Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Postmodern Humanism :: Grace Paley Enormous Last Minute Essays

"Enormous Changes at the Last Minute:" Postmodern Humanism in the Short Fiction of Grace Paley(1) On the jacket of her second book of short stories, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, Grace Paley, a feminist, postmodernist, antiwar activist, and writer, identifies herself as a "somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist." In 1979, she was arrested on the White House lawn for demonstrating against nuclear weapons, and her rÃÆ'Â ©sumÃÆ'Â © is full of such protest-related arrests. Paley's statement in a 1998 interview with the online magazine Salon is typical: "Whatever your calling is, whether it's as a plumber or an artist, you have to make sure there's a little more justice in the world when you leave it than when you found it." Paley's fiction expresses similar sentiments but in rather subtle ways. Women in her short stories do not get arrested for protesting; instead, they visit their aging fathers in the hospital. (2) Paley's concern for justice appears in her short fiction as a postmodern humanism that works itself out in the establishment of storytelling, re ality-making communities. In "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism," Ihab Hassan schematizes postmodernism in opposition to modernism. This sampling of the catchwords he identifies gives us a window into the project of postmodern theorists: Antiform, Play, Anarchy, Decreation/Deconstruction, Antithesis, Absence, Dispersal, Anti-narrative/Petite Histoire, Indeterminacy (591-2). Postmodern writers, then, play with language, experiment with narrative fragmentation, introduce previously ignored voices, borrow heavily from both popular culture and "canonical" literature, and generally break boundaries. How can we classify Paley as a postmodern writer if an ethical framework underlies her writing? Shouldn't she be trying to deconstruct reality and expose the meaninglessness of the American experience? Of course, no work or writer fits perfectly into postmodernism's theoretical agenda. For that matter, the very establishment of an unyielding definition of postmodernism is antithetical to its self-proclaimed turn away from the rigidity of modernist thought. For students of postmodernism this can be a maddening maze of deconstruction that eventually leads to the extinction of the study of literature. If, as radical deconstructionists might argue, our language systems and understandings of reality prove to be valueless, the scholar of literature is left with little to do, as is the social critic. It is for this reason that Hassan writes Thus we can not simply rest-as I have sometimes done-on the assumption that postmodernism is antiformal, anarchic, or decreative; for though it is indeed all these, and despite its fanatic will to unmaking, it also contains the need to discover a "unitary sensibility" (Sontag), to "cross the border and close the gap" (Fiedler).

Comparing Male and Female Relationships in Cat in The Rain and Hills Li

Comparing Male and Female Relationships in Cat in The Rain and Hills Like White Elephants by Hemingway This relationship is examined closely in two short stories. The stories, Cat in The Rain, and Hills Like White Elephants, both show a man and a woman in what seems to be a quiet and passive moment. However in both stories, Hemingway carefully uses imagery and subtlety to convey to the reader that the relationship in the story is flawed, and is quite clearly dysfunctional. Both male characters in each story clearly have trouble understanding their women, and it is this inability to see them and what they want that Hemingway is addressing and criticizng. What, in both works, appears to be a quite and passive moment, is in reality a pivotal point in each relationship, and neither man seems to realize it. Â   For example, Cat In The Rain tells what seems to be a simple tale of an American couple spending a rainy afternoon inside their hotel room. This simple set up serves as a great metaphor for what appears to be the couples relationship. Outside it's ugly and gray. And nothing is going on inside. Form the begging, we can see that their is a well established rift in the relationship between George and his unnamed wife. The woman sees a cat standing in the rain, and tells her husband (who is being non communicative and sits aside reading, the whole time) "I'm going down and get that kitty"(129). Hemingway writes the response of the Husband as '"I'll do it", her husband offered from the bed"(129). The fact that George seems so detached, and makes no effort in even getting up clearly shows us that his "offer" her means nothing. He is simply going through a mechanical motion of seeming to listen and care, with out even bothering ... ...tle bit of light she needs. Â   In conclusion, neither of these stories really gives any hope to their respective relationships. It seems that both cases feature men who have long already ignored and under appreciated their loved ones, and have hurt them and not even seen that hurt. Hemingway seems to be telling us that they key to keep relating is to not only listen, but listen with intent. Both the women in these stories are sad, hurt and lonely. Those are traits Hemingway seems to have written about numerous times, but they come across beautifully in these tales that at first seem small and insignificant, but truly do offer a snapshot into the emotions of it's characters, and into ours as well. Works Cited The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway. The Fianca Vigia Edition. Scribner Paperback Fiction. Published By Simon and Schuster. New York, NY.

Politicians and Social Order :: essays research papers

A social order. A person’s beliefs and values that allow them to make the choices that to have the type of government they want. My social order- one of an African-American, 17-year-old, low middle-class female- will differ widely from my mother’s, or Shemair’s, or even your social order. For instance, I strongly value education. So does my mother, Shemair, and I am sure you do, too. My mother might value my education because it will help her later on in life. Shemair might value my education because it means that we will be able to move out after graduation. You as my teacher, will value my education because it proves that your education was good and your life as a teacher is worthwhile. I value my education for the sake of getting knowledge. Everyone might have the same value and yet they will have different reasons for valuing it. The same is true of our political values. People might want a strong government because of the type of social order that they hold. The government maintains my personal and political social order. The government allows me to vote for people who have the same purposes as I do. Representatives who fall into my political social order are the ones who will get my vote as I get older. For instance - the issue of abortion. I am strongly against abortion for any reason at any time. When it comes time to vote for people to be a part of my state government, I am going to choose someone who believes that killing at any stage in life is immoral. This way, through elections, I will have the ability to participate in the government. I will have someone who protects individual rights, thus maintaining my social order, and keep the government holding the same ideas as me. The principle of our democratic government will allow me to express my individualism. My personal liberty will be established because the government protects our interacting values that we hold. Another value that we have is the idea of equality of opportunity. This fact is evident in the decision to have affirmative action used in places such as colleges, universities, and jobs. I believe 100% that affirmative action is good and justifiable. I will vote for someone who pushes for affirmative action in the state of Florida. My social order clearly shows that I want someone who favors post-secondary education, especially for minorities. Also, the idea of majority rule will be upheld in all of the elections that we hold. This way I can have free expression in my personal life, as well as in the political arena. Politicians and Social Order :: essays research papers A social order. A person’s beliefs and values that allow them to make the choices that to have the type of government they want. My social order- one of an African-American, 17-year-old, low middle-class female- will differ widely from my mother’s, or Shemair’s, or even your social order. For instance, I strongly value education. So does my mother, Shemair, and I am sure you do, too. My mother might value my education because it will help her later on in life. Shemair might value my education because it means that we will be able to move out after graduation. You as my teacher, will value my education because it proves that your education was good and your life as a teacher is worthwhile. I value my education for the sake of getting knowledge. Everyone might have the same value and yet they will have different reasons for valuing it. The same is true of our political values. People might want a strong government because of the type of social order that they hold. The government maintains my personal and political social order. The government allows me to vote for people who have the same purposes as I do. Representatives who fall into my political social order are the ones who will get my vote as I get older. For instance - the issue of abortion. I am strongly against abortion for any reason at any time. When it comes time to vote for people to be a part of my state government, I am going to choose someone who believes that killing at any stage in life is immoral. This way, through elections, I will have the ability to participate in the government. I will have someone who protects individual rights, thus maintaining my social order, and keep the government holding the same ideas as me. The principle of our democratic government will allow me to express my individualism. My personal liberty will be established because the government protects our interacting values that we hold. Another value that we have is the idea of equality of opportunity. This fact is evident in the decision to have affirmative action used in places such as colleges, universities, and jobs. I believe 100% that affirmative action is good and justifiable. I will vote for someone who pushes for affirmative action in the state of Florida. My social order clearly shows that I want someone who favors post-secondary education, especially for minorities. Also, the idea of majority rule will be upheld in all of the elections that we hold. This way I can have free expression in my personal life, as well as in the political arena.

Library Management System Essay

Technologies are important and helpful in everyone’s life. Schools set the various pedagogical changes to achieve the current level of education in other countries. Because of the growing numbers of computer users, this became an effective medium to demonstrate the knowledge and skills of the students. From the traditional searching process for the books in the libraries, the interactive usage of computers can be now addressed as part of the library system. Now, with the advent of such modernization in education, one way to globalize the process of research is to realize that technology is advancing at an incredibly fast pace. Technology has a systematic and organized way of keeping data records, computing numbers, accomplishing a lot of transactions and reports. A system library management system is made to have fast process transactions for searching book titles, borrowing books, returning books, computing penalties and generating an accurate report. In addition, Library is an important part of the academic sector as well as some professional sectors too like, Advocacy etc. The efficiency of a library lies in the fact how it is arranged and how easily one can get the books of their choice. Generally, what we see nowadays is the manual library management system whose process of operation is very much hectic. Library is a place in which we get information in any format and from many sources. This involves the utilization for processing, accessing and retrieving the information that can effectively support the process of student’s learning, decision- making and scholastically approaches. Because of the organized approach and systematic management of the information, the accessibility and retrieval in the library can be easy. Traditionally, library management systems are implemented manually. Forms are given to librarian and they fill them of using pens. Afterwards, the school administrators process them manually and complied on large bulky file cabinet. Indeed, the manual library system is very costly, time consuming and tedious. The primary complaint of school administrators with this system is the tiresome task of searching through records just to verify your query data. The fast phased of technology attributed a lot to the improvement of the library management system. Technology enables software developers to computerize to computerize the library system. Hence, Here in Lyceum of Alabang, the newly build library of Basic Education (exclusively for k12 lyceans) provides several of books to the students to convey information especially in their research, paper works, assignments and projects. Thus, the institution aim to supply the necessary materials to their students, the idea of library management system is introduces. A. Background of the Study Nowadays most system like library system faces some problems such as flexibility, usability and accessibility. As the times goes by, some programmers discovered a solution to aide the said problems on past. And to develop more features that can be help to the system to make it more easy to use. Lyceum of Alabang, exclusively in Basic Education Library Management System aimed to enhance the procedures of the library, manually operated to a computerized system. This proposal’s purpose was to ease the transaction in the library, i.e., lending of books, storing of books, search books and secure library system. The librarian and the library user still use the manual way of transacting of borrowing and returning of books. The librarian use log books in listing the books. They use library cards and card catalogues in searching for reading and reference materials. In order to sustain the needs of the system the developer on this system always updates and check if there are malfunctions or technical errors of the system. Before the researcher came up on this system they planned first before executing and developing this system, the researcher’s gathered information through survey if the management or students would really need this system. In addition, system structures required to achieve such design are clarified. After checking requirement specification included in the basic plan, the overview of the project is represented by the use of diagrams so that the processing and flows of data can be easily understood. B. Objectives of the Study The objective of the study was to develop a computerized system that will store the record of the students such as basic information, books record, list of borrower’s, returned books, borrowed books and prescription of the librarian. This specify following objectives of the system: a. To provide the administrator an effective way on storing and encoding all the necessary information needed from a student before letting them borrow a book. b. To design and create system that will lessen the time and effort of the administrator in their transaction. c. To quickly search the about a certain book that are still out and needed by the student who also wants to borrow a book from the library. d. To implement a modernize way of resolving inventory issues in the library. C. Scope and Limitation Important features such as the administrator would be able to get the information of the students who borrowed the books and also the inventory of books for availability purposes and monitoring of book volumes other features offers the security of the books in were the admin could easily verify if the books are return or not. User information subsystem (Collect User information from user and will save in the database) borrow a book subsystem (determine if the book is meant to be checked out) Inventory a book subsystem (Get book from user, set book/items status to â€Å"available†) Notify user book is overdue subsystem (Check if all books are accounted, issue overdue notice, look up users information). Library Management System can’t produce outputs of the data reports, can be viewed and use only by one user which is the administrator, transaction process with regards of over due of borrowing books are still in the issue of not accurately provide the exact amount of payment that the student must pay as a punishment of not returning the borrowed books on time And cannot provide the list of books that are stored inside the library system. D. Significance of the study The researchers aim to develop the manual process into computerize library system in basic education. It helps the management a lot when it comes for checking inventory of several books and to make their work more easily and conveniently. And by the use of this system the management can easily checked the books that are loaned, borrowed and identify the books which are reserved. To make it easy to search any record, to keep the data secured, to edit the records and update the database easily, to make the backup easily, to minimize the duplication of data and to make the system user friendly which more easy to use and the operator will feel no difficulty. Chapter 2 Research Methodology This chapter starts on the discussion about the project research design methodology. The second part presents the development of the system. The third part tells the operation, process and testing. The last parts discuss the evaluation procedure. Project Development The system Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application. Various SDLC methodologies have been developed to guide the processes involved including the waterfall model.(the original SDLC method ) rapid application development (RAD) joint application development (JAD) the fountain model and the spiral model. Mostly, several models are combined into some sort of hybrid methodology. Documentation is crucial regardless of the type of model chosen or devised for process. Some methods work better for specific types of projects, but in the final analysis, the most important factor for the success of a project may be how closely particular plan was followed. Project Design Planning In planning, the researchers conducted an interview to the client to gather some information about on how the librarians manage the books, borrowed books. Returned books, all record of the student. It is observed that the librarian writes the records manually of every student who borrowed or returned the Books. The student uses the form given by the librarian. Analysis Base on the proposed Computerized Library System is designed purely from the user’s viewpoint considering the constraints of hardware (such as computers). In addition, system structures required to achieve such design are clarified. After checking requirement specification included in the basic plan, the overview of the project is represented by the use of diagrams so that the processing and flows of data can be easily understood. Designing The software design specifically targeted to librarian of the researchers used a user friendly design to attract the user to use the new automated system. Here the system was the system designed purely from the user’s viewpoint without considering the constraints of hardware (such as computers). In addition, system structures required to achieve such design are clarified. After checking the requirement specification included in the planning, the overview of the system represented by the use of diagrams so that the processed of data can be easily understood. Based on the representation, the division into sub system and input output designing was performed. The entire project was divided into a number of modules on a functional basis, and each module was further divided into smaller units. The designing of the code, such as the determination of a coding system, was conducted. In addition, relationships between the data were analyzed. Software Development Coding In the development of the system, the researcher’s made used of Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 for encoding source code of the system, in order to be accurate and fast acquisition of data/information. Testing The researcher’s installs the new System. The researchers encountered problems while processing it for the first time but after several weeks the system has been successful and introduced it to the respondents. Operating The researcher’s were responsible for conducting an operation test. The researcher’s conducted a test under the actual operation conditions, and verified that the system satisfies the required specification. Because this test was intended to have a developed system accepted by the user, it was called an approval test or an acceptance test. The researcher’s conducted an operation test by running a program on a machine being used for actual operations. Maintenance The researchers conducted maintenance in software to correct faults, to maintain performance or other attributes. The researchers common perception of maintenance merely involves fixing detect. The researcher’s maintenance management system allows segment chiefs to plan maintenance work on fixed assets, such as equipment, machinery and property. The researcher’s came up with this library management system to provide easier, faster and effective way on monitoring the transaction of borrowed books and books that are being returned by the borrowers. This system offers the best way to check the quantity, availability and the full information about the books that are stored on the library system database. This system provides the best way to solve the quantity redundancy of books available on the library storage. In order to sustain the needs of the students in basic education the researcher’s propose this system to lessen the burdens of the management as well as the students. Based on Observation Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity. As the researcher’s observed about the manual process it take a long time to borrow a book(s) or return a book(s) and its very hard to the management to check or inventory the books. Survey Data collection tool used to gather information about individuals. Surveys are commonly used in research to collect self-report data from study participants. A survey may focus on factual information about individuals, or it might aim the collect the opinions of the survey takers. The researcher’s gathered information from the students as well as the librarian and they’re in favor of having computerize library system. Interview An interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee. The Researcher’s interviewed the management and the students about the transaction of the books in the library they both agreed about the system because of the slow process of transaction. According to Ms. Aurora, the librarian she suffered on checking inventory of the books and determined the author in each books. Sometime she encountered of misplacing the logbook and she don’t know what to do. And she finally thankful to the researcher’s of having computerizing system. In this figure it shows the slow process of the borrowing book(s), after the borrower will get the book they will need to wait until the administrator will finalize and release the book(s). The only problem of this manual process when there are more students or faculty that will borrowed a book and there is only one administrator. They need to wait the books for a long time just because of this process. Registration by the use of library card, the students of faculty will just register once when they borrowed or returned a book. B. Proposed System Structure Library Management System is a computerize system proposed by the researchers to access quickly the records and updates. The data will be much secure from any unauthorized access. It will be made secure by using passwords and by taking other security measures. Records will be easily edited and the database will easily be updated at the time of entering a record. The Library Management System is designed for managing various activities of â€Å"Lyceum of Alabang exclusively in Basic Education†. Since library has a very large number of books and a large number of members, it is very hard for librarian to manage day to day activities manually. It keep track like categorizing of books, books that are requested by the students, books that are issued to students, details of students who borrowed the books. The system allows the administrator to interact within the system managing student’s record (adding student records, deleting records and modifying records of the students), organizing book details (add book details, delete book details and modify book details). While the students and faculty allows only searching a book(s) without registration. The librarian will get the information of the borrower when they loaned out the book(s), they need to fill up the requirements in order continue the process of the system. In this figure it illustrates how the management system works. First the Librarian must log in to enter the system, the librarian also tasked to update the books by deleting or adding books, Monitoring borrowed and returned books, Issued books for the students or faculty and data report for checking the inventory. Figure 1.3 Library Management System Use case process This figure illustrates how the system interacts between the administrator and users. This clearly shows how the users managed to remove or delete accounts and also how users add new account on this management system. This figure explains the librarian’s access to different data reports including list of all books returned and borrowed, also copies of different books available inside the library system. Figure 1.4 Library Management System VTOC In this figure 1.4 it show the librarian interacting within the system by searching, borrowing and returning books. The librarian liable of updating books, monitoring books, Issued books for students and making data Report. Flow Chart Figure 1.5 Library Management System Process In this figure it illustrates the Library Management System Process by inputting username and password of the librarian for security if the librarian didn’t match the password it back to the log in form and if the librarian matches the password that can be found in data base it will automatically appear the home page. The librarian can now update, monitor the borrow books, return books and due books. And can view the books available as well as the student’s borrowers. Sample Form about the Library Management System Figure 1.0 Books Information In this figure 1.0 the books information show the contents of book number, title, Author, publisher, copyright, ISBN, no. of copy, volume, edition and type. In this form the administrator allow to save new books on the data base to maintain the updates of the system. Figure 1.0 Borrower’s Information In this form it show the borrowers information it has ID Number, first name, middle name, last name and address. It allows the administrator to put the information of the borrowers of the book. And by using the old borrower’s radio button it will allow the administrator to search by inputting the ID number which is the student number of the students. Figure 1.0 Borrowing Book(s) In this figure 1.0 the Borrowing book(s) can be located at the transaction area. By inputting on the searching string it will search on the data base where the books are stored. In this form also included the list of borrowed books and list of unreturned books. After pressing the search button, all the books that are related to the book(s) that you’re seeking it will appear on the list box. Figure 1.0 List of Book(s) This section is were you can view and check the records of the books available on this library computer system and it also gives the administrator the option whether to print the records of the remaining copies of the books or not. Figure 1.0 List of Borrowers In this section the system provides the administrator the power to view and check the list of students who borrowed from the library and gives the option to whether print the names of the borrowers or not. Figure 1.0 List of return and unreturned books In this area it shows to functions of the library system the one on the left pane is the area in were you can view and check the list of unreturned books and to on the other side is the area in were you can input the number id and the system will automatically shows the information about who borrowed the books and the whole information of the books including the titles and authors. Chapter 5 Summary and Recommendation In this chapter explains the summary of the findings from the evaluation of the system and recommendation future enhancement of the system. The last part of this chapter, however, discusses the possible recommendations for the system such as platform of software development or adding feature into the system. Summary The developed system is largely attributed to the concept of RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) and MySQL (Standard Query Language) database Programming. An open source RDBMS which provides robust functionalities for managing information. The program was developed under the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 which was found out to be more suitable when image processing and database programming is computerize system. Library management system is designed & developed for a receipt and issuance of books in the library along with the student’s details. This project gives complete information about the library. We can enter the record of new books and retrieve the details of books available in the library. We can issue the books to the students and maintain their records and can also check how many books are issued and stock available in the library. In this project we can maintain the late fine of students who returns the issued books after the due date. The software design specifically targeted to librarian of the researchers used a user friendly design to attract the user to use the new automated system. Here the system was the system designed purely from the user’s viewpoint without considering the constraints of hardware. Recommendation Base on the summary of result, the proponents suggested the following modification of the system for the best performance and improve its efficiency and functionality. a. The system must be automated so that it is quicker than this computerized system. b. RFID bar code must be applicable to enhance more the system. c. Integrate proximity card and detectors to monitor the number of library users either borrowing books or those who are doing other things inside the library. d. Apply encryption algorithm into the records before saving it into the database. e. Providing fines to each borrower’s base on the due dates f. Must be on LAN connection.

Bilingualism in Children

Bilingualism can be viewed in two different ways. One way of viewing bilingualism is that it is a commendable trait for a person to have, that is alongside the thinking that it is a mark of high intellect. Another way of viewing bilingualism is that it is a negative upshot of Globalism, that it is a degradation of culture. It is undeniable that bilingualism is a prevalent topic in today’s society. Some even consider it as an essential trait for survival in the context of the modern world.This notion of bilingualism is especially prevalent in the US, where immigrants should adopt a second language to be competitive in terms of employment. That is why children from immigrant families are advised by their parents to learn a second language early as early as possible. The problem bilingualism arises when parents fail to consider that children are still in the stage of mastering their first language. Acquiring two language simultaneously is would be difficult for anyone regardless of age. It is a common notion that the children would eventually learn the second language.That is alongside the thinking that, as the children are exposed more to the society speaking the second language, the children would naturally the language. Although, it is observable that children from immigrant families gradually become more and more comfortable with second language through time. But it is also observable that the process that the children have to go through is not an easy one. The difficulty of children’s acquisition of a second language is expressed by Eva Hoffman in her book â€Å"Lost in Translation.† She had thrown in a very helpful query for this discussion: â€Å"†¦how does an individual bend toward another culture without stumbling over? † (Hoffman 209) Hoffman’s semi-autobiographical book is about her struggle to acquire a second language when family had migrated from Poland to Vancouver. The bulk of the book is about her lost of he r sense of place and belonging in her new society. But the fact that the acquisition of the second language would come as natural would not necessarily mean that the children would not be subjected to the consequences of being bilingual.Another book that would be helpful to the discussion at hand is Natasha Lvovich’s â€Å"The Multilingual Self: An inquiry to language learning. † In contrast to Hoffman’s work, Lvovich’s book had taken a more attention-grabbing approach. Lvovich’s work is about the struggles that her daughter had to face when they had moved to America. Although there are some minor differences between the two books, they are both talking the same topic of language acquisition. Both of the books had depicted how a child is subjected to consequences of being bilingual.A common consequence of bilingualism as Lvovich had depicted through the story of her daughter â€Å"†¦she is going through a very difficult period of adjustment a s a teenager growing into adulthood† (Lvovich 101) There was even a point in the book that Lvovich’s daughter became reluctant to speak their first language. Hoffman argued that a reluctance to speak the first language would result to the atrophy of the mother language of the child (Hoffman 98) ConclusionFor children of immigrant families to succeed in being multilingual, their parents should first do careful planning and learning about the nature of language acquisition. The parents should always keep in mind that childhood is already full of challenges as is. They should be aware of the consequence of being bilingual and they should also have at least an idea of how to counter them. Works Cited Hoffman, Eva. (1990). Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language. NY: Penguin Lvovich, N. (1997). The Multilingual Self: An inquiry into language learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Bilingualism in Children Bilingualism is the production and/or comprehension of two languages by the same individual (Cummins, 1981). Many children of varying nationality, acquire this ability of learning two languages through cultural maintenance and educational enrichment. Furthermore, the media continuously bombards children of stimulation of the other language (Cummins, 1981). Cummins (1981) stated that there is a strong tendency among children of replacing the first language with the other. A series of tests were made by Feldman and Shen (1969) about some language-related cognitive advantages of bilingual five year olds.Three tasks for children were made accordingly to gather information. These tasks of increasing difficulty were (1) object constancy, (2) naming and (3) using labels in sentences, respectively . In object constancy, children were primarily shown with objects such as cups, plates, sponge, match and suction cup soap holder. These objects were later physically transformed in front of them. Crushing the cups, burning the match and painting the plates were some examples of transformation. Transformed objects are placed beside an identical pre-transformed objects.Afterwards, the children were asked to identify which among the two was primarily shown. Naming, on the other hand, purposely tests the child's ability to use verbal labels to name familiar objects. The experimenter tried to confuse the children by switching the names of the familiar object and designating nonsensical names to objects. For example, calling an airplane as â€Å"car† and relabeling the cup as â€Å"wug†. The children were asked which among the objects was really an airplane. They were also asked which one was called a â€Å"wug† and then they were asked what it really was.In the third experiment, the child was requested to show his ability of using three sorts of labels in simple relational sentences such as â€Å" The cup is on the plate. † These labels, as discussed i n naming, were common names, switched common names and nonsense names. The principle for using simple relational sentences was that referential word meaning is the simplest sort of meaning. Words like â€Å"cup†, â€Å"plate† and even the part of the predicate â€Å"on† can all be thought of as referring to things. Results showed that bilinguals perform significantly better in the said three tasks than monolinguals do (Feldman & Shen, 1969).Moreover, bilinguals' advantage over monolinguals was more apparent in comprehension than production measures. These means they execute better where nonverbal pointing responses were required. In addition, functions related to labeling would be more advanced by having two languages. Research by Bialystok (2004), on the other hand, has shown that bilingual children develop control processes more readily than monolinguals do. They respond more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands on working memory and carry out con trolled processes more effectively (Bialystok, 2004).On the other hand, Macnamara (1966) argued some studies have reported negative effects of bilingualism (as cited in Bialystok, 2004). In Feldman & Shen's (1969) experiment, it was found out that monolinguals do better in the use of either common names alone or nonsense names alone. Furthermore, Fishman (1967) added that disadvantages commonly associated with bilingualism would not appear in bilinguals whose languages were situation specific (as cited in Feldman & Shen, 1969). It was an accepted notion that bilinguals had deficits compared with monolingual peers.Nonetheless, studies show significant cognitive advantages of children with bilingual capacities. These advantages were dominant in comprehending rather than performing verbal actions. Other research pointed out bilingual advantages in the areas of creativity, problem solving and perceptual disembedding (Bialystok, 2004). These advantages of bilinguals can be uniquely attri buted to an early development in association and labeling skills (Feldman & Shen, 1969). Bibliography: Bialystok, E. , Craik, F. I. M. , Klein, R. & Viswanathan, M. (2004) Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control: Evidence From the Simon Task.Psychology and Aging, 19 (2), 290-303. Feldman, C. & Shen, M. Some Language-Related Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Five Year Olds. Retrieved from http://eric. ed. gov/ERICWebPortal/custom /portlets/recordDetails/detailmini. jsp_nfpb=true&_&ERICExt Search_SearchValue_0=ED031307&ERICExtSearch _SearchType_0=no&accno=ED031307 Cummins, J. Bilingualism and Minority-Language Children. Retrieved from http://eric. ed. gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini. jsp_ nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED215 557&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED215557

Arranged vs Love Marriages in India

Arrange Marriages vs. Love Marriages Survey by NDTV NDTV commissioned Ipsos, a leading market research agency, to conduct fieldwork for this opinion poll from a sample size of almost 30,000, covering as many as 125 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the 18 big states. The poll was carried out in 125 constituencies spread over 18 states (these account for over 20% of the 543 Lok Sabha seats). Each Lok Sabha constituency was selected using a statistical formula based on voting patterns of 2009 Lok Sabha Elections.In each Lok Sabha constituency, two to three assembly segments were selected at random where approximately 100 interviews were conducted in homes. For the voting intention question, the respondents were given a mock ballot paper on which the symbols of the parties were set out. They were asked to mark their preference on the ballot paper and then place the ballot paper in a mock ballot box. Source: http://www. ndtv. com/article/india/ndtv-mid-term-poll-does-india-still-want-arr anged-marriages-260295 Survey by Shaadi. com In May, 2011, India’s largest Matrimonial website, â€Å"Shaadi. om†, published the results of a huge marriage based survey that they conducted with research agency IMRB. The Indian marriage survey was based on the opinions of around 150,000 users of the site in 300 Indian cities and towns. Site users, especially NRIs, from UK, US, Australia and Canada were also surveyed. 62% of the respondents were male, of these, over 50% were in the 26-35 age group. In the words of the website, the objective of this large survey was to â€Å"try and understand the psyche of an average marriage hopeful and the way matchmaking trends are changing and evolving†.Listed below are some of the key findings of the Indian marriage survey (â€Å"Shaadi Aaj Kal†). Note that since this is a survey of internet users, the respondents tend to be more tech savvy, better educated, and more urban centric than the average Indian. 1. A large nu mber of women (54%) prefer to stay in a â€Å"joint family† after marriage as against only â€Å"21%† who prefer to stay in a nuclear family. A joint family provides a support system for the married couple. Surprisingly, in a similar survey in 2004, only 40% of the women wanted to stay in a â€Å"joint family†. 2.Almost 50% of the respondents said that they would marry their partner even if they did not get along with their future in-laws. 3. 85% of the male respondents wanted their future wives to work after marriage. Since the respondents are mainly urban centric, this is not surprising; although a high figure of 85% is refreshing. 4. 69% of the women want their partner to be better educated than them, whereas only 10% of the men wanted their potential wives to be better educated than them. This does not mean the Indian male is entirely chauvinistic; 62% of the men would prefer their future wives to be as educated as them. 3% of women and 40% of men would pref er their future partner to be a postgraduate. 5. 34% of the women respondent did not mind marrying a partner who made less than them. The percentage for men was 94%. 6. 72% men prefer to marry a girl who is younger than them. 89% of women prefer to marry a man who is older than her. 7. Men (62%) prefer larger families as compared to women (38%). 70% of the women felt that raising a child is time consuming and 58% also thought that raising a child is a serious commitment. 8. Which celebrity would make the ideal father?Surprisingly, almost 40% of the respondents felt that Salman Khan, the die-hard bachelor, would make the ideal father. At second place is the other bachelor icon, Rahul Gandhi. 9. 47% married couples in India discussed their past relationship before marriage. This trend was more prevalent in East India. Bulk of these couples (66%) wanted to reveal their past relationships because they did not want it to affect their future 10. 49% of the men wanted a â€Å"fair complex ioned† bride. This is up from 41% in the 2004 survey.Women, on the other hand, are more accepting of dark skinned men, with 65% saying that the color of their husband’s skin is not important. 11. For young urban Indians caste is not as important as it used to be. 54% men and 46% of the women said caste was not an important parameter in their selection criteria. for them, finding a compatible partner is more important than finding a partner from the same caste. 12. 69% of women would prefer it if their partner worked for a private sector organization. 13. A large majority of women (90%) were willing to relocate to another country if their husband’s job required them o relocate. 14. Couples are become pragmatic about marriage. 70% of the women and 62% of the men were comfortable with the idea of pre-nuptial agreements. Census data for Indian Marriages: http://censusindia. gov. in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/C_Series/Age_at_marriage. htm Survey by ZEE NEWS T he survey of women in the age group of 20-30 carried out in various cities, including the four metros, by leading matrimony portal Bharatmatrimony, also revealed that 59% of the respondents consider parent's decision the most important priority in finalising marriage.Only 20% of the respondents felt that profession was the most important aspect in finalising their life partner while ten% said caste was the most important priority and 11% said family nuclear or joint family – was the most preferred. About 49% preferred arranged marriage while 33 per cent ‘arranged love marriage' and a meagre 18% of the respondents favoured ‘love' marriage. The survey titled â€Å"Woman and Marriage† was conducted by ahead of the Women's Day and 1,058 respondents were covered in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Madurai, Mysore, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore and Jaipur, a release said here today.On the right age for a woman to get married, about 71 pe r cent said 21-24 was the ideal age for marriage. Interestingly, the survey said that about 93% of women were interested to study or work after marriage. The survey also said that about 55% women prefer to search life partners through contacts via friends and relatives. Source: http://mm. bharatmatrimony. com/featured-story/527-bharatmatrimony-exclusive-parents-day-survey Survey by Bharat Matrinomy Young Indians believe their parents wouldn’t mind taking a backseat when it comes to their marriage decisions! 66% of Indian parents believe that their children will not tie the knot with a partner not ‘blessed' by them.  ·83% believe that online matrimony gives them more choices and selection in partner search.  ·Amitabh Bachchan & Jaya Bachchan were the most famous Bollywood couple in India, followed by Kajol & Ajay Devgan. The winds of change are indeed sweeping the institution of matrimony in India. Parents as well as unmarried men and women are being influenced by th ese changes, a comprehensive Parents Day online survey involving more than 15400 members of BharatMatrimony has revealed.The findings of the survey conducted by BharatMatrimony to commemorate Parents Day on July 24th this year and released to the media today offered interesting insights, trends and rare nuggets of information about how the youth regard marriages and the role of parents with respect to important marital decisions. When asked whether the views of Indian parents are changing today, 67% of the unmarried respondents said yes and only 13% disagreed while the remaining said neither yes nor no. Yet another change in attitudes was the growing trust in online matrimony.Nearly 83% believed that online matrimony gave them more choices and selection when it came to partner search. Nearly 67% also believed that online matrimony empowered women to make their own choices in marriages. In fact, 47% also felt that marriages arranged through matrimony websites had the same success rat e as traditional arranged marriages. Mr Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder-CEO, BharatMatrimony, commented: â€Å"While the surveys have revealed useful nuggets of information and insights into marriages and its changing facets, people in India continue to see marriage as a sacred bonding where parents have a very special role to play.It is best performed with the blessings of parents, an overwhelming majority feel. However, the survey also proved that more and more unmarried people along with their parents believed in the convenience and wide selection of partners provided by Online matrimony. The new ways of thinking have not diluted the traditional respect and sanctity accorded to marriages in general. † Confirming the special bonding Indians have with their parents, an overwhelming 90% of the unmarried who took part in the survey believed in getting married with the blessings of their parents.About 57% also said that they would not go ahead and marry a person of their choice against the wishes of their parents. 20% however said that they would go ahead despite parental opposition. Nearly 35% said that their parents would be ok with any choice they made; 40% said that their parents would be ok if it was within their religion; only 17 % said that their parents would insist on finding a match for them. Interestingly, 59% thought that a marriage arranged by the parents was better because of their experience.Nearly 76% of the parents who took part in the survey believed that their children would get married only with their blessings. 66% of the parents felt that marriages arranged by them would prove more successful as they had more experience! Again, a similar percentage of parents believed that their children would not disregard their advice and tie the knot with someone they didn't approve of. About 16% of the parents believed that they wouldn't be able to influence marriage decisions! When asked, ‘what do you think are your views on marriage? 20% o f the parents said that they would be ok with any choice made by their children; 23 per cent were also ok with the idea if the partner belonged to the same religion. However 23% insisted that important decisions like this were better left to them. 33% preferred to play a supporting role only, whatever be the decision. At the same time, 76% of the parents who took part in the survey believed that in general the views of Indian parents on marriages of their children were changing. Source: http://mm. bharatmatrimony. com/featured-story/527-bharatmatrimony-exclusive-parents-day-survey

Importance of Time in Chinese Culture Essay

The importance of time is always dependent on the different perspectives of people’s origin, particularly culture. â€Å"Time is one of the most important bases by which culture rests and all other activities revolve† (Riggs et al 31). Different cultures handle time differently. In the past, time was measured in daylight, darkness, or in seasons; however, nowadays, time has become more important and more complicated. Yet, no matter how complicated it has become, it always boils down to the influence of culture, just like China, one of the countries with a very rich culture. The impact of modernization in China on the changes of Chinese’ behavior is significant. However, these changes in their behavior have had a more significant impact on their values. Indeed, Chinese seem to have never given up one of their most important cultural characteristics, Guanxi, which up until now, remains as an important Chinese business element. In the advent of globalization, Chinese has kept and reinforced this unique characteristic even in the most important socio-cultural changes. Yes, China has indeed undergone substantial cultural changes; nonetheless, with regards to the thinking and dealing process, modern China remains rooted to its traditional Yin Yang approach, and this is reflected on their shrewd use of time to keep their relationship intact. Because Chinese people value relationship more than anything else, as they believe that this could lead them to success, it is logical to expect that the Chinese society concentrates on fluid/multi-focus time value. Chinese people are both famous and infamous in different negotiations for their wise use of time as their bargaining tool. Chinese are known to have adept ability to run down the clock because they prioritize their relationships with their associates or business partners first. This way, they know that the value of relationship or guanxi continues. Moreover, Chinese can afford or stand to play the waiting game, provided that there is always someone left to invest and spend for them. Cultures around the world have developed their own way of responding to time. The dimension for time orientation is based on two aspects; the relative significance the culture gives to its past, present, and future, and its way of approaching the time. China has indeed embraced globalization since the last three decades. Despite this, its stronghold to its culture is still very evident. This is because China is considered as a past-oriented culture country. Countries that fall under this category have a culture that is largely leaned towards the past; they see their future as a repetition of their past experiences. Moreover, they have high respect and regard for their collective historical experiences and their ancestors. As per David Thomas’ description of the country, China embraces its tradition and culture of ancestor worship and has strong pride of its customary and cultural persistence for over thousands of years (73). The Chinese society holds the perspective that their past is their guide on how to live their lives in the present. According to an old Chinese proverb, â€Å"Consider the past and you will know the present† (Quotations). Work Cited Riggs, James, et al. Industrial Organization and Management. Manila, Philippines: McGraw-Hill, Inc. , 1980. Lo, Vincent. Chinese Business Culture: Guanxi, An Important Chinese Business Element. 17 March 2005. 01 May 2009 Thomas, David. Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts Second Ed. California: Sage Publications. 2008. Quotations. 14 February 2008. 01 May 2009.