Critical Evaluation Of Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Tourism Essay Example

Critical Evaluation Of Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Tourism Essay Hospitality is a dynamic industry that is of all time altering as a consequence of several external factors. The industry has become more competitory than of all time before. Some companies frequently fail while others are really successful. Tanke ( 2001 ) argues that successful houses get, manage, and develop resources that provide competitory advantage. They besides control and build up relationships with a big figure of organisations, assorted stakeholders, and groups. Globalization has intensified the fight and for houses to stay competitory they have to spread out their relationship webs and collaborate with each other to stay competitory. Many houses are get downing to supervise and pull off cardinal indexs to cut on cost and salvage money. Harmonizing to Ottenbacher and Gnoth ( 2005 ) There are several modern-day issues in the cordial reception industry which include, human resource direction, strategic direction, usage of ICT and gastronomy and touristry. Much of alterations in issues have been brought about by globalisation. For illustration in the instance of human resource, globalisation has brought diverseness in the human resources. Information communicating engineering has advanced much in development. The high figure of people going to foreign lands has brought alterations in the gastronomy and touristry. Hospitality concerns must therefore manage all these issues to win in their operations. Tanke, ( 2001 ) argues that cordial reception concerns will necessitate to concentrate more on trade name, human resource, emerging markets and information communicating engineering. These are the primary determiners of the victors and also-rans in old ages to come. Strategic direction is therefore of import in finding the success of these houses. Strategic direction has been hailed to supply higher degrees of satisfaction than other direction tools. Literature Review HRM Issues In the Hotel Industry Globally We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Evaluation Of Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Tourism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Evaluation Of Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Tourism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Evaluation Of Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Tourism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The importance of valuable human resource direction to concern success in any usage of human resources can give an organisation a competitory advantage. The importance of human resources is peculiarly important in cordial reception industry. Duncan ( 2005 ) suggested that there are several chief countries of challenge and concern in the planetary cordial reception industry, associating to employment issues, revenue enhancement degrees and environmental issues. Employee turnover Harmonizing to Hinkin and Tracey ( 2000 ) employee turnover has become one of the challenges in the cordial reception industry. The industry globally suffers from high degree of staff turnover, which result to intangible costs and high direct outgo. Riegel ( 2002 ) argues that turnover is a consequence of several factors such as occupation dissatisfaction, hapless working environment, hapless supervising and deficiency of committedness that influence employee attitude and behaviour. Iverson and Deery ( 1997 ) carried out a research on the labour demands of the cordial reception industry and established that the high turnover rate is one the most hard issues in human resource direction in that context. They reported that the turnover job in big hotels was much worse than in little hotels. Many hotels are be aftering to increase the figure of people employed merely to cover the turnover state of affairs. Hoque ( 1999 ) contends that service quality focuses on the nature of the interaction between the single employee and the client at the point of service, in footings of niceness and overall professionalism. Hoque besides argues that service quality is the chief factor in making competitory advantage in the hotel industry, and that any hotel that does non do an attempt to better continually its service quality will lose land. Competitive advantage generated from internal beginnings includes such features as value rarity, exceptionality, and non-substitutability ( Iverson, A ; Deery 1997 ) , and the employee at the terminal of the service bringing system may good be the lone differentiated and alone plus of a hotel organisation that can non be easy copied. Hinkin and Tracey ( 2000 ) have besides recommended that there are in fact merely two ways to vie in and distinguish between cordial reception services. One is by viing on monetary value and minimizing costs, which locks a hotel into a peculiar market section. The other is to vie by supplying exceeding service. They note that client attention is non a new construct in the service industry, but it is still a complex thing to command and prolong. In the face of the high degree of turnover in the hotel industry, it is possible that some clients are served by employees who are reasonably untrained, less committed, and less capable in their societal accomplishments. But covering with this requires the usage of rather organized attacks to serve quality direction. Huang ( 2001 ) suggested that if an organisation s first and first aim is to supply a service, a holistic attack to serve choice direction must be developed and employed, insightful at all degrees of the organisation from the main executive to the entry degree employees. Training and development Garavan ( 1997 ) argues that preparation and development of employees is linked to service quality because its activities can be used to beef up attitudes and behaviours that lead to effectual service. Several research workers have suggested that developing a service civilization during preparation and development and cognition edifice are good patterns. Employees developing and development of accomplishments help houses to heighten quality of service, addition productiveness, and cut down costs. Elsewhere, Davies, Taylor and Savery ( 2001 ) investigated certain human resource direction maps in bettering employees dealingss in western Australian adjustment industry and found out that sustained preparation and development led to an of import betterment in productiveness, with a decreased turnover of employees. Huang ( 2001 ) argued that in Taiwan preparation and development was the chief important driver for economic development. Staff enlisting and choice Alleyne, Doherty and Greenidge ( 2006 ) contend the due to the nature of the cordial reception industry ; labour demand is much unpredictable and capable to seasonal fluctuation. As a consequence the cordial reception industry has had negative image among prospective employees. Elsewhere Debrah and Budhwar ( 2004 ) argue that alterations in the macro environment for illustration ageing work force, lower birth rates have besides contributed to employees deficit rising the instability between the employee demand and supply. This has made employee resourcing a great job and high spots that effectual direction of demand and supply of best employee is a great job in the cordial reception industry ( Tanke, 2001 ) . Global fight in the cordial reception industry Successful cordial reception houses finally find that their domestic markets are either saturated or that foreign markets offer chances for growing and net incomes which are non available domestically. Several forces are taking concerns into the planetary sphere. These include trade barriers falling particularly in Europe and North America, freshly industrialised states, displacement towards market economic systems, handiness of fiscal capital ; criterions are going unvarying globally and advancement in information engineering ( Tanke, 2001 ) . Organizations that want to stay competitory must therefore get province of the art resources at a lower monetary value, for illustration they may see spread outing to emerging states where labour is inexpensive. The strategic direction reverberations of increasing globalisation are utmost. Directors can non afford to overlook chances in foreign markets. Nonetheless, concern methods and imposts vary from state to state. These disparities make stakeholder analysis and direction even more of import. Analysis of broad environmental forces such as society, engineering, and political influences ought to besides be extended to the different parts in which an organisation carries out concern. Peoples besides vary greatly from part to part. The challenge of an of all time increasing competitory planetary market place can be tackled through a well-devised strategic direction procedure. Nevertheless, tactical planning must non ever lead to the sorts of alterations that are indispensable to remain aggressive over the long term. Technology Although there has been an increasing consciousness of the value of province of the art integrated systems many cordial reception houses still do non take advantage of them. There unequal apprehension of how much competency could be improved via usage of these systems. Tanke, ( 2001 ) argues that cordial reception disposal systems have over the old ages developed into complex, good incorporated tools which help houses to do more gross, pull more invitees, and better effectivity. However, some concern still hang on systems that have are much in front of their competitory utile life. This limits them from holding the benefits that are brought about by these systems. Though several houses are scared of upgrading their systems because they fear that their employees will non be in a place to manage these systems, there is demand for developing the employees how to utilize these systems ( Tanke, 2001 ) . Alleyne, Doherty and Greenidge ( 2006 ) contend that as systems become more inclusive their support and security direction become necessary and complex. However it must be noted that it is about impossible for organisations to hold their ain proficient support staff skilled in all the system they use. Guest study has become an purpose for stealers and onslaughts on computing machines are going more complex. These tendencies call for a displacement towards more professional system direction ; this may be a corporate squad or an understanding party. Elsewhere Debrah and Budhwar ( 2004 ) argue that innermost gross direction squads, for illustration, can supply specializer aid to legion belongingss in a regionally incorporate manner. Centrally-hosted systems permit highly-skilled technicians to offer a far more protected and managed systems environment than would be accessible to an single house. This tendency is expected to protract as understanding grows of the value of keeping systems runing at peak proficiency, and of the possible injury from security misdemeanors. Methodology Harmonizing to Hoque, ( 1999 ) two indispensable inquiries were put to a sample of hotels: What are the cardinal human resource direction issues and concerns in the cordial reception industry of Taiwan? And what are the chief human resource direction functions and patterns used to prosecute with them? Rather than default to a individual issue attack to the interviewees, the interviewer tried to analyze human resource direction in the cordial reception industry in an wholly open-ended manner. The respondents were free to raise any human resource direction issues, concerns, maps and patterns that they thought to be important. This method allowed the research worker to detect what came up in order of precedence for the respondents, or what failed to come up at all ( Hoque, 1999 ) The method used was qualitative and the chief technique was in-depth interviews. Leading inquiries were avoided by the research worker on order to derive a deeper apprehension of some phenomena as experienced by a group of people ( Creswell, 2003 ) . It was non possible to analyze all the hotels in Taiwan because of fiscal and clip restraints. The research worker selected the concatenation hotels which he expected to hold formalized human resource direction patterns than smaller hotels. The research worker farther segmented the hotels harmonizing to figure of suites, geographic location, and trade name. The research worker interviewed senior directors but in some instances some hotels that were approached refused to be interviewed reasoning that they would see questionnaires because of their tight agendas. Although there are few unequivocal regulations for sample size in qualitative question ( Patton, 2002 ) , it has been suggested that 12-20 illustrations are needed when seeking to obtain the broadest scope of information and positions on the topic of survey ( Kuzel, 1992 ) . At the clip this research was conducted, there were 46 concatenation hotel belongingss in Taiwan and the sample selected totaled 14 hotels, which represents 30.43 % of the entire population of such hotels. Analysis The findings were presented together because some issues were common to all the respondents and had cause and consequence relationship. Fourteen take parting hotels identified several chief issues viz. deficit of employees 100 % of the respondents, 64 % of the respondents talked of challenges in attack to preparation and development. While 50 % of the respondents emphasized on the high degree of employee turnover. Deficit of employees Participants pointed out that the overall instruction degree in Taiwan has risen in the last decennary. This has caused a job to the cordial reception houses in enrolling entry degree employees. The increased growing of the cordial reception industry has made the deficit even worse. Respondents nevertheless, believe that at in-between degree the instance is different there is o deficit at this degree. However those who hold these places are non qualified but merely make full these places because a vacancy has to be filled. Shortcoming in Approaches to preparation and development Most of the employees have no cordial reception background this calls for a sophisticated preparation and development attacks. Nevertheless, some hotelkeepers believe that that is non a major job because they believe that accomplishments can be gained on occupation preparation. High degree of employee turnover Participants pointed out that this was ineluctable because of the nature of the cordial reception industry. In certain instances the turnover might be positive to the industry as it may take de-motivated staff. Respondents besides pointed out that older employees led to miss of invention, extract of fresh thoughts and creative activity in the house. Discussion From the in deepness interviews it can be argued that challenges in preparation and development, unequal employees and jobs in internship employment can be attributed to client service quality discussed in the literature. Kuzel, ( 1992 ) argues that using housemans is a solution to the deficits in the cordial reception sector. Interns provide stable employment particularly at the entry degree. Some hotels merely view housemans as supportive force as opposed to long term investings. It is recommended that cordial reception directors should make a sense of belonging to the housemans so that they could come back and work in these constitutions. Most participants in this survey appeared to accept Hoque s ( 1999 ) position that the high degree of turnover is a fact of life and a regular and acceptable phenomenon in the cordial reception industry ( Iverson A ; Deery, 1997 ) . In the fact, turnover still can be improved by better direction, every bit long as human resource directors can see it as an chance, non merely an ineluctable job. Some research workers have recommended that specific human resource direction patterns can better employee satisfaction which in bends minimizes the turnover rate. Authorization is one of the efficient attacks suggested by many research workers ( Enz A ; Siguaw, 2000a, 2000b ; Lashley, 1999 ) . They recommended that it is important to give power to the employees who provide services by concentrating on clients demands. Service brushs are the cardinal activity in a client service concern and employees may meet a batch of diverse alone state of affairss which can non be covered by the organisational policies and actions ( Iverson A ; Deery 1997 ) . If organisations are able to give power to their employees, so they are able to exert prudence in presenting client service and make whatever is required to fulfill clients demands ( Enz A ; Siguaw, 2000a ; Lashley, 1999 ) . It has been disputed that empowered employees besides have a leaning to hold a strong sense of control and person al worth because they can take liability for the service brush and have the power to consequence client satisfaction ( Lashley, 1999 ) . At another degree, it has been recommended that sceptered employees are motivated by making meaningful work that finally enhances their occupation satisfaction and reduces the turnover rate s Harmonizing to Lashley, ( 1999 ) as a consequence of planetary economic alterations at that place has been increased competition and uncertainness, the houses have to be flexible in employee resourcing and reacting to clients. The human resource directors must utilize methods that give them flexibleness to use employees to react to fluctuations. This type of employment helps the organisation to cut on direct labour cost and besides provide flexibleness for employees and employers. One of the possible negative feature is that despatching workers have a limited relationship with hotels in which they will work resulting in low trust and low committedness. These might, in bend, lead to disagreement between direct-hire and despatching workers, and between direction and employees ( Kalleberg, 2000 ) . Another likeliness is that it is more expensive to pull off the outsourcing activity than ab initio expected, so that the end of cost economy is non achieved ( Albertson, 2000 ) . The inclination towards flexible working has become inevitable in such a fluctuating environment ( Purcell A ; Purcell, 1998 ) , and dispatching is one of the agreements which are prone to be a lasting moral force of the hotel industry in the hereafter. While going more popular in Taiwan, but there is no regulation of the procedure at the clip of composing. It has been argued that it is indispensable to modulate dispatching employment, because of the complex triangular employment relationship between despatching company, dispatched worker, and the house to which they have been dispatched ( Kalleberg, 2000 ; Purcell A ; Purcell, 1998 ) . Decision This survey set out to happen out the modern-day issues in the cordial reception industry. Due to its nature the cordial reception industry and globalisation consequence the industry has several modern-day issues. These modern-day issues have a direct impact on the cordial reception industry and for that ground they must be strategically managed for these concerns to win. This survey nevertheless lays accent on the modern-day issues in human resource direction. The findings of this survey suggest that many of the take parting hotels thought and mentality are at the operational degree, instead than the strategic degree. Even though a good figure were able to place peculiar human resource direction issues as critical, it seems that many do non hold strategic attacks to cover with these challenges. Equally, although most perceived specific human resource direction maps and patterns as being really of import, some of these are non utilized in a complicated manner. Some of those interviewed had fresh ideas and originative thoughts but had a limited voice or engagement in decision-making. It seems that their function is seen as being to travel behind the policy that has been already set by top direction, instead than being an active voice or caput in the organisation s thought. It was really unusual for respondents in this survey to hold a place at board degree or to play a cardinal function in making and back uping competitory advantages for the concern. The interviewer concluded that human resource direction is non normally seen as a beginning of competitory advantage, and many look frontward to keep fight chiefly through new installations and comfortss. However, Ottenbacher and Gnoth ( 2005 ) have argued that the efficiency of a hotel s attack to human resource direction is merely every bit important as a beginning of sustainable advantage. This survey has stressed that the extremely competitory nature of the industry affects both clients and staff. In peculiar, gifted people are much preferred in a labour-intensive client service industry. This research has expectantly provided some practical and strategic suggestions for hotelkeepers to traverse the spread between the operational degree and the strategic degree of thought and pattern. However, it is concluded that hotel proprietors need to be cognizant that human resource direction must be managed good in order to maintain up with alterations in the planetary environment. The human resource direction map is no longer one of traditional forces disposal ; alternatively, it must be strategic and proactive in covering with complicated human resource direction issues.

The Middle English Period (1100-1500) Essays

The Middle English Period (1100-1500) Essays The Middle English Period (1100-1500) Paper The Middle English Period (1100-1500) Paper social life fashion and learning . So, English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer. The changes that occurred during this period may be noted in every aspect of the language : in its sounds, in the meanings of its words and in the nature of word stock, where many Old English words were replaced by French ones( like cafe and chef). Also, many of the grammatical distinctions of the Old English period disappeared. Medieval Culture The Middle Ages saw the emergence of great changes in English culture. The violent times of the Dark Ages had led to a primitive society lacking in elegance or refinement . The Middle Ages saw society changing due to the influence from various foreign cultures . The Characteristics of the Medieval Culture The society was organized as a pyramid of sorts. The nobles were at the top, with a great many peasants at the bottom. Peasants worked on the land and lived in rough huts, which they often shared with their animals. They slept on straw mattresses on the floor. In the middle were the scientists, merchants, craftsmen. Attitudes towards women changed. Now, women were treated with respect. But, women were seen as helpless, beautiful, and pure . In Europe during the Middle Ages the only recognized religion was Christianity, in the form of the Catholic religion. The lives of the Medieval people of the Middle Ages was dominated by the church. The Normans were tremendous builders of castles built much of what we now see as the surviving medieval look of England. The Linguistic Features of the ME Middle English spelling Consonants Most of the Old English consonant sounds remained unchanged in Middle English. Important spelling differences occur, however, most of them due to Anglo-Norman influence Some of the apparent innovations in middle English spelling were ,in fact, a return to earlier conventions. For example the diagraph th that had been used in some of the earliest English text but was replaced in later Old English by writing by ? and ? ; during the Middle English period ,th was gradually reintroduced again . Similarly, uu ,used for [w] in early manuscripts was brought back to England by Noman scribes in a ligatured form as w. The consonantal sound [v] did not occur initially in Old English . All Middle English words with initial v have been taken from Latin or French such as very, voice (French) ,vocal, vulgar (Latin). Ch was used in Middle English under French influence, to indicate the initial sound of child ,which in Old English had been spilled simply with c as in cild. The Old English hw (as in hw? t) was replaced by the Middle English wh (as in what) . The Old English cw (as in cwen ) was replaced by the Middle English qu (queen). French language was responsible for the Middle English spelling qu. The old English cg (ecg edge) was replaced by French gg in Middle English as egge edge. Double consonants were lost in (OE mann ) Vowels To indicate vowel length ,Middle English writing frequently employed double letters( e. g ee or oo). Final unstressed e following a single consonant also indicated vowel length in Middle English, as in fode (food) and fede (to feed). Short u in Old English was written o during the latter part of Middle English period if m,n,u were contiguous . The Middle English writings sone (son) and sonne (sun), thus indicate the same vowel sound [U] in old English respectively sunu and sunne. O for u servives in a number of Modern English words as son, come (OE cuman) and love (OE lufu). The French spelling ou was used to represent Old English long u(and sometimes short) as hous(OE hu? s) . In older inscriptions, documents, works and texts (nearer to Old English), you may find vowels with a macron (a bar) written above (like name). The macron simply tells you that the vowel is long, and follows the pronunciation guides above for long vowels. Also, any vowel written double (aa, ee, oo, uu) is long Middle English Pronunciation Middle English Consonants Most consonant sounds act like English. Since consonants in most words are nearly identical to their Modern English counterparts, lets focus on the differences. ?By default, the letters /th/ and /f/ are voiceless like in thing and fish. They are only voiced (like this and of) between two vowels: ferne, fowles, forward, oft VS. yfe, ofer, efer that, thoghte, thonder VS. bathen, sothe, fother ?The combination /wh/ represents the sound of h + w (like h) pronounced just before the start of the Modern English version of the word): whanne, what, who ? The letter /s/ sounds like seem, unless its between two vowels, then its like please:seyde, sothe VS. cosin. ?The sound of /r/ is typically trilled, like Spanish r :rood, ferne ? Initial stops in clusters gn- and kn- still pronounced: ME gnat, gnawen, knowen, knave ? Double consonants were lost in (OE mann ) Many words were borrowed from Old French (and much less frequently from Latin) beginning with[v] (for instance ,veal ,virtue ,visit) and later with [z]( for instance,zeal,zodiac). Middle English Vowels ?Long /a/ sounds like a lengthened version of father (pronounced for a slightly longer time). Short /a/ sounds more like pat:name (or naame) VS. bak ? Long /e/ sometimes sounds like the /e/ of they and other times like the /e/ of let (both sounds held out for a longer time). Short /e/ sounds like let:sweete, breeth, mete VS. tendre ? Long /i/ or /y/ sounds like seem, while short /i/ or /y/ sounds like sit or seem pronounced for a shorter amount of time: my, ire VS. ynogh ? Long /o/ sometimes sounds like boo and other times like British rock (both for a slightly longer time). Short /o/ always sounds like the /o/ in British rock: good, wo VS. oft, holt ? Long /u/ sounds like cue, while short /u/ sounds like full:nature VS. unstraunge ? The final e on many words may be sounded if it helps the meter of an individual line. ?E. g. , When that Aprille with his shoures sote The droughte of Marche hath perced to the rote

Growing up in the Ditital Age Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Growing up in the Ditital Age - Research Paper Example Net Generation is a force for social transformation from education and work to collaborations and socialization. With their reflexes trained for speed and freedom, Net-Genre is empowered to transform the world from inside out. They are already transforming society, from education and workplace to marketplace and family, they are influencing every aspect of modern life. They are replacing the culture of control with a culture of enablement (Tapscott 6).This paper explores the influences of Net Generation on education, work and family as discussed in Don Tapscott's remarkable book, "Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing World". Net Generation (1977-1997) People born during 1946 and 1964 are called baby-boomers who became TV Generation (Leung 107). Gen X consists of adults between the ages of 32 and 43.They are highly aggressive communicators and media-centered. Gen X is media (TV, radio, film, and internet) savvy and their habits resemble to Net Generation. Gen X is foll owed by Net Generation, the children of baby boomers. The Net Generation consists of children born between January 1977 and December 1997. In these 21 years, 81.1 million children were born who make 27 percent of the U.S. population called Millennials or Generation Y. They have outnumbered the baby-boomers adults. This Net Generation is entirely different from all other generations in history since they are born in a digital environment (Tapscott 2).As Tapscott puts it, "they are bathed in bits that they think it's all part of the natural landscape"(2). Currently, the Net Generation constitutes 30 percent of the total population as compared to 29 percent of their parents' baby boomers generation. As a rival to boomers and their culture, it is imparting huge cultural influences. However, the huge impact is not due to the size but Net Generation's ability to grow in an age of revolution in telecommunication. Boomer parents engaged with a new technology in their formative years like te levision, however, it was much more limited in its scope.Net Generation is exposed to an entirely different context and environment as compared to their parents and grandparents (Denton et al. 2). Net Generation has eight basic characteristics that make them stand out from their boomer parents and other generations. They accolade freedom and freedom to choose, they believe in customization and collaborations. They prefer a conversation rather than a lecture. They scrutinize and insist on integrity. They believe in having fun, no matter if it's school or work. They need speed and innovation (Tapscott 6). Changing ways of Communication Members of Net Generation are between the ages of 11 and 31 now. They multi-task quite heavily and use technology in a different way. For Net-Genre, mobile phone are not for calling and emailing, they use it for texting, surfing web, finding directions, taking pictures, making videos, and collaborating with others. They hang out on Facebook, MySpace, an d Skype. Everyone is as cyber-sophisticated as the next person is. They turn to internet for everything they need (Tapscott 9). Education System The Net-Gen is the most ethnically diverse, largest, and the most female dominated college population in the history (O'Donnell qtd. in Tapscott 123). Unlike baby-boomers' cramming model of seeking knowledge, Net-Generation is facing a fast-paced age of information technology where one has

Transcultural nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Transcultural nursing - Essay Example People of this organization know for sure that there are a lot of people who look forward to them. The inhabitants of those countries are abandoned by their government and by the whole world, as they think. They consider the Transcultural Nursing Society to be the only one organization in the world which can help them to stay alive. It is their last hope. The focus of this nursing training is the integration of the international and transcultural content into the training. Courses contain studying in the area of cultural dissimilarity, nursing in the other countries and international health issues and organizations, as an example. There is even a Transcultural Nursing Society. My own opinion is that such organizations should exist, because a lot of people in the world need help. And this organization was created to help people all over the world. The Transcultural Nursing Society has its mission, vision and values. The mission of the Transcultural Nursing Society is to engrave the characteristic of culturally congruent, competent, and rightful care that gives its results in perfected health and well being of people worldwide. The vision of the society is to provide nurses and other professionals that care about the health of people with necessary knowledge to assure cultural ability in practice, education research and administration. The philosophy of the society is that Transcultural nursing is a theory based on humanistic discipline projected to serve people, societies, organizations and communities. Human solicitude is sharply defined within the context of the culture. Culturally capable care can only appear when we know the culture care and it serves as the basis for significant care. Erudition is the foundation of the training of TCN.Increased educational preparation in TCN improves the training of culturally competent solicitude certification documents clearness of the talent to provide culturally established care to reach our vision; the Transcultural Nursing Society needs a stable financial base. This organization is known all over the world, but my own opinion is that not many people know about the origin of the Society, about its history. Leninger founded and became a leader of this new nursing speciality. At the XX century there was no cultural base to guide nursing actions and decisions to understand cultural deportment to provide therapeutic care. Leninger wrote the first book concerning this question and was the first human being who coined two terms, such as "transcultural nursing" and "culturally congruent care." At the University of Colorado Leninger organized the first course of Transcultural Nursing. It happened in 1966. Nowadays, Transcultural theory persists to refine and expand itself. Transcultural Nursing Society was established in 1970 as an information-sharing group. But the year of formal appearance of the organization was in 1974. Today it is well known all over the world. The priorities of the organization remained the some. Its members are very active in such transnational and national arenas as teaching, consultation, direct care, research. The organization has its official journal, which appeare d in 1989. The title of the journal is the

Task-Based Teaching and Learning

Task-Based Teaching and Learning Abstract The Task-based Teaching and Learning mode has been enjoyed a lot in nowadays English education process. Not only because it has specified the aims of both teaching and students learning, but also during the process of reaching the goals, it will help stimulate teachers inspiring abilities and students creativities, thus to develop the interest in learning and the state of studying to their best. However, there are various problems occurring in class teaching, of which standout and influential are the low class participation rate and students low efficiency in acquiring the required knowledge. To find out solutions to these problems, the author has studied different materials as well reflected from the teaching experience (case study method), suggesting that applying cooperative study, or teamwork spirit into class teaching will be the most effective. Key words: cooperative study, Task-based English Teaching, participation 1. Introduction It is not easy to reach better education goals when a class has encountered problems like low participation rate, meaning that not all the students are interested in asking or answering questions and participating in activities, simply because the activities are not intriguing at all. And the other problem is students low efficiency in acquiring the required knowledge. There are many factors influencing the quality of a class teaching. Owning better constructions of teaching facilities, like advanced multimedia, is far from enough to make a class get its expected goals. As for this, many teachers and experts have been trying to work out ways to promote students desire to know and willingness to do, for example, having more out-of-classroom activities and setting up more innovative topics to talk and research. But how to make the best of these is still left to explore. By studying previous researches and doing teaching practice in Deyang Foreign Language School, the author believes co operative study, which is also called team-work should be more used in teaching and educating. In the following part of the thesis, the causes for these problems mentioned above will be explained. Following that, the concept of Cooperative Study and its positive relationship with Task-based Class Teaching will be introduced as well as how we can actually apply it into real teaching. The research the author has done in Deyang Foreign Language School will be discussed in the last part. 2. Review of Literature 2.1 Theory of task-based English Class Teaching Task-based teaching is to master the language by using language in the activities rather than simply training for language skills and knowledge of the language learning outcomes. In teaching activities, teachers should focus on specific communications and language projects, design of specific and practical tasks. Students are to complete the learning tasks through expression, communication, negotiation, interpretation and other language in the form of inquiry. Task-based teaching method is to absorb the advantages of the past formed of a variety of teaching methods, while it does not exclude other teaching methods. It was first put forward in the 1980s, stressing on learning by doing in the language teaching method and communicative approach is the development of language education in the world. This has provided teaching theoretical basis for the gradual introduction of English teaching in China, foreign language teaching reform in China as a trend. The features of Task-based Teaching Method include focusing on finishing the tasks instead of manipulating some sort of meaningless language form, and aiming at raising students resounding and interests by providing interactions which are closely related to real life and experience. 2.2 Theory of Cooperative Study Cooperative study (or cooperative learning) is an approach to organizing classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. Students work in groups to complete tasks collectively. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. There are 5 basic elements of cooperative study. They are Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Face to Face Interactions, Social Skills, and Benefits. First, Positive Interdependence requires that group members feel connected to each other in the process of accomplishing the goal. Second, Individual Accountability means that every group member is responsible for being able to demonstrate understanding and comprehension of the learned academic expectations and social goals. Third, Face to Face Interactions suggest that the group must participate by communicating and discussing the goal. Fourth, Social Skills include listening, body language, sharing, accepting ideas and differences, etc. These are the skills needed prior to or being developed during the group work. And fifth, Benefits include higher self esteem, achievement and retention of academic information 2.3 Co-relationships between task-based teaching and cooperative study From a chart, we can see the co-relation between cooperative study and task-based teaching: (chart 2.1) Tasks Proper activities teachers Team goals Group activities students When all the teaching goals are assigned as group work, those proper activities are needed to be fulfilled by all the students with cooperative spirit applied into the process and with the guidance of the teachers. The features of cooperative study fit the measures taken to finish task-based teaching. 3. Causes for problems Before actually getting to know how Cooperative Study can be fully applied into teaching, it is necessary to get to know the causes for those problems (low participation rate and low efficiency in learning) mentioned above. Why not all the students are willing to participate, and what are the obstacles for leveling up students efficiency in acquiring knowledge? Being not interested in the class is the reason why they dont want positively thinking and talking, which directly influence their quality of acquiring knowledge. Maybe it is because of the materials are boring, the way the teacher teaches is boring, or it is their own problems. Students in middle school are in the teen ages, during which many physical and psychological problems will happen to them. Based on the teaching practice done in Deyang Foreign Language, the author has found out that there are mainly three aspects of influential factors listed out as follows: on the aspect of students, on the aspect of teachers, and on the aspect of school. 3.1 On the aspect of students Chai Lujing (2006), who has wrote about how to applying cooperative spirit into technical schools, says that, on the one hand, middle school students are during their teenage period time, in which they are struggling for psychological independence. The embodiment of which is they tend to cut away the attaching emotions from parents and teachers. And thus they need to build other relationships as substitutions either with the outside world, such as social relationship, or with their teen mates, like childhood pals or classmates. Since a lot of middle school students are living on campus, it is an opportunity for them to establish new relationships with more people out of known relationships and realize their life value through their own efforts and endeavors. On the other hand, all those activities to be carried out in classes need the spirit of willingness to share and cope with others, but this is what the students nowadays are lacking. What also should be responsible for is the one child policy. Being the only child and the center at home, they have been spoiled by their families. And their self-consciousness has always made them proud of themselves, contributing to the growing blind acknowledgement of themselves. This is why they are lacking the consciousness and motivations to cope with others. She has also stated that the only child has a strong desire to attack, making them offensive and critic, more seriously, making them take no joy in making friends with people they dont like but to revenge them thus to protect themselves. All these indicate that these kids lack cooperative spirit, making them bear no understanding, compassion and respect towards others. So it is not hard to conclude that this will be obstacles for them to adjust to the society and have a self-acceptance of one self. Therefore, even there are activities and tasks set in a Task-based Class, without students willingness and openness to offer to do, nothing can be achieved. Accordingly, t he class participation rate will not be as high as expected. 3.2 On the aspect of teachers Not all the teachers are making an outline of a class elaborately, for lacking of time or thought of necessity. As we all know cramming teaching and learning has incredibly existed in history and influenced our education for decades. The emphasis of result and grades has made teachers focus more on the results, whatever the process is. Doing more exercise and bending their heads among the books are always what a diligent student should be. Whenever there is a new class, students are burdened with a mass of new knowledge, which should be gained by repeatedly reinforcement and examined through tests. Though the task-based teaching and learning method is been developing, the idea that simply repeat message and cramming knowledge are hard to get rid of. Teachers seldom do investigations on each students personality. Therefore students likes and dislikes are usually carelessly ignored, and their being asked about questions they are not interested in and not able to break the tension of a serious class, has definitely influence students zeal in participation. Because of lack of properly organized activities, which means it is the teacher who is talking and cramming, a class is hard to reach the goals, harmoniously and enjoyably. And this will definitely influence students efficiency in gaining knowledge. 3.3 On the aspect of school In the concept of traditional education, it is more focused on the individuals development and competency instead of a groups. In middle school, this has been reflected by pursuing of high grades. The quality of a school is usually judged by its rate of students acceptance to a higher education. Since all the people are struggling to their own personal success, the sharing of knowledge and the joy of being working together have been ignored. Being fretful and jealous of other peoples achievements, many students have become more self-acclaimed and self-closing, never wanting to shares knowledge with others, never wanting to exchange ideas with others. But things have changed. The new requirements of curriculum claim quality education, aiming at developing a students all-aspects abilities. And more specifically, many useful types of teaching methods are demanded, like Task-based Class Teaching. As for a school itself, the failures of working on harmonious studying teams and social prac tices have influenced the most. Because it is often the competitiveness are highlighted more than the cooperative study. Such as in a sports meeting, classes are accordingly a group for a series of competitions. Another factor is the need to make cooperative spirit as an important social value to be popularized and educated has not been fulfilled 4. Cases of applying Cooperative Spirit into class teaching To find solutions to these problems (low participation rate and low efficiency in learning), many teachers have been trying to put as many activities as they can in a class teaching, and use multimedia facilities. But consider this: if a class is full of activities which are just to warm up the atmosphere and the teacher is the leading role, can the class really inspire the students to participate? If the teachers have put all the information on a computer, voices are taped and descriptions are pictured, can they help the students develop their innovative spirit to think and to discover? And these flaws are exactly many scholars are arguing about. As à ¦Ã… ¸Ã‚ ¯Ãƒ §Ã‚ ¾Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â‚¬  [Ke Qunfan] (2003) has written in getting out of the new cramming teaching method that to make a class vivid and live, many teachers have done too much, one-sidedly thinking that more activities will be better. However, it then becomes new cramming method, which has simply occupies much time of a cl ass. New standards for English Curriculum has claimed that the development of a student is the destination of teaching. It is essential to make students the active roles of a class. Cooperative study, asking for applying cooperative spirit, also called the team-work spirit, into study, has been approved and suggested by many scholars. Chen Jianhua (2004) has stated in thesis A Little Talk on English Cooperative Study that cooperative study is one of the teaching practices based on group work. Having the same ultimate goal and being valued by achievement of a whole group, cooperative study can stimulate teaching and learning by fully cooperation of each element. If taken into consideration, the requirements of a task-based teaching method will be fulfilled. Cooperating can bring students activeness into play, and form the competitive as well as cooperative atmosphere between groups in class. During the process, face to face interactions are established while each student will have to carry a share of responsibility. And the expectations of making conversations can be reached which is exactly what an English class is aiming at, which is to make a student talk, think positively, and make language a live tool to communicate. 4.1 Teamwork examples in high school abroad When people were interviewed why they had chosen to study abroad, they explained that it was because they could experience the free thinking or free life. Though this is kind of sarcastic about Chinas education which has been traditionally focusing on getting a good grade, letting alone the deep cultural difference, Americans free method of teaching is worthy learning, for which is full of free thinking, more importantly, asking for as much cooperation as possible in a class. Not only in finishing assignment but also interactions between teachers and students, between knowledge and students minds. What free method of American education has impressed the author most were the personal experiences of studying in Plattsburgh College in State University of New York. Though its in college class, its valid to prove the effectiveness of cooperative study. One of the cases was the FLL (Foreign Language and Literature) class. The students were required to do assignments after they finished the literary works (short story and novels). There were 2 parts included in the assignment: answering questions and blank-fillings. Every class, the teacher would form groups of 2-3 students. One of them would do the presentation, and all the group members would have to work on the assignments together. The student who did the presentation was always the one liked to talk, and could vividly explain the answer to the questions, while the answer should be the combined ideas of all the group members. The other example was also cooperative study applied in one of the General Psychology class carried out in Plattsburgh College. The professor asked the students to do preparations for new class in groups of 4-6 people. All the students in a group needed to prepare at least one session of the material, and one of them would act as the leading role to connect the whole presentation. After those classes, several personal interviews have been held of those who conducted the activities. They held positive views about that. One of the students from FLL class said that it was fun for they could easily get the detailed information of a novel when they were mentioned by their classmates. The knowledge became more impressive and they could use to display their point of view freely and creatively. I love that class. she said. This was exactly what teacher and the class wanted. The other student from GP class said he usually sat silently in some other classes, just taking notes. But in GP class, he had to prepare his own speech well and went up to the stage. Though I dont often talk, I will simply go there and tell what I have done, and then I remember all the materials concerning with our lessons. He also said this. It can be seen from these two examples that when students have experienced, they will find interests in doing things. They will study better and more efficiently. Dialectical Materialism has the theory that interaction is one of the ways human beings exist. Schools being a social group, enables interactions and social communications between teacher and students. This also provides explanations for the improvement of students acquiring knowledge in the cooperative study atmosphere, for experiences provided by classmates are easy to be understood, and the activities students have played will depict the meaning of social roles. Nevertheless, students will develop a sense of social value, task awareness, cooperation consciousness, and their social responsibilities as well as team-work spirit. Based on the acknowledgement that students should be the main role, cooperative study has created the chance to interact between students, and distinguished the roles of guiding and playing between teachers and students. Therefore, students can have the opportunities and time to exchange their ideas, pursuing improvement together. More importantly, during the process, the subjectivity of students is fully reflected, their desire for knowledge, enthusiasm will be aroused and happy and effective learning will be achieved. 4.2 Teamwork examples in high school in China (Special case in Deyang Foreign Language School) Teaching practice in Deyang Foreign Language School: Based on the cooperative learning research and practice, the author has carried out a teaching practice in 2 classes of high department in Deyang Foreign Language School, aiming to explore the effectiveness of cooperative studys increasing student classroom participation and their efficiency of student learning in the process of teaching. Method: case study Basic information of subjects: Class 7 is a science class, with 21 boys and 23 girls, middle rank in comprehensive abilities. Class 5 is an art class, with 10 boys and 29 girls, middle rank in comprehensive capabilities. The requirements of English curriculum for both classes are the same. Their English tests grades are of little difference. Content: Warming Up and Speaking in Unit 5 Textbook: Senior English for China Students Book 2A Step1: grouping For class 7: There were all together three main teams grouped according to students personalities. Group 1, active students (talkative, and very quite) Group2, less talkative, over reserved students Group3, reserved student (will take part in the class when needed) For class 5: three groups as well, assigned according to their seats. Step2: assign the tasks Part one: Questions based on the textbook, page 33. a. Give pictures that they are interested in b. Give information about each part of UK on different aspects. Part two: students get to know each other and distribute the assignments by themselves Step3: the process of the class groups discussion manage the information they have collected presentation Step4: evaluation (5 score for each) 1. Students were valued as a whole group. 2. Presentations should be displayed vividly, including every ones message, reflecting their grouping style, which consisted of balanced distribution of work, in-between trust. 3. Accuracy of knowledge is also valued. Step5: testifying the efficiency of learning. All the students are asked to finish the pre-reading tasks on the textbook. 4.2.2 Discussion and flaws 4.2.2.1 Main findings Group presentations description of Class 7: Group one, which is made of talkative persons and very quiet students, talkative students naturally had very flexible minds and they took the job of presentations, while others had shared information collected by them and supported their teammates. Group two, students were less talkative and over reserved. They tended to hold back when promoted to stand on the stage and give a presentation representing their group, which made a loss of their scores of presentation. Group 3 had the highest score. During the process of teaching, the author has found that in Class 7, students in each group made preparations elaborately. They distributed the assignments according to everyones abilities and advantages, for some of them were good at computers, which was important for information collecting, and some had better oral English, which could make the presentation clear to be understand. The reason laid much in their personality, for these properly reserved students usually stand out when they were needed, and always had a clear clue of what to do and what to say. In this group, they had given the information very accurate and presented steadily. The author had consumed that to achieve the ultimate goal that the group to get the best score, the students needed cooperate with each other well. During the process, obedience and compromise were needed but more importantly, the support towards others. What had come out as a result was after each presentation, other group members had given a f irst yet loud applause to their teammate, and they had constantly complete the partners speeches on the stages by providing more supplement. Group presentations description of Class 5: Group 1 happened to consist of several students who were better at English. Group 3 was of students with ordinary abilities, and the second group owned several backward students, whose study results were below average. And group 2 had relatively higher score in the overall column because when it was their turn to do the presentation, they seemed active. Though not much information required was provided, these students were fully participating. And the students in the other average group were just as withdrawal as what some students had seemed in class. The research result was slightest different. Starting from free grouping, which they did according to their seating arrangement, the students tended to cooperate with friends or closed seat classmates. However, this might be influenced by the students gender portion, meaning more boys preferred talking while girls were more reserved. Necessity of proper grouping: these illustrations prove that in order to facilitate cooperative learning, proper classroom grouping and organization will play a crucial role. Their groups turned out to be three groups as well. However, there are more problems necessary to be discussed. First, in class 5, due to the random assignment, students had lost a sense of mutual benefits, which is one of the basic elements, less effective assignment distributions were made, which had lead to students to merely wait for answers from others or they ended up mixing information for lack of group negotiation and full preparation. Second, they tended to escape from responsibilities, for depending on students who were relatively better at talking, while the others were just taking notes or listening. But there were some active students demanded to tell their findings as an individual. These two issues have affected the effectiveness of cooperative study. Through these two cases, the importance of grouping has been signified. The efficiency of learning: in class 7, students appeared easier to find the detailed information and have a better understanding of the context, for the descriptions given were more accurate and were based on what they had known or mentioned by their classmates. In class 5, students were less active to answer questions and appeared less interested in learning and their replies were slightest vague and less in quantity. From this, we can predict that after a self-experience of analyzing and studying materials and sharing with others, students can have a relatively better grasp of the knowledge, which is important for teaching and essential to improve their efficiency in acquiring knowledge. 4.2.2.2 Flaws of the research The author has consumed the research will throw more light on cooperative studys effectiveness on improving students participation and on their efficiency in acquiring knowledge, but because of lacking data, students personality analysis appeared rough, which might influence the grouping. However, cooperative learnings function of mobilizing students enthusiasm has been fully reflected. But, whether the cooperative learning can enable students to improve learning efficiency was not fully proved. Only by examining the students understanding of related reading contexts was not sufficient. According to the principle of memories, even though the students gained a lot of knowledge points in the classroom, they would soon be forgotten if there is no effective ways to be practiced, such as quizzes, in-depth discussions. 5. Solve problems As to improve the low class participation rate and students efficiency in acquiring knowledge, the author has advocated applying cooperative study into task-based teaching. After studying the previous studies and doing teaching practice, more suggestions should be made as well. These suggestions are more likely made for teachers. 5.1 suggestions on doing activities: a. More suitable and thoughtful activities should be arranged. Guarantee the equality of chances for each student to participate through the ways varied, as what the author has done in teaching. Vary the study forms. Take more forms like group discussions, group debate, group searching, group role play, and if allowed, online seminar, since English is a live language class. The more intriguing the topic is, the more passionate the students will be and never make it a burden for students. Scholars have proposed three methods of grouping: homogeneous grouping, heterogeneous grouping, and the free combination. In homogeneous group, students often own same features, like in grades, study ability, and study activeness. By combing them, they can find their interests in common and improve together. While in heterogeneous groups, things are opposite. It is better for students to help each other as well as learn from each other. Free grouping can stimulate students passion and initiative to study by grouping them according to their own choices and has a strong cohesion. The grouping should be depended on teaching materials, teaching conditions, and students actual situations. Teachers should design the interactive activities based on real life instead of superficial content which requires no deep thinking, contains no profound meaning and bears no communicative necessity. Try to help the students to truly participate in the activities from the perception general applications, and develop their abilities in identify problems and solving problems. After a group work, it is helpful that the teacher provide the feedback and evaluation to the study, which will confirm group members sense of equal importance to the group, give the encouragement and support. 5.2 Suggestions on interactions with students: a. To complete a variety of mission activities, help to stimulate students interest in learning. b. In the process of completing the task, teachers should combine the language knowledge and language skills together, helping to train the pupils of language proficiency. c. To help students to actively participate in language communication activities, teachers should inspire their imagination and creative thinking. Students should play the main role. d. In activities to learn knowledge, developing interpersonal communication, thinking, decision-making and adaptability, is conducive to overall development of students. e. In the task-based teaching activities, being inspired by their teachers, each student has to think independently and active participation opportunities, keep the motivation to learn, and develop good study habits. Teachers should respect the views of students to build a broad exchange of teaching background, create an innovative atmosphere, and promote the spirit of ask for develop as a whole instead of succeeding individually. It is also essential for teachers to conduct emotional communication, to develop students spirit of Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as their right sense of competition and social responsibility. 6. Conclusion The internal value of cooperative study is necessary to be signified. As Ma Lan (2004) has stated, cooperative study is not only a teaching method, but also an positive attitude of life, showing peoples appreciation and willingness of cope with others. Cooperative study is not only a method but also the content of a study, from which students learn the principles and social skills to develop. More importantly, cooperative study is not only about the interactions between teachers and students, but also the share of resources among them. And under the requirements of current curriculum, the knowledge base of a student includes knowledge from textbooks as well as from that of a teachers teaching experience and the interactions among them. Cooperative learning itself is a kind of profound spiritual essence, rich content and extensive operational theory of teaching technology strategy. U.S. cooperative learning experts Jacobs (2001) once said, the shortest distance to reach a goal is not necessarily a straight line. As for English teaching, it is not to ask student to recite the English dictionary and teach them the merely forms of language, but the practical usage of English. Combining with task-based teaching method, cooperative study is effective to help students to experience the joy of learning, cultivate a sense of responsibility by sharing different assignments and learn to dedicate to a goal by making use of mutual complement.

The Life of Alton Brown and his wife Deanna Brown producer

Alton Brown was born on July 30, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, United States of America. He studied in the University of Georgia where he received a degree in drama. After studying he worked in cinematography and film production. He produced the music video â€Å"The One I love† where he became as a best known film producer and cinematographer. He also contributed works to the film School Daze by Spike. Alton Brown is a born again Christian. In Marietta, Georgia, he became a member of the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (Parker, 2007).Alton Brown was raised by his mother and grandmother and while growing up in their house, the passion of cooking was already a common thing for him. When he was in high school and college he had worked as a cook but he had never considered to enroll in a culinary arts school by those times (CNET Networks Entertainment, 2007). During sometime in his life in film production, he had observed the dissatisfaction he felt with the quality of food he ea ts. He was also dissatisfied with the way the American cooking shows were aired. Because of this observation, he planned to study culinary arts.He then enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute. Brown revealed that when he was in high school and in college studying for his degree in drama, he showed poorness in science. When he enrolled for the culinary arts, he noticed that he needs to excel in science because the subject is needed for him to understand the processes of cooking in a scientific way. In 1997, he graduated at the New England Culinary Institute (New England Culinary Arts, 2007). Alton Brown is currently living in Marietta, Georgia together with his family. DeAnna is his wife and Zoey is his daughter.DeAnna Brown is working with her husband in the Good Eats wherein she is the co-producer of the show. But DeAnna Brown had never appeared in one of the TV shows of her husband. Alton Brown had the opportunity to portray his currently arrested twin brother named â€Å" B. A†. As a result, many of his viewers kept asking him of what his twin brother’s do for a living. Many people and many of his viewers were not aware that the character of his twin brother â€Å"B. A. † was simply a product of intelligent editing. In his culinary show Good Eats, he always features Apple-branded computers.Aside from loving Apple computers, he also revealed in his interview with the MacWorld magazine that he also loves the fruit apple (Macworld, 2007). Alton Brown is a specialist of cheese and vinegar. Aside from being a specialist of vinegar and cheese, Brown also is a motorcycling enthusiast and because of being a motorcycling enthusiast he owns a 2005 BMW R12RT (Litscher, 2004). Alton Brown had also completed his first solo as an aviator last June 25, 2007 to be able to gain his certificate in private piloting. The Works of Alton Brown Books. Alton brown’s first published book is all about his recipes that are aired in his Good Eats show .The book is entitled â€Å"I’m Just Here for the Food† won the title of 2003 James Beard Award. The book had detailed the stories of Alton Brown about his favorite ingredients as well as his favorite experiments. Comprehensive directions for finding the perfect cooking apparatus and tools are also included in this book. Handy diagrams about the importance of things that are related to cooking were also in detailed in the book (AltonBrown. com, 2005). Another book of Alton Brown is entitled â€Å"I'm Just Here for More Food:Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking†.This book was suggested to be a required book for reading to those cooks aspiring to be great bakers. In this book, Alton Brown had explained and discussed in his own ways and manner of the processes that would help aspiring bakers to learn the things that they could use for their baking endeavors. Things such as the salt’s role in the process of baking are written in the book as well as the importance of eggs in baking is all written in he book (AltonBrown. com, 2005). The book â€Å"Gear for Your Kitchen† was a way for Alton Brown to let the people know that cooking is a lot fun.He came to realize the fact that people are not having fun when cooking so he wrote the book. He also found out that people do not find fun and excitement because they do not use the right tool and implements in cooking (AltonBrown. com, 2005). â€Å"I’m Just Here For the Food: Kitchen User’s Manual† is also a book written by Alton Brown. Brown considered this book as a kitchen organizer because it is the ideal companion in the kitchen. This book is really written to be a cook manual and it does have eight separate sections dedicated for recipes and other cooking essentialities.The eight section of the book consist of full page plastic pockets in order to have a place for holding and keeping the cooking clippings, equipment manuals and other important paperwork in the kitchen (A ltonBrown. com, 2005). Television Shows. Alton Brown was the one who created Good Eats. Good Eats is a television cooking show wherein Alton Brown himself is the host. Good Eats is aired in North America on Food Network. Good Eats is a show wherein it showcases the familiar dishes that could be easily cooked at home. There are also segments in Good Eats where the important and the proper cooking implements and tools are being discussed.Iron Chef America: The Series is also a television show wherein Alton Brown makes appearance. The television show is based on a Fuji Television’s Iron Chef and is produced by Food Network. The television show is a culinary game show. There is a cooking competition between a challenger and a resident ‘Iron Chef’ in every episode of the show. The competition is one hour long wherein a theme ingredient is featured (Food Network. com, 2007). Feasting on Asphalt is also a television series show where Alton Brown is the host. Since Alton Brown is an enthusiast of motorcycling riding, the third series of the television show is all about â€Å"road food†.The third series was all about the restaurants which caters the needs of travelers during their long travels. The series gives an importance to the unique restaurants and regional cuisine wherein the travelers could eat when they are traveling. And in finding and looking for this unique and regional cuisine, Alton Brown go off the road by using his BMW motorcycle which proves that he is really an motorcycling enthusiast aside from being a chef (Food Network. com). Aside from all the books and from all the television shows of Alton Brown, he also contributed to the 2005 Cookbook of the Food Network Favorites:Recipes From All-Star Chefs.He is a member of the Heifer International. Heifer International is a nonprofit world hunger organization Works Cited:AltonBrown. com (2005). Books. BE Square Corporation. Retrieved September 24, 2007 < http://www. altonbrown. co m/adventure/books. html>.Food Network. com (2007). Iron Chef America; The Series. Scripps Network, Inc. Retrieved September 24, 2007 < http://www. foodnetwork. com/food/show_ia/0,1976,FOOD_16696,00. html>.Food Network. com (2007). Feasting on Asphalt 2. Scripps Network, Inc. Retrieved September 24, 2007 .CNET Networks Entertainment (2007). Alton Brown. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved September 24, 2007 < http://www. tv. com/alton-brown/person/219990/biography. html>.Litscher, S. (2004). Chef Alton Brown of â€Å"Good Eats† Writer, Director, Food Hacker & Gear Head. Road Fly Magazine. Macworld.The Mac Express (2007). Add Apples for Flavor; Q and A with Alton Brown. Retrieved September 24, 2007 < http://www. macworld. com/2001/03/bc/buzzbrown/ >.New England Culinary Arts (2007). Profile: Anton Brown. Retrieved September 24, 2007 Parker, Virginia (2007). Alton Brown Steaks His Claim. Atlanta Magazine.

Define and explain Orientalism Essay

Europeans used the term Orient to describe the peoples and places of Asia and the Middle East. While widely accepted prior to the late twentieth century, this term has aroused criticism among historians. The purpose of this essay is too define and explain Orientalism, and how the term Orientalist applies to Christian missionaries in the Far East. Two main examples of these missionaries are Matteo Ricci and Francis Xavier who served in China and Japan respectively. Both of these missionaries fall under the definition of Orientalists as defined by Edward Said. Edward Said defines Orientalism in multiple parts; the first of which is the academic1. Academic Orientalism is the study of the Orient for the purpose of understanding and learning. Modern historians view the term Orient to be too vague for an area as large as Asia, but it is still widely used throughout the world. Academic Orientalism attempts to study and understand the Orient from afar. Professors of Chinese language who have never spoken with a Chinese person are a common example of this detached intellectualism. Often in 18th Century Europe the Orientalist would study and judge the Orient based on second hand knowledge and conjecture. This view of understanding the Orient better than the Oriental without living it leads into the second part of Orientalism2. The second part of Orientalism as defined by Said is the justification of subjugation. Europeans believed that due to their better understanding of the history of a culture, and their superior culture they needed to dominate other cultures in order to improve them. Arthur James Balfour, a member of the British parliament once said in reference to Egypt; â€Å"We are in Egypt not merely for the sake of the Egyptians, though we are there for their sake; we are there also for the sake of Europe at large3.† Balfour meant by this that British occupation of Egypt was necessary for the protection of the Egyptians and for the benefit of all Europe. Balfour and other Orientalist believed that they understood Egypt better than the Egyptians themselves, and for this reason governed Egypt for the benefit of Egypt. This form of justification was used throughout the Orient. China, India, Philippines and others were all subjugated on the justification of the white mans burden. The idea of th e burden of the white race to civilize inferior races was a key part of Orientalism.4 One of the main points of Orientalism is the division of humanity into us and them. The Occidental and the Oriental, East and West, these are divisions created by Europeans in order to dominate the other. By separating the peoples an Orientalist can justify the subjugation and forced change of other races. Said’s overall point is that Orientalism was created by Europeans in order to justify the subjugation of the Orientals. Cultural and intellectual superiority and the separation of us and them led to three hundred years of European imperialism in the so called Orient.5 In order to understand how Orientalism affected Missionaries in China and Japan, one must first understand the Orientalist’s views of foreign religions. Most Orientalists were Christians and therefore believed all none Christians were destined for hell. â€Å"This, oddly enough, even applied to pre-Christians such as Aristotle and Abraham. In Dante’s Inferno both these men are in the first layer of Hell, even though Christianity did not exist during their lifetimes. So from this intolerant view one can see the basic attitude towards non-Christians. Muslims, Hindu and Buddhists were all considered heathen that needed the word of Jesus to save them from eternal damnation. â€Å"The Church’s commission to preach the gospel of Christ to ‘every creature’ also lays upon her the task of inviting all to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and to join his Church through baptism.6† With this belief in mind Christian Missionaries went to the Orient to â⠂¬Å"save† the heathens and convert them to the one true faith, whether they wanted too or not.7 One of the earliest Christian Missionaries Father Matteo Ricci of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, arrived in China in 1582 after a four month journey from Goa. He was a Roman Catholic priest who was trained the Rome in numerous subjects. The Jesuits were the most well educated order within the Catholic Church; for this reason they were particularly well suited for missionary work in Asia. The Jesuit tactic was too convert the social elites and then have their support in the conversion of the masses. This worked particularly well in Asia due to the strict social structures and relatively good education of the elites. Also the widespread belief in Confucianism fit well with Christianity. Ricci said in his work â€Å"The True Idea of God†, â€Å"the Confucian Classics contained allusions, albeit in an inchoate manner, to such Christian notions as God and a future life.8† Well educated bureaucrats in China respected Ricci’s education and intelligence, and were interested in the Western ideas he possessed9. Techniques such as Ricci’s Memory Palace interested the Chinese and often spawned further interest into the religion Ricci brought with him.10 Ricci’s view of the Chinese is full of contradictions. Many aspects of Chinese culture and government Ricci respected, such as their dress and level of education; the hygiene of the people and the relative order imposed by the Chinese bureaucracy11. At the same time that Ricci praised aspects of Chinese civilization, he abhorred a great deal of Chinese practices. Among these are the corruption rampant throughout China, the worship of heathen religions and their disrespect for human life. Ricci once remarked â€Å"This country is full of slaves. 12† Most importantly Ricci despised the widespread homosexuality within China13. There are two main reasons for describing Ricci as an Orientalist. The first is his reason for being in China. Ricci sought to convert all of China to Catholicism. He cared little for the established religions in China and sought to impose his Christian faith upon the peoples of China. Ricci once remarked â€Å"†¦Buddhism violated the very first of the Ten Commandments, and it had not raised moral standards in China despite its two thousand years during which it had been preached.14† Viewing his own faith as superior to any other and being so disdainful of all others, Ricci can be labeled an Orientalist. The second reason for labeling Ricci an Orientalist is his general disdain for all things Chinese. While he may admire certain attributes he generally views everything Western superior; for example his disgust with open prostitution in the streets of major Chinese cities. Ricci completely glosses over the fact that prostitution was legal within Rome itself. In fact prostitution within Rome was widespread. Montaigne on visiting Rome remarked, â€Å"Taking coach rides or strolling to view the prostitutes was a major Roman pastime.15† In his criticism of homosexuality, Ricci also ignores the previous acceptance of homosexuality in Europe. Montaigne remarked during his visit too Rome, â€Å"several marriages between Portuguese males had been celebrated in the church of St. John a few years before, and that the couples had went to bed and lived together for some time before being arrested and burned at the stake.16† This method of criticizing China while ignoring the fact that the same problems existed within Europe labels Ricci as an Orientalist. Ricci had additional goals beyond simply the conversion of the Chinese. Along with the conversion to Christianity Ricci hope to rebuild China along European lines. Ricci spent a great deal of time extolling the virtues of European civilization, and purity of the Catholic faith17. Ricci hoped to rid China of corruption, create a perfect Christian society, and cleanse China of heathen practices such as abstaining from meat year round and homosexuality18. These goals of changing Chinese society certainly label Ricci to be an Orientalist. Father Francis Xavier of the Society of Jesus arrived in Japan in 1549 aboard a Chinese junk. Xavier had many initial difficulties in Japan; the first of which being his inability to speak Japanese, and later to understand it. His interpreter caused Xavier many troubles later on due to his using Buddhist names for Christian figures, and forever linking Buddhism to Christianity in the minds of the Japanese19. The other difficulty for Xavier was his misunderstanding of Japanese society. When Xavier first arrived he hoped to convert â€Å"the king of Japan†, by this he meant the Shogun20. But when Xavier met the Shogun he found him to be a man of little importance who could barely maintain his own territory, let alone the whole country. Japan was in the period of sengoku, or country at war, and was divided among many feudal lords all vying for power. This state of civil war later benefited the Christian missionaries greatly, but initially confused Xavier21. Xavier spent the majority of his time in Japan attempting to convert Japanese daimyo and kokujin to Christianity. He succeeded in a few cases largely due to his link with Portuguese trade ships. Daimyo within Japan were looking for a way to gain advantage over their enemies, and trade with the Portuguese greatly enriched many lords. The Japanese believed that converting to Christianity would give them more favorable trade with the Portuguese, and for this reason many converted22. Xavier can be labeled an Orientalist for two main reasons. The first is his overall goal of converting the heathen Japanese to Christianity. His total disdain for Buddhism is apparent when he refers to the religion of Dianichi, â€Å"an invention of the devil, as also were all the other sects of Japan.23† The second reason for labeling Xavier an Orientalist is for his views on homosexuality. Ricci’s beliefs on homosexuality among Asians stem from Xavier. When Xavier was the head of the Far East mission he declared that homosexuality was an evil to be combated in Asia24. For these reasons Xavier is clearly an Orientalist the same as Ricci. For all of their efforts to convert the peoples of China and Japan, neither Ricci nor Xavier succeeded in any significant way. The problems in China were numerous; deep seated beliefs in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism kept many from converting, also the lack of interest by the elite made any type of wide scale conversion impossible. In addition the basic fear of outsiders made the Chinese distrustful and angry towards the Christian missionaries25. In Japan the eventual consolidation of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate forced all Christians too abandon their faith. The Tokugawa did not want any opposition to their regime and barred any foreigners from entering Japan. Also deep seated religious beliefs and xenophobia as in China caused few too embrace Christianity. Neither Ricci nor Xavier succeeded in their goal of converting the Far East; the task they committed their lives too. One must wonder; if they had taken a more open, non Orientalist approach, would they have been more successful? 1 Said, Edward W. Orientalism. (New York: First Vintage Books Edition, October 1979.), 2. 2 Ibid, 3. 3 Ibid, 33. 4 Ibid, 33-36. 5 Ibid, 83. 6 Manikam, Rajah B. Christianity and the Asian Revolution. (New York: Friendship Press, 1954) 185. 7 Spence, 73-75. 8 Ching, Julia. Confucianism and Christianity. (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1977) 10. 9 Hellyer, Robert. Lecture. â€Å"The Jesuits in Asia.† Allegheny College. Meadville, Pa. 11 February 2002. 10 Spence, Jonathan D. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. (New York: Penguin Books, 1985.) 2-5 11 Ibid, 210. 12 Ibid, 219. 13 Ibid, 224. 14 Ibid, 252. 15 Ibid, 208. 16 Ibid, 226. 17 Ibid, 2-5. 18 Ibid, 217. 19 Elisonas, â€Å"Christianity and the Daimyo,† (Cambridge History of Japan, volume 4, 301-372.) 307-310. 20 Ibid, 311. 21 Ibid, 312. 22 Ibid, 323. 23 Ibid, 309. 24 Spence, 224.