Eugene Onegin Comparison

Eugene Onegin The transformation from a novel in verse to an opera Although written in the early 1800s, Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin, is still regarded as one of the most influential and beautifully written pieces of work to this day. As it shifted cultural norms, opened new discussions, gave way to new forms of writing, and introduced novel approaches that envisioned life in a different light, Eugene Onegin was revolutionary.With its central theme revolving around the conflict between dreams and reality, the novel in verse caught the attention of readers all over the world, with over thirteen translations written. As well, other artists have adapted the work and interpreted it through their own art forms, including a ballet by John Cranko in 1965, and the famous opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which opened in 1879.Tchaikovsky’s interpretation in particular gathered much success and worldwide recognition, arguably more than that of Pushkinâ⠂¬â„¢s novel. While the characters and the storyline are mainly preserved, Pushkin’s main characters – Lensky, Onegin, and Tatyana – become more multi-dimensional and relatable in Tchaikovsky’s opera. Because he was an artist in the romanticism era, Tchaikovsky adds his own inspiration to the novel when changing it to an opera, creating many noticeable distinctions between the two.Compared to the novel in verse, the operatic version of Eugene Onegin has various deviations due to Tchaikovsky’s romanticism and character bias, which include changes in the duel scene, the increased favouritism of certain characters by Tchaikovsky, and the absence of a narrator. Throughout the course of Pushkin’s novel in verse, there are four main parts of the storyline that grab the attention of the reader and create the plot. One of the four scenes is a duel between Onegin and his best friend Vladimir Lensky, after Lensky caught Onegin flirting shamelessly wit h his fiancee.This scene was considerably altered between both artworks, as there was a very strong difference in the portrayal of Onegin’s guilt in the novel and in the opera. In Pushkin’s novel Onegin is very remorseful and heartbroken after killing his best friend. The narrator notes: Deluged with instant cold, Onegin hastens to the youth, Looks, calls him†¦ vainly: He is no more. The youthful bard Has met with an untimely end! †¦ In the ache of the heart’s remorse, His hand squeezing the pistol, At Lensky Eugene looks. â€Å"well, what – he’s dead,† pronounced the neighbor [Zaretsky] Dead!†¦With this dreadful interjection Smitten, Onegin with a shudder Walks hence and calls his men. In this piece, it is evident that Onegin is deeply conflicted with the crime he had committed. Dealing with the death of his friend, Onegin leaves town to find peace of mind. In the opera, however, Tchaikovsky leaves little time for Onegin†™s mourning. In the novel, Zaretsky, a friend of Lensky who attended the duel, is the first to speak after the fight finishes. Contrary to the novel, instead of Zaretsky being the first to speak of the death, it is Onegin who brusquely asks â€Å"Is he dead? In most stagings of this opera, Onegin simply walks to Lenksy’s body as if to double-check his passing. As scholar Julia Torgovitskaya states, â€Å"Because in an opera it would be difficult to convey a considerable length of time passing [i. e. for Onegin to mourn Lensky’s death], Tchaikovsky allows the scene to end right after Lensky has fallen. † The result of this change of scene from the novel to the opera is highly profound. In Pushkin’s story, readers are able to sympathize with Onegin in understanding his regret.Readers turn to Onegin and Tatyana’s communion as the happy ending they yearn for in the face of Lenksy’s tragic death. In the opera, on the other hand, the audience b egins to demonize Onegin, and there is a negative incline and desire for Onegin and Tatyana to be together. This single scene, being different between the two art forms, changes the entire mood of the story and the attitudes the audience would have towards its characters. The changes of certain scenes also come from Tchaikovsky’s bias towards specific characters, which result in a different presentation of their personalities on stage.Tchaikovsky, being an advocate of romanticism, presents the characters of Tatyana and Lensky in a more compassionate and sensitive manner. The opera differs from the novel as certain characters are viewed in a much stronger light, and their prominence has shifted. For instance, the character of Tatyana, a young, shy but passionate woman, was highly recognized and loved by Tchaikovsky. Due to this, the letter scene, where Tatyana spends an entire night writing and confessing her love for Onegin, was more emphasized and intimate, leaving the audie nce touched by Tatyana’s courageousness.With the addition of music, this scene was the longest and most complex solo section of the opera, further establishing the deep bond Tchaikovsky had for the character of Tatyana. After working on the writing of the letter scene, Tchaikovsky wrote â€Å"Being completely immersed in composition, I so thoroughly identified myself with the image of Tatyana that she became for me like a living person, together with everything that surrounded her. I loved Tatyana, and was furiously indignant with Onegin who seemed to me a cold, heartless fop. † With this magnetism, there was a shift in directive depiction between the main characters.It is important to note that in this opera, much of Pushkin’s text is cut out due to length (for it takes longer to sing a verse than utter written words or phrases), but the scenes with Tatyana and Lensky remained largely unchanged. For example, the night before the duel, Lensky writes to his wife a love letter pouring his heart out, knowing he is to die the next day. In the opera, Tchaikovsky has Lensky sing the contents of this letter in a heartfelt aria. Although it is very moving and beautiful, it is very far from Pushkin’s character of Lensky.In Pushkin’s work, instead of praising Lensky for his poetic nature and optimism, the narrator indicates that his romantic idealism stands as the result of his lack of world experience and naivete: He did his best to hold back the cynical comments that came to his lips, reflecting to himself, ‘It’s stupid for me to spoil his momentary bliss – it’ll vanish soon enough without my help. Meanwhile let him live on the belief that the world’s a perfect place. Youth is a kind of fever, and we must forgive the young their fire and their delirium.Although the narrator in Pushkin’s novel ridiculed this youthful euphoria, Tchaikovsky encourages and emphasizes the tenderness radiating from Lenksy. Thus, there is a considerable amount of romanticism added to both plot and character in Tchaikovsky’s opera in comparison to Pushkin’s novel. Finally, the most controversial deviation of the opera from the novel in verse is the absence of a narrator. This results in a critical difference between the two art forms, as the narrator’s input, digressions and lessons are not present in the opera, thereby changing the story’s defining attributes.In the novel, the narrator serves many roles, one being a voice of sarcasm and ridicule towards the characters, showing them the irony in which they live their lives. When reading the novel, readers were unsure of whether to be sympathetic to some characters, for it was possible that the narrator would interrupt with sarcasm or mockery revealing that the characters were undeserving of compassion. In the opera, the role of the narrator is removed, resulting in a more straightforward version of Pushkin’s ta le, where the characters clearly either deserve sympathy in their troubles or do not.In the novel, there was no need for characters to introduce themselves, due to the presence of a narrator, but in the opera, there are characters that have to introduce themselves to the audience. This happens, for instance, in the dueling scene (scene 5) where Zaretsky introduces himself: I am a pedant where the class duel is concerned, And I am naturally methodical. I do not allow a man to be stretched out Any old way†¦ In this scene, Zaretsky has to speak of himself to Onegin before the duel, explaining who he is and why he is there.This is completely different from the novel, where the narrator explains everything without awkward dialogue: Zaretsky, once a reprobate, Gambler-in-chief, an intimate And sage of inns, a philanderer; Kind and sober, now, instead, Father of many, still unwed†¦ Many scholars, such as Richard Taruskin, argue that in this opera, â€Å"the music, quite simply, is the narrator. From the very first sung notes†¦ the music acts as a very busy and detached mediator of situations and feelings. † This can be seen through the different musical pieces that play for each character, which in turn contribute to the audience’s interpretation of the character.For instance, Tatyana received the most colourful and lyrically driven music, while Onegin sings less memorable lines with simpler orchestral accompaniment. Although, one should note that the musical accompaniment of the characters’ actions are also biased, as the music that plays is the music that reflects how Tchaikovsky views them. Tchaikovsky, in one way, creates a new narrator by deciding how the characters will appeal to the audience, using music as his tool. For example, Tchaikovsky views Onegin as incapable of having genuine feelings, and so the music attributed to him is less inspired than that attributed to Lensky.In addition, the narrator in Pushkin’s nov el constantly interrupts the progression of the novel, which creates a storyline where two things occur simultaneously. In the opera this effect is achieved in a less destructive manner, because as novelists must arrange things in a sequential order, â€Å"musicians can simultaneously present and comment without recourse to digression. † When an event or conversation is happening on its own, it can be accompanied by music that tells a different story; consequently, two conversations can take place at the same time.The music plays, in this way, a role similar to a narrator, as it feeds information to the reader as events unfold, and gives insight on the situations through melodic remedies. Therefore, in the transition from novel in verse to opera, Tchaikovsky dropped the character of the narrator, and used music as a tool of explaining the story. In conclusion, the conversion of Eugene Onegin from a novel in verse to an opera includes many various deviations from the overall p lot and character emphasis in the story. With Tchaikovsky’s affinity and bond with the characters of Tatyana and Lensky, he portrays Onegin as demonic and insignificant.With this affinity, he manipulates the original storyline with romanticism to fool the audience into sympathizing with Tatyana and Lensky, whereas Pushkin’s narrator is notorious for ridiculed them. Furthermore, Tchaikovsky takes advantage of the absence of a narrator, and uses music’s capacity for emotional influence to further implement his bias for Tatyana, Lensky and Onegin. The narrator in Pushkin’s novel serves as a source of information to provide the readers with context concerning the setting, characters and story line where as Tchaikovsky uses character dialogue to provide such information.Overall the changes between Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and Tchaikovsky’s operatic telling of the story were controversial but allowed for two different expressions of the same story. These deviations can be attributed to Tchaikovsky’s affinity for romanticism and his preference for Tatyanna and Lensky in comparison to his strong dislike for Onegin. Nevertheless, both versions of Eugene Onegin are still regarded as powerful pieces of artwork. Despite their differences, however, both tales leaves their audiences craving for answers to their questions: what happens next? Bibliography Brown, David.Tchaikovsky, The Crisis Years, W. W Norton; New York and London, 1983 Debreczeny, Paul. Social Functions of Literature: Alexander Pushkin and Russian Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997. Doran, Molly. The Transformation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin into Tchaikovsky’s Opera. Bowling Green State University, Ohio. 2012. Eugene Onegin. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. 2013. < http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Eugene_Onegin>. Pushkin, Alexandr. Translated by Vladimir Nabokov. Eugene Onegin. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1990. Pushkin , Alexandr. Translated by A. S. Kline. Eugene Onegin. 2009.Pushkin, Alexandr. Eugene Onegin & Other Stories, Wordsworth Editions Limited; London, 2005 Taruskin, Richard. Defining Russia Musically. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1997. Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyitch. Eugene Onegin in full score. Dover Publications, Inc. : New York, 1997. Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyitch. Eugene Onegin. Decca Recording with Royal Opera House; Coven Garen. Torgovitskaya, Julia. Eugene Onegin’s Journey Through Time: An Analysis of the Meanin and Effect of Major Themes in Pushkin’s Novel In Verse, Tchaikovsky’s Opera, and Other Adaptations of the Work and Their Relevance to Today’s World.Tuft’s University. 2009. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Torgovitskaya, Julia. Eugene Onegin’s Journey Through Time; Tufts University, 2009, page 5 [ 2 ]. Pushkin, Alexandr. Eugene Onegin & Other Stories, Wordsworth Editions Limited; London, 2005, page XXXVI [ 3 ]. Torgovitskaya, Julia. Eugene Onegin’s Journey Through Time; Tufts University, 2009, page 5 [ 4 ]. Pushkin, Alexandr. Translated by Vladimir Nabokov. Eugene Onegin, 241, [Chapter 6, Part XXXI]. [ 5 ]. Pushkin, Alexandr. Translated by Vladimir Nabokov. Eugene Onegin. 43. [Chapter 6, Part XXXV]. [ 6 ]. Torgovitskaya, J. Eugene Onegin’s Journey Through Time; Tufts University, 2009, page 27 [ 7 ]. Doran, Molly. The Transformation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin into Tchaikovsky’s Opera, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, 2012, page 23 [ 8 ]. Doran, Molly. The Transformation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin into Tchaikovsky’s Opera, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, 2012, page 43 [ 9 ]. Quoted in David Brown, Tchaikovsky, The Crisis Years, W. W Norton; New York and London, 1983, 143 [ 10 ]. Torgovitskaya, Julia.Eugene Onegin’s Journey Through Time; Tufts University, 2009, page 24 [ 11 ]. Pushkin, Alexandr. Eugene Onegin & Other Stories, Wordsworth Editions Limited; London, 2005, page 25(10-15) [ 12 ]. Tchaikovsky, P. Decca recording of Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera House, Coven Garden, scene 5 [ 13 ]. Pushkin, Alexandr. Eugene Onegin, translated by A. S. Kline, 2009, 128 [Chapter 6, stanza 4] [ 14 ]. Taruskin, Richard. Defining Russia Musically, Princeton University Press; Princeton, 1997, 53-54 [ 15 ]. Taruskin, Richard. Defining Russia Musically, Princeton University Press; Princeton, 1997, 54

Language and Communication in Psychology

Through detailed consideration of one selected area of investigation evaluate the progress made by researchers in developing explanations of key aspects of the psychology of language and communication. The study of language is frequently debated in different theories of human nature. The importance of language is relevant when it to comes to the work of philosophers, neuroscientist, humanist and psychologist. Language has been applicable to Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Locke, Freud and Skinner. This essay seeks in investigating the definition of language and communication. In doing so traditional language theories will be assessed, this will later be compared to modern progression by researchers in developing explanations of the psychology of language and communication. The development of language and language disorders will be evaluated in order to successfully investigate the modern approaches to language. Firstly, the evaluation of language, its origins, process and the use have been investigated in areas such as computational theory, cognitive neuroscience, evolutional and cultural psychology in contemporary studies of language. Language is usually seen as systems for example English, French and Italian even seen as systems of language it can be used to describe other things because of its broad definition, In describing music for instance or art. These areas can have its own language that needs to be learnt to understand and interpret music for example. Language in general can be used in any form of communication. Since language is broad it is important to study specific areas of language, instead of its general definition (Bloom, . P, 2007) . This is so that direct questions can be answered. As a result the narrow questioned being investigated can be generalised to other systems of language. It is known that some form of language is used everyday, linguistics is dedicated field of the scientific study of everyday language and even though the broad term is difficult to define, linguists believe that ‘language is a formal system of agreed rules that have to be followed by a speaker. In this system there is the addition of morphology also known as the formation of words, syntax the formation of phrases and phonology, sound systems (Fromkin 2000). Secondly, Charles Dawins works have been used as a platform in the belief that’ man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write’ Darwin (1871). This gives the idea that language comes natural, that humans have been biologically designed to speak. Neurological studies support the idea that language is part of the human nature through the investigations of dedicated parts of the brain for language. It is believed that this might explain why every human society has language. The idea has therefore raised questions as to whether language is innate or a cultural innovation. Language deficits and aphasia has been investigated in recent studies to prove what happens when these dedicated parts for language are damaged. The works of cognitive neuropsychologist is to use theoretical frameworks and methods to specific language impairments. During the initial stages of Cognitive neuropsychological (in the second half of the nineteenth century) neurologists such as Lichtheim, Wernicke and Bastian began to make assumption about the design of the brain and its fixed language processing systems (Coltheart, 2006) this brought about the box-and-arrow diagrams in an attempt to demonstrate the brain’s architecture. In taking this thought further, how these components in the brain were localised was also studied. Even though at the time the cognitive function of language was not proved, by the failed attempt of localising the brain, it was relevant in influencing the work of other psychologist, an example is the later simplified version conducted by Coltheart. The work of Lichtheim, Wernicke and Bastian, received a lot of criticism from neurologist that were not cognitively oriented such as Head (1926) this led to fall in cognitive neuropsychological and the rise of behaviourism. Shallice, (1988) have suggested that cognitive neuropsychological data are too â€Å"noisy† and there difficult in being used further than exploring the brains functional architecture. Others such as McCloskey & Caramazza, (1991) have argued against this point. Stating that there shouldn’t be a restriction on what data produced cognitive theory at ‘any arbitrary level of detail’. Thirdly, It was not until the mid twentieth century that there was a Cognitive revolution† with the work of Broadbent (1956), Chomsky, (1959) Miller, Galanter, & Pribram,(1960), also study from Marshall and Newcombe (1966, 1973) looking into cognitive neuropsychology of reading and from Shallice and Warrington (1970) memory. This also included the work into the development of researching sentence processing in aphasia, where linguistic and psycholinguistic theory were responsible for the analysis of aphasic symptoms (Caramazza & Zurif, 1976 ; Marin, Saffran, & Schwartz, 1976) . A substantial amount of evidence afterwards has been produced in showing modularity in the brain. This shows that even though language is specifically located in the brain it is split into separate stages that may selectively be disrupted. (Berndt, Basili and Caramazza 1987) it is therefore established that specific lesions (in specific parts of the brain dedicated to language) will not affect the entire language process. This might see a patient losing the ability to understand spoken word but retain the ability to repeat words, suggesting that there are separate modules responsible for separate actions in the brain. (Schwartz,Saffran, & Marin, 1980) Fodor (1983) was also in support of the modularity of the brain after incorporating some of the ideas that were developed in cognitive neuropsychological. Foder describes a module as a domain specific. This is where the brain stores information that is responsible for a specific mental representation. For instance speech perception uses a separate path then that used in different auditory analysis and controls only acoustic signals, perceived as utterances. D. Bishop (1997). Superior cognitive functions can not affect the processes of modules in the brain, known as ‘information encapsulation’. In this processing becomes fixed. The fact that modular processing can not be influenced by higher cognitive operations describes the term. It is difficult to take no notice of incoming speech—even if attention is not used for receiving speech, a response will take place one will immediately respond on hearing a relevant sound for instance a someone own name (Foder 1983). Fodor with the support of evolutionary arguments states that the brain complex system can be broken down into layers, through case studies of selective impaired patients having a particular effect on the process of language. He believes that language therefore is innate and pre- programmed in humans. Human studies have relied wholly on researches regarding nature. The main reasons for carrying out functional neuroimaging are to improve peoples take on the variable anatomical functions of language. This then leads on to the argument that’s the much debated Broca’s area which is linked to speech production can be subdivided into three regions, a posterior and superior region that is involved with sounds of language, an interior and ventral region that is involved with meaning of words and a regions between the other two that is involved with meaning conveyed by sentences. Research carried out during the analysis on the anatomy and physiological aspects of the auditory processing in animals, show specific revelations regarding how the human brain perceives and process speech. Ignoring the concerns of critics, Researchers studying this phenomenon have resorted to using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) (which was introduced as a basic tool for monitoring language and brain activities) with the exception of people affected by induced nervous disorders such as stroke, to produce valuable evaluation, with regards to how language is organised in the human brain. Critics believe this is another example of wasted effort especially with the exclusion of patients with neurological disorders as study showed that this illness affects mainly the social and professional lives of those affected and sometimes it is not enough to impair their speech recognition abilities. PET has four advantages for the study of language: (i) it does not lose sensitivity and spatial localisation in important anterior and medial temporal lobe structures, a (current) problem with fMRI due to susceptibility artefacts and geometric shifts4,,5; (ii) its lower spatial resolution makes it orders of magnitude less susceptible to movement artefacts time-locked to stimulus and response, as occurs with overt articulation (most fMRI studies of word retrieval use covert responses); (iii) it does not create the din that is a feature of data acquisition in an MR scanner, requiring special techniques when important acoustic features in auditory stimuli may be masked6; and (iv) in the serial study of aphasic patients, it is the author's anecdotal experience that patients are far more likely to agree to come back for a second PET scan than to go back into a MRI magnet, a much more intimidating environment. † Coltheart (2005). Technological development such as the scanning of the brain has been shown to be critical in the work of language processing. Since language is built into the brain PET scans is useful method in watching the brain at work with the use of basic words. The area of the brain that is activated during the process of language can be identified (recognition of words). Further studies on thought processing (especially with regards to language) shows that certain groups of people were not able to process language normally. â€Å"a group has to be anatomically normalized into the same stereotactic space. To allow for individual variations of gyral and sulcal anatomy, the image data have to be smoothed. This is because of the problem of lesion distribution. Ablation studies in non-human animals are placed with great care, and often post mortem examinations are performed after the behavioural experiments to confirm the boundaries of the lesion. The unsubtle lesions occurring as the consequence of cerebrovascular disease, necrotising viral infections, etc. may destroy cortex, local white matter connections, major white matter tracts connecting remote cortical regions, sub-cortical nuclei, and their reciprocal connections with cortical areas. No lesion experiment in a non-human animal, relating structure to function, would be accepted for publication if clipping of a major arterial branch produced the focal injury. † Coltheart (2005) It is clear that studies on the human brain have been dependant on nature experiments with the application of liberal scientific standard. This has therefore allowed certain syndromes to be associated to lesions. ‘This sometimes have been related to marked inter-subject distinction in the cortical organisation of function, which, would mean that studies of structure–function relationships in the human, other than early perceptual and motor processes, are meaningless. It would seem much more plausible that broadly similar clinical syndromes may result from very differently sited cortical, sub-cortical or tract lesions within distributed neural systems that are essentially similar between subjects with the same handedness and uneventful development. Coltheart (2005) The data from useful neuroimaging is a vital contribution to the perspective of language and its structure. It is therefore useful when used on normal subjects in pinpointing where modular language processors a re. The traditional Broca’s area in the left frontal gyrus can be divided further into three parts it has been argued: ‘one that is posterior and superior and is involved in the sound structure (phonology) of language; a second, anterior and ventral that is concerned with the meaning of words (semantics); and a third, lying in-between the first two regions, that is involved in meaning conveyed by sentence structure (syntax). Of particular clinical relevance is the ability to determine shifts of function after focal brain lesions and how these may be potentially modified or even induced by behavioural or drug therapy’. Caplan (2006) The recent cognitive studies have been useful in producing architecture and process of the brain but there are few studies that evaluate the technique of neuroimaging in a negative manner. Poeppel, (1996) states that neuroimaging so far has told us nothing about the mind so far. In support of this notion Orden and Paap (1997) agree that nothing has been learnt from neuroimaging and never will. It is believed that complexity of cognition can not produces evidence through this technique. Henson (2005) has provided a vital framework for considering the role of brainimaging data in cognitive psychology. He writes: â€Å"My main argument is that, provided one makes the assumption that there is some ‘systematic’mapping from psychological function to brain structure, then functional neuroimaging data simply comprise another dependent variable, along with behavioural data, that can be used to distinguish between competing psychological theories† (p. 194). This idea recognises that there is some systematic mapping from psychological function to the structure of the brain. To conclude, Cognitive neuropsychology can be easily seen as a branch of cognitive psychology which has been vital to study of language and how it is processed in the brain. It has been useful in creating theories through the study of subjects performance in which normal cognition are identified. There have been several studies in support of how the language is processed in the brain to further prove or disprove these theories. The studies of these damaged sections have been able to be looked at through the advancement of technology. These scans have been able to explain a range of questions about the processing of language in the brain for instance, the lateralized view of the human brain. This has also been observed in animals that also use sound for communication e. g. monkeys birds and dolphins. In this the control of sound production is usually in the left hemisphere also seen in humans. The two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for language are the Broca's area ,this is partially responsible for putting sentences together and using correct syntax secondly the Wernicke's area, which is partially responsible for language processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing them for syntax, inflection, etc. ). Broca aphasia is used to describe if the Broca areas is damaged. side effects show slow, hesitant speech that lack grammer. Typical Broca's aphasics can not words not essential to the significance of the sentence, such as the and and. When the Wernicke area is damaged then it is known as Wernicke's aphasia. It can be seen as opposite to Broca's aphasia. Wernicke's aphasics are able to make general sentences but they are often senseless and include made-up words. Wernicke's aphasics show signs of understanding others' speech, but have difficulty naming objects Other types of aphasia noted in brain-damaged patients can show even worse effects. If Wernicke's and Broca's area are disconnected, patients struggle to repeat sentence said out to them. This shows that there is the possibility Wernicke's area, which has processed the sentence heard, is unable to communicate it to Broca's area for repetition. In another type, Wernicke's and Broca's areas remain connected but cannot communicate with the rest of the brain. Patients can only repeat sentences but fail to speak on impulse speech (Pinker 1994).

Working for a Large Company

The number of people in the US who are quitting their corporate jobs to start their own businesses is growing. One recent best-selling book entitled Fire your Boss! seems to reflect the growing discontent with company life. Why are so many people going into their own businesses? One of the most frustrating things about corporate life is the bureaucracy. This is the administrative system of paperwork and red tape that keeps track of everything in the corporation.Any decision must be agreed upon by many people in different departments and levels of the company. This can be very frustrating for individual employees who want to have control over their own work. They can become exasperated when their good ideas get tied up for months in the bureaucratic machinery. Employees often long the freedom of being their own boss. Another depressing aspect of working for a corporation is the lack of job security.Contrary to business owners, employees in a large company can be fired at any time, for almost no reason. If there is a downturn in the economy, layoffs are likely to come. Even if a worker has done his best to serve the corporations, he could find himself fired without warning or explanation. When a person works for himself, however, he cannot be fired. The traditionally attractive fringe benefits of a corporate position have been decreasing in recent years as well.There was a time when landing a job at a top corporation meant the employee was assured of a good retirement. More and more these days, however, pension benefits are being cut to lower payroll costs. Workers are being forced to worry more about their own retirement plans. In the same vein, health care is another benefit that has started to evaporate. Health insurance premiums are rising, while covered medical conditions are shrinking. This means employees are paying more out-of-pocket expenses than before and getting less care in return.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER SEVEN

She woke at once when the man of the household pushed the curtains back from her sleeping-place and set a candle on the low bronze-top table beside her pillows. She stood up, stretched, creaked, sighed; and then changed quickly into her riding clothes and gulped the malak set beside the candle. Narknon protested all this activity with a sleepy grumble; then rewove herself into the tousled blankets and went back to sleep. Harry went outside and found Mathin's dark bay and her own Sungold there already. Tsornin turned his head and sighed at her. â€Å"I couldn't agree more,† she whispered to him, and he took the shoulder of her robe gently in his teeth. Mathin appeared out of the darkness and a pack horse followed him. He nodded at her, and they mounted and rode toward the Hills that reared up so close to the camp, although she could not see them now. As the sky paled she found that they had already climbed into the lower undulations of those Hills, and the camp they had left was lost to view. The horses' hooves made a sterner thunk now as they struck the earth of the Hills. She breathed in and smelled trees, and her heart rose up, despite her fears, to greet the adventure she rode into. They rode all that day, pausing only to eat and pull the saddles off the horses for a few minutes and rub their backs dry. Harry had to find a rock to crawl up on before she could get back on her horse, far from the conveniences of brown-clad men who knelt and offered her their cupped hands, and Sungold obviously thought this ritual of his rider calling him over to her as she perched atop some rock pile before she mounted him very curious. Mathin said, â€Å"This is the first thing I will teach you. Watch.† He put a hand at each edge of the saddle, and flung himself up and into it, moving his right hand, on the back of the saddle, gracefully out of his way as soon as he had made the initial spring. â€Å"I can't do that,† said Harry. â€Å"You will,† said Mathin. â€Å"Try.† Harry tried. She tried several times, till Sungold's ears lay flat back and his tail clamped between his hind legs; then Mathin let her find a small rock that raised her only a few inches, and made her try again. Sungold was reluctant to be called to her and put through the whole uncomfortable process again; but he did come, and braced his feet, and Harry did get into the saddle. â€Å"Soon you will be able to do this from the ground,† said Mathin. And this is only the beginning, Harry thought miserably. Her wrists and shoulders ached. Sungold held no grudges, at least; as soon as she was on him again his ears came up and he took a few little dance steps. They rode always uphill, till Harry's legs were sore from holding herself forward in the saddle against the downward pull. Mathin did not speak, except to force her to practice the saddle-vaults at each halt; and she was content with silence. The country they were crossing was full of new things for her, and she looked at them all closely: the red-veined grey rock that thrust up beneath the patches of turf; the colors of the grass, from a pale yellow-green to a dark green that was almost purple, and the shape of the blades: the near-purple grass, if grass it was, had broad roots and narrow rounded tips; but the pack horse snatched at it like grass. The riding-horses were much too well mannered to do anything but eye it, even after so many days of the dry desert fare. Little pink-and-white flowers, like Lady Amelia's pimchie but with more petals, burst out of rocky crevasses; and little stripy brown birds like sparrows chirped and hopped and whisked over the horses' heads. Mathin turned in his saddle occasionally to look at her, and his old heart warmed at the sight of her, looking around her with open pleasure in her new world. He thought that Corlath's kelar had not told him so ill a thing as he had first thought when Corlath told his Riders his plan to go back to the Outlander station to steal a girl. They camped at the high narrow end of a small cup of valley; Mathin, Harry thought, knew the place from before. There was a spring welling from the ground where they set the tents, two tiny ones called tari, so low that Harry went into hers on her hands and knees. At the lower, wider end of the valley the spring flattened out and became a pool. The horses were rubbed down thoroughly and fed some grain, and freed. Mathin said, â€Å"Sometimes it is necessary, away from home and in a small camp, to tether our horses, for horses are more content in a herd; but Sungold is your horse now and will not leave you, and Windrider and I have been together for many years. And Viki, the pack horse, will stay with his friends; for even a small herd is better than solitude.† Mathin made dinner after the horses were tended, but Harry lingered, brushing Sungold's mane and tail long after anything resembling a tangle still existed. For all her weariness, she was glad to care for her horse herself, glad that there was no brown man of the horse to take that pleasure away from her. Perhaps she would even learn to jump into the saddle like Mathin. After a time she left her horse in peace and, having nothing better to do, hesitantly approached Windrider with her brush. The mare raised her head in mild surprise when Harry began on the long mane over her withers, as she didn't need the attention any more than Sungold had, but she did not object. When Mathin held out a loaded plate in her direction, however, Harry dropped the brush and came at once. She ate what Mathin gave her, and was asleep as soon as she lay down. She woke in the night as an unexpected but familiar weight settled on her feet. Narknon raised her head and began her heavy purr when Harry stirred. â€Å"What are you doing here?† said Harry. â€Å"You weren't invited, and there is someone in Corlath's camp who will not be at all pleased at your absence when the hunts ride out.† Narknon, still purring, made her boneless feline way up the length of Harry's leg, and reached out her big hunter's head, opened her mouth so that the gleaming finger-length fangs showed, and bit Harry, very gently, on the chin. The purr, at this distance, made Harry's brain clatter inside her skull, and the delicate prickle of the teeth made her eyes water. Mathin sat up when he heard Harry's voice. Narknon's tail stretched out from the open end of the tent, the tip of it curling up and down tranquilly. Harry, in disbelief, heard Mathin laugh: she hadn't known Mathin could laugh. â€Å"They will guess where she has gone, Harimad-sol. Do not trouble yourself. The nights are cold and will grow colder here; you may be grateful for your bedmate before we leave this place. It is a pity that neither of us has the skill to hunt her; she could be useful. Go to sleep. You will find tomorrow a very long day.† Harry lay down, smiling in the dark, at Mathin's courtesy: â€Å"Neither of us has the skill to hunt her.† The thought of her lessons with this man – particularly now that she knew he could laugh – seemed a trifle less ominous. She fell asleep with a lighter heart; and Narknon, emboldened by the informality of the little campsite and the tiny tent, stretched to her full length beside her preferred person and slept with her head under Harry's chin. Harry woke at dawn, as though it were inevitable that she awake just then. The idea of rolling out so soon did not appeal to her in the least, rationally, but her body was on its feet and her muscles flexing themselves before she could protest. The entire six weeks she spent in that valley were much in that tone: there was something that in some fashion took her over, or seized the part of her she always had thought of as most individually hers. She did not think, she acted; and her arms and legs did things her mind only vaguely understood. It was a very queer experience for her, for she was accustomed to thinking exhaustively about everything. She was fascinated by her own agility; but at the same time it refused to seem quite hers. Lady Aerin was guiding her, perhaps; for Harry wasn't guiding herself. Mathin was also, she found out, spiking their food with something. He had a small packet, full of smaller packets, rolled in with the cooking-gear. Most of these packets were harmless herbs and spices; Harry recognized a few by taste, if not by name. The ones new to her since her first taste of Hill cooking she asked about, as Mathin rubbed them between his fingers before dropping them into the stew, and their odor rose up and filled her eyes and nostrils. She had begun asking as many questions about as many things as she could, as her wariness of Mathin as a forbidding stranger wore off and affection for him as an excellent if occasionally overbearing teacher took its place. And she learned that he was in a more mellow mood when he was cooking than at almost any other time. â€Å"Derth,† he might answer, when she asked about the tiny heap of green powder in his palm; â€Å"it grows on a low bush, and the leaves have four lobes,† or â€Å"Nimbing: it is the crushed dried berries of the plant that gives it its name.† But there was also a grey dust with a heavy indescribable smell; and when she asked about it, Mathin would look his most inscrutable and send her off to clean spotless tack or fetch unneeded water. The fourth or fifth time he did this she said flatly, â€Å"No. What is that stuff? My tack is wearing thin with cleanliness, Sungold and Windrider haven't a hair out of place, the tents are secure against anything but avalanche, and you won't use any more water. What is that stuff?† Mathin wiped his hands carefully and rolled the little packages all together again. â€Å"It is called sorgunal. It †¦ makes one more alert.† Harry considered this. â€Å"You mean it's a – † Her Hill speech deserted her, and she used the Homelander word: â€Å"drug.† â€Å"I do not know drug,† said Mathin calmly. â€Å"It is a stimulant, yes; it is dangerous, yes; but – † here the almost invisible glint of humor Harry had learned to detect in her mentor's square face lit a tiny flame behind his eyes – â€Å"I do know what I am doing. I am your teacher, and I tell you to eat and be still.† Harry accepted her plateful and was not noticeably slower than usual in beginning to work her way through it. â€Å"How long,† she said between mouthfuls, â€Å"can one use this †¦ stimulant?† â€Å"Many weeks,† said Mathin, â€Å"but after the trials you will want much sleep. You will have time for it then.† The fact that neither Harry nor Mathin could hunt Narknon did not distress Narknon at all. Every day when lessons were through, and Harry and Mathin and the horses returned to the campsite, tired and dirty and at least in Harry's case sore, Narknon would be there, stretched out before the fire pit, with the day's offering – a hare, or two or three fleeks which looked like pheasant but tasted like duck, or even a small deer. In return Narknon had Harry's porridge in the mornings. â€Å"I did not bring enough to feed three for six weeks,† Mathin said the third morning when Harry set her two-thirds-full bowl down for Narknon to finish. â€Å"I'd rather eat leftover fleek,† said Harry, and did. Harry learned to handle her sword, and then to carry the light round shield the Hillfolk used; then to be resigned, if not entirely comfortable, in the short chain-stiffened leather vest and leggings Mathin produced for her. As long as there was daylight she was put, or driven, through her steadily – alarmingly – improving paces: it was indeed, she thought, as if something had awakened in her blood; but she no longer thought of it, or told herself she did not think of it, as a disease. But she could not avoid noticing the sensation – not of lessons learned for the first time, but like old skills set aside and now, in need, picked up again. She never learned to love her sword, to cherish it as the heroes of her childhood's novels had cherished theirs; but she learned to understand it. She also learned to vault into the saddle, and Sungold no longer put his ears back when she did it. In the evenings, by firelight, Mathin taught her to sew. He showed her how to adapt the golden saddle till it fit her exactly; how to arrange the hooks and straps so that bundles would ride perfectly, her sword would come easily to her hand, and her helm would not bang against her knee when she was not wearing it. As she grew quicker and cleverer at her lessons, Mathin led her over more of the Hills around their camp in the small valley. She learned to cope, first on foot and then on horseback, with the widest variety of terrain available: flat rock, crumbling shale, and small sliding avalanches of pebbles and sand; grass and scree and even forest, where one had to worry about the indifferent blows of branches as well as the specific blows of one's opponent. She and Mathin descended to the desert again briefly, and dodged about each other there. That was at the end of the fourth week. From the trees and stones and the running stream, she recognized where the king's camp had stood, but its human visitors were long gone. And it was there on the grey sand with Tsornin leaping and swerving under her that an odd thing happened. Mathin always pressed her as hard as she could defend herself; he was so steady and methodical about it that at first she had not realized she was improving. His voice was always calm, loud enough for her to hear easily even when they were bashing at each other, but no louder; and she found herself responding calmly, as if warfare were a new parlor game. She knew he was a fine horseman and swordsman, and that no one was a Rider who was not magnificently skillful at both; and that he was training her. Most of the time, these weeks, she felt confused; when her mind was clearer, she felt honored if rueful; but now, wheeling and parrying and being allowed the occasional thrust or heavy flat blow, she found that she was growing angry. This anger rose in her slowly at first, faintly, and then with a roar; and she was, despite it or around it, as puzzled by it as by everything else that had happened to her since her involuntary departure from the Residency. It felt like anger, red anger, an d it felt dangerous, and it was far worse than anything she was used to. It seemed to have nothing to do with losing her temper, with being specifically upset about anything; she didn't understand its origin or its purpose, and even as her temples hurt with it she felt disassociated from it. But her breath came a little quicker and then her arm was a little quicker; and she felt Tsornin's delight in her speed, and she spared a moment, even with the din in her ears rising to a terrible headache, to observe wryly that Sungold was a first-class horse with a far from first-class rider. Mathin's usual set grin of concentration and, she had thought recently, pride flickered a bit at her flash of attack; and he lifted his eyes briefly to her face, and even as sword met sword he †¦ faltered. Without thinking, for this was what she was training for, she pressed forward; and Windrider stumbled, and Sungold slammed into her, shoulder to shoulder, and her blade hit Mathin's hilt to hilt, and to her own horror, she gave a heave and dumped him out of the saddle. His shield clanged on a rock and flipped front down, so it teetered foolishly like a dropped plate. The horses lurched apart and she gazed down, appalled, at Mathin sitting in a cloud of dust, looking as surprised as she felt. The grin had disappeared for a moment – quite understandably, she thought – but by the time he had gotten to his feet and she had slid down from Sungold's back and anxiously approached him, it had returned. She tried a wavering smile back at him, standing clumsily with her sword twisted behind her as if she'd rather not be reminded of its presence; and Mathin switched his dusty sword from his right hand to his left and came to her and seized her shoulder. He was half a head shorter than she was, and had to look up into her eyes. His grip was so hard that her mail pinched her shoulder, but she did not notice, for Mathin said to her: â€Å"My honor is yours, lady, to do with what you will. I have not been given a fall such as that in ten years, and that was by Corlath himself. I'm proud to have had the teaching of you – and, lady, I am not the least of the Riders.† The anger had left her completely, and she felt dry and cold and empty, but then as her eyes unwillingly met Mathin's she saw a sparkle of friendship there, not merely the objective satisfaction of a teacher with a prize pupil: and this warmed her more kindly than the anger had done. For here in the Hills, she, an Outlander woman, had a friend: and he was not the least of the Riders. Lessons continued after that, but they were faster and more furious, and the light in Mathin's face never faded, but it had changed from the sturdy concentration of a teacher to the eager enthusiasm of a man who has found a challenge. The heat and strength they expended required now that they stop to rest at midday, when the sun was at its height, even though the Hills were much cooler than the central desert had been. Tsornin would never admit to being tired, and watched Harry closely at all times, in case he might miss something. He took her lessons afoot very badly, and would lace back his ears and stamp, and circle her and Mathin till they had to yell at him to go away. But during the last ten days he was content to stand in the shade, head down and one hind leg slack, at noontime, while she stretched out beside him. One day she said, â€Å"Mathin, will you not tell me something of how the horses are trained?† They were having their noon halt, and Sungold was snuffling over her, for she often fed him interesting bits of her lunch. â€Å"My family raises horses,† said Mathin. He was lying on his back, with his hands crossed on his chest, and his eyes were shut. For several breaths he said nothing further, and Harry wanted to shout with impatience, but she had learned that such behavior would shut Mathin up for good, while if she bit her tongue and sat still, hugging her irritability quietly, he would sometimes tell her more. He told her more this time: how his father and three older brothers bred and raised and trained some of Damar's finest riding-horses. â€Å"When I was your age,† he said bleakly, â€Å"the best horses were taught the movements of war for the fineness of control necessary in both horse and rider; not for the likelihood that they should ever see battle. â€Å"My father trained Fireheart. He is very old now, and trains no more horses, but he still carries all our bloodlines in his head, and decides which stallions should be bred to which mares.† He paused, and Harry thought that was all; but he added slowly, â€Å"My daughter trained Sungold.† There was a long silence. Then Harry asked: â€Å"Why did you not stay and train horses too?† Mathin opened his eyes. â€Å"It seemed to me that a father, three brothers and their families, a wife, daughter, and two sons were enough of one family to be doing the same thing. I have trained many horses. I go home †¦ sometimes, so that my wife does not forget my face; but I have always wished to wander. As a Rider, one wanders †¦ It is also possible that I was not quite good enough. None of the rest of my family has ever wished to leave what they do, even for a day. I am the only one of us for generations who has ridden to the laprun trials to win my sword.† Harry said, â€Å"Why is it that you are my teacher? Were you – Did Corlath order you?† Mathin closed his eyes again and smiled. â€Å"No. On the day after you drank Meeldtar and saw the battle in the mountains, I spoke to Corlath, for I knew by your Seeing that you would be trained for battle. It might have been Forloy, who is the only one of us who speaks your Outlander tongue, or Innath, who is the best horseman of us; but I am older, and more patient perhaps – and I trained the young Corlath, once, when I was Rider to his father.† Forloy, thought Harry. Then it was Forloy. â€Å"Mathin – † she began, and her voice was unhappy. She was staring at the ground, plucking bits of purple grass and shredding them, and did not notice that Mathin turned to look at her when he heard the unhappiness. She had not sounded so for weeks now, and he was pleased that this should be so. â€Å"Why – why did Forloy never speak to me, before I – before you began to teach me to speak your tongue? Does he hate Outlanders so much? Why does he know the – my – language at all?† Mathin was silent as he considered what he could tell his new friend without betraying his old. â€Å"Do not judge Forloy – or yourself – too harshly. When he was your age, and before he was a Rider, Forloy fell in love with a woman he met at the spring Fair in Ihistan. She had been born and raised in the south, and gone into service to an Outlander family there; and when they were sent to Ihistan, she went with them. The second year, the next Fair, he returned, and she agreed to go to the Hills with him. She loved Forloy, I think; she tried to love his land for his sake, but she could not. She taught him Outlander speech, that she might remember her life there by saying the words. She would not leave him, for she had pledged herself to live in the Hills with him; but she died after only a few years. Forloy remembers her language for her sake, but it does not make him love it.† He paused, watching her fingers; they relaxed, and the purple stems dropped to the ear th. â€Å"I do not believe he had spoken any words of it for many years; and Corlath would not have asked it of him for any less cause.† Corlath, Harry thought. He knows the story – of the young foreign woman who did not thrive when she was transplanted to Hill soil. And she was Darian born and bred, and went willingly. â€Å"And Corlath? Why does Corlath speak Outlander?† Mathin said thoughtfully, â€Å"Corlath believes in knowing his †¦ rivals. Or enemies. He can speak the Northern tongue as well, and read and write it, and Outlander, as well as our Hill tongue. There are few enough of us who can read and write our own language. I am not one of them. I would not wish to be a king.† There were only a few days left to run till the laprun trials. Mathin, between their more active lessons, taught her more of the Hill-speech; and each word he taught her seemed to awaken five more from where they slept in the back of a mind that was now, she had decided, sharing brain space and nerve endings with her own. She accepted it; it was useful; it permitted her to live in this land that she loved, even if she loved without reason; and she began to think it would enable her in her turn to be useful to this land. And it had won her a friend. She could not take pride in it, for it was not hers; but she was grateful to it, and hoped, if it were kelar or Aerin-sol's touch, that she might be permitted to keep it till she had won her right to stay. With the language lessons Mathin told her of the Hills they were in, and where the City lay from where their little valley sat; and he told her which wood burned best green, and how to find water when there seemed to be none; and how to get the last miles out of a foundered horse. And her lessons of war had strengthened her memory, or her ability to draw upon that other memory, for she remembered what he told her. And to her surprise, he also told her the names of all the wildflowers she saw, and which herbs could be made into teas and jams; and these things he spoke of with the mild expression on his face that she had seen only when he was bending over his cooking-fire; and even these things she learned. He also told her what leaves were best for stopping blood flowing, and three ways of starting a fire in the wilderness. He looked at her sidelong as he spoke about fire-making. â€Å"There's a fourth way, Hari,† he said. â€Å"Corlath may teach it to you someday.† There was some joke here that amused him. â€Å"Myself, I cannot.† Harry looked at him, as patiently as she could. She knew that to question him when he baited her like this would do her no good. Once, a day or two after Mathin's unexpected fall, she had let a bit more of her frustration show than she meant to, and Mathin had said, â€Å"Hari, my friend, there are many things I cannot tell you. Some I will tell you in time; some, others will tell you; some you may never know, or you may be the first to find their answers.† She had looked across their small fire at him, and over Narknon's head. They were both sitting cross-legged while the horses grazed comfortably not far away, so that the sound of their jaws could be heard despite the crackling fire. Mathin was rewiring a loose ring on his chain-encrusted vest. â€Å"Very well. I understand a little, perhaps.† Mathin gave a snort of laughter; she remembered how grim and silent she'd thought him, he in particular of all the king's Riders. â€Å"You understand a great deal, Harimad-sol. I do not envy the others when they see you again. Only Corlath truly expects what I will be bringing out of these Hills.† This conversation had made it a little easier for her when he slyly told her of things, like the fourth way of lighting fires, which he refused to explain. She didn't understand the reasons, but she was a bit more willing to accept that a reason existed. It surprised her how much he told her about himself, for she knew that he did not find it easy to talk of these things to her; but she understood too that it was his way of making up, a little, for what he felt he could not tell her. It also, as he must have intended, made her feel as if the Hillfolk were familiar to her; that her own past was not so very different from theirs; and she began to imagine what it would have been like to have grown up in these Hills, to have always called them home. One of the things Mathin would tell her little of was Aerin Dragon-Killer and the Blue Sword. He would refer to Damar's Golden Age, when Aerin was queen, but he would not tell her when it was, or even what made it golden. She did learn that Aerin had had a husband named Tor who had fought the Northerners, for the Northerners had been Damar's enemies since the beginning of time and the Hills, and every Damarian age had its tale of the conflict between them; and that King Tor was called the Just. â€Å"It sounds very dreary, being Just, when your wife kills dragons,† said Harry, and while Mathin permitted himself a smile, he was not to be drawn. She did pry something else out of him. â€Å"Mathin,† she said. â€Å"The Outlanders believe that the – the – kelar of the Hills can cause, oh, firearms not to fire, and cavalry charges to fall down instead of charging, and – things like that.† Mathin said nothing; he had marinated cut-up bits of Narknon's latest antelope in a sharp spicy sauce and was now frizzling them on two sticks over the low-burning fire. Harry sighed. Mathin looked up from his sticks, though his fingers continued to twist them slowly. â€Å"It is wise of the Outlanders to believe the truth,† he said. He dug one stick, butt-end, into the ground, and thrust his short knife into the first chunk of meat. He nibbled at it delicately, with the concentrated frown of the artist judging his own work. His face relaxed and he handed Harry the stick still in his other hand. But he spoke no more of kelar. Mathin took no more falls, and by the middle of the sixth week Harry felt she had forgotten her first lessons because they were so far in the past. She could not remember a time when the palm of her right hand did not bear stripes of callus from the sword hilt; when the heavy vest felt awkward and unfamiliar; nor a time when she had not ridden Tsornin every day. She did remember that she had been born in a far green country nothing like the kelar-haunted one she now found herself in; and that she had a brother named Richard whom she still called Dickie, to his profound dismay – or would, if he could hear her – and she remembered a Colonel Jack Dedham, who loved the Hills even as she did. A thought swam into her mind: perhaps we shall meet again, and serve Damar together. On the fourth day of the sixth week she said tentatively to Mathin: â€Å"I thought the City was over a day's journey from here.† â€Å"You thought rightly,† Mathin replied; â€Å"but there is no need of your presence on the first day of the trials.† She glanced at him, a little reassured, but rather more worried. â€Å"Do not fear, my friend and keeper of my honor,† said Mathin. â€Å"You will be as a bolt from the heavens, and Tsornin's flanks shall blind your enemies.† She laughed. â€Å"I look forward to it.† â€Å"You should look forward to it,† he said. â€Å"But I, who know what I will see, look forward to it even more.†

Auto Trade Agreements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Auto Trade Agreements - Essay Example The type of the investment strategy that the Nissan Company is using in Mexico is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) strategy which has enabled this company to invest its assets in the country. A company can decide to invest directly in a certain nation in order to enjoy the benefits of Foreign Direct Investment strategy. However this strategy has its own shortcomings depending on the economic and the political conditions of the host country. 1a). Foreign Direct Investment as a strategy in investment has various advantages and disadvantages. One of the main advantages of Foreign Direct Investment is that a company is able to expand its market therefore making the company compete with other firms at a global level. New customers will be attracted and thus the company will be able to make more profits. FDI has improved the level of competition between various firms in that a company will strive at producing the best quality product in order to attract the customers and keep the business i n operation. For the Nissan company to prosper in the competitive market it must be able to make good quality cars that can easily attract customers. Through this investment strategy, the Nissan Company is able to integrate the use of the new technology that is available in Mexico. The new technology can help the Nissan Company to produce automobiles which are of improved quality as well as being unique in the market (Siddharthan and Lakhera, 2005). Foreign Direct Investment has enabled economic growth in Mexico as the host country. This is because investment in a country enables a nation to get finances or government income through the collection of taxes thus boosting the economic growth of the nation. The finances can as well be collected through the foreign exchange concepts. Through the FDI there is technology diffusion as well as knowledge transfer. In this context, the Nissan Company can benefit from the knowledge of the people of Mexico as well as integrating the technology of the Mexican people in the Automobile industry. Foreign Direct Investment also helps in the creation of job opportunities since the parent company will be willing to employ new people in the host country who will help in steering the company to success. The employment of skilled workers in the host country is also beneficial to the company in that these people understand the culture of their country thus it will be easy for these employees to interact effectively with the potential customers. Direct Foreign Investment has a negative impact on the domestic firms that are available in the host country in the Nissan Company might phase out many firms in Mexico which are not competitive in the market. The introduction of sophisticated technology in the Mexican market might threaten small firms thus making them to close down their businesses. The existence of too many firms that expand through the Foreign Direct Investment strategy might cause an increase in the inflation rates of Mexi co as the host country which will consequently lead to the rise in prices of good. The end result is that the Nissan Company will have to re-adjust its prices thus making losses in the long run. This strategy used by the Nissan Company enables it to gain the competitive advantage in the global market since the integration of new technology enables the company to produce high quality product that can compete at the global market

Parents Accountability for Their Childrens Delinquency Research Paper

Parents Accountability for Their Childrens Delinquency - Research Paper Example These factors consist of criminality of the parents, cruel and futile parental discipline to adolescence, antisocial/violent behavior, lack of parental participation in the adolescence activities, constant conflict in the family, abuse and or abandonment of a children, and negative response by parents (Patterson, Forgatch, & Stoolmiller, 1998; Walker et al., 1991). Should Parents be held accountable for their children’s delinquency? As much as the threat factors for criminal act during child’s tender age are more probable to be genetic, personality, and family unit factors, the fundamental position of recognized risk factors remains with the need to be elucidated, and no particular reason justifies or explains child delinquency. Somewhat, there are bigger quantity of risk factors. According to Demuth & Brown (2004), a juvenile’s resolution to participate in offending behavior is contributed by the parent or parental figurers’ use of direct, indirect and in ternalized controls. Usually, a parent begins to use these controls in formative years and continues their usage throughout the adolescence age. The juvenile development of psychological attachment and affection to his or her parents entails indirect control. The creation of a juvenile conscience throughout his or her life involves internalized control by parental figure or parents of a juvenile. On the other hand direct control involves supervision, restriction and punishment (Demuth & Brown, 2004). Family processes and delinquency research by Demuth & Brown (2004) resolute that control by parent especially via direct control through monitoring, parental involvement, supervision and closeness are negatively associated with delinquency. The research put into consideration... According to the research findings  a number of circumstances in the juvenile’s residence have been found to predict the start and persistent patterns of children and youth unsociable behavior. These factors consist of criminality of the parents, cruel and futile parental discipline to adolescence, antisocial/violent behavior, lack of parental participation in the adolescence activities, constant conflict in the family, abuse and or abandonment of a children, and negative response by parents.From this paper it is clear that  a juvenile’s resolution to participate in offending behavior is contributed by the parent or parental figurers’ use of direct, indirect and internalized controls. Usually, a parent begins to use these controls in formative years and continues their usage throughout the adolescence age. The juvenile development of psychological attachment and affection to his or her parents entails indirect control. The creation of a juvenile conscience th roughout his or her life involves internalized control by parental figure or parents of a juvenile. On the other hand direct control involves supervision, restriction and punishment. Control by parent especially via direct control through monitoring, parental involvement, supervision and closeness are negatively associated with delinquency. The research put into consideration different actions of parental direct control, for instance, obliging juvenile children to home at a given time, and threat of punishment in case of a wrongdoing.

DQ1 SWOT Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DQ1 SWOT Analysis - Assignment Example A second strength of talent management is that it can help enhance the skills and capabilities of the employees. Companies that have solid talent management plans tend to have higher employee retention rates. Using talent management can also enhance the human capital of a firm. The human capital of a firm is its most valuable asset (Investopedia, 2013). A weakness of talent management is that is costs money to implement an adequate talent management plan. Companies spend money on training and development, seminars, and educational opportunities to effectively implement an adequate talent management plan. If a company is not able to identify the skills gap of the workforce the training initiatives of the firm can become ineffective. An opportunity associated with talent management is the ability to identify the potential of young talented employees. Another opportunity of talent management is that it helps foster a strong corporate culture. A strong corporate culture enhances the productivity of a firm. A threat of talent management is that companies may spend money and resources developing talent to have those employees leave the company for the competition. A second threat of the implementation of a talent management is potential for interpersonal conflict. A talent management plan can create internal competition between the staff. Sullivan, J. (2004). Talent Management Defined: Is It a Buzzword or a Major Breakthrough? Retrieved March 8, 2013 from