Understanding American culture Essay Example for Free

Understanding American culture Essay I was 18 years old when my father decided to send me to America and to cover the traveling expenses, my father sold his land. At that time, my future looked so bright. Studying abroad was such a big deal to most Afghans not only on account of the cost that it entailed but also of the social prestige that went with it. My family then was living in a place called Macaroyain Community, a modern European-style, five-storey apartment complex in a three-square mile area complete with all the modern amenities. My family had high hopes for me and I felt like an adult with so many relatives sending me off the night before my departure. My brother had left for America two years earlier and even if I had never been away from my family for just a single night, I was unfazed. I had my brother to count on. I was jolted by culture shock the moment I arrived at the San Francisco airport. Nothing resembled anything that I was used to back in Kabul. The exposure I had had to American culture through the movies I watched back home and through the American friends of my uncles who came to Kabul hardly helped. Although I did well in high school in Afghanistan, I realized that the technical English I knew would not take me far. It was not even sufficient to enable me to convey my ideas correctly. To cope, I used to carry a Dari-English dictionary with me wherever I went. I must have been an unusual sight having to rehearse in my head what I wanted to say and, when at a loss for the right word, I would frantically scan my dictionary. It was so comforting for me whenever the fellow I was speaking to would be considerate enough to wait as I groped for the correct word. It felt so embarrassing to be holding up the line at the grocery store or in the convenience store. The majority would wait sympathetically while a few would show their impatience and irritation by ill-concealed gestures. Basic differences between English and Dari worsened matters. Robson and Lipson highlights the difficulties of Afghans in their observation that â€Å"Dari and Pashto both put direct objects before the verb (John Mary saw), whereas in English, we put direct objects after the verb (John saw Mary). † (Cross-cultural Adjustments and Challenges,Grammar) At the same time, I also had trouble with â€Å"th† sounds, like â€Å"th† as in thank and this, and with the distinction between w and v as in wine and vine. † (Pronunciation) My difficulties with English pronunciation and the frustration I felt when I could not be understood increased my homesickness. It also heightened my awareness of being different, my being a foreigner, my being from another culture. I truly wanted to be assimilated into American culture. Try as I did, my efforts seemed to backfire. Instead of making me blend into American culture, my persistent attempts to speak the English language like an American made me so self-conscious of my â€Å"otherness† that I often had the feeling that I was in effect isolating myself. Fortunately, most Americans I made contact with had the patience to adjust to my language difficulties. Perhaps, the fact that America is the melting pot of almost all cultures around the world made my problems very commonplace. With a lot of people of different nationalities arriving in America as tourists or immigrants, it is no longer uncommon for Americans to encounter people from different cultures. Looking back, I realize that I found strength in being with students from other countries when I started taking English as a Second Language course at Heald College. There were also Asians who, like me, were doing their best to get assimilated in the American way of life. Aside from this motley group of foreign students, the small community of Afghan students in the Bay Area offered some kind of psychological crutch. I was given a lot of advice and tips about how to go about with my new life in America. Their suggestions, though well-meant, ended up confusing me as some turned out to be contradictory. For example, a few advised that I should discreetly try to make inconspicuous my Afghan traits when I am with Americans in order to get assimilated quickly. On the other hand, others would say, it is pointless to hide my Afghan origins as it would always show up in one form or another. I attended school all day and spent the nights and week-ends working as a busboy and then as a waiter in a restaurant close to our apartment. Every Sunday afternoon, an uncle would take me to Alameda City to play volleyball with friends who are mostly Afghans themselves. After the game, we would go to a restaurant and have dinner together. This was a welcome treat for me. In their company, I was able to relax and have a good time. I didn’t have to exert extra effort to reach out to another culture. I felt at home and the feeling of belongingness was such great comfort.

The Whale Rider Essay -- Witi Ihimaera essays research papers

This book really grabbed me right from the beginning of the story. The story begins with the birth of fraternal twins, with the grandfather patiently awaiting the birth of the son. Right away I felt sadness when the mother and one of the twins die. The boy dies and the girl survives. The grandpa seems to not care about the girl who survived . He was longing for his grandson because he is from the Maori tribe and the tribe is waiting for the sign of a new chief to be born . The chief would lead the village and its community to greatness. Many elders have been born but none with the strength to be the next chief. The little girl was named Pai. The grandma of Pai took her home to raise her along with the grandfather. The grandfather showed right away that women or girls where less than a man. He longed for a new chief . This was grandpas goal in life right now. He could see that their tribe was going down hill .He had hoped one of his son’s would become the chief but neither one did. So grandpa was set on his grandson becoming the next chief  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  .It was no secret that he blamed Pia for the death of his grandson. He felt by her birth she gave a curse to the tribe. He couldn’t see any truth or purpose in her having life over the grandson. He showed resentment toward her. As time went on , Pia seemed to be this stubborn, curious, and smart little tomboy . The grandfather didn’t like that pia was a tomboy . He wanted her to stay away from a...

The Human Resource Management

This paper is written from the perspective that Human Resource Management (HRM) practices are continually evolving to meet the changes of dynamic work environments. New technologies, increasingly rapid exchanges of information, social paradigm shifts and the restructuring of family systems contribute heavily to the need to find and apply methods of HRM that meet the needs of industry, workers and consumers. To do so effectively, vision and creativity are required in addition to on-going awareness of the bottom line. At the opening of the 20th century, the majority of jobs in America were held in two areas, agriculture and industry. Population distribution tables for that time demonstrate that most of the nation inhabited rural areas rather than urban areas. This continued to be the trend up until WWII, when men left the country to fight and women left rural America to fill factory jobs as their contribution to the war effort. This movement was the beginning of nationwide workplace and societal changes that have accelerated during the last half of the 20th century. The move from rural to suburban environments changed the way we did business as a nation. Where extended families resided in and supported each other in culturally defined rural settings, nuclear families found themselves alone in homogenous neighborhoods. (1) This created a demand for goods and services that were formerly provided by extended family and community members, opening up new markets and creating jobs. It also created the need to recognize the management of workers as a separate and formal discipline. As we move into the 21st century we can trace our nations† business growth over the last 100 years. We moved from an agrarian base to an industrial one. By the mid-50s† the majority of jobs were found in factories. Manufacturing suffered heavy blows during the late 60†³s and early seventies and was displaced by the service industry. With the closing of the 20th century those services have become increasingly technological. Surviving those changes requires adaptation, not only in the retooling of physical plants and the retraining workers, but also in the way we manage those workers. Some feel that there appears to be an underlying theme in books and papers on the subject of HRM, that there is only one correct way to manage people. (2) Maslow on Management offers a much different approach, demonstrating conclusively that one size does not fit all; i.e., that different people need to be managed differently. HMR models operating on the assumption that there is a single right way to manage people are using workplace criteria that are quickly becoming a thing of the past. The â€Å"one way† model views people working for an organization as employees who work full time and are solely dependent on that organization for their livelihood and their careers. These employees generally were viewed as subordinates with limited or very narrow skill sets. (3) These images of the worker may have been valid several decades ago. However, today every one of these images has become insupportable. While the majority of people working for an organization may be classified as employees, a very large and steadily growing minority – by working for the organization – no longer work as employees, but instead as outsource contractors. The concept of subordinate positions is fading as well, even in those areas that are considered fairly low level. As technology becomes increasingly more complex special knowledge is required in all operations. Subordinates, increasing their skill sets, become associates. The secretary, with knowledge of specialized software, becomes the Administrative Assistant. In order for the organization to run smoothly, the individual who does his job well, often has more knowledge about his job than his boss. (4) For example, the vice president of marketing may know a great deal about selling, but nothing about market research, pricing, packaging, service, or sales forecasting. Workers in these positions may report to the vice president, but are often experts in their own areas. Formerly, lower technological expectations and a firmly established hierarchy allowed general managers to delegate narrowly defined personnel responsibilities to those functioning as specialists. Today however, such practices would be inefficient to the point of being considered static, and must be replaced. To fail to do so would be to ignore and fail to address the many unprecedented pressures that demand a comprehensive and more strategic view in relation to the organizations† human resources. From the view point of General Management, what does the organization need? The General Mangement picture of HRM is viewed from a global perspective, as demonstrated by a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs in 1989. The results of that survey determined that effective management of Human Resources must address corporate needs in the eight following areas: 1. Increasing international competition makes the need for greatly improved human production mandatory. The crisis experienced in both the automobile and steel industries serve as clear illustrations. Foreign management practices, particularly Japanese management models, are being used to guide developing HRM techniques, especially those that seem to increase employee commitment while providing companies with a long term source of workers with necessary competencies and skills. 2. As organizations increase in size and complexity layer upon layer of management has resulted in expensive, but not particularly effective, bureaucracies. Multiple layers of management also serve to isolate workers from the competitive environment in which organizations operate as well as company policy makers. It†s hoped that a reduction of middle management layering will put workers closer to the competitive environment, fostering commitment to the organization as well as sharpening the competitive edge. Multinational companies have additional challenges in managing human resources, and need to adapt policies to work within diverse cultures and vastly different social values. 3. Some companies may face declining markets or slower growth, handicapping the organizations† ability to offer advancement opportunities and job security. How then to attract and retrain a competent and highly skilled work force? 4. Greater government involvement in human resource practices generates a need to re-examine HRM policies and mandates the development of new policies. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act forced the revision of HRM policies in companies across the nation. 5. America†s workforce has become increasingly more educated making it necessary to rethink assumptions about employee capabilities and the delegation of responsibilities. Under utilization of employee talent is a major cause of workforce turnover. 6. Expectations and the values of the workforce are changing, particularly those values and expectations relative to authority. This fosters a need to reexamine how much involvement and influence workers should be given. Means of voicing employee concerns and addressing those concerns with due process need to be provided. 7. As workers become more concerned with life and career satisfaction corporations are revisiting traditional career paths and seeking more alternative career paths that take into consideration employee lifestyle needs. 8. Demographic shifts in the workforce, particularly the infusion of women and minorities into organizations, are causing corporations to reexamine all policies, practices and values that impact the treatment, responsibilities, and advancement of these groups. (5) How do universal General Management issues affect HRM departments and practices? While narrower in scope than those concerns voiced by General Management, impact areas identified by HRM professionals closely mirrored major corporate needs identified by General Managers. Human Resource professionals, in an effort to meet the needs of both worker and organization, have examined ways to ensure a desired working environment while increasing productivity. In the early 1990s, the advisory board of the Commerce Clearing House were asked to identify the issues that they felt would shape the role of human resource functions in the next decade. Commerce Clearing House advisory board members saw four main HRM areas where current issues would influence the role of the human resource function in the near future: compensation; communication and personnel practices; employment relations; and Equal Employment Opprtunity requirments. (6) Compensation issues focused on the diversity of worker needs, pay-for-performance plans, and the regulation of employee benefit plans. Flexibility and adaptability in HRM practices are primary keys in addressing worker needs. Job sharing, staggered scheduling and flex time are some of the outcomes generated by creative approaches to HRM practices. Pay-for-performance plans hold the allure of rewarding productivity while providing monetary motivation. Successful implementation of such practices, however, require effective performance evaluations. To attempt such compensation without valid, reliable, and standard assessment instruments is to court litigation. Fairness is a national concern strongly affecting human resource managers. Personnell plansfocused soley on organizational needs must be abandoned to benefit workers and organizations alike. One example is the growing social phenomena of two career couples. As the numbers increase nepotism policies must be reexamined. Managing change and preparing people for change also require HRM professionals to rethink policy. New demands for an increase in functions such as retraining evolve as workers move through change. Training and professional development are crucial in all areas of operation. Even the lowest clerk needs to stay abreast of the latest innovations brought on by technical advancement. The march of technology, however, not only changes jobs, it makes some of them redundant or obsolete. In an era of company reconfiguration it becomes apparent that layoffs and divestirtures will occur when retraining isn't an option. Outplacement policies must be considered and developed in preparation of the need. HRM professionals also understand the need for the development of effective HR auditing instruments to measure employee perceptions of management fairness and the climate for effective communication within the company. The information obtained by employee attitude surveys can be greatly beneficial to supervisors, but only if they've been trained to use it. (7) The legal environment of personnell management is many fingered and quite comprehensive. In addition to regulations stemming from the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), passed in 1970, HRM is greatly affected by the broad umbrella of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulation. As well as protecting workers form discrimination based on race, color, or creed, EEO serves workers in many other areas. Age discrimination also falls under this umbrella. With an increasing number of age discrimination suits, organizations need to develp a sensitvity to age issues and policy specific to older employees. A recent off shoot of EEO is the American with Disablities Act (ADA). ADA has created a need for new policies and procedures in accommidating employees with handicaps and disabilities. The emerging legal view that Acquired Immune Deficiancy Syndrome (AIDS) is a handicap brings policy questions about AIDS testing to the forefront. There is great potential for conflict in providing for the needs of other employees and creates an HRM channel that must be carefully navigated. Benefit plans that are regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) require special attention. Companies must be prepared to provide resources that not only offer such plans but also impeccably manage those employee benefit plans. Failure to do so will lead to subsequent suits by employees challenging plans that are out of compliance with ERISA disclosure, reporting and fiduciary standards are problematic. Governemnt regulation is also partly responsible for shifting attention from union group representation to regulations and policies that emphasize the rights of individual employees. It is mandatory that this factor be taken into consideration in personnel planning and policy making. The role of unions as bargaining units is on the decline and will continue to diminish as bargaining relationships become increasingly stable. This translates to decreased strike activity and fewer actions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). While that is a positive outcome the trade-off must be recognized, prepared and accounted for. While businesses will see fewer strikes, they can expect to see increasing numbers of employment-at-will and wrongful discharge suits. An additional considertion affects employers who contract temporary employees. This practice is experiencing an increasing number of suits by temporary employees alleging unlawful activity. This surely influences staffing policy decisions. It should come as no surprise that such pressures have created the need for a greater emphasis on the human aspect of business. With something so seemingly obvious the qustion is why hasn't this human aspect been addressed before? It may be due, in part, to the tendency to educate, develop, and train managers to fixate on analytical and technical aspects while assuming that â€Å"business as usual† in dealing with employees was sufficient to promote productivity. So why are companies now hoping to find solutions to business problems in the human side of enterprise? The answer lies in part to growing societal pressures. Concern over the condition of blue-color jobs in the 1930s, as well as civil rights and equal opportunity legislation in the 1960s and 1970s, has paved the way to revamping HRM policies to recognize and respond to shifting social values. More simply put, other approaches to improve employee productivity and organizational effectiveness haven†t worked. (9) The area of single most impact on worker performance lies outside of the work environment. Family needs are the primary cause of absenteeism, tardiness, and lower productivity. (9) The here are several factors creating this phenomena. First there is the steady flow of women into the work place. In 1970, 20.2% of women worked outside the home. That figure grew to 73.8% in 1995. The increase in two career couples has assisted families in reaching financial stability and filled a need for personal satisfaction. It has also, however, created a void in care giving that was traditionally a woman†s role. Another major cause of family issues impact is the increasing number of single parent homes. Single parent homes have grown from 12% in 1970 to 49.8 % in 1995. (10) As the sole burden of child rearing is placed on a worker, childcare arrangements, school obligations, and childhood illnesses are far more likely to interfere with attendance and productivity. Another social phenomenon, which strains workers and, in turn, disrupts the workplace, is increasing longevity. As the population grows older the phenomena of living longer allows workers the luxury of postponing marriage and having children. It†s relatively common today for couples to postpone their first child until their late thirties or early forties, a time formerly used for the preparation of an empty nest. Instead of retiring to grandparenthood these later in life parents are dealing with teenagers and how to get them through college. A large percentage of the workforce now finds itself in the position of not only having children to care for, but elderly parents as well. Add to the list of family pressures the moral and financial obligation workers must contend with in providing for the wellbeing of two generations. The American worker is now faced with a double whammy in the attempt to meet family needs. When looking at the increasing longevity of the workforce, one must consider that piece of the big picture which has to do with the rate that people retire. It†s estimated that within the next twenty to thirty years the retirement age in developed countries will, by necessity, move up to seventy-nine or so. Seventy-nine, in terms of health and life expectancy, correlates with the age of sixty-five and the health and life expectancies of 1936, when the United States, the last western country to do so, adopted a national retirement plan (Social Security). (11) As America continues to gray, a significant percentage of the work force will develop unprecedented needs that are geriatric in nature, impacting worker expectations of benefit packages. The question facing business in the future is determining what that age and experience are worth in terms of monetary compensation and benefits. This is a dilemma currently being faced by the Armed Forces, with many branches finding themselves to be top heavy with senior officers. The funding resources dedicated to personnel are not distributed in a fashion that attracts and retains military members, seriously jeopardizing the productivity of military organizations. (12) This is relevant in that many private organizations as well as public and government agencies are finding themselves in the same position. Retirement Incentive bonuses have become common place and are a primary tool used by organizations to cull the workforce. Will this remain a viable means of thinning an aging workforce? In addition to family pressures, and salary and benefits needs, there is a growing concern throughout the nation†s work force concerning quality of life. While benefits and compensation are key to employee satisfaction, and therefore productivity, a strong value is placed on the emotional satisfaction one finds professionally. These emotional perks come out of all areas, and are as solid as additional training and added responsibility or as intangible as recognition, appreciation, and creativity. (13) Business must take into account the social implications of such information, as it becomes essential to address staff needs and to determine successful strategies that should surround any HRM policy. The management of human resources centers on a single basic function of the management process: staffing. The HRM professional is charged with matching the right person to the job. While recruitment is an exacting area of HRM, a more significant piece of employee productivity lies in motivation. Motivation methods are key to fashoning successful HRM models. Motivation is a deceptively simple concept but probably one of the most complex components of human resource management. Motivation is simple in terms of human behavior. People are basically motivated or driven to behave in ways that they find rewarding. So the task seems easy; just find out what they want and hold it out as a possible reward or incentive. It becomes complex when trying to find a universal incentive in a very diverse workforce. What has value to worker A may be meaningless to worker B. And what has value at one point in time may become insignificant at another. For example, everyone has a need to eat. A big steak dinner, as an incentive to succesful completion of a task, is motivation – as long as your hungry! Had you just eaten, a steak dinner would hold no interest . An additional factor in the motivation equation has to do with the reality of obtaining the reward. Telling a person that they will be promoted to sales manager if sales in that jurisdiction increase is empty if that task is percevied as virtually inpossible. Two conditions must be met for motivation to occur, according to Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation. First the value of the particular outcome (such as recieving a promotion) is very high for the person and, secondly, the person feels that there is a reasonably good chance of accomplishing the task at hand and obtaining the outcome. This is the process of motivation. (14) Theories of motivation center on a a single basic question: what do people want? Abraham Maslow states that humans have five basic categories of need; physiological, safety, social, ego, and self-actualization. These needs have been arranged in order of there importance to humans. When the basic physiological needs, food, drink, etc., are met, they no longer serve as motivation. Instead, those urges toward safety, i.e., protection and security, become the driving force. Human beings move up this needs ladder as basic needs are met. Frederick Herzberg has divided Maslow's hierarchy into two planes, the lower meeting physiological, safety and social needs, and the higher meeting those needs surrounding ego and self actualization. Herzberg believes that the best motivation lies in satisfying those higher level needs. Based on his studies, Herzberg believes that factors that satisfy lower level needs, which he identifies as hygiene factors, are markedly different from those, reffered to as motivators, that satisfy higher level needs. Herzberg states that if hygeine factors are inadequate workers will become disgruntled, but once satisfied there is no incentive to perform. Therefore, hygiene factors are necesary for preventing dissatisfaction, but very inefficient in encouraging motivation. Job content, however is the source of motivating factors. Opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility, and more challenging jobs motivate employees. Motivating factors work because they appeal to higher level needs that are never completly satisfied. According to Herzberg, the best way to motivate employees is to build challenge and opportunities for achievement into their jobs. Herzberg reffers to this method of applying his theory as job enrichment. Basically, job enrichment consists of building motivators like opportunity for achievment into the job by making it more interesting and challenging.

Paradise Lost Essay

While contrasting the attitudes, and results of Jesus in the Bible, with the attitudes and results of Satan in the book Paradise Lost I discovered many comparing themes. The attitudes of Jesus that we find in the Bible are great examples for us all on how to live our lives, compared to the attitudes of Satan, whose life we may not want to follow in an example. Always when we understand Jesus’ true character, we find that Satan’s true character is the exact opposite of His. Pride is the interest of one’s own selfish needs, desires and not showing interests in everyone else’s needs and desires. The evidence of Satan’s prideful attitude in Paradise Lost is very relevant in Milton’s epic. Satan displayed â€Å"obdurate pride,† translated as stubborn pride, in Paradise Lost. Satan was stubborn in his ways, and would not relent or give in to living the life style of Jesus Christ’s. The antonym for pride is humility. Humility is the actions and thoughts of being humble and modest. Humility was a character trait that Jesus exemplified perfectly. In John 13 we find an example of humility; Jesus knelt down and washed His own disciple’s feet. Jesus did all this with a grateful heart and attitude of humility. Without happiness one cannot experience joy. When Satan was cast to hell he developed a strong hatred towards God. Paradise Lost described Satan’s attitude of â€Å"steadfast hate,† toward God and men. In contrast, Matthew 5:44 states â€Å"†¦love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.† Jesus modeled love daily in His life and also through His dying; He covered all our sins even though we were unworthy of His everlasting love. The final contrasting attitudes are rebellion, and obedience. In Paradise Lost Satan displayed the attitude of rebellion. This was seen when he said, â€Å"better to reign in hell, then serve in Heaven.† He was firmly stating that no matter what the circumstances he would no want to ever serve the Most High in His Kingdom.

Shakespeare for Kids

Shakespeare for Kids Shakespeare for kids should be fun – and the younger you get into it, the better! My Shakespeare for kids activities are sure to spark an early interest in the Bard ... but these ideas are just for starters. If you have your own ideas, please share them on our Readers Respond: Your Shakespeare for Kids Activities page. The key thing is not to get bogged down in the detail and the language - that comes later! For starters, it is about getting your kids excited about Shakespeare and perhaps saying some snippets of text. Here are my top Shakespeare for kids games and activities for some family fun! Top 6 Shakespeare for Kids Activities Build Shakespeare’s Globe: Start by building your own model of Shakespeare’s Globe. There’s a great free resource at Papertoys.com where you can print out, cut out and assemble the Globe. You can download the Globe construction kit here: www.papertoys.com/globe.htm Do a Bit of Acting: Kids hate reading Shakespeare (I certainly did!), so get them on their feet. Extract a short script extract and do some drama. The two best scenes for this are the witches scene from Macbeth and the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. They will probably already know the words to these scene extracts – even if they didn’t realize it was Shakespeare! Stage a (choreographed) fight: Get some sponge swords and choreograph the opening swashbuckling scene from Romeo and Juliet in the back garden. â€Å"Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?† If possible, film it on your home video camera and watch it back the next day. If your kids are up for a bit of direction, see h ow much of the scene you can get through. If they are too young, put them into two teams: Montagues and Capulets. You can them theme any two player/team game into a Romeo and Juliet adventure. Tableau:  Work together to tell the story of a popular Shakespeare play in just ten freeze frames (tableau). Photograph each one on a digital camera and print them out. You can now have fun getting the photos into the right order and sticking speech bubbles to them with selected lines from the play. Draw a Shakespeare Character: For older kids, the best way to do a basic character study is to pick the name of a Shakespeare character out from a hat. Talk about who they might be, what they are like, are they good or evil ... and then let them loose on with the pens, crayons and paints. As they are drawing/painting, keep talking about the character and encourage them to add the details into their picture. Trust me, you will be surprised at how much they will learn. Shakespeare Dress Up: Get the dressing up box out and put in the middle of the floor. Let your kids pick a Shakespeare character and ask them to dress up as the character. You will need to be ready to tell them all about t he character as they are choosing the clothes. When ready, give them a line from the play to practice. This works well if you take a photo and review them with your kids afterwards to reinforce who the character is in their minds.    Please do share your own Shakespeare for kids activities (big or small) with fellow readers on our Readers Respond: Your Shakespeare for Kids Activities page.

Fit and Fitted

Fit and Fitted Fit and Fitted Fit and Fitted By Maeve Maddox A Lenscrafter television advertisement showing a man being fitted for glasses caught my attention with its unidiomatic use of the verb fit. At the beginning of the ad, the man is in a traditional examining room, looking anxiously through multiple lenses. At the end of the ad, he is seated comfortably in front of a device that ascertains his prescription by digital means. A voice-over asks, Why have your glasses fit manually? My internal usage detector immediately corrected the question to Why have your glasses fitted manually? American speakers do sometimes use fit instead of fitted as a past form, as in this example: In his case, the punishment fit the crime. In the context of having glasses made to measure, however, fitted is the preferred past form in standard US English. The following examples from US sources indicate that Lenscrafters use of fit as a past form does not agree with common usage in the context of fitting eyeglasses: Safety glasses which are professionally measured and fitted to the individual are recommended for permanent employees whose job duties require frequent eye protection.- University of North Carolina You can also send us new frames you’ve already bought and had fitted and we will fit new lenses into them.- Texas-based mail-order business. After this testing has been completed, your eye doctor will gather additional information so you can be fitted with contact lenses.- US vision information site. This is why it is important to have your eyeglasses fitted before you bring them home.- New Hampshire optometry office. Fitted is also the preferred form in the context of installing or equipping something: Since I last wrote about this issue in 2002, more rental cars have been fitted with such systems, which can instantly relay information on your cars speed, route and position to the rental company.- LA Times More than 200 paroled burglars in Connecticut will be fitted with global tracking devices as part of the states response to a home invasion in Cheshire last month that claimed the lives of a woman and her two daughters.- NY Times After selecting the plan, Hernandez learned it didnt cover the audiologist who had fitted her daughter, who is partially deaf, with a hearing aid.- Chicago Tribune An artist is planning to release about 2000 pigeons  fitted  with LED  lights  over New Yorks East River.- UPI news site. Finally, here are some examples of things being fitted manually: Most polar exploration aircraft must be  fitted manually  with skis for operating on snow.- Popular Mechanics To change the tower lights’ colors, plastic gels are fitted manually over metal halide lamps or floodlights and fluorescent tubes in various color combinations.- Article about the Empire State Building on a US trivia site The models generated for helix ÃŽ ±A, helix ÃŽ ±B and helix ÃŽ ±C located in TraF/VirB10NT  were fitted manually in one monomer of the difference map. - US government science site. Both forms, fit and fitted, are used as adjectives, but with different meanings. Compare: This dress is fit for a princess. (suitable) He never buys fitted sheets. (designed to fit closely) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Good At, Good In, and Good WithHyper and Hypo7 Proofreading Steps

Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Law - Essay Example However the manner in which such transactions are to be handled often depends on the laws of country A since it was the mother country and the constitution was laid out by both of the two conflicting sides. Controversies will arise and this is why a compromise between the two sides has to be struck in order to settle the dispute amicably. b) Before the war, State A had granted a mining concession to Dee Company for a 50-year period on land that is now within the territory of State B. That concession still has 20 years to run. State B claims that it is no longer valid. The mining concession awarded by state A to Dee Company for a 50-year period on land that is now within the territory of State B is not valid after the secession. Although the concession still has 20 years to run, State B’s claims that it is no longer valid is justified. If Dee Company is interested to continue mining on the territory of state B, then it has to sign a different concession with them. The two state s then have to strike an agreement on how to compensate Dee Company for the remaining part of the concession since by virtue of stopping the mining, they will have violated the terms of the contract. The mining company should also understand that the circumstance under which the contract was violated was beyond anybody’s control and that its renewal is the only way forward. (c) Before the war, State X had concluded a treaty with State A in which State X granted State A â€Å"most favored nation† trade status. State B now claims that it is entitled to the same treatment. State B is not entitled to the â€Å"most favored nation† status awarded by state X to A since it may not be able to fulfill certain conditions of the status. Additionally, it is a new country and should start looking for trade partners and not rely on the contracts made by state A because they are now two different