Linguistics Examine the idea that adult second langauage learners of Research Paper

Linguistics Examine the idea that adult second langauage learners of English are capable of retaining the collocations to whi - Research Paper Example TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4 Thesis Statement†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 Methodology†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...4 Preliminary Results and Discussion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....5 Study Implications†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦7 Work Plan†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦7 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 INTRODUCTION Formulaic language has been playing a key role in second language teaching. A beginning learner utilizes more idiomatic English expressions focused on daily communication templates. Alison Wray’s (2002) definition of a formulaic sequence of words has been the most popular one: â€Å"Formulaic Sequence is a sequence, continuous or discontinuous, of words or other elements which is, or appears to be, prefabricated: that is stored and retrieved whole from memory at the time of use, rather than being subject to generation or analysis by the language grammar" (Wray, 2002, p. 9). Wray claims that the adult learner primarily is more focused on individual words and is concentrated on a non-formulaic approach to language learning (Lewis, 2000a; b). This thesis is devoted to identification of an ability of adult language learners to retain information about what words appear together in their input of adj+noun pairs, verb+noun pairs, and or noun+noun pairs. It is supposed that any drawbacks in non-natives’ knowledge of collocation associations between words is caused by an inadequate input. THESIS STATEMENT The fluency-oriented repetition of individual sentence contexts has an impact on collocation learning for L2 learners, and thus participants will primarily notice and remember c hunks of words in their input through an organized testing process using the adj-noun, verb-noun, and noun-noun pairs placed in a sentence. METHODOLGY A general selection criterion was a key trigger for my further research. Theoretical background is based on relevant academic articles, academic texts, and books. The participants were asked to undergo a short training session in which they were exposed to a number of target adjective-noun, verb-noun, and noun-noun combinations embedded in sentences called a â€Å"naming phase.† Sentences were presented to participants on a computer screen in a random order. The participants were asked to say the noun aloud if they recognized it. The respondents are Spanish speaking Americans. All the participants are enrolled in one or two of the ESL programs for a L2 learner of English within their city’s community base. They are all lower level income participants, with lower level educational backgrounds. PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND DISC USSION Of the adjective+noun, verb+ noun, and noun+noun word pairs, the nouns were recognized more reliably when they followed the verb with which it was paired. These collocations were easily

None Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

None - Essay Example However, at the end of his life, he was forced to live; he decided to leave a written record of his life so that someday his family might know about his hidden appreciation of relations (Mauriac, 1933). This paper will attempt to integrate the Lewis’s theories of love with the story named Vipers’ Tangle and focus on finding out the application of these theories at various stages of the story. Lewis identified two important forms of love people experience during their life span. These are Gift and Need Loves (Lewis, 1960); respectively, the first form of love drives an individual to work in order to provide a safe future to his or her family, and the second one compels a person to share his or her worries with the close ones. However, these two loves should keep moving parallel to each other and co-exist in harmony because if an individual shows only need-based love, this will make the family consider him or her as apathetic and unwilling to struggle for his familyâ€⠄¢s better future. On the other hand, if a person keeps on earning millions while devoting virtually no time to his or her family, the family will consider a person greedy, mean and indifferent. The relation between Louis and his son Hubert took a series of interesting turns during Louis’s life. ... At the same time, Louis unsuccessfully tried to give Need Love to his son, but it was too late. Nevertheless, Hubert and Louis’s tendency to care for each other could not play a significant role in bridging the gap between them. So these men lived apart due to their ego, which hindered both of them from accepting their mistakes of the past (Mauriac, 1933). In the light of this story, it is important to appreciate the supportive role of family in the time of difficulty because warmth of family is an effective stress lifter. However, Louis lived away from love of his family and had to face a great deal of stress while fulfilling his professional obligations (Rupert et al., 2012). As a result, his life satisfaction dropped significantly, which made him become agitated. Due to these reasons, his loneliness grew intense in the last years of his life. In Lewis’s view, Louis kept demonstrating Gift Love towards his family members during the all his life, which resulted in his painful loneliness. However, Louis attempted to show his Need Love for his family, but it proved ineffective. In general, both characters had some changes in the kinds of love that they showed; each one of them started with either Need Love or Gift Love and ended up with the other. At first, Louis only showed Gift Love to Hubert, and this is why he was considered as mean, for he was not close to his family. However, after he had become old, Hubert was compelled to provide for him, which is a change from Need Love to Gift Love, whereas Louis, even though it was too late, started giving his son Need Love as he could no longer offer Gift Love. Conclusion Vipers Tangle’s theme is that humans are fundamentally

Challenges to the LEGO Group

Challenges to the LEGO Group In the recent times worldwide economy has become highly volatile and was vulnerable to a multitude issues. One such example is the latest financial crisis. Such volatility creates a variety of challenges to small and large enterprises around the globe. One of the biggest challenges for manufacturing companies is to deal with rapidly increasing globalization and competition. The solutions require the development of agile and rapid supply networks in order to cut costs and meet demand. Producers are becoming more aware of supply chain management. This awareness shifts the focus from internal logistics efficiency to the external network of relationships between various parties in the supply chain. The well-known Danish toy manufacturer LEGO has not been insusceptible to these changes. LEGO has faced major challenges, which required drastic changes within the organization. This included a transformation of the companys supply chain management system. LEGO Group had to deal with probably the most significant financial crisis since the company was founded in 1932. LEGOs crisis was not clearly visible from the outside. In fact LEGO had maintained brand recognition. This earned them the title Toy of the Century from the British Association of Toy Retailers and Fortune magazine. LEGO was the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the word and had sold US$1.35 billion worth of toys in 2004. In spite of this success, the company was losing money since 1998. LEGO had various internal operational issues. This included a complex and ineffective supply chain, which at one stage consisted of 11,000 contractors. In an attempt to address this problem, in 2004 LEGO board of directors set a goal t o cut 20 percent of logistic costs. This resulted in the risky decision to outsource a major part of the production to Flextronics, a Singaporean electronics manufacturing services provider. LEGO also established a single distribution center in the Czech Republic operated by DHL. (M. M. Larsen, T. Pedersen, D. Slepniov 2010; K. Oliver, E. Samakh, P. Heckmann 2007; J. A. Cooke 2009) Such a risky decision involved a long-term relationship with Flextronics that was not without challenges. In this research paper an overview of challenges and solutions of the case company LEGO Group will be presented. The main focus will be on LEGOs supply chain management system transformation, which was a major step towards success. The following research questions will serve as guidelines for this paper: What challenges did LEGO Group face and what decisions were made to address those problems? How did Supply Chain Management transformation helped to deal with these issues? In this paper we will first explore the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concepts. Next the case company LEGO Group will be introduced. We will then present overview of the challenges that LEGO Group has faced. The focus of this paper will be the SCM decisions that were made to deal with these problems. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CONCEPT The globalization is increasing competition and forming new conditions for conducting business. This requires companies worldwide to rapidly respond to their customers demands and develop products. These companies must also apply information technologies in supply chain collaboration (J. S. Arlbjà ¸rn et al. 2006) Such conditions increased the importance of logistics and SCM role within organizations as it can become a major competitive advantage. Commonly, the major improvements in logistical functions may not be needed within the organization itself. It may be more beneficial to analyze the organizations supply chain. This involves various interdependent parties. SCM co-operation is gaining in major strategic importance and usually includes such characteristics: co-operating is based on end user requirements, long term co-operation and high trust between actors in the supply chains or networks, shared risks and benefits, cross coordination on various levels between companies, shared visions and similar company cultures. The advantage of such close co-operation is a more transparent supply chain. This can lead to reduced lead-time, lower uncertainty, optimization of stocks and higher capacity utilization. (T. Skjoett-Larsen 2000) The concept of SCM often represents the broader view of logistics as its main function is to ensure the smooth flow of materials from suppliers to organization and then out to customers through the operations within the organization (D. Waters 2003). The purpose of SCM can be described as to remove redundancies and communication barriers through coordination, monitoring and control functions (D. Power 2005). The supply chain usually consists of different organizations and processes, which are aimed to ensure the smooth flow of materials from the initial supplier to the end customer. In many cases, manufacturers get their materials from a large number of suppliers and sell to different customers, which is the case with LEGO Group. In figure 1, you can see an example of the supply chain around a manufacturer. Materials move from several tiers of suppliers though organization to several tiers of customers, such as wholesalers, retailers and end users. Figure 1: Supply chain of manufacturer (D. Waters 2003, 9) The toy industry is one of the oldest creative industries in the word. However, C. Y. Wong, J. S. Arlbjà ¸rnand J. Johansen in their study named Supply chain management practices in toy supply chains(2005) state that such creative business is very seasonal and volatile with strongly fluctuating demands, very short and specified selling windows as well as short product life cycles. Moreover, the toy industry can be described as intensely competitive on pricing and innovation, where retailers often start competing with their suppliers. The authors conclude that most retailers and manufacturers use a push business model. This model includes low utilization of technology and information sharing as well as slow implementation of supply chain initiatives. INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE COMPANY: LEGO GROUP LEGO can be certainly defined as one of the most famous brands in the toy industry. The Danish companys toys are enjoyed worldwide by children and adults alike, who use thousands of different pieces to construct buildings, robots and other toy. In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter founded a company named LEGO (Danish words Leg and Godt, meaning play well). Originally a woodworking business for furniture, LEGO began producing childrens toys in 1934. The company presents itself by stating: It is LEGO philosophy that good play enriches a childs life and its subsequent adulthood. With this in mind, the LEGO Group has developed and marketed a wide range of products, all founded on the same basic philosophy of learning and developing through play. In figure 2 the core building blocks of LEGO Group are presented. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; LEGO Group, Corporate Communications 2009) Figure 2: The LEGO Company (LEGO Group 2010) Pursuing such a philosophy, LEGO has grown tremendously since its establishment. By 2009 the company was the worlds fifth largest toy manufacturer in terms of sale with 290 Million US Dollars in revenues and approximately 7000 employees around the globe. The LEGO brick which is possibly the best known toy was first introduced and patented in 1958. It has since then represented the core success and image of this company. With two just bricks there are 24 different combinations and with six there are 915 million possibilities. This enables limitless creativity. As previously stated, before LEGO brick was named as Toy of the century by Fortune magazine and later by British Association of Toy Retailers as well. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. Tidd, J. Bessant 2009) http://cache.lego.com/r/aboutus/-/media/About%20Us/Media%20Assets%20Library/Logos%20Bricks%20and%20Generic%20images/ts.20120125T101709.2x4brick_red.jpg Picture 1: Lego brick (source lego.com) Segmented product categories include: Pre-school products for the youngest children, who had not started the school yet, includes LEGO DUPLO products. Creative building sets or buckets of LEGO bricks without instructions. Play themes products the products with particular stories, such as airports, racing tracks and hospitals, including LEGO City line and BIONICLE. Licensed products related to movies and books, such Harry Potter, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. MINDSTORM NXT programmable robot kit. LEGO education products that are developed for educational purposes. LEGO Games new product line started in 2009 for board games. LEGO operates in over 130 countries worldwide. The companys largest market in the U.S., with together Australia, New Zealand and UK accounted for 30 percent of revenue in 2007. Despite constant challenges and growing popularity of consumer electronics, LEGO is continuing to expand. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) Crisis and solutions In the late 1990s, the company started to have difficulties. This resulted in a major crisis and almost ended in bankruptcy by 2004. LEGO was losing huge sums of money every day, estimated at economic losses of 375.4 thousand U.S. dollars per day since 1998. When sales dropped 40 percent in 2004, it was clear that radical changes had to take place. There are many speculations, why such a well-known and previously successful company started running on tremendous losses. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) One possible reason was increasing competition in their main product area. This was disruptive at its nature. One such example is the Canadian company Megabloks. This company offers a wide range of building toys at a highly competitive price. Also, the increasing popularity of computer games reduced the demand for traditional toys. Another possible factor was the over diversification of product line as LEGO moved into more areas like theme parks ,apparel, clothing, television and even computer games. Such diversification was a result of, as the company claims, a loss of confidence in their core product the Lego brick. The increased complexity of product portfolio confused not just the customers, but employees as well. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. Tidd, J. Bessant 2009; K. Oliver et al. 2007) It was mentioned before that LEGO GROUP had around 11,000 suppliers, which was twice the number that Boeing used to build its aircraft. Such inefficiency and inflexibility was soon recognized and attention was directed to the supply chain, which was 10 years out of date. Moreover, low quality customer service and product availability decreased the value of companys franchise. Jà ¸rgen Vig Knudstorp, newly appointed CEO, stated: From my perspective, the supply chain is a companys circulation system. You have to fix it to keep the blood flowing. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) It was acknowledged that solving problems related to global supply chain could build a strong base for major changes in the organization. This could also be the needed step forward towards cost-effectiveness and an improved business model. However, such big changes are not easy to implement and presented significant challenges for LEGO Group Transformation of supply chain management LEGO Group decided to optimize their supply chain in order to deal with the most significant crisis in the companys history. LEGO realized that it was dragging behind retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour. These companies had invested huge amounts of recourses into sophisticated and efficient supply chain management systems. LEGO Group started losing the competition to companies, which optimized their costs and provided just-in-time services to its customers (K. Oliver et al. 2007). Transforming such a gigantic and complex supply chain as well as removing the inefficiencies was a very challenging goal. Keep in mind that by 2004 company had around 7000 employees working mainly in two factories and three packaging centers, located in different countries. Further issues and changes within different areas of supply chain management will be discussed, including product development, distribution and manufacturing. Product development Product development and innovation was extremely important for LEGO as it presented the core of what this company was really about. Changes in this field were difficult to implement. This was in part because of its delicate nature and inside resistance from employees. LEGOs development lab called Kitchen was steadily producing new innovative products and ideas. However, management realized that new products were returning less profit and cost more to produce. Developers and designers did not account for production and supply chain issues, in their designs. Consequently, the variety of various components and features as well as product complexity became overwhelming and started to cause major problems in manufacturing and distribution. LEGO bricks and other elements came in more than 100 color tones. LEGO sets became increasingly elaborate with thousands of different figures. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) Such cost ineffective creativity caused problems like large stocks. This was because of seasonal demand fluctuations and short delivery times. Moreover, large amount of components and products required large investments in molds, while just 30 products generated 80 percent of companys sales. Therefore, LEGO decided to drastically cut down the number of components and features. This reduced costs in the supply chain and created a better opportunity for production outsourcing. Management revised a number of daily solutions in order to cut the costs, simplify production and eliminate inefficiencies. The palette was decreased to around 50 colors. A major reduction in variety of pirates, police officers and other figures was recommended as well. Moreover, resin-sourcing analyzes helped to cut its resin costs in half and reduce supplier number by 80 percent. Simultaneously, LEGO Groups operational team created cost matrixes and revised set of rules concerning creation of new colors, compon ents and ordering of new materials. Such step helped product developers to choose more cost-effective solutions and recognize the limitations. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) Distribution Another area of LEGOs supply chain that required major improvements and cost reductions was distribution. At that time LEGO served thousands of smaller stores with a great responsibility. This came at a very high price, although those shops accounted just for one third of its revenue. Company had increasing amount of inventory and lost sales, because of multiple-tier inventory system to serve smaller customers from different distribution centers. The redefined distribution policies had to be developed in order to avoid costly small deliveries and labor costs associated with pick-packing in the distribution centers. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) In order to serve customers in 130 countries around the world, LEGO had 11 warehouses and distribution centers in high-cost countries like Denmark, France, Germany and Switzerland. LEGO also employed 55 transportation providers for inbound and outbound shipments. In order to move its distributions closer to the customer and reduce exploding transportation costs, the company defined clear service policies. This helped to shift the focus to major retail chains. This also provided for more accurate demand forecasts, reduced complexity and certainly the costs of distribution. Furthermore, LEGO Group decided to centralize its distribution by closing five distribution centers in Europe, and creating a single distribution center near Prague in the Check Republic. The country was mainly chosen because of a high availability of skilled low cost labor. LEGO leased large buildings from the commercial realtor ProLogis. LEGO also decided to outsource operations to third-party logistics company D HL supply chain. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007; J. A. Cooke 2009) By 2007 a newly consolidated distribution center was serving all of LEGOs markets except the U.S., where Exel Inc. was responsible for distribution operations. Such changes reduced the complexity of supply chain, simplified the inventory optimization and reduced average distances to the market. This lead to increased customer satisfaction and significantly reduced overall logistics costs. Despite the outsourcing, LEGO maintained close collaboration with its carriers and still makes many decisions. The results of such collaboration are reduced negative effects of market seasonality. Moreover, by applying developed Web-based transportation management system LEGO was able to change the shipment scheduling and improve load consolidation. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. A. Cooke 2009) Manufacturing The improved production in the supply chain was probably the most important and complicated step. The challenges came from the way LEGO organized its production facilities and the complexity of manufacturing operations. In some way chaotic production operations resulted in low 70 percent of overall capacity utilization. There were hundreds of independent production units within the facilities that could place their orders in any manner. This was often without balancing supply capabilities, inventory levels and demand needs. Consequently, such fragmented system did not support long-term planning and resulted in high costs and low efficiency. Moreover, the production sites were located in high-cost countries as Denmark, United States and Switzerland, while just 10 percent of production was outsourced to China. Production sites mainly operated according the branding strategy, where, for example, Swiss factories only manufactured DUPLO and Technic products. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) One of the first steps was to set clear production cycles for machines instead of having them available to produce any element at any time. This approach helped to reduce constant and costly retooling as well as balance production operations. Furthermore, orders were set in the monthly meetings in that way eliminating the number of changeovers (K. Oliver et al. 2007). However, the major decision concerning production operations was to outsource large part of the production to external packaging and manufacturing service providers. One of the reasons was to cut the costs by moving the production from high-cost countries. Another reason was to reduce the number of subcontractors and utilize the economies of scale, having in mind that LEGO was producing about 24 billion bricks per year (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010). Consequently, the production capacity in Denmark was reduced and sites in Korea and Switzerland closed. LEGO Group engaged into cooperation with packaging service suppliers: Sonoco, Greiner, Weldenhammer and 2B Pack. The most risky and complex partnership was made in 2006 with Flextronics, a Singaporean based electronics manufacturer. Several product lines, like Bionicle and Technic was still mainly retained by LEGO, but the higher volume and more simple Duplo and System lines were handed to Flextronics production sites in Hungary, Czech Republic and Mexico. This helped to reduce the distance to customers. However, the relationship was not successful and contract with Flextronics was terminated from January 1, 2009, while LEGO continued with smaller outsourcing contracts. The main reasons for the failure are connected with delicate nature of toy industry and could be described in short (H. B. Dinitzen, D. Bohlbro 2010, 71-72; M. M. Larsen et al. 2010): 65% percent of production had to be done during the third quarter of the year main holiday season. Products have a lifetime of 16-18 month. Sales uncertainty is around 30%. In figure 3, the timeline of LEGO and Flextronics cooperation is presented, including goals and challenges. Despite the failure, LEGO Group has learned a lot from this outsourcing attempt, which had a positive impact in the end. Figure 3: The timeline of LEGO and Flextronics collaboration (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010, 16) In 2008 LEGO started the process of sourcing back the production, while the first factory in the Czech Republic was taken over, followed by Hungarian and Mexican facilities. In Mexico, LEGO Group eventually moved the production to a new plant, which started operating in first quarter of 2009. The final benefits of collaboration were connected mainly with gained experience in various operational fields. It helped to establish new facilities in Mexico and Hungary, while production units were no longer following branded approach, but instead serving its respective markets. Moreover, LEGO significantly improved documentation and standardization of business processes. Standardization resulted in almost halved size of components, from 12,000 in 2004 to 6000 in 2008. This enabled more flexible, efficient and smoothly running supply chain. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) CONCLUSIONS In the end it can be stated that by taking clearly defined and harsh restructuring strategy, LEGO Group was able to defeat the crisis and become one of the successful and largest toy producers again. This statement can be backed up by financial figures, which indicate that in 2008 and 2009 company reached profit of DKK 315.6 million and 375 million U.S. Dollars, respectively. This was the highest in LEGO Groups history. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) A significantly restructured supply chain helped to increase the efficiency of major business operations as well as increase the overall customer satisfaction. LEGO managed to reach and, in some levels, even pass its competitors, while still cooperating with biggest retailers in such fields as joint forecasting, inventory management and mass customization. However, such transformations required dealing with many challenges, including terminated cooperation with Flextronics. Nevertheless, it gave LEGO valuable knowledge about outsourcing operations and its inner characteristics. In the end, unsuccessful outsourcing practice resulted in factories in Denmark, Czech Republic, Mexico and Hungary, which gave the needed supply chain flexibility in order to meet the global demands. Improved parts of supply chain such as product development, sourcing, distribution and manufacturing creates a well developed business model that serves as a major competitive advantage. Finally, after successful supply chain transformation, LEGO Group can shift more attention to increasing the satisfaction of its customers by developing well-liked toys for children and adults.

Essay on Pride and Prejudice as Romantic Novel and Romantic Criticism

Pride and Prejudice as Romantic Novel and Romantic Criticism       To a great extent, Jane Austen satirizes conventional romantic novels by inverting the expectations of "love at first sight" and the celebration of passion and physical attractiveness, and criticizing their want of sense. However, there are also elements of conventional romance in the novel, notably, in the success of Jane and Bingley's love.    The first indication of Austen's inversion of accepted romantic conventions is Elizabeth and Darcy's mutual dislike on first sight. However, Jane and Bingley fall in love almost immediately, and the development of their romance follows conventional romantic-novel wisdom, down to the obstacles in the form of Darcy's and Bingley's sisters' disapprobation (the typical disapproval of the Family) and the attraction between the rich young man and the middle class maid. Their Cinderella story ends in happily-ever-after, as does Elizabeth's and Darcy's. Elizabeth's defiance of Lady Catherine recalls Meg's defiance of her aunt in Little Women, and Darcy's willingness to accept Elizabeth despite the inferiority of her connections is a triumph of conventional romantic-novel expectations.    One of the most striking examples of Austen's satire is her emphasis on reason, as opposed to the wanton passion lauded into the bulk of romantic novels. Lydia and Wickham's marriage is seen as a triumph of their "passions" over their "virtue", and she is certain that "little permanent happiness" can arise from such a union. This is exemplified by Wickham's continuance of his extravagant habits, and the degeneracy of any feelings between them to indifference. The indifference Mr Bennet has for his wife, and the unsatisfactorine... ...Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1983. Jane Austen Info Page. Henry Churchyard. U of Texas, Austin. 23 Nov. 2000.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   <http://www.pemberly.com/janeinfo/janeinfo/html>. Kaplan, Deborah.   Structures of Status: Eighteenth-Century Social Experience as Form in Courtesy Books and Jane Austen's Novels. Diss. University of Michigan, 1979. Monaghan, David.   Jane Austen Structure and Social Vision.   New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980. Poplawski, Paul.   A Jane Austen Encyclopedia.   Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. Ward, David Allen. "Pride and Prejudice." Explicator. 51.1: (1992). Wright, Andrew H. "Feeling and Complexity in Pride and Prejudice." Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1966. 410-420.

Minicase San Pico

San Pico is a rapidly growing Latin American developing country. The country is blessed with miles of scenic beaches that have attracted tourists by the thousands in recent years to new resort hotels financed by joint ventures of San Pico businessmen and moneymen from the Middle East, Japan, and the United States. Additionally, San Pico has good natural harbors that are conducive for receiving imported merchandise from abroad and exporting merchandise produced in San Pico and other surrounding countries that lack access to the sea.Because of these advantages, many new businesses are being started in San Pico. Presently, stock is traded in a cramped building in La Cobijio, the nation's capital. Admittedly, the San Pico Stock Exchange system is rather archaic. Twice a day an official of the exchange will call out the name of each of the 43 companies whose stock trades on the exchange. Brokers wanting to buy or sell shares for their clients then attempt to make a trade with one another. This crowd trading system has worked well for over one hundred years, but the government desires to replace it with a new modern system that will allow greater and more frequent opportunities for trading in each company, and will allow for trading the shares of the many new start-up companies that are expected to trade in the secondary market. Additionally, the government administration is rapidly privatizing many state-owned businesses in an attempt to foster their efficiency, obtain foreign exchange from the sale, and convert the country to a more capitalist economy.The government believes that it would conduct this privatization faster and perhaps at more attractive prices if it had a modern stock exchange facility where the shares of the newly privatized companies will eventually trade. You are an expert in the operation of secondary stock markets and have been retained as a consultant to the San Pico Stock Exchange to offer your expertise in modernizing the stock market. What w ould you advise? Explain. Most new and renovated stock exchanges are being established these days as either a partially or fully automated trading system.A fully automated system is especially beneficial for a small to medium size country in which there is only moderate trading in most issues. Such a system that deserves special note is the continuous National Integrated Market system of New Zealand. This system is fully computerized and does not require a physical structure. Essentially all buyers and sellers of a stock enter through their broker into the computer system the number of shares they desire to buy or sell and their required transaction price. The system is updated constantly as new purchase or sale orders are entered into system.The computer constantly searches for a match between buyer and seller, and when one is found a transaction takes place. This type of system would likely serve San Pico’s needs very well. There is existing technology to implement, the bug s have been worked out in other countries, and it would satisfy all the demands of the demands of the San Pico government and easily accommodate growth in market activity MINI CASE: SARA LEE CORP. ’S EUROBONDS The International Finance in Practice boxed reading in the chapter discussed a three-year $100 million Eurobond issue by Sara Lee Corporation.The article also mentions other bond issues recently placed by various foreign divisions of Sara Lee. What thoughts do you have about Sara Lee’s debt financing strategy? Suggested Solution to Sara Lee Corp. ’s Eurobonds Sara Lee is the ideal candidate to issue Eurobonds. The company has worldwide name recognition, and it has an excellent credit rating that allows it to place new bond issues easily. By issuing dollar denominated Eurobonds to Swiss investors, Sara Lee can bring new issues to market much more quickly than if it sold domestic dollar denominated bonds.Moreover, the Eurodollar bonds likely sell at a lower yield than comparable domestic bonds. Additionally, it appears as if Sara Lee is raising funds in a variety of foreign currencies. Sara Lee most likely has large cash inflows in these same currencies that can be used to meet the debt service obligations on these bond issues. Thus Sara Lee is finding a use for some of its foreign currency receipts and does not have to be concerned with the exchange rate uncertainty of these part of its foreign cash inflows.

Case Studies Bus Law Essay

1. How did the court determine that the offer was sufficiently definite? The offer of the Wells Fargo Business Credit, Inc. was submitted to Nebraska Beef in the form of a letter. When Nebraska Beef engaged in accepting a line of credit from Wells Fargo they entered into a written credit agreement that outlined the terms of the line of credit and the over-advance which contained additional and progressive fees for each additional over-advance loan (the amount over the initial credit limit). With each of the three over-advance lines of credit or advances of money that Nebraska Beef took out with Wells Fargo, a formal written amendment to the original credit agreement was provided. Thus even though there were no new agreed upon terms, it is a sufficiently definite agreement in that Nebraska Beef evidenced their acknowledgement of additional fees through these three previous advances and further they acknowledge receipt of information stating these additional fees. In fact it was stated in the case that â€Å"an offer may be inferred wholly or partly from words spoken or written or from the conduct of the parties or a combination thereof.† In this case clearly the conduct of Nebraska Beef indicates an acknowledgement of additional fees based on their previous advances and the associated fees. In the May advances, Wells Fargo simply charged the same additional fees as were in place in the third advancement and then at the end of the month (23rd) they sent a letter that Nebraska Beef acknowledges receiving; outlined the increase of the advancement fees. Nebraska beef continued to take advances throughout May and in this regard the offer was not only sufficiently definite but a unilateral contract existed (a promise for performance). 2.How did Nebraska Beef indicate its acceptance? The Nebraska Beef ultimately engaged in an a agreed contract or ‘acceptance’ of the terms through their action of accessing or taking funds through the over-advance program and thus made Nebraska Beef subject to additional fees through the provisions of the additional amendments. Nebraska Beef accepts by using the money offered through the over-advance by Wells Fargo and continuing to take multiple options of the over the credit line-advances. This is ‘accepting’ the terms of the contract because they exercised their right to the funds and in doing so ‘accept’ the terms of the advance which include additional fees. Chapter 14: Register.com, Inc. v. Verico, Inc. Case Concept Review: 1.Why did the court conclude that Verio accepted the terms of the legend? In this case the court ruled that Verio received daily notices of the conditions of the legend. This implies Verio accepted the terms of the legend at the very least after his initial use, because he continued to access and use the data after the fact of the notice. Although the initial use produced terms after he accessed the WHOIS data and was potentially unaware that the register had conditions for the use of the data until after he received it, Verio admits to being aware of the conditions after the first use and continued to access the data several times a day and repeatedly was sent the notice of the terms of the conditions thereafter. So, once these terms were evidenced after the initial transaction, every transaction thereafter would be subject to the conditions of the data and its use and Verio by continuing to access the data is subject to these conditions. By simply continuing to use and acquire the data, Verio is accepting the terms of the legend. The conditions were prov ided in writing and Verio continued to use this service therefore, his actions demonstrate acceptance of the terms. 2.In another section of the opinion, the court stated that there was no reason why Verio be required to â€Å"click† acceptance of the terms? Based on the material presented above, why do you believe that the court did not impose a â€Å"click† requirement? It does seem as though a ‘click’ requirement would have kept the case out of court, however, as demonstrated in the material and the information provided above, the result would not have been different. Essentially, I believe the court did not impose a ‘click’ requirement because the term notifications are sent to the businesses making the data inquiries and after the data is received notifications for terms of the acceptable use of the data are provided in writing to the businesses. Therefore, by accessing and accepting the data, the actions of the business demonstrate an acceptance to the outlined conditions and therefore no ‘click’ is required. Using the data has certain provisions that are outlined in written notices and companies accepting the data are subject to complying with these provisions. There is an offer to provide the data with provisions for use and acceptance to receive the data and comply with their written acceptable use polic y. ~No click necessary. Chapter 15:Louisa W. Hamer v. Franklin Sidway, as Executor, etc. Case Concept Review: 1. What did the nephew promise? The nephew promised to keep from drinking and smoking, swearing, and playing cards or billiards for money until his twenty first birthday in exchange for a payment of $5000 from his uncle. The $5000 was to be paid to the nephew by the uncle after he turned twenty-one, if he refrained from all of the above actions during the time period prior to turning twenty-one. In this case the nephew kept his promise and his proper execution of the agreement was acknowledged by the uncle in a written correspondence. 2. Why was the nephew’s promise sufficient to qualify as consideration? The nephew’s promise was sufficient to qualify as consideration because in order for there to be consideration, there has to be detriment. In this case, the court ruled that there was detriment to the nephew because he had to give up his right to freely engage in smoking and drinking and in promising to do that he is stating he is giving up this right and accepting the offer and in executing the acceptance he can’t smoke or drink which is something he had not been formally obligated to do (thus constituting a detriment). He had a right to drink, smoke, swear or play cards or billiards for money and he was served a detriment by giving up this right and entering into the agreement with his uncle to forgo these options. The other element in consideration would be the legal benefit that is gained. This occurs when something is received that the party did not have a former legal right to receive. In this case the judge found that the uncle (who made the promise to pay) was benefited â€Å"in a legal sense.† The courts further stated that â€Å"it is enough that something is promised, done, forborne or suffered by the party to whom the promise is made as consideration for the promise made to him.† Additionally, the uncle wrote back acknowledging that the nephews promise was adequately executed per the terms of the agreement and per the nephew and uncle’s agreement, the nephew was entitled to the sum of money promised to him ($5000).There was acknowledged and agreed upon, full performance of the promise. The case was fairly straightforward once it was established that in fact consideration was met in the case.

Demographic Paper Essays

Demographic Paper Essays Demographic Paper Essay Demographic Paper Essay Running head: DEMOGRAPHIC PAPER Demographic Paper Gabija Nezabitauskaite University Of Phoenix Cindy Nettestad Perkins HCS/490 3/31/2011 Demographic Paper Population demographics in the United States are experiencing increasing changes that may affect health care and its practice. Changes in population demographics do bring diversity in culture, economics, religion and believes, education and social disparity. According to Yali and Revensons, (2004), â€Å"Given the current levels of social and racial disparities in health and the likelihood that these disparities will not decrease under the current health system, we presume that as the American population continues to change, these disparities will have an even greater impact on health â€Å"(pg. 147). The expansive changes in population demographics can and will affect the health care in various ways. In the following paragraphs the senior management team can become familiar with the identified targeted population, data about this population demographics, the general impact that changing demographics may have on the health care market, and the ways the changes of demographics of this particular population will affect health care. Moreover, a few keys of health related- challenges to this population will be analyzed including the care costs, the effects of chronic disease wellness program and is effects on the costs for this demographics will be discusses. Last, the senior management team can finalize their reading with the writer’s opinion about these demographics effects on marketing needs and services, and how these challenges can be addressed. Targeted population and demographics data The number of aging population is substantial increasing, particularly the ones in their oldest age, who are the highest demanders for health care consumption. The age of world’s population is increasing for a few reasons. The decline in fertility and the increased life expectancy result in increased numbers of elderly also called the â€Å"Baby Boomer Age†. Hence aged population uses the public health system and social and medical services the most, in compare to a younger population. For example, many older adults are affected by chronic diseases, have any sort of disability that leads to an increased long-term health care costs. According to CDC, (2003), â€Å"In the United States, the proportion of the population aged over 65 years is projected to increase from 12. 4% in 2000 to 19. 6% in 2030. The number of person aged over 65 years is expected to increase from approximately 35 million in 2000 to an estimated 71 million in 2030, and the number of persons aged 80 years is expected to increase from 9. 3 million in 2000 to 19. 5 million in 2030† (para. 2). States as California, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida contain the largest numbers of older population. We are experiencing the demographic change that is highly influenced by low fertility and delayed mortality rather than the other way around. Thus the result of such a change links to demographic transition impacting the worldwide age distribution. Demographic impact on the health care market Aged population has many specific demands on health care impacting the health care market. For instance, pharmaceutical companies are more concentrating on manufacturing drugs for older generation. The advertisement on TV is aiming 70 % percent more for older audience rather than younger audience. Besides drug advertisement, long-term care facilities, and insurances such as Medicare that serves only the elderly, are booming on TV, magazines, and news papers. Such demographics also affect the orthopedic market. For example, because the elderly population in the US is increasing hence there is higher incidence of musculoskeletal conditions that only happens with aging. Therefore the orthopedic occupation is becoming very important because of the high demand. Hence the health care market is focusing on targeted population that affects health care delivery and consumption. Why and how the demographics of aged population affect health care/increased health care and prescriptions, and long-term care costs Aged population will and already is impacting the health care, as it drives the health care costs up. For example, some medical statistics show, persons 65 and over consume three to five times more health care costs, that the ones who are younger than 65. According to CDC, (2003), â€Å"†¦the rapid growth in the number of older persons, coupled with continued advances in medical technology, is expected to create upward pressure on health- and long-term-care spending† (para. 8). The biggest concern of the effects on the health care is the imposed challenge associated with long- term care on families and public resources. For instance, the expenditures for long-term care are rapidly increasing, placing a burden for public financing. As of 2001, $132 billion dollars were spend for public programs including Medicaid and Medicare, of which 60% were covered by the federal government and 30 by patients and their families. Another concern in the health care industry challenging the seniors is the rise in costs for prescription drugs. One of the main reasons why the pharmaceuticals are becoming more and more expensive is the aging population and the increased use of expensive specialty medications. Chronic disease wellness program affect the costs for this demographic Chronic disease wellness programs are very important for such demographics as seniors because this group of age is increasing as proportion of the entire population and contributes to health care cost escalation. Wellness programs are necessary for the elderly because it helps to improve their wellbeing. For example, such programs include increased physical activity, healthy nutrition, elimination of smoking and alcohol consumption. Hence the issue on utilization in such programs is the elevated expenditures that reflect on reduced in-patient admissions. As mentioned above the demographics of seniors are rapidly changing, and more beneficiaries are enrolling in Medicare. As of 2011 about 46 million people are receiving benefits, by the 2030 it is estimated that about 78 million people will be enrolled. According to Coberley, Rula, and Pope (2011), â€Å"Over 95 percent of the amounts currently spent by Medicare on the nation’s senior population is consumed by beneficiaries with one or more chronic diseases. These factors, taken together and notwithstanding the reduced costs projected as a result of health care reform, have led the Medicare Trustees to estimate that the program will be insolvent by 2029† (pg. 45). Another concern that has an impact to the cost for chronic disease wellness program is the increase in overweight people who sooner or later will suffer from diabetes. Current statistics from CDC show an increase in diabetes patients from 8 per 1000 people as of 2008, to 15 per 1000 in 2050. Marketing needs and/or services needed for aged population As we discussed above, chronic disease wellness program are elevating health care costs for seniors because of a high demand for such programs. Hence a solution would be an increased marketing and services for wellness programs that would help the pre-seniors before their retirement and to prevent chronic disease or at least mellow the symptoms with a healthier life style. Therefore, marketing various wellness programs, including fitness and healthy nutrition would prevent seniors and the Medicare from costly treatment of chronic disease. For example, few studies showed that health care related expenses resulted in reduction because of the association with community based physical activity program. Hence seniors with diabetes should have a particular interest to focus on wellness programs because of the financial impact of diabetes on Medicare expenditures. Marketing needs for wellness aiming the elderly should be striving. The individual patient, the community, and society as a whole addressing these challenges The current demographic situation with the aged raises alarms about the ability of the health care system to cope with the future health care needs. This particular demographic is facing following challenges, the increased healthcare issues including chronic diseases, unstable healthcare insurance coverage, high medical expenses, and debt problems. Hence given the circumstances older people before approaching retirement could do the following to address these challenges. For instance, add special health accounts of Medicare for expenses that are not covered, eliminate the waiting period, which is two years, for disabled individuals to be covered by Medicare, and allow the elderly to enroll early helped by tax credits for low income people. Community and the whole society should focus on healthy lifestyle to prevent from chronic diseases. Public health should make available and promote fitness-based wellness programs, healthy nutrition shops including farmer’s markets, and social outdoor activities. Conclusion The discussed demographics of aged population reflect various issues in health care. The number of elderly is rapidly increasing for two reasons, lower birth rate, and higher life span. Some of the issues in health care affected by the seniors include the cost elevation of health care services, prescription drugs, and long-term care. Chronic disease wellness programs are experiencing reduced in-patient admissions, as the costs became a burden for the Medicare beneficiaries. Marketing service is highly focusing on promoting fitness-based wellness programs, and chronic disease prevention incentives. There is much what an individual, the community and the whole society can do to address the challenges that this demographic is facing. References Yali, A. M. , and Revenson, T. (2004). How changes in Population Demographics Will Impact Health Psychology: Incorporating a Broader Notion of Cultural Competence Into the Field. Retrieved from, http://web. gc. cuny. edu/Psychology/socpersonality/TAR/docs/04HowChangesinPop. pdf CDC. (2003). Public Health and Aging: Trends in Aging-United States and Worldwide. Retrieved from, cdc. gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5206a2. htm Coberley, C. , Rula, E. , and Pope, J. (2011). Effectiveness of Health and Wellness Initiatives for Seniors. Retrieved from, healthways. com/uploadedfiles/popHealthManagement/EffectivenessofHealthWellnessForSeniors. pdf

Your Guide to Getting More LinkedIn Endorsements

Your Guide to Getting More LinkedIn Endorsements You’ve set up your LinkedIn profile and selected every skill you could possibly add to your profile. Now you have to get endorsements. What’s the big deal about LinkedIn endorsements? To start, they can show to a potential employer that your skills are legitimate. And an endorsement without a lengthy added recommendation takes but a click- a mere two seconds. So what’s the best strategy for getting those endorsements?First of all, you should aim for quality, not quantity. Pick the skills that are most relevant to your current and desired career stage. Having a million endorsements of your social media skills or Photoshop ability is not going to help you move forward as an accountant.After you’ve added your most relevant skills and weeded out the ones that will have little or no impact on your career, here are a few steps you can follow as a guide to getting endorsed.Increase the Section’s ProminenceMove your endorsements section up in your profile, using the â€Å"up† arrow in the Edit function under Skills Expertise. The best place might be just below your summary section, near the top. This is particularly effective if you update your status frequently (which you should), as people will be more apt to visit your profile and have the chance to endorse you.Practice GenerosityGet the reciprocity going by endorsing other people. Start with the people you work with on a daily basis, then move onto people whose work you admire. Try not to endorse too many connections you are not directly acquainted with. The idea is, your connections will feel a wee boost from your endorsement and naturally be inclined to return the favor.Just AskIt’s perfectly legitimate to ask a few of your coworkers or past coworkers to endorse you for skills they would have seen in action. And state explicitly that you’d be happy to return the favor in helping them increase their visibility somehow. This is also a good way of ensuring tha t you get the right endorsements, the ones that will be most helpful and put your skills in the best light.Ask people who would already have a good opinion of you work and who would be the appropriate type of person to endorse the quality of what you do best.Optimize Your ProfileThe more people who see your profile, the better. You’ll get more endorsements, and then more viewers actually seeing those endorsements. There are plenty of resources around for how to use SEO to optimize your LinkedIn traffic.Say ThanksWhen people endorse you, a wee thank you is a very nice touch. It’s a great way to make a genuine connection out of a casual one, and can breed more reciprocity.Remember: keep your skills updated and sleekly tailored to your goals, and make sure to keep working to drive up your best possible endorsements for a successful career.

Aristotle vs. Plato Essay

one of the most influential minds in doctrine including political theory is besides known as the legendary Greek philosopher. logician. scientist. and pupil of Plato. Aristotle studied in Plato’s Academy in Athens. Plato being the pupil of Socrates and besides known as the male parent of political theory helped educate and determine the head of immature Aristotle who so became known as the first political scientist. It was the diverse ambiance in which Aristotle was raised. along with his instruction and so his many travels that gave him the deepness of being able to see and see the good and the mistakes in the universe. Aristotle saw doctrine within the physical universe. He believed that our truths came from physically interrupting down systems and analyzing them to understand them. He had experience with travelling and seeing different universe governments. Aristotle believed one had to interrupt things down through empirical observation and scientifically. Therefore deriving his rubric of political scientist who used scientific methods to analyse and reason his beliefs. ideas. and sentiments. Aristotle believed that one must believe critically and rationally utilizing inductive ground and an empiricist attack. Aristotle studied over 100 governments and analyzed which 1s were the strongest. how they functioned. and which best served the people. He concluded that the best type of authorities government was that of one with a strong in-between category to equilibrate the upper and lower categories to make the most stable and merely society. He believed that this government would be a combination of facets from a civil order ( an elected authorities that has the bulk of the common people’s best involvement ) . nobility ( regulation by the rich but with the people’s involvement in head ) . and monarchy ( a individual swayer if there is the possible that that metropolis has a qualified swayer as such which Aristotle admits is rare and can easy turn into dictatorship ) . Aristotle felt that most people did non hold adequate intelligence or power to manage running the authorities so it is best to set those in power who do. In his work. The Politics. Aristotle is explains that a metropolis is made up of many people. many persons who possess different positions and values. It is the diverse group of the metropolis that makes it a metropolis. If a metropolis were to go more and more a unit so it would lose its singularity in sentiments and do up and get the better of the full definition of a metropolis. Aristotle believes that people are entitled to their ain ideas. sentiments. and ownership. He states in his work ( Politics. page 40-41 ) that is non in the nature of a metropolis to be a unit. Aristotle believes that metropoliss are made up different parts and different entities that work together as a whole. They do non work as one but instead work together. Aristotle provinces that utmost fusion of a metropolis is non a good thing. Aristotle states that â€Å"The metropolis exists for the interest of a good life† . significance that a metropolis is at that place to map as an mercantile establishment to run into the demands of each of its citizens. Each citizen has his ain demand to be met. Aristotle realizes that what makes one individual happy may non do the other happy. â€Å"It is obvious that a metropolis which goes on going more and more of a unit will finally discontinue to be a metropolis at all. A metropolis. by its nature. is some kind of plurality† ( Aristotle. p. 39 ) . Aristotle is reasoning that if a metropolis becomes more and more incorporate so merely one voice is heard and it will so miss the really alone constituents of different voices. maps. and positions that made it a metropolis in the first topographic point. Aristotle believed that a metropoliss intent was to heighten plurality. a diversified metropolis that comes together to map. Known as the first political philosopher. Plato saw all physical things to be illusional. to be â€Å"a shadow of reality† ( Simile of a Cave ) and he stated that worlds are falsely led by their senses. Because of this. harmonizing to Plato- merely a society lead by Philosophers is a merely society ( Republic 473-475 ) . Plato believes that philosophers are the lone 1s to seek out absolute truth and justness and will hence be more educated and more inclined to do the best determinations for the group. At the same clip Plato thought that every individual had the possible to obtain ground. truth. and cognition by â€Å"stepping out of the cave and seeing the â€Å"light† . Plato believed that if people were educated decently so they would do good determinations. He believed people’s basic nature to be good. Whereas Aristotle tended to more of a realist and knew that some people did non hold it in them to â€Å"reason† or to â€Å"see the light† . In his book. The Republic. Plato discusses his belief in making a metropolis like utopia where there are no categories and everyone portions everything including adult females. kids and belongings. Plato’s positions are a bit unrealistic because he seems to non take into consideration human nature. Worlds are of course competitory and with clip would go more individualistic. Plato would non hold with Aristotle’s transition that a metropolis that grows into a unit will finally discontinue to be a metropolis. Plato on the reverse would province that the more of a unit the metropolis becomes. the more of Utopia it will be with everyone in common idea and understanding. common ownership of land. animate beings. and adult females. Plato’s ideal metropolis was that of a Utopian that would be governed by philosophers. He desired a perfect society with no jobs where people were happy. His society would dwell of three categories: swayers. aides and labourers. The swayers would be the philosopher male monarchs. would ever govern the province. The aides ( warriors ) would support the province and the labourers would be responsible for material production of goods needed by the province. Plato believed that the philosopher male monarchs should run the province being that they are the wisest and best possible campaigners. Plato was wholly molded by his instructor Socrates. taking on all of his ideas and doctrines whereas Plato’s pupil Aristotle took on many of his ain decisions and ideas many times beliing Plato’s. Plato was more of a dreamer while Aristotle was more of a realist. Where Plato sought out the â€Å"Utopia ideal situation† . Aristotle sought out how to break the current state of affairs. Another difference about Aristotle and Plato’s attack is that Plato is more focussed on the flawlessness of the universe and how people come to cognize about this. While Aristotle focal points more on the observations in nature and he knows non everything in nature is perfect. Aristotle. unlike Plato. was non focussed or concerned about the thought of a perfect society ; alternatively he wanted to better upon the 1 that he was portion of during his being. He believed that society should endeavor to use the best system it can achieve. He felt that Utopia was unrealistic and pointless. It would be best that society was at its highest possible and you can merely better upon the bing one. Therefore the integrity of a metropolis would decrease the individualism and different constituents that unambiguously make up a metropolis. therefore in the terminal the devastation of the really significance and map of what a metropolis ought to be.

Project Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Project Paper - Essay Example The next part will highlight the discussion that happened between Mary Wollstonecraft and Catherine the Great during the former’s visit to Russia. Through their dialogue, we intend to learn, firstly, about their individual profiles; secondly, their opinions on the role of women in their societies; and lastly, their insightful views on the ideal role of women in society. Catherine the Great: Good day! Have a seat. I have summoned you here to have an interesting talk about your recently released treatise entitled â€Å"A Vindication of the Rights of the Woman†. But to formally introduce myself to you, I am Catherine the Great, Queen of Russia. Just like you, I consider myself to be ‘enlightened’ given my firm educational background which I was able to receive through hard work and strong determination (Smitha, 2000). I have been married to Emperor Peter III, who, sadly, has died in an accident. Recognizing the need of our people, I decided to ascend the throne and became their Queen. As their leader, my vision has always been to widen the influence of Orthodox Christianity all over Europe. This is why my kingdom invests heavily on strengthening our military. Aside from this, I also believe that societal order could only be attained through absolute monarchy. Thus, I intend to serve my people as long as I live. But enough about me. Please tell me more about you and your work. Mary Wollstonecraft: Firstly, Your Majesty, I would like to express my sincere thanks for requesting me to personally visit you here in Russia. But just to give you a short background about me, I consider myself to be a scholar. I could say that reading and writing have always fascinated me. For one, I enjoy reading the Bible and analyzing its primary teachings. Aside from this, I have also been a reader of the works of Shakespeare and Milton. Although it has been hard for me to obtain a formal educational training, I still

Energy drinks effect Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Energy drinks effect - Research Paper Example The main loss of water from the body is due to perspiration According to various studies if one loses water up to two or more percent of ones body weight (water makes 60% of the body weight) due to sweating (If a man/woman weigh 50 Kilograms and if s/he loses one liter sweat), that will lead to a drop in blood volume. This will force the heart to work harder to pump the blood through the arteries. This is the extreme situation of dehydration. This leads to muscle cramps. The functioning of the brain heavily depends on water. Thus dehydration affects the brain leading to fatigue and dizziness. If not re-hydrated immediately this situation may even lead to heat illnesses like Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion. In addition to excessive sweating, other causes of dehydration are inadequate fluid intake, failure to replace fluid losses during and after the exercises, working out in dry hot weather, in the open, and drinking only when one is thirsty. There was a time when water was the only or one of the few sources of hydration. But water as a hydrant was found to have a lot of limitations. The major draw back of water as a hydrant is that it doesn’t replace the salts or electrolytes lost during perspiration. Water easily quenches thirst even before the body gets re-hydrated. Only few people like the taste of the water; most find the taste relatively bland. More over, drinking too much water can, though rarely, cause hyponatremia or water intoxication. It was these limitations of water as a hydrant that forced researchers to develop energy drinks especially for sports. Energy drinks or Sports drinks with their typical sweet-tart taste combination don’t quench thirst. So one is likely to drink larger volumes of energy/ sports drinks, compared to water which helps to maintain a better level of hydration. POSITIVE EFFECTS: Electrolytes or salts and Carbohydrates are the major components of an energy drink or sports drink. Protein is another component

Beginnings of Bionic Flexible, stretchable electronics could launch Essay - 1

Beginnings of Bionic Flexible, stretchable electronics could launch cyborg era - Essay Example A common goal of these groups of scientists is to develop products that are efficient in performance. These are aimed to aid in the deliverance of therapeutic regimens and also in patient examination for vital symptoms (Rosen 18). Rosen goes ahead to provide examples of ongoing strategies in this interesting field combining physics, biomedical and biological sciences. For instance, she gives novel innovations carried out by a scientist at the University of Illinois. In his study, the group has focused in the advancement and development of gadgets that can detect unpredictable beats or spasms and bring these impulses back to normal. Such devices are beneficial in the treatment and control of epileptic seizures that account for neurobehavioral comorbidities worldwide (Rosen, 18). The incorporation of electronics within the human body continue to provide phenomenal advancement in terms of medical care and treatment. The integration of easy to bend electronics into balloon catheters, surgical gloves and stitches is extremely important complex health conditions diagnosis. Rosen implies that although these studies possess a brighter future, they are equally faced with myriad of challenges. This is because most of these studies make use of silicon that has also been used in the manufacture of computer chips. A disadvantage of this material is attributed to its mechanical properties of brittleness and hardness. However, this material has dominated global research in terms of its purification, doping and manufacturing of devices out of the silicon. As expected, research continues to go on with the aim of making silicon blend within the human body. For instance, Rogers and his research group are devising ways of coming up with ultrathin ribbons out of silicon. Such ribbons are capable of stretching and being flexible without any breakage tendencies. These silicon ribbons have been used in epidermal research whereby they have been used in sensing changes in

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Articles - Article Example Besides, it provides ample examples on emphasis given to the strategy of multinationals in enhancing the profits of the company. In the introductory section, the article provides a bird’s eye view on multinational companies, its decision making process, factors that influence the decision making process and foreign markets. In the first part, the article deals with the various factors that influence decision making process of multinational companies which seek entry into foreign markets. In addition, the article tests the validity of the framework used in decision making by undertaking firm level research by an empirical method that focuses on the micro as well as the macro factors. Summing up, the learning from the article is about how multinationals often make choices that are driven by top-down approaches rather than bottom-up approaches. The article is definitely useful for anyone seeking to understand the rationale behind why multinationals choose to enter specific markets and why they ignore some other markets. In conclusion, the article is definitely worth reading and adds to the literature that is available on the entry modes of multinationals and particularly to those in the third world countries. The article makes very relevant points about the nuts and bolts of decision making when it comes to entry into foreign markets. The article is an important contribution to the existing literature on how multinationals base their decisions on which markets to enter and the factors that go into this decision making process. For instance, the entry strategy of multinationals into a specific market might be dictated by considerations of geography and to counter completion from its international rivals. This is the strategy that the cola majors, Coke and Pepsi use to enter specific markets and the entry mode is often dictated by factors that include the

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Business Law - Essay Example In that case, the Court rendered the term unenforceable because it appeared only at the bottom of the web page after the download button, depriving the customer the opportunity to read it first. This is not true however, in the present case because Dell not only advertised the terms in its website but also enclosed a written copy of it with the delivery of the computer to the customer. Generally, the courts will find for arbitration if it clearly appears that an agreement thereto was reached between the parties and even if there are doubts such as in the case of NCR Corp v Korala Associates, Ltd 512 F 3d 807 (2008) but may decide against it, even if there was agreement, if it is obviously one-sided such as in the case of Circuit City Stores Inc v Adams 279 F 3d 889 (2002) (cited Miller & Jentz 2009 52, 53). The present case, however, is distinguished from similar cases where the court held shrink-wrap agreements and arbitration clauses valid by its absence of an express disclaimer informing the customer of the specific method by which to express his or her rejection of the terms, usually a return of the product as was in the case of ProCD, Inc v Zeidenberg 908 F Supp 640 (1996). The implication of this is that DeFontes has no notice that a rejection of the terms should be expressed by returning the product and therefore, as to her, the arbitration term is not bind ing. She therefore, has good chances of dismissing Dell’s application for

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The Economic Development of Eastern Asia Countries and the State Intervention - Essay Example Economists attribute the success of the Eastern Asian region to a number of factors and models. Interventions put together by individual States have also had roles to play in the economic development of the region. This essay therefore reviews the economic development of Eastern Asia countries and the State Interventions. Models Accounting for Economic Development in Eastern Asia A number of economic models have been instrumental in the economic development of most countries of the world. Indeed, economic development is not achieved by coincidence or by chance. Countries all over the world, including Eastern Asia countries have had to depend on one economic model at one point in time or the other. Some of these models have been discussed below. Generally, the models are different from the state interventions in the sense that whereas the economic models refer to a collective number of economic strategies, the state interventions refer to specific plans implemented to solve specific e conomic problems. This is to say that models work on long term basis whereas interventions work on short term basis. Factors of Production The International Monetary Fund put labour, capital and technology together and refer to them as factors of production (Sarel, 1996). The region of Eastern Asia shifted a lot of focus on its economic growth strategy into improving the human capital base, making capital available and advancing in technology. This way, not only did it take advantage of its large population (Asia is the most populated continent in the world) but also equipped the population to have the needed skills to lead the new world of industrialization. In some circles of the economic world, debate has always raged as to which of the factors of production to give prominence to in the economic development model. But clearly, all three factors are interrelated and equally important. Empowering human resource through education is an effective way of ensuring that population growt h does not become a curse but a blessing. As Asia and Eastern Asia for that matter is one of the world’s most populated regions, if efforts are not made to resource the human capital with requisite skills and knowledge to play contributing roles in the economic drive, the populace would become a liability instead of an asset. It is also when the populace are adequately skilled that they can made judicious use of the capital and technology that is pumped into the economy. Macroeconomic Stability The region adopted a model of macroeconomic stability instead of microeconomic growth. Microeconomic stability could not have been adopted as a model because it focuses more on short term economic relief than long term strategies. In their quest to achieving this, the economic climate of the region was positioned in a way that ensured that inflation was kept low, real exchange was made stable and competitive and government budgets deficit and foreign debts were kept within acceptable r ange. The long term impact that these policies on the macroeconomic state of the region was that it created very conducive working for investors to choose the Eastern Asian trade corridor instead of other trade corridors. As these investors established their businesses, employed citizens of Eastern Asia countries, paid taxes and undertook social intervention projects, the economic growth of the

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Business Law - Essay Example In that case, the Court rendered the term unenforceable because it appeared only at the bottom of the web page after the download button, depriving the customer the opportunity to read it first. This is not true however, in the present case because Dell not only advertised the terms in its website but also enclosed a written copy of it with the delivery of the computer to the customer. Generally, the courts will find for arbitration if it clearly appears that an agreement thereto was reached between the parties and even if there are doubts such as in the case of NCR Corp v Korala Associates, Ltd 512 F 3d 807 (2008) but may decide against it, even if there was agreement, if it is obviously one-sided such as in the case of Circuit City Stores Inc v Adams 279 F 3d 889 (2002) (cited Miller & Jentz 2009 52, 53). The present case, however, is distinguished from similar cases where the court held shrink-wrap agreements and arbitration clauses valid by its absence of an express disclaimer informing the customer of the specific method by which to express his or her rejection of the terms, usually a return of the product as was in the case of ProCD, Inc v Zeidenberg 908 F Supp 640 (1996). The implication of this is that DeFontes has no notice that a rejection of the terms should be expressed by returning the product and therefore, as to her, the arbitration term is not bind ing. She therefore, has good chances of dismissing Dell’s application for

A Tentative Study of Trademark Translation Essay Example for Free

A Tentative Study of Trademark Translation Essay Abstract: Trademark is a special kind of language signs. It is the concentration of commodities’ distinct characteristics, the core of commodities’ culture, and the powerful weapon for an enterprise to participate in international competitions. With the development of globalization and the increase in international trade, the products of importing and exporting strengthen day by day; the translation of trademarks is gaining more and more attention. Nowadays, more and more people have realized that a good translation of a trademark in promoting sales is crucial to the development of international markets and profits making. According to some instances of trademark translation, this thesis summarizes some main characteristics of trademark, and discusses the principles and some general methods of trademark translation. Key words: Trademark; characteristics; translation principles; translation methods : , , , , , , , , , , : ; ; ; Introduction According to R. Heis, an American economist: â€Å"A brand name, i. e. trademark is a name, form, sign, design or a combination of them that tells who makes it or who sells it, distinguishing that product from those made or sold by others. † (Guo Guilong Zhang Hongbo, 2008: 100) A trademark is just like a product’s name, which is the representative of the image of a company and the symbol of quality. In promoting sales, the trademark plays a very important role in arousing consumer’s desire to shop, bringing the huge economic benefits and even in determining the survival of a company. With China’s joining to the WTO, China strengthens cooperation with other countries, including increasingly frequent economic and trade exchanges. How to introduce our products to foreign countries, bring foreign products into the domestic markets and conduct a successful sales business has become quite important. Therefore, a successful translation of trademark becomes urgent and necessary for the enterprises. While trademark translation is not only a simple conversion from one code to another, but a clear intention of the cross-language commercial, a special cross-cultural communication activity. Thus, it is vital for us to pay more attention to the principles and methods of trademark translation. Chapter1 The Characteristics of Trademark Though there are various definitions of trademark, they share something in common. In general, a trademark should be simple and easy to remember, and should be distinctive and favorably associative. 1. 1 Simple and Easy to Remember It is a basic requirement for a trademark to be simple and easy to spell. Choosing short and simple words for composing trademarks will help consumers comprehend them more easily, because simple and short words are easy to keep in memory. Nowadays, with the fast development of economy, more and more trademarks flood into the market, how could consumers memorize all of them? Therefore, if a trademark is short and easy to spell and memorize, it can occupy the market easily. In fact, most well-known trademarks are in short form, such as Nike, Sony, Apple and so on. 1. 2 Distinctive from Similar Products We all know that the purpose of using trademarks is to distinguish one product from others. Therefore, to be distinctive is another important characteristic of a trademark. Trademarks, in a sense, are equal to signs and reputations. Distinctiveness can help customers not to be easily confused with other trademarks in the market either by sound or appearance. Distinctive and typical words may be used to distinguish the relevant product from others. â€Å"Kodak† (camera) created by the manager, is distinctive and easy for the potential consumers to memorize. The Chinese famous trademark â€Å"Lenovo†( ),can easily be differentiated from other computers, because â€Å"Lenovo†, a coined word, can be associated with the word â€Å"legend† which is particular and attractive. Lenovo is more innovative than legend. Adventurous consumers will prefer that trademark distinguishes the relevant product from other computers with consummate ease. 1. 3 Arousing Favorable Association Most trademarks can arouse favorable association, which is an indispensable feature of trademark. Owing to the requirement of marketing, a trademark is not only a sign, but also an advertisement. It should arouse the favorable association and show the good quality to consumers. Some trademarks have inherent meaning and some have historic or cultural connotations, both of which can arouse favorable associations. â€Å"LUX† (soap) is a product of Unilever Company. â€Å"LUX†, a Latin word, means â€Å"sunshine†. So the consumer can associate it with â€Å"bright sunshine and healthy skin†. This trademark even let people imagine the romantic feeling on the summer beach. Whats more, consumers can associate â€Å"LUX† with â€Å"lucks† and â€Å"luxury† from its appearance and pronunciation. Thus, Unilever Company publicizes the good quality of its products by the favorable association of the trademark. From the above example, we can see that the inherent meaning of trademarks plays an important part in advertising and can arouse people’s desirable association and let them accept the products. Chapter 2 The Principles of Trademark Translation Trademark translation is an art as well as a science. It is a comprehensive process which is related to linguistics, translation theory, intercultural communication, aesthetics, and consumer psychology. Generally speaking, trademark translation is a complex task of compromising between the meanings of trademarks and their consumers. Therefore, to translate trademarks successfully, some principles should be taken into consideration. 2. 1 Reveal the Products Characteristics Usually, every product has its identification. Trademark translation should show the features and functions of the products, so that the buyers could immediately think of the usage of products when they see the trademarks. As has been discussed by Xu Hui and Cheng Zhendong, the characteristic of a product means that it has some basic elements which differ from those of others (Xu Hui, 2004:55-56). The translated brand name should match with the characteristics of products and show the idea of the original name. The characteristics of products not only distinguish from others, but also contain the ability to communicate with the consumers. Thus, in the process of translation, the translator should grasp the characteristics of the products, so as to promote the understanding of products for consumers, and help learn the characteristics and functions of the products by the first sight. For example, a trademark of suit-dress â€Å"Hope Show† is translated into â€Å" †, in which the word â€Å"? † instantly reflects in the products for the apparel category, and â€Å"? † add more promotion of a happy and peaceful feeling to the goods. The translation not only reflects the features of the product but also caters to consumers’ aesthetic taste. Nobody will have interest in products which they are not acquainted. A successful trademark translation should have the trait that customers can learn the category and characteristics of the product. Like â€Å"Nike†, the famous American brand of sports wears, is the name of the goddess Victory in Greek myth. According to its pronunciation, it can be translated into â€Å" † or â€Å" † in Chinese. However, these two names can’t reveal the characteristics of the product, but even give people a misunderstanding that â€Å"Nike† is some products for women. â€Å" † is better. â€Å"? † means something durable. As the sport wear, durability is equal to good quality. â€Å"? † implies that people can finally overcome difficulties and succeed, conforming with the connotation of Victory. These two words in Chinese show the features of the product perfectly. Another example is Procter Gambles antidandruff shampoo â€Å"Head Shoulders†. The translation â€Å" † means dandruff disappears when washed, and highlights the distinct characteristics of the product fully. Another two examples are â€Å"Sportsman† (bicycle) and â€Å"Unlsports† (sports shoes). The former is translated into â€Å"†, the latter into â€Å" †. If you are not familiar with the trademarks, who will associate it with their products? 2. 2 Choose the Appropriate Words As the symbol of products, trademarks should be simple and easy to remember and understandable for consumers. So in order to leave the best impression on consumers, translators should choose some appropriate words during the process of trademark translation. The more complicated words in the translation, the weaker the trademark sounds and the less memorable it becomes. For instance, McDonald’s was transliterated into â€Å"† in mainland of China before and now is displaced by â€Å" †. Also, in mainland, the brand name â€Å"Hewlett Packard† had a long translation of â€Å" - † for a long period. Now, the six-character version, long and meaningless, has been replaced by the two-character version â€Å" †. Balancing these two versions, we can see the latter is easier to pronounce and memorize. Moreover, â€Å" † contains more meanings and can stimulate more favorable e favorable association of the the productassociation of consumers. Similarly, â€Å"Head Shoulder†(shampoo) was transliterated into â€Å" † before and now a more compact and meaningful version â€Å" † is popular. â€Å"Stafanel†, the brand name for apparel from US, is translated into â€Å" † now. However, what about a two-character version â€Å" †? Also in China, â€Å"Mercedes-Benz†, the brand name for a quality car from Germany, was transliterated into â€Å"  · † before and yet is put into â€Å" † at present. A car from Great Britain â€Å"Rolls Royce† is translated into â€Å" † now instead of the former transliteration â€Å"  · †. The Chinese version for â€Å"Fair Child†, a semi-conductor from the US, was â€Å" † before and now is â€Å"  Ã¢â‚¬  instead. â€Å" † is easier to be pronounced and memorized than â€Å" † for â€Å"Nescafe† from Swiss. The upper new versions have replaced the old renderings because they are simple and easy to be accepted by consumers, in pronunciation, form and meaning. Easy acceptance by consumers finally promotes the sales of the products. On the contrary, some translations sound profane or may lead to negative associations in the Chinese language. Thus such translations would not be recognized and accepted by consumers. For examples, â€Å"Psorales†, a drug, was put into â€Å" † when just coming into China. No one knew what â€Å" † was and assumed it to be something discarded. It is not hard to imagine nobody would buy things that sound worn and useless. Later, it is replaced by â€Å" †,a more vivid and meaningful version, and its sales was improved afterwards. 2. 3 Analyze the Aesthetics Features Trademark translation should comply with the characteristics of morphology of trademark in the TL. â€Å"Getting the best out of the combination of beauty in meaning, sound and form is the internal requirement if we want to realize the associated function and the advertising function of a brand name†. (Tang Zhongshun, 2002:75-77) The translated trademark accordingly must be normative, elegant, vivid and visual. Firstly, â€Å"beauty of meaning† means the translated terms should produce an artistic conception through a favorable association of words or component words so that people will have rich and nice association and arouse the expectation and pursuit of wonderful things. We have the typical examples of â€Å"Sprite† (beverage) and â€Å"Tide† (washing power). Since â€Å"Sprite† was translated into â€Å" † in Chinese, this product has prevailed in China due to the brilliant color and abundant connotation. The translated term â€Å" † in sound is not only quite close to the pronunciation of the original brand name, but also makes people have a favorable association of lustration, neatness and tidiness, showing the sort and feature of the product. Secondly, â€Å"beauty of sound† means a brand name of the original and its translated version should basically share the same or similar pronunciation with the quality of sonority, rhythmization and musicality so that an aesthetically pleasing enjoyment is gained in hearing that brand name (Zhang Quan, 2004:77-79). There are many successfully translated versions fully reflect the beauty of sounds. Take â€Å"OMO† (washing power) and â€Å"CleanClear† (facial cleanser) for example. As â€Å"OMO† is translated into â€Å" †,it sounds like a compliment â€Å"great† in English. The translated term of â€Å"CleanClear†, â€Å" † makes good use of alliterative rhythmic reduplication in order to achieve a combination of phonetic rhythm and verve. Lastly, â€Å"beauty of form† means the translated trademarks should make the best of conciseness and simpleness in structure, namely using few syllables, readability and understandability of the words and avoiding difficult and seldom-using words. People prefer two or three words of translated versions because this structure better accords with the referential custom and aesthetic psychology. There are many famous translated brand names with the above feature, such as â€Å"HeadShoulders† (shampoo), â€Å"Avon† (cosmetic), â€Å"Johnsons† (cream) and so on. Especially the translated version â€Å" † is full of the characteristics of concision, elegance and vividness representing the feature and function of the product. 2. 4 Pay Attention to Cultural Differences Edward Taylor defined culture as â€Å"a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society. † (Taylor Edward B, 1871:36) Namely, the major factors contributing to the making of culture are the religions, habits, customs and history, which vary considerable from countries to countries. As a carrier of culture, language is an important part of culture which reflects the characteristics of a nation, which not only includes the nations historical and cultural background, but also contains the national outlook on life, lifestyles and ways of thinking. From the relationship between language and culture, it is obvious that translation is not only a process of transferring the source language into the target language, but also a process of a mutual communication and exchange between different cultures. Therefore, during the process of trademark translation, as language and culture are inseparable from each other, it is essential to pay more attention to cultural differences. 2. 4. 1. Differences in Religions Religions, myths, legends, and images from literary works are an in-separable part of culture. They are deeply rooted in culture and at the same time contribute a great deal to the formation of people’s concepts about certain objects. These elements, when involved in brand name translation, call for the translator’s sensitivity as well as flexibility in cultural adaptation in order that functional equivalence could be attained between the source brand name and the target brand name. For example, Goldlion was not well-liked when it first appeared in the Chinese market with the nameâ€Å" †. It is said that many people would not buy that product just because the name sounds very close toâ€Å" †in some Chinese dialects. Other people believe that the name was not well accepted because it resembles the sound ofâ€Å" †,which is also a taboo idea in China, especially in Hong Kong, where people display a particular liking for things with luck-bearing names. Anyway, the product did not sell well until the new nameâ€Å" †was adopted by Zeng Xianzi, a famous Chinese entrepreneur. He skillfully took apart the source brand name intoâ€Å"gold†andâ€Å"lion†. The first part was literally put intoâ€Å"? †to be faithful to the original, while the latter adopted the method of semantic transliteration and was put intoâ€Å" †,meaningâ€Å"bringing profit†. Such an auspicious name has helped a lot in building up the good fame of the product. 2. 4. 2 Differences in History. Every country has its own history. In the history, many historical incidents happened. These incidents have carved into the culture and have become a part of it. Being unaware of the history when translating a trademark will lead to failure. â€Å"Opium† is a brand of perfume. Actually in the western cul ention to hich reflects nd nice associationame, but also makes ation. things. he producr. ture, such kind of trademark name is popular, such as Poison, another perfume brand. However in China, â€Å" † has a negative meaning. The Chinese people experienced the shameful history related to opium since 1840, when the notorious Opium War broke out. Without the consideration of history, this brand encountered the resistance from the Chinese consumers. Finally, the trademark name â€Å" † was banned in China. 2. 4. 3 Differences in Customs and Habits Custom is one of the branches of culture reflecting the specific characteristics of a nation or parts of the nation. It is the sediment of long history and closely linked with the surroundings and the way of life. So some customs and habits exist in one culture but may be absent in another, which brings about an obstacle to Chinese-English brand name translation. Many Chinese brand names come from Chinese custom. One of the most famous rice wines named â€Å" † (Daughter Wine) is produced in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province of China. To Chinese customers, the brand name represents the happy events in one’s life, while they cannot arouse the same feeling in westerners if translated literally and that will absolutely cause cultural loss, because the western consumers do not know about the custom of the ancient Shaoxing. It is said that in ancient Shaoxing a jar of this wine was buried under the ground when a daughter was brought into the world. When the girl grew up and became a bride, the jar was dug out and presented to the guests attending the wedding. As the wine was uncapped, the smell of the wine spread far, and all guests became excited and congratulated the parents, so it was named â€Å" †. When a translator translate the trade mark, it is very necessary to reveal the cultural information of the brand names. It is not only easy for customers to know about the origin of the wine but accept it quickly, because any one from any country would like to equally appreciate the beautiful things, enjoy the happy feeling and desire success. Thus, in order to reveal the cultural information of this brand name, perhaps the translation â€Å"Daughter’s Wedding Wine† is more suitable. 2. 4. 4 Differences in the Attitudes towards Animals and Numbers People living in different cultures hold different attitudes and beliefs towards animals and numbers. What is considered a good omen in one culture may not symbolize the same in another. Therefore, it is generally advisable that people should not use this type of words to name the relative products, and when one translates existing brand names of this type, cultural adaptation may help him find a more proper target brand name. The difficulties caused by such words in brand name translation may be illustrated with the following example. As we know, the Chinese people often associate bats with good luck because the Chinese character â€Å"? †sounds the same asâ€Å"? †(meaningâ€Å"good fortune†). Some Chinese legends even say that when a bat lives 100 years, it turns white in color and hangs upside down from a tree, and eating that bat could bring a person longevity. A red bat foretells even better luck forâ€Å" †sounds exactly the same withâ€Å" †(being supremely fortunate). Some Chinese stick to the belief so much that they name their productsâ€Å" †. But if the translator adapts his linguistic choices to the different attitude towards the animal in European cultures, he would not considerâ€Å" Bat† a good name, for bat is regarded as an extremely evil omen in many European folklores. Perhaps translations like â€Å"Fortunes† would be better. Besides, numbers bring about different associations. Generally speaking, each culture has certain numbers believed to be either â€Å"lucky† or â€Å"ominous†, but this may often differ from individual to individual. Let’s take the translation of â€Å"7-up†, a brand of soft drink, as an example. The number â€Å"7† is thought to be a lucky number to many English speakers, but it does not have the same meaning in Chinese. Considering the cultural difference, the translator, in order to create a similar effect among the Chinese consumers, worked out the nameâ€Å" †. The name is quite satisfactory because its first partâ€Å"? †remains faithful to the source brand name without conveying any unfavorable meaning, and its second partâ€Å"? †conveys the meaning ofâ€Å"happiness and good luck†,and hence makes up for the loss of connotation in the numberâ€Å"7†. Chapter 3 General Methods in Trademark Translation Peter Newmark once said that different translation strategies should be adopted according to the different functions of different works (Mou Yan, 2008). It is well-known that trademark translation is not only to convey the cultural information of the source culture, but also to set up a good image in the target culture, and finally to attract the people in the target market to the product. In order to achieve these purposes, translators should adopt the following methods in the process of trademark translation. 3. 1 Literal Translation Literal translation, referred to as semantic translation by Peter Newmark, is a way of translation which aims at preserving the most possible cultural messages (including the communicative aspect of culture, such as, the formal elements of the SL) of the source text at the sacrifice of the formal elements of the target language and sometimes even the intelligibility of the target text (Zheng Shengtao, 1994). Since the formation of words in the Chinese language is different from that in the Western languages, it is actually impossible to achieve trademark translation by word-for-word translation in most cases. Peter Newmark favors â€Å"literal translation† too. He says, â€Å"I am somewhat of a ‘literalist’ because I am for truth and accuracy†. (Newmark Peter, 2001:62) Although sometimes literal translation may create something exotic or even eccentric for the target language readers, it will gradually be accepted by the target language and its culture. As long as the translated brand names from foreign language can be understood and accepted by the target consumers, literal translation is the best way for promoting cultural exchange through the brand name translation in China. As the brand name translation is to transfer between cultures, translators should make the target consumers understand the source culture. Some people say there is a better way for translators to approach the original. That is literal translation, which can keep the national feature. For example, some traditional brand names, which are very familiar to the Westerners even to the world like â€Å" † (The Yangtze River), â€Å" † (the Yellow River), and â€Å" † (the Great Wall) are chosen by the producers, as they are the symbols of Chinese wonderful natural history. When translators translate them, they have no need to do any translation. As these brand names are well-known to the world, and these Chinese characteristics of brand names are fresh and mysterious to the Westerners, it is easy to evoke the target consumers’ purchasing desire. Translators can adopt literal translation. The brand names â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" † carry our ancient cultural information. When translators translate them into the Western languages, they should keep literal translation and add some notes, in order to let the target consumers know the source culture. Literal translation also keeps the general form and keeps the structure of the source language. Today, Chinese culture are getting more and more popular in the world, and more and more Westerners are eager to study our language in order to learn our long history. Therefore, the kind of translation is a necessary way to let more people learn our traditional culture. On the other hand, in the English-speaking countries, there are some brand names which can be literally translated. For example, the very famous brand name â€Å"White cat† is translated into â€Å" †. And the brand name â€Å"Camel† is translated into â€Å" †. All these translated brand names are very suitable for the products, and the products will very probably be loved by the consumers in the target market. Here literal translation is not the same as word-for-word translation. Word-for-word translation is to rigidly reproduce every word in the process of translation. Strictly speaking, it is not a translation method. But, literal translation is a skill of translation, even if there do exist some additions or deletions while the essence of the original is not destroyed. Literal translation makes the target language more smooth and acceptable. Although literal translation can most possibly maintain the cultural messages of the source language, it sometimes will cause misunderstanding of the cultural messages or create unintelligible meanings. Let’s take Sprite as an example. If the word â€Å"Sprite† is translated literally or directly, it might be â€Å" †. The version would put Chinese consumers into great confusion because â€Å" † is a human-like monster in Chinese culture. Thus translators should consider other methods. Literal translation is adopted as the most ideal translation technique in reproducing images because it can preserve the original images as much as possible. Some English expressions wearing word-for-word similarity to some Chinese expressions may mean something quite different. In this case, translators should go deeper to find out what these English expressions really mean; otherwise mistakes will be made in literal translation. 3. 2 Transliteration Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another and it is mostly based on the pronunciation. Transliteration attempts to be lossless, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. To achieve this objective, transliteration may define complex conventions to deal with letters in a source script that do not correspond with letters in a goal script. Transliteration means that trademarks are translated into similar names in pronunciation according to the original ones (Li Yi, 2009:232-234) It is generally believed that the adoption of this method can help to achieve various purposes. Some trademarks obtained in this way can effectively remind the customers of their classic status. Such trademarks are easier for target consumers to pronounce and memorize. Still, some trademarks are deliberately transliterated in order to cater to the foreign consumers general preference for foreign goods because some thus-translated trademarks sound more foreign-like. The world famous trademark â€Å"Intel† means: the ability to learn and reason and the capacity for knowledge and comprehension. Now you see why it is translated into â€Å" † which sounds foreign-like and is easy to memorize and read. Meanwhile, it indicates the characteristic of the product. Another example is the translation of â€Å"Ya Ya†. â€Å" † (down wear) is transliterated into â€Å"Ya Ya† instead of â€Å"Duck†. The translated trademark â€Å"Ya Ya† is a catchy name that can fulfill the simulating function of trademark effectively. These two examples show the characteristics of being simple and easy to pronounce and memorize and as well obey the principle of aesthetics. Though transliteration embodies the sound beauty of the original one, the translated trademark dictions should be chosen carefully. During transliteration, it is important to obey the characteristics of arousing desirable association. â€Å"Philip† was once translated into â€Å" † which sounds more similar to the original one than â€Å" †. But the three characters â€Å" † will arouse unfavorable association. People prefer good and appropriate words, and hence, when using transliteration method, translators should do their best to choose beautiful words. For example, â€Å"Lancome† (cosmetics) is put into â€Å" †. The two Chinese  characters are beautiful and can be associated with an elegant woman with certain spiritual qualities. These two words â€Å" † are always connected with beautiful things, such as â€Å" , †. Thats why Chinese females have a partiality for â€Å"Lancome†. In translation practice, we find that English trademarks are highly coherent in letters or words and can be pronounced easily in one breath, while the transliteration of Chinese trademarks are broken into independent words in accordance with the specific Chinese characters. So the English version often lacks coherence. To avoid the disadvantage of transliteration in strict accordance with the standard Chinese pronunciation, we can use transliteration method flexibly. To some extent, we can translate a trademark according to the local pronunciation. The following examples successfully avoid the above problem. â€Å" † (refrigerator) is translated into â€Å"Frestech† instead of â€Å"Xin Fei†. â€Å"Frestech† is composed of â€Å"fresh† and â€Å"technology†, which is coherent in structure and pronunciation. Whats more, it also implies that the product is produced with advanced technology. â€Å"† (tonic food) means that happiness is coming, suggesting the product will bring happiness and health to consumers. The English version â€Å"Life† caters to westerners psychology and is easier for them to pronounce and spell. 3. 3 Free Translation â€Å"Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original. Usually it is a paraphrase longer than the original. † In order to take advantage of the target language and make translated brand name more idiomatic and acceptable, some imaginary brand names are freely translated. Free translation can communicate the information of products clearly and vividly. It will make a strong impression on the target language consumers and arouse their response. There are many successful examples to show this method. For example, â€Å"Ariel† (washing powder) is rendered as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"? † means â€Å"clean† and â€Å"clear†. So â€Å" † indicates the super cleaning capability of the washing powder. Similarity, â€Å"Safeguard† (soap) is not literally translated into â€Å" †, but â€Å" †. The translation describes the product’s function and attributes. â€Å"Rejoice† (shampoo) is not translated into â€Å"†, but â€Å" †, meaning softness and glossiness. â€Å"Slek†(shampoo) is also rendered as â€Å" † through free translation. â€Å" † in Chinese can be a noun as well as a verb phrase. If â€Å" † is interpreted as a noun, it means beautiful buds, implying ladies will be like an elegant bud after using the shampoo; if â€Å" † is interpreted as a verb, it means nourishing a bud to make it come out. This implies the shampoo can make hair glossier. â€Å"Zest†(soap) is paraphrased as â€Å" † through free translation. â€Å"? † is a very popular word in China, which brings the soap a fashionable element. This translation is improved from the original one â€Å" † in literal method. â€Å" † is more proper and suitable to meet the needs of the youth who are the target customers. 3. 4 Liberal Translation plus Transliteration In order to reach the criteria of trademark translation—beauty in meaning and sound, and to make the translated versions possess the general features of good brand names, we can use the combination of liberal translation and transliteration to translate brand names, since in many cases liberal or transliteration cannot do the job along. A good translation of a brand name should not only be similar to the original sound but also reflect the connotation of the original. The combination of liberal translation and transliteration may achieve double purposes, as the message of the brand name will be more vividly reflected so that it will be more impressive to guide consumption. Here we take some examples to appreciate the merits of this kind of method. For example, â€Å"Pampers†diapers from PG, is rich in meaning and clear in pronunciation. The translated brand name â€Å" † has got a balance between the meaning and the pronunciation. The brand name of a medicine â€Å"Bufferin† is translated into â€Å" †. The translated brand name does not tell us what the medicine is, but it forms a sound which is very close to that of the source brand name. A drink named â€Å"Milo† is translated into â€Å" †, which not only makes us know that the pronunciation of the translated word is close to that of the original, but tells us what the product is made from and the property of the product.