Asian American and Asian communities in U.S Essay

Asian American and Asian communities in U.S - Essay Example One of the very important reasons is that of something called as â€Å"Asian parents Syndrome† (Online Education Articles, n.p). It has been an observation that Asian parents generally have higher expectations of their children. It is because of these expectations that many college students feel the need to achieve greater success. Asian parents cannot simply compromise that their children are not the best among everyone, and therefore, this drives the children to work harder (Online Education Articles, n.p). Asian culture and its expectations therefore enable the Asian students to work harder. Another factor, which plays a very important role, is that of maternal expectations of children. The study conducted by Stevenson group was based on Japanese and American students and mothers. When children did not perform well in school, almost 42 percent of American mothers were satisfied with their child’s performance. Contrary to that, only five percent of Japanese mothers ra ted the performance to be satisfactory. American mothers were also willing to accept a child’s low performance. Therefore, the study concluded that such American attitudes provided an excuse for the children for not working very hard. Such attitudes continue throughout life, therefore, American students might not perform better in colleges. Asian students are very adaptable to levels of hard work (Wray, pp. 57). Historically, Asian students have been driven to work harder. Educational achievements had become very important, especially in the case of Japanese and Chinese students. A study done by Suzuki in 1977 (Nakanishi & Nishida, pp.140) showed that Asian Americans came to pursue education because they were considered a ‘minority’ group. This led them to strive harder. During the 1940s, Asians were discriminated by the trade unions. They were refused membership. After the Second World War, there was a need for white-collar employees because of technological adv ancements. Thus, education became the prime goal for Asian individuals in order to achieve success. In addition, Connor in 1975 gave the explanation that Asian students had been denied in social and extra curricular activities before the First World War. This had emphasized educational values. Therefore, studies have proved that historically, Asian students have had the motive to pursue education with full zeal (Nakanishi & Nishida, pp.140). A study conducted on Japanese students and teachers showed that teachers expected a greater level from their students. They are taught that education is difficult, not always exciting, and it also requires a great amount of hard work. Responsibility and perseverance is also taught. Hence, Japanese students have been socialized to achieve success through education. Therefore, this attitude remains with them throughout life, and therefore when they go to study in colleges in US, they will tend to perform better. Therefore, values of culture also p lay a significant role (Wray, pp. 54). Generally, Asian immigrants also have spent more amount of time in school. On average, Asian students in their countries spent an average of 240 days in school per year, while the American students spent around 178 days in school every year. Therefore, this increases the performance of the Asian students (Santrock, pp. 626). Some other cultural reasons, which might also form part of religious values, attempt to explain why Asians generally do better in colleges. There are certain cultural values, which are common

Jonathan Franzen - the Discomfort Zone Essay Example for Free

Jonathan Franzen the Discomfort Zone Essay A personal History analysts of one mans identity by V Jonathan Franzens The Discomfort Zone is essentially a collection of Franzens essays published in The New Yorker that deal with problems, life time experiences, both social and emotional aspect of the authors life. This essay will focus mainly on Franzens effectual attempt to create a self portrait and at the same time make it legible and comprehensive in a way that anyone could cope with the problems and experiences he had during his maturation. The book contains six essays : House for Sale, Two Ponies, Then Joy Breaks Through, Centrally Located, The Foreing Language and My Bird Problem which are written in an autobiographical, chronological way that enables the reader to follow his life from childhood, adolescence to his maturation. In the firts section of the book, entitled House for Sale, Jonathan returns to his family home in St. Louis after his mothers death, in attempt to sell the house wher he spent most of his life. Here is where Franzen shows his witty and humorous mind, regardless of how serious and grevious the situtaion is : I went through the house and stripped the family photos out of every room. Id been looking forward to do this almost as much as to my drink. My mother had been too attached to the formality of her living room and dining room to clutter them with snaphots, but elsewhere each wndowsill and each table-top was an eddy in which inexpensively framed photos had accumulated. (4) He compares his mothers house to a novel which she continuously reorganized and rearranged throughout the years. When talking about his mothers lifetime struggle to keep everything inside and outside the house in order, he feels the melancholy nd dissatisfaction with the way things ended. On one hand he wanted the house to be sold and even disliked it , but on the other, as he says : ? Id outgrown the novel Id once been so happy to live in, and how little I even cared about the final sale price. (25) Franzen also managed to fit some of his political an social ideas and opinions in this section. He talks about the social situation in America during his childhood which was shaped by the idea that the middle working class would always feel the debt to its society. He revises both liberal and conservative political concept of the time eing and puts himself in the ?middle: heavy, skinlike, pulp smelling masses that reglued themselves to my fathers work boots, there was nothing but my family and house and church and school and work. (15) In Two Ponies we follow the life of Jonathan as a 10 year old boy and his reflections on both family life and current social situations around him. The opening part of this section actually provides a hint about the relationships inside the Franzen family. He was growing up alongside his two brothers, Tom and Bob, whom he appreciated and respected infinitely. According to Jonathan, Tom is a true representative of the social epidemic of that era, a rebellious adolescent who ran away from home in a search for his own identity: ? Late adolescents in suburbs like ours had suddenly gone berserk, running away to other cities to have sex and not ot go to college, ingesting every substance they could get.. For a while, the parents were so frightened and so ashamed that each family, especilly mine, quarantined itself and suffered by itself Toms bed, neatly made, was the bed of a kid carried off by the epidemic. (32) In spite of being a child, Jonathan is able to provide comfort to his mother in times she felt sadness and shame because of Toms leaving. He is therefore unconciously building up his emotional strength and at the same time bonding with his mother like never before. The insatiable obsession with Charles M. Schulzs ?Peanut Treasury is peculiar at times. As he lives a life of an extremely excellent student, he almost always and at all occasions compares his neighborhood, school, friends, family with the ?Peanuts. In his fantasy and in his dreams he became a part of that comic strip. In The Washington Post review Birds on the Brain A novelist exposes his life as a nerd, Bob Ivry wrote : ?ln that unsettled season, Franzen sought solace in a private, intense relationship with Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. The grownup Franzen can see why his pre-teen mint-me would identify so obsessively, and the reason is no less heartbreaking for its ordinariness: Nobody grows up, or apart, in a comic strip. Charlie Brown represents an on going inspiration for Franzen. The world as he knew it was shaped by the ideas from the very character. Many of his school activities esemble a lot to the stories in ?Peanut Treasury, such as the spelling bee, where he actually found out he was very much competitive and enjoyed exposing his great knowledge and his ?geek spirit to others. Our brains are like cartoonists and cartoons are like our brains, simplifying and exaggerating, subordinating facial detail to abstract comic concepts. (40) Jonathan loves comic books and cartoons just as much as any other child his age, but unlike others, in search of another, better reality, he ?sticks around a lot more than others, weirdly up till end of his adolescent years. It is in this section that Franzen mentiones the ?C omfort Zone , the thermostat mother and him. Then Joy Breaks Through is one of the interesting parts of the book where Jonathan is in his adolescent years and is resisting the common teenage temptations. Jonathan joins a group of young people called ?Fellowship which was sponsored by the First Congregational Church. During a weekend retreat with the ?Fellowship the children are engaged in different activities typicall for such camping trips, but are also allured by various temptations (drugs, alcohol,sex etc) which are obviously forbidden. However, all Jonathan concernes about is how to avoid ?Social Death and not having to face the embarasement in case someone found his mothers letter where she addressed him as ?Dearest Jonathan.

The Equal Rights Amendment Essay -- Women Feminism Equality Essays

The Equal Rights Amendment "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1923, this statement was admitted to Congress under the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The ERA was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution granting equality between men and women under the law. If the Era was passed, it would have made unconstitutional any laws that grant one sex different rights than the other. However, in the 1970s, the Era was not passed, and therefore did not become law.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea for an equal rights amendment first became acknowledged in the early part of the twentieth century. In 1916, Alice Paul founded the National Women's party (NWP), a political party dedicated to establishing equal rights for women. Traditionally, women were viewed as weaker and inferior to men. The purpose of the ERA was to prohibit any person from acting on this belief. Alice Paul viewed that equality under the law was the foundation essential to full equality for women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In November of 1922, the NWP voted to work for a federal amendment that could guarantee women's equal rights regardless of legislatures' indecisions. The NWP had 400 women lobbying for equality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Despite strong opposition by some women and men, the NWP introduced and Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1923. In order to become law, the amendment needed a two-thirds vote in both houses of the congress of the United States, or a supporting petition of two-thirds of the state legislatures. Then the amendment would have required ratification by three-fourths of the states. However, it failed to get the two-thirds majority required to move onto the states for approval. The proposed amendment also failed in following sessions until 1972, when it won a majority vote in Congress. The main objectives of the women's movement included equal pay for equal work, federal support for day-care centers, recognition of lesbian rights, continued legalization of abortion, and the focus of serious attention on the problems of rape, wife and child beating, and discrimination against older and minority women. The ERA would have addressed all of these issues if it were passed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Had it been adopted, the ERA would have resolved the paradox of an oppressed majorit... ...t giving the Supreme Court and federal agencies authority to spell out the meaning of equal rights would be risky. Decisions made on such a level would be too far removed from the ideas and desires of the people. Opponents felt that equal rights should be dealt with on a local or state level where legislators can be voted out of position if the people do not like some of the decisions made.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although the ERA did not pass, all of the actions made by NOW, NWP, and any of the other women's movements, have greatly aided women in their battle against sex discrimination in the work place, in educational institutions, and in their roles as wives and mothers, and finally laid to rest the controversy over protective legislation and equal rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like the Fourteenth Amendment, we are inclined to forget that the ERA was designed not to change values but to modify behavior of mainstream citizens by changing the constitutional status of a particular group. The ERA's purpose was and is to provide equality of opportunity through the Constitution and legal system for those women who want to realize full personal and professional expectations within mainstream America.

European Colonization of Africa Essay

The European colonization of Africa during the 17th through 20th centuries had many positive and negative impacts on world nations and cultures; some lasting to present day. The â€Å"Scramble† or â€Å"Race† for Africa resulted from the process of invasion, occupation, and colonization of the African continent by European countries looking to expand their world influence and increase their fortunes (en.wikipedia.org, 2012). Europe’s exploration and settlement of Africa was originally limited to the coast. The African interior was much harder to access for Europeans because of the rough terrain, hostile natives, and disease risks. As technological advancements improved and industrialism took over, European advancements in transportation, communication, and medicines to treat malaria allowed Europeans access to parts of Africa they hadn’t been able to colonize previously. The first representatives of European countries in Africa were most often missionaries interested in ministering to the pagan tribes. One of their main goals was to stop the slave trade that had done so much damage previously. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish permanent settlements along the coasts of Africa in the 15th century. Portugal competed with Britain and France to control large areas of Africa while Italy and Germany held much smaller parcels. Scholars note that there seemed to be a sense of self-esteem building as countries raced to control territories that were much larger than themselves (en.wikipedia.org, 2012). Otto von Bismark, the German Chancellor, initiated the West African Conference in 1884. Ambassadors from many countries attended and agreed to notify all participating countries of any new African conquests. Europe’s colonizing nations felt drawn to Africa for its natural resources. Europe’s industrialization needed raw materials to continue, and many of its countries were also interested in civilizing and converting Africans to Christianity, and ending the slave trade (Nosotro, 2010). Unfortunately, one major result of the European colonization of Africa was the mistreatment of native Africans by colonizers. The Belgian Congo is one example of the abuses of native Africans by European settlers. Leopold II of Belgium had been charged with getting the Belgian Congo colony up and running. In doing so, Leopold allowed the natives to be treated like animals and slaves. He used the area as his private asset and exploited the lands despite the cost to natives. When rumors reached home that there were problems in the colony, truths began to surface. Although the British and the French were guilty of African native abuse, none were as severe as what happened in the Belgian Congo. The most significant effect of European colonization was the increase in slave trade. Although they eventually worked to end slavery, Europe’s colonies actually increased the trade of slaves in early years. The slave trade numbers increased dramatically as Europeans bought slaves to work on their plantations in North, South, and Middle America. Great Britain eventually outlawed slave trade in Africa in 1807, and then outlawed the act of slavery in 1834. Their ships patrolled the African coast watching for slave ships as the European interest in Africa grew. Another long-term result of European colonization of Africa came from the missionary work completed in the colonies there. Protestant and Catholic missionaries built hospitals and provided medical care, educated native African at mission schools, and translated the bible into African languages in order to allow Africans access to Christianity. European colonization also resulted in an uneven distribution of wealth among African people. Because European colonies were mainly located on the coast, the coastal forest natives gained wealth and power far superior to the people of the inland savanna. Coastal colonies rose up to be most powe rful while the interior colonies’ powers declined (Healy, 1994). One other notable result of European colonization came from the different type of government introduced to African natives. European style government was very different, and sometimes even contrary, to the traditional direct access culture the Africans were accustomed to. An exception to the coastal colony rule happened in Cape Town Colony in South Africa where the Dutch actually made some notable movements toward colonizing Africa’s interior. Settlers here began to move inward cultivating plantations and using Asian slaves for labor. Dutch planters had an advantage in South Africa because the weather there was milder. There were also less risks of disease for European settlers, and the area was less populated by natives. The long term effect of European colonization in the South was significant because it resulted in centuries of white rule and separation of the races. South Africa was the last country i n Africa to throw off white rule (Healy, 1994). We see the effects of European colonization of Africa even today. Scholars feel that Africa has struggled and failed to develop compared to other parts of the world because of the psychological effects of European colonization. Despite efforts locally and internationally, Africa is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. They make a comparison between Africa and Asia which are the two poorest world economies. Both of these areas were colonized but Asia is pulling ahead and developing quickly to compete with developed nations. Africa on the other hand, is still struggling. Economists feel that the way Africa was colonized plays a part in its ability to advance in development. During Asia’s colonization, Asians were more likely to participate in government, their culture was preserved, and their sense of culture was left mostly undisturbed. Africans experienced a very different sort of colonization. In Africa, the native governing systems and sense of culture were destroyed during colonization. To make matters worse, the idea that blacks were inferior to whites was pushed so strongly that blacks began to suffer from an inferiority complex that is evident even today (Abdulai, 2009). On the whole, European colonization of Africa did more damage than good. Europeans left African colonies underdeveloped by exploiting Africa’s natural resources without developing the support system African’s needed to continue development on their own. But, there’s still hope. â€Å"Despite the devastating effects of colonization, Africa as a whole has emerged scarred but not broken. † (Young, 2007) Works Cited Abdulai, J. (2009). Psychological Effects of Colonization Haunt Africa. Retrieved January 19, 2012, from The African Executive: http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=4269 en.wikipedia.org. (2012). Scramble for Africa. Retrieved January 18, 2012, from en.wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa Healy, M. (1994). Sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved January 18, 2012, from harper College Website: http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/ssa/afh/afcol/afcolfr.htm Nosotro, R. (2010). Europe’s Colonization of Africa. Retrieved January 18, 2012, from HyperHistory.net: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw25colonizationafrica.htm Young, B. (2007). Broadview Entertainment Arts University Website. Retrieved January 19, 2012, from The Long Tern Consequences of the Colonization of Africa: http://www.helium.com/items/559879-the-long-term-consequences-of-the-colonization-of-africa

Business And Organization: questions and answers Essay

1. Distinguish between an absolute advantage and a comparative advantage. Cite an example of a country that has an absolute advantage and one with a comparative advantage. Absolute advantage is when a monopoly exists in a country when it is the only source and product of an item. Meanwhile, a comparative advantage is when a country can supply products more efficiently and at a lower cost than it can produce other items. South Africa has an absolute advantage because of its diamonds. The United States has a comparative advantage because of the many products we produce. 3. What effect does devaluation have on a nation’s currency? Can you think of a country that has devaluated or revaluated its currency? What have been the results?Devaluation decreases the value of currency in relation to other currencies. Mexico is a country that has devalued their currency. The result of this is to make things less expensive. 4. How do political issues affect international business?Political issues affect international business by it helps to sell products overseas. 5. What is an import tariff? A quota? Dumping? How might a country use import tariffs and quotas to control its balance of trade and payments? Why can dumping result in the imposition of tariffs and quotas?An import tariff is a tax made by the nation on goods imported into the country. A quota limits the amount of products that can be imported into a country. Dumping is a country selling products at less than what it costs to produce them. A country uses import tariffs to protect domestic products by raising the price of imported ones. A country uses quotas by voluntary agreement or by government decree. Dumping can result in the imposition of tariffs and quotas because it permits quick entry into the market or a firm’s product is too small to have a certain level of production. 6. How do social and cultural differences create barriers to international trade? Can you think of any additional social or cultural barriers (other than those mentioned in this chapter) that might inhibit international  business?Social and cultural differences create barriers to international trade by cultural differences in spoken and written languages are different. A certain phrase in America can be defined as something very different and sometimes inappropriate in another culture. Body languages and personal space are also an affect. These differences can cause misunderstandings or uncomfortable feelings toward a specific business. Another cultural barrier may be a certain religion and something that person believes in. A business may be mocking a religion without knowing anything about it. 8. At what levels might a firm get involved in international business? What level requires the least commitment of resources? What level requires the most?A firm might get involved in international business at many levels, it depends on the commitment and effort a certain company decides to involve itself in international trade. The least commitment of resources is a small company on the level of less than 100 employees. The level which requires the most is a large company with more than 500 employees. 9. Compare and contrast licensing, franchising, contract manufacturing, and outsourcing. Licensing is a trade arrangement in which on company allows another to use its company’s name, products, patents, brands, trademarks, raw materials, and many others in exchange for a fee or royalty. Franchising is a form of licensing in which a company agrees to provide their name, logo, methods of operation, advertising, products, and other elements in return for a financial commitment and the agreement to conduct business in accordance with the original standard of operations. Contract manufacturing is when a company hires a foreign company to produce a specified amount of the firm’s product to specification. Outsourcing is transferring manufacturing or other tasks to companies in countries where labor and supplies are less expensive. All of these ideas are similar in the way it helps businesses expand their work into more areas of their own countries or in foreign countries as well. 10. Compare multinational and global strategies. Which is best? Under what circumstances might each be used?Multinational strategies are plans used by  international companies that involve customizing products, promotion, and distribution according to cultural, technological, regional, and national differences. Global strategies involve standardizing products for the whole world. The best is global strategies because it helps the world recognize different cultures and understand the way one culture believes to another. A global strategy is used by American clothing, movies, music, and cosmetics. A Multinational strategy is used by celebrities being advertised in one country but can’t be advertised in another because of the unfamiliarity. Book: Business Organization and Management