Pros and cons of English being the international lingua franca Essay

English speakers in the world including those who are in the inner circle, outer circle and expanding circle had reached to 380 millions of people since 2001. The finding shows how influential English Language is. Gradually, English become the international lingua franca, â€Å"utilized outside of the country or countries of its origin.†( Subject Area – English Language Essays) The Lingua Franca There are both pros and cons of English becoming the international lingua franca. English is the best candidate language for lingua franca. Many countries take English as the second language, students learn English under the education system mandatorily. In this way, the percentage of the population had the standard level of understanding of English, which is a non-native language, is unprecedentedly large. Also, there are so many English Language media immersing in the world, for example movies, pop music, the American TV programmes and the internet etc. The high level of invasion of the Anglophone societies’ culture creates a platform for learners to enhance their English abilities, just by sitting in front of the computer. Learning English is as easy as this without having to go to an English speaking country. Under the fact that English is widespread in comparison to the most other languages, there is no doubt that English is the most suitable to be the international lingua franca. In addition, overcoming the language barriers is the potential benefit of English. Communications are difficult when people don’t have a common language. With English being the lingua franca, it is easier for people to disseminate ideas and also break down cultural boundaries that separate people apart at the same. Van Parijs who is a Professor at the Faculty of economic, social and political sciences of the University of Louvain, gives the example of the use of English by Belgians when discussing the separation of that country with the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons. They choose to hold the conversation in English as they would like to show mutual respect to both the Flemish and Walloons, by not privileging some Belgians over one another. â€Å"With English as the lingua franca, instead  of having to choose a language that some of the participants in the conversation understand but not others, one can choose a language that leaves no one completely left out.† (Benjamin Studebaker), I totally agree with this statement. People can communicate only when they have a common language, with English a language the widespread and popular in the world, English propose a potential benefits to the world as a lingua franca. Despite the fact that English is beneficial for communication, there are drawbacks of English being the lingua franca. For institutionalized teaching of English in non-ENL countries, there are problems found. First, English grammar, vocabularies, pronunciation so on, serves as obstacles for students to learn completely standard English. â€Å"English grammar and verb conjugation is extremely irregular, requiring a considerable amount of rote memorization, instead of the application of logical and consistent rules† (Subject Area – English Language Essays The Lingua Franca) The above saying shows the difficult part of learning English, and it is true that we cannot create sentence in our own logic instead we do that in memorizing sentence patterns. Also, we won’t know all of the slangs that the American and the British use meanwhile we cannot avoid they speak those unknown slangs to us. The second drawback of English being the international lingua franca is that the dominance of the English language proposes a threat to our own language. Taking Hong Kong as an example, English is set to be the second language here, abilities of English usually come first than Chinese. Therefore, parents always place English a high place. When children’s result in English language is poor, they spend so much money on remedial classes. But if in the other way round, may be some parents won’t care. Gradually, students themselves cultivate that value that English language is much more important, and that Chinese language is being undervalued as a result. There are both pros and cons of English being the lingua franca, and the situation of English being the lingua franca is not changing in this few decades, all we can do is to explore those advantages and drawbacks and avoid the seriousness of the drawbacks deteriorating. Works Cited Profile of Van Parijs. University of Oxford. http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/profile/philippe.vanparijs. 14 Feb 2014 Benjamin Studebaker. English Lingua Franca. http://benjaminstudebaker.com/2013/05/20/english-lingua-franca/. 20 May 2013 â€Å"Subject Area – English Language Essays The Lingua Franca†. http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/pdf/the-lingua-franca.pdf. 2006

What Is the Purpose of Education in the United States

What Is the Purpose of Education in the United States How to Find a Purpose for Education Nowadays more and more young people view education skeptically. With mass media glamorizing the idea of skipping school or dropping out of college, it might seem that education has no purpose indeed. It is difficult, consumes a lot of time and, in case of college, might cost you a fortune. However, all these drawbacks greatly overweight the benefits that education gives to young people. Learn four things you get from studying at school or college and you will understand the purpose of education. Building a Good Career Unless youre a genius who already has a plan for groundbreaking discoveries, a good career will become a possibility for you only with a sufficient academic background. Many people would speculate against the need for college giving examples of successful people who dropped out, but what they forget is that not everyone is exceptionally talented. College is an institution that wont show you the way but will teach you how to find it. It gives skills and information that youll be able to interpret in your own way and build a foundation of your unique self. So dont see college as a ticket to your successful future but view it as a means of learning which you need to build this future with your own hands. Enriching Knowledge Many students develop an aversion to studying if it involves cramming and learning things by heart. In reality, thats not what education is about. The purpose of education is in sparking your interest in new concepts, ideas, and practices, finding things that truly interest you and developing your knowledge. Sometimes you cant get away from cramming sessions, but in the end high quality education will teach you a lot of new information that you can apply later. Getting Deeper Insight of Life Whatever you study, you cant avoid incorporating the process of thinking. The more you think about different concepts and problems, the more you develop the understanding of the world that surrounds you. Even people who dislike college cant discredit the fact that college changes you as a person. Even if you find your professors incompatible and feel like youre not getting anything new, youre still developing as a personality, learning to think critically and make judgments based on the situation. Looking at the World Positively Only those people who know little about the world see solely negative things. The significance of education is that it teaches you to find good aspects even in those things that are deemed hopeless. With highly developed logical thinking and being able to gauge various situations clearly, you learn to see things from different perspectives and discover a lot more they have to offer. Thats something that totally changes your outlook and differentiates an educated person from an uneducated one. You might think that going to college is not worth the difficulties and hard work it involves, but in reality, those things are the best teachers. The purpose of education is in honing you into a better version of yourself.

Technological Transformation essays

Technological Transformation essays Throughout history, technological advances have always altered society. Elizabeth Schwartz Cowan argues in her book A Social History of American Technology that from the earliest times, technology has had significant impact on the social, economic and political makeup. This is not a new phenomenon that started with computers. For example, mass production, transportation and especially communications have greatly impacted the world. The Industrial Revolution, first originating in Great Britain, quickly was accepted in the U.S. where it flourished and took a significant new shape (Pursell 87) and became the American system of manufacturers. The whole purpose of this system was to transfer the product from the workers to the machines. Specialized machines could much more rapidly and efficiently mass produce parts used for such consumer goods as sewing machines, bicycles and typewriters. One thinks of Henry Fords assembly line when regarding mass production, but Pursell (91) explains that More than any other product, it was the bicycle that forged the link between early-nineteenth-century armory practice and early-twentieth-century mass production. In the 1890s, one company, alone, was producing 60,000 bikes a year. From a social standpoint, Americans started to become dependent on these machines that made life easier. Increasing numbers of people began living in the cities instead of on farms. Closer living arrangements, unfortunately led to epidemics. According to Wilentz (79), domestic service was also transformed. Hired help, as a domestic servant was called, had been a traditional worker in New England local communities. After the mid-1800s, a larger number of these workers were hired for the labor market, and service became a low-paid job. This bastardization of craft, as Wilentz calls it, eliminated the traditional world of craft workers and apprentices and radically ...

Sources of Revenues and Expenses for Sport Organizations Essay

Sources of Revenues and Expenses for Sport Organizations - Essay Example Other source of revenue that they have in common includes contributions from individuals, associations, corporations, foundations, or clubs. Being national organizations, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association have grants from schools in the form of support from the university. Such school funds include both indirect and direct support from the university, for instance state funds and federal Work Study amounts for the athletes. In addition, it includes university-provided support, for instance, facility and grounds maintenance, administrative costs, security, utilities and risk management. The National Collegiate Athletic Association raises revenue from Game guarantees and game programs, National Collegiate Table Tennis Association from royalties while USA Triathlon Collegiate National Association from local media. Not-for-profit organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association also sells items for profit and ploughs it back into the organization. They also generated revenue in the form of sales of assets and inventory. In terms of expenses, all the three organizations pay salaries to their coaches and staffs, they have sponsorship programs, team expenses, purchase equipment and uniforms and general and administrative expenses. Sponsorship programs are sport-related aids. All of them contribute towards maintaining buildings, grounds and facilities (Masteralexis, 2014). In addition, they have medical expense/insurance in common for all of their stakeholders, coaching, staff and players. both the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association pays guarantees to other schools, pays game day and camp expenses and renders severance payments to their past staff and coaches. However, USA Triathlon Collegiate National Association has expenses such as incentive awards, essay

Manager Perspective on Aircraft Maintenance Essay

Manager Perspective on Aircraft Maintenance - Essay Example An FBO is principally known for the provision of support services to the general operators of aviation at a public airport that is located either on the airport leasehold property or even in a few cases, adjacent to the airport leasehold property like an operation of through the fence. In smaller airports that operate and serve general aviation in modest or far-flung societies or communities, the town itself might offer fuel services together with the operation of basic facility of FBO. Many operators of FBO that do business at moderate to high traffic volume airports are non-governmental organizations; that is either publicly or privately owned companies (Herman, 1968). The general objective of the activity of maintenance effort is ensuring availability of the aircraft that is required to meet the operational commitments. In addition, the Aircraft Maintenance Manager is fully responsible for the management of maintenance effort to accomplish this objective. The department of mainten ance organization also helps the manager of aviation maintenance in attaining this goal. Moreover, the maintenance administration offers the personnel accounting, the clerical roles that are associated with the administrative support and record keeping (Mirghani, 1996). The maintenance management consists of the management of aircraft, material, SE and personnel. The MDS (Maintenance Data System) can also help in all there functions. Business aviation allover the world, particularly in the United States has a desirable safety record, and a thorough regulatory structure that helps in keeping it in that manner. One of the fundamental requirements is that the operators of AOC have appointed post holders in key positions, and among them is the maintenance manager. Nevertheless, this critical role may be undertaken or performed by a licensed engineer, even though not necessarily. The engineering quality control, with the responsibility of maintaining airworthiness, contracts with complia nce and suppliers, the present-day maintenance manager should, above all these, be a very competent supervisor (Mirghani, 1996). For this feature, when those who are responsible for their company’s carriers maintenance are asked to tell about their duties, it is surprisingly found that nearly all of them have good relationships with their local managers, and very few troubles or problems with the requirements of EASA different from the sheer paperwork quantity. It is very possible for the maintenance manager of the aircraft manager to be the only member of staff dealing with the technical matters. Nonetheless, the hands-on maintenance will nearly always be performed by contracted corporations with proper approvals. Those who employ their own engineering staffs say that there are numerous qualified candidates available; implying that the issues of shortages of engineers are long gone (Herman, 1968). The department of aircraft maintenance at the airports helps in supporting nav al operations by conserving the aircrafts and the associated SE to the allotted maintenance level. Since all the activities involved in maintenance have similarities in management, operation and mission, these sections have standardized supervision and organization (Herman, 1968). The department of maintenance helps in the facilitation or enhancement of: Training and performance of the maintenance personnel; maintenance effectiveness and veracity for all material;

The Effect of Technology on the Intelligence of Our Younger Generation Essay

The Effect of Technology on the Intelligence of Our Younger Generation - Essay Example Though Bauerlein and Bowman feel that technology is decreasing certain parts of intelligence, they feel that overall intelligence is not being as brutally mutilated as we tend to think, while Thompson reveals a positive aspect to younger people spending so much of their time implementing technology in their lives. In Bauerlein’s article, he points out that since most socialization is done via text messages, discussion boards, Twitter and Facebook, the current generation is unskilled in the act of reading or properly utilizing body language. Communication has become nothing more than the sharing of the written word; there is no tone of voice, pauses, posture, gesture, eye movements, or shifts in personal space. For those who were not drawn into technology are fluent in the Silent Language, but those with their noses stuck in their cell phones or laptops are unable to read the behavior of these people. Since technology keeps people physically away from one another, there is no need to learn such skills, yet this had made our current generation socially awkward. Bowman makes the case known that deep reading has become a dying art with the increasing use of the Internet. Prior to the Internet’s popularity, research for school assignments was done via books from the library. Students would have no choice but to thoroughly read the texts to gain an understanding of a topic. Nowadays, the younger generation â€Å"power browses,† which involves skimming a few lines of text on the Internet until they find a fact or idea that they can use for their assignment. Instead of reading for knowledge formation, this generation seeks only to retrieve information; the material goes from the Internet straight to the homework assignment, not making even a pitstop in the mind of the student. On the other hand, Thompson’s view of technology is surprisingly optimistic. No matter how much the older generation complains about a lack of literacy in this current generation, a study undergone by Stanford University Professor Andrea Lunsford reveals that  writing is being revived and enhanced by our technologically thriving generation.  

Biography of Plato Essay Example for Free

Biography of Plato Essay Plato was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, rhetorician, writer, founder of Academy, and even a double Olympic champion. He was born in 427 BCE in family of wealthy and influential Athenian parents: Ariston and Perictione. Platos real name was Aristocles. For his athletic figure his wrestling coach called him Plato, which means â€Å"broad†. As Plato was from a wealthy family, he got the best teachers of that time, who taught him music, grammar and athletics. At the age of 20 years old, Plato meets Socrates, who became his teacher, mentor and closest person. Eight years with Socrates influenced Platos life path. After Socrates died, Plato travels to Egypt, Italy, Sicily and Cyrene. Then he came back and opened his famous philosophical Academy. The Academy was an institution of higher education. Such philosophers as Aristotle, Heraclitus, Crates and Xenocrates attended Platos Academy. Plato’s writings are dialogues and letters to his teacher Socrates, which talks about a variety of different topics, ranging from philosophy to ethic, from mathematics to rhetoric. In these dialogs Plato used Socrates as a fictional person. His early dialogues are typically devoted to investigation of a single issue, where results are rarely achieved. The middle age dialogs developed, expressed, and defended Platos conclusions about central philosophical issues. And his later writings often modify or abandon the structure of a dialogue, they were critical examinations of the theory of forms, discussions of the problem of knowledge and cosmological speculations. Platos most famous works are: The Apology of Socrates, The Symposium and The Republic. Plato started the very first University in Europe – The Academy in 387 BC in Athens. Though the Academic was not open for the public, it did not charge fees for education there. Therefore no formal teachers or students, but there was unspoken distinction between teachers and students. One of the most famous Platos student, who also attended Academy for more than 20 years was Aristotle. There are evidences of lectures given in the Academy, such as Platos lecture On the Good and The use of dialectic. Academy continued on for nearly 1000 years until it was closed by emperor Justinian, because it was believed not to follow the Christian religion. Plato died on the day of his birthday at 347 BC. It is unknowing how he died, there are multiple versions from committing suicide to according to The American Scholar, Plato died in his bed, whilst a young girl played the flute to him. Plato moves his finger to indicate the beat and rhythm to get the right measure for her. When the girl gets the right measure, Plato died listening to the correct measure. References: Schall, James V. , â€Å"On the Death of Plato. † The American Scholar 65 (1996): 401-15. Print. Kemerling, Garth. â€Å"Plato. † Philosophy pages. Web. 9 Aug. 2006 Kraut, Richard, Plato, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ), .