4 Reasons to Major in a Foreign Language (and 3 Not To)

4 Reasons to Major in a Foreign Language (and 3 Not To) SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Gaikokugo ga suki desu ka?That’s Japanese for â€Å"Do you like foreign languages?† If your answer is a resounding yes, then a foreign language major might be for you. In 2013, I graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese. Though I sometimes doubted whether I should major in Japanese, I ultimately knew it was the right choice because being able to understand and use Japanese was a skill I wanted to have for the rest of my life. Moreover, I didn't just enjoy learning Japanese but also loved getting to know Japanese culture. These are the reasons I chose to major in Japanese. That said,a language major isn’t for everyone. So should you major in a foreign language? What are the reasons you should? And what are the reasons you shouldn't? In this guide, I give you four reasons to major in a foreign language and three reasons not to. I also go over what questions to ask yourself before deciding whether to pursue a language major. But first, what exactly is a foreign language major? What Is a Foreign Language Major? Before I go into the reasons you should and should not major in a foreign language, let me explain what I mean by majoring in a foreign language. Many US colleges offer undergraduatemajors that focus on a specific language and the main region/culture it's spoken in. In other words, you’re not simply majoring in a language but rather a language and where it’s most commonly used. So if your major is French, you’ll likely learn about France. Similarly, If you’re studying Mandarin Chinese, you’ll likely learn about Chinese culture. Colleges offering foreign language majors typically house them inhumanities departments or at colleges of letters, arts, and sciences (or something equivalent). Although most foreign language majors combine language and cultural studies, many are named after the language only. For example, if you’re studying Spanish (in addition to Latin American or Spanish culture), your major is most likely called Spanish instead of something like Spanish culture or Spanish language and culture. However, some schools use slightly broader names for their foreign language majors.My alma mater, USC, for example, offers an East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC) major, which lets you study Japanese, Chinese, or Korean (as well as the language's respective area). As a result, students mainly studying Japanese might say they’re majoring in Japanese when in actuality they’re majoring in EALC with an emphasis in Japanese (as in my case). Some schools also offer foreign language majors that let youstudy more than one language at a time.One example is the University of Michigan's Romance Languages and Literatures major. For this program, students can study two Romance languages (out of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French) at the same time. Finally, some majors have college language requirements but are not specifically focused on the language (or area) itself.Examples include comparative literature majors and linguistics majors. For the former, you must typically learn at least one foreign language so that you can compare texts in their original languages. For the latter, you must know a foreign language so that you can effectively analyze its linguistic properties. Though these two majors clearly involve language study, they're not the same as language majors in that they don't focus on area/cultural studiesas well. Overall, it’s arguably more accurate to call language majors "foreign culture majors" or "foreign language and culture majors," since these majors almost always combine the study of language and culture. Learning culture is just as important as learning language. My Story: I Majored in Japanese Now that you understand what a foreign language major is, let’s get down to business: who am I, and why am I writing this article? As I briefly mentioned at the beginning, I majored in a foreign language (and in English- what can I say? I love languages!). My language of choice was Japanese. Why did I choose this language? Well, I’d been studying it since junior high school, absolutely loved learning it (even though it was really, really hard at times- and still is), and envisioned myself eventually using Japanese in my career. Because I knew I wanted to major in Japanese before I even started college, I looked specifically for colleges that offered a major in Japanese. Eventually, I enrolled at USC where I declared a major in East Asian Languages and Cultures with an emphasis in Japanese. For this major, I had to take mostly Japanese-language classes as well as classes on topics relating to Japanese and East Asian studies, such as literature, art, and history. Since graduating from USC, I’ve worked as an English teacher for the JET Program (a government-sponsored program that pays you to teach English in Japan) and am now enrolled in a Japanese Studies Master of Arts program at the University of Michigan. Here are the primary reasons you can trust my advice in this article: I have firsthand experience with learning and majoring in a language:I know what kinds of classes you’ll likely need to take and understand how tough it can be to keep up your language skills (especially over those long summer breaks!). I have worked in a job that uses my target language: Obviously, what kinds of job options you'll have after majoring in a foreign language will depend on several factors, but know that I, too, have gone through the process and will try my best to lend you a (relevant) hand. I majored in what I loved: Ultimately, I chose to major in Japanese because it was something I found interesting, useful for my career goals, and downright fun. Now that we've covered all the basics, let’s take a look at the main reasons you should (and should not) major in a foreign language. 4 Reasons to Major in a Foreign Language We’ll start with the positive points. What are the benefits of majoring in a foreign language, and what are the main reasons you should consider doing it? #1: You’re Passionate About the Language and Want to Use It in Your Career This is rule #1 in my book. You should only be majoring in a foreign language if you’re absolutely passionate about it. The reason passion is so important is that learning a foreign language is really hard work and takes years of practice to become fluent. Majoring in a language is also a smart idea if you plan to use the language in your career.If you want to be a translator/interpreter, for instance, majoring in the language you want to translate is a 100% practical decision and will give you the background necessary for doing well in your job. But a foreign language major won't make you a lot of money, right? Not necessarily. Although liberal arts degrees have a reportedly harder time landing well-paying jobs, recent reports show that many liberal arts majors earn about as much as, if not more than, STEM majors do. #2: You’ll Learn a Practical and Lifelong Skill Although many people don’t think a foreign language major is practical, knowing another language is an excellent lifelong skill to have and can come in handy in a variety of situations, particularly if you want to travel abroad or work in a global industry. You've probably heard thatthere are tons of mental benefits of being bilingual, such as improved memory and better multi-tasking skills. But there are also broader benefitsof knowing a foreign language that apply to your career and lifestyle. Here's whatan article posted on Trinity Washington University’s websitehas to say about knowing multiple languages: "The ability to communicate in multiple languages is becoming more and more important in the increasingly integrated global business community.*Communicating directly with new clients and companies in their native language is one of the first steps to founding a lasting, stable international business relationship." *Emphasis mine Clearly, majoring in a foreign language not only teaches you how to speak a language but also how to communicate effectively with people (and potentially business partners!) from different cultures and language backgrounds. This is an excellent attribute to have in the workplace and might even result in higher pay in the long run. It’s also a great skill to have when applying for jobs since your ability to speak another language will help you stand out from other applicants. An article on Penn State's websiteagrees, claiming that multilingualism increases your desirability in the job market: "In our globalized world, it has become even more essential in the job market to know another language. Companies and businesses have a natural desire to expand their existing networks. Having fluency in another language gives an edge on any resume by showing employers potential to converse with an entirely different group of people."* *Emphasis mine As you can see, there are some great occupational benefits to majoring in a foreign language and being familiar with another culture! #3: You Want to Work in a Foreign Country If one of your goals is to work and live in another country- in particular, an area where your target language is spoken- a major in that language is a logical choice. Such a major proves that you are familiar with both the language and culture. For some jobs based in your target country, knowing the local language might be expected. Even if it’s not required, though, your knowing the local language couldgive a boost to your resume,as it implies you’ll require less help adjusting to your new environment. #4: You Like the Idea of Double Majoring Majoring in a foreign language can be useful for your career goals if you plan to double major. This way, you’ll have a different skill or field you can apply your language knowledge to. You’ll be most appealing as a job candidate if you pair a foreign language major with a major in an entirely different field,such as business, international relations, political science, economics, STEM, or education. This kind of double major will give you a vast range of skills you can apply to a variety of careers and fields, from business to PR to teaching. Hoping to earn a lot of money? Then pair your language major with a STEM major. According to a report by The Conversation, this combination offers the biggest potential for high earnings. (Note, however, that a dual STEM degree typically brings in the most cash.) There are even programs that encourage students to double major in STEM and a foreign language. If you’re like me and can’t get enough of the humanities, it's OK to double major in a language and another liberal arts major. Just know thatyour potential for high wages will be lower than if you combined your language major with a major in a technical- or business-oriented field. This doesn’t mean that you will for sure earn a small salary- just that your job options might be more limited. 3 Reasons Not to Major in a Foreign Language Now that we’ve gone over the good side, it's time to head on over to the dark side. What are some reasons you shouldn’t major in a foreign language? I introduce my top three below. #1: You’re Not Passionate About the Language You’re Learning This is a pretty obvious reason, but if you're not passionate about the language you’re learning and don’t intend to use it after college, don’t major in it. Learning a language is tough- sometimes it feels impossible. So if you’re majoring in one, you need to have the patience and diligence to study it for the long term. A language major means you'll be learning the language the rest of your life. This is what you must doto keep up your communicative skills and be able to use the language consistently in both your career and social life.If you’re not ready for this lifelong process or aren’t sure whether this is something you can commit to, don’t major in a foreign language. Don't know what you want? Take a class or two in your desired language of study and then decide whether this is something you can see yourself studying (and enjoying!) for a long, long time. If you enjoy learning a foreign language but are more interested in other fields, consider minoring in the language. This way, you’ll still be able to use the language fairly effectively but more so as a supplementary skill- meaning that it won’t be the main skill set you graduate with but will still be an important one. #2: You're Expecting to Be Fluent by the Time You Graduate Unfortunately, even if you study a foreign language for four years straight in college, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll graduate with full fluency in it. The reality is that many foreign language majors won't actually attain fluency by the end of college. It’s not that these students are bad at the language or that their schools are bad at teaching it- it’s simply that students typically need more time and language practice than what college offers. So if you're not ready to dedicate your personal life as well as your academic life to this language, it's probably not in your best interest to major in it. While it's possible to attainsome level of fluency by the time you graduate, what skill level you're at will ultimately depend on many factors, including how well you did in your language classes, whether you studied abroad (trust me, it helps!), and how often you used (and continue to use) the language outside of class. Part of fluency also depends on the language you're studying and what your native tongue is.Data released by the Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of Stateshows thatit takes native English speakersfar less time to reach proficiency in Spanish, French, or Italian than it does to reach proficiency in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Arabic. In my case, I spent the equivalent of four years studying Japanese in college. I even studied abroad in Tokyo for a semester. But would I say I was fluent by the time I graduated? Far from it. Though I loved the Japanese language and certainly felt I was at an advanced level, I still struggled to speak and understand it. Some of this was due to laziness- I didn’t make much of an effort to integrate Japanese into my daily life, which I strongly regret- and some of this was due to a lack of confidence in my abilities (I always got shy whenever I tried to speak Japanese with people). However, once I moved to Japan after college and began living in a small town where virtually no one spoke English, my Japanese rapidly improved. Basically, what I’m trying to get at is that you shouldn’t expect to be a totally fluent speaker in a language simply because you majored in it. In reality, you’re likely going to need to spend time outside of and after school practicing the language and really making it part of your life until you can honestly say you've reached a comfortable level of fluency. In short, a foreign language major takes a lot of additional effort to make it worth it. #3: There’s a Higher Chance of Unemployment and Low Pay I’ve already touched on this a little above, but it can be difficult for language majors to find a well-paying job (especially if you majored inonly a language and didn't double major). Let’s start by looking at unemployment rates.According to Forbes, non-technical majors have higher unemployment rates than STEM, business, and health care majors do. Moreover, recent graduates with liberal arts degreesface an unemployment rate of 9.2%. But what about salary?A 2015 study conducted by Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce found that the median salary for those who majored in a foreign language was about $52,000. While this salary might not sound too bad to you, by comparing it with the median salaries of other common majors, you'll see that salaries for foreign language majors don't rank that high: General engineering: $81,000 Economics: $76,000 Architecture: $67,000 Nursing: $66,000 Public policy: $65,000 Biology: $56,000 Journalism: $56,000 History: $54,000 Foreign languages: $52,000 Commercial art and graphic design: $51,000 Psychology: $49,000 Secondary teacher education: $48,000 Overall, majoring in a foreign language is a somewhat risky business. Not only might you have more trouble finding a job, but you’re also likely to have a lower starting salary. Should You Major in a Foreign Language? 3 Questions to Ask Yourself So far we’ve looked at some of the reasons you should and should not major in a foreign language. In the end, though, should you do it? Here are three questions to ask yourself before making your final decision. #1: What Kind of Career Do You Want (or Think You Want)? Although you don’t technically have to use your major in your career, it’s a good idea to try to find a way to apply the skills you acquired in college (in this case, mastery of a foreign language) to your professional life. But what kinds of jobs will a language major prepare you for? Two of the most popular fields for language majors aretranslation and interpretation. However, there's both good and bad with this. The bad news is that these two jobs typically don't pay a ton. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for translators and interpreters in May 2016 was $46,120. Wages can vary a lot, though.While the lowest 10% of translators made less than $25,370 in 2016, the highest 10% made more than $83,010. That’s a difference of almost $58,000! This variation in pay depends on a number of factors, including whether you’re a self-employed or in-house worker, where you live, and what languages you know. So what’s the good news? Translation/interpretation jobs are on the rise. According to the BLS, the projected growth rate for interpreters and translators from 2016 to 2026 is 18%- that’s % faster than the growth rate for all jobs in the US! But what if you’re not interested in becoming a translator or interpreter? That’s fine! Not everyone who studies a language wants to sit around all day translating business manuals or interpreting at conferences. Here are some examplesof other jobs can you do with a foreign language major: International relations specialist Teacher/professor Consultant Advertiser Foreign service officer Attorney Public relations For more examples of jobs for language majors, check out these excellent lists by Southeastern Louisiana University and Georgetown University. #2: How Fluent Do You Want to Become? If you’re expecting absolute fluency in your target language by the end of undergrad, know that this might not happen.(Again, this really depends on multiple factors, including what language you're learning, whether you study a lot on your own time, etc.) Although you can learn a lot with four years of college-level language instruction, it’s generally not enough to make you truly fluent in a language. This is why I suggestlooking at your bachelor’s degree as a starting point. I know, this probably sounds horrible- you spend four years learning a language and I'm calling that a starting point. But the reality is that language learning is a lifelong process. And if you expect to use your language in your future career, you’ll need to spend time after college studying and practicing it as well. Here are six ways you can further improve your language skills after college (note that you can do most of these tips during college, too!). Tip 1: Visit and/or Live in a Country That Uses Your Target Language Although easier said than done, immersion is one of the best ways to get a language down fast. If you're in college, study abroad. Already graduated? Try to apply for jobs in your target country. One "easy" way to gain access to a country is to teach English.If you’re studying Japanese as I did, you could apply for the JET Program. If you’re studying Korean or Spanish, you could apply for the EPIK program in Koreaor the Auxiliar de Conversacià ³n Program in Spain. Tip 2: Study on Your Own Time This tip is crucial (and really hard to do when you’re no longer in school!). Finding time to study on your own is what will ultimately help you keep up your language skills and stay sharp. I suggest buying some textbooks and keeping the ones you used in college so you can review what you've learned. Your goal here is to continuously work on improving your vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Flashcards are an excellent way to jog your memory. If you're like me and hate making flashcards, try using Anki or Memriseto make and download digital flashcards instead. Tip 3: Join a Local Language Group When I felt that my spoken Japanese was getting worse, I decided to look for a language group in my area using the website Meetup. Through the Japanese-language group I found, I was able to converse in Japanese with both native Japanese speakers and other language learners. The group wasn’t just great for practice but was also extremely fun! I recommend using Meetup if you ever want to look for (or make) a language group. Tip 4: Hire a Tutor or Online Language Partner If you want to practice speaking and listening but can’t find anyone to do this with in person, try looking for a language partner or tutor online. Tons of companies offer language lessons over Skype and other video chat programs. Some of the best includeVerbal Planet, italki, and Live Lingua. Tip 5: Attend a Language School If you're hoping to improve your language skills and prefer doing so in an academic environment, consider applying to a language school. While tuition can be high, the experience and vast set of skills you acquire often make it worth the price. For example, many people I know attended aMiddlebury Language School over the summer- and all of them loved it! Tip 6: Go to Graduate School If you not only want to become fluent in a language but also want to be able to use it effectively in both professional and academic settings, grad school might be a good option for you. However, as you probably know, graduate programs (particularly master's programs) in the US can get pretty expensive, soI recommend applying for as many fellowships as possible. One of the best-funded scholarships for language learners is theForeign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) program, which typically covers full tuition and offers a yearly stipend of $15,000 for grad students ($5,000 for undergrads). #3: What Language Are You Interested In? It’s important to understand that if you plan to use your foreign language major in a career, then your job/salary prospective will depend, in part, on which language you choose to study. For those of you thinking about becoming translators/interpreters, here’s what theBLS has to say about the types of languages that will be most in demand: "Demand will likely remain strong for translators of frequently translated languages, such as French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.Demand also should be strong for translators of Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages;for the principal Asian languages including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, and Korean;and for the indigenous languages from Mexico and Central America such as Mixtec, Zapotec, and Mayan languages."* *All bold emphasis mine If you want to work for the US government, your best bet will be to major in a critical language. But what is a critical language exactly? According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), critical languages are languages that are "less commonly taught in US schools, but are essential to America’s positive engagement with the world." At present, there are 14 critical languages: Arabic Azerbaijani Bangla Chinese Hindi Indonesian Japanese Korean Persian Punjabi Russian Swahili Turkish Urdu Note that thisdoesn’t mean you won’t be able to find a job if you studied a language not on this list, such as Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Rather, all this indicates is that if you’re planning to work for the US government in particular, you might have a slightly harder time getting a job, as there is a smaller need for your language than there is for the ones listed above. Conclusion: When to Pursue a Foreign Language Major Overall, there are both advantages and disadvantages to majoring in a foreign language. I chose to major in Japanese because I knew it was the right path for me- and one I really,really wanted to take, despite the challenges I'd inevitably face. If you're thinking of pursuing a language major, make sure you're doing so for the right reasons. Once again, here are the four best reasons to major in a foreign language: You’re head over heels in love with the languageand want to make a career out of it You’ll learn skills you can apply to a variety of careers and situations You’ll be more likely to secure a job abroad should you want to work outside the US You’re interested in double majoring, which will give a professional boost to your foreign language major by equipping you with more skills you can use in the future That said, majoring in a foreign language isn't for everyone. Here are the top reasons you should not major in a foreign language: You’re not passionate about the language you’re studying You're expecting to be totally fluent by the time you graduate (while not impossible, this usually requires you to spend a lot of extra time studying and practicing your language) You’ll face a higher risk of unemployment and a lower starting salary If you're still on the fence about pursuing a language major, ask yourself the following questions to help you determine whether this major is the right decision for you: What kind of career do you want? How fluent do you want to become? What language do you want to study? In the end, whether you decide to major in a foreign language is your choice and yours alone. Just make sure you have a good reason to do so and have considered all possible pros and cons before committing to a language major! What’s Next? Not sure what to major in? Get expert advice in our guide to choosing a college major, and learn the five main factors to consider before you declare a major. Foreign language majors can be lots of fun- but they're not typically the most lucrative. Our guide tells you which college majors are likely to bring in the most cash, and offers tips on whether you should pursue one. What are the worst majors for college students? If, after graduation, you want to have an easier time finding a job with ahigh salary, consider avoiding these 26 majors. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

ESL Present Perfect Worksheets

ESL Present Perfect Worksheets The present perfect isnt a verb tense unique to English, but it can still be complicated for beginning ESL students to master. Though French, Italian, German, and Spanish use the present perfect to address past events, in English, the present perfect connects a past moment to the present moment in time. The present perfect is often used either to reference life experiences, to invoke recent past events that have influenced the present moment, or to reference a span of time that began in the past and extends into the present. The present perfect is one of the most difficult tenses to teach and to learn. Below is a quick review of the present perfect, followed by two worksheets designed to help ESL students practice their use of the verb tense. Present Perfect Positive Form Review Subject have   past participle objects Examples: Tom has lived in New York for 10 years.We have studied French since 2003. Present Perfect Negative Form Subject have not past participle objects Examples: She hasnt met Peter.They havent finished the job yet. Present Perfect Question Form (Question Word) have subject past participle? Examples: Has she worked here for a long time?Where has she gone? Important Note:  Regular past participles in -ed, irregular past participles of verbs vary and must be studied. Yet / Just / Already Yet is used in the present perfect negative and question forms.Just is used in the present perfect positive form.Already is used in the present perfect positive form. Examples: Have you finished the job yet?Shes just left for Chicago.Theyve already eaten lunch. Since / For Since and for are common time expressions used with the present perfect tense. Since is used with specific dates. For is used with periods of time. Examples: Janet has worked at this company since 1997.Weve lived in this house for five years. Present Perfect Worksheet 1 Conjugate the verb in parentheses using the form indicated. In the case of questions, use the indicated subject as well. How long ______ (he/live) in New Jersey?Peter ______ (not play) baseball since 1987.I ______ (speak) Russian for 20 years.We _____ (not see) Tom since Christmas.Has ________ (Alan/fly) in an airplane before?Shannon _____ (not/go) to lunch yet.Our class _____ (take) a field trip three times this year.Where _____ (they/move) to?Jennifer _____ (ask) that question four times today.You _____ (not eat) lunch yet, have you?Jason _____ (want) to move to New York since he was 5 years old.How long _____ (they/know) Peter?Alexandra _____ (work) for IBM since 2002.Jeff _____ (buy) a few books this week.Sally ______ (not read) that book yet._____ (they/leave) for work yet?Bill _____ (not/drive) very far today.We _____ (enjoy) eating seafood all of our lives._____ (he/watch) the documentary yet?I _____ (not/finish) the job yet. Present Perfect Worksheet 2 Choose the correct time expression used with the present perfect tense. They have lived in that house (since/for) 10 years.She has (just/yet) gone to the bank.Franklin hasnt arrived in Boston (yet/already)We have worked at this company (since/for) 2008.Jason hasnt telephoned me (since/for) two weeks.How (long/much) have you known Susan?Theyve (already/yet) studied the past simple tense.Our mothers have (just/yet) left for the station.The president has traveled to more than 20 countries (since/for) he was elected.Thomas hasnt had time to read the book (just/yet).Alice has told me shes (yet/already) been to that park.My daughters (just/since) finished her homework.Have they (already/yet) spoken to Mr. Peters?Ive (just/for) interviewed the best candidate for the job.Our coach hasnt chosen the starting team (already/yet).Bob and Tim have (already/yet) decided where they are going on vacation.Have you purchased a new computer (just/yet)?Sam has wanted to go to Japan (for/since) he was a little child.Jason hasnt worked here (since/for) very long.Our boss has ( just/yet) hired a new engineer. _______________________________________________________________________________ Present Perfect Worksheet  1 - Corrections Conjugate the verb in parentheses using the form indicated. In the case of questions, use the indicated subject as well. How long  has he lived  in New Jersey?Peter  hasnt played baseball  since 1987.I  have spoken  Russian for 20 years.We  havent seen  Tom since Christmas.Has Alan flown  in an airplane before?Shannon  hasnt gone  to lunch yet.Our class  has taken  a field trip three times this year.Where  have they moved  to?Jennifer  has asked  that question four times today.You  havent eaten  lunch yet, have you?Jason  has wanted  to move to New York since he was 5 years old.How long  have they known  Peter?Alexandra  has worked  for IBM since 2002.Jeff  has bought  a few books this week.Sally  hasnt read  that book yet.Have they left  for work yet?Bill  hasnt driven  very far today.We  have enjoyed  eating seafood all of our lives.Has he watched  the documentary yet?I  havent finished  the job yet. Present Perfect Worksheet 2 - Corrections Choose the correct time expression used with the present perfect tense. They have lived in that house  for  10 years.She has  just  gone to the bank.Franklin hasnt arrived in Boston  yet.We have worked at this company  since  2008.Jason hasnt telephoned me  for  two weeks.How  long  have you known Susan?Theyve  already  studied the past simple tense.Our mothers have  just  left  for  the station.The President has traveled to more than 20 countries  since  he was elected.Thomas hasnt had time to read the book  yet.Alice told me shes  already  been to that park.My daughters  just  finished her homework.Have they  already  spoken to Mr. Peters?Ive  just  interviewed the best candidate for the job.Our coach hasnt chosen the starting team  yet.Bob and Tim have  already  decided where they are going on vacation.Have you purchased a new computer  yet?Sam has wanted to go to Japan  since  he was a little child.Jason hasnt worked here  for  very long.Our boss has  just  hired a new engine er.

The Recovery and Investment Plan to Rebuild the American Economy after Essay

The Recovery and Investment Plan to Rebuild the American Economy after Recession - Essay Example The Boskin commission states that accurate measures in the costs of living are among the most useful and important data necessary to evaluate economic performance. The living cost change between two periods indicates how much income people would have needed in the previous period given the price of goods and services available then. For example if a family with $15,000 income in 2000 would have needed $45,000 in 1999, then the cost of living has dropped by two thirds. The commission argues that the complexity of the dynamicity of the economy should not be reasons to bemoan the difficulties in the construction of an accurate cost of living index.It highlighted sources of possible bias and further suggests improvements to the various official statistics currently used as proxies for changes in the cost of living like the consumer price index that measures the cost of purchasing a fixed market basket of goods and services. The CPI is calculated, while keeping the weights fixed through t ime, by attempting to measure changes from one month to another in prices of the same or quite closely related goods and services. But this weights would no longer reflect what consumers are actually purchasing because through consumption baskets change in part because of changes in the relative prices of goods and services. Where the purchases are made also do change just like consumers do change their purchases. The current methodology suffers from outlet substitution bias that insufficiently takes into account the shift to discount outlets. This occurs when shifts to lower price outlets are not properly handled.  

Public argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Public argument - Essay Example It opposes the highly punitive and restrictive approach to copyright in digital media because it has not and will not solve digital piracy and instead, innovative business models with collectivistic values can help curb it. Increasingly punitive copyright laws are not effective in ending digital piracy because technology is faster than lawmaking. Several laws have been passed for the past twenty-five years that support copyrighted media, but up to now, digital media continue to be pirated and shared through P2P and other networking systems. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) provides a structure that implements a system of copyright protections, which include important automatic restrictions with criminal and civil sanctions, wherein they generally define â€Å"knowledge as an asset more than a public resource† (Filby 207). The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) reinforced the CDPA, as it treated various media products as corporate assets, even when t hey were previously perceived and used as public resources. Despite these laws, digital media piracy continues, particularly affecting the industries of movies, TV shows, and music. Corporate media firms allege that they are losing billions of dollars because of piracy and free content sharing online. Supporters of stricter copyright policies promote the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in Congress and its Senate bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These bills aim to stop websites and organizations, including those outside the United States, from selling or sharing pirated copyrighted digital media material and fake counterfeit goods. These are additional laws that will fail as others have because technology changes rapidly enough to support digital piracy and free sharing of copyrighted products. A good example of failed copyright laws is the Rojadirecta Case, where technology facilitates the ineffectiveness of these laws. On February 1, 2011, the U.S. government seized the rojadirecta.c om and rojadirecta.org domain names. These websites provided a guide to Internet TV (Picker). Compared to the initial business of Napster, Rojadirecta gives links, not direct hosting, to assist P2P TV (Picker). Rojadirecta might have lost its U.S. domain names, but it easily fixed the problem by establishing new domain names offshore and relocating them to Spain at rojadirecta.es (Picker). In other words, it is back to business as usual. Organizations, groups, and individuals that support free sharing know international laws, and they have a large and supportive network, as well as the money and technology to help them continue their services in any part of the world. Globalization through the Internet has expanded the boundaries and opportunities for these stakeholders. The U.S. government and media corporations can paint them as the bad guys, but for their allies and customers, they are the good guys, who are using technology for freedom of speech and digital media content. Thus, the case of Rojadirecta shows that people with technology will always find a way to circumvent these copyright laws because they believe that they are right in using digital media as public resources. The tighter the laws, the more rebelliously creative they become. What should the government do instead? Look away as digital pirates sell content that others own and many customers pay

Cuban Missile Crisis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cuban Missile Crisis - Assignment Example In 1896, the decision of Plessy v. Feguson held that the Jim Crow rule did not violate the American Fourteenth Amendment. The Decision was ignorance that black facilities were inferior (Bennett 214). Due to the subservient position of African Americans, In 1955 Rosa Park defied the norm of the time. She refused to give up a seat in a bus in Alabama, Montgomery. The refusal instigated mass protest among blacks who boycotted the bus transport. The boycott led many blacks to follow Martin Luther King Jr as patron of the newly founded Montgomery Improvement Association. The support made King very popular amongst blacks where he himself adopted Gandhi approach of non-violent approach as a way of advocating for non-white rights (Bennett 216). The maturity of black’s movements was gradual, blacks were relentless in their course, due to this, major campaigns were widespread, this leading to Birmingham case where non-violent demonstrators were hurt by law enforcers. The result made white perceive that the black nationalism might occur and this led president Kennedy to introduce civil rights act of 1964 and London to introduce in 1965 the voting rights amongst blacks (Bennett 217). The October crisis or Cuban missile was a result of Suspicion and fear on spread of communism in America. According to Allison and Zellikov (110), it was a confrontation among Cuba, United States of America and the Soviet Union in 1962. The origin was a result of USA failure to overthrow Cuba regime. Due to this, the Cuban and its allies Soviet governments began to build different ballistic missiles which were perceived to have ability to hit and destroy US. Castro and his counterpart from Russia, Krushchev were ready to invade US if USA invaded Cuba, which the Soviet saw as their only option to spread communism in Latin America (Allison and Zellikov 112). After the confrontation had ended, Soviet Union dismantled the

Evaluation Model for Web Service Change Management

Evaluation Model for Web Service Change Management EVALUATION MODEL FOR WEB SERVICE CHANGE MANAGEMENT BASED ON BUSINESS POLICY  ENFORCEMENT AbstractToday organizations in all industries are increasingly dependent upon IT and a highly available network to meet their business objectives. As customer expectations and demands rise, and their needs is one of the prevailing problems faced by IT enterprises at present, leading to increasingly complex IT service management systems. Although there exists many change management issues and solutions, there is no proper support for efficient change evaluation and monitoring. Present change management works are done only in the web service interface such as WSDL Web Service Definition Language and there is no proper support for dynamic nature in them. In order to provide a flexible environment for the Business Analyst to perform the emergency changes over the service business logic without the need of IT staff and also to evaluate changes made, we propose a Finite State Machine based Evaluation Model for Web Service Runtime Change Management and also a set of change factors to evalua te runtime changes of web services. Among which we mainly focus on the factor Business Policy Enforcement which is used for checking whether there is any policy violation with respect to the changes made. We first define the various change factors and derived solution is considered as the change measure for individual change factor. Keywords-Web Services, BL Analyzer, Dependency Analyzer, Change Factors, Business Policy Manager, Runtime Change Management, Change Evaluation Report. I. INTRODUCTION A web service is a piece of business logic that enables a paradigm shift in business structures allowing them to outsource required functionality from third party Web-based providers. As services are not static, they undergo many changes during their life cycle since the IT service management system now is facing an increasingly complex environment aroused by wide variety of requirements. This situation increases the likelihood of service interruption which in turn causes business loss. In this case, a series of changes are needed so that potential service interruptions can be prevented. A service change is any addition, modification, or removal of authorized, planned, or supported service or service component and its associated documentation. A typical IT enterprise faces considerable number of changes each year. To handle such changes, change management is needed. Change management is a set of processes that are employed to ensure that significant changes are implemented to a business process during its maintenance phase. The purpose of the change management process is to ensure that: Business risk is managed and minimized; Standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes; all changes to service assets and configuration items are recorded in the configuration management system; and all authorized changes support business needs and goals. Hence there arises the need for an effective framework managing those changes without affecting the business functionality. Here Change Management framework is proposed for making minor alterations to business logic but whose effect is more pronounced to the profitability of the organization. So the changes in business logic of the web service must be done very quickly within the given time constraint as the services consumed by the providers and clients must not be affected there by managing the changes at the runtime. We focus on creating environment for dynamic variations to the business logic so that it is feasible to make frequent modifications in a service which aids service provider and serves him to satisfy clients’ newfangled quests. Such environment is useful in the run-time management of web services and to exactly spot the solution to the service provider’s maintenance element. There are many models that subsist for Business Process Management in which the process is recycled for the overall process changes. However, the problem with these solutions is that they only support the process level flexibility and not the application/service level flexibility. On the other hand this Business Logic Management framework tries to append that service level flexibility. These changes are done at the Business analyst level instead of being done at the Developer level, which reduces the hierarchy level in change management and thus implies a reduction in time and cost requirements. A specific change in the logic, not only changes the functionality concerned with it, but also the dependent functions under the dependency group. In the logic level, the set of rules form the finite states with functions as transitions. A rule is said to be dependent in this model, if there is a transition from one rule to another on accepting a function. The level of dependency analysis can be even extended to the functions where the parameters act as the transition from one function to another. Thus the rules and functions under logic form a dependency group which is analyzed and verified for every change initiated externally. Those dependency groups assist in performing changes and results in an effective change. Those changes that are made based on the dependency analysis are measurable, complete and finite. Any change that is not based on the dependency analysis is said to violate the outlined properties and may result in a failure. Dependency analysis based on each factor is p erformed by a finite state machine. With the help of finite state machine, it is possible that if a particular logic has been successfully recognized then it goes to the halt state. On the other hand, there exists a transition from any state to the exception state E, if the rule or function encounters an exceptional input or parameter. By this way, the FSM simulates the pattern based on the behavior of the rules and functions, which can be easily verified and measured at each stage. This measure of change evaluation ensures that the business analyst has a direct control over the changes he makes and provides an environment that notifies the analyst about the outcome in a meaningful way. We propose a set of five change factors based on which the dependency existing between the business rules, functions and parameters is analyzed. Among which we mainly focus on the factor Business Policy Enforcement which is used for checking whether there is any policy violation with respect to the c hanges made. These change factors are also involved in the change evaluation that makes the changes to be specified in a precise and formal manner. II. FRAMEWORK FOR WEB SERVICE CHANGE MANAGEMENT In this framework, the course of action begins with issue of change request and the whole processing of the request is conducted under the supervision of an analyst. A ChangeRequest is an additional expectation that theCustomerwants which is outside the current defined scope of the project which is a change to an existing product. It is first specified by the analyst in detail. This specification includes the change to be made, brief description of the change to be made, action to be made, services, rules and the conditions under which the change has to be made. The Request handler is responsible for finding the type of the change and priority is assigned to indicate the order of importance of the request and also determines whether the change can be implemented within the runtime. Domain Variable Identifier discovers the domain variables present in the request by just tokenizing the request and searching whether any of tokens match against given domain variable set. Once we are done with domain variable identification, we can determine the domain to which the request refers to. The Domain Mapper finds the corresponding domain and services with the help of service repository which comprises all kinds of services and provides the result to Business Logic Analyzer. Fig1.Business policy enforcement framework The logic of all the services in the service repository are decomposed into rules, functions and parameters along with associated business policies are stored in the BL set with help of domain mapping. The BL analyzer identifies only the particular rule, functions, parameter and policy associated with it for each change request from BL set instead providing all the rules, functions, parameters and policies associated with it. The properties of interoperability, traceability, decidability, computability are preserved even after the alteration. These properties are evaluated by property evaluator and the calculated properties are appended to the schema to generate the final schema. The property values assist the analyst in making a decision whether or not to implement the alteration. Dependency Analyzer discovers dependencies with the ascertained rules and functions in the business logic through the identified change criteria. The Policy Manager checks for policy violation in the rule or function in which change has to be made and also in the dependent rules or functions. Since the change which is complete, finite and computable can even violate the associated policies, it is also checked by the policy manager after evaluating the properties of the identified change. Schema Generator is responsible for generating and upholding BL schema at various stages. This BL schema is helpful in guiding the management people who are not familiar in source code to make fruitful changes. The changes made in the schema will be updated obviously in business logic. Same way, when programmers do some changes in logic, it gets updated in schema accurately. Run time manager is responsible for building and deploying the services after fruitful changes are done and also it helps to debug the exceptions in the service logic sophistically. Change evaluator evaluates the changes made by the analyst based on the change factors such as business policy enforcement which determines violation of policy in the identified change criteria, code consistency which checks whether the preconditions and post conditions remains constant with respect to the changes made, requisite measure which checks whether the requisite rule or function is not altered with respect to the changes made and mapping function which checks the consistency with respect to the logic and also on the non-functional factors such as service interruption time, response time, reliability and service availability. The Change Evaluation Report includes result of the evaluation process of the change made i.e. the evaluation measures of the changes made by the analyst. By this framework, the analyst has the advantages such flexibility, works in a sophisticated environment without having much knowledge about source code since he can implement the changes at the schema level, knowledge transfer since he can do the changes whatever comes in mind directly and is able to evaluate it easily, independency since no nee d for depending on the development team thereby reducing the time and cost. III. CHANGE FACTORS Change factors are those that act as a criteria based on which the changes made can be evaluated. Any change in the business logic is governed by the following change factors. These factors influence changes either independently or in a group and make changes effective. And the change factors are as follows: Business policy enforcement Requisite measure Code consistency Mapping function A. Business Policy Enforcement In this paper, we mainly focus on the change factor business policy enforcement which is a measure of change which determines violation of policy in the identified change criteria. Here the main role of business policy enforcement is: policy mapping which is nothing but finding the appropriate policies which are associated with the rule or function in which the change has to be made and also with its dependent rules and functions; validation which refers checking whether there is any policy violation; and refinement which provides an environment for the analyst to modify the policy itself if necessary. In a business logic L encompassing set of rules R, functions F, parameters Pr, policy set P and dependency D , the change which is going to be made can be evaluated based on the business policy enforcement factor which checks whether there is any policy violation with respect to the changes made. Whenever a change is specified, it is first analyzed for completeness, finiteness and comp utable. Once the rules, functions and parameters in the change specifications are analyzed as complete, they are mapped with the existing logic set L. Then the corresponding rules, functions, parameters, dependency set and policy set are retrieved by which the change specification is checked whether it violates any policy. If so, the analyst is informed as the change cannot be made due to the violation of policy. Otherwise the change is successfully included in the existing logic set L. IV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY The table in the next page shows the evaluation  results of some of the change requests implemented based on the business policy enforcement. TABLE I EVALUATION RESULTS FOR BUSINESS POLICY ENFORCEMENT V. Conclusion Any organization no matter its size will experience a large volume of changes in order to accommodate new business requirements, to correct faults in the infrastructure or the services, or for other reasons (such as legal requirements). This framework provides an environment for the business analyst to implement the changes at the sophisticated environment without having much knowledge about the source code and to evaluate the changes easily based on the proposed change factors in which business policy enforcement is mainly focused. With the help of the algorithm derived for the business policy enforcement, a case study of banking domain is implemented. By this framework, analyst is able to implement whatever comes in his mind directly without the help of developing team and also to detect policy violation and do the changes accordingly and also to refine the policy itself if needed. REFERENCES [1] Felix Cuadrado, Juan C. Duenas and Rodrigo GarcÄ ±Ã‚ ´a-Carmona, â€Å"An Autonomous Engine forServicesConfiguration and Deployment,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 38, No. 3, May/June 2012. [2] Xumin Liu, Athman Bouguettaya, Jemma Wu, and Li Zhou, â€Å"Ev-Lcs: A System For The Evolution Of Long-Term Composed Services,† IEEE Transactions on Services Computing,Vol.PP, Issue 99, 2011. [3] Dimitris Apostolou , Gregoris Mentzas,Ljiljana Stojanovic, Barbara Thoenssen, Tomà ¡s Pariente Lobo,†A collaborative decision framework for managing changes in e-Government services,† Government Information Quarterly 28 (2011) 101–116, PUBLISHED @ ELSEVIER, 2011. [4] Bruno Wassermann, Heiko Ludwig, Jim Laredo, Kamal Bhattacharya, Liliana Pasquale, â€Å"Distributed Cross-Domain Change Management,† 2009 IEEE International Conference on Web, Services, 978-0-7695-3709-2/09, 2009 IEEE. [5] Bassam Atieh Rajabi, Sai Peck Lee, â€Å"Change Management in Business Process Modeling Survey†, 2009 International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, 978-0-7695-1/09, 2009 IEEE. [6] Bassam Atieh Rajabi, Sai Peck Lee, â€Å"Runtime Change Management Based on Object Oriented Petri Net,† 2009 International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, 978-0-7695-1/09,2009 IEEE. [7] Oliver Moser, Florian Rosenberg and Schahram Dustdar,â€Å"Domain-Specific Service Selection for Composite Services,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, VOL. 38, NO. 4, July/Aug. 2012 [8] Ruhi Sarikaya, Canturk Isci and Alper Buyuktosunoglu, â€Å"Runtime Application Behavior Prediction Using a Statistical Metric Model,† IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. X, No. X, May 2011. [9] Haochen Li, Zhiqiang Zhan, â€Å"Bussiness-Driven Automatic IT Change Management Based on Machine Learning,† 978-1-4673-0269-2/12, 2012 IEEE. [10] Yanhua Du, Xitong Li, and PengCheng Xiong, â€Å"Petri Net Approach to Mediation-Aided Composition of Web Services,† IEEE Tansactions on Automation Science and Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 2, Apr. 2012. [11] Marcello La Rosa, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede, Petia Wohed, Hajo A. Reijers, Jan Mendling, and Wil M. P. van der Aalst, â€Å"Managing Process Model Complexity via Concrete Syntax Modifications,† IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2011.

The Master-Slave Relationship Essay -- master Slave Essays

The Master-Slave Relationship In this paper I will be discussing the master-slave relationship. I will give you an understanding as to how this union exists. Also I will brief you on how without this relationship a city would not exist. This paper will not only define the master-slave relationship but give quotations and examples that will help you the reader to fully understand this concept. In the master-slave relationship, with this union, the master can not exist without the slave. The slave is there to assist the master with the maintaining of the master’s wants and needs. In the classroom setting the teacher is the slave because he or she has the knowledge that is needed by the students. The students would be the master because the teacher is upholding the desires and wishes of the students by teaching them the knowledge they have. According to Aristotle The Politics, Book I Chapter 2, â€Å"The naturally ruling and ruled, on the account of preservation. For that which can see with the thought is naturally ruling and naturally mastering elements while that which can do with the body is naturally ruled and slave.† This is one of the common relationships that are known in the household. The household is the partnership established by nature for the needs of daily life. A group of households makes up a village, and a group of villages makes up a city. Now that we have seen that the city is made up of households, I would like to discuss that management of the household. What makes up the household relates to the people in the household. A complete household consist of slaves and freemen; who are the master and slave, the husband and wife, and the parent and child. The leadership of the master over the slave is different from nature, and the difference between the slave and freeman only exists by law. It is considered just, but the slave and freeman don’t exists by nature and being an impediment with nature is consequently unjust. What is property? According to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary property is defined as a quality or trait belonging and especially peculiar to an individual or thing. Property is also in conjunction with the household, and the ability of managing property is also a part of managing the household; for no man can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he is supplied with the essential items needed to survive... ...ical rule were the same, but they are different. Mastery and political rule are not the same thing, because political rule is over those who are free and equal. With this rule the master is not called master because he has skill that is needed. To be in love is to also be in a master-slave relationship. With this form you are trying to embody in the person what you think you need. So the person that needs something is the master and the one who encompasses it is the slave. Mastery rule is acquiring slaves but using them for their advantage. With slavery, the masters acquired slaves, and the slaves were used for the monetary gain of the masters. So in conclusion, the master-slave relationship not one only exist in the household, but it exist in society and everyday life. Without this relationship, people would be unable to determine who they are as a person and what their purpose is in life. This relationship helps define many interactions, weather it is romantic, educational, or a job function. I never really thought to much about this relationship and just related it to slavery, but I have come to know that it is a significant aspect in the way life’s relationships are viewed.