My best educational experience Essay

My best educational experience was learning to drive my car. My [insert figure name] taught me how to understand the basics of driving as well as defensive driving. He or she would always state that driving was a big responsibility. I always wondered why driving a car could be a responsibility and I learned it very slowly during my driving course in school. Our instructor stated that driving was a two-way encounter with others and your own vehicle. He did not allow us to get into a car until we understood the rules of the road. For instance, did you know that you must wear a seatbelt no matter what? And it’s also important to check under and in your car before cranking the ignition? I never thought that stuff was important unless it was in a movie. After he ensured us that it was for our safety, I check to make sure I’m okay. Learning the rules of the road was an easy task. We had to learn about the signal lights, lines of the roads, and basics of driving with others. My vision test (signal lights and signs) was a breeze because the signs were so easy to remember. At first, I could not remember which sign meant construction workers and pedestrians; now I can recognize any sign that involves individuals crossing my path. Learning how to drive a car also meant learning how to understand my car. Our driving instructor taught us the general structure of a car by posting pictures and having actual parts in our class. Each day, we learned a new part and how it functions in our car. The third day of class was our messiest; he brought a transmission into our classroom with oil on it. He stated that our cars would not be able to move if our transmission did not work. I really didn’t know that before he told me – and it makes me wonder how naive I would have been without knowing it. By the end of the seven weeks, our instructor took us on the road. I was the 12th driver listed for an on-road exam for my permit. I was very nervous because I had to get on the road with other experienced drivers. My instructor told me to be careful and relax. I relaxed then I was careful with my driving. I realized that being ‘uptight’ about the situation could make things worse. Driving a car was not surgery (even though our instructor made it seem that way). Driving was an enjoyment because I could determine my destinations. If I wanted to get away and go to the beach, all I had to do is crank my car and fill up the tank. The freedom of driving has taught me how to appreciate my time. By having access to a vehicle, I realized that I was fortunate to feel comfortable behind a wheel. Cars are a big responsibility and I agree with [insert figure name]. It does take a responsible person to travel highways at high speeds in a vehicle. I’m glad that I was able to become one of those responsible people and learning to drive was an amazing experience – it taught me how to guide myself in the right direction.

Life before meeting Mike Essay

Living each day with fear, unhappiness and without peace of mind was an experience that has taunted me when I started studying Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. Adjusting to the environment of homophobia and discriminating behavior gave me a feeling that I was extremely different from the rest of the people in the campus. I was uncomfortable with the discriminating stares, the constant bickering and the behind the back talks that relates to my sexual orientation. Each day, I just want to stay in my room due to the fear for my safety. Studying and living in the environment has never been enjoyable. As days and months passed, my studies were affected. The pressure of taking Mechanical Engineering as my academic major to please my father took a toll on me. My Dad was a Mechanical Engineer by profession and he wanted me to follow his footstep. I started my college education at the age of 17. Due to my desire to study in a gay friendly community and take a course that is of my interest, I decided to study in Canada and switch my major to a program that had both Business and New Media Studies. Toronto University was a perfect fit and I was so blessed to be accepted to study Information Technology Management at Toronto School of Business. Finally, I felt like I was given a refreshing dose of cold water in a sizzling hot summer season. Our First Meeting Going to the DJ Carl Cox and Richie Hawtin concert in Pure Club was a way to get away from the hustles and bustles of school life. While having a great time singing, dancing, cheering and enjoying the music, my eyes suddenly caught the attention of a young man named Mike who bumped into me while I was dancing my way through the crowd. Mike and I were like magnets that got attracted to each other. I liked the way he smiles and I enjoyed his sense of humor. He cracks jokes in any given situation and there are no dull moments with him. After a few exchange of pleasantries, we found out that we were both living in 100 Yonge Street apartments. I was living on the 9th floor and Mike was living on the 15th floor. Other than that, we were also studying in Toronto Business School and in the same department. After many months of staying in my apartment and going to school, I wonder why I met Mike at an unexpected place and not in Yonge Street or in the school campus. It seems that the concert truly paved the way for us to meet each other. We discovered later on that we share the same love for electronic music. Despite our compatibilities in terms of interest, we stayed as friends, hang out mostly within the school premises, and went to parties together from time to time. Unlike in my previous school in Iowa, I have found so many gender friendly people and amenable places in Toronto. I am so happy in Canada and I have considered this as my second country. When Mike came into my life, I felt like I was given an extra shot of adrenalin. I am more inspired to explore new things and to discover my inner strength. Mike is the missing piece of the puzzle in my life. It was in December 2005 that faith orchestrated its way for Mike and me to deeply explore our relationship. By an unfortunate incident, Mike broke his left wrist after a bad fall on the street when he was rollerblading. It was at that time when he had to move out of his apartment due to a financial situation, forcing him to mostly live with his sister Laurie or with me. When the accident occurred, Laurie was out of town for a conference. Hence, Mike got stuck with me. I took care of him when he was confined in the hospital. When he was discharged, he stayed in my house and instantly, I became his caregiver! We have spent the entire holiday season together and our friendship turned into a serious relationship. We loved every moment of our intimacy and we never want to live apart anymore. The deep love, trust, and warmth feeling that we have shared as partners is indescribable. Because we were always in a whirlwind of passion, Mike forgot the extreme pain in his left wrist! Love is indeed a great healing potion. Plans of Settling Down After living together for a year, Mike and I decided that it was the right time to get married. We want our relationship to be built on solid foundations of the love and support that we have for each other. Although we have been talking about getting married as soon as Mike finishes his studies on September and gets a job, we both cannot wait to legalize our relationship. However, since I am not a Canadian citizen, one of the reservations that we had was my capacity to stay in Canada legally. Even if I still have a year and a half to complete my studies and a possible employment of another year, it would be a great relief to get this issue out of our way to avoid any future problems. After getting the support of our best friends, we made a decision on December 2006 to get married on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2007. Unfortunately, we could not make any reservations as that day was already fully booked. Hence, we settled for February 16, Friday which turned out to be a more convenient date for all our friends who will attend our wedding. This was the second holiday season that we have made a memorable decision. December was indeed marked for our love to flourish and grow deeply. Our Wedding Day Getting up early on that day and looking at the person that I am going to marry gave me an overflowing feeling of happiness. I could not explain the feeling of excitement when I get dressed and boarded the limo with Mike. We held each other’s hand and couldn’t stop smiling as we travel to the City Hall. This is the day that we have been waiting for and we could not wait to exchange â€Å"I do’s! † Our exceptional wedding day has proven that a limited student budget is not a hindrance to make the special occasion a reality. We had a simple wedding at the Toronto City Hall witnessed by our best friends Ruth, Naomi, Tanya, Ali and Dan. While we were standing in front of the Judge who was officiating the wedding ceremony, our hearts were throbbing with happiness as we exchange our marital vows. Chills run down through our spines as we hear the words of the Judge saying, â€Å"I pronounce you _________ †. Our eyes were tearful as we hugged and kissed each other while our friends were giving their warm of applause and congratulatory greetings. Our Families Our families were not present in our wedding day. Mike’s parents had a legal battle of divorce during his childhood years. He never got along with his mom in his entire life and he moved out of their house at an early age. He could not relate to his brothers who were homophobic. He was only close to his sister Laurie who has provided him with care and support since he moved out of their house. She has also been very supportive of our relationship. Unfortunately, Laurie is a conference organizer and her frequent travels prevented her from attending our wedding. My family was not aware of my sexual orientation although they were suspicious. They never had a chance to know me well because I moved to the United States during my high school years when I was about 15. When I informed my mother and sister that I was dating Mike and we were getting married, she became worried about how my father would react to my unexpected revelation. Since I am the only son, my Dad became disappointed. He could not understand why I turn out to be gay. He did not talk to me until the summer of 2007 when my Mom and sister paid us a visit in Toronto and congratulated us on our marriage. In Toronto, Mike and Laurie became good friends and we promised her that she would be part of our honeymoon vacation in Turkey so we could spend quality time with her. My Dad and I had a heart-to-heart talk over the phone and I can sense the pain that he was feeling and his disappointment in learning about my sexual orientation. Dad is a strong person who wanted to give his best for our future. During our talk, I learned that he was concern about the discrimination that I may experience and the legal challenges that I need to face with the choices that I have made. It took a long time for my father to accept me but with the help of my mother and sister, he eventually accepted me for what I am. We are currently in good terms and someday Mike and I will visit my Dad in USA. It was a great feeling to be fully accepted by my family. Mike has been honest about his problems with his family. Since his brothers could not accept him for being gay and his mother was so hurt when her marriage ended in a divorce, it was difficult for him to talk to them. His only way of knowing about his family is through his sister Laurie. Because of this, I have never met any member of his family personally. I have only seen their pictures in Laurie’s home. We can only hope that they would get along someday and make up for lost time. My family is also eager to see my partner’s family in the future. The problem that Mike’s family is encountering is beyond Mike’s sexuality. The conflict is deeply rooted in the negative memories of his parent’s divorce and the painful events that followed. It is in Mike’s longing for family love and support that push me to understand, love and care for him more. Mike and I made a vow never to allow our relationship to reach a point where we would end up like his family. We will value our marriage and extend mutual respect, open and honest communication and unconditional love for each other for the rest of our lives. Our Life as a Couple Our lifestyles have drastically changed since we got married. As a couple, we have shared so much of our leisure times together. We love to relax at home or spend time in a coffee shop while reading books relating to personality development, marketing and scientific research and studies. We are both into arts and music appreciation and occasionally we work our minds and hands on the canvass together. We still love to support local artists. Recently, I have introduced Mike to the community work that I have been supporting. We have spent time in supporting and visiting cancer patients as research on natural treatments is one of my hobbies. In my 5 years of volunteer service, I have developed friendship with Christina, who has successfully recovered with our support. Our Future Plans Mike was hired as a Production Director at X Agency in Mississauga. We are planning to move to Mississauga after we are officially united in Canada. We want to spend our late honeymoon in one of the tourist spots in Turkey. I still intend to finish my college in Toronto University. Hopefully, when I obtain my permanent Canadian residency, my tuition fee will be more affordable. We are saving for my education and we aim to achieve our goals on the summer of 2008.

Acetone - Background of the Study Essay Example for Free

Acetone – Background of the Study Essay ? Familiar household uses of acetone are as the active ingredient in nail polish removers and as paint thinner. Acetone can also be used for medical and cosmetic uses, such as applying acetone with alcohol for acne treatments to peel dry skin. It can also remove residues from glass and porcelain and it can also remove super glue from the skin. Perhaps, acetone is very useful in our everyday lives. Acetone is also known to remove ball pen marks on fabrics and clothings. It has ethyl acetate that is said to remove ball pen stains. Most people accidentally rubs ball pen marks on their clothing on a daily basis. The study was done to find out if acetone is more effective and easier to remove ball pen marks on clothings or fabrics than normal laundry detergent. The study aims to answer the following questions: 1. What is a more effective and easier way in removing ball pen stains on fabrics? 2. Is acetone effective in removing ball pen marks? If the ball pen mark is removed and the clothing is cleaner and whiter using acetone then acetone is more effective and easier way to remove ball pen marks on the clothing. The study was done to find out if acetone is effective in removing ball pen marks. The study will help mostly students and working adults and everyone who uses ball pen. They will benefit because most of the users have their ball pens blotting on a daily basis. The amount of bleach and acetone used is 20 ml. The ball pen mark is of the same size. Even the cloths are of the same type. This means that the study is limited to these amounts only. This study is limited to testing which among bleach or acetone can remove a simple ball pen mark effectively. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate#Uses, Ethyl Acetate is the solvent present in acetone that can remove the ball pen marks. It is also stated that ethyl acetate is also present in some hairsprays, alcohol, etc. The researchers recommend repeating the testing using different cloths and different amounts of bleach and acetone to test other possibilities. It is also suggested that the researchers use warm water for washing the cloths. Removing ball pen marks- http://housekeeping.about.com/od/stainremoval/a/inkstains.htm Acetone – Background of the Study. (2016, Dec 31).

New Product Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

New Product Management - Case Study Example BlackBerry, other than regular mobile telephone function, simultaneously supports various additional functions like web surfing/browsing, internet based fax, text messaging and e-mailing. BlackBerry works on the wireless data networks of cellular phone service providers and an ordinary mobile phone user will be able to utilise its entire functions by simply buying and switching on it. Originally BlackBerry devices have monochrome displays but soon after successful launch of this model we plan to market next models with color displays. In addition to Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functions, BlackBerry has its own built in 'thumb-enabled' keyboard for easy operation and use. Our BlackBerry is also able to send emails, messages and data to the users using other devices. It also has an ability to send and receive emails to and from computers of any user types. We have also added a track wheel to scroll and click while using. Our aim is that cell phone users should not depend on traditional mobile phone devices for communication. Present BlackBerry model 950, uses Intel process 80386 and 16MB RAM in it. Technically BlackBerry offers multi task system that enables it to perform various functions as single function and doesn't compromise on speed and quality. One can send digitally secure messages by using BlackBerry too. Up to our enthusiastic plans and expectations, this device will be very popular in all mobile phone users and specifically among business users. For this purpose we intend to do a complete concept and product testing plan 2-0: Research objectives: Objective of research is as important as research itself is. Without a focused objective, no good findings can be expected from any type of research. Research objective is to have maximum feedback form selective and targeted customer groups so that enough information which may be needed for any modification would be available to us. Though product has gone through various in house and laboratory tests, but unless we have a solid view about consumers' perception about bb we cannot proceed further. This research enabled us to improve the product before its test marketing. 3-0: What Information is needed Our research includes following questions and we vigilantly tried to find out the answers of these questions by applying Primary Research and conducting Focus Group Discussions: Further points include collection of information about various issues: (1) Should we offer BlackBerry as such or some changes are required If no changes needed, which market is most likely the best appropriate market to target in the beginning Should we offer BlackBerry to all mobile users or only to the business users in the beginning What price should be charged for this high end innovation In which demographic markets we should focus in the beginning 3-1: Our Research

Emphysema Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emphysema - Case Study Example The chemicals released in the response disintegrate the alveolar septum, hence deforming the mechanical architecture of the lungs and increasing the cavities between the alveoli. With the reduction of alveoli surface area, there is reduced ventilation of the surrounding parenchyma (Webb & Higgins, 2005). The thoracic cage expands and diaphragm contracts to compensate the reduced surface area. With increased alveoli breakdown, the body cannot maintain enough oxygen in the blood. Vasoconstricting then takes place, with a risk of leading to hypertension, which strains the right side of the heart that pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs (Webb & Higgins, 2005). The patient is likely to experience shortness of breath at times. It may be more frequent, including even when he is at rest, depending on the extent of damage to the lungs. An examination will reveal an expansion of the chest’s diameter. His skin will also tend to discolor to a purplish-blue hue (Loscalzo et al, 2008). Pneumothorax may be caused by the spontaneous rupture of alveoli, which is a prevalent condition in emphysema. It occurs when there is constant loss of air from the lung, which then flows into the pleural space without an escape way. It results in the accumulation of air in the space between the lungs and the chest (Loscalzo et al, 2008). Pneumothorax can hasten respiratory failure in the absence of enough lung reserve to balance the shrunken lung or its segment. Severe pulmonary vascular occlusion results in ventilation-perfusion disparity and respiratory failure due to inadequate blood flow into the still functioning alveoli. With massive pulmonary artery embolism, pressure increases on the right side of the heart, causing cardiac dysfunction and hindering the heart from circulating adequate volumes of blood (W. H. O., 2009). Care must be taken not to give too much

Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 22

Business - Essay Example During peak seasons, the statement will indicate more cash in than cash out, but the opposite is true during the off-peak season. If seasonal fluctuations are discovered by the owners, they should brainstorm strategies to keep their cash-in and cash-out equal no matter the season. This may include selling different products during the off-peak and peak season or even offering discounts. The balance sheet is the best financial statement to indicate impact. This is because the new building bought is an asset and will therefore reflect on the balance sheet. The income statement will also be impacted on because it will indicate the expenses of purchasing that building during that financial year. Whether the building brings in cash or demands more cash out of the coffee shop will be reflected in the statement of cash flows (Fridson and Alvarez, 2011). c) Which financial statement shows a quick view of the coffee shops ability to pay back a loan? Are there other factors that are not shown on the statement that should be considered by someone making such a loan to the owners? The income statement is the best financial statement that gives a quick view of the coffee shop. This is because it just indicates the annual profits and losses the shop has made since it began. The statement does not indicate the assets the shop has which if financially boosted can increase the profits by far but since they are not in use or are underutilized have become a liability to the shop. If the person granting a loan is able to view their assets, then he or she may be in a better position to make a fair judgment of whether to grant the shop a loan based on its potentialities of expansion or

Ethics and Legal Environment, Business Association and Torts, Critical Assignment

Ethics and Legal Environment, Business Association and Torts, Critical Thinking - Assignment Example The negative publicity can affect the firms' performance in the market and Gabe’s tenure might also cause dissension within the organization itself, especially among the shareholders who are intent on making a profit. To decide on this matter, Badaracco impresses on the decision maker to judge responsibly. Ultimately, he proposes the evaluation of the interests of all the stakeholders involved. The idea is to determine the benefit so that the decision will achieve "the most good and the least harm" (p.5). The entire list that should be evaluated to determine the net benefit can be constituted by the entire organization. This variable is representative of the shareholders, the employees and Garry, himself, as the owner. Such evaluation, however, is complicated by the fact that a dismissal may have a mixed impact internally. For instance, the organization may benefit from it as it could achieve favorable market perception. However, the organization could also suffer from being kept out of a beneficial chairmanship. To resolve this, one could try looking at specific details of the case. An outline of these relevant facts can reveal the best possible benefit for the organization. First, there is the fact that Gabe is not only a productive leader but he also excels in forging relationships. He has great people skills, a trait that helped him earn the chairmanship in the first place. It follows, therefore, that he has excellent relations with both employees and shareholders alike. He must, therefore, be well regarded among these stakeholders. Calls for his dismissal, hence, may not be strong within the firm. It is also helpful to consider several mitigating circumstances. There is Gabe’s work for the community and his causes. In addition, there is the motivation behind the exposure of Gabe's criminal record. Skeeter had malicious intent in leaking Gabe's story to the media.

Assessment Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assessment Strategies - Essay Example This makes it flexible for students who come from different backgrounds to attend classes at a time most convenient to them while they execute their duties in their workplace. Since the students have different learning styles, the course allows evaluators to come up with mechanisms of addressing needs of each and every student. Students with special needs are well taken care of, with evaluators being in a position to guide them accordingly. As opposed to the old system of education, educators are restructuring the learning models to cater for every potential learner. This is indispensable in that there has been improvement and democratic space in the education sector, and which broadens competence and experience in the contemporary world. Through innovations, students have diverse ways of learning that suits their needs. With this kind of trend, it is apparent that the future of education is bright and more professions will continue to be produced. This translates to a more developed

Publi Pension Replacement Rates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Publi Pension Replacement Rates - Essay Example Even the marital status is a point of concern for some countries. The earnings level of the worker is also taken into account. This level dictates the amount of their contribution. The duration of membership of a worker in the pension plan is factored in in the replacement rate computation. Another cause of the variance is the type of employment, whether it is full-time or part-time. The public pension replacement rate was a major contributing factor in the debt burden of Greece. The average earner with a full career in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country, of which Greece belongs, has a pension replacement rate of 58.7% of earnings (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2007). However, in Greece, the replacement rate was at a high of 96% of earnings (OECD, 2007). This rate is considered to be very high. In 2010, Greece’s pension system had approximately 400 billion euros or $509 billion in unfunded liabilities (Oxford Analytica, 2010). The excessively high replacement rate forced the Greek government to make emergency grants to meet the pension outlays (Oxford Analytica, 2010). Nektarios describes the Greek public pension system as one which is â€Å"highly segmented and complex, containing over 300 funds, with many different regulations for pension rights† (n.d.). Because of these chara cteristic of the public pension plan, it was difficult for the government to manage. One proof that the public pension replacement rate contributed largely on the debt problem of Greece are the reforms in the pension plan that were instituted by the EU and the IMF. Some of these reforms that were dictated upon on Greece include introduction of a unified statutory retirement age of 65 by December 2013; the gradual increase in the minimum contribution period for retirement; and the reduction of pension benefits to be based on the pensioners average pay over their working lives

Rethinking Wilderness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rethinking Wilderness - Essay Example nks will hinder the stewardship of wilderness areas in the future will help in showing how Cronon’s â€Å"rethinking of wilderness† can be effectively applied to solve the problems. Naturalness is defined in different ways. It is described as characterizations of nature being apart from humans (Cole, 2012). Cole identifies problems with naturalness. The first challenge is its multiple meanings and hence leads to a different understanding to different peoples. To some people, being natural means lack of human effect, a place with little human influence (Cole, 2012). There are those that believe natural to be freedom from intentional human control while others sees it as a historical fidelity (Cole, 2012). However, the changes of ecosystem currently taking place means one has to be selective when relying on these meanings. Therefore, one has to choose between them to suit the prevailing conditions. The other challenge has been on the reasons for setting wilderness. Currently, there is no unifying reason as to why wilderness areas are set aside. This is because there have been diverse reasons for setting aside such areas. Some of the major reasons for protections include certain valued species, nostalgic landscapes, biological diversity, scenery, ecosystem services, and autonomous nature (Cole, 2012). However, with increasing knowledge, it has been found that it is difficult to achieve all the purpose in one ecosystem. For this reason, some have to be considered at the expense of others. Cronon’s â€Å"rethinking of wilderness† offers a practical solution to the problems of naturalness. The essay argues that the problems can only be solved by realizing that man has always been in existence with the wilderness. Therefore, the notion that Wilderness is the only remaining place that has been free from civilization is unreal. The author notes wilderness has been a product of civilization (Cronon, 1995). As a result, trying to set it apart from the creator will not

How smoking can negatively affect your life Essay Example for Free

How smoking can negatively affect your life Essay My name is Kimberly Robinson. Today, I will be discussing how smoking can negatively affect your life in so many different ways. Like many people, you already know that smoking is bad for your health. But not many fully understand just how dangerous smoking really is. Every single cigarette you smoke does damage to your body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2017), cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 480,000 deaths each year and the risk of dying from cigarette smoking has been increasing over the past 50 years. It causes nearly one in five deaths which are more than car accidents, illegal drugs, Aids, murders, and suicides combined. That is scary to think about. Smoking can affect many things in your life including your health, appearance and your finances. Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to develop heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. Smoking can cause yellow teeth and fingers and also bad breath. Don’t even get me started on the fact that smoking can be an expensive hobby. In the state of Virginia, the average cost for a pack of cigarette is $5.25, according to fairreporters.net. If a smoker smokes three packs per day, that is about $5748.75 per year. That extra money could be spent on your family. Choosing to damage your body is one thing, but smoking doesn’t only affect your health, it also affects the health of the people are the closest to you. According to the (Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC, 2017), second-hand smoke has the same harmful chemicals that mainstream smoke contains and prolonged exposure increases to the risk of lung disease by 23% to 25%. According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration (2017), there are more than 7,000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke and more than 70 of those chemicals are linked to cancer. Nicotine is the main component of tobacco. It is highly addictive, hence, the addiction that comes with smoking cigarettes. Nicotine causes the adrenal gland to release hormones that stimulate the brain and increases blood pressure and heart rate. Cigarette smoke also contains tar. Tar is a sticky brown substance that is produced when tobacco is burned. When the smoke is inhaled, tar forms a sticky layer inside of your lungs which will damage it and can cause cancer of the lungs, mouth, and throat. There are so many advantages of quitting smoking. By quitting smoking, you will improve your health and the health of others around you. The minute you stop smoking, the risks of getting a smoke-related disease will start to decrease. Because of the level of nicotine present in cigarette smoke, you may encounter some difficulties while trying to quit smoking but there are resources that can help you throughout the process. The first thing you should do is make the decision to quit and then make a list of the reasons why you want to do it. This way you will have something to refer to when you feel like giving up. Secondly, set a date at which you will quit and inform your family and friends about your upcoming journey. They might be able to motivate and help you when you are having hard days. The next thing to do is to remove any stimuli from your surrounding that could potentially cause you to revert. Some tools that can help you cope and have a smooth transition are counseling, nico tine replacement therapy, hypnosis, acupuncture therapy and support groups.

Workplace Literacy Program Essay Example for Free

Workplace Literacy Program Essay Workforce development There is a symbiotic relationship between skilled workers and productivity. In an ideal workplace, workers must have sufficient knowledge of their individual tasks and be equipped with the necessary skills in order to better perform their work, avoid mistakes, deal with other organizational members without any difficulty, and increase the level of production. Nowadays it is necessary for every job applicants to be competitive, literate, skilled at writing and listening skills, and be able to perform a given task. It is important that human resources must be able to adapt to technological and technical developments taking place in a workplace or a particular industrial setting. Workforce development is indispensable in bracing the competitiveness of human resource through carefully planned programs and activities (Giguere, 2008, p. 238). This kind of development is not just the concern of individual employees but most importantly the company or employer himself. Both entry-level employee and existing personnel must be able embark on training skills in order to enhance their performance in a variety of service, interpersonal and administrative areas. In this regard, there are various areas to be improved on the part of human resource. To secure career development workforce must be able to improve their human resource skills through a systematic and practical programs. When it comes to technical aspects, it is also imperative to improve the workforce knowledge in computer networking and to embark on basic computer training. The problem why a workplace is saddled with low productivity is because there is no existing or fully developed workforce development program aimed at honing the skills of both entry-level and old personnel. Workplace literacy program, on the other hand, is aimed at enhancing the literacy level of both the employed and unemployed (Drago-Severson, 2004). This has been the focus of the federal government for nearly three decades in order to reduce the level of adult illiteracy. This only means that literacy has a huge impact on businesses which all seek to acquire literate and competitive workers. Apart from being a national priority, there is also a growing concern among businesses in regard to increasing adult literacy (Goad, 2002, p. 123). We are all aware of the huge impact of adult illiteracy on businesses. This concern was goaded by fast-paced technological development and the risk of foreign competition. The only answer to this scenario is an increased adult literacy and to improve workforce basic skill requirements. Recruitment plan Like any literacy and workforce development program in the past, recruitment is on a voluntary basis. Anyone who thinks he/she needs to improve his/her literacy skills is welcome to enlist or enroll in the program. However, those identified that will attend this program are both teenage and adult people who lack the necessary literacy skills to exist in a work environment. The main target of this program are people like Catalina who aspires to improve her career or work, which is the only means to improve her family’s economic standing and to have a quality time with her children. There are a lot of Hispanic and other immigrants in the United States who are fit to undergo this program, especially now that most businesses demand better literacy skills and competency among job applicants. The recruitment process may be made through building connections with businesses and through direct contact with potential subjects. Pre-assessment Plan Considering the ongoing economic crisis there is a need to implement this program whose purpose is to ensure career development, increase adult literacy rate, and raise workers’ productivity and competence through corporate-based and practical lessons and activities. Apart from this, this is the time wherein immigrants have to be more competitive in order to be acquired and to exist in the job marketplace being dominated by American citizens. Initially, there should be difference between workforce development and workplace literacy program based on the practical industry requirements. Workforce development should mainly center on soft skills or human resource skills, while workplace literacy should focus on basic skills needed by an employee. Instructional Design As already stated above, there should be a gap between workforce development and workplace literacy program. For the workforce development program, three areas should be mainly considered— a) human resource skills; b) computer networking; and c) basic computer training. For the human resource skills, the following courses or lessons shall be implemented: Handling difficult people: the purpose of this lesson is to train or motivate people how to deal properly with other organizational members, particularly the snotty executives and employers. Certainly this centers on human relations within a particular workplace. Other things to be considered are problem approaches and problem-solving techniques, as well as supervision of difficult workers. Developing positive attitude: This lesson shall focus on motivating employees to think big, to think out of the box, and to think independently. Communication Skills: some of the important subjects to be tackled here are effective communication, giving and receiving criticism, giving and receiving feedbacks, meeting skills, as well as business writing. Conflict Management: some of the important lessons to be taken here are the effective ways to manage conflict in the workplace, giving and receiving criticism, resolving and managing conflicts, negotiating and arbitration, among others. Effective listening: this lesson shall focus on good listening skills— on how to be an attentive listener. The role of communication and listening shall also be tackled in order to better inform the program attendee. Costumer service skills: This must be mastered by all program attendee whether they choose to work as costumer service provider or not. The lessons to be tackled here are the effective ways to deal with costumers, how to be in control when dealing with costumers, serving them, giving and receiving costumer feedback, and how to achieve outstanding costumer service. Career development and personal improvement (Rothwell, Gerity Gaertner, 2004, p. 1): The main focus of this lesson is to uplift employees’ self-esteem. Other subjects to consider are goals and setting them, enhancing positive assertiveness, time management, team-work skills, and successful long-term learning (Gallo, 2004). Interviewing skills: For entry-level personnel this aspect is very important. Program attendees should be informed of what to expect during the actual interview session. Leadership training: Under this lesson, some of the subjects to be considered are the importance of team leading, how to manage a team, mentoring and coaching, effective project management, team building, and motivating at work. For basic computer training, the following areas must be focused on: desktop operating systems (e.g. Microsoft Windows XP), suites, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, desktop publishing, database, internet, and network operating systems. On the other hand, for workplace literacy program, the following must be taken into account (Hull, 1997, p. 8): Knowing how to learn: This gives the attendee the importance of long-term learning, why there is a need to learn, and how to learn. Reading, writing and computation skills Listening and oral communication Creative thinking and problem solving When it comes to the philosophical framework of the program, it must be based on Objectivism wherein self-interest should be taken as the moral goal of an employee. A rational philosophy is needed in every workplace so that workers may be able to think rationally, independently and effectively. Instructional Staff All instructional staff must possess at least industry-based knowledge or work experience. Members of the instructional team must have finished college or taken up masters, but what is important is that they have an objective industry-based knowledge and that they have been in the profession for at least two years. However this two-year requirement is not necessary as long as the result of the written examination, interview and then practical examination show that they are qualified to be member of the instructional staff. Administrative and Support Services For the support services, the program attendees shall need the following: library with study room, computer laboratory for basic computer training, decent classrooms equipped with a computers, projectors, chairs and study tables. There should also be a community room wherein all attendees shall be free to interact with each other in order to from personal and professional bonding. As for the administrative services, there should be an administrative office to be composed of administrative officers. Administrative staff shall include an institute or program secretary, checkers, evaluators, and all other administrative staff needed for the success and continuation of the program. A program website, as well as a practical Information Technology infrastructure is also needed to better serve the needs of the program attendees. Program enrollees or attendees shall be encouraged to submit their works and projects through the website in order for them to enhance their computer and communication skills. Evaluation and Assessment Plan Workforce development and workplace literacy programs are indeed important instruments in raising adult literacy and making their competitive in the job marketplace (Boyle, 2001, p. 11). However, the success of this kind of program depends upon the effectiveness of the instructional design which is to carryout the underlying aims and objectives of the program. There is a need to split workforce development and workplace literacy program because they have different objectives and ends. Workforce development is synonymous to career development, which can only be achieved through improvement of human resource skills. The purpose of this program is to encourage workers to apply whatever they have learned to their workplace. On the other hand, workplace literacy program aims to reduce adult illiteracy in the industrial setting through vocational skills. Under this overall program, what is being developed and improved are not just the basic literacy and computer skills of the workers, but also interpersonal and goal-setting skills, their self-esteem, as well as costumer service and leadership abilities. With all these factors and design in mind, there is no doubt that this program will succeed and will be able to produce more able, more literate and more competent workers in the future. Resources: Boyle, M.E. (2001) The new schoolhouse.: Literacy, managers and beliefs. Westport, CT: Prager. Drago-Severson, E. (2004). Becoming adult learners: Principals and practices for effective development. NY: Teachers College Press. Gallo, M.L. (2004). Reading the world of work. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Giguere, S. (2008). More Than Just Jobs: Workforce Development in a Skills-based Economy. Paris, France: OECD Publishing Goad, T.W. (2002). Information Literacy and Workplace Performance. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Hull, G. (ed). (1997). Changing work, changing workers. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Rothwell, W.J., Gerity, P.E. Gaertner, E.A. (2004). Linking Training to Performance: A Guide for Workforce Development Professionals. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Community College

Millennial Generation

Millennial Generation Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview The current world that we live now is being strongly influenced by the high technology waves. This kind of waves are altering our operations in business sectors like finance, economic, accounting and as well as insurance. Internet and its connectivity are increasingly important as the role of connecting people all over the world in the most cheapest and efficiency way. It is now become a necessary in all the peoples lives. According to the research, there are around 9.3 million people in Malaysia age 15 and above using internet at home or work locations, each of them consuming average of 1,066 pages of content and spending 14 hours online in June, 2009 (Comscore,2009). Internet is a new distribution channel for businesses to market and promote their products and services in order to increase their revenues, profitability and customers loyalty. For successfully enter and adapt in the new evolution of technology and electronic, businesses had change their operation structures into tec hnology-intensive based. Some businesses from shops to financial institutions even changed most of their products and services into E-based products or services. Generation Y also can be known as â€Å"Millennial Generation†. From its name, it obviously stated that this generation closely related to high technology and digital electronics. This generation mostly owned computer and have higher education. They frequently used high-technology products and services and they willing to be the innovator for using new E-product. Generation Y is an influential factor towards the future development in E-based services and products. Therefore, most businesses will focus their customer target on generation Y in the coming years. We are now entering into new phase of technology and electronics. With trimness of electronics technology many electronic tools and gadgets have become increasingly personal and portable. It makes people can surf net whenever and wherever they are. The conveniences of communication and networking have stimulated the growth of E-commerce. E-commerce can be translated as any form of businesses that using information technology for transaction. In order to stay ahead in millennium age, most of the companies used E-commerce regardless of business to business (B2B) or business to customer (B2C) or even customer to customer (C2C) (Ahonen, 2004). Services sector like banking also promote internet banking or online banking to facilitate their efficiency in the banking transaction. Online banking can reduce some unnecessarily procedures and provides convenience to customers. Yet insurance industry has been lagging behind others services industries in adapting new technology era. In addition, there are many researches done for investigating the factors that affect adoption of internet among different sectors in Malaysia (Stevens, 2002; Soliman, 2003; Wirtz, 2001; Coltman, 2001), but empirical data for e-insurance was limited due to insurance industry has been slow respond to e-commerce compared to other financial services (Esters, 1997). Insurance institutions have the direct competition with banking and financial institutions. It is the great time for insurance companies to utilize the convenience of communications and networking in establishing direct interface with customers. E-insurance is broadly defined as distribution of insurance services through information technology. The direct channel can eliminates the intermediaries, provides more efficiency, lower cost and more value added to the customers. Other than online purchases, E-insurance can offer varied types of services like online payments, register claims, review claims and renew insurance policy. Besides that, e-insurance also can reduce the level of management hierarchy and internal administration cost by automating all the business processes. There are some limitations of the regulatory for fully applied the e-commerce in certain countries. However, the insurance legislation world wide has been continuously updated and modified to fulfil e-insurance m etrics (Ahonen, 2007). This study examines the perception and expectation of generation Y towards E-insurance. It discusses about the existing e-commerce applied in insurance industry and the expectation of generation Y on the improvement in E-insurance in the future. The new high technology and electronic era started, it links the generation Y and the insurance industry together. It is important to examine the relationship between generation Y and E-insurance. Generation Y act as knowledgeable customers, they are pursuing simple, convenient, fast and efficiency services at lower prices. Therefore, it is the need for insurance companies to introduce E-insurance that satisfied the customers need. 1.2 Statement of problem E-commerce had widespread all over the various business from education to real estate sector. It will continue to grow up unabatedly because information is now the lifeblood of successful business. The importance of e-commerce can be seen from the Ninth Malaysian Plan (2006-2010); Malaysian Government has allocated RM 12.9 billion for developing e-commerce. According to the survey conducted by Nielsen Company (2007), there are 70% of internet users in Malaysia purchased online at some point in past. So there are many potential opportunities in e-commerce nowadays. Internet and electronic communication enables companies exchange or transfer their information to the other part of the worlds without boundaries. E-commerce also provides a new distribution channel for businesses to deliver their products or services to customers more efficiency and fast. Meanwhile, companies can connect their customers worldwide in real time. It can establish long term relationship with their customers. Since there are many advantages in adopting e-commerce, yet, not all businesses can successfully fully applied e-commerce especially insurance industry. Insurance industry has been lagging behind in the adoption of e-commerce. There are some barriers on adoption of e-commerce in insurance industry. All the business sectors included financial services sectors have been revolved to new e-commerce era because of the domino effect of globalization and liberalization around the world since 1990s (Piercy, 1999). New entrants of e-retailers of financial services sectors lead to intense competition among financial services providers. There is a need to improve service quality of their service in order to survive in the global market place. Yet, consumers are less likely to purchase online than expected in despite of the huge investments in online banking (Sarel Marmorstein, 2003; Wang, 2003). Better understanding of factors that affect customers acceptance on using internet banking is prerequisite of obtaining success in conducting e-commerce. However, lack of research on perception of consumers toward e-insurance in Malaysia. Another important issue is consumers feel unreliable towards security and privacy of e-commerce website (Jà ¤rvinen, 2001). Insurance policy requires exchanges of huge amounts information between the parties. Electronic exchange data or information that needed in insurance policy is an ideal way because Internet enables transfer data over worldwide. Yet the only concern is the private confidential of the data when it is being transfer through internet or any other electronic method. Because of the anonymous nature in internet, insured unable to ensure the data is transferred to the right person. In electronic environment, there is no guarantee of the data or information that being transferred is sealed and did not review by others. In addition, electronic exchange data can cause security problems like customer database may be hacked by someone who has negative intention. Furthermore, electronic documents without physical signatures are easily being pirated. According to Forrester r esearch 2001, the main reason (59%) of young consumers not purchase online is concern about the use of credit cards online and the second reason (47%) is concern about the privacy of the data they sent out to website. Besides, about 75% of US consumers of the Boston Consulting Groups survey are concerned about the degree of security and privacy provided in electronic environment (Goldman, 2001). There is a need for insurance companies to solve this problem by review other banks in gaining consumers trust towards online services (Mattila, 2003). In Malaysia, government had encouraged the development of E-insurance since January 2005. Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM) released the news of motorists will be the main beneficiary of the JPJs e-Insurance Project with effect from 1st January 2005. On 5th October 2004, Minister of Transport was launched an IT-based service with the full support of the JPJ, general insurers and takaful operators. The e-Insurance enables insurance companies to enter their policyholders motor insurance details and transmit them electronically to JPJs computer database for processing. With full implementation of e-Insurance, it minimizes the problems like long queues at the JPJ counters, shortening waiting times at the JPJ counters, reducing the need for repetitive capture of data will also ensure accuracy and consistency of data in JPJs database and eliminating physical motor cover notes will help resolve the problems of forged cover notes as well as reduce document inventory (PIAM, 2005). E-insur ance has brought to us many benefits but it still uncommon in Malaysia. E-commerce has brought a lot of questions. Is insurance industry suitable to apply e-commerce? How E-insurance ensured security and privacy of insureds information and data? What are the expectations of generation Y towards future E-insurance? How generation Y perceived adoption of E-insurance? Is adoption e-commerce an advantage or disadvantage for insurance industry? This study wants to lift up the veil of E-insurance. 1.3 Research objective The general objective of my study is to investigate the perception of generation Y towards E-insurance. The other objectives are: 1.) To study awareness and expectation of generation Y towards E-insurance. From this study, we want to know the high education generation Y perceived E-insurance. E-insurance is important for insurance industry in step out the first step of pursuing low cost customer services. Generation Y are their priority target of E-insurances product because generation Y have much of knowledge in computer. Generation Y treated as the future talented human capital of a country. They are high education and expertise in using computer. Therefore, their expectations and future requirements about E-insurance are important success factors of insurance industry. 2.) To examine the adoption of e-insurance in Malaysia E-insurance has not fully implemented in Malaysia. It is crucial to examine the current situation of adoption on e-insurance in Malaysia. 3.) To investigate the factors that can influence the perception of generation Y towards E-insurance and the adoption of e-insurance To establish long term relationship with customers, it is critical to investigate all the possible factors that may affect the views of the potential customers towards E-insurance. A good service is able to satisfy all the customers need. 1.4 Significance of study Insurance is essential for everyone. It provides a sense of security and peace of mind to us. It also provides financial stability to individual and businesses if insured risk occurs such as flooding, fires, accident or ill health. Insurance is a major component of financial sector. Nowadays, the adoption of e-commerce in financial sector has become obvious. Yet, the insurance sectors are lagging behind. This is mainly due to the complicated transaction involved in insurance industry. This study is aim to investigate the perception and expectation on generation Y on electronic insurance services as well as their willingness to accept E-insurance. Insurance industry in Malaysia have not fully implement e-insurance yet. Most of the consumers feel uncertainty towards this new e-commerce and some even do not aware about this. We are able to know the degree of awareness of generation Y towards e-insurance from the research. Generation Y are potential customers for e-insurance, their awareness of e-insurance is important to the development on insurance industry. According to previous research, it also showed that younger and high educated males with high level of income have higher probability to use internet banking services (Devlin Yeung, 2003). E-insurance also can be categorised as one kind of internet banking services, so perception of younger internet users towards e-insurance is important. The effect of liberalization and globalization around the world influenced the business sectors in Malaysia significantly. Liberalization allowed business transactions can be conducted cross over the boundaries of countries freely. E-commerce should be developed in Malaysia in order to gain the global competitiveness. Compared to other developing countries, Malaysia is lagging behind. In order to compete with other countries, Malaysia government need to support organization in adapting the changes in term of technological. E-commerce provides a new distribution channel for products and services which able to help companies deliver their products and services to customers efficiently all around the world. Although e-commerce provides many competitive advantages for business sector, however, insurance industry in Malaysia still have not implement the electronic insurance completely. It is necessary for government to generate effective strategy for establishing e-insurance in Malaysia. The antecedent of effective strategy is to obtain a clear understanding of perception of customer towards e-insurance. This study benefits government in term of more understand the customers need towards e-insurance, so government and business sector can complement with each other for establishing e-insurance in Malaysia successfully. Service itself is considered as interactive process whereby customers involved in the production process. Insurance is one kind of this service. Since insurance is an interactive process, customers viewpoint on the new electronic insurance must be paid with full attention. This study focuses on generation Ys response on the development of new electronic insurance because most internet users are generation Y now. With the generation Ys future wishes for electronic insurance, a user friendly and suitable E-insurance concept can be developed. This study also benefits insurance companies in developing the electronic insurance service which can satisfy customers need. A well-developed e-insurance service can meet customers requirement and increase their satisfaction. The speed of adoption on e-insurance in Malaysia will be improved. Society also benefited from the study because adoption in e-insurance enables them to access the insurance services through internet whenever and wherever they are. The success of establish e-insurance in Malaysia will bring many advantages to customers. E-insurance provides longer operation time, convenience, less transaction cost needed, and less processing time to customers. E-service has changed the way of people organize their lives. It enables people to make comparisons among the products or services through internet. The study also examines the customers concern towards security and privacy of e-insurance. Hence, after completed the study, the security and privacy of e-insurance systems can be enhanced according to the concern of society. This study investigate the relationship between generation Y and E-insurance and their expectation and perception on E-insurance in order to better establish a new era electronic insurance and to maintain long term relationship with customers. 1.5 Organization of study In chapter 1, the research begins with brief introduction to the topic â€Å"perception and expectation of generation Y towards E-insurance†. In the introduction, it briefly explained the term of e-insurance and generation Y and the relationship between them. After we have some basic ideas about the topic, problem statements of the study developed. The issues of e-insurance were addressed in the study. Objectives of the study are stated down and followed by explaining significant of study. Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Services and Goods Goods can be defined as physical products that being produced and sold to the market (Winsor, Sheth Manolis, 2004). In addition, goods also considered as something physical and tangible in nature that customers can feel, smell, taste or hear it prior purchase or make consumption (Rathmell, 1966; Shostack, 1977; Zeithaml, 1985). On the other hands, services are totally opposite to the characteristics of goods. Services normally are classified under intangible characteristics which cannot be touched, smelled, tasted, hear by customer before purchase and make consumption. Furthermore, services also can be classified as a product, a process involves of many activities and can be produced and consumed at the same time, and to some extent customers may participate in the service production process (Grà ¶nroos, 2000). One of the researchers defines service as something can be bought and sold but which you cannot drop on your feet, this definition points out intangible characteristics of service (Gummesson, 1987). Besides that, service also defines as an act that offered by other party (Lovelock and Wright, 2002). There are four main attributes that help in distinguishing between goods and services namely, tangible or intangible (the degree of physical feature), separability or inseparability (the degree of linkage between the product or service and providers and customers), variability or invariability (the degree consistency of the products or services attributes) and perishability (the degree of capacity for being stocked) (Berry, 1980; Fisk, 1993; Gronroos, 1998; Kotler, 1994; Shostack, 1977; Zeithaml, 1985). From the four main attributes, it clearly states that the things that classified as services only when it fulfilled the four main characteristics of intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. For example, hair cut service, it does not provide any tangible product to its customer but only intangible service, throughout the hair cut service, it need participation of customer, the hair cut services are inconsistency in quality and it cannot be stocked. Furthermore, among the four attributes of differentiating the goods and services, the intangible characteristic is the best definitive for services (Bateson, 1977; Bebko, 2000; Berry, 1980; Levitt, 1981; McDougall Snetsinger, 1990). Various definitions that used to define services stated above are prefers to include the intangibility features into the statements. Hence, intangibility characteristic of service is the most representative attribute for services in order to distinguish goods and services. However, the tangibility feature is becoming less useful and less definitive for distinguishing between goods and services in digital environment (Rust Oliver, 1999). This is due to digitized goods are consists of both tangible and intangible characteristics. For examples, online purchase DVD is intangible in nature because customers cannot touch or feel the product before the actual tangible product received. The development of electronic environment has blurred the clear distinctio n between goods and services by using intangibility attributes. In order to fill up the inadequacy of tangibility criterion, another framework which used four types of utilities to differentiate goods and services has been developed (Winsor, Sheth Manolis, 2004). The four types of utilities are time, place, form and possession. All retailers will provide time and place utilities to customers, the only differences can be make between goods and services is in term of form and possession (Rathmell, 1966; Hsieh Chu, 1992). Physical goods will only contributing little form utility for customers compared to service whereas the permanent of transfer of possession utility only completed when customers are purchased physical products rather than services (Clemes, 2000). According to this framework, insurance is classified as hybrid retailing or a mixture of goods and services because it provides a moderate degree of form and possession utilities. 2.2 E-service The new era of e-service has begun since the development of internet being introduced in 1994 (Ahonen, 2004). There are three phases of internet according to the previous research (Kalakota Robinson, 2001). The beginning phase (1994-1997) is home pages and website of every company available. The following phase (1997-2000) is taking part into e-commerce in business. The last phase (2000-) which means the current situation is to satisfy online consumers and try to take advantages of internet. However, the development of e-service of our country is lagging behind when compared to other foreign country. Although many researchers have defined e-service before, but there is no an exceptional definition for e-service. E-service can be known as a service that conducts through electronic method such as internet (Rust Kannan, 2002). There is a difference between technology based service and e-service concept, the latter concept need to be carried out through online method whereas technology based services can be an ATM service. Both of the concepts are benefited from development of information technology (Jà ¤rvinen Lehtinen, 2003). In an electronic environment, the service concept is important because the nature of the services is abstract and where the relationships between partners and customers are virtual (Grà ¶nroos, 2000). Since electronic insurance services are perceived as complex and difficult to use, therefore clear and well defined service concept should be emphasized (Jà ¤rvinen 2001; Ahonen Salonen 2005). There are four chosen characteristics, namely, intangibility, process nature, inseparability and interaction that used to test some selected e-services in previous research (Jà ¤rvinen Lehtinen, 2004). All e-services are intangibility in nature and remain intangibility if the consumers only search for information of particular product or service through online. There are only few services consists purely intangible characteristic. For example, previous studies stated that even financial services also aided tangible by their documents like loan agreement (Jà ¤rvinen Lehtinen, 2004). The characteristics of process nature also universal for all studied e-services which means that the customers need to be follow the specific procedures in order to get the services. Inseparability and interaction characteristics are deviated among different e-services (Jà ¤rvinen Lehtinen, 2004). Some characteristics of services in electronic environment have to be considered in order to shift the s ervice concept to (Ahonen, 2004). For e-service, it seldom needs personal interaction when compared to telephone based services (Lovelock, 2002). However, the argument is human factor plays an important role in service recovery when technical problems happened (Jà ¤rvinen Lehtinen, 2004). In addition, E-services can bring considerable profit for companies if they able to manage the e-service effectively. However, not all the products and services are suitable for online trading because internet as a marketing channel only able to realistically fulfill two out of five senses of customers which are sight and sound. Therefore, only products and services that fully utilize the two senses are suitable to sell online for example, CD (Stern, 1995). According to other researcher, Peterson (1997) suggested that the suitability of the products and services to be sold online based on three dimensions: (1) cost outlay and frequency of purchase; (2) value proposition; (3) degree of differentiation Based on the study, products and services that have low cost, high frequency in purchase, intangible value proposition and high degree of differentiation are more suitable to market through internet (Phau Poon, 2000). Is insurance suitable to sell online? Regarding to the three dimensions above, insurance has fulfilled two dimensions which are intangible value proposition and high degree of differentiation because insurance is considered as a customization service. Hence, insurance is considered suitable for marketing through internet. For successfully implement e-service, it not only depends of the suitability of the products and services but also depends on the customers perception towards e-service. Based on previous studies, the overall satisfaction of customer towards e-service can be improved through various factors which included convenience, saving time and money, ease of use, financial security and web site designed to be fun (Szymanski Hise, 2000; Meuter, 2000). Customers satisfaction is important determinant of successful e-service (Parasuraman Grewal, 2000). In order to successfully implement e-insurance in Malaysia, those factors also included in this study to determine adoption of e-insurance. 2.3 Insurance Insurance is defined as the evenhanded transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium and duty of care (Wikipedia, 2005). Insurer is the company that sells the insurance, and the insured is the party who buy the insurance. Insurance rate is the amount charged for a certain value of insurance. Insurance sold to consumers directly is known as direct insurance (Skipper, 1998). Meanwhile, direct insurance also can be defined as a service with particular terms and conditions agreed in an insurance policy. On the other hands, one of the researchers stated that part of the insurance service is to maintain a long term relationship between customers and insurance company rather than only holding legal responsibility with customers (Jà ¤rvinen, 1996). Intangibility, inseparability, perishability, heterogeneity and lack of ownership are characteristics of services (Cowell 1988; Zeithaml Bitner 1996). However, all these characteristics do not followed by insurance service. The tangibility of insurance services achieves through a physical paper of an insurance policy including a promise to pay compensation if a certain unforeseen event takes place. The insurance policy symbolizes the only evidence of that promise until losses occur (Majaro, 1982; 1985). In fact, no policyholder would prefer to have any losses, and thus we can conclude that consumers only purchase merely security or protection for their safety instead of compensation of losses. So, as a result it is in force to cause consumers consume insurance whole period that is a continuous consumption, but production is cross-sectional and dependent of the interaction of the consumer and the insurance company. Therefore, insurance service only partially fulfilled the characteris tic of inseparability. One of the unique natures of each service is heterogeneity on its part. There are various alternatives of insurance for consumers to choose which insurance policy is suitable for them but the terms and cover of most of the insurance is standardized (Jà ¤rvinen, 1998). In case of e-insurance, the heterogeneity part of the personal service forms the only unique part of insurance is eliminated. The back-office resources in insurance that used to balance the capacity can avoid perishability. As a result, large part of activities in E-insurance can be carried out without consumers existence and participation. Lastly, as regards to ownership, insurance holders actually own the partial ownership of the service because they reserve the right for claims settlements that will be paid from the reserves in the balance sheet of an insurance company by paying premium (Jà ¤rvinen, 2000). This means that insured consumers own their part of reserves, and that principle is based in Insurance Act. Co nsequently, we can conclude that the insurance service is quite specific from other services because it only fulfilled partially of the common service characteristics. One of the financial services is insurance, it seems to have different user frequency when compared to other bank services (Jà ¤rvinen, 2003). Specifically, consumers may have bank transactions weekly, but in case of insurance issues, such as risk analysis and insurance cover or claims applications, occur quite infrequently and with low frequency (Ahjos, 1999). Hence, there may be only one occurrence within few years, and that is premium payment. Thus, insurance deviates from bank services and in the case of Internet which means that consumers may never get used to e-insurance, because their actions are needed too rarely. Low frequency and infrequency may also be reasons that obstruct the consumers engagement, which may become the crucial point in developing e-insurance. Generally, insurance services is quite different from others banking services. Insurance companies have to take care of every step in implementing e-insurance successfully. This study is tries to unveil the mystery of insurance services in Malaysia. 2.4 Insurance in Malaysia The beginning of insurance launched in Malaysia can be traced to 18th and 19th centuries which transformed from the agency houses that acted as representative of insurance companies in United Kingdom. Hence, the insurance industry has been strongly influenced by the British insurance system and continued until today. At that time, almost all the insurance companies were established by foreign insurer. Domestic insurance companies were only being introduced in Malaysia after Independence Day. However, domestic insurance companies have faced failure and wound up due to inadequate technical and sound operation in the early 1960. To solve this problem, Malaysian government enacted insurance Act 1963 to regulate insurance industry which functioning under Ministry of Finance. The Insurance Act 1996 has replaced the Insurance Act 1963 on 1st January 1997 in order to supervise and regulate insurance industry more effectively (Ahmad Sungip, 2008). Basically, there are three types of insurance industry in Malaysia which included life insurance industry, general insurance industry and Takaful insurance industry (Aini Tee, 2003). Life insurance is insurance policy that covers variety of contingencies event occurred on human life whereas general insurance is all types of insurance policy except for life insurance. On the other hands, Takaful is insurance which based on Islamic principles (EconomicWatch, 2009). There are five main statutory insurance associations in Malaysia namely, Persatuan Insuran Am Malaysia (PIAM), Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), Persatuan Insuran Kebangsaan Malaysia (NIAM), Insurance Brokers Association of Malaysia (IBAM) and Association of Malaysian Loss Adjuster (AMLA) (PIAM, 2009). Each statutory insurance association has different function. PIAM is an association of general (non-life) insurers, LIAM is an association of life insurers, NIAM is represents locally incorporated insurer with m ore than 51% Malaysian equity, IBAM is an association of insurance brokers, AMLA is an association of insurance brokers. Insurance companies in Malaysia were only started to conduct e-commerce in 1999 which was much slower when compared to other developed countries. During that period, Bank Negara Malaysia has allowed some of the insurance companies to establish Malaysia first interactive insurance website which enabled insured can make online payment and renewal of motor vehicles insurance policy. Till April 2000, Bank Negara Malaysia allowed a full range of life, general an

Sight Words and Highfrequency Words :: essays papers

Sight Words and Highfrequency Words Sight words and high-frequency words are necessary for early readers to learn because these are the words used most often in reading; these words account for 60% of most print. Sight words are a part of vocabulary that are immediately recognized in their entirety rather than requiring word analysis. By teaching children these words by sight saves them the trouble of attempting to sound them out; this is helpful because many of these words do not follow regular phoneme patterns, such as: some and are. Some other examples of sight and high-frequency words are: the, that, him, and also. Children are exposed to sight words and high-frequency words everyday, whether it is at home, in the classroom, or reading signs on the street. These words are also best exposed through literacy. Reading children’s books is one of the most successful ways for children to learn these important words. Since most first graders are unable to read an entire book indepently, reading to them numerous times a day or week can be beneficial in teaching them sight and high-frequency words. The leading types of books for doing this are predictable books, caption books, and label books. Students learn patterns in context plus vocabulary through reading predictable books. A few examples of predictable books are: If You Give a Mouse a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin. After reading a book such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear you could make a worksheet that involves children’s comprehension of the literacy used. For example you could have your students fill in these blanks, â€Å"Brown Bear, ____________ Bear What Do You See? I see a ___________ bird looking at me.† You can also use caption books, and label books in this way to benefit your students learning of sight words and high-frequency words. Although when using these books, it is important to make sure that your children are not just looking at the pictures or memorizing the text. You can assess them on this by covering up the pictures and showing them the words. Remember your goal as a teacher is for your students to become independent readers. When teaching these words, they should be taught together in isolation and in context.

The American Dream in What’s So Great About America and Stupid White Me

The American Dream is so many different things to so many different people. While other countries around the World would like to argue that Americans’ only aspiration is to become infinitely wealthy, Dinesh D’Souza claims that it is not wealth that Americans want. He believes that it is simply a better life. Michael Moore too acknowledges Americans’ ambition, especially his own, to create a better life for themselves. These two views of the American Dream come from very opposite Americans, but it is their differences that make their ideals so beautifully unique. To begin the comparison between these two authors, I will first examine Moore’s ideology. As it is obviously stated in the title of his book, Moore is not exactly subtle person. He voices his contempt of what has become the American Dream through his own story of an underpaid and underappreciated pilot. Moore disgust for the pilot’s situation when he crudely utters, â€Å"Never, ever let someone fly you up in the air who’s making less than the kid at Taco Bell.† (Moore, 48) Moore, of self-admitted wealth, sympathizes with men that collect food stamps. These pilots, as well as the rest of Americans, are being robbed of our American Dreams by corporate minions that have been stockpiling income for the last, â€Å"two decades.† (Moore, 50) These same CEO’s and other suits are the greed at the tops of huge corporations that, with the absence of Clinton, have had a field day with ripping off Americans by and large through tax shelters, off-shore s ubsidies, and other means of defrauding the American Public. Moore drives this point home when he attacks Mercedes Benz tax dodging of emissions fines as a blatant tactic, â€Å"so that rich people could drive around big, fancy cars and ruin people lungs.† (Moore, 53) Although he admits to living among the rich people, Moore points out that the government too is among those that are flushing away the American Dream, because tax audits have increased among the less paid in American society. Moore reveals that his true vision of the American Dream is the success of people who have, â€Å"played by the rules, gave their heart and sole and first marriage to their company.† (Moore, 55) Certainly success is anything but guaranteed in any competitive Capitalistic society. This competition is what makes America thrive. However, Moore feels that it is not Capitalism fault, as much as it is... ...ti-patriotism. I see his aggressive style as his way of embracing our democracy and forcing it to make our country better in any way it can. What he is saying is to refuse mediocrity in our own government. I too believe we should always be striving to make our country better. It is this reason that I call D’Souza naà ¯ve. Our government did not become what it is over night. It has been hundreds of years of fight and struggle from people like Moore that pushed America through her weaknesses, like segregation, racism, injustice, etc.. D’Souza touches on this idea somewhat when he quotes V.S. Naipaul’s notion that Americans believe in an individual’s potential for, â€Å"perfectibility.† (D’Souza, 85) Because of our government, more directly its rule by the people, this perfectibility should also be extended to our every political ideal. Even though I admire D’Souza and his blind love for America, I agree that Moore’s head is in the right direction. Works Cited D’Souza, Dinesh., What’s So Great About America (Washington, Regnery Publishing, 2002). Moore, Michael. Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation. New York: Regan/ HarperCollins, 2001. The American Dream in What’s So Great About America and Stupid White Me The American Dream is so many different things to so many different people. While other countries around the World would like to argue that Americans’ only aspiration is to become infinitely wealthy, Dinesh D’Souza claims that it is not wealth that Americans want. He believes that it is simply a better life. Michael Moore too acknowledges Americans’ ambition, especially his own, to create a better life for themselves. These two views of the American Dream come from very opposite Americans, but it is their differences that make their ideals so beautifully unique. To begin the comparison between these two authors, I will first examine Moore’s ideology. As it is obviously stated in the title of his book, Moore is not exactly subtle person. He voices his contempt of what has become the American Dream through his own story of an underpaid and underappreciated pilot. Moore disgust for the pilot’s situation when he crudely utters, â€Å"Never, ever let someone fly you up in the air who’s making less than the kid at Taco Bell.† (Moore, 48) Moore, of self-admitted wealth, sympathizes with men that collect food stamps. These pilots, as well as the rest of Americans, are being robbed of our American Dreams by corporate minions that have been stockpiling income for the last, â€Å"two decades.† (Moore, 50) These same CEO’s and other suits are the greed at the tops of huge corporations that, with the absence of Clinton, have had a field day with ripping off Americans by and large through tax shelters, off-shore s ubsidies, and other means of defrauding the American Public. Moore drives this point home when he attacks Mercedes Benz tax dodging of emissions fines as a blatant tactic, â€Å"so that rich people could drive around big, fancy cars and ruin people lungs.† (Moore, 53) Although he admits to living among the rich people, Moore points out that the government too is among those that are flushing away the American Dream, because tax audits have increased among the less paid in American society. Moore reveals that his true vision of the American Dream is the success of people who have, â€Å"played by the rules, gave their heart and sole and first marriage to their company.† (Moore, 55) Certainly success is anything but guaranteed in any competitive Capitalistic society. This competition is what makes America thrive. However, Moore feels that it is not Capitalism fault, as much as it is... ...ti-patriotism. I see his aggressive style as his way of embracing our democracy and forcing it to make our country better in any way it can. What he is saying is to refuse mediocrity in our own government. I too believe we should always be striving to make our country better. It is this reason that I call D’Souza naà ¯ve. Our government did not become what it is over night. It has been hundreds of years of fight and struggle from people like Moore that pushed America through her weaknesses, like segregation, racism, injustice, etc.. D’Souza touches on this idea somewhat when he quotes V.S. Naipaul’s notion that Americans believe in an individual’s potential for, â€Å"perfectibility.† (D’Souza, 85) Because of our government, more directly its rule by the people, this perfectibility should also be extended to our every political ideal. Even though I admire D’Souza and his blind love for America, I agree that Moore’s head is in the right direction. Works Cited D’Souza, Dinesh., What’s So Great About America (Washington, Regnery Publishing, 2002). Moore, Michael. Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation. New York: Regan/ HarperCollins, 2001.

Neuron Conduction :: physics science

Introduction During a thunderstorm in 1786, Luigi Galvani touched a frogà ¢s leg with a metal instrument and noticed the muscles twitching. He concluded that the storm had generated electricity, which conducted through the frogà ¢s nerves and caused the muscles to contract. Nerves do transmit impulses from one part of the body to another, but in a different way than in an ordinary conductor. The electrical properties are different in neural conduction because it is slower and does not very in strength (it is a all-or-nothing conduction). A nerve cell (neuron) is the basic building block of the nervous system and is specialized to transmit information. It consists of a cell body and two types of branchlike fibers, dendrites and axons (top of Figure 1). Dendrites, along the cell body, receive information in the form of stimuli from sensory receptors or from other nerve cells. The axon is a long, thin cellular extension responsible for transmitting information to other nerve cells, and is filled with a viscous intracellular fluid called the axoplasm. If stimuli received by the dendrites or the cell body is above the cellà ¢s intensity threshold, a nerve impulse is initiated which propagates along the axon. It flows along the axon away from the cell body toward the terminal branches. Once a nerve impulse reaches the terminal branches, neurotransmitter substances release, conveying the impulse to receptors on the next cell. The Resting Potential of the Nerve Cell Critical to the function of the nerve cell, the cell membrane maintains intracellular conditions that differ from those of the extracellular environment. There is an excess of negative ions inside the cell membrane and an excess of positive ions outside (middle of Figure 1). The electrochemical gradient across the membrane is the means of nerve impulse transmission. The concentration of potassium (K+) is 30 times greater in the fluid inside the cell than outside and the concentration of sodium ions (Na+) is nearly 10 times greater in the fluid outside the cell than inside (See Table 1). Anions, particularly chloride (Cl--), are also unevenly distributed. Nerve cells use both passive diffusion and active transport to maintain these differentials across their cell membranes. The unequal distribution of Na+ and K+ is established by an energy-dependant Na+-K+ à £pumpà ¤, moving Na+ out of the cell and K+ into the cell. Specialized proteins embedded in the nerve cell membrane function a s voltage-dependant channels, passing through Na+ and K+ during nerve impulse transmission.

A Life Changing Moment

I have always perceived my life to be that of the ordinary. I am a man who lived a simple life, and had simple dreams to look up to. Everything changed when I met my girlfriend, HER NAME.She was the most extraordinary woman I have ever met. From her aura, down to the little details about her personality, one may witness the exceeding confidence she exhibits all throughout her life. She has carefully planned her life the way she wanted it to be.GIRLFRIEND'S NAME was simple yet lovable. She would do the things that could make her happy above anything else. She never allowed people to look down on her and prevent her from doing the things that she loved the most. I could say that GIRLFRIEND'S NAME had the most impact on me. She encouraged me to set goals and strive hard to be the best that I can be. Through her hard work and dedication, I was inspired to do the same thing.My girlfriend's great influence in my life made me determined to study and acquire a degree in college. Although we have only been together for seven months, I felt the great impact she had in my life. Regardless of how big and complicated things were, NAME OF GIRLFRIEND always had enough reasons to smile and continue on with life.I started to be more cautious of my actions, and at the same time   view life in a more positive way. Once she told me, â€Å"Honey, why not try doing something big? It would make you feel a lot better if you were happy with the things that you did, other than do something to appease others.†Although said in the most insignificant way, these were the words that stuck in my mind all the time. Every time I would feel bad about myself, I would try to recall these  Ã‚   fond memories with my girlfriend. Then I feel a sense of security, making me forget about my problems more and just give my best and move forward.   

Globalization: Economics and World

By reading Skidelsky’s article, he demonstrated a great explanation about the globalization and the future strategy for the world. According to this article, Skid sky analyzed the past financial recession influence to the world and the current world’s major issues in the world. In the Skidelsky’s article, he provided main arguments about globalization development after the collapse in autumn 2008. Before he provided a solution for the recession, Skidesky illustrated the current order problems in the world with examples and scholar’s theories.According to analysis Keynes and related theories, pointing the main problems of globalization, he believed that the most likely fate for globalization is to cooperate and implement cooperative solutions, which will be a quantum leap in the world to solve multiple problems. According to Skidelsky’s statement, the cooperation is necessary, which only accrued among states with the same values. Under this statement , he stated that the cooperation would be a useful tool to reduce the conflicts between democracy and globalization, which stated that non-democracy is important for states.Skidelsky’s provided other two options for the world, including creating a world sovereign and a project of Pax Americana. By comparing with among those three options, related a theory applies and real examples, Skidelsky demonstrated that the cooperative is the main option for the world to recovery from the global financial crisis. In order to ensure his argument more convinced, he also analyzed the current economic world situation with two scenarios, disintegration and global compact, which are only relying on specific countries or groups.Therefore, to solve the recession issue to the world, the cooperative becomes necessary, because the world cannot cut the recession. In the cooperation theory, only the vital state can become democratic. Within the whole nation, stronger states should follow the rules t o assist the weaker states to boost their economy. Skidelsky used the project for a league of democracies, George Soros to prove that cooperative between states is important. In the non-democratic version of cooperation, China and Russia are the major examples in the world.Furthermore, he demonstrated the game theory and treaties, which depended on the self-interest, which becomes the main element to development cooperative in the worldwide. From my opinion, I believed that the cooperative is the main issue to solve the recession issue in the world. With the development of globalization, a stronger country should assist other country to boost on their economic development. There is no economic government in the world. All countries and states need to focus on their self-interest and use power of cooperative with other countries to recovery from the financial recession.The implement cooperative solution is to reform in the state by cooperating within the country and cooperating with other countries in the world. By making joint efforts, the recession will be cut and the globalization will be powerful. Therefore, Skidelsky’s about cooperative argument is advancing and significant. There new solution will assist the world transfer from political economy to cooperation economy and the global financial recession will be reducing.

Hyphenated American

Chinese Americans tend to keep their separate identity In the United States, there are multiple hyphenated Americans groups, such as African- American, Asian- American, Irish- American, and Indian- American. People hold American nationality, but have a foreign birth or origins tend to identify themselves in some term of Hyphenated Americans. It means that they are not only Americans, but also involve in different ethnicity, religion, language, and culture. Chinese- Americans comprises the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans.Most of the early Chinese workers immigrated from Guangdong province in China for the Gold Rush (â€Å"Chinese Immigrants and the Gold Rush†, n. d. ). Since 1865, lots of Chinese worker come to the United States and worked on the famous Transcontinental Railroad project. The Chinese also worked as small merchants, gardener, laundry workers, farmers, and so on. More and more Chinese Americans immigrated with their children from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan(â€Å"Chinese Historycal Society of Southern California†, 2010).The Chinese Americans try to keep their Chinese culture, language, and community, and they tend to retain the separate identity. Chinese Americans tend to live together in their own culture community. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population was around 3. 8 million, and half of them lived either in  California  or  New York (â€Å"Race Reporting for the Asian Population by Selected Categories: 2010†, 2010 ). The Chinatown in San Francisco was the oldest and largest Chinese community in the United States.People can find Chinese culture elements everywhere in the Chinatown, for example, herbal shops, temples, dragon parades, Chinese book store, Chinese restaurant, Chinese language school, and even Chinese hospital. People living in the Chinatown communicate in Chinese language, and live exactly the same life style as people in China. Chinese Americans in New York also have such community in the Flushing area, know as Chinatown. There are Chinese transportation companies; travel agencies, and Chinese language school also. Almost every child in Chinese American family has attended Chinese language school after their regular school time.Their parents want them to keep ancestor’s culture, so they will always remember that they are rooted in China. There is a Columbus Chinese Christian Church in Columbus Ohio. Every Sunday, thousands of Chinese American Christians living in Columbus get together and model in the bible through teaching, music, and worship. After the teaching, people share a big dinner of Chinese food. Most of them speak Chinese, and only the new generations who were born in America prefer to speak English. Many of the old immigrated Chinese American even cannot speak English at all.Even though the kids speak English with each other, they can still speak frequently in Chinese with their parents. Chinese Americans stay in th eir own community to retain their culture, language, and customs. Chinese Americans are pride of their ethnic and culture. Music and dance are the common language among all human being. Chinese Americans hold Shen Yun performances all around the United States to spread Chinese art and music. Every year, students can see posts about Shen Yun performance on the wall around the OSU campus. The video Shen Yun 2013 Trailer on the Shen Yun website also shows some significant parts of the performance.Dancers wearing different styles of Chinese traditional ancient clothes performed the Chinese cultures of different dynasty and different ethics. The music play by Chinese traditional instruments was as good as the dancing. As it said in the video, the aim of the performance is to revive 5000 years of divine civilization. It shows Chinese Americans’ strong sense of pride of Chinese culture. Many of the new generation of Chinese American, which is also known as American born Chinese (ABC ), had a hard time to define themselves identity.A short story named â€Å"The Paper Menagerie† written by Ken Liu won the 2012 Hugo Awards. This short, bittersweet story describe Ken suffered a pain of having a Chinese born mom who was different with every else’s mom, also, whose accent and broken sentences embarrassed him (Ken, 2012). His mom taught him Chinese, cooked Chinese food, and made him Chinese tradition paper animals as toys. She liked to see the Chinese parts in her son. However, he hated his chink face and all the other Chinese parts from his mother. He refused to talk to her in Chinese even though she can barely speak English.After reading her lasting letter inside the paper animals after his mother’s death, Ken finally understand his mother’s life and know how much she loved him (Ken, 2012). There is an America born Chinese girl Amy Tan who define herself a completely American, and she wants nothing to do with China. However, she actually struggled a lot about which country she truly belongs to. Then she had a trip back to China with her mother. Tan said that once she touched Chinese soil, she better understood her connection to the land and to the country.She finally understood how she belongs to two cultures at the same, which make her accept her hyphenated identity, and view herself as a Chinese American. She said â€Å"I discovered how American I was. I also discover how Chinese I was. I discovered a sense of finally belonging to a period of history, which I never felt with American history†. She realized that â€Å"Once you were born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese† (Lemontree, n. d. ). Ken and Amy all tried to refuse everything about China, and they want nothing to do with Chinese.Finally, somehow, they find the way to connect their Chinese heritage and American nationality, and they accept themselves as who they are. American born Chinese new generation all suffered from an un expected pain of trying to belong. They have Chinese faces; they were mostly raised up in Chinese community and eat Chinese food; they have Chinese friends and their family members speak Chinese at home. They don’t know which nation and culture they truly belong to. Sometime they feel embarrassed about having such a different family, and try to integrate into the American society.Their parents hope they can hold the hyphenated identity, because they are pride of Chinese ethnic and culture. Young generations always refuse to do so, but the Chinese heritages do exist in their body, and will have influences on their life. They need to honor their ancestor’s culture and accept combination of being Chinese and American. Reference Chinese Historycal Society of Southern California. (2010). Retrieved on Nov. 21, 2012, from http://www. chssc. org/history/histtimeline. html Chinese Immigrants and the Gold Rush (n. d. ). Retrieved on Nov. 21. 2012, from http://www. pbs. rg/wgbh/a mex/goldrush/peopleevents/p_chinese. html Ken,L. (2011). The Paper Menagerie. Fantasy & Science Fiction. Retrieved on Nov. 21, 2012, from http://a1018. g. akamai. net/f/1018/19022/1d/randomhouse1. download. akamai. com/19022/pdf/Paper_Menagerie. pdf Lemontree. (n. d. ). Hyphenated Identity: A Long Research Journey, Retrieved on Nov, 21, 2012, from http://ayjw. org/articles. php? id=696640 Race Reporting for the Asian Population by Selected Categories: 2010. (2010). U. S. Census Bureau, Retrieved on Nov. 21, 2012, from http://factfinder2. census. gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview. xhtml