Role of Elders in the Asian Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Role of Elders in the Asian Culture - Essay Example Families, communities, societies, and nations have been promoted by the elderly people during their lives. More importantly, children are educated, cared, and nurtured by the parents and elders in the Asian culture. Therefore, parents deserve comfort, love, and respect throughout their lives from their youngsters and children. In other words, caring and respecting elders and parents is the moral and ethical obligation of children in the Asian region. In this regard, it is the responsibility of elders to take care of their youngsters, love them, and keep guiding them throughout their lives. On the other hand, American or British culture allows the individuals to start making their own decisions in their adolescent age, which is very contrary with the norms and values of the Asian culture. For instance, teachers are often allowed to be strict with the young students in Asian schools, or elders often treat youngsters in a harsh way, which is very different, as compared with the American culture. (Blackkaby, 1998) In brief, role that is played by old people is affected significantly by the cultural differences, as role and respect changes to a higher extent in different cultures. (Huntington, 2000) In East-Asian culture, a notable tradition is specifically practiced in this region, which is referred as filial piety. China, Japan, and Korea are some of the cultures that have the dominated practice of such practice. Care for the elderly is the most imperative and foremost obligation of this tradition. (Lee, 2004) Moreover, elderly people in these cultures play a guiding role to nurture their youngsters in an emotional, as well as, spiritual manner. In the Asian context, parents and elders must provide shelter, care, and assistance to the youngsters in emotional, as well as, financial manner, which is once again, contrary to the Western culture, which obligates

Pidgins and Creoles Essay Example for Free

Pidgins and Creoles Essay Note to the Customer I’m sorry the essay cannot be revised as you say. It was an urgent order, so books could not be found. Moreover, you didn’t say that you wanted a critical analysis of the pidgins and Creoles. Revisions are only possible if the writer fails to follow the original instructions. In your next order please mention that you would like books to be used, and whether the discussion should be descriptive or analytical. Best regards, Pidgins and Creoles A pidgin is defined as a language that has been simplified from at least two different languages.    Referred to as a contact language, a pidgin may be used by those who do not originate in a given geographical area and must therefore develop a common language to be spoken in the area.   All the same, pidgin is used sparingly.   Its structure is rather simplistic.   Seeing that it serves a â€Å"simplistic purpose,† a pidgin dies out rather easily (Pidgins and Creoles, 1997). If people manage to use a pidgin for a long time, however, the contact language is expected to become richer and more complex in terms of vocabulary and structure.   In that case, the pidgin is said to have evolved.   Children may learn the evolved pidgin as their very first language or mother tongue.   If this happens, the pidgin has managed to turn into a Creole.   An example of a Creole is Tok Pisin, a language of Papua New Guinea, which was a pidgin before it turned into a national language (Pidgins and Creoles, 1997). Stafford notes that pidgins and Creoles are mostly used in third world nations because of the dramatic changes in the social and political environment experienced by the communities there.   Moreover, most of the pidgins and Creoles in the developing regions, for example, in South East Asia, are based on languages of Europe.   English, French, and Spanish are very much associated with the pidgins and Creoles of the third world.   This is because Europeans had spent time a great deal of time in the developing world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pidgins are often created for communication between immigrants and natives or missionaries and locals (Stafford).   As the pidgin evolves, the contact language develops its own grammatical rules.   Typically it is the children who must get together to formulate grammatical rules for the pidgin that they have accepted as their first language.   The fact that the Creole is generally formed without the influence of adults reveals that the formulation of grammatical rules and the application of structure to a certain language is innate behavior (Pidgin and Creole).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Insufficient education† is another reason why people of a certain region may have to develop a pidgin, and subsequently a Creole, so as to communicate with a new group of people they have come into contact with (Pidgin and Creole).   It is estimated that between ten to fifteen million people in the world speak languages that are considered creolized.   As an example, Creole based on French is spoken by seven million people in the world. These people may be found in Haiti, the French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe, Mauritius, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion, Dominica, St. Lucia, and many islands of the Caribbean that have been influenced by the British, in addition to southwestern Louisiana (Mauritian Creole, 2005).   In the case of the pidgins that were created by these people, most probably to communicate with the Europeans they had come into contact with; French was considered the superstrate language.   If there were minority languages that contributed to the creation of a pidgin, the languages were referred to as subtrate languages (Pidgins and Creoles, 1997).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Regardless of the kinds of languages that were used in the creation of pidgins and Creoles, the fact remains that human beings have an essential need to communicate with one another.   Human beings do not appreciate invaders, so therefore people in the third world had by and large rejected the presence of the colonialists.   Nevertheless, they had to learn to communicate with the people who had become dominant on their lands.   Whether they had to communicate with the foreigners because the latter controlled their economic resources or otherwise, it may be inferred from this discussion that pidgins and Creoles would be created for as long as human civilization exists on earth.   Man is a social animal, after all. References Mauritian Creole. (2005). Pidgins and Creoles. Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://kreol.mu/CreoleLanguages.htm. Patrick, P. L. (2004, Nov 14). Pidgin and Creole Languages: Origin and Relationships. Intro Sociolinguistics. Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/Courses/PCs/IntroPidginsCreoles.htm. Pidgin and Creole. Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://www.hevanet.com/alexwest/pidgin.html. Pidgins and Creoles. Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://www.uni- due.de/SVE/VARS_PidginsAndCreoles.htm. Pidgins and Creoles. (1997, Feb 25). Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/pidgin.html. Stafford, A. Pidgins and Creoles. Retrieved Dec 1, 2007, from http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/pidgcreol.html.

The Negative Effects of Knowledge in Becketts Waiting for Godot and Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Negative Effects of Knowledge in Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five The whole of our existence seems to often be that of scientific advancement. Technology and the cold, hard facts are often placed above human values. A country's, or an individual's, power is marked by its technology, its "smarts." So everyone constantly strives to outsmart one another. Of course, with technology comes great power. The power to build and create and the power to destroy. Oftentimes the one leads to the other. Take for instance the creation of the atomic bomb, a huge leap in technology and knowledge that, once created, destroyed the lives of millions. Knowledge can be used for or against us, depending on who is holding the strings. Of course we want to be the ones holding those strings, standing behind the defenses of our war weapons, but what if the tables were turned and our "smarts" and technology could not save us? Is there something else that can be taken from this world besides this scientific advancement? What is it that civilization needs besides more and bette r machines and more insight into the basic nature of the universe? Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot asks that same question. Is there more to life than simply knowing things? The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, seem not to know anything at all, even the reason why they come to the same tree to wait everyday for someone named Godot. They constantly have to remind one another why they are there and waiting. Is there really any purpose to their lives? Beckett seems to think that the answer, not only for Vladimir and Estragon, is no. There is no meaning to the monotonous existence that we put ourselves through day after day after day. If indeed Beckett is symbolizing God as the man Godot who the naà ¯ve fools constantly wait for, he is also insinuating that they are wasting their lives because Godot, or God, is never going to come. Either He does not really exist or He does not care enough about these poor, gullible fools to come. Beckett is trying to show that civilization needs to rid itself of its "misconceptions" about the existe nce of God; that these people who have "got religion" are wasting their time waiting around for a being that either does not exist or does not care. Either way, Beckett thinks they are wasting their time.

Homelessness In Britain

Try to imagine waking up in a cold shop doorway, dirty and hungry. There's nowhere to wash and you have to beg for three hours before you have enough money to buy yourself a cup of tea, there's also nowhere for you to get warm. It's a terrible thought, but its okay because it will never happen to you, or so you may think. Tom Watts was A wealthy businessman with a devoted wife and two lovely children, he worked in London and often passed homeless people in the street, often chucking them some spare change as he passed, not even giving them a second thought until now. You see, Tom Watts is no longer the big businessman with the big house and the big car, he lived beyond his means and became bankrupt losing his house. Because of all the stress he also lost his wife and children. Now he sleeps wherever he can, this morning he woke up in the London underground he  says † I just take one day at a  time, I never know where I'll be one day to the next†. Tom's only wage is the 65p he gets from every copy of the Big Issue, which is sold for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1 – a magazine sold by the homeless. Tom can officially earn up to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½17 a week before his à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½38-a-week social security is under threat, he says â€Å"The money I earn is not much at all. But if I could just find a place to live I could then go about getting a job and once I'm settled I can go to court, and see about getting to see my kids, but without a place to live it won't happen†. That's where shelter comes in Tom like hundreds of other homeless people are on the waiting list for temporary housing, it gives people a head start. It's not just a hostel where you have a first come first serve basis, while your in temporary housing shelter help you to find a more permanent placement. They also help you to find a work placement and any legal advice you may need. Shelter was launched in 1966 to bring housing problems to everyone's attention and  appeal for money to improve things. In 1970 shelter opened its first housing aid shelter to give people with housing problems or nowhere to live free advice. Tom sells the Big Issue: â€Å"I just want to see my kids† Some of the main reasons for people becoming homeless are job loss, break-up with a partner, heavy debts, drug addiction and even mental illness. The majority of people start off moving round sleeping on friends sofas or floors, but before long you realise you've been there for a few weeks or even months and think you're beginning to out stay you're welcome and can't abuse their hospitality any longer and leave. More than 326,000 people are homeless in Britain, sleeping rough, in hostels or moving from place to place with no home to call there own. Experts believe the problem is extremely bad and is worsening and without the help of charity the problem would rapidly increase.

Integrative Essay on diversity in Education Essay

America is increasingly becoming a very diverse nation culturally and ethnically. In all the States, there is an increasing influx of non- native Americans and estimates from the U. S Census Bureau have projected that by year 2100, the non- native Americans who at the moment are the minority, will become the majority and the non- Hispanic whites will constitute a mere 40% of the entire population of the U. S (Osborn, 2005). As a result, education debates in recent times are increasingly centering on the issue of diversity, especially in public schools. Interestingly, many Americans treat school policies as well as programs that intend to embrace cultural diversity with much suspicion and misunderstanding; not really understanding the great importance of diversity as an educational element in our classrooms (Osborn 2005). The aim of this essay is therefore to address the issue of cultural diversity in public schools with emphasis on the kind of cultural identity that public schools should promote. Cultural Diversity and School failure American public schools are admitting an increasing number of students from diverse cultures and languages. However, there are certain mentalities that are associated with these minority groups which not only act as an impediment to their academic progress, but may also fuel cultural intolerance, a vice which has no place in American democracy. Reports from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) state that, students who come from poor backgrounds especially the colored students, generally perform poorly than those from a higher socio- economic status (Bowman, 1994). How can this difference be accounted for? Is it a colored gene factor that promotes such poor academic performance? Definitely not; yet this is not clearly understood and the general assumption is that colored students simply cannot perform well in academics. The reason of course lies in the differences between cultural experiences of different groups which encourage different attitudes and life skills. Thus without schools acknowledging these differences, they actually limit their ability in educating these children (Bowman, 1994). During a child’s development, there are differences in cultural expressions which are normal and should be considered as a basis for building skills and knowledge. However, most American schools ignore these differences and all children are judged on the behavioral characteristics of children belonging to the white middle class which is considered the only valid expression of competence. Hence children from minority groups are judged as inadequate. This is largely due to their inability to conform to these foreign standards (Bowman, 1994). The educational programs of American public schools are poorly designed and do not cater to cultural differences. Teachers are also bound by their own personal experiences and are therefore unable to appreciate the cultural differences and may judge children who behave differently in a harsh manner. Devaluing minority culture is a cause for inter- racial conflict among students and also presents students from minority families with a tough choice between identifying with their families’ belief systems and participating in school culture. Most students opt for the latter (Bowman, 1994). Promoting Cultural Diversity-Existentialists View Existentialism is a philosophy which lays emphasis on the unique individual experiences, in the face of a universe which is hostile. These experiences are considered in isolation as opposed to a group. The existentialism philosophy upholds the need for individual freedom of choice as and responsibility for one’s actions (Jaspers, 1952). Existentialism was the basis of several liberation movements in history. Such include the black civil rights movement and women’s rights movements (Lim, 1999). Even today, its demand for individual freedom and tolerance can be applied to the application of cultural diversity in public schools. As the philosophy of existentialism states, the individual who is self reliant should be able to have an authentic existence which is in opposition with the given mores such as the mass culture of the contemporary world (Rupp, 2001). Promoting ethnic and cultural identity within a multicultural setting is thus one way of achieving this. It is important for all students to be able to learn about the different cultures even as they uphold their own to establish tolerance as well as understanding between races. Conclusion There is need to change the school curricula so that it can accommodate the diverse cultural needs. This will make it both relevant to the needs of students from diverse backgrounds and sensitive to the issues of social justice. A bicultural curriculum presents the diverse cultures as equally important and powerful. Such programs which have been implemented in some schools have shown that where children are not made to renounce their culture, their academic performance improves dramatically (Bowman, 1994). Existentialism calls for authenticity of the self in the face of indifference (Rupp, 2001). The schools thus have a responsibility towards achieving this. One way is to bring in teachers of diverse backgrounds in their schools; teachers who will be better placed to understand the needs of the students based on their different cultural experiences. To sum it up, the type of cultural identity that should be promoted in schools is one that upholds the different cultures as equally worthy. It should also be based on understanding and mutual respect of others. REFERENCES Osborn, T. A. (2005). Language and cultural Diversity in U. S Schools. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers Bowman, B (1994) Cultural diversity and Academic achievement NCREL’S Urban Education Program, Urban Education Monograph series. Retrieved January 21, 2009. Rupp, G. (2001). Religion, Modern secular culture and Ecology Daedalus, 130, 23 Lim, W. S (1999). Development and culture in Singapore and beyond Sojourn: Journal of social issues in South East Asia 14, 249. Jaspers, K (1952). Existentialism and Humanism: Three Essays. New York: Russell F. Moore

Free Essays on Phillipe Bourgois

Philippe Bourgois's In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio has shown a great deal of commitment to the work that was involved in completing his research on poverty and marginalization. The field of study on poverty and marginalization by Philippe Bourgois was only twenty blocks from the area in Manhattan's Upper East Side known as East Harlem. However, those twenty blocks between the Upper East Side and the Puerto Rican population of East Harlem represent a social and an economic gap extending from mainstream to marginal. There are two dominant themes that play an important role in the book. The first theme is the structural conditions that impact and marginalize these women and men on a daily basis. The second theme is the search for respect and the reclaiming of dignity by these men and women. Through these themes Bourgois (2002:17) portrays that the people living in El Barrio are known to blame the victim for their misfortune of being the underclass of the United States population and â€Å"living in the inferno† due to their inability to compete with the classes above them who are more able of succeeding since they have greater opportunities to do so. This competition has led the minorities living in such bad neighborhoods, such as the streets of Spanish Harlem, to search for respect and dignity while the American Society is doing the opposite, segregating and separating them from the rest of the society causing ghettoization to take place. Even during the 1930s East Harlem was known as a neighborhood where criminals, thieves, and law-breakers lived. As stated by a Catholic priest in the 1930s, â€Å"all kinds of law-breakers; there are nests of the narcotics, thieving, stealing, cheating and every conceivable kind of law breaking† (Bourgois, 48). Population of the so-called â€Å"Spanish Harlem† is mostly Hispanic, specifically Puerto Ricans who have emigrated from Puerto Rico throughout the 1900s. Puerto Rico was ... Free Essays on Phillipe Bourgois Free Essays on Phillipe Bourgois Philippe Bourgois's In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio has shown a great deal of commitment to the work that was involved in completing his research on poverty and marginalization. The field of study on poverty and marginalization by Philippe Bourgois was only twenty blocks from the area in Manhattan's Upper East Side known as East Harlem. However, those twenty blocks between the Upper East Side and the Puerto Rican population of East Harlem represent a social and an economic gap extending from mainstream to marginal. There are two dominant themes that play an important role in the book. The first theme is the structural conditions that impact and marginalize these women and men on a daily basis. The second theme is the search for respect and the reclaiming of dignity by these men and women. Through these themes Bourgois (2002:17) portrays that the people living in El Barrio are known to blame the victim for their misfortune of being the underclass of the United States population and â€Å"living in the inferno† due to their inability to compete with the classes above them who are more able of succeeding since they have greater opportunities to do so. This competition has led the minorities living in such bad neighborhoods, such as the streets of Spanish Harlem, to search for respect and dignity while the American Society is doing the opposite, segregating and separating them from the rest of the society causing ghettoization to take place. Even during the 1930s East Harlem was known as a neighborhood where criminals, thieves, and law-breakers lived. As stated by a Catholic priest in the 1930s, â€Å"all kinds of law-breakers; there are nests of the narcotics, thieving, stealing, cheating and every conceivable kind of law breaking† (Bourgois, 48). Population of the so-called â€Å"Spanish Harlem† is mostly Hispanic, specifically Puerto Ricans who have emigrated from Puerto Rico throughout the 1900s. Puerto Rico was ...

The Defects of Technology Professor Ramos Blog

The Defects of Technology By  Anthony Biondi  (The Cascade) The rise of technology has greatly improved our society in many ways. It affects how we speak,how we listen, and how we use it for our own personal gain. This is fantastic because technology has created many life changing opportunities for people yet, I begin to question how we are using technology nowadays. I understand that the entertainment industry and game development has grown exponentially. However, I believe that these developments cause important issues that aren’t really being discussed, such as: less interaction with one another, addiction to technology, and unnecessary aggressiveness towards enjoyable topics in which no one should be fighting about. Since the beginning of time, humans have always had some type of interaction with one another. As the ages went by, we begin to interact differently. We started by basic communication which involved speaking. Then later, we started to write down messages sent to one another which took time but not as much time as before. Nowadays there is no need for waiting, because we have advanced in technology and do not really need to leave our home to speak with one another or send messages through the mail. This caused less face to face interaction. Some people may say that facetime is the exception, but in reality you are looking at a screen that reflects the image of the person your talking to. So, what would happen if the internet would just turn off? One would be left with a blank screen in front of them and no one to talk to. Technology has additionally began to affect relationships in both positive and negative ways. An article I found explains how relationships in 2012 were greatly aff ected by technology because people would judge each other faster and lacked the courage to end the relationships which lead them to vanish, also known as â€Å"ghosting† that person (Morris). This article would continue to describe how even the use of social media tends to make the partner more insecure, which may cause them to communicate less. It also talks mentions another fact about how â€Å"scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences [have] found that the brain chemicals of people who habitually used the Internethad abnormal connections between the nerve fibers in their brain,† which basically means that a person is developing an addiction to technological devices, that will be discussed further in the next paragraph (Morris). Video game addiction can be â€Å"described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling† (Our Mission). In other words, technology has revealed a new type of addictions that we have never seen before and one does not need any kind of substance to activate this addition. As reported by the University of New Mexico, â€Å"recent studies suggest that 6 to 15 percent of gamers exhibit signs that could be characterized as addictions† (Video Game Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects). Perhaps the people who are becoming addicted to video games are the ones who play online games. If you did not know, there are two types of games. There are single player games, that do not involve other gamers, or and multi-player games that provided the optional setting to play online. Most research also shows that online gamers that tend to play those types of games are more hook to them. After looking into the article a little more I found the game is designed to make you want to stay on it. However, when developers wanted to introduce games into education, they had to ficugure out â€Å"‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ develop educational games and integrate them into the curriculum† (Squire 2011). This got me to think about how bad, addicting games are very popular and how good educational games are games that are not so popular but they do give you the option to stop and leave the game. Unlike a bad game in which it was designed to keep you locked up or hooked to your tablet or game system. I feel that people should be more aware about what their getting into or even their child. Since the majority of gamers are young kids or adults, who are wasting time during high school or college. I could relate since I understand very well because I was one of those people who would play from the minute I was home to about one or two o’clock in the morning. Ye t, I thought it was okay because I never truly thought of it, I only cared about having fun. But after becoming more aggressive toward my games, I really didn’t understand what I was doing. I was getting very emotional towards a game which had waste most of my time, I got more frustrated than anything. I think my personal experience shows how easy someone can get addicted to video games and what addiction can cause. After doing research, I found that â€Å"video games elicit powerful emotional reactions in their players, such as fear, power, aggression, wonder, or joy† (Kurt 2003). If game’s really have the power to give off these kinds of emotions, I fear that game’s are more of a tool to confuse young people. To be honest, children cant comprehend what theyre walking into. Yes games do have age limits, but it does not stop them from playing what they want to play one way or another. Games do not stop kids, or even adults, from throwing fits and being aggressive toward people. They tend to get annoyed with people who stop you from playing. In my perspective, video games, in a way, could be set as a trap for people. It’s not right that games play with your emotions in the first place. I feel that you need to be well educated about games, or should be more aware of what it could do to you. I remember becoming more aggressiveness toward my family without really caring , at the time, and caring more about the games than anything at one point. I am glad I eventually gained perspective on what video games really do to a person and how one can easily be influenced negatively by these games. In conclusion, video games are becoming more popular in todays society and isn’t right how they are not really promoting how addicting they can be and the effects one may gain from playing. Becoming addicted toward something that isn’t going to help, isn’t healthy for anyone. And finally, the last straw is becoming aggressive toward a game or people that are trying to get you to do your work or homework shouldn’t be discarded like nothing. But in all fairness, I feel that people should be more aware about what games could do to you. Work Cited Gee, James Paul. What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Computers in Entertainment (CIE) 1.1 (2003): 20-20. Morris, Chris. â€Å"Is Technology Killing the Human Touch?† CNBC, CNBC, 15 Aug. 2015, cnbc.com/2015/08/15/gy-killing-the-human-touch.html. â€Å"Our Mission:† Video Games Addiction, Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery an Affiliate of Unitypoint Health, addictionrecov.org/Addictions/?AID=45. Squire, Kurt. Video games in education. Int. J. Intell. Games Simulation 2.1 (2003): 49-62. Squire, Kurt. Video games and learning. Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age (2011).â€Å"Video Game Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects.† PsychGuides.com, 2019, psychguides.com/behavioral-disorders/video-game-addiction/.