East Asia Essay

China is considered one of the largest countries in term of land area. This fact causes China to be the most populated nation in the world with over 1. 29 billion of people. Chinese is know for its great civilization and in fact had led the world in the development and progress of the society and economy quite a short time. The Chinese people had also experienced afflictions and sufferings from foreign assaults and chaos within China for a century before the People’s Republic was founded. After the chaos, China had started the national reconstruction and made remarkable development in the first twenty years of economical and social reform. For decades, Chinese was dreaming of Modernization and eventually this dream will suddenly be materialized with the help of Deng Xiaoping who serve as the architect of China’s reform. A three-step strategy was established which includes the doubling of GDP of 1980, quadrupling the GDP by the end of 20th century and finally the realization of modernization for another 30 to 50 years. Since the implementation of the strategic plan, China got a rapid progress. From 1978 to 1998, the rate of economic growth of China averaged to 9. 7 %. Gradually, China has gained its power to become the next super power. In fact, during 2000, China’s GDP leveled up by 8 % which is amazingly exceeded $ 1 trillion US and became a record in the history. The first objective in the modernization plan was achieved in 1987. It was three years ahead of time. In 1995, the second objective was reached which is 5 years earlier. China really made a great leap in terms of economic status. The GDP of China in 1998 is 6. 38 times during 1980. China has continuously moving in the top. According to World Bank, China ranked 6 in with respect to economical level and the trend says that it is expected to be in the 4th place before 2006 ends. In addition to this, China’s annual steel output has increased 700 times in the period of 50 years only which places China in the top when it comes to steel production. China also leads the coal, cement, and cotton and television industry. China’s modernization and great leap have a great significance and contribution not only in China but also in the world. China’s progress is a great help in maintaining global stability. Imagine if China is poverty-stricken and disordered then it would likely to be a disaster to the world. A progressive nation just like China provides a largest market in the world. Also, Chinese people love peace and China has proven how they campaign for world peace. As a permanent member of the United Nations, China is always exhibit fairness, stands for rules and laws and strongly against aggression and dominion. If China became Super Power then it will be big help in promoting world peace and stability. China has reached this kind of development through hard works and discipline. Hopefully this must serve as a good example for other nations which are suffering from economic failure and instability. Once a poor country just like China bounces back and suddenly made it great leap in the world. It seemed that those countries in East Asia have become our leaders. Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China all belong to East Asia are very progressive countries. Just like China, they once experienced chaos but eventually recoiled from this fall and stood firmly to prove that they can rule the world. China, although experienced a defeat and failure in the past, did not stop to pursue their dream; to become economically and socially stable and progressive. With the correct attitude and perception in life, China has gradually reaching their goal. Yes, China is now on the road of becoming the Super Power and we all hope that this would bring prosperity to other nations in the world.

Cushing’s Syndrome

Cushing’s Syndrome is a hormone disorder caused by the body tissues being exposed to high levels of the hormone cortisol for a long period of time. The disease is commonly caused by taking corticosteroid medicine in high doses over an extended period of time. The condition can also be caused by the body’s excess production of cortisol due to an overactive adrenal gland. It is a rare disease that mostly affects adults between the ages of 20 to 50. Females are more likely to get the disease than males due to an adrenal or pituitary tumor. Cushing’s Syndrome signs and symptoms include progressive obesity and skin changes. There is rapid gain in the upper body fat deposit along the collar bone and the back of the neck which is often called â€Å"buffalo humps† and a rounded face which is referred to as â€Å"moon face†. The skin stretches causing pink or purple stretch marks along the stomach, thighs, breasts, and arms. A woman with the syndrome could experience excess body hair growth on their face, neck, chest, stomach, and thighs. It could cause their menstrual cycle to become irregular or stop. A man with the syndrome could experience decreased fertility and erectile dysfunction. Other signs and symptoms include excess sweating, fatigue, muscle weakness, headaches, high blood pressure, thinning and fragility of the skin causing it to bruise easily and heal poorly. Other symptoms also include dryness of the skin, acne, weakened bones, cognitive difficulties, and high blood sugar which may lead to diabetes. Cushing’s Syndrome can also cause loss of emotional control which could lead to depression, anxiety, and irritability. The adrenal gland of the endocrine system produces a number of hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol plays a number of roles throughout the body. It helps with regulating the body’s blood pressure, which keeps the cardiovascular system functioning normal. It helps to react to stress by converting proteins, carbohydrates, and fats into usable energy. The condition can be caused by medication such as prednisone that has the same effects as the cortisol that is produced in the body. A doctor may prescribe this type medicine to patients with inflammatory disease such as asthma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or to prevent the body from rejecting a transplanted organ. The treatment of these conditions often requires higher amounts of cortisol than the body normally needs in a day. The condition can be caused by your own body producing excess cortisol. This could occur from the excess production of one or both of the adrenal glands of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) which regulates production of cortisol. A benign tumor of the pituitary gland can cause secretion of an excess amount of ACTH, which will, in return, stimulate the adrenal gland to make more cortisol than the body needs. As mentioned previously, the condition occurs more often in women. Urine and blood lab tests are performed to measure the hormone levels in the urine and blood. These tests will show if the body is producing an excessive amount of cortisol. Saliva tests are also used by analyzing cortisol levels in salvia collected at night. Normally, cortisol levels rise and fall throughout the day, but levels in people without Cushing’s Syndrome will drop considerably in the evening. Imaging tests such as CT or MRI scans can detect abnormalities such as tumors in the pituitary and/or adrenal glands. All of these tests can help a doctor diagnose Cushing’s Syndrome and rule out other medical conditions. The treatment for Cushing’s Syndrome depends on what caused the cortisol to be high in the body. The treatment should be designed to lower the high level of cortisol in the body. If the disease was caused by long term exposure to corticosteroids, then the treatment would be reducing the use of corticosteroid. For patients with asthma, arthritis, or other conditions that require medication to manage their illness, doctors can prescribe noncorticosteroid drugs. Surgery is recommended if the disease is caused by a tumor that is present in the pituitary gland, adrenal glands, lungs, or pancreas. If surgery does not remove the tumor completely, radiation therapy is used in conjunction with the operation. Medications such as Nizoral, Lysodren, and Metopirone are prescribed to control production of cortisol when the surgery or radiation therapy doesn’t work. The length of recovery depends on the severity and cause of the Cushing’s Syndrome. Patients should be advised to increase their daily activities slowly due to weakened muscles. They need to be sure that they are eating sensibly and getting enough calcium and Vitamin D to help strengthen their bones. They need to monitor their mental health because depression can develop due to being overwhelmed or having difficulty coping with recovery. For aches and pains; the patient can take hot baths and do low impact exercises such as water aerobics. For patient recovery from cognitive difficulties, they can do crossword puzzles or math problems to exercise their brain and help to improve their brain function.

Coffee Bean – Malaysia

Our research is conducted with the purpose of investigating and studying the current retail mix. We chose The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf  ® as the retail company which operates in Malaysia. This report is important for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf  ® as it helps them to identify their problems and make further improvements to enable them to compete with their competitors, for example, Starbucks.As we know, The Coffee Bean has a lot of franchises, there were about 750 stores in 22 countries, for example in California, Arizona, Nevada, Singapore, Malaysia, Sabah, Taiwan, UAE, Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, Australia, Shanghai, Israel and Brunei and continues to expand both domestically and internationally. As it is hard for us to conduct a research on this topic in so many countries, therefore we only focus on The Coffee Bean operating in Malaysia. We conducted our research by using searching for detail information through the internet.Besides that, we went to one of the franchises lo cated in Penang to see how the business operates, how the staffs serve their customer and to know more information on the store layout and design. The result of our research shows us that The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf  ® has encountered many problems. As conclusion, we did include several recommendations to The Coffee Bean and to help them to improve in order to earn more profit and their sales can increase. RETAIL ENVIRONMENTRetailing is the final activities and steps needed to place merchandise made elsewhere into the hand of the consumer or to provide services to the consumer. Nowadays, retail sector is increasingly being viewed as an important in the economy and to the society. According to Malaysia Retail Report 2010, it predicts that total retail sales will grow from an estimated US$35bn in 2009 to almost US$58bn by 2014. A low unemployment rate, which rise the disposable incomes and a strong tourism industry are key factors behind the forecast growth. In 2009, Malaysia's n ominal GDP was US$201. 6bn. Over the forecast period through to 2014, it predicted that average annual GDP will growth 4. 3%. With the population expected to increase by 9. 8%, GDP per capita is predicted to rise from US$7,103 in 2009 to US$9,654 in 2014. Furthermore, it also forecast that consumer spending per capita will increase from US$1,961 in 2009 to US$3,197 in 2014. Moreover, Malaysia is classified as an upper-middle income country. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DSM), the average consumer spending was MYR2,285 per month in urban areas and MYR1,301 per month in rural areas.With the urban population predicted to account for almost 76% of the total by 2015, according to UN data, this is likely to have a positive effect on retail sales. Thirteen years ago, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf brought the art of coffee drinking and the world of gourmet grinds to the land of kopitiams and has since successfully integrated it into the fabric of the urban Malaysianâ₠¬â„¢s lifestyle. Thirteen years later, there are over 54 stores in the east and west Malaysia. We can see that between this time period, Coffee Bean had rapidly growth.Besides, Malaysian today is also familiar with Coffee Bean compare to a few years ago. In the future, it is expected that Coffee Bean will continue to growth in Malaysia due to the changing lifestyle of Malaysian and other factors. INTRODUCTION In year 1963, Herbert B. Hyman started The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf  ®. With a dedication to excellence and the quality of coffees and teas in the world, Herbert’s efforts made him the founding father of gourmet coffee in California. Now The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf  ® has grown into one of the largest privately-owned, family-run coffee and tea companies in the world.Besides, the endurance and popularity of The Bean attributed to the high standards that were established from the beginning. The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf  ® has discovered the formula for a succe ssful coffee and tea company, which is start from trend-setting drinks such as the World Famous Ice Blended ®, to the employees who become a part of the communities they work in. Today, they offer over 22 varieties of coffees and 20 kinds of teas. Moreover, Coffee Bean is also a Clicks and Mortar retailer. They sell their product at both online and via physical stores.The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf  ® mission is to create a spirit within the company that inspires their team members to provide their customers with a total quality experience that is: Quality of Product, Service and Environment Furthermore, they also believe in the fundamental truths that guide them through their daily lives at The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf  ®, which is: 1. Friendly with each other and their customers. 2. Respect for each other’s values, opinion and individual diversity. 3. Ownership, it is because they are proudly entrusted with the responsibility. . Teamwork, it is because they achieve success by working together. 5. Honesty, it is because they are truthful to each other and to themselves. In short, they realize that their customers deserve ‘simply the best’. THREATS AND OPPORTUNITITIES Opportunities 1) Changing lifestyle Although there is an economic downturn in year 2009, however, the specialty of coffee industry has grown every year. According to one of the economy observer, when times are good the coffeehouse industry is great, and when times are bad the coffeehouse industry is still great.This means that the coffee industry is strong at all times. What makes the coffee industry become a strong industry at all time? One of the main factors is changing in the Malaysian’s lifestyle. Nowadays, many of them are hard-working, fast-paced Malaysian considers a stop at their local coffeehouse as their necessary part of the day. This is because coffeehouses provide calm, inviting environment for people to socialize, relax or catch up on work. Coffee house for such The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf is one of the places where they can meet with their friends.Besides, with the relaxing atmosphere and environment it makes the coffeehouse become a suitable place for the college student to do their assignment or discussing their homework. During weekend nights, coffeehouse is the place where full with the young customers. Furthermore, instead of going to a bar and paying for an alcoholic drink or a restaurant where a meal usually comes with a hefty price tag, the older adults now choose to spent their time in the coffeehouse. With a cup of coffee and snack, they can meet with their friends and relax. 2) Market potentialAs what we had discussed just now, Malaysian’s lifestyle is changing and therefore, coffee industry for such The Coffee Bean has the potential to growth in Malaysia. According to the research, there are only 54 outlets of The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf in the whole Malaysia included East Malaysia. In the future, it is expected that the number of outlet will continue to increase. In short it means there is a market potential for The Coffee Bean. Threats 1) Competition Global coffee market is one of the very competitive sectors. The main competitor of The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf in Malaysia is Starbuck.This is because both Starbuck and The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf are addressing the same target group. Both The Coffee bean and Starbucks have developed a strong and successful business by adhering to their core values that is to offer customers the best coffees and teas, to hire friendly staff from local community and to provide comfortable places to them to relax. Therefore, The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf has to develop the best strategies to compete with Starbuck. In here, the most important thing to compete with Starbucks is to improve its services.For example, The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf had offering â€Å"Party Pack† which customer can order when throwing a house or office part y. They provide services of giving their customer the possibility to bring The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf lifestyle back to their homes. Moreover, the company also provides online services. They have their home page with virtual stores which is being defined as collection of all pages of information. The customers can buy their product through online and knowing the latest promotion through the homepage.Besides, coffee manufacturer, such as, Nestle USA, Inc, distribute premium coffee products nationally in supermarkets and convenience stores. Most of these products may be substitutes for this company’s coffees and their coffee drinks. Therefore, if the company wants to retain its status as the world’s leading specialty coffee retailer, it must be aware of their competitors. 2) Host country risk management Risk management issues such as government policies, regulation, macroeconomic variations and monetary uncertainties are important to The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf on its international franchising.Therefore, it is a necessary for The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf to understand the host county government policies concerning to the transfer and repatriation of dividends, fees and royalties. However, this company conducts a very little host government policy evaluation due to attributed to a lack of resources and reactive approach to market expansion. 3) Enthusiasm of health consciousness Nowadays, people attitude are changing and they care more to health. More and more people are taking responsibility for their health rather than passively accepting medical decisions.With this, the consumers are cutting down on caffeine. It is because they believe that drinking coffee will harm their health. This is because that they feel that the pros of consuming coffee are less than the cons. As a result, this may decline the demand for coffee from The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf. COMPANY’S RETAIL MIX Retail mix is the combination of merchandise, assortment, price, promotion, customer service and store layout that best serves the segments targeted by the retailer. Price The price is what the customer willing to pay in exchange for the benefits of the product and services.From the research that we had conducted on several Coffee Bean franchises, it is clearly shown that the price of most of the products offered is around RM10 and above. For example, an egg club sandwich and a plate of Chinese chicken salad cost Rm15. 50 each. It may be expensive for certain group of people such as the youths who are the zero income earners. With this we can see that the price charged by The Coffee Bean is slightly higher than those coffee shops such as Old Town Coffee but if we use Coffee Bean pricing and compare it to their biggest competitor in the coffee industry, for such, Starbuck.Starbucks will have a little advantage on the pricing as with high price, they will earn higher profits in just a short period. Based on the research, we can see that Cof fee Bean focused on non price decisions, but on other factors such as qualities and facilities. Thus in here it is clear that Coffee Bean is using the above – market pricing policy as they do provide the wifi facilities and also the good environment for people to do their business or assignments. It also had show that they target the market most on the youths. The muffins and cookies which cost only less than Rm5 are affordable for the youths but the cakes nd also the pasta set are not affordable for them as they are not working and thus no income for them. They only depend on the pocket money given by their parents. Thus The Coffee Bean should offer their products with lower prices so that it is affordable for the youths to purchase it. Coffee Bean can earn back their profits in the long term. The adults with middle and high income can afford to spend on the products offer by Coffee Bean. For example, although the price for those cups and gifts available in The Coffee Bean a re quite expensive, but there were actually people who purchase them especially those with high income.Merchandise Merchandise is being defined as goods, ware, stocks, articles or item to be sold. In another way of defining merchandise is the availability of assortment of products available in the retail shop. For The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf or also known as The Coffee Bean in short, offer many types of products such as coffees, teas, cakes, party-packs, pies, cookies, muffins, sandwiches, salads and even hot pasta. They even offer different types of drink menus for their customers. The Coffee Bean does customise to meet the wants and demands of their customers.This is because different consumers have different types of preferences. It can be shown clearly when The Coffee Bean customises their coffees into light and subtle, rich and smooth, dark and distinctive and flavoured. For example the light and subtle coffee is especially for the customers who prefer mild and delicate flav our. Whereas for teas, it is being categorise into black and oolong tea, green tea and flavoured green and herbal and fruit infusion. For such, green, black and oolong teas all have their own signature flavours and aromas, and each will have its own unique set of blends that complements and expands their essence.A mellow Ceylon tea, for example, blended with a delicate peach flavour works the magic sparks of fruitiness with a light floral finish. And to those who dream of having spectrum of aromas and flavours, a cup of oolong tea will be their choice. Furthermore, the cakes being offered can be customised into cheesecake special, signature classic, for kids and special occasions. They also offer the drink menus to suit the taste and preferences of their valuable customers. For such, they offer coffee, espresso, brewed tea, tea latte, non-coffee, coffee ice blended drinks, coffee-free ice blended drinks and many more.Thus with the way of customising their products to suit the tastes and preferences of different customers, it will then help to attract more customers to The Coffee Bean and with customers, retail trade can be done. They also do provide merchandise line depth whereby they allow their customers to choose the size for their drinks whether they want small, regular or large size. In conclusion, customer satisfaction can be met when the retail organisation, The Coffee Bean is being influenced by the customers’ needs and wants.Besides from all these, The Coffee Bean also do offer some gift packs, for example The Holiday Tea Trio which includes three mini square tins each containing five tea bags of whole leaf teas. They are nicely wrapped with ribbon on top of it which makes it attractive for people to purchase them. Although Coffee Bean offer a variety of products for their customer but it may bring some disadvantage such as the taste and aroma of coffees and teas may not be that fragrant anymore as they do not focus on only a particular type of coffee and tea.This may make the good quality of the products offer by them to be turned into bad quality. Therefore, to prevent this from happening, Coffee Bean should only picked up some of their famous products to specialise in and to continually improve on it. Advertising and promotions The Coffee Bean become famous and as a media darling, their brand have been place and promote in hits shows like Entourage and The Hills, to coverage leading publications like Forbes Magazine and the Times. Coffee Bean had advertised its brand not only through the media or magazine but some other ways such as donations, promotions and others.The Coffee Bean have come out with a numbers of examples they been using to reflect the concept of social responsibility and also to promote their brand through donations. It can be shown by the following example; The Coffee Bean made a donation, 50% from their sales item to be donated to serves children with autism, learning disabilities, hyperactivity or a ttention deficit disorder, mental retardation, and emotional challenges. Through an ongoing commitment, The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf ® holds The Help Group's annual Deck the Walls holiday fundraising program and proudly features the children's artwork.Their most recent activity is the project of Caring Cup initiatives which planted and nurtured domestically in communities served by the company, as well as internationally in communities which the product originate. The framework of caring cup initiatives is rooted in need; where need from preventing the environment to improving education. Through these, The Coffee Bean will definitely well known in public and as we can see nowadays more and more people will come to purchase from the shops whereby there do a lot of charity work and these charity programs will be part of The Coffee Bean social responsibilities.Beside donation there are a few promotions being used to promote their brand. At times, The Coffee Bean ;amp; Teas also giv e free drinks today to celebrate the launch of the cafe’s holiday drink line. For example, from 4p. m. to 8 p. m. (11/12) customers can get a free 12 oz holiday drink. Choices include: Peppermint Latte or Ice Blended drink; Pumpkin latte or Ice Blended drink. Besides that, they also promote their famous drinks by posting pictures on the wall and putting up banners outside of their franchises.People who own The Coffee Bean Card may have some benefits too and it acts as a way of promoting and thus can attract their customers to purchase more. By having the card the consumers may enjoy the convenience of debit purchase, the more the people top up the card the more benefit they will get, such as 10% more value and redeemable of other item by having at least 5 point. They do have the holiday promotion. When it is near by the holiday season, they had been preparing some merchandise to go, such holiday cocoas gift set and others.This had helping in promote the brand by his consumer to others. They also have their online advertisement. They are not only having their own web site but they already create their pages in Facebook, Twitter and also Youtube which are the famous connection web on current time. They also post some short video on the web to promote and attract to the customer. With all the relevant aspect, connection and advertisement use by the company, Coffee Bean has successfully passed their information to their customer.Through the promotions of the products by hanging up banners and pictures on the wall sometimes may not contain full information such as the pricing and the nutrition of the particular product. They may only contain attractive pictures on it. In order to solve it, the management of Coffee Bean should publish their nutrition label and the pricing on the banners. With these, customers can get the information of the products they choose and can decide whether to purchase it or not. Besides that, we also noticed that Coffee Bean do not give out brochures as a mean of promotion. This may be a disadvantage for them.If brochures are provided to the passer-by, they may tend to go in to the Coffee Bean to enjoy the products offered by them. As a conclusion, the Coffee Bean should also provides brochures and distribute it to the people so that they can have more information on the offers and promotions offered. Customer service and Selling Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. For The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, they provide a series of customer service to their customers. Such as, their entire customer can apply for a member card or so called The Coffee Bean Card.Basically, The Coffee Bean Card is a loyalty card introduced to reward regular customers with loyalty points called â€Å"BEANS† which can be subsequently redeemed against purchases at The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf outlets (CBTL). With perception, Coffee Bean is a big believer in teamwork (just lik e Starbucks) as they feel that success is achieved by working together. After our research on several franchises of The Coffee Bean, we noticed that their staffs are efficient, friendly and helpful enough. They maintain amicable relationships between customers and each other.This can be shown when customers ordered their drinks and food at the counter, they served their customers with smiles and when we asked them certain questions for our assignment purpose, they will try their best to answer us. The employees have respect for each other's values, opinions and individual personalities and are honest and truthful to themselves and each other. Due to this strategy, they can serve their customers in a better way. In addition, Coffee Bean also provided online service which customer can view their website that having the latest news and more information towards their company.In order to let their customer to contact them or get more information towards them, Coffee Bean also provide the ir headquarter address, email, telephone and even fax number on their website. They even have their website for their customers to comment on their services and products provided. Selling is being defined as trying to make sales by persuading someone to buy one's product or service. Coffee Bean also did selling. They try to sell out their product as much as their competitors do. Therefore, promotion will exist. Besides that, Coffee Bean tends to sell their product through their good and friendly customer service.Due to the customer service provided by them are good, customers tend to come back to them when they think of having a cup of coffee and enjoying the peaceful environment there. Although most of the Coffee Bean franchises are well organised with their efficient workers, there is a possibility that they do made mistakes to especially in delivering the drinks to the customers or when they prepare the drinks. This can be shown when our group when to one of The Coffee Bean to do our research while having our drinks there; we noticed that they made the drinks for us not according to the size we ordered.For such, we ordered a regular size black forest ice blended and a large size of the caramel ice blended, but during the preparations of the drinks, the staffs made mistakes, everything goes the other way round. These mistakes can be avoided by sending those staffs to more training programs so that they can improve and be more efficient and the operations in The Coffee Bean will be more effective and productive. Location Location is an area that retailing may undergo significant changes in the decade to come.Besides that, retailers have been classified according to their location within a metropolitan area, be it the central business district, a regional shopping centre or neighbourhood shopping centre, or freestanding unit. In order to have the businesses caring out well or to improve the businesses, location and target market can be considered as important factors. For example, if the location that retailers choose is too far away from the town or is it hardly or impossible to find a parking lot to park their vehicles, most of the consumers will choose not to go there.Locations that retailers mostly choose to run their businesses and to earn a profit from there are such as metropolitan area (e. g. : town area), central business district (e. g. : heart of the state) and so on. In Malaysia, most of the retailers would like to operate their businesses at metropolitan and central business district. The reason they choose these places is because the locations tend to attract more consumers to their shops as there were also many hypermarkets and supercenters around.As for this assignment, we carried out a research on The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf, The locations that Coffee Bean may choose to run their franchise businesses are basically the two popular locations. Besides that, The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf currently has over 750 stores in 22 countries. In addition, in Malaysia currently have over 54 stores. 31 franchises in Klang Valley, 6 in Penang, 1 at Ipoh, 2 in Pahang, 3 in Johor Bharu, 2 in Malacca, 6 in Sabah and 3 in Sarawak. Every Coffee Bean in Malaysia tends to gives people a relaxing and enjoyable environment.The location that Coffee Bean’s retailer pick mostly at those places which can attract more people. The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf tends to attract those tourists and people who used to hang out with friends or to those who were carrying out their direct selling with others. For such, after a tired shopping day, most of those shoppers will tend to find a relaxing place for a rest. They can enjoy the coffee and the sweet aroma of teas that are provided by the Coffee Bean. Next is the customers may also enjoy the beautiful scenery around these franchises, for such the beaches.Through these, more of the tourists will pay a visit and spend their time there. Besides that, location such as shopping complexes is also a hot spot for shoppers and tourists to spend their time there either the day or night. Customers can sit and relax themselves; they can also view the shoppers shopping around and can feel the friendliness of the people. Locations that Coffee Bean chooses are also convenient to the entire consumer. Most of the franchises operate at the shopping complex; this is because there are a lot parking places provided for their customers.This will let those consumers to pay more visits to their shops which can provide them with the drinks provided and the good customer service provided. Target Market is the specific group of customers that a company aims to capture. They have been identified as people with needs or wants that can be met with the products or services from the company. The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf is targeting the youth, who are teens and working adults in their twenties. This has become a weakness for the firm. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf aligns itself wit h other major brands targeting the youth market.This may lead it to lose some potential market. For example, DOME’s positioning is â€Å"expensive and exclusive† as its target market is basically the professionals, managers, executives and businessmen. But The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf’s target market is the youth and who didn’t have strong consumption power. The target market for The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf is sensitive to the price issue. The Coffee Bean positioned them well in the target market by a competitive pricing strategy. This pricing strategy likes a threat for The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf.Thus the market share and profit for The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf are limited. They also target the adults with stable income. The problem on the location is that there were only 54 outlets in Malaysia. For example, Pahang there is only 1 branch but we found out that it may not be enough for the Pahang residents. The people who want to go to The Coffe e Bean may need to travel a long distance to reach Coffee Bean. As a recommendation, we recommend that the management of The Coffee Bean should increase the number of outlet in Pahang.Next we also found out that The Coffee Bean target the youth as their main target. Our group feel that the youths who are the zero income earners might not have enough income to spend on the products offer which will be slightly expensive for them. Thus Coffee Bean has made a mistake, they should target adults with medium and high incomes as their main target group as they can purchase the products without worrying that they would not have enough cash to pay. Store layout and design Layout and design is defined as an arrangement, plan, design of a building, book, picture and etc.As we know, Coffee Bean is one of the franchise companies. Most of their layouts and designs are almost the same in every outlet. For example, the theme colour of the outlet. You can see that their outlet mostly is painted in b rown colour. Brown colour is a natural, down-to earth neutral colour. It represents warmth, wholesomeness, friendliness and simplicity. With this, it gave their customers a warmth feeling when they are inside their outlet. As the customers enter into the Coffee Bean, they can also notice the pictures of the famous drinks at Coffee Bean are being hang up on the wall.Besides that, the playing of the sentimental music makes the environment calm and relaxing. This makes their customers willing to pay for a higher price for a cup of coffee and enjoy it in such calm and relaxing atmosphere. Furthermore, there are also a counter is used to display their products such as packets of teas and coffees, cakes, cookies, muffins and etc in every outlet. It is well organised, people can easily find the products they want as the products are being arranged in order. Each of the products display is being priced.Customers can choose whatever products they want from there and they can see the price fo r it. Moreover, in every outlet, there is a menu board at the counter. It shows the menu of coffee drinks and beverages that sell and their price. Customers can refer to the board and make their orders. There is also a small blackboard hanging on the wall which states that what the special offer is for the day. The outlets for most of the Coffee Bean franchises were big enough, there were spacious space for the customers to walk around without asking the others to shift their chairs to allow them to walk pass.The management of The Coffee Bean also placed some plants in their outlets as part of the decorations on the franchise. They do provide magazines for their customers to read. Next is the lighting system in The Coffee Bean franchises. They usually will use the bulbs with orange colour to give people the romantic and warmth feeling. The lights being used by them are those with nice designs on it and are in various shapes. There is also wifi provided for their customers who wants to serve on the internet for the assignments and business purposes.After stating the store layout and design of The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf, our group also do noticed some problem on it. For such, the writings on the small blackboard which is used to write what the special offer of the day are too colourful and it is too small as it can make the customers difficulty in reading it. Thus to improve it, they should provide each Coffee Bean franchises with a bigger blackboard and the writings should be change to a bigger size and the fonts which can be easily readable by the customers. CONCLUSIONFrom the report above, we can see that The Coffee Bean ;amp; Tea Leaf has been growing from time to time, but on the way of growing there are several issues that need retailer’s attention and take certain actions to correct and to improve it.. From the research, we found out that most of their customers are youngster and are of the middle income earner, but the price of most of the pro ducts offered is around RM10 and above, with this, it may not be affordable for the zero income earners in here the youngsters. As from these, Coffee Bean may need to lower the price of their products.As for the location and the number of outlets of the Coffee Bean, it is shown that there are only 54 outlets of Coffee Bean which operate in Malaysia, 31 franchises in Klang Valley, 6 in Penang, 1 at Ipoh, 2 in Pahang, 3 in Johor Bharu, 2 in Malacca, 6 in Sabah and 3 in Sarawak. As we can see there are unequal balances of outlets located, with this they may need to add more branches on those states which are under stored. Beside this, The Coffee Bean also conducts a small part of host government policy evaluation due to attributed to a lack of resources and reactive approach to market expansion.With this take should pay more attention on it. As on the side of health, a medical report had state on caffeine which conduct in the coffee may cause harm on our health; this had cause the cons umers to cut down on the consumption of coffee which contains caffeine. With this, The Coffee Bean may concentrate on tea left beside the coffee. Next, they offer a variety of products and thus they need to choose certain products which are popular among the tastes and preferences of the consumers.For their advertisement and promotions, they should provide more information on it, such as nutrition labels and the pricing on the banners, this not only can attract the customer, and it may also help those consumer make decision on their choice. Although The Coffee Bean franchises are well organized with their efficient workers, but there still have some problems occur, such as mistake in making order, to avoid this problem occur again, they should provide more training to their worker to improve their service system.

What is social Justice How is social justice related to language Assignment

What is social Justice How is social justice related to language rights What do you think about language rights and deaf students - Assignment Example A just and equal world order is perhaps best seen as consisting of people with proper political regimes who fully respect basic human rights. Human rights are expansive, and language rights are part of them. Social justice is all about fairness and equality; language rights protect individuals to choose their preferred language in communication in the public and private spheres. For marginal groups, the opportunity to use ones language is of crucial importance because it protects their collective identity and participation in public life (Tyler, Boeckmann, Smith & Huo, 1997, P.11). Laws may restrict people who do not speak the national language from running for office – political posts, hence challenging international obligations that require free elections. During state discussions, the minority groups may suffer if the government insists discussions be carried out in the national language. Foreign language is what is often used to teach the children of the minority. Consequently, the children grow to forget their language and their culture in addition. Higher rates of school drop-outs and unemployment rates also follow the children. In the colonial days, the white people wanted to teach the black people children their language but the chiefs realized that it was only robbing their children of their language and culture (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2008, P.3). Deaf students are a minority group in our societies, and they have linguistic rights. They have a special form of communication in the form of sign language and the laws in place must cater for them. Deaf children attend special schools and are taught various skills during the period. In the event of completion, they should be seamlessly assimilated in the society (Muhlke, 2000, P.23). They have the right to speech, freedom of opinion and expression, right to vote and run for an office, and the protection against

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Research - Essay Example In case of not completing specific developmental tasks, there are negative consequences for people. The lifespan can be divided into ‘infancy’, ‘early childhood’, ‘school age’, ‘adolescence’, ‘early adulthood’, ‘young adulthood’, ‘mid life’, ‘later maturity’, and ‘old age’. From prenatal age, human beings start undergoing stressful situations due to which, their cortisol levels get elevated resulting in death of certain brain cells. This death of cells brings disadvantageous results for the individual as he develops certain cognitive and mental disabilities. Later on, children start being defensive against stress by learning to cope up with stressful situations (Chen & Kottler, 2012). Different stages of lifespan offer different kinds of stressors for people with whom they fight in order to make themselves safe. In coping up with different kinds of stress during the li fetime, children gaining maturity by entering adolescence try to cope up with stress through the usage of drugs and alcoholism that is again damaging for their health. It is impossible for a human being to get never stressed or face different stressors. We have to undergo stressing situations on daily basis even before our birth. Some amount of stress is essential for our life continuity as it enables children to develop the capabilities to accept new and possible risky situations and to cope up with them throughout their lives. Children require assistance of parents and elders in order to handle stress physically as well as emotionally (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008). However, when stress becomes severe or insidious, the advantageousness of acceptable amount of stress gets lost. Prolonged and chronic stress has short term as well as long term health hazards. The growth of brain, nervous system and the immunity system, all get dysfunctional because stress throughout the lifespan. The stress that

Geography of Desire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Geography of Desire - Essay Example In addition, people tend to possess a certain kind of attitude and cliche in the way that they lead their lives. This can be explained by the fact the urban environment in the area has certain emotional and psychological effects on the people. Hollywood environment brings out a certain glitz and glamour of the lifestyles led by the people. This starts from the beautiful scenery surrounding the district. To the north, the district is bordered by the Hollywood hills that bring out a certain natural sense of its environment. Therefore, nature has been well preserved in the district to keep the environment well grown and furnished. This is a way of upholding the beauty of the place. In addition, Hollywood is also known for its clean and well developed streets that bring out the whole picture of the major industry of the district, which is the acting industry (Wilson, 10). For instance, Hollywood Boulevard is a street that is rarely jammed up with vehicles due to its spacious definition. The economy of the district has grown significantly due to the income generated from the film industry. A congressional research analysis carried out in the city showed that the city’s economy has thrived greatly since, the motion picture and sound recording industries contribute close to 5% of the overall GDP of the area (Masnick, 1). In addition, news also showed that the film and recording industry was not seriously affected by the great depression as compared to other industries, which were almost closing down. Hollywood is a city that is slightly densely populated and thus, the labor supply is high. However, due to the many production industries, the demand for labor is also high thus, keeping the level of unemployment very low. This is especially supported by the fact that most of the people in the district are mainly involved in the film production industry. The transport systems are also well developed since the culture of area mainly involves use of private cars as o pposed to public means of transport (Masnick, 1). This can be explained by the fact that, Hollywood people have embraced driving themselves. Social aspects of Hollywood can be judged as being carefree and happy-go-lucky. The filming industry has grown to extremes that tend to create a certain image in people’s minds. People in the city tend to ape the ways of the films that they watch (Medved, 15). Therefore, the morality of Hollywood has always been in doubt. Recent news given by the New York Times newspaper showed that; unlike the older films, the current films produced in Hollywood were full of excessive and lustful kissing scenes, nudity, profanity and scenes full of passion (Sarfati, 1). Such films changed the culture of Hollywood into a different era that encouraged adultery and crime. Therefore, the culture of the city has changed into that of a city with a very low level of morality. However, Hollywood is also a place that is filled with creativity and invention. Each day different ways of doing things is invented in the city. Partying and clubbing are also a common culture in Hollywood. Families also tend to hold tea parties, get-togethers and family reunions that bring people together (Wilson, 18). The political environment in Hollywood does not play a major role in shaping the culture of the city since; being a district within Los Angeles, Hollywood does not hold its own municipal government. However, the city used to have a mayor by the name Johnny Grant who directed the city’

Organizations Going Through Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organizations Going Through Change - Essay Example After forming the new organization comprising of 70 people, the next step was to develop links with communities, they include in-house community, technical community, platform community, and portal community (Kodama, 2003). The company employed three strategies simultaneously to deal with other communities. Adding to these three strategies the company used time pacing strategy that involved developing public relations, and advertising its services. Another aspect of the company’s new organization was Entrepreneurial strategy that offered a motivation for the employees to put in their maximum and take the company’s new venture to next level. GBD was formed by Mr. Oboshi for handling i-mode or mobile internet, this individual organization was very small in size compared to the traditional organization that comprised of over 10,000 employees. GBD relied heavily on the traditional organization for investment and support. However, GBD’s strategy was entirely different from its parent company’s strategy. GBD relied on time-pacing, which meant continuous change and less time for adaptation. GBD could have used event based pacing like its parent company. Further time-pacing strategy also creates intra-organization pressure within the team members, and adds stress which can spoil the organizational harmony, and create hindrances for

A critique of movie Waiting for Superman Review

A critique of Waiting for Superman - Movie Review Example The film focuses on five children and their families (Dutro 1). These are suggested to represent the burgeoning number of children that want to be saved from the devastating public school system. The families of the children are depicted as struggling in an effort to have their children attain college education as well as accomplishing the American dream (Dutro 1). As a result, the family members engage in the lottery process. The film employs first hand interview with the children and families (Guggenheim). There is also reliance on statistics, interviews with expert, animations, and clips from the media. A critique of the movie waiting for the super man helps in understanding various issues being addressed concerning education. The film has achieved one of the vital components that are expected of the author. This has been author good credibility. This is an essential component in any film for its success and accreditation. The credibility of the author Davis Guggenheim is the reason why the film has attracted attention as compared to other films discussing the same issue (Ravitch 1). The other films taking on education such as ‘The Lottery’ and ‘The Cartel’ have received little attention so far (Ravitch 1). The reputation of the author is seen as being the holder of an Academy Award. The author won the ward due to his film about global warming ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (Ravitch 1). His credibility is also seen as the film is discussed in popular media such as Time and New York. The film has also featured in popular shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show (Ravitch 1). This is a clear indication that the author is credible and hence has excellent credentials. The author of the film relies significantly on various support to support the ideas of poor education system. This has been evident through interviews, images, cartoons, clips from popular media and speech by key figures in the

Journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 15

Journal - Assignment Example In the same article, the Los Angeles Times describes the action as seemingly a part of a series of disturbing behavior from the military stationed at Afghanistan, continuing to enumerate alarming acts of violence committed by military personnel against people in the middle-eastern country. Before he became US president in 2009, one of the promises Obama made was to pull out the troops in Afghanistan. I strongly believe this promise was one of the reasons Americans voted for him. America had already lost so many men and women to the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq before Obama entered the presidential race. The people wanted their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons and daughters safe back home. It was therefore disappointing that after 3 years, that particular promise has yet to be fulfilled. There is no excuse for the misbehavior American troops are showing in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, for someone who is in a situation where getting to wake up each day is a gift, it is only a matter of time before the stress gets the best of an individual. If President Obama does not want a repeat or similar incidents like these to happen, he should start making good on his promise to bring the troops in Afghanistan back

Trait Theory Essay Example for Free

Trait Theory Essay As I began the process of preparing for this week’s assignments and I noticed that a great deal of emphasis was being put on personality trait testing, I have to say I was a little bit nervous as I have never really put much stock into those particular types of tests being very accurate. But after reading chapters 7 and 8 in our text Personality: Theory and Research, the article on Gordon Allport, and most specifically taking the self monitoring test myself and comparing the results given to what I already believed to be true about myself, I now have a better understanding about how these tests, along with an ability to gauge and monitor consistent patterns of behavior, feelings and thought (Cervone Pervin, 2013, p. 232) can be a valuable tool in not only a scientific setting but in gaining self awareness. I am writing this paper as a means of sharing my insights about personality trait theories as well as how these theories might help an individual gain insight into their relationships with themselves and others. I will also discuss the relationship between personality trait theories, psychoanalytic and humanistic theories and which of these are more effective in explaining human behavior. One of the largest insights I have gained through my research this week is the knowledge of the beliefs of Gordon Allport. His suggestion that the individual self is composed of the aspects that humans feel are the most essential interests me (Boeree, 2006). By breaking down those aspects into seven separate functions, which include, sense of body, self-identity, self-esteem, self-extension, self-image, rational coping, and propriate striving (Boeree, 2006), Allport developed a means to better explain where human motives derive from. As we attempt to gain a firmer grasp on our ability to improve our relationships with friends, family and the people we interact with on a daily basis, as well as a better understanding of our own personality strengths and weaknesses, we gain needed insight by studying personality trait theories. This gives us a better understanding of important areas that are key to healthy relationships. Two of those areas are communications and expectations. What we expect to receive from our relationships with others and how we communicate those expectations are vital in determining whether those relationships flourish or not. Our personality type has a great impact on both of those areas so it is important to be aware of our traits, what to build on, and what to work on letting go of. One of the main differences between the personality trait theories and the other theories we have studied thus far, such as psychoanalytic and humanistic theories, is that the personality trait theory approach individual’s differences. Trait theory seems to be more focused on measuring an individual’s personality characteristics and less focused on generalized behavior on average. I believe that the trait theory falls short of the humanistic theory in many ways, but in particular, it doesn’t seem to give as good a glimpse into how we develop the most basic of our personality traits. It also lacks in its ability to be as accurate a predictor of future behavior. In my opinion, trait theory seems to be more of a tool to put a name on certain aspects of our personality, while the humanistic theory gives us a better understanding of our personality. In conclusion, I hope that I have included in this paper a thorough description of the information I have gained through my excursion through this week’s learning resources. My goal was to give you my opinion on the differences between trait theory and the other personality theories we have studied and how important it is to be able to not only learn as much as we can about why we act the way we do, but to learn how to react differently in the future. I now believe that, through better understanding of the many different theories discussed in this course and not developing and one tracked mind, this can be accomplished. References: Cervone, D., Pervin, L.A. (2013). Personality: Theory and research (12th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ. John Wiley Sons, Inc. Boeree, C.G. (2013). Personality theories: Gordon Allport. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/allport.html

English and Vietnamese Language Comparison

English and Vietnamese Language Comparison Name: NGUY N HOÀI NHI A Contrastive Analysis of Metaphors Relating to Some Upper Parts of Human Body between English and Vietnamese Abstract This paper presents the results of a study on metaphors relating to some upper parts of human body between English and Vietnamese. There are four upper parts of human body consists of eye, nose, ear and mouth are chosen for data analysis. Nguyen Hoa (2004) classification of metaphors are based on their degree of unexpectedness. The results show that living metaphors, faded metaphors and dead metaphors are three main types of metaphors. Also, metaphors are varied from one language to another due to peoples life experience, world views or peoples cognition of the outside world and the language users culture. Introduction One of the most vital functions of language is to name the world or express human thoughts through a system of concepts. In any case, the concepts expressed through language do not exist in seclusion from each other. Or maybe, they exist cooperatively in the language and make up a giant network with numerous interconnections and relationship among the different subparts. A good example of these interconnections includes metaphor, the comprehension of one concept regarding another. Metaphor is not only used in literary or poetic language but also utilized in everyday conversational language. It can be seen that metaphor is used to express ideas sensibly and vividly as it has great expressive power. Furthermore, it also convey more of the human feeling, emotion and attitude towards what is said rather than the non-metaphorical. One interesting idea in the language is that people got to know their own body and gave names to its parts. And then the human beings began comparing the surrounding things with their own body and finding common features in the process of cognition of the world. So the names of some upper parts of human body are transferred to refer many other things in the real world. They are personified to possess the same names with the some upper parts of human body. For instance, in English the word foot denotes to the lowest part of the human and then on it is metaphorically used to denote to the lowest part of many things, for example, the foot of the hill. Not only in English but also in Vietnamese also use of metaphors, in such a way, many words referring parts of human body are also used metaphorically. For instance, the word chà ¢n in Vietnamese equivalent to the word foot in English is used as a metaphor to denote to the lowest part of the hill: Chà ¢n Ä‘Ã ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬Å"i. The way individual words, however, are used is not always the same in both languages. For instance, the word eye in English is metaphorically used to denote to the hole of the needle, while the word mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t in Vietnamese is not used in such a way. It is metaphorically, however, used to denote to holes of a woven basket in another case. E.g. Eye of the needle vs Mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t rà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¢. It can be inferred that the words denoting some upper parts of human body are used metaphorically in English and Vietnamese and the way each word is used is varied in both languages. The way metaphors are used is because of peoples life experience, world views and the language users culture. So metaphors are varied from one language to another. There are some questions arise: How are the words denoting upper parts of human body used metaphorically in both English and Vietnamese?, How much are they similar? and How much do they differ from each other?. For this reasons, the study titled A contrastive analysis of metaphors relating to some upper parts of human body between English and Vietnamese will be answer the questions mentioned. Literature review 2.1. What is metaphor? Metaphor that comes from the Greek for transference. According to Vo Dai Quang (2003, p.33), metaphor is word meaning transference based on similarity between two things as regards function, character, size, shape, age, colour, etc. As the following example: E.g. She is a snake. That is, the word snake has negative connotation because it is thought to be very dangerous and poisonous to people. Basing on this meaning, it is transferred to mention to the character of a person to imply that she is a dangerous person. The similarity in this situation between an animal and a person is about the character. Hence, this definition is clear and parabolic. However, there is a question to be posed why do people have to use such an implicit way to convey the idea?. According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (1995, p.734), metaphor is defined as the imaginative use of a word or a phrase to describe somebody/something as another object in order to show that they have the same qualities and as to make the description more forceful. This definition is not as cleared as the above -mentioned definition about the association of similarity, however, it takes the use and the effect of metaphor into consideration. If we say She is a dangerous person, it is not as forceful to the hearer as we say She is a snake. Likewise, metaphor can convey the imagination of the language users so it is clearly more powerful and effective in communication. Metaphor also be defined as follows an extension in the use of the word beyond its primary meaning to describe referents that bear similarities to the words primary referent(Language-its structure and use,1994). The term extension mentions to the meaning of the word that can be extended beyond its literal meaning. So metaphor here is dealt with as a means of creating and expanding meaning to depict other referents which are similar to the words primary referent. Look at the above once more. The primary referent of the word snake is one type of animal and in this metaphor, it mentions to another referent that is a risky person. This should be possible on the basis of the resemblance between the two referents. The definition given by Barcelone (2000, p.3) in which metaphor is defined as Metaphor is the cognitive mechanism whereby one experiential domain is partially mapped or projected onto a different experiential domain so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one. In this definition, metaphor is understood as a conceptual projection whereby one experiential domain is understood regarding another. The character of a person, in the above example, is understood regarding a character of a snake. Generally, metaphor mentioned above is viewed from different angles. Basically, it is the way we call one object by the name of another because we compare these objects and pick up some common features between them. It is necessary to distinguish metaphor, simile and metonymy because they are closely related. To begin with, metaphor and simile are forms of comparison. We compare two unlike things together in two ways. Metaphor, however, is hidden comparison and simile is the open comparison. Take the following examples: E.g. Tom is the head of the department. Tom is like the head of the department. The word head implies one part of human body that comprise the brain and can control the activity of the rest of the body. In this above example, the word head means to the people taking the controlling function as the leader in the department. It can be understood implicitly in the first example and in the second one, it can be understood explicitly. Putting it on the scale, metaphor is an equation and simile is an approximation. Obviously, they take different values and effects to the hearer. Metaphor and metonymy are two types of transference of meaning. One object is named and understood regarding another. Metaphor, however, is based on the association of similarity while metonymy is based on the association of contiguity. Look at the two following examples: E.g. She is the head of the department Two heads are better than one In the first example, the word head refers to the leader and it is can be understood regarding the similarity of function; the head of human body and the leader of the department carry the mission to control the rest parts of the whole. In contrast, the word heads in the second example refers to people because they are related to each other- head is one part of human body. It can be done on the basis of part-whole relation in which the name of the part is used to refer to the whole. Obviously, metaphor is related to simile and metonymy but it is quite distinguished from them. In addition, how metaphors function in language and they are classified will be showed as follow. 2.2. Functions of metaphors Metaphors are diverse in terms of values and functions in language, however, in this study only three basic functions given by a Vietnamese language specialist, Dinh Trong Lac(1994, p.53), are mentioned. According to him, there are three basic functions of metaphors namely naming, cognitive and symbolic functions and basing on this he can group metaphors together. 2.2.1. Naming function Firstly, the function of metaphors talked about is to name things. This is only the technical means to utilize the ready- made vocabulary to offer names to different things basing on the similarity between them. For instance, the lowest part of the mountain is known as the foot of the mountain as the foot on the human body is the lowest part. These metaphors are of almost no or very little rhetoric value but they can reflect the way in which things on the planet are seen together. They are just planned to offer names to things basing on the experience with the existing vocabulary. 2.2.2. Cognitive function Secondly, the function of metaphors is to cognize or conceptualize things. These metaphors do not offer new names to things however conceptualize them as far as another. These metaphors operates between two domains, one domain is conceptualized regarding another. For instance, in the domain of weather, when it is sunny, the sun is sparkling and brings charming climate that can make people cheerful and agreeable. So the word sunny has positive value and it is exchanged to discuss the mood of people as in the following illustration. E.g. By the time he visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, John was in a sunny mood. That is, John felt exceptionally cheerful and optimistic. Hereby, the human mood is conceptualized and comprehended under the words about weather. These metaphors are likewise conventional and of little rhetoric impact. 2.2.3. Symbolic function Lastly, the function of metaphors is to symbolize things. This function is usually thought to be the conventional function of metaphors. For example, the flower regularly symbolizes for the beauty. So it is frequently compared to the womans beauty. E.g. Beauty is a flower which wrinkles will devour. In the above illustration, the flower is compared to the beauty of woman that will devour like the flower. This kind of metaphors reflect the imaginative and creative way individuals assess and explain things, which can make their language more expressive and persuasive. They are extremely popular in poetic language. All in all, metaphors convey three major functions in language which are naming, cognitive and symbolic functions. Basing on that, metaphors relating to upper parts of human body are in the first group which are used to give names to things in the world. 2.3. Kinds of metaphors Metaphors can be classified basing on their degree of unexpectedness. According to Nguyen Hoa (2004, p.109), there are three main kinds of metaphors namely living metaphors, faded metaphors and dead metaphors. 2.3.1. Living metaphors When a word is unexpected and quite unpredictable is called living metaphor. It is used in unusual meaning and metaphor is easily recognized by the hearer. It is created and used by individuals. E.g. She is my sun It can be seen that the sun lights our earth by day, which can makes peoples life brighter and more joyful. Hence, when a people who is thought to make the others life brighter and more joyful is viewed as the sun. These metaphors are called creative or poetic metaphors as it reflects the creative use of language and they are appended to the symbolic functions as mentioned above are especially utilized in literature and poetry. They are not common in everyday language usage. They are sometimes called genuine metaphors becauseit is the common sense when people discuss metaphors and they have great rhetoric effect on the hearer. 2.3.2. Faded metaphors Metaphor which lost its freshness because of long use and traditional use and became habitual in daily language usage. For example, gold is one sort of very valuable material and when people mention the adjective golden, it implies that something made of gold. Besides, it is say that golden youth, it means that the adolescent in a mans life is likewise as valuable as gold. Metaphors are so normal in everyday language that they are sometimes not felt as metaphors. These metaphors can bring about polysemy of so many words in language. Among the functions examined, they are attached to the naming and cognitive functions. 2.3.3. Dead metaphors Dead metaphor- where metaphoric sense is not felt at all because they have lost their indirect meaning and are used only figuratively. For instance, the word capital in English used to mean the head which is considered as the most critical part on the human body. So it was metaphorically used to refer to the most important city or town of a country which is usually the center of government. Hence, it was metaphorically used to refer to the most important city or town of a nation which is generally the center of government. But now the word capital is not utilized literally as the head of the human body, however, it just means the capital of the country as in the sentence: Paris is the capital of France. These metaphors do not make up many in language. Indeed, these metaphors are difficult or almost impossible to be recognized as metaphors. In general, there are three principle sorts of metaphors which are living, faded and dead metaphors. In short, metaphors relating to parts of human body are called faded metaphors since they become the means of everyday language to give names to things in the world. Aim and objectives of the study This study is conducted with the aims of theoretical and practical. Theoretically is proposed to give a profound and methodical review on the metaphorical uses of words meaning upper parts of human body in both English and Vietnamese and attempt to clarify the reasons why the words are utilized as a part of such ways. Meantime, it is gone for finding the features that English and Vietnamese impart to and vary from each other in the utilization of metaphors relating to upper parts of human body. Practically is proposed to empower learners of English to have an understanding into metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in English and additionally in their mother tongue so they can improve their vocabulary of the language they are learning and decipher them effectively in communication or translate them well into their own mother tongue and vice versa. Research methodology 4.1. Approach intended for the study Here the two languages to be specific English and Vietnamese are compared and contrasted. In this contrastive analysis, English is dealt with as the instrumental language and Vietnamese is the target language. In this manner, any instances of metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in English will be recorded and analyzed first and after that they will be compared and contrasted with Vietnamese to discover the similarities and differences between the two languages. 4.2. Methods of the study This study is conducted with a combination of the comparative and contrastive. Firstly, the theoretical background of metaphors will be given talked about through the basic readings of related materials. Besides, once general theories are given, the data about specific cases of metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in two languages utilized for illustration will be gathered from different sources of data, for example, dictionaries, books, daily papers, magazines furthermore practical observation. Thirdly, it is to choose the typical examples and analyze them. In the meantime, comparative and contrastive techniques will be used to discover the common and the distinguished features in the utilization of metaphors relating to upper parts of human body between English and Vietnamese. Finally, some conclusions will be made about what has been analyzed and compared. 4.3. Metaphors relating to some upper parts of human body in English and Vietnamese 4.3.1. Metaphors relating to eye in English and mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t in Vietnamese We can easily find some common features in the metaphorical use of the words denoting eyes between the two languages. Firstly, our eyes are round and small in shape, in two languages, the two words eye and mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t imply to the shape of a potato. It has many circled and many small spot on it. For example: In English: Eye of the potato In Vietnamese: Mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t khoai tà ¢y (English-Vietnamese Dictionary, 1993, p.581) Moreover, the word mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t in Vietnamese is refer to many small and rounded-shaped things on the peel of many sorts of fruit and things. In contrast, the word eye in English is not refer to these cases. Look at the table below. Table 1: In English In Vietnamese None in English Mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t tre, mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t mà ­a, mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t lÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºi, mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t dà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ©a, mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t xà ­ch, mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t rà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¢, etc.. However, the word eye in English denote the eye-shaped spots on the tail of the peacock and piece of metal used together with a hook in order to fasten clothes. For example, Eye of the peacocks tail (Vocabulary, p.26), Hook and eye of the dress (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 1995, p.410) In English and Vietnamese, when we see into a persons eyes and the central position of the eyes when we see around, the words eye and mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t refer to the centre of the cyclone and wind blows. For example, in English: Eye of the storm, Eye of the wind while in Vietnamese: Mà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¯t bà £o (English-Vietnamese Dictionary, 1993, p.581) Another interesting point is that the world becomes bright and clear when we open our eyes and see and when the sun rises and opens on a day, the world is also sheeny. Hence, the British calls the sun the eye of the day. Similarly, the British also calls the private eye when our eyes has function of observing others secretly to get information. However, Vietnamese has not these interesting features as in English. 4.3.2. Metaphors relating to nose in English and mÃ…Â ©i in Vietnamese First of all, the nose which is the front part pointing in shape so it used to refer to the front pointed part of an airplane. For instance, in English: He brought the aircrafts nose up and made a perfect landing, whereas in Vietnamese Anh ta là ¡i mÃ…Â ©i mà ¡y bay là ªn và   thà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ±c hià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡n vià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡c hà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¡ cà ¡nh hoà  n hà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £o (English-Vietnamese Dictionary, 1993, p.1140) Another interesting is that Vietnamese used the word mÃ…Â ©i in order to denote to part of some tools or objects. In contrast, the word nose in English is not used in such a way. To understand clearly about the lexemes nose and mÃ…Â ©i, the below table will be illustrate. Table 2: In English In Vietnamese nose of an airplane none in English nose of a car none in English mÃ…Â ©i mà ¡y bay mÃ…Â ©i Cà   Mau none in Vietnamese mÃ…Â ©i kim Especially, the word mÃ…Â ©i in Vietnamese is figuratively used to refer to the forward direction of the attack of the soldiers. But English does not share this interesting feature as in Vietnamese. 4.3.3. Metaphors relating to ear in English and tai in Vietnamese The ears are of organ of hearing, they are the small and curved parts that locate at the sides of the head. The two lexemes ear and tai in both languages are used in metaphors to denote to the parts of things which have the similar features. However, they are used to denote to do not the same in some cases. The table below will be illustrate. Table 3: In English In Vietnamese none in English none in English none in English ear of a corn ear of a newspaper ear of the jug tai nà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¥m tai bà ¨o tai cà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬Ëœi xay none in Vietnamese none in Vietnamese tai bà ¬nh Ä‘Ã ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ±ng nÆ °Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºc In the above table, there are some similar in both languages in the way that the words referring the ear are used to denote to the small and curved part on the side of a container such as jug and cup. But the word tai in some cases Vietnamese is used to denote to the two parts on both sides of the mortar in the expression tai cà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬Ëœi xay. In contrast, the word ear in English is not used to share this. Similarly, the word tai in Vietnamese is used to denote to the bud of a mushroom while the word ear in English is not used to share it. However, in the same way, it is used to denote to the small part of a corn in the expression ear of a corn. Another interesting is that the word ear is used to denote to the minor and short piece of a newspaper in the expression ear of a newspaper but the equivalent do not exist in Vietnamese. Generally, there are some common and distinguished features in the metaphorical use of the words denoting the mouth between the English and Vietnamese. 4.3.4. Metaphors relating to mouth in English and mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng in Vietnamese In both in English and Vietnamese, there are numerous common features in the metaphorical use of the words denoting the mouth. It can be seen that when we open the mouth, it can work as the passage for the nourishment or drink to go in. So, the word mouth and mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng, in both languages, are used to refer to the open part of something especially containers through which we can place things in. For example, in English: A decorative pattern round the mouth of the bag. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 1995, p.760) That is, the bag is one kind of containers and we place something in it through the open and front part of it called the mouth. Similarly, the word mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng tà ºi in Vietnamese is equivalent to this case in English. However, the equivalents of the two words mouth and mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng do not exist in both English and Vietnamese. For instance, the word mouth in English is used to denote to the open part of a cave or river, whereas the word mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng in Vietnamese is used to denote to the open part of an injury. And here are some examples: Table 4: In English In Vietnamese none in English mouth of the river none in English mouth of the architect mouth of the box mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng ăn none in Vietnamese mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng và ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¿t thÆ °Ãƒâ€ Ã‚ ¡ng none in Vietnamese mià ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ng hà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â€ž ¢p In short, there are some similarities and differences in the use of the words denoting the mouth between the two languages. Results and discussion All in all, the discoveries about the similarities and differences in the metaphors relating to upper parts of human body has clearly demonstrated the common and distinguished features in the way in which English and Vietnamese think and view the world surrounding them. In both countries, people all comprehend parts of their body well in shape, position, function, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and relate these features to features of things in the world to name them by utilizing the names of upper parts of the body. In the specific cases, however, they utilize a certain word about a part of human body to refer things are not always the same as they think and view the world differently. In addition, people in each nation have their own way and habitat of utilizing the language creatively so this prompts to the distinctions in the metaphors in the both languages. For these reason, the existence of similarities and differences in the metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in two languages are reasonable and understandable. Moreover, metaphors relating to upper parts of human body can help to create new meanings that enrich the vocabulary in two languages. Another interesting is that metaphor is one kind of personification (Nguyà ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ¦n Văn Chià ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¿n, 1992) because everything in the world is not seen in but in the relationship with human beings. It means that things in the world are always found in the associative eye of people. I hoped that the findings about the basic metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in this study will help students not only to acquire these interesting and popular use of the words but also to motivate them in their further language study. Summary This study has provided a systematic and clear view on metaphors relating to upper parts of human body in English and Vietnamese. First and foremost, words denoting upper parts of human body are popularly used in metaphor in both languages. Secondly, the metaphors, in most cases, relating to them depend on the similar associations of their semantic features. The referents, however, they are used to refer in specific cases are not always similar. Last but not least, the more frequently the words are used in metaphors, the more similar features metaphors relating to them in English and Vietnamese share. If I have an opportunity in the future, my future research could be conducted to study the metaphorical use of the words denoting lower, medial and internal parts of human body and the different metaphorical use of the words referring human body parts when they function in other parts of speech such as verbs, adjectives, etc. I hope that this scope will become more various and meaningful and the reader will have a broader view about this interesting subject between the two languages. Implications The results of this study can help to suggest the following implications: In teaching English, understanding metaphors relating to some upper parts of human body can help student discover the connection between the metaphorical meaning and the literal meaning of the word to find the new meaning for themselves. As discussed above, there are many similarities and differences in the metaphorical use of words denoting some upper parts of human body between English and Vietnamese, hence the translators need to be aware of this in the process translation. That is, translators ought to keep away the word-for-word translation while translating these lexemes as they are differently utilized in each language, by people in each nation. References English: Barcelona, Antonio(2000).Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads.Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Crowther J. (1995).Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary.Oxford University Press E. Finegan. Language: Its Structure and Use, 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace, 1994. Quang, Vo Dai(2003).Semantics.Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages. Hoa, Nguyen(2004).Understanding English Semantics.Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Language.

Synthesis Of The Taming Of The Shrew English Literature Essay

Synthesis Of The Taming Of The Shrew English Literature Essay The Taming of the Shrew is one of the most renowned plays written by William Shakespeare. The writer raises a number of important themes in the course of the play, which he uncovers and depicts in details, in their full complexity. In such a way, the writer attempted to mirror the real life and to show the audience that human relations are extremely complex and often people cannot always decide what can happen to them in their life. In this regard, the theme of love is particularly noteworthy because The Taming of the Shrew shows the great strength, the power of love over human beings. As the matter of fact, William Shakespeare proves that people cannot resist to love and to prove this point he develops the severe struggle between the love and strength of human mind in the hidden love struggle between Kate and Petruchio in his The Taming of the Shrew. In such a way, William Shakespeare attempts to show that, even though people can resist loving, they still cannot win the struggle aga inst love because strong feelings, such as love, always win and overwhelm people. From the beginning of the play, it seems to be obvious that the main character will never give in and she is determined to avoid loving and marrying: I ll not budge an inch. Taming of the Shrew Quote (Induction, Scene I) Nevertheless, such a position of the main character is challenged by the love of other characters, including Petruchio, who cannot resist his strong feelings and he cannot help from loving Kate. His passion grows stronger in the course of the play and he is ready to do anything to reach his goal and to gain the positive response from his beloved. On the other hand, William Shakespeare shows that Petruchio has to pass a long way to reach his love and to win the heart and soul of his beloved. Nevertheless, in his love to Kate, Petruchio is ready to sacrifice his own life for the sake of his beloved: Theres small choice in rotten apples.  The Taming of the Shrew  Quote  Act i. Scene 1.   In fact, he has no choice but go until the end to win the positive response from Kate, whom he adores. At the same time, this way is the way of struggle, where: Nothing comes amiss; so money comes withal.  The Taming of the Shrew  Quote  Act i. Scene 2.   In such a way, The Taming of the Shrew is the play, where love is closely intertwined with the struggle. To put it more precisely, the love is the struggle itself. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that William Shakespeare depicts both the internal struggle within the main characters who love and who cannot help from loving and the external struggle between the main characters, whose feelings change from indifference and even hatred to love and admiration. At the same time, while depicting this love struggle, William Shakespeare is quite ironic: Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs.  The Taming of the Shrew  Quote  Act i. Scene 2.   In such a way, the writer shows that there are trifles which may wreak havoc in the main characters and they can make them feel fear and panic. However, their love defeats any manifestation of fear, any obstacle that arises on the way of the main characters to their love and personal happiness. At the same time, William Shakespeare shows that the way to love and to win in the struggle for love is long and difficult: Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. The Taming of the Shrew  Quote  Act iii. Scene 2.   Thus, the writer shows that the main character should not be in a hurry to win their love. In stark contrast, they should have patience to wait and keep on struggling until they win their love. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the struggle of the main characters lasts practically till the end of the play: And thereby hangs a tale.  The Taming of the Shrew  Quote  Act iv. Scene 1. Even at the end of the story, the author attempts to hint that the main characters may have troubles in their love. Therefore, William Shakespeare apparently attempts to convey the idea that love is the permanent struggle that never ends. Even when the main characters win their love, they still have to carry on their struggle: Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. (Act V, Scene I). In such a way, The Taming of the Shrew reveals the full extent to which love is closely intertwined with the struggle. On the other hand, it is quite natural that William Shakespeare depicts love as a sort of turbulent struggle between the main characters as well as the internal struggle within the main characters. William Shakespeare is, to a significant extent, admired with this struggle and makes love the main stimulus that makes people change their life and carry on their struggle in spite of all the obstacles they encounter in the course of the play. In fact, the love and struggle are inseparable and they are as natural as rain: For the rain it raineth every day. (Act V, Scene I). Hence, William Shakespeare proves that his main characters do love each other but they had to pass a long way to understand that they did love each other and nothing can stop them in their strong feeling. Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is a remarkable play that reveals the controversy and strength of the love. What is meant here is the fact that William Shakespeare shows the great power of love over people but the main characters of the play have to struggle over and over again to win the love and to win the heart of their beloved. At the same time, their struggle makes them closer to each other and increases the value and significance of their love. Eventually, they understand what love actually is and that they cannot live without loving each other.

The Nature Approach :: essays research papers

The Nature Approach   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two ways in which sociologists study human behavior. The Nature approach and the Nurture approach. The Nature approach has many claims. One is; the whole universe is deterministic and follows unavoidable sequences of cause, leading to effect. What this generally means is that all the events in the world that occur are pre-determined. By what you ask? Nature (laws of physics, for example). Another claim of the Nature Approach is that man is like a puppet on strings of nature. If one wants to control man, all one has to do is find the strings. This can only be done if it is for the well being of man. Anything that man is driven to do is because of mechanics of nature; there is simply no such thing as free will. Above all, even human thought is caused and is mere epiphenomenon, which is a secondary and inconsequential effect of a main event. Any thought in which man has, are not their own thoughts, but just a part of nature. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is the Nurture approach. For centuries, conventional wisdom has held that parental nurturing will definitively shape a human’s personality and behavior. According to believers of the Nurture approach, it's the assumption that what makes human beings turn out the way they do, aside from their genes, the environmental part of human development, is the experiences they have in society, and in particular the experiences they have with the people they encounter. The origins of the nurture approach are stemmed from the studies of Copernicus and Galileo. Galileo was an Italian astronomer, natural philosopher, and one of the central architects of modern science. In his Two Chief World Systems, he set forth the idea that the sun was the center of the universe, rather than the earth. Forced to recant and forbidden to teach or talk about his views, Galileo is said to have muttered in the stillness of his room, 'Still it turns' in reference to the rotation of the earth around the sun. Galileo decentered the earth and by extension all theology which holds that the earth and creatures upon it were a special act of creation. Now, let's say we were examining an experiment performed on a set of identical twins. Twins are born with the same genetic makeup, which has been shaped by this world.

Bontsha And Gimpel :: essays research papers

Faith is believed to be one of the most important elements attached to the life of a human being. Faith brings meaning to life. It is the essence that ties a person to life no matter the struggle encountered. Whenever some one looses faith in the people of their society, all he has felt is a religious believe which can be translated into “faith in God(s)';. In the stories “Bontsha the Silent'; and “Gimpel the Fool'; by Isaac Loeb Peretz and Isaac Bashevis Singer respectively, the protagonists are victims of tremendous sufferings, where faith is the only way out. However, the faith focused by both authors differ somewhat. Peretz prioritizes faith in the divine, while Singer elaborates faith in man around their protagonists. First, in his tale “Bontsha the Silent';, Peretz seems to suggest that a person who has lost faith in man ought to have, at least, faith God. One must not go without faith just because he had run into some sort of difficulty or been victim of injustice during his life. Peretz expresses his believe through the main character, Bontsha. He describes Bontsha as the most unfortunate imaginable human being on earth and yet never complaining about his adversity. Ever since the first day Bontsha was born, no one has cared of him. He was born with silence and passed away with silence. During his lifetime, he had to haul heavy loads stumbling at each step and begged for the pennies that were rightfully his, and even then, sometimes he did not get paid. Further, he knew he had been taken advantage of, and still, he remained silent. Once he had run into luck by saving a man’s life who then made him a coachman and married him off. But his luck did not last for long, as his great benef actor and philanthropist went into bankruptcy and never got what he had earned. Peretz develops his character in such way implying that perhaps Bontsha had so much faith in God that he did not care any of his sufferings; he lost hope with mankind. When all faith for man is lost, one should at least believe in God for he might be rewarded in “the other world';. Indeed, when Bontsha dies, he rewarded for having maintained his faith in God and never complained to him. Second, in “Gimpel the Fool';, Singer demonstrates the importance of faith in man one must have.

Debate on genetically modified food crops Essay

In today’s world there are as many people suffering and dying due to various diseases as many as, people dying from hunger and starvation. As a society with communal harmony and social responsibility towards to the community what is the best thing to do: feed the hungry with such food which could cause more diseases and serious deaths or find a solution to already existing diseases and reduce their suffering. The genetically modified food and crops have had a varied type of effects on humans, animals, and environment. The impact of these foods and crops can be understood based on various considerations such as: the principle of general human welfare, the maintenance of people’s rights and the principle of justice, the need to ensure food security for present and future generations, safety for consumers and care of the environment. In terms of controversies, one of the greatest concerns is the long-term health effects that genetically modified foods will have on human health. With this technology being so new, long term studies have not been conducted to confirm that this process is in fact safe. Thus, here we try to explain all these aspects in detail and there by explain the harmful effects of genetically modified crops and food. WHAT ARE GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS AND CROPS? THE ORIGIN It all started way back in 1980s when in the field of ‘biotechnology’, regular experiments were being conducted on ‘possibility of genetic modifications’ in organisms. In 1946 scientists discovered that they could transfer DNA among organisms. This paved the way for their search in the process of genetic modifications. In 1983 the first genetically modified crop was produced. It was an antibiotic resistant tobacco plant. The research on genetic modification was further enhanced, when scientist discovered that the modification process could be used to introduce nutrients and vitamins to enrich foods. THE PROCESS Manipulating the genetic composition of an organism by adding some specific useful genes is referred to as ‘genetic modifications’. The DNA is located in the chromosomes which has the genes that are modified. Genes carry information about genetically inherited characteristics of the organism. Thus the crops developed like this are known as genetically modified [GMO] crops, transgenic crops or genetically engineered [GE] crops. The main steps involved in the development of GM crops are: 1. Isolation of the gene(s) of interest. 2. Insertion of the gene(s) into a transfer vector: 3. Plant transformation 4. Selection of the modified plant cells: 5. Regeneration into whole plants via tissue culture 6. Verification of transformation and characterization of the inserted DNA fragment. 7. Testing of plant performance 8. Safety assessment. Commercially, four genetically modified crops dominate global biotech agriculture with soybeans accounting for 60% of GM crop area, maize accounting for 23% of GM crop area, cotton accounting for 11% of GM crop area, and canola accounting for 6% of GM crop area. WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF GMO FOODS? The effects of GMO foods can be broadly classified among the following categories: Impact on health Impact on environment Impact on farming Economics and social threats IMPACT ON HEALTH Deaths and near deaths: A genetically modified version of the food supplement was released without safety tests, which lead to 37 deaths and approximately 1500 more were disabled. Cancer and Diseases GH is a protein hormone which, when injected into cows stimulates the pituitary gland in a way that the produces more milk, thus making milk production more profitable for the large dairy corporations. it is a very potent chemical hormone that has been linked to a 2. 5 to 4 times higher risk of human colorectal and breast cancer. Prostate cancer risk is considered equally serious – in the 2,8.to 4 times range. Allergies A documented case states that genetic modification involving transfer of a gene from a brazil nut to soybean led to transfer of allergens. Medical tests of people known to be allergic to Brazil nuts were conducted for the appropriate antibody response to the transferred gene. Seven out of nine individuals showed a positive response. This adverse result alerted the company and the work was discontinued so the product was not even submitted to the regulatory authorities. IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT. Toxicity to soil Extinction of seed varieties Super weeds Killing beneficial insects IMPACT ON FARMING Harm to small family farms The small farmers are already a facing financial crisis with overwhelming debts and low prices for their produce. By introducing GM crops we will be adding to the misery of the farmers. Here the cost of production will be more and since there is no demand for these products the farmer will have to sell the produce at a very low price. The farmer also has to pay for the patentship of the seeds he buys from. Monopolization Of Food Production If the GMO crops enter the market they would be a monopoly market. The customers should be given the choice to choose between ‘natural’ food and transgenic food. Not only will the farmers suffer but the customers will have no option but to buy GMO products. The GMO foods is a very large industry it includes the owner to take patent ship on his specifications of ‘gene modifications’ and has to pay licensing. Thus, increasing the overall cost of the product. ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL THREATS. In past Britishers colonized many countries with technology and superior armies hence farmers had perception that with both control of genetic and agricultural resources would act as powerful weapon for the invasion of cultures. Without proper labelling of genetically modified food violates and harms the right to know what is in our foods – given the list of health, environmental, and socio-political reasons to avoid GM ingredients. Even if GM foods were 100% safe, the consumer has a right to know such ingredients – due to their much potential harm. The genetic modification of plants involves transferring DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the genetic material, from a plant or bacterium, or even an animal, into a different plant species. Because we can increasingly identify which gene or genes determine particular characteristics, the appropriate genes can now be inserted directly into the plants we wish to modify. Although techniques required to create GM crops are recent and relatively sophisticated, genetic modification is in most respects an extension of what has been happening for ten thousand years. The primitive ancestors of almost all modern food crops are barely recognisable to the lay person; maize ears, for instance, were half an inch long rather than the eight or nine inches of their modern descendants. ETHICAL ISSUES & SOCIAL ISSUES Introduction to any technological advances reflects three principles. The first one, general welfare which works to promote the interest of citizens. The second one, rights of the people which work to promote their rights to freedom of their choice. The third one being the principal of justice which requires the policies to be followed fairly shared. These principles lead to Does this methodology promote welfare of people by providing food safety and reducing the usage of pests? Or this possesses unknown risks and environmental problems which lead to avoid them? How far this technology can provide right to customers to about the content of their food they are taking? How can the scientists conduct their research in ways to protect their intellectual integrity? Who will be beneficial due to this advances and obligations to compensate others? GM are used as a image for social welfare but it is unethical to treat nature in an ‘industrial’ fashion not because of the unfortunate consequences of so doing ,but because of they believe it is intrinsically wrong After examining all the scientific evidence in the light of the ethical considerations, they said that the genetic modification of crop plants, as so far developed, does not differ to such an extent from conventional plant breeding or other human interventions with the natural world as to make the process morally objectionable in itself. GM technology is a new tool which plant breeders are using to achieve their breeding goals more accurately and rapidly. the combinations of, for example, bacterial and plant genes in GM crops are very unlikely to be found or impossible to realise in nature. However, provided that potential side effects are thoroughly assessed, we do not consider that the generation of such new combinations should be prohibited. ALARMING EFFECTS: GM crops are developed with an aim to fix the nitrogen, resist the draught and to improve yield and to meet the demand of market. These goals lead to development of multibillion dollar industry controlled by corporate giants. According to studies in US it has been confirmed that â€Å"the miracle crops have not materialised. GM crops grown have two simple characteristics in the world. More than 70% are tolerant to broad-spectrum herbicides, with companies engineering plants to be tolerant to their own brand of herbicide, while the rest are engineered with bt-toxins to kill insect pests. A total of 65 million acres were planted in 1998 within the US, Argentina and Canada. The latest surveys on GM crops in the US, the largest grower by far, showed no significant benefit. On the contrary, the most widely grown GM crops – herbicide-tolerant soya beans – yielded on average 6. 7% less and required two to five times more herbicides than non-GM varieties†. These figures simply show that the GM crops do not show any effect. The herbicide tolerant weeds and b-t resistant insect pests are formed due to the GM crops. The herbicides not only decimated the wild species but also toxic to animals. These herbicide causes birth defects in mammals, and some lead to cancer in white blood cells. The bt-resistant insect pests kill insects such as bees and butterflies. There is enough food to feed in this world. But, the reason why our statistics showed that billions of people are hungry is that these resources are under the control of corporate monopolies. Hence the poor are becoming further poor. The new patents on developing GM crops helps these corporate giants further and prevent the farmers from saving and replanting seeds which are major source of their income. The development of new crops further intensifies these corporate and threats the living. It seriously cause unemployment increases debt and threaten farming systems and environmental damage. There have been many arguments that GM crops enhance nutritional value by incorporating genes to increase nutrients, iron content. But malnutrition occurred due to the substitution of diet provided by traditional farming. These agricultural practices deplete and remove nutrients from the soil resulting in the change of nutritional value of all food crops worse. Nothing GMO crops or technologies can change this trend. The mal nutrition problem can be solved only by new sustainable farming methods and recovering biodiversity. There are also unpredictable risks involved in this incorporation of genes. More observed is horizontal gene transfer i. e. , transferring of gene directly to some unrelated species. It gives rise to new bacteria and viruses that cause diseases and also spread antibiotic and drug resistances among the pathogens. These transgenic DNA resulted untreatable new viruses and bacteria can also spread to organisms in any environment including the human body. This transgenic DNA also leads to cancer. The main reason for the increase in food prices is increase in bio fuel production. The giant corporate that are producing GM crops are lobbying for bio fuels and are using the opportunity of this food crisis to promote their GM foods. Here GM crops are not for solving food crisis but food crisis is being used to improve the fortunes of GM industry which meant to be a profit based firm. â€Å"The main aim for these corporate is that they’re just using the current food crisis and the fuel crisis as a mechanism to make GM crops profitable by advertising that GM crops can solve the problem of Drought and feeds the world. Despite 20 years of research in US and commercialization, it has been proved that GM failed to increase the yield which proved that traditional farming gains upper hand over genetic engineering techniques. It has also proved that there have been better techniques like â€Å"agro ecological farming† to meet the challenges of hunger, poverty etc., other innovative low input or methods of controlling pests and increasing yields are integrated pest management. This method is imprecise way of incorporating genes (may be foreign genetic from virus, bacteria) into crops with unknown consequences. These foods have taken only little but no long term safety testing. Animal feeding tests has shown some bad health effects. Only some studies meant to be on humans who showed unexpected effects on gut bacteria but has never further carried out. It has also realised that foods unlabelled caused millions of premature deaths in US. By considering the statistics in US on prices of GM crops it has showed that prices increases dramatically cutting the average farm’s income of farmers. These lead to long term disaster to farmers. GM provides patents to certain big giants that allow control over food supply which have a history of toxic contamination and public deception. They harass the farmers of saving seeds or genes even if genes got through contamination by winds or insects. Their price fixation leads to short income to farmers and price rise to market which destroys the farmer’s livelihood. Statistics revealed that in 1989, 37 people are died and 1300 were disabled due to release of GM foods without safety tests. There is also a chance that people who are allergic to certain genes can lead to shock and death if GM products do not disclose their information. RECOMMENDATIONS Traditional Breeding is preferred over Genetically Modified Crops because of following reasons. 1. Genetically modification crops decreases the yield, Traditional breeding improves the yield Genetically Modified Crops were assumed to increases the yield. Instead experimental results showed that they decrease the yield in most cases. The results of Differences in yields between conventional and GM soybeans is as follows. The conventional breeding showed an increase in yield and these are much drought resistant. Hence, traditional breeding need to be implemented rather than Genetically Modified Crops. Fig: Differences in yields between conventional and GM soybeans 2. Genetically Modified Crops increases the pesticide use Genetically Modified Crops requires more pesticide use than the conventional crops. It is not at all good to consume the food with pesticide content above the tolerable level. This may lead to several dangerous health issues. 3. Risks of Toxicity in genetically modified crops. Many health hazards were caused due to higher risks of toxicity. This leads to allergen city, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer. As for environmental impacts, the use of genetic practices in agriculture will lead to biological pollution, threatening numerous microbial, plant and animal species with extinction, and the potential contamination of all non-genetically engineered life forms with novel and possibly hazardous genetic material. 4. Genetically Modified crops and Non-Genetically modified crops cannot coexist. Trends in the planting of GM and organic crops suggest that the growth of the GM crop area has impeded the development of the organic cultivation. A study in Spain, has found that GM maize has caused a drastic reduction in organic cultivations of this grain and is making their coexistence practically impossible CONCLUSION Genetically modified foods had a great impact by solving many problems such as malnutrition, hunger and starvation but the after effects of consuming these genetically modified crops are very harmful. Because they not only solved the problem of starvation but also indirectly became the reason for various hazardous effects on human health. Genetically modified crops are the impractical ways of producing the crop and violating the natural breeding. Such impractical production will include many viruses and bacteria contained in it which are very harmful for the mankind in the long run. There exist many other ways of feeding the hunger than incorporating the genetically modified crops into our system. These genetically modified foods not only harm the human health but indeed they will also affect the environment because they contain a lot more pesticides and herbicides which are toxic and even the farmer and the people working around have bad impact. Even though this technology of genetically modified foods provide a lot more benefits to the environment there exits many potential risks by adopting this technology. All those people who so ever is involved in the development of genetically modified crops need to recognise and take the responsibility to the public. They need to ensure that the new technologies adapted by them are safe for the human health as well as they would no longer affect environment even in the long run. The planting of the genetically modified crops must be done precisely by limiting the plantation and constantly monitoring the side effects and the uses of incorporating genetic technology in farming. Even the farmers should use the caution concerning the development and spread of these genetically modified crops because even the farmers are badly affected by the adverse effects of the virus and even the insects are becoming resistant to these pesticides. â€Å"I suspect that one day the effects of GM contamination will dwarf both the financial meltdown and peak oil. † Anonymous. REFERNECES http://www. raw-wisdom. com/50harmful. http://www. globalhealingcenter. com/nutrition/genetically-modified-foods http://www. csa. com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview. php http://www. nepadbiosafety. net/for-regulators/resources/subjects/biotechnology/process-of-developing-genetically-modified-gm-crops.