The Little Mermaid Essay Example for Free

The Little Mermaid Essay The first reason that I like this story is it is different from many other stories that always provide happy ending. Children are impossible to be innocent; we need to know we will face some difficulties in our daily life. If life looks so perfect, that is not life. And we usually can learn more by sad stories, because sadness or tragedy can uplift people’s greatness. After I read this story, I started to discover people live around me, and there are surely someone cries in the invisible corner. It seems that many adults think a child should not see too much sadness in their childhood, they think child’s life should be filled by happiness, however, no matter in which ages, people do have some upset feelings sometimes, so I think there is not a big problem to give kids read sad tales. To realize more, we can have a good start to grow up, because we have already prepared our mental statement. The second reason that I like this story is this fairy tale concludes a concept about gain and giving up. We are making choice in every moment when we are live in earth, we choose to give up something and to gain something, and the purpose is we try to make our gain more than our lost. In this story, the little mermaid uses her sweet voice to change a magic medicine that can give her human’s legs back from the evil witch. Although she thinks she can catch the prince’s heart, she is wrong and only has a chance to live a short happy time with prince for memory. In our student’s life, we also sacrifice our free time to do some we need to complete first. There is a proverb said that â€Å"One cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs. † There is no possibility that will be a present coming to you for no reason from God; we have to make decisions by ourselves, learn to make better decisions, and give ourselves present by our own. Many fairy tales are talking about the prince saves the princess, but â€Å"The Little Mermaid† is not. The little mermaid saves the prince from getting drown, and she choose to lose her life without killing the prince. We can find out that women are also strong as men, not to her powerful strength, but to her firm mind. When people face difficulties, they usually feel scared, and want to escape for sacrificing. But many examples that show women’s determination, such as some women choose to give up her life to born her baby. So we can realize that women will behave strong, when they have to protect their beloved as men. This kind of concept can give us courage and confidence to do things that we think we cannot do at first, although it is just a story, it encourages kids much. Some adults are worried that give children to read sad fairy tales will make kids feel unhappy, but I think this problem is not so serious. By reading those sad stories, we can have more impressive feeling, and start to think what reasons cause these sad endings. I like â€Å"The Little Mermaid†, it let me learn lessons, such as realizing the life is not perfect, making better choices and believing myself to accomplish my own goals. Maybe we cannot fulfill every wish in our short life, but we have tried to live a better life, like a pretty bubble exists. To this aspect, we will not have regrets.

SWOT, PEST and Porters 5 Forces Analysis of Virgin

SWOT, PEST and Porters 5 Forces Analysis of Virgin Virgin group was founded by Richard Branson. Virgin group first started with a magazine called student. This started in 70s and got huge recognition in public. Then he opened a virgin recording studio. In 80s virgin company went on to international recognition. He then started virgin Atlantic airways in 84. In the same year he started a 24 hour music channel which was a grand success. Virgin entered in all kind of business by 90s. There are different companies under virgin group like virgin mobile, virgin airways, virgin holidays, virgin trains, cars, books etc. Virgin group is the one of the top companies in UK. In rest of the countries it is giving a tough competition to other companies. Virgin has a different strategy and approach to the customers and it always succeeded in attracting the customers. Group produces different products and has entered into different fields in a very short period. Virgin has the advantage of its brand name in the market as it is a company where most of the people are wary about the company products. Richard Branson manager of the company is the brand ambassador of the company. History: 1968: Richard Bransons first magazine went on to publish. This is the first venture by the company manager. 1970: In this year Virgin mail order was born. 1971: In this year virgins first record shop was opened in Oxford Street in London. 1972: Virgin built a recording studio and composed the songs. 1984: Company built Virgin Atlantic airways where the flights ran to all beautiful places. 1985: Company started another offer to the customers like Virgin Holidays. 1988: Virgin opened Mega stores in Glasgow, Paris and then it spread to many other major cities. 1991: In this year Virgin started selling books. 1993: Virgin started radio station. It is the first national and commercial radio station in UK. 1994: In this year Virgin entered into beverages and started Virgin Vodka and Virgin Cola. 1995: Virgin launched cinemas in UK. 1996: In this year Virgin started its Internet services to the customers. 1997: Virgin entered into transportation industry and started Virgin rails. 1999: Virgin mobiles started and it changed the way of communication. 2000: In this year Virgin started nine companies and all of them were successful. 2007: Virgin entered into Indian market with its mobile. Strategy of the company: Virgins first and obvious resource is the chairman Richard Branson that made the company to top position. Richard Bransons style and charismatic manner that attracts many people towards virgin group. Secondly virgin people are the main source of the companys success. Virgin has a unique brand recognition in different businesses that is difficult to other companies to replicate. Virgin has many numbers of companies under its shadow. The management of virgin group has freedom to express their opinions regarding companys ongoing business and innovates new strategies for the company development. Virgins management is heavily depends on the market analysis and the customer requirements as they go into customer shoes and understand their needs and serve more better. Virgin has creative employees to serve the company better and it has 25000 employees all over the world. Richard Branson adopted a policy with his managers and encouraged their own creativity for initiative ideas so managers would feel more responsible and ownership and tries to make a change in the company strategy and make it to run on success and profits. Management recruited carefully only some selected individuals who has the competitive nature and good teamwork abilities and chairman Richard Branson has selected as they are of his image in characteristics. Brand Strategy: Brand name or brand strategy is a process of attracting customers to buy a new product of its brand where brand has already got a market value. Virgin has a great brand value in UK and all the products which are produced are sold under its brand. Branding allows a customer to buy repeatedly the product and it makes a loyal supplier and the customer is also satisfied. Branding less than one name means more responsible to the supplier and trustworthy to supplier to supply the best products. Selling the products under one brand doesnt need more advertisement costs and it gets good response in the beginning as the brand is familiar in the market and there are many number trusted customers to it already. There are even some threats to this brand strategy, if the product fails to attract the customers then it may put the brand into difficult position and it degrades the image of the brand. Virgin has a great brand value in the market that uses its name tag for all its products in advertising and releases into the market. Virgin has many products in various fields under its brand name like in travel and tourism it has virgin travels, vacations etc. in leisure it has games, spa etc. In social welfare and environment it has green fund, virgin earth etc. In beverages it has virgin wines, soft drinks etc. In media it has virgin radio, music channels, mobiles, broadband, telecommunications etc. With all these it has some products like books, cloths, and finance and health bank. All its products has only one brand name and they are sold on virgin name for its brand value and good reputation. In virgin it provides two types of products, they are differentiated as convenience products and no requested products which have different types of customers and demand. In convenience products books, cosmetics, mobiles are available where all these products are convenient to buy for any type of customers. These products are bought frequently, immediately and with minimum affordable costs. The second type of products is no requested products like extra terrestrial travels where people doesnt know about it or doesnt show interest in it. Virgin introduced an offer to travel space to its customers. Due to its cost and risks many were not interested to use the offer. Virgin believes in fewer prices in differentiated products where certain level of customers expects quality of products. Branson has managed to satisfy the customers with quality services and his products through out the world. Virgin brand mainly concentrated on customers like young people who like innovative, quality, fun loving products. Corporate Structure: The structure of virgin group is different than other companies as the financial information is not clear for this business. As it is a private company and it has different fields and different organizations and there are no correct accounts, so financial structure of the company and its income and business statements are not available clearly. Branson told that the group is loosely linked to each other and they are self managed under one brand name. Branson also said that virgin is a group of private companies and not public limited company so it must concentrate on benefit of shareholders, stakeholders and financiers. The advantage of this is the company targets only on the long term profits. Virgin group is mainly controlled by Richard and his trusted employees who are working for him since twenty years. In head office there are 30 people working and he has given them freedom to work and improve the companys financial structure and he is there only to look after big deals and final strategy. The main strategy of the virgin is to work in different sectors of business under one brand name. Virgin has decentralized the organizational structure and decision making allows the managers to learn about business tactics and while avoiding large deal decision to the chairman. Virgin allows small companies to put its brand name as it gets international recognition and it would help company to promote very easily. With this virgin is able to enjoy both the large scale and small scale companys profits and world wide recognition. Virgin has a centralized unit to look all its business strategies and manage all the companies under one desk at the head office. A single website www.virgin.com allows users to access all its products and services. It has a internet business strategy which has coordination between all the companies and they act according to the strategies coming from the head office. When a customer enters into virgin website he can access to all the products of virgin which are under one portal and if he uses any product then he becomes a member of virgin family and he can use other services like mobile, telecommunication, banking, transportation, internet needs, traveling, entertainment etc. In this it gains more number of customers like virgin mobile gets customers from virgin rail records, virgin travel gets records from other virgin companies and so on. In this way other mobile companies cant get contact with rail customers or travel companies cannot contact to some unrelated company customers as they are unknown to them, but in virgin it have all types of customers and it can get in contact with all customers who are under them and this would help them increase the sale of there products. Strategic Relationships: All the companies in virgin run targeting towards a five pillar empire system that Richard was eager to create. According to Richard five pillars and heart of his business are travel, leisure, mobile phones, entertainment retailing and personal finance. Virgin wants to say to all its customers by using prefix called fun, innovative, daring. It is already said that the main strategy of virgin is Sir Richard Branson. The Britain people can immediately identify the Sir Richard Branson name and his companies. This is the main psychological strategy Richard has got and he actively participates in all marketing and promotion activities. This is the reason for the expansion of virgin empire and all other companies show interest to keep a joint venture with virgin group. There is a great demand for virgin and the example for this is actually for the virgin direct affair investment was  £15 million. But the AMP limited the leading international finance group initial investment was  £450 million and it was 50-50 joint venture. All business in the virgin group sacrificed short term profits to gain long term growth and used an individual level business strategy of decision making method. Managers are given freedom to make decisions independently for the growth and feel the same as of ownership and the value that any manager would feel. The assets and finance matters are not shared between companies and if any company became too large any other company would take its place. Management: Branson has taken few candidates who are having innovative ideas and are willing to start new business with a strong desire to beat their competitor. Richard Branson has added his own style of management style and involved actively all the employees and asked for advices to further serving customers better. Employees were actively involved in behaving with there values and there performance was accountable. Human resource management was responsible to keep people to the bonuses and profit sharing where ever possible they get promotions. Analytical Tools: PEST Analysis: Political factors: Virgin rail is running under single brand as it has partnership with stagecoach. Virgin has 51% share and stagecoach has 49% share in the market. Virgin follows all the rules and regulations of the country it is working in and it pays all taxes and makes policies according to the government rules. Virgin is Britains most trusted company and it has lot of customer following to its products and has a great influence and bonding relationship with the people of this country. The political interference in virgin group is regarding financial matters as the reports are not clear due to its partnerships with many companies. Economic factors: To virgin most of the companies are running with partnerships and they are putting only to some extent of money and they expand their business. The global recession has lot of affect on its company, like closing down or losing jobs may have direct impact on its business strategy. Operation levels are increased and taking particular attention to the competitive services regarding to customers. Fluctuations in the local and international market show the direct impact on the companys business strategy and may turn it into losses. Social factors: The social responsibility of providing good quality services to its customers is its first priority. The company has a mission to give outstanding services to all its customers according to the economic conditions of the customer. Environmental concerns are increasing day by day. So company launched its first bio-diesel train earlier than all other companies in Europe. Virgin has poor punctuality services which should be taken care and satisfy the customers by addressing on time. Virgin mobile has offered different offers to its customers according to the social conditions of the countrys situation. Technological factors: Virgin is one company which always tries to update its software or its technical knowledge and serve to its customers to a maximum extent. Virgin rail has always made updates in its technology or in its quality to its customers and made the trains run punctually without any technical mistakes. Virgin group always updates in providing internet services and technologies in it as wireless technology. Company policies also change according to the trend and interest of the customers. SWOT Analysis: Strengths: Brand name: Virgin has a strong brand name in countries like UK, USA, and Australia. Name of its brand is enough to promote any product and make it grand success in the market. Products coming from virgin can survive in the market very easily and they can get good recognition and publicity without making more advertisement. Different types of distribution: Virgin has two different types of distribution units. First is to sell the products in retail stores and the second is to sell through online. Customers can use any of these services according to there comfortable levels. Both of these distribution units are maintained by virgin group. Various processes to export: Virgin has different methods of transportation facilities to export its products. It has international airports and two big seaports near to it for exporting its product. IT professionals: It has highly skilled software professionals who work with great commitment to give the best quality of service to its customers. High budget: Virgin group has enough money to invest into any kind of business and it is earning huge profits every year for its products and it is expanding to different countries every year. Weaknesses: Loose supervision: As virgin is a group of different companies and each field has its own managers, the supervision of the company is becoming hard for anyone and control goes out of hand sometimes. Communication gap: There is a lot of communication gap between each company. Only the website to approach to the company is same but the communication between different sectors of business is very weak. Bad transportation: There is a bad transportation facility and there is no punctuality in trains and other public transportation facilities where all these are affecting the company progress. Outdated machinery: Some of the virgin products use outdated machines and these cause a great trouble to the customers and employees in it. For example virgin rails still need to update its version of trains and make it faster. Opportunities: Expand to overseas: Virgin has the opportunity to expand to overseas and make its market to reach to more customers as it is a familiar product in many countries. Products like mobiles, airlines and media can be extended to any country very easily. Virgin could get better deals: Virgin has the opportunity to get more deals from more countries as it is always ready to expand its business and it is ready to make partnership with any other company for its progress. Opportunities of training: There are many opportunities for training for fresher and retraining to other individuals in the company. So that employer has the opportunity to know more about the company and on what project it is working exactly. Using high technology goods: It has the opportunity to improve itself by improving its technology and usage of new technologies in different sectors and making customer easy to understand about the services you offer. Threats: The success of virgin group mainly depends on the corporate parenting strategy which is led by Richard Branson. It is sustained through its strategies if it goes well in the market and gives competition to other companies. In the long run Branson has to put his succession ideas and strategies for the future running of business and they require implementing properly to reach the targets of the company. Virgin has to take care about its strong leadership for the future and the implementation of its company policies and strategies for the long run of the company by managing all the companies under it carefully. Porters 5 forces: In porters five forces it discuss about the five factors where the running of a company depends and they are: rivalry, supplier power, customer power, threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants. Porters Five Forces Model Rivalry: In the market if the rivalry between two companies increases then it would result to zero profit margins. Companies try to overcome this and take competitive advantage and over their rivals. Rivalry can be caused due to various reasons and their effects may decrease prices and sometimes companies need to put special offers to face the challenges. Rivalry between companies is due to the following reasons Large number of firms: More number of firms produces same product then they compete for the sales of there goods to the same customers in a limited market place and this led to competition between companies. High fixed costs: If the cost of product is high then customers switch to other companies and this would put in trouble so the companies has to put a price with a minimum profit margin. Market growth: In this companies try to grow rapidly by attracting customers and they make plans for the expansion of there business. There would be a strong rivalry during this process as all the companies try to increase their market size. Threat of substitutes: In this model threat of substitutes refer to the same products producing by other companies and making competition. In this customers would easily switch to another product. So companies have price war and look for the low margin profits to attract existing and new customers. Buying power: This refers to the power of buyers as it is mainly concerned with customers. There are some factors in this as the buyers are powerful and if the buyers are weak. Buyers are powerful when the customers are less in concentration compared to market share and he can purchase a fair share of output. Buyers are weak when the companies take over the distribution of products on their own or the producers supply distribution of input purchases. Supplier power: In this it discuss about the power of supplier. Suppliers are powerful when there are more number of customers or when there are only few suppliers to the company. Suppliers are weak when more number of suppliers is there to supply the goods and when the less number of purchasers are available in the market. Threat of new entrants: In this if any new company enters the market this would make huge competition in the market and new entrants threat to pose more danger as they try to attract the customers and in this process they give lot of offers to the customers. In this it is easy to enter when there is huge demand for any product and lot of distribution channels. It is easy to exit when there are salable assets, low exit costs and independent businesses. Future of the company: Virgin has a lot of strategies for its future and Richard Branson is in the process to implement all these strategies. Virgin is planning to enter into more different sectors of business and to expand its business to other countries. Virgin is planning to open new businesses in partnership with any company to enter into new business and to other countries. It is planning to enter developing countries and make its mark there by giving more offers to all types of customers and increase their share in the market and their brand value. The virgin group as a business head had the following points where they value these. Understanding of markets: Virgins management has a good experience in identifying the market situation. It is there expertise and business strategy which helped the company to achieve a lot of success in all business areas they entered. Brand name which overcame barriers to entry: The virgin brand name is the Britains favorite brand and it is a respectable brand in other countries. Joint ventures: virgin secret of success is joint ventures and they kept limited investment in new products and got benefits from this in market. Freedom to managers: management is not restricted and the company helps in innovation and promotes shared partnership and responsibilities. Innovation: Virgins staff has individuals who have succeeded in their careers and the group invites many people who invest in new innovations and differentiate. All these innovative ideas made virgin in top position and they have applied in there business and got huge success to their credit. For example virgin mobiles have partnership with other telecommunication groups and they gave offers such as less monthly rentals and cheaper prepaid offers in all the places they entered. In UK virgin doesnt operate its own network but it won best wireless award in UK. Conclusion: Virgin company has many ventures to launch. Virgin managed to increase their share in the market over the last 15 years. In last fifteen years there are lot of new ventures in Virgin and entered into different fields and launched its products in many countries. A strong brand name and good service to its customers makes Virgin Company to top position in future. Bibliography: Wilson and Gilligan (1998),  Strategic Marketing Management,  2nd  edition, Butterwoth Heinemann, Oxford   Applied Strategic Planning: An Introduction by Timothy N. Nolan, Leonard D. Goodstein, and Jeanette Goodstein Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan That Really Works: A Comprehensive Guide by Leonard Goodstein, Timothy Nolan, and J. William Pfeiffer

Essay on Relationship between Art and Life in Death in Venice

Relationship between Art and Life Explored in Death in Venice      Ã‚   The novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann examines the nature of the relationship between art and life. The progression of the main character, Gustave Von Aschenbach, illustrates the concept of an Apollinian/Dionysian continuum. Apollo is the Greek god of art, thus something Apollinian places an emphasis on form. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and chaos, hence something Dionysian emphasizes energy and emotion. In The Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that,"... the continuous development of art is bound up with the Apollinian and Dionysian duality--just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual strife with only periodically intervening reconciliations.. in the Greek world there existed a tremendous opposition, in origin and aims, between the Apollinian area of sculpture, and the nonimagistic, Dionysian art of music "(33). The Greeks embodied this concept in the "clear figures of their gods" just as Thomas Mann, a great reader of N ietzsche, embodied it in his characters (33).    At the beginning of the novel, Gustave is depicted as an extremely, if not overly, civilized man. He is an artist, but he approaches art coldly and rigidly. It is more a job than a joy for him, and it is actually his urge to seek "flight from his rigid, cold, and passionate service" that brings him to Venice (Mann 6). Although Gustave loves this service, he is currently in a state of frustration: "To him it seemed that his work had ceased to be marked by that fiery play of fancy that is the product of joy..." (7). His beliefs can be summarized in the words "mind and art," thus missing the crucial ingredients of life and sensuality. Gu... ... painting Figures on Rocks at the Edge of the Sea. Life is found to be problematic if lived at either extreme, a midpoint of some type must be established. A dynamic state of oscillation, the best environment for the cultivation of creativity, would have prevented Gustave's uncontrollable exhibition of previously inhibited Dionysian qualities. The ideal state for the production of art and living in general seems to be a mixture of art, mind, and life.       Works Cited Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice and Other Stories. New York: Random House, Inc., 1989. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. 1872. In The Birth of Tragedy and The Case   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of Wagner. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books, 1967. Vibert, Jean-Georges. Figures on Rocks at the Edge of the Sea. Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana.   

My Philosophy of Education Essays -- Philosophy on Teaching Statement

Philosophy of Education Jean-Paul Sartre said, â€Å"Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself† (Myra, David, 402). According to him, personality is made by him/herself according to environment, religion, or society and everyone has a different belief and idea such as how they want to behave toward others or what I want to be on their own through their experience or life. Everyone has his or her own belief, philosophy, and dream but also I have my own concept. My philosophy of education revolves around why I want to be a teacher, my own philosophy of education, and what I want to do in future. After reading the nonfiction book by Torey F Hayden †The Child, Sheera† I was influenced to be a childhood special education teacher. If I didn’t read her book, I would not consider that I want to be a special education teacher. The author, Torey F Haydan was a specialist of a childhood special education and wrote about her experiences. She had a class for handicapped children and devoted her life to them. She always took care of her students. I was so impressed by her dedication that I realized that I want to be a special education teacher. Not only did her book influence me, but children make me happy. Spending time with them, I feel happy even if I may be having a bad day. Through my elementary field experience, I have found students are friendly and open-minded. At first, I was so nervous because I am not a native and I have trouble speaking English well, so I ...

Humor in Dickens Tale of Two Cities :: essays research papers

A Tale of Two Cities Frequently in literature, humor is added in scenes to make them more interesting and more appealing to readers. Often times underneath the humorous covers lay a much more serious principle. Charles Dickens does exactly this in A Tale of Two Cities, by making slight comedy of issues such as democracy, the lower class, and spousal abuse. In A Tale of Two Cities, the actions of Jerry Cruncher, while essentially very humorless, may seem peculiarly funny to some people. The events that occur in chapter one of book two, concerning Mrs. Cruncher, is an appropriate example of this idea. In this scene, Jerry Cruncher yells at his wife because he thinks she was praying against him. To start with, because of this accusations obvious ridiculousness, it strikes readers as comical. One may even argue that he didn’t actually believe this, but maybe he was just bored and finds joy in harassing his wife. To say such silly things out of boredom also may hit someone as amusing. What generally makes this scene humorous is that Cruncher is so unjustified in yelling at his wife for such an absurd thing, and furthermore, he lacks any real evidence that she was doing what he accuses her of doing. While this scene may seem like a comical one, with a silly husband, it is really calling attention to verbal abuse to wives. It is palpable that Cruncher has no respect whatsoever for his wife. At the time of this book, this was a common situation so either people did not notice the seriousness because of the humor that is masking it, or it was an every day happenning for them. When Cruncher wakes up to find Mrs Cruncher praying (in reality praying for him), he reacts by throwing a muddy shoe at her. This notion may also seem like a funny one to readers. Because the idea of somebody getting hit in the head by a muddy shoe can be humorous, if used in an appropriate situation, such as a TV show or a movie, it may also seem funny in this scene. The realness of the situation can be easily overlooked. When Dickens adds these unexplainable events, it may strike some as funny because his actions are so unjustified and random.

Cultural Adaptation and Career

How cultural adaptation influence professional belief and career development of Chinese students in UMN?Introduction The influence of cultural diversity is some of the most critical issues facing the United States today. Census data show that the non-white population is rapidly increasing – this is a huge reserve of human potential, which makes the multicultural focus a top priority for vocational education and development. These diverse cultural groups include some international students coming to the United States to take advantage of higher education opportunities. After completing their studies, many of these students choose to stay in the United States in order to pursue work and build family. The career development and consulting needs of this multicultural workforce are very different from the established norms. It is important to understand and solve their needs for the country's cultural and psychological adjustment. Therefore, counselors and professional professionals in universities and workplaces need to have specific cultural information and skills that contribute to effective vocational education/consulting. Most of the differences between cultures come from various worldviews that people hold. Lee and Rice (2007) and Dee and Henkin (1999) point out that in this society, the worldview of racial and ethnic minorities is different from that of European Americans. The worldview contains all cultural norms, customs, folk cultures and cultural adaptation behaviors that are passed on to future generations in an identifiable group. Values, interests, family and interpersonal relationships largely depend on these worldviews, and these worldviews are assumed to influence career choices. The worldview of ethnic minority customers will influence their career decisions in ways that may differ from most people. In order to provide culturally appropriate services, professional professionals in universities and workplaces must have a keen understanding of the team's worldview. In order to understand more about the concept of worldview related to career development, Marsella and Leong (1995) suggest positioning individual clients in the continuum of national cultural identity and determining the relative importance of individual or cultural characteristics to individuals. For example, when a person is fully integrated into society, interest/preference may be more relevant to career development. However, for a more traditional individual, cultural influence may play a more important role in career development. Marsella and Leong (1995) suggest that career counseling for different customers should consider three factors: cross-cultural similarities, and culturally unique aspects that influence members and personal characteristics. Another way to better understand the worldview is to study the individual's level of cultural adaptation. Marsella and Leong (1995) pointed out that cultural adaptation has become an important variable in psychological research because it helps to highlight and explain the huge heterogeneity existing in ethnic/ethnic immigrant groups. Cultural adaptation levels have been found to influence psychological and physical health variables, including work values, career orientation, and career choices (Kubat ; Kuruuzum, 2009).In short, with the increase in the multicultural nature of the U.S. labor force, it has become imperative to appropriately address the unique career development needs of customers from different ethnicities. Marasella and Leong (1995) indicate that by understanding the customer's worldview, unique career development needs can be met. Research on ethnic identity and cultural adaptation can help to learn a worldview.Many international students are looking for jobs in the United States, which is a factor in increasing the multicultural workforce. For this reason, using this population for world outlook (cultural adaptation and ethnic identity) and career development studies will be particularly useful. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between professional beliefs and cultural adaptation levels of international students from China. It has been found that cultural adaptation and career development may be related to several other important factors, for example,People's specific nationality: Even if they come from the same continent, the cultural adaptability of people from different countries is also different (Jacob ; Greggo, 2001);People's age: Age is positively related to professional identity (ie older people may have stronger professional identity). The negative correlation between age and cultural adaptation indicates that it is difficult for older people to adhere to the norms of the new culture (Suinn, Ahuna ; Khoo, 1992, 1995; Shufen ; Brown, 2001);Level of education: Interestingly, studies by Shu Fen and Brown (2001) show that education levels are negatively correlated with cultural adaptation. This suggests that better-educated individuals may not be comfortable, and vice versa.Term of residence in the United States: There is a negative correlation between the length of residence in the United States and cultural adaptability, indicating that people with shorter residence periods tend to have less culture. There is a positive correlation between living time and professional identity, which means that people who live longer in the United States have stronger professional identities (Suinn, Ahuna ; Khoo, 1992, 1995; Shu-fen ; Brown, 2001);Gender: There seems to be a conflict regarding the influence of gender on cultural adaptation. Although there was no significant relationship between gender and cultural adaptation and professional identity and gender, the study (Lopez ; Ann-Yi, 2006) also showed that the process of cultural adaptation was affected by gender.In this study, information on nationality, age, US resident status and gender will be collected. It also will study the influence of the above factors on cultural adaptation and professional beliefs, with particular emphasis on the influence of gender.Propose of the studyThe main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between cultural adaptation and factors that influence the professional beliefs of international students from China. The adaptation of a cultural group to another cultural group can be demonstrated by changing language preferences, adopting common attitudes and values, joining common social groups and institutions, and losing individual political or ethnic identity. Professional beliefs are people's assumptions about themselves and what they must do to succeed in the world of work. Specifically, this study will examine whether these international student's cultural adaptation will affect current employment status, career planning, acceptance of uncertainty, openness, university education, sense of control, sense of responsibility, career path flexibility, after training. The attitude of transition, relocation and other occupational beliefs are perseverance and hard work.The study will examine whether the relationship between cultural adaptation and professional beliefs is influenced or mitigated by gender. Research questions Are there any influence from cultural adaption on professional beliefs and career development of Chinese students in UMN? How cultural adaption influence professional beliefs and career development of Chinese students in UMN?MethodsParticipants are Chinese students in UMN. The questionnaire will be delivered through university email. There are also potential follow-up interview.Two scales will be used in this study:First one is Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA). Suinn, et al have developed SL-ASIA as a self-reported measurement of cultural adaption (Suinn, et al, 1987). There are 26 options including language, behavior, generation/geography history and attitude in this scale. In the score, the total value is obtained by summing the answers to all items. The final cultural fitness score is then calculated by dividing the total by 26. The conservation level on SL-ASIA ranged from 1 to 5, the low range was 1 to 2.33 (Asian mark), the medium range was 2.34 In order to obtain a structural validity assessment, Suinn, Ahuna and Khoo (1992) used 324 Asian students from Colorado (137 first generation, 76 second generation, 31 third generation, 26 fourth generation and 14 fifth generation participants who performed factor analysis on SL-ASIA. Their results showed that five interpretable factors accounted for 69.7% of the variance between different variables. The other one is Career Beliefs Inventory (CBI). The Occupational Belief Scale (CBI) (Krumboltz ; Jackson,1993) is built based on data collected from 7,500 people, ranging in age from 12 to 75 years. The original 122 items has been separated into 25 scales consisting of 96 projects. Grades. These projects were written in the eighth grade. Participants stated their agreement to a statement based on the 5-point Likert scale, strongly agreeing that the active wording project scored 5 points, and strongly disagreed with a score of 1 point. The negative wording items are reverse scores, so strong opposition will get scores of 5 points, and strong opposition scores of 1. These scores are then converted into proportional scores ranging from 10 to 50. The difference factor between them and the project score is 10, so the proportional score is ten times that of the time average score.(After collecting data, I will use SPSS or R to build a model and do some simple analysis between SL-ASIA factors – language, behavior, generation/geography history and attitude – and professional beliefs. Based on this conclusion, I will give some recommendations about career development of Chinese students in US.)Reference:Dee, J., ; Henkin, A. (1999). Challenges to Adjustment to College Life in the United States: Experiences of Korean Students. International Education, 29(1), 54-70.Jacob, E. J, ; Greggo, J.W., (2001). Using counselor training and collaborative programming strategies in working with international students. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 29 (l),73-88.Kubat, U., ; Kuruuzum, A. (2009) . An Examination of the Relationship between Work Values and Personality Traits in Manufacturing Industry. International Journal of Business and Management Studies, 1(1), 37-48.Krumboltz, J. D., ; Jackson, M. A. (1993). Career assessment as a learning tool. Journal of Career Assessment, I, 393-409.Lee, J., ; Rice, J. (2007). Welcome to America? International student perceptions of discrimination. Higher Education, 53(3), 381-409.Lopez, F. G., ; Ann-Yi, S. (2006). Predictors of Career Indecision in Three Racial/Ethnic Groups of College Women. Journal of Career Development, 33(1), 29-46.Marsella, A., ; Leong, F. (1995). Cross-Cultural Issues in Personality and Career Assessment. Journal of Career Assessment, 3(2), 202-218.Suinn, R., Rickard-Figueroa, K., Lew, S., ; Vigil, P. (1987). The Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale: An Initial Report. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 47(2), 401-407.Suinn, R. M. Ahuna, C, ; Khoo, G. (1992). The Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale: Concurrent and factorial validation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52, 1041-1046.Suinn, R. M., Ahuna, C, ; Khoo, G. (1995). The Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identify Acculturation Scale: Cross-cultural information. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 23, 139-148.Shih, S., ; Brown, C. (2000). Taiwanese International Students: Acculturation Level and Vocational Identity. Journal of Career Development, 27(1), 35-47.

Market Efficiency

EMH or Efficient Market Hypothesis has been accepted as one of the foundations of financial economics, in fact, Fama first marked out the concept â€Å"efficient market† in financial literature in 1965. Fama stated it as one which safety values completely expose all accessible information. The market could be considered as efficient if the results of market values to new information are instant and impartial. EMH is the notion that information is rapidly and proficiently integrated into asset prices at any instance, in order to guarantee that old information could not be serve as an instrument which could predict price progresses. As a result, three types of Efficient Market Hypothesis are being classified depending on the degree of available information (Fama, 1998). The weak form Efficient Market Hypothesis specifies that existing asset prices already reveals past price and volume information, the information restrained in the previous succession of prices of a security is completely exposed in the present market price of the said security. Its name â€Å"weak form EMH† was derived from the fact that security prices are the most overtly and easily obtainable information. It entails that nobody would be able to outdistance the market by making use of something that everyone else’s know. However, there are still quantities of financial examiners who are examining the past stock price sequence and trading volume information in an effort to spawn revenues. This method is labeled as technical analysis that is declared by the EMH as ineffective in foretelling prospect price variations (Sewell 2007). The semi strong form Efficient Market Hypothesis on the other hand asserts that each and every openly accessible information are equally already integrated into asset prices, meaning to say, every openly accessible information is completely mirrored in a security’s existing market prices. The public data confirmed not only past prices. Rather they also show information conveyed in a company’s financial reports, company’s proclamations, and the like. In a way, this also entails that nobody would be able to outdistance the market by making use of something which everyone else knows, this also signifies that a company’s financial reports could not be used in foretelling future price progress and safeguarding high venture returns (Sewell 2007). The strong form Efficient Market Hypothesis specifies that private as well as insider data is immediately included by market prices and hence could not be utilized to gather irregular trading incomes. Therefore, all data or information is completely mirrored in a security’s existing market price which in turn entails that even the company’s administration would not be able to generate profits even by using the insider data they have. The justification for this is that the market expects in an impartial way, future advancement and thus, data has been integrated and appraised into market price in a more impartial and enlightening manner than insiders. The arbitrary walk style of asset prices is an enlargement of the Efficient Market Hypothesis, as well as the beliefs that the market could not be constantly beaten, arbitrage is not possible, and â€Å"free lunches† are in general, not available (Clarke et al. 2007). The EMH has entailed that nobody could surpass the market either with security selection or with market timing, therefore, it holds enormous negative consequences for several investment approaches. In general, the force of EMH could be scrutinized from two dissimilar angles. The first one would be from the investor’s perspective. Technical analysis makes use of price as well as the volume as the center point for foretelling future prices, the arbitrary-walk data implies that prices of securities are influenced by news; Positive news would help increase the price while negative news would be the cause of price deflation. Thus, it is only fitting to ask the value of technical analysis as a way of deciding security investments (Clarke et al. 2007). Fundamental analysis includes the use of market information in establishing the inherent value of securities in so as to classify those securities which are underrated. In spite of this, semi strong EMH implies that essential examination could not be utilized to surpass the market. In a proficient market, fairness research and assessment would be an expensive undertaking that offers no advantages. The likelihood of discovering an underrated supply should be arbitrary. Oftentimes, the advantages from data compilation and fairness studies would not include the expenses of doing the study (Jones 2002). For best investment approaches, investors are recommended to pursue an inert investment tactic, which does not make any endeavor to surpass the market. Investors ought not to choose securities arbitrarily based on their peril loathing or the tax arrangements. This, however, does not imply that there would be no assortment of management. In an efficient market, it is an excellent tactic to have a arbitrarily expanding across securities, which holds little or no records charge and minimum implementation expenses in so as to optimize the proceeds. An unyielding buy-and-hold procedure is not most advantageous for corresponding to the investor’s requested level of threat. Also, the portfolio manager ought to select a portfolio that is equipped in the direction of the time sphere and threats report of the investors (Jones 2002). Second is the financial managers’ perspective wherein managers ought to bear in mind that markets would either under or over react to information, the company’s share price would mirror the information regarding their declarations and the historical share price account could be employed as a determinant of company accomplishment and management would hold be hold accountable for it. When shares are under priced, managers should avert from handing out new shares since this would only aggravate the condition. In usual situations, market efficiency theory offers informative predictions into price performances. In general, one can conclude that investors should only anticipate a typical rate of proceeds while the company should be prepared to obtain the adequate value for the securities they handed out (Jones 2002). However, the idea that markets act constantly with the efficient market hypothesis is debatable, particularly in its stronger forms. For one, it is doubtful that man-made markets are strong-form efficient. Especially, when there are prima facie basis for ineptitude as well as the unhurried dissemination of information, the comparatively immense power of several market partakers, and the existence of seemingly advanced professional investors. I believe that one of the major defects EMH is the way markets respond to unexpected news. For an instance, news upshots like interest rate changes from ventral banks are not immediately taken credit of in stock prices. Instead root continued progress of prices over a certain period of time, say from a few hours to months and the like, one should also take into consideration that only a limited number of people have prior familiarity or awareness regarding laws about to be passed, new pricing controls fixed by certain organizations like Federal Reserve banks as well as legal verdicts that causes a broad array of economic parties. The public should consider these things as random variables; however, players within those inside information could rectify the market, but commonly in an inconspicuous way in order to escape exposure (Clarke et al. 2007). There is also another inconsistency which has been detected between the EMH theory and real markets. The said inconsistency is that at market extremes, what fundamentalists may regard as ridiculous behavior is in fact the standard behavior; in the latter parts of a bull market, the market is motivated by consumers who don not take much into account the core value. By the end of a crash, markets go into freefall while partakers disentangle themselves from the location in spite of the scarcely good value that their earlier positions symbolizes, this is denoted by the huge variations in the assessment of stocks in comparison to basics in bull markets in comparison to bear markets. A theorist may claim that reasonable partakers should always instantaneously take lead in the unnaturally low prices which resulted from the illogical partakers by acquiring contrasting places. However, this is noticeably not generally adequate to avoid bubbles and crashes from increasing. It might be supposed that countless sensible partakers are conscious of the illogicality of the market at extremes and are eager to permit illogical partakers to force the market as they like, and only benefit themselves with the prices when they have got more than just basic motives that the market would revert back near its earlier fair value (Sewell 2007). Behavioral finance stated that upon entering positions, market partakers are not mainly motivated by the price status; rather, they are mainly motivated by anticipating the rise or fall of the prices. To pay no heed of this could be perilous. Allan Greenspan cautioned participants of irrational exuberance in the market during the year of 1996. However, some merchants who sold short new economy stocks that appeared significantly overcharged during those times had to acknowledge grave losses when prices arrived at much more astonishing heights (Jones 2002). EMH was first presented in 1960. Before that, the existing belief regarding market is its exact opposite – markets are inefficient. Inadequacy was generally believed to exist. A good example of this was in US and UK’s stock markets. On the other hand, previous work of Kendall implies that the changes in United Kingdom’s stock market prices are arbitrary. Researches conducted by Brealey, Dryden and Cunningham showed that there are no considerable reliances in price changes which implies that United Kingdom’s stock market is a weak-form efficient, in addition to this proof, are other researches of capital market which suggested that they are semi strong-form efficient(Jones 2002). Examinations conducted by Firth in UK have contrasted the share prices presented after an invasion declaration with the bid offer, this showed that the share prices were completely and immediately modified to their exact levels; therefore the United Kingdom’s stock market was indeed semi strong-form efficient. Yet, the market’s capability to effectively react to a short term and broadly advertized event (i.e takeover proclamation) could not automatically be viewed as analytic of a market efficient at pricing concerning more long term and vague aspects (Clarke et al. 2007). Other pragmatic proof which defends Efficient Market Hypothesis came from researches which show that the revenue of market averages go beyond the revenue of vigorously ran mutual funds. Therefore, to the degree that markets are inefficient, the advantages achieved by capturing the ineptitudes are override by the inside fund costs occupied in locating them, promoting, and the like (Sewell 2007). It could be that proficient as well as other market partakers who have find out dependable trading regulations or devices could find no basis to disclose them to academic researchers or it could be that there are no information breach among the intellectuals who examine the markets and the professionals who works in the market. There are bystanders who identify apparently ineffective facets of the markets that could be take advantage of. Example of this is seasonal tendencies and deviating twists to assets with different traits. Efficient Market Hypothesis cynic’s maintains that there are investors who have outdistanced the market. Among them is Peter Lynch, Bill Miller, and so on. These investors’ tactics are to a high level founded on recognizing markets where prices do not precisely mirror the accessible information, in straight negation to the EMH which clearly entails that â€Å"no† such opportunity could ever exist (Clarke et al. 2007). It is imperative to take notice of the fact that the EMH does not account for the observed fact that the most profitable stock market partakers have equal share of stock picking guidelines, which would, in turn, denote an extensive conclusive correspondence among stock picking policy as well as investment accomplishments. The EMH also seems to be lacking in consistency with several occasions in stock market history. For an instance, the stock market crash which occurred in 1987 saw the S&P 500 drop more than 20% in October in spite of the fact that there is no major news or events that took place before Monday of the crash, the fall apparently came from nowhere, this would likely imply that relatively irrational behavior could seize stock markets arbitrarily. Furthermore, Bruton Malkiel, a renowned advocate of the universal legitimacy of Efficient Market Hypothesis has counseled that particular budding markets such as China are not empirically efficient, he further stated that the Shanghai as well as the Shenzhen markets, in contrast to the markets in US, show signs of substantial sequential relationship, non-random walk, as well as proof of exploitation (Clarke et al. 2007). Thus, in contrast to what Efficient Market Hypothesis implies, there are certain instances which go contrary to its claim. It is unlikely for market to be consistently efficient as was shown in this paper. Provided that the theory of EMH is true at some point in time, one could not just conclude that it would be true for all instances and for all period of times. Works Cited Clarke, Jonathan, Thomas Jandik, and Gershon Mandelker. â€Å"The Efficient Market Hypothesis.† (2007). Fama, Eugene. â€Å"Market Efficiency, Long-Term Returns, and Behavioral Finance.† Journal of FinancialEconomics. (1998). Jones, Steven L., and Jeffry M. Netter. â€Å"Efficient Capital Markets.† (2002). Sewell, Martin. â€Å"Efficient Market Hypothesis.† (2007).