å"You know I hate football, but you and your father seemed to be making a connection, and Jake and you are just getting back to being brotherly again. Pat, please stop humming.† â€Å"For the second lift you need to look up at me, Pat. Especially just before I go into the flip. You don't have to look at my crotch, but you have to be ready to push up so I'll get more height. If you don't give me a push when I bend my knees, I won't be able to complete the flip and will probably crack my head open on the floor.† â€Å"I know you can hear me through the humming, Pat. Look at you!† my father says. â€Å"Curled up in your bed, humming like a child. Birds lose by a field goal in New Orleans, and your boy Baskett had zero catches. Zilch. Don't think your dancing through the game didn't affect the outcome.† â€Å"You look like a retarded snake! You are supposed to crawl with your arms – not slither or wiggle or whatever the fuck you are doing down there. Here. Watch me.† In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. â€Å"What's Tiffany holding over you?† Ronnie says. We are in my parents' basement. I have already spotted him as he benched one wimpy sixty-pound rep, and now he is taking a break. This is a surprise visit disguised to look like a prework lifting session. â€Å"I told you to protect yourself. I'm telling you, Pat, you don't know what that woman is capable of. My sister-in-law is capable of anything. Anything!† â€Å"You're making the sun with your arms. In the center of the stage, you represent the sun. And when you make the huge circle with your arms, it has to be slow and deliberate – just like the sun. The dance is one day's worth of sun. You are going to rise and set all onstage – to the flow of our song. Understand?† â€Å"I want you to talk to Tiffany and tell her it's important for you to watch the Eagles game with your father,† Mom says. â€Å"Please stop humming, Pat. Please, just stop humming!† â€Å"The second lift is the hardest by far, as it requires you to go from a squatting position to a standing position with me standing on your hands, which will be just above your shoulders. Do you think you're strong enough to do this, because we can do something else if you are too weak, but let's try it now and we'll just see.† â€Å"Why is this dance competition so important to you?† Cliff asks me. I look up at the sun painted on the ceiling of his office and smile. â€Å"What?† he says. â€Å"The dancing lets me be that,† I say, and point up. Cliff's eyes follow my finger. â€Å"It lets you be the sun?† â€Å"Yes,† I say, and smile again at Cliff, because I really like being the sun, exactly what allows clouds to have a silver lining. Also, being the sun is what will provide me with the opportunity to write letters to Nikki. â€Å"Please stop humming into the phone, Pat. I'm on your side here. I understand wanting to learn an art for a woman. Don't you remember my playing the piano for you? But the difference is that Caitlin would never ask me to miss an Eagles game, because she knows it's more than just football to me. I can hear you fucking humming through the phone, Pat, but I'm just going to keep talking, all right? You're acting crazy, you know. And if the Eagles lose tomorrow against the Buccaneers, Dad is going to think you cursed the Birds.† â€Å"Okay, you know your routine – roughly, anyway. So now I want you to watch mine. I'll say ‘lift' when it's time for one of your lifts, just so you know when they're coming. But don't worry, because as long as you do your routine, I'll make sure we link up with the lifts. Okay?† Tiffany is in tights and a T-shirt like every other day, but she transforms her face just before she pushes play on the CD player. So solemn. Those sad piano notes and those two dueling voices fill the room, and Tiffany begins to dance beautifully but sadly. Her body moves so gracefully, and it is only now that I understand what she means by crying through movement. She jumps, she rolls, she spins, she runs, she slides. She yells â€Å"Lift!† and then falls to the floor dead, only to explode upward in resurrection when the music picks up again. And her dancing is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I could watch her dance for the rest of my life, and strangely, watching Tiffany soar around the dance floor makes me feel like I am floating over waves with baby Emily. Tiffany is that good. â€Å"Your father has stopped eating dinner with me, Pat. He's not taking walks with me either. Ever since the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers, he's back to his – Pat, please stop humming. Pat!† In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. â€Å"I don't think you understand how much this means to my sister,† Veronica says, and I am shocked to see her and baby Emily in my basement gym. â€Å"Do you know that since Tommy passed, she has never asked her family to see her dance? In fact, for two years she's banned us from attending any of her performances. But this year she thinks she is going to perform flawlessly enough to invite her family – she's convinced, in fact – and while I am glad to see her so happy, I'm afraid to even think about what she might do if you guys screw up the performance. She's not a stable person, Pat. You do understand that, right? You do understand that your performing poorly will result in months of serious depression? So I need to ask you how are the rehearsals really going? Do you truly think you can win? Do you?† Before I turn off the lights, I stare into framed-picture Nikki's eyes. I see her freckled nose, her strawberry blond hair, her full lips. I kiss her so many times. â€Å"Soon,† I say. â€Å"I'm doing everything I can. I won't let you down. Remember – ‘Forever's gonna start tonight.'† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"The Asian Invasion will pick you up at – † Cliff nods at me and smiles. â€Å"Ah, the humming again. Your mother tells me you won't talk to anyone about Eagles football, but you aren't seriously going to miss a home game, are you?† â€Å"The most important thing is to make the lifts look effortless, as if you are holding up air. I should appear to be floating. Understand? Good, because I need you to stop shaking during the routine, Pat. You look like you have fucking Parkinson's disease, for Christ's sake.† â€Å"How does a four-and-one team lose three games straight?† Dad yells down from the top of the basement steps. â€Å"A team that beat the Dallas Cowboys handily? A team with a first-ranked offense and more sacks than any other team in the league? You can hum all you want, Pat. But that don't change the fact that you took the good luck away from the Birds and are ruining our season!† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"Okay. Not bad. You got the crawling down, and one of the lifts doesn't look awful anymore. But we only have a week left. Can we do this? Can we do this?† â€Å"I bought you a present,† Tiffany tells me. â€Å"Go into the powder room and try it on.† In her studio's washroom, I remove a pair of yellow tights from a plastic bag. â€Å"What's this?† I call out to Tiffany. â€Å"It's your outfit. Put it on, and we'll have a dress rehearsal.† â€Å"Where's the shirt?† â€Å"Again,† Tiffany says, even though it is 10:41 p.m. and my elbows feel as though they might explode. I am dancing on raw nerves. I am dancing on bone. â€Å"Again!† Eleven fifty-nine p.m. â€Å"Again,† Tiffany says, and then takes her place at the left side of the studio. Knowing that arguing is no use, I drop to the floor and prepare to crawl. â€Å"This might tickle some,† Tiffany says just before she slides her pink lady razor through the shaving cream coating my chest, and then she shows me how much hair is in the teacup she rinses the blade in. I am lying on a yoga mat in the middle of her dance studio. My chest is covered with some sort of green aloe shaving gel that turns white when you make foam. Being shaved by Tiffany sort of makes me feel strange, as I have never been shaved by a woman before and have never had my torso shaved at all. When she lathers me up, I close my eyes, and my fingers and toes tingle wildly. I sort of giggle each time she shaves a line of hair off my chest. I sort of giggle each time she shaves a line of hair off my back. â€Å"We want those muscles to gleam like the sun onstage, right?† â€Å"Why can't I just wear a shirt?† I say, even though – in a weird sort of way – I secretly enjoy being shaved by Tiffany. â€Å"Does the sun wear a shirt?† The sun does not wear yellow tights either, but I do not say so. In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. Two days before the competition, just before we are about to perform the routine for the twenty-fifth time that day – twenty-five being Tiffany's favorite number – she says, â€Å"We need to do this flawlessly.† So I try my best, and as I watch bits of our routine in the mirrors that surround us, I think, We really are dancing flawlessly! I am so excited when we finish, because I know we will win – especially since we have improved ourselves so much with sacrifice and hard training. This mini-movie will have a happy ending for sure! But something about Tiffany's demeanor is off as we take our water break. She is not yelling at me, nor is she using the f-word, so I ask, â€Å"What's wrong?† â€Å"How many people did you recruit to come to the competition?† â€Å"I asked everyone I know.† â€Å"Veronica tells me your family is mad at you for abandoning the Eagles.† â€Å"Not my mom.† â€Å"I'm worried that if we don't get enough fans there to cheer for us, the judges might be swayed by another dancer's larger fan base. We might not win, and then I would not be able to act as your liaison, Pat.† â€Å"Maybe if you are not doing anything tomorrow night, you might want to bring your wife and children to my dance recital,† I tell Cliff. â€Å"We've really got a good routine, and I think we can win if only we have enough audience support, and I don't think that my father or brother will be likely to show up, so – â€Å" â€Å"After tomorrow night, you'll be done with these long rehearsals?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"So you will be able to go to the Redskins game on – â€Å" â€Å"Hmmmmmm.† â€Å"Just tell me this, if I go to the dance recital, will you go to the Eagles game with us on Sunday? The Asian Invasion misses you, and truthfully, we sort of feel like you've cursed the Eagles by abandoning them mid-season. Poor Baskett has only caught two balls in the last three games and had zero catches last week. And the Birds have lost three straight. We miss you down at the Linc, Pat.† â€Å"I can't talk about that subject until my dance recital is over tomorrow night. I can only say that I need to recruit as many people as possible to cheer for Tiffany and me so the judges will be swayed. Let me just say that winning is really important, and Tiffany says that crowd reaction can sway the judges.† â€Å"If I come, will you talk to me about that-thing-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about after your performance?† â€Å"Cliff, I can't talk about that until after the performance.† â€Å"Well then, neither can I tell you whether I will be at your performance,† Cliff says. At first I think he is bluffing, but he doesn't bring up the subject again, and by the end of our therapy session I feel as though I have blown my shot at getting Cliff to bring his wife to my recital, which makes me feel very depressed. Hello, you've reached Jake and Caitlin's machine. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep. â€Å"Jake. Sorry to call so late, but I just got done rehearsing. I know that you are mad at me because you think I jinxed those-people-who-make-me-hum-at-the-present-moment, but if you bring Caitlin to my dance recital, there's a chance I might be able to do that thing we used to do on Sundays, especially if you cheer for Tiffany and me very loudly. We need people to cheer for us, because the judges are sometimes swayed by the audience. It's really important that we win this competition. So as your brother, I'm asking you to please bring your wife to the Plaza – â€Å" Beep. I hang up and redial the number. Hello, you've reached Jake and Caitlin's machine. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep. â€Å"That's the Plaza Hotel at – â€Å" â€Å"Hello? Is everything okay?† It's Caitlin's voice, which makes me nervous, so I hang up, fully realizing I have blown my shot at getting Jake to come to my dance recital. â€Å"Pat, you know I'll be there. And I'll cheer so loudly for you, but winning isn't everything,† my mom says. â€Å"It's the fact that you were able to learn to dance in only a few weeks that is impressive.† â€Å"Just ask Dad, okay?† â€Å"I will. But I don't want you to get your hopes up. A dance recital is not something he would have attended even if the Eagles won the last three games.†

Japanese Readings

Japanese I, 3rd Edition Notes on Japanese Culture and Communication The objective of Pimsleur's Japanese I, Third Edition is to introduce you to the language and culture of Japan primarily through your ears, and only secondarily through your eyes. This approach is based upon the fact that more than 95 percent of our lives is spent in listening and talking, and less than 5 percent in reading and writing. The most effective and productive way to begin acquiring these necessary communication skills is by actually working with the â€Å"language in use,† as demonstrated by native speakers of the language being learned.Efficiency is greatly increased when what you learn first are the most-frequently-used structures and daily life vocabulary, so that you practice with the practical tools you require every day. This carefully selected â€Å"core-language† allows the tutor to keep you focused entirely on essential language. This is self-motivating because you will begin to use it immediately and successfully. Language and culture are so closely intertwined that learning them separately can make you literally â€Å"culturally-deprived,† that is, unable to produce appropriate and meaningful language.For this reason you must carefully notice the different ways the Japanese â€Å"act† in the various situations you will experience as you proceed through the units of this course. Being sensitive to â€Å"who is doing what to whom, and why,† is what you have learned to do almost unconsciously in your native tongue – you will attain this same sense of â€Å"awareness† as you gain proficiency in your new language. This implicit instruction will come from the lessons, as you learn to identify the intonation and melody of the speakers.This Booklet will provide additional explicit instruction to further confirm what you have learned. The Notes have also been recorded on the last CD? cassette. Acquiring the culture, â€Å"the map of the territory,† is like acquiring the terminology of a subject: it enables you to operate as a fellow member in that society. Your success in working with native speakers of Japanese will depend to some extent upon how sensitive you become to the accumulated heritage that is Japanese. Unit 1 umimasen In this unit, you have learned sumimasen for â€Å"Excuse me. † You will find yourself using and hearing this expression quite often in your interactions with the Japanese. sumimasen is used for several purposes. It is often used to express the speaker's sincere and polite attitude toward others. However, Japanese people use this expression to convey not only â€Å"Excuse me,† but also â€Å"I'm sorry,† and even â€Å"Thank you. † You will hear them say sumimasen to attract someone's attention when initiating a conversation, as was demonstrated in the Unit.You might also hear this expression from someone who mistakenly steps on your foot in a crowded t rain and wishes to apologize. It is a very useful expression in a wide range of social contexts. Word Order You noticed in this unit that the Japanese word order is very different from what you are accustomed to in English. Such words as masu, masen, and masu ka – which determine whether the speaker is making a statement, negating or asking something – come at the end of a sentence. You need to, therefore, listen to the speaker all the way through to the end of the sentence to find out the speaker's intention.This may be confusing to you at first, but as you become skillful, you will be able to use this sentence structure to your advantage, as you can carefully sense the listener's feeling while you speak. You can then decide on the overall tone of your message by modifying the ending accordingly. Unit 2 Expressions of Modesty and Deference in Japanese Communication In this unit you heard a person expressing modesty when receiving a compliment from another person on hi s ability to speak Japanese.When someone compliments the Japanese on good work, nice clothes, a beautiful house, a wonderful dinner, etc. , it is customary for them to downplay their abilities, possessions, etc. While negating a compliment may be considered a sign of lack of confidence or even insincerity in some cultures, the Japanese frequently use it as an expression of modesty and deference in daily communication. As a case in point, consider this conversation: â€Å"That was a wonderful meal! You are a great cook, suzuki san. † â€Å"Oh, no. I only followed a recipe. Anybody can cook. † â€Å"I certainly can't.Could you teach me? † â€Å"Can I teach? Oh, no. You cook far better than I can. I'm the one who needs to take lessons from you. Suzuki may be seen as too modest by American standards, but this is socially acceptable behavior in Japan. This humility is only seen as avoiding appearing to be arrogant or conceited. ~ ne In this unit you also heard ne at the end of sentences, as in nihongo ga wakarimasu ne. It is roughly equivalent to the English â€Å"isn't it? † â€Å"aren't you? † â€Å"don't you? † etc. The use of ne shows that the speaker expects the listener to agree with him or her.You will hear this used frequently in Japanese; in fact, some people may end virtually every sentence with ne. Living in a more collectivistic society than the U. S. , the Japanese value being aligned with and maintaining harmonious relationships with others. The frequent use of ne illustrates their desire to avoid creating any potential for conflict or disagreement with one another. Unit 3 Omission of Subjects Japanese speakers often rely on the listener's ability to understand their real intention from what appears to be subtle and evasive verbal and nonverbal signals.Being able to leave some things unsaid so that the other can read between the lines is an important skill in Japanese communication. A person who explains thin gs in great detail is considered legalistic and is often frowned upon. The frequent omission of subjects is one example of this ambiguous and seemingly incomplete form of Japanese communication. This style of speech may frustrate foreign learners of Japanese at first. but after a while it will become natural. The Japanese language has several words for â€Å"you. † The one to use depends upon the speaker's relationship with the person being spoken to.Among these are the common anata, which was introduced in this unit, the informal anta, the formal kimi (often used by a superior to address his or her junior), and omae, used only by male speakers. However, you will often hear people address one another without using any of these, simply leaving â€Å"you† to be understood. Domo domo is used to emphasize your politeness, as in domo arigato gozaimasu. It is used for a variety of purposes: to indicate â€Å"indeed† and â€Å"very much† as in this unit, to show the speaker's suspicious feeling as in domo okashii, â€Å"I have a doubt about it,† or to mean â€Å"by any means. Japanese speakers are very fond of using domo in many contexts. Although in formal, â€Å"correct† speech, domo should be followed by a word that it modifies, Japanese speakers often use it alone. You will often hear them say domo, domo when they greet each other. Unit 4 Questions Phrased with a Negative When speaking to Japanese speakers and phrasing a question with a negative such as â€Å"Aren't you tired? † or â€Å"Isn't it hot today? † you will find that they will sometimes reverse â€Å"yes† and â€Å"no. † For example, when asked â€Å"Aren't you Japanese? they will answer â€Å"No,† meaning â€Å"I am Japanese. † Since being able to read another person's implications and behaving accordingly is an important social skill in Japan, when asked â€Å"Aren't you Japanese? † mane Japanese people will assume that you must be thinking he or she is not Japanese. In response to this assumption, they will deny, by saying â€Å"No. † meaning, â€Å"No, you are wrong, I am indeed Japanese. † That is why, in the conversation the person said iie, yoku hanasemasu (â€Å"No, you can speak well†) in response to demo, mada jozu ja arimasen (â€Å"But I can't speak well yet†).In this unit, you heard the names of two places in Tokyo: Ueno and Shinjuku. These are both very busy districts, since they are the hubs of major railroad and subway lines, serving millions of people every day who travel to, from, and around the Tokyo metropolitan area. There are numerous national and private railroad companies and some fifteen subway lines in Tokyo, and they are still being further developed. The complex subway lines make it quite challenging for international travelers, and sometimes the local residents as well, to figure out the best way to travel to their destinations.You may sometimes get an uncertain response or no response at all when you ask passers-by in downtown Tokyo for directions. The public transportation system in Japan is generally well developed, but in order to take full advantage of it, you need to first memorize the names of major- cities and towns that will help orient you to the right directions and the best method of transportation. Unit 5 Language of Social Levels, Age, Position, and Deference The complex rules governing status in Japan play an important role in the expressions used in various social situations.In this unit, you have learned how to ask a person whether he or she wants to eat or drink: tabemasu ka? and nomimasu ka? These expressions are used when there is no need for the speaker to show deference, that is, between friends, family members, and colleagues. If. however, a native Japanese speaker is in a lower position than the hearer, he or she must carefully choose the most appropriate level of politeness. O tabe ni nari masu ka? is more polite than tabemasu ka? and o meshiagari ni nari masu ka? is far more polite.A great variety of expressions are available. depending on the degree of courtesy needed. As a non-native speaker of Japanese, however, you are seldom, if ever, expected to be able to use these expressions, but you will hear them used, so it is good to be aware of them. nanika In this unit you heard nanika, a very commonly used word and a convenient expression. It is equivalent to â€Å"something† in English. You can use it for a variety of purposes: seeking a person's opinion, stating yours, and making your statement evasive.It can be followed by an adjective and an infinitive: for example, nanika tsumetai nomimono (something cold to drink). Or it can be used alone as in the expression you heard in this unit; hai nanika? (Yes, something you wish to ask'? ) You will hear many native Japanese speakers pronounce it nanka which is informal and casual, often used between friends an d people of an equal status. Unit 6 Particles When speaking English with non-native speakers, you can usually guess their fluency by their familiarity with idiomatic expressions.For example, when someone says, â€Å"John is engaged with Beth† instead of â€Å"engaged to† you can guess that the person is not a native speaker of English. The same is true of the Japanese language. There are many one-syllable words or particles that you need to be able to use properly in order to convey your ideas accurately to the listener. wa, ga, de, ni, mo, ka, no, and to are some examples of these particles. wa is often used to indicate that the preceding words are the main topic of a sentence: for example, watashi wa nihonjin desu. ga is often used the same way, as in, nihongo ga jozu desu. e indicates a place, as in anata no tokoro de. ni is equivalent to the English â€Å"at† when accompanied by a word indicating time, as in ni ji ni, â€Å"at two o'clock. † mo is â⠂¬Å"also,† as in anata mo – â€Å"you too. † ka is put at the end of a sentence to make it a question. no is possessive, as in anata no nihongo (your Japanese). to is approximately equivalent to â€Å"with† in English, as in anato to tabetai desu – â€Å"(1) want to eat with you. † Though they may he confusing at times, learning to use these particles properly will greatly contribute to your fluency in Japanese. Unit 7Cognates and â€Å"Borrowed English Loan Words† No language is free from words borrowed from other languages, and Japanese is no exception. Many English words have been adopted in Japanese, although the Japanese often pronounce them so differently that English speakers can hardly recognize that they were originally English. resutoran and biiru illustrate this point. You need to pronounce these and other words with English origins as the Japanese do, so that you can make yourself understood. Often, the Japanese have change d not only the pronunciation, but also the form and meanings of these originally English words.Japanese speakers often prefer to shorten or abbreviate loan words: for example, waapuro for â€Å"word processor,† pasokon for â€Å"personal computer,† and terebi for â€Å"television. † There are as well some English words used in Japanese whose meanings have changed to a greater or lesser extent. For example, there are many apartment complexes that are called â€Å"mansions† in Japan, usually referring to condominiums. You may find a pair of socks marked â€Å"free size,† which really means â€Å"one size fits all. † In a restaurant, you may be served mikkusu sando, or â€Å"mixed sandwiches. â€Å"Mixed† in this context means â€Å"assorted,† and you will find various kinds of sandwiches on one plate. Unit 8 Addressing People You may have noticed in the units that the Japanese people use family names to address each other. The u se of first names is usually limited to family members and close friends. The polite san is added to a family name and this can be used to address virtually anyone: male and female, young and old, strangers and acquaintances alike. Occasionally it may be attached to one's first name.Japanese rarely address one another without attaching some kind of title to the end of the person's name, and san is by far the most common. If they feel close to you, they may call you, for instance, â€Å"Mary san,† or â€Å"Dave san,† equivalent to â€Å"Miss Mary† or â€Å"Mr. Dave,† as a sign of friendly courtesy. When referring to yourself, however. you would never use san. This is a polite title, used only when referring to others. Counting Things You have learned ni for the number â€Å"two† in this unit. By the time you complete the course, you will have learned many more numbers.You will find counting in Japanese is easy, no matter how large the number may be. You will need to know large numbers, as 1,000, 20,000, 100,000 and maybe more. The value of one American dollar has fluctuated between 80 and 140 yen in the last ten years, and thus prices will usually appear as large numbers. For example, it costs 700 to 1,000 yen to buy lunch, 330 yen to buy a bottle of beer, 600 yen to take a cab for the first mile, and 2,000 to 3,000 yen to take a bus from the New Tokyo International Airport to downtown Tokyo.Another important thing to remember when counting things in Japanese is that there are a wide variety of words used as â€Å"counters† that must accompany the numbers. The â€Å"counter† you use will vary, depending largely on the shape of the material you are counting. In this unit, for example, you have learned ni hon for â€Å"two bottles. † hon is the â€Å"counter† for long things, such as bottles, trees, poles, pencils, hair, etc. â€Å"One bottle,† however, is not ichi hon, but ippon. â€Å"Three bottles† is san bon, and â€Å"six bottles† is roppon.Although the pronunciation of hon may appear to change without any logical consistency, it has simply been adjusted for easier pronunciation. Several other â€Å"counters† you may find useful are mai, used for flat material such as paper, cloth, and plates, and dai, used for many kinds of machinery including computers, cars, and heavy industrial equipment. ken is used to count houses and shops. People are counted as nin, though one person and two persons are exceptions and counted as hitori and futari, respectively. Starting with three people you can say san nin, yo nin, go nin, etc. Unit 9 Meals of a DayJapanese does not have unique names for each meal such as â€Å"breakfast,† â€Å"lunch,† and â€Å"dinner. † The word gohan is used for every meal preceded by asa or â€Å"morning† for breakfast, hiru or â€Å"day† for lunch, and yoru ? yuu or â€Å"evening† for dinne r. Gohan alone means rice, so it is used to refer to a meal or rice, depending upon the context. You will find that many Japanese people these days do not eat rice with every meal. They often have coffee and toast with butter, margarine, and various kinds of jelly for breakfast, while the traditional Japanese style breakfast consists of a bowl of rice, fish, eggs, sea weed, and miso (soy bean paste) soup.For lunch noodles made from buckwheat (soba), and flour (udon) or spaghetti are popular. Many American fast food chains are also popular, especially among young people. The Japanese dinner consists of rice, fish, meat, and vegetables. As is commonly known, the Japanese consume more fish than average Americans. Circumlocution In this unit, you heard a man and a woman trying to agree on the time to meet for a drink, and making alternative suggestions. This provides useful practice.In reality, however, you will find the Japanese people to be much more subtle when they must express a ne gative response. Concerned with saving face, the Japanese resort to a variety of verbal and nonverbal communication strategies, and avoid directly saying â€Å"no† whenever they can. One common way to turn down a proposal is to remain silent. When you do not receive an immediate response to an offer, then the chances are that the person does not want to accept it, but at the same time does not want to offend you or make you feel had. A long delay in responding may be another form of refusal.In Japan, unless you are speaking with someone you know very well and a mutual trust exists, you will rarely hear a straight answer given to a difficult question, especially when that answer involves some kind of refusal. How do you reach that level? It will take some time, but if you are sensitive to another culture quite different from yours, and have a positive attitude toward adapting to it, you will be able to acquire the communication skills necessary to establish, maintain, and deve lop trusting relationships with the local people. Unit 10Levels of Politeness The Japanese language has complex rules concerning the levels of politeness and deference necessary in different social situations. Throughout the course, you have learned how to speak on the â€Å"polite† level appropriate in virtually any situation you are likely to encounter in Japan. As you listen to conversations between Japanese friends, you may hear more informal expressions. For example, instead of asking nan ji desu ka? for â€Å"What time is it? † they might simply ask, nan ji? â€Å"What time? † Another example is wakatta for â€Å"understood† rather than wakarimashita.The Japanese language has many ways for the speakers to differentiate between formal and informal expressions in daily conversations. When you visit Japan and listen to a conversation between two friends, you may be discouraged at first as you find many unfamiliar expressions exchanged, but this happens when you learn any foreign language. The expressions that you have learned in this course will serve as a strong basis for understanding the Japanese people, and given that basis, you will be able to develop your listening comprehension as well as the ability to select the appropriate words for each different situation.The level of politeness used throughout the course is suitable in conversation with any Japanese speaker. Unit 11 chotto†¦ In this unit you heard Ms. Tanaka say ichi ji wa chotto†¦ and konban wa chotto†¦ in response to suggestions to have lunch at one o'clock and to have dinner tonight. chotto means â€Å"a little† and therefore these responses can only be translated as â€Å"One o'clock is a little,† and â€Å"Tonight is a little,† respectively. Even though the expressions may be regarded as unfinished in English, Japanese speakers often use chotto when they wish to indicate their hesitation, refusal, and confusion.Japanese in gen eral are tentative and indirect in their communication, and the word chotto is very convenient in helping them express their modesty. Even when a proposal submitted by a subordinate needs substantial improvement, for example, the superior may say â€Å"mo chotto† (a little more), indicating that the subordinate needs to work on it before the proposal can be accepted. When you hear this word, be aware that it can cover various degrees, and it may not literally mean just â€Å"a little. † masen ka? When inviting a person to do something, you have a range of forms in English to express various degrees of politeness.The Japanese show their deference toward the listener by changing how they end a sentence. In this unit you learned how you can invite a person to have lunch and dinner with you. You could directly ask the person whether he or she will have lunch with you by saying, watashi to hirugohan o tabemasu ka? For native Japanese speakers, however, this expression, lite rally translated as â€Å"Do you have lunch with me? † is far too direct and even offensive and would not be used in actual conversations. The â€Å"request† is more than likely to be turned down. Asking the same question in a negative form, watashi to hirugohan o tabemasen ka? onsiderably softens the tone, and it will probably make the listener feel more comfortable either accepting or declining the offer. This is equivalent to â€Å"Why don't you †¦? † and â€Å"Won't you †¦? † in English. Unit 12 Yen: Japanese Currency The yen is the unit of Japanese currency, and its value against the U. S. dollar has appreciated in the last few decades. Until the early 1970's the exchange rate was fixed at one US dollar to 360 yen, but it has been fluctuating and one US dollar is now worth about 120 to 140 yen. Although in writing it is symbolized as â€Å"yen,† its pronunciation is more like en.There are four notes: 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen, 2,000 yen, and 1,000 yen that are of different sizes and colors. The 2,000 yen notes were issued in commemoration of the year 2000 but they have not been circulated very widely. Also there are six kinds of coins: 500 yen, 100 yen, 50 yen, 10 yen, 5 yen, and l yen. While Americans in general carry little cash and use credit cards and checks instead, the Japanese tend to pay cash when they go shopping. You will find many kinds of vending machines that sell a wide range of things, from soft drinks to train tickets. Some of he machines accept 10,000 yen notes and give change in both paper money and coins. Using a Telephone in Japan Communicating on the phone in a foreign country is always a challenge. You now know that â€Å"hello† is moshi moshi in Japanese, literally meaning â€Å"I speak, I speak. † You can say moshi moshi both when you answer the phone and make a call to someone. It has been used ever since the telephone was introduced in Japan. It costs 10 yen to make a local c all. You will seldom see people in Japan using coins when they use public telephones. Instead they use pre-paid telephone cards that can be purchased from vending machines.The pre-paid cards cost either 500 yen or 1,000 yen, worth 50 and 100 local calls, respectively, and they can be used for any local, as well as long distance and overseas calls. A great majority of the Japanese people own cellular phones today, which has largely replaced the need for public phones altogether. Many Japanese use their mobile phones as a primary means of communication to send and receive e-mails, check the weather, make plane reservations, purchase tickets, etc. , since a great amount of information is made available through mobile phone network systems.You will notice many Japanese busy talking on their individual phones, checking e-mail on small display screens, and punching in information on hand-held Palm Pilots ®. Unit 13 Counting in Japanese Knowing how to count is important in order to funct ion properly in any language. You must be able to count so that you can understand the prices of goods you want to buy, services that you wish to use, make plane reservations, and so on. Now that you have learned to count from one to ten and started to work on numbers above ten, the rest will be quite easy.Just as long as you know the first ten numbers, you can make any number up to 99, simply by combining them. In this unit you have learned 14, 15, and 16. They were simply made up of ten and four, ten and five, ten and six, respectively. You can continue to count in the same way up to 19. Then 20 is a combination of two and ten, that is, ni ju. You may guess that the same rule is applied to every number after 20. 21 is ni ju ichi, or â€Å"two ten one. † Though you will only be introduced to a few new numbers in any unit, when you understand the rule you will be eady for large numbers, and you will indeed encounter them on your initial entry to Japan. Good-bye sayonara has b ecome widely known as â€Å"goodbye forever† through the movies, TV dramas, and other media. It may indeed imply in some contexts that the person using this expression has no intention of seeing the other person ever again. It can, however, be readily used to say â€Å"good-bye† when you will be seeing the person in the near future. jaa mata is an expression equivalent to â€Å"See you. † It is a fairly informal way of ending a conversation, and of expressing your intention to see the person again. aa, atode, literally meaning â€Å"then later,† implies to Japanese speakers that the speaker is expecting to see the other person again on the same day, whereas English speakers may not when they say, â€Å"See you later. † You may want to be careful of this difference. Unit 14 takusan, sukoshi There is no clear and explicit difference between singular and plural forms of nouns in Japanese. In English, most words need an â€Å"s† or â€Å"esâ₠¬  at the end to indicate plurals, but most Japanese words do not change. Whether the nouns are countable or uncountable, you can use takusan for â€Å"a lot of† and sukoshi for â€Å"a little† or â€Å"a few. For example, â€Å"one beer† is biiru ippon, â€Å"two beers† is biiru nihon, and `'many beers† is biiru takusan. â€Å"I have a lot of money† is watashi wa okane o takusan motte imasu, and â€Å"I have a little money† is watashi wa okane o sukoshi motte imasu. The word sukoshi has a variety of functions in daily conversations. It not only stands alone to mean a small quantity, but you can also say watashi wa nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu, meaning â€Å"I speak a little Japanese,† sukoshi hoshii desu, â€Å"I want a little,† or even, sukoshi ososugimas, â€Å"It's a little too late. Drinks Japanese, just like Americans and Europeans, enjoy drinking when they dine. Many business meetings are followed by or even co nducted during dinners and drinking parties. In these social occasions, people establish personal relationships with one another as they discuss more casually their individual feelings. Beer is by far the most popular alcoholic drink, but most alcoholic drinks such as wine, whiskey, bourbon, brandy, gin, vodka, and rum are also available. Japanese sake, made from rice, is also popular, and it is served either cold or warm.Shochu, or distilled liquor made from a variety of grains such as wheat, rice, and sometimes potatoes, is also a popular drink among Japanese. If you do not care for an alcoholic drink, you can of course ask for any soft drink you are used to. In addition to most soft drinks available in America and Europe, cold oolong tea (Chinese tea) is served in most places. In general, hot Japanese green tea is served free of charge in most restaurants. Unit 15 itte kimasu The conversation in this unit began with a lady saying itte kimasu. It literally means, â€Å"I am going † or â€Å"I am leaving. When Japanese go somewhere, they usually say it to those they are leaving behind. In response, the person who is staying usually says itte rasshai, literally meaning, â€Å"Please go. † Of course they use this expression to wish the person a good trip. When people come home they say tadaima, or â€Å"I've just come home,† to which others respond by saying okaerinasai, meaning, â€Å"Welcome back. † These sets of greetings are exchanged when people go in and out of the house and are very common among the Japanese; you are sure to hear them when staying in a Japanese home.As a short-term visitor from a foreign country you are not expected to say these greetings, but if you do, your efforts will surely be appreciated. Unit 16 desu ga In this unit you learned that in order to make hoshii desu, â€Å"I want,† more polite, you can say hoshii n desu ga, â€Å"I would like. † The last particle, ga, means â€Å"but† an d when added at the end of a request, it helps the speaker express his or her reservation. The person who ends a request with ga indicates that â€Å"While I wish it could be done, I would understand even if it cannot be done. This is just another instance that demonstrates the Japanese value on modesty. It is also a sign of their desire to depend upon others' benevolence, which is known as amae. One's ability to depend on others as well as respond to others' call for dependence is an important social ability. You will also hear desu kedo, essentially the same as and even more polite than desu ga. Unit 17 kyo wa nani o shimasu ka? You learned earlier that wa is used for emphasis or comparison. In Unit 14 and the present unit you have practiced using several words that indicate time, such as today and this evening, followed by wa.Here, this means â€Å"as for. † You will also notice that in Japanese the words or phrases that indicate time are usually placed in the beginning o f a sentence, unlike in English where these words are normally at the end. You may notice when a Japanese person speaks to you in English, she or he may habitually begin a sentence with time, such as, â€Å"Yesterday, I went to see my friend. † â€Å"Today, what would you like to do? † When you speak Japanese, it is often desirable to begin a sentence with a word or phrase indicating time. Unit 18 shujin, goshujin ? anai, okusan When Japanese people introduce their spouses, they do not introduce them by their names. While English-speaking people will introduce their spouses, saying, â€Å"This is my wife, Mary† or â€Å"This is my husband, Bill,† when Mr. Sato introduces his wife to you, he will say simply kanai desu, or kore wa watashi no kanai (tsuma) desu, â€Å"This is my wife. † When Mrs. Sato wants to introduce her husband to you, she will probably say shujin desu, or kore wa watashi no shujin (otto) desu, â€Å"This is my husband. † Y ou may be surprised when you find the meanings of kanai and shujin. anai literally means â€Å"inside the house,† and shujin means â€Å"master. † Since kanai and shujin refer to one's spouse in a modest manner, you will never use them for another person's spouse. For â€Å"your husband† you simply add go for politeness to shujin, and say goshujin, or anata no goshujin. â€Å"Your wife† is anata no okusan, or simply, okusan. Here we have a different word, okusan, which means â€Å"a person deep inside (the house). † Coming from the North American culture where equality between the two sexes is a serious concern, you may be astonished to see that Japanese women are still treated as a minority or a weaker sex.Role differentiation with regard to sex is more distinct in Japan than in the United States. The society is changing, however, influenced by the global concern for racial, sexual, and religious equality and is importing and incorporating some ne w policies. You will find many men now referring to their wives as tsuma, and women to their husbands as otto, much more neutral terms than kanai and shujin. Interestingly, however, there is no word to replace okusan when referring to your conversational partner's wife.The original meanings of these terms however, are being lost, and they are only titles that people continue to use without any derogatory connotation. Unit 19 hajimemashite ? dozo yoroshiku When you meet someone for the first time, you greet that person by saying, â€Å"How do you do? † â€Å"Pleased to meet you,† or something similar. Many Japanese people say hajimemashite, or dozo yoroshiku. Literally, hajimemashite means â€Å"(I am meeting you) for the first time,† and it has come to be used as an initial greeting remark. dozo yoroshiku is a more implicit expression with a wide latitude of ossible interpretations, depending on the context, the nature of the relationship that is about to develo p, etc. It literally means â€Å"Please be good to me† and it symbolizes the value that many Japanese people place on mutual dependency known as amae. Just as with many other expressions used as social lubricants such as, â€Å"Let's get together sometime,† â€Å"Drop in when you are in the neighborhood,† the real function of dozo yoroshiku is to make the initial encounter between people go smoothly. Unit 20 hitori, futari, san nin When you count a number of people in Japanese, you use regular numbers except for â€Å"one† and â€Å"two. As you've learned, â€Å"one† is ichi, â€Å"two† is ni, and the word that shows you are counting people is nin. The Japanese perceive that it would be awkward to say ichi nin, and ni nin, so they use an old way of counting instead. â€Å"One person† is hitori, â€Å"two persons,† futari. The rest is easy and regular: san nin, yo nin, go nin, roku nin, shichi nin, and so on. Also notice that w hen you want to say â€Å"eleven persons† and â€Å"twelve persons,† you say ju ichi nin and ju ni nin instead of ju hitori and ju futari. otoko no ko, onna no ko You have learned otoko no ko and onna no ko for a boy and a girl.Notice that in Japanese there are no special words such as â€Å"boys† and â€Å"girls. † Rather, you say literally, â€Å"a male child,† and a â€Å"female child. † You can use these words for all ages from newborn babies to children in high school and sometimes even in college. An important cultural difference you may notice if you spend some time living in Japan is that Japanese children are generally more dependent on their parents than their U. S. counterparts are, and that they frequently appear to be less mature. Parental support for children is usually continued through, and often beyond, college.You would not find it awkward, therefore, to call a twenty-two-year-old male college graduate otoko no ko. You may often hear Japanese refer to their children as ookii otoko no ko, chiisai onnna no ko, etc. They literally mean â€Å"a big boy† and â€Å"a small girl,† respectively, and the Japanese may be actually talking about the size of their children, or they may be calling a grown-up boy ookii otoko no ko and a very young girl chiisai onna no ko. The context will determine the meaning. In this unit you heard â€Å"watashitachi wa otoko no ko ga hoshii n desu ga† for â€Å"We would like a boy. Japanese, like many other Asians, are more particular about the sex of their children than people in many Western countries. While it has become legally accepted for a married couple to use two separate last names, both the husband's and the wife's, it is still predominantly the husband's last name that is kept. Family business has been traditionally handed down to the oldest male child in the family. Many parents, therefore, would like to have at least one boy when they have chil dren. Unit 21 otearai, toire Just as you can find many words in English that indicate a lavatory, you will come across a variety of expressions in Japanese.In this unit you have learned two of them: otearai and toire. otearai literally means â€Å"a place to wash hands† and is equivalent to â€Å"washroom† or â€Å"bathroom† in English. toire is an imported version of â€Å"toilet,† and it is very commonly used. Japanese also use keshoushitu, roughly equivalent to â€Å"powder room. † The most direct and straight expression of benjo, equivalent to lavatory, is rarely used in daily conversations. An interesting discovery you may make in a Japanese home is that the toilet and the bath are in separate rooms, unlike in the U. S. where you most often find both in one room.In Japan, a toilet and a bath are regarded as facilities that perform very different functions. a, so desu ka? â€Å"Ah so† is an expression stereotypically associated with Japa nese in many old U. S. films, and it is commonly known to Americans as an utterance that Japanese make frequently. While the Japanese may not use it as often as it is depicted in the films, it is indeed an appropriate expression to show your surprise at an unexpected finding or to confirm the response to your inquiry. Remember to make it into a polite form by adding desu ka at the end when you say it to a person to whom you need to show respect. Ah, so† without desu ka is perfectly appropriate between friends. Unit 22 kodomo, kodomo san In the conversation the woman asked, nan nin kodomo san ga imasu ka? and the man said, futari kodomo ga imasu. When you talk about someone else's family members, you show your respect by adding san at the end. The san is equivalent to Mr. , Mrs. , and Miss. When you talk about your own family members, on the other hand, you never use san. This is an example of Japanese humanrelationship-centered communication, and it serves to maintain smooth a nd harmonious personal ties in Japanese society.The Japanese manner of expressing politeness is complicated by their notion of modesty. They show their deference to others by not only symbolically heightening the other's status, but also by lowering their own. You may often hear the Japanese speak ill of their own family members. A mother may say, for example, â€Å"My son is dumb, and he's doing so poorly in school. Your son seems really smart and you have nothing to worry about. I am embarrassed. † The other person will, of course, respond by saying something like, â€Å"Please stop joking.My son only spends a lot of time in his room, pretending to study so hard. But I have no idea what he is doing. Maybe he's listening to his stereo, or reading comic books. † The two mothers clearly do not mean what they say to each other. While such an interaction may appear to be overly condescending and insincere to people from the U. S. culture, it is an important aspect of soci al interaction in Japan. You, as a non-native speaker, are not expected to play the complex social game, but an awareness will contribute greatly to your comfort in and appreciation of the culture.Unit 23 Weights and Measures You have learned to ask for some gas for your car and also to talk about distance. Whenever you travel to a foreign country, you are likely to come across different perceptions of weights, distances, heights, volumes, etc. If you are visiting Japan for a short period of time as a tourist, these differences may not affect you very much, but if you are to stay there for an extensive period of time, engaging in business as well as social conversations, you will find some knowledge concerning the Japanese system quite useful.Even when the Japanese speak to you in English, they will still use the system to which they are accustomed. Here are some examples to show you how the U. S. weights translate to their Japanese counterparts. One foot is about 30 centimeters, an d an inch is about 2. 5 centimeters. If you are 6 feet tall, then you are 180 centimeters tall, and if you are 5 feet 6 inches, then you are about 165 centimeters. One pound is about 0. 45 kilograms, which means that if you weigh 100 pounds, that is about 45 kilograms, and 150 pounds translates into 67. 5 kilograms.When you visit a grocery store, you will find various things priced by 100 grams. A steak, for instance, may be 600 yen for 100 grams, which is roughly equivalent to $22 to $27 per pound, depending on the exchange rate. One gallon of gas, another expensive item in Japan, is roughly equal to 3. 8 liters. One liter ranges from 90 yen to 110 yen depending on the kind and place where you get it, and it translates into $2. 70 to $3. 35 per gallon. Finally, the road signs that tell you the distance to your destination and also the traffic signs indicating speed limits are all in kilometers.One mile is approximately 1. 6 kilometers, and thus 40 kilometers per hour, which is a co mmon city speed limit, is 25 miles per hour. Again, as a foreign visitor you may not need to know all of these, but if you can get used to them, it will facilitate your daily activities. Unit 24 Getting Around in Japan The high price of gas in Japan has been mentioned. If you drive while in Japan, it could be quite challenging for you, as well as it is for local residents. The Japanese must go to a special driving school to obtain a driver's license and the average fee is over $2,000.The number of skills that are necessary to get around in crowded cities accounts for the high fee. You should apply for an international driver's license prior to your departure for Japan. You must remember that the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, as the British do. Because of the limited space, parking is a problem in big cities and it is also quite expensive, so you may want to think twice before driving in Japan. Public transportation, on the other hand, is well developed and very conven ient for both local trips and long distance traveling.You may enjoy a Shinkansen bullet train ride across the country from Aomori, the northern tip of Honshu (the largest island) all the way through Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, to Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu, the southernmost major island. Air traffic has been developed quite extensively, and as a result air fares have become reasonable in recent years. The major airports are located in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Okinawa. Unit 25 Oo kei As you have learned, the Japanese have borrowed many words from English: gasorin for â€Å"gasoline,† depaato for a â€Å"department store,† etc.O. K. has become a universally recognized expression, and it is no exception in Japan. You will hear many Japanese use oo kei to indicate that everything is all right, or to ask you whether something is all right with you. You will also notice that they may accompany the verbal utterance of oo kei with a n onverbal sign, index finger bent to touch the thumb to form a â€Å"zero. † That same sign is also used to indicate money in Japan. Store Hours In the conversation in this unit, the man said that the department store may be closed because it is late.While he may have said it so the lady would not go shopping, it is important to know when the Japanese department stores are open as they do not always keep the same store hours as those in the U. S. They usually open at 10:00 AM and close around 6:30 PM on regular business days, including weekends. Unlike some stores in the U. S. , many Japanese department stores and small shops are open on Sundays. In fact, the stores are most crowded on Sundays. Each department store, however, has designated one weekday as a day off, usually Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.You will find the Japanese stores extremely crowded with people during two main giftgiving seasons every year: mid to late July and December. During these seasons, most store s stay open till 8:00 or 9:00 PM. Unit 26 ni, san In this unit you learned ni, san nichi for â€Å"a few days. † The ni, san, literally meaning â€Å"two (or) three,† can be used in combination with many other words: ni, san nin (â€Å"a few people†), biiru ni, san bon (â€Å"a few beers†), and ni, san shukan (â€Å"a few weeks†). We have repeatedly stressed ambiguity and indirectness as features of Japanese communication, and ni, san is just another example.Even when the speaker knows precisely how many people he or she is talking about, the expression ni, san nin may be used. Although the expression literally indicates only two or three as possibilities, four or even five are not completely excluded. To respond to the question, â€Å"How many beers did you have last night? † a Japanese person may say ni, san bon, while he might, in fact, have had five or six. The range of possibilities included in ni, san is wider than that of â€Å"a few . † Taxis in Japan You have learned another English word that is commonly used in Japanese: takushii.Taxis are readily available in most cities, and even in fairly small towns. You can flag one down on the street or phone for a pick-up. Most taxis, both company-owned and privately-operated, are connected by radio. They are clean, safe, and convenient. The fares vary, depending on the city you are in. They are slightly more expensive in large cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka than in smaller places such as Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. You do not need to tip the driver, but simply pay the fare displayed on the machine by the driver's seat.An interesting discovery you will make is that the rear passenger door opens and closes automatically. Just as long as you can clearly tell the driver where you wish to go, or show a map and point to your destination, you will get there safely and rapidly by taxi. Unit 27 hyaku Now that you have learned hyaku, one hundred, you can g o all the way up to 999 by simply combining the numbers you already know. One hundred is hyaku, so one hundred five is hyaku go. One hundred ten is hyaku ju. You can guess that two hundred is made up of ni for â€Å"two† and hyaku for a hundred: ni hyaku.The rest is easy except that the pronunciation of hyaku varies slightly depending on what number it follows. Three hundred is san byaku, six hundred is roppyaku, and eight hundred is happyaku. It is quite easy to count in Japanese, and it is also important that you know how to say large numbers, as they are frequently used in daily interchange. Unit 28 jaa In any spoken language you can find interjections which are used frequently, but which have no specific meanings. Some examples in English are â€Å"well, ah, uh, um. † jaa is a good Japanese example.It can be used in a variety of situations and gives the speaker a chance to think carefully about what he or she is about to say, to take a turn to speak, etc. In the pr esent unit, it was introduced as being equivalent to â€Å"well then. † You can use it when you wish to say â€Å"See you later† to a friend. You can also say jaa when you ask a series of questions. For example. â€Å"biiru o nomimasu ka? † â€Å"iie, nomimasen. † â€Å"jaa, osake o nomimasu ka? † How naturally you use these interjections may be a good indicator of your mastery of the language you are learning.Unit 29 masu, mashita, masen As stated before, Japanese word order is quite different from English. In English, the general meaning of a sentence is made clear early in the sentence. You can figure out whether something is happening now, will happen in the future, has already happened, or did not happen at all, by listening to the first part of a sentence. The Japanese language, on the other hand, places the important words toward the end of a sentence. The difference among masu, mashita, and masen is very small, and they come in the very end of a sentence.Such an attribute of the Japanese language may require your extra attention, and you need to be careful not to jump to conclusions until you hear the entire sentence. Unit 30 Continuing Success Throughout Japanese I, Third Edition you have learned many essential elements of the Japanese language. Practicing what you have learned in the thirty units will assure you successful initial encounters with the Japanese people. We hope you will keep up with your daily practice and further build upon your vocabulary.One additional aspect of competency that you will find useful and important is your sensitivity to cross-cultural differences in values, thought patterns, space and time orientations, mannerisms, etc. You can also continue to build on your communication skills by proceeding on to Japanese II. Introduction to Reading Japanese When you visit a foreign country such as Japan, where the language sounds very different, and the appearance of the written language does not e ven remotely resemble what you are used to, you may naturally find yourself somewhat intimidated.Just imagining the difficulty you may face in learning how to read and write can be discouraging. Mastering reading and writing Japanese is indeed an extremely long and complex process, and even many native speakers have not completed the learning process. In this course you are learning spoken Japanese. While a knowledge of the orthographic form of Japanese will be useful when visiting Japan, it is not necessary to acquire speech. In the following notes, however, some basic and important knowledge of written Japanese will be introduced.Once you understand the essentials that underlie written Japanese, you will find that reading in the language is much easier and less intimidating than you may have anticipated. Kanji, the Chinese Characters Kanji is the â€Å"pictorial† writing the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese. Each Kanji character represents an object or idea, and in writte n Japanese these objects and ideas combine in various ways to form new words and phrases. The pronunciation of each character varies depending on the context, and some Kanji have up to four or five different ways to be pronounced.One is required to be able to recognize and understand some 3,000 Kanji characters to achieve functional literacy in the Japanese language. It won't be necessary, however, to be able to pronounce the Kanji characters, and you will certainly not need 3,000, but it will be rather convenient to get the general meaning of a basic core of some 50 characters which you will see in such public places as airports, train stations. on street signs, and on restaurant menus. As an example of Kanji, we will introduce you here to a few that are typical of the pictorial Kanji characters.To get you started with reading Japanese, here is the character for â€Å"up† or â€Å"on. † Notice that it looks as if the whole character points upward: This character point ing down means â€Å"down† or ‘†under. † When put together, these two characters form a Japanese word, meaning up and down. The word is used to indicate not only the physical upward and downward directions, but also a social relationship with a status difference. Here is another character, which means a â€Å"tree. Can you see how the image of a tree was transformed into the Kanji character? And here is the character for a â€Å"mountain. † Many characters are made up of two or more parts: hen (or the left-hand radical) and tsukuri (or the right-hand radical). The Kanji for â€Å"tree† can serve as a hen, and it may be used to form such words? characters as â€Å"woods,† or a â€Å"forest. † woods forest Here is a more complex character combining three parts: mountain, up, and down. Put together as one word, â€Å"mountain,† â€Å"up,† and â€Å"down† mean a â€Å"mountain pass† or a â€Å"peak. †Å"When you can recognize some 50 basic Japanese Kanji characters, the rest will be fairly easy, as you will probably be able to guess what a new character may mean just by looking at it and identifying the component parts. The first step is to get rid of your anxiety about reading Japanese: take the time to become familiar with the fundamental patterns used to make up the Japanese Kanji characters. Katakana and Hiragana The Kanji system adopted from Chinese is the basic Japanese written system, but whereas the Chinese language uses only pictorial characters, Japanese uses two other types of writing systems in addition to Kanji.They are Katakana and Hiragana. These are two different sets of â€Å"letters† representing Japanese sounds. Each letter represents either a vowel sound or a consonant plus a vowel, for example, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc. The Japanese Hiragana and Katakana are both lined up in the same way. The vowels go: a, i, u, e, o. The consonants k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w are placed before the vowels. You can memorize the order of Hiragana and Katakana in much the same way you memorized how the alphabet goes from A to Z. There are 46 Hiragana and Katakana symbols, as shown on the chart on the next page.Each block contains the transliterated phonetic representation of the character, followed by the Hiragana and then by the Katakana (in parentheses). Katakana is the writing system used for Japanese ? English cognates, i. e. , for words adopted from English into Japanese. You will find it particularly useful to learn Katakana, as you may need to read and write your name from time to time. Foreign and new words are spelled using Katakana, so you will see words such as â€Å"restaurant,† â€Å"hotel,† â€Å"golf,† â€Å"gasoline,† and many others in Katakana. Here is what they look like in combination: estaurant hotel golf gasoline Hiragana is the writing system comprised of letters used to represent grammatical endings a nd features that Chinese does not have. Unlike Kanji, in which a symbol represents a concept or an idea, in both the Hiragana and Katakana systems of Japanese, there is a connection between the symbol on the paper and the spoken word, and each letter is pronounced in only one way regardless of the context. Before Japanese children learn how to write the complex Kanji characters, they learn how to write Hiragana and they use it for every word.To illustrate, yama or â€Å"mountain† can be written in three different ways, in Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana. However, since it is not a foreign word, it would rarely, if ever, be written in Katakana. mountain Kanji mountain Katakana mountain Hiragana While it is possible to use the phonetic Hiragana and Katakana scripts to represent almost any Japanese word, it is usually considered more appropriate to use the Kanji characters whenever possible, using the phonetic scripts only to represent foreign words (Katakana) or features unique to Japanese (Hiragana).Books and Signs Most westerners are accustomed to reading books starting from the front and reading each line left to right, starting from the top of the page. In books and traditional writing, however, Japanese is written in columns, top to bottom starting on the right side of a page. The books appear to open â€Å"backwards† to English speakers, as the â€Å"front† of a Japanese book is the â€Å"back† of an English text. However, in signs, menus, and books in which some English words are used, such as academic papers, Japanese is now often written from left to right. Visitors to Japan are fortunate in that