Why Mandarin Chinese is easier than you think

Why Mandarin Chinese is easier than you think Mandarin Chinese is often described as a difficult language, sometimes one of the most difficult ones. This is not hard to understand. There are thousands of characters and strange tones! It must surely be impossible to learn for an adult foreigner! You can learn Mandarin ChineseThats nonsense of course. Naturally, if youre aiming for a very high level, it will take time, but I have met many learners who have studied for just a few months (albeit very diligently), and have been able to converse rather freely in Mandarin after that time. Continue such a project for a year and you will probably reach what most people would call fluent. So definitely not impossible. How difficult a language is depends on many things, but your attitude is certainly one of them and its also the easiest one to influence. You stand little chance of changing the Chinese writing system, but you can change your attitude towards it. In this article, Im going to show you certain aspects of the Chinese language and explain why they make learning a lot easier than you might think. How difficult is it to learn Mandarin Chinese? Of course, there are also things that make learning Chinese harder than you think (or perhaps as hard), sometimes even the same things from different angles or on different proficiency levels. That, however, is not the focus of this article. This article focuses on the easy things and is meant to encourage you. For a more pessimistic outlook, Ive written a twin article with the title: Why Mandarin Chinese is harder than you think. If you already study Chinese and want to know why its not always easy, perhaps that article will provide some insights, but below, I will focus on the easy things. Difficult or easy for whom? With what goal? Before we talk about specific factors that make learning Mandarin easier than you might think, Im going to make some assumptions. You are a native speaker of English or some other non-tonal language not related to Chinese at all (which would be most languages in the west). You might not have learnt any other foreign language, or perhaps youve studied one in school.   If your native language is related to Chinese or is influenced by it (such as Japanese, which largely uses the same characters), learning Chinese will become even easier, but what I say below will be true in any case. Coming from other tonal languages makes it easier to understand what tones are, but its not always easier to learn them in Mandarin (different tones). I discuss the downsides of learning a language completely unrelated to your native language in the other article. Furthermore,  Im talking about aiming for a basic level of conversational fluency where you can talk about everyday topics youre familiar with and understand what people say about these things if targeted at you. Approaching advanced or even near-native levels requires a whole new level of commitment and other factors play a bigger role. Including the written language also adds another dimension. Why Mandarin Chinese is easier than you think Without further ado, lets get into the list: No verb conjugations - Partly because of bad teaching practice, many people associate second language learning with endless verb conjugations. When you learn Spanish or French and care about being accurate, you need to remember how the verb changes with the subject. We have this in English too, but its much easier. We doesnt say we has. In Chinese, there are no verb inflections at all. There are some particles that change the function of verbs, but there are certainly no long lists of verb forms you need to memorise. If you know how to say çÅ"‹ (kn) look, you can use it for any person referring to any period of time and it will still look the same. Easy! No grammatical cases - In English, we make a difference between how pronouns are handled depending on if they are the subject or the object of a sentence. We say he talks to her; him talks to she is wrong. In some other languages, you need to keep track of different objects and sometimes also not only for pronouns, but for nouns as well. None of that in Chinese! 我 (wÇ’) I, me is used in any situation referring to myself in any way. The only exception would be plural we, which has an extra suffix. Easy!   Flexible parts of speech - When learning most languages other than Chinese, you need to remember different forms of the words depending on what part of speech they belong to. For example, in English we say ice (noun), icy (adjective) and to ice (over)/freeze (verb). These look different. In Chinese, though, these could all be represented by one single verb å† ° (bÄ «ng), which incorporates the meaning of all three. You dont know which one it is unless you know the context. This means that speaking and writing becomes much easier since you dont need to remember so many different forms. Easy! No gender - When you learn French, you need to remember if each noun is meant to be le or la; when learning German, you have der, die and das. Chinese has no (grammatical) gender. In spoken Mandarin, you dont even need to make a difference between he, she and it because they are all pronounced the same.  Easy!  Relatively easy word order -  Word order in Chinese can be very tricky, but this mostly becomes apparent at more advanced levels. As a beginner, there are a few patterns you need to learn, and once youve done that, you can just fill in the words youve learnt and people will be able to understand. Even if you mix things up, people will usually still understand, provided that the message you want to convey is relatively simple. It helps that the basic word order is the same as in English, i.e. Subject-Verb-Object (I love you). Easy! Logical number system - Some languages have really bizarre ways of counting. In French, 99 is said as 4 20 19, in Danish 70 is half fourth, but 90 is half fifth. Chinese is really simple. 11 is 10 1, 250 is 2 100 5 10 and 9490 is 9 1000 400 9 10. Numbers do get a little bit harder above that because a new word is used for every four zeroes, not every three as in English, but its still not hard to learn to count. Easy!Logic character and word creation - When you learn words in European languages, you can sometimes see the word roots if youre good at Greek or Latin, but if you take a random sentence (such as this one), you cant really expect to understand how each word is constructed. In Chinese, you actually can do that. This has some significant advantages. Lets look at a few examples of advanced vocabulary that are really easy to learn in Chinese but very hard in English. Leukemia in Chinese is è ¡â‚¬Ã§â„¢Å' blood cancer. Affricate is Ã¥ ¡Å¾Ã¦â€œ ¦Ã©Å¸ ³ stop friction sound (this r efers to sounds like ch in church, which has a stop (a t sound), then friction (the sh sound)). If you didnt know what these words meant in English, you probably do now after looking at a literal translation of the Chinese words! These are not exceptions in Chinese, this is the norm. Easy! These are just some of the more obvious reasons that reaching a basic level in Chinese is not as difficult as you think. Another reason is that Chinese is much more hackable than any other language Ive learnt. The difficult parts are easier to hack What do I mean by this? Hacking in this case means understanding how the language works and using that knowledge to create smart ways of learning (this is what my website Hacking Chinese is about). This is especially true for the writing system. If you approach learning Chinese characters like you would learning words in French, the task is daunting. Sure, French words do have prefixes, suffixes and so on and if your Latin and Greek are up to par, you might be able to use this knowledge to your advantage and be able to understand how modern words are created. For the average learner, however, thats not possible. Its also the case that many words in French (or English or many other modern languages) cant be broken down or understood without doing serious research into etymology first. You can of course break them down yourself in ways that make sense to you. In Chinese, however, you dont need to do that! The reason is that one Chinese syllable corresponds to one Chinese character. That gives very little room for change, meaning that while words in English can gradually lose their spelling and morph over the centuries, Chinese characters are much more permanent. They do of course change, but not that much. It also means that the parts that make up the characters are in most cases still present and can be understood on their own, thus making understanding a lot easier. What all this boils down to is that learning Chinese neednt be all that hard. Yes, reaching an advanced level takes a lot of time and effort, but getting to basic conversational fluency is within reach for all those who really want it. Will it take longer than reaching the same level in Spanish? Probably, but not that much if we only talk about the spoken language. Conclusion This article was meant to convince you that you can learn Chinese. Of course, an article like this also has its dark twin, why learning Chinese is actually very hard, especially if you go beyond just basic oral communication. If youre a beginner, you dont really need such an article, but if youve already come a long way and want some sympathy, make sure you read on:Why Mandarin Chinese is harder than you think

China and Monetary Policy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

China and Monetary Policy - Coursework Example Foreign projects in manufacturing sectors were only concentrated in labor-intensive sectors, such as food, electronics, construction materials, textiles and toys. In the late 1980s, foreign manufacturing investment accounted for more than 70 percent of the total FDI flowing into China; investment continued to increase rapidly, reaching more than 80 percent around 1990 (NBS, 1991). With increasing experience in the Chinese market, and accumulated knowledge about China's industrial structure, foreign firms extended their business scope into physical infrastructure facilities, including construction, energy, transportation and capital-intensive and technology-intensive machinery and equipment. Such investments involved more technological inputs, higher start-up costs, and larger financial commitments and, therefore, foreign firms faced greater risks. With China's accession to the WTO, other sectors, especially services, have become popular to foreign investors. In China, FDI is highly agglomerated. It favors cities where targeted industries are fairly developed (Belderbos and Carree, 2002). Marshall (1898) proposes that the pool of specialized skilled labor, trade of intermediate inputs, and spillovers were driving forces of industrial agglomeration. Porter (2000) argues that industrial clusters increase the productivity of constituent firms, upgrade the capacity of cluster participants for innovation and productivity growth, and stimulate new business formation. Because of the lack of local knowledge, foreign investors encountered so-called "disadvantage of an alien status" in China. Industrial clusters have helped foreign investors to attenuate these disadvantages (He, 2002, pp.1030). Therefore, foreign investors like to select geographically agglomerated industries with strong localized business linkages. Traditional FDI theories (Hymer, 1976; Kojima, 1978; Dunning, 1980) suggest that industrial distribution of foreign investment depend s on comparative advantages in host economies and the ownership-specific advantages that multinational corporations (MNCs) hold. Dunning (2000) argues that factors influencing MNC industrial choices have gone beyond the natural endowments in the era of globalization, and that benefits from industrial agglomeration are playing an increasingly important role. Therefore, industrial distribution of FDI in host economies might be influenced by industry-specific external economies, which arise from geographical proximity of related firms and localized business linkages. There is some published literature concerning industrial patterns of FDI in host economies. Caves (1974), for instance, considers foreign firms' shares in Canadian and UK manufacturing industries in the 1960s and emphasizes the importance of intangible capital, advantages accruing from the operation of multiplant enterprises and the strength of entrepreneurial resources. Ratnayake (1993) concludes that foreign ownership of industry tends to be higher in skill-intensive and technology-intensive industries and those in industries enjoying high-level protection in Australia. Aswicahyono and Hill (1994) examine determinants of foreign investment shares in the Indonesian manufacturing sector and find product differentiation, technological capacity, skill intensity, absolute capital

Tribalism and the Nation in the African Continent Essay

Tribalism and the Nation in the African Continent - Essay Example This often accompanies accusations of primitiveness that are leveled against institutions that have their origin in tribal collectives. Tribalism in its jingoistic form is harmful for the unity of a nation and its overall development. This paper shall argue against tribalism and the effects that it has upon the modern state. It shall not however, argue for the modern state in its present form which is a creation of European culture and has been imposed on the African cultures that they once had colonized. One of the main reasons as to why certain states are unable to achieve a certain kind of unity is the persistence of tribalism. This tribalism then leads to the establishment of the tyranny of a certain tribe over the other despite the existence of democratic procedures that are established with the intention of ensuring the equal distribution of power (Jason). Over the past few decades, one has witnessed an alarming rise in the number of governments that are dictatorships in Africa. This has a lot to do with tribalism as it actively promotes tribal loyalties during elections and this then takes precedence over issues of development. This then results in most parties feeling a certain kind of disillusionment regarding the very process of elections, something that would then further tip the balance of power in favor of the ruling tribes. Tribalism thus represents a conglomeration of forces that seek to topple the forces of democracy that seek to provide for a country certain forms of development. Such incidents have happened as late as in 2008 during the Kenyan elections. Such incidents are often violent and further mar the social fabric of the nation (Africa: Talking about "Tribe"). They then cause great economic and social damage that needs to be rectified through great efforts on the part of the state. This then sets the process of development back by many years. This backward step is then taken not just at the level of the economy but also at the level of the social relations that exist between the different tribes living within the same country. Writers like Ngugi wa Thiongo identify tribalism as the problem that plagues Africa. He advocates the establishment of a single collective that would then have a more or less homogenous identity. This identity would be created following an elaborate process of decolonization that would result in the establishment of a more authentic identity (Thiongo). Even within such a framework, development is envisaged in a rath er Western framework. This is not to say that there is no African framework of development but to demonstrate the woeful lack of research in this area. If one is to posit arguments against such a thesis of nationalism against tribalism. Writers like Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni attempt to complicate the problem by introducing pre-colonial and colonial perspectives that then serve to absolve tribalism of the guilt that it would have to shoulder as far as the lack of development is concerned. Ndlovu-Gatsheni looks at the different factors that affect development in areas that are affected by tribalism and ascribes the underdeveloped states of these areas as products of history (167-9). Such analyses fail to locate the root of the problem and consequently only manage to create a sense of the inevitable as far as the existence of the problem is concerned. The historical angle of the problem, while it needs to be argued, also needs to be looked upon as something that leads to a solution and not just presenting an analysis of the situation as it arrived. It is

Patient Satisfaction with Public Healthcare | Literature

Patient Satisfaction with Public Healthcare | Literature Literature Review: Alian A. Alrasheedy, Mohammed Azmi Hassali, et al., published a research study in Australasian Medical Journal, 2014 entitled as â€Å"Assessment of general public satisfaction with public healthcare services in Kedah, Malaysia†. They conducted a cross-sectional study to assess patients’ level of satisfaction with public healthcare services and to determine the factors that may affect patient satisfaction among convenience sample of general public. They developed a questionnaire which consists of five sections including demographic data, patients’ perceptions of their relationship and interaction with healthcare professionals in the public healthcare sector, patient perception of skills of healthcare professionals, patients’ assessment of the amenities, accessibility to and facilities available in the public healthcare sector and general satisfaction of patients with public healthcare services. To perform the statistics they used chi-square test and for it ems expected to have lower frequency, Fisher’s exact test was used. The findings showed that almost half of the participants were satisfied with current health care services in public hospitals and clinic. It shows a significant association between satisfaction and some participants’ characteristics such as age, gender, waiting time. Other factors influencing satisfaction level includes the length of consultations and process of patient registration. The limitation of the study is that illiterate people were not included in this study as it is a self-administered questionnaire. It concludes that improving the health services which leads to shorter waiting time may increase the patients’ satisfaction level. Krupal Joshi, Kishor Sochaliya, et al., performed a cross-sectioanl study to identify the factors that affect patient satisfaction regarding health care services. The study was entitled as â€Å"Patient satisfaction About Health Care Services: A Cross Sectional Study of Patients Who Visited the Outpatient Department of a Civil Hospital at Surendranagar, Gujarat† which was published in International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, 2013. The patient were interviewed using pre-structured questionnaires which can be replied in choices like satisfactory/unsatisfactory, yes/no, good/moderate/poor, adequate/inadequate. The study revealed that overall the patient satisfaction was good regarding the quality of the services provided by the hospital. But revealed mild to moderate satisfaction regarding waiting time and specialist availability. Patient satisfaction was considered to be important in both evaluation and shaping of health care. Mansour Alturki, Tahir M.Khan published a study entitled â€Å"A study investigating the level of satisfaction with the health services provided by the pharmacist at ENT hospital, Eastern Region Alahsah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia† in Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal,2013. They conducted a cross sectional study to evaluate the satisfaction of the patients related to pharmacy services provided to the patients at the hospital pharmacy. A self-administered 15-item questionnaire was used in the study which comprises of three sections which considered patient demographic data, information about health status of respondents, pharmacist-patient interaction level. The results were analyzed using independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. This study shows that the patient were majorly satisfied about the availability of the pharmacist and the explanations/clear labeling of drugs, politeness and prompt services of the pharmacist. The elderly patients were highly satisfied with the services p rovided by the pharmacy than the other age groups. But overall the satisfaction levels of the Saudi patients were least than that of the Egyptian and others and it may associate with the demographic features such as age, sex, and level of the education. Sumeet Singh, Paramjeet kaur, et al., conducted a study entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction levels in a tertiary care medical college hospital in Punjab, North India.† It has been published in International Journal of Research and Development of Health, 2013. The study was aimed to assess the patients’ satisfaction regarding care provided in the hospital, behaviour of medical, nursing and supportive staff and availability of necessary services and amenities in the hospital. A cross-sectional study based on a pre-designed and pre-tested Indoor Patient Feedback Form was done. This study shows that most of the patients were more satisfied with the behaviour of doctors. The major problem was found to be in identifying the location of various areas mainly labs in the hospital. Satisfaction regarding the service and the behaviour of the paramedical staff was found to be high. This study shows that assessing patient satisfaction is simple, easy and cost effective for evaluatio n of hospital services. Afolabi MO, Afolabi ERI, et al., published a study in African Health sciences, 2012, entitled as â€Å"Construct validation of an instrument to measure patient satisfaction with pharmacy services in Nigerian hospitals†. The study aimed to develop a questionnaire used to assess the quality of the pharmacy services provided by the hospitals and to define the scale construct validity with an opinion to identify the factors that affect the target users. First they developed a 35-item Patient Satisfaction Survey questionnaire and then based on the pilot study conducted to assess the internal consistency reliability there was a reduction of items on the scale to 25 items. They used Cronbach coefficient Alpha, Spermann Brown’s and Guttmann’s coefficients to determine the reliability of the scale and Scree plot was also carried out for the final 25-item scale. The reliability coefficients attained for the instrument by means of various methods were comparable and statist ically significant. The final scale which consists of 25 items showed stable and significant correlation coefficients and produced six consequent dimensions of patient satisfaction which includes attitude of pharmacy personnel, accessibility and convenience of pharmacy location, quality and cost of the drugs, conducive physical environment, and availability of prescribed drugs and timeliness of service delivery. This study established a scale to evaluate satisfaction of the patients regarding pharmaceutical services. Amany M. Abdelhafez, Lina Al Qurashi et al., published a study in American Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, 2012, entitled â€Å"Analysis of factors affecting the satisfaction levels of patients toward food services at general hospitals in Makkah, Saudi Arabia†. This study aims to determine the factors that the satisfaction levels of the patient with the food services in a sample of general hospitals. They performed a cross-sectional study using an interview questionnaire. Spearman correlation was used to identify the relationship between the various aspects of food and food services and the overall satisfaction. In this study the temperature of the food was one of the determinants of overall dissatisfaction. Overall satisfaction levels can be increased by increasing the quality of food and hospital food services. As hospital malnutrition is a main problem, so hospital services should be considered as an important part of the patient treatment plan and hence it is imp ortant to evaluate patient views to make sure that the expectations of the patients regarding the food services were achieved. M V Kulkarni, S Dasgupta, et al., had done a study entitled â€Å"Study of Satisfaction of Patients Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Nagpur† which was published in National Journal of Community Medicine, 2011. It states that patient satisfaction is one of the important tools to measure the success of the services provided in the hospital. They performed a hospital based cross sectional study to evaluate the satisfaction of the patients admitted in the hospital regarding behaviour of the medical, nursing, and supportive staff, and other services provided in the hospital. They used a pre-designed and pre-tested â€Å"Indoor Patient Feedback Form† which was filled up by the patient through an interview on the day of the discharge. They analyzed the data using Epi-Info statistical software by calculating chi-square test and proportions. Their study reveals that the most of the patients were satisfied with the provided hospital services, behaviour of the doctors but s howed dissatisfaction towards the cleanliness in the toilets, quality of the food. Leticia R. Moczygemba, Jamie C. Barner, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction with a pharmacist-provided telephone medication therapy management program† in Research in Social and administrative pharmacy, 2010. They conducted a non-experimental and cross sectional survey to measure the patient satisfaction with pharmacist-provided telephone MTM program. They mailed the questionnaire developed to measure the patient satisfaction on MTM program. Descriptive statistics have been used to calculate the patients’ responses. The study revealed that the patient were pleased about the services provided by the pharmacist during MTM consultation. And also the patients are willing for face-face to consultation to learn more about their medications. From this study it is proved that for some patients MTM program can be carried out in telephone without compromising patient satisfaction. Mehrnoosh Akhtari-Zavare, Mohd Yunus Abdullah, et al., performed a study entitled â€Å"Patient Satisfaction: Evaluating Nursing Care for Patients Hospitalized with Cancer in Tehran Teaching Hospitals, Iran† in Global Journal of Health Science, 2010. The study was aimed to assess the relationship between cancer patients’ satisfaction and the nursing care in order to assist nurses in defining more clearly their roles. They performed a cross-sectional study in which a proportional stratified sampling method was used to collect the data from face-to-face interviews based on validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. In this study, they conducted binary logistic regression to predict factors that influence the satisfaction level. It was seen that patients receiving chemotherapy were more satisfied with the nursing care than patients receiving other type of treatment such as radiotherapy, surgical etc. Though the study found that most of the patients were satisfied with t he nursing care, they suggested some improvements regarding interpersonal relationship which may improve patient satisfaction. Z Iliyasu, IS Abubakar, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Patients’ satisfaction with services obtained from Aminu Kano teaching hospital, Kano, Northern Nigeria† in Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice, 2010. Their study aimed to evaluate the patient satisfaction and their relatives with the hospital services. They considered satisfaction was from the perspectives such as ease with which patients’ accessed care, time of waiting, patient-health care provider relationship, payment and facilities provided by the hospital. The data was collected by a cross-sectional survey based on structured questionnaires which were distributed to the patients and focus group discussions with the patient relatives. The results shown that most of the patients were satisfied about the accessed care, patient provider relationship, inpatient services and the hospital facilities. And the patients were asked for the complaints which were mostly related to the waiting time and th e payment cost. In focus group discussions most of the patients relatives complained about the missing of laboratory data and delay in the laboratory data. Overall the satisfaction of the patients and patient relatives showed a high satisfaction level with the tertiary care services. Ranjeeta Kumari, MZ Tdris, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Study on Patient Satisfaction in the Government Allopathic Health Facilities of Lucknow District, India† in Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2009. They performed a cross-sectional survey to detect the areas and reasons of low satisfaction among the patient and to suggest methods for improvement. By using a multi-stage stratified random sampling technique three representative hospitals (Tertiary level hospital, Secondary level hospital and a primary level hospital). A quantitative structured interview schedule was used to record information from the patients attending the health care facilities. Data was analyzed using Epi-info software (version 6). From the results it was seen that the most important factor for them to visit the secondary and tertiary level of health facilities was the trust on doctors or health facility, availability of the specialists whereas the closeness of the health facility to thei r homes, belief on doctors or health facility and cost-effectiveness were crucial at the primary level. They concluded that, there is a need to communicate effectively with patients about their disease and treatment and to clarity their doubts and fears to achieve good standards of health. Juan Francisco Marquez-Peiro, Carmen Perez-Peiro published a study entitled â€Å"Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction in Outpatient Pharmacy† in Farm Hosp in 2008. The main objective of this study is to identify the satisfaction and dissatisfaction levels among patients receiving care from the Outpatient pharmacy. Dissatisfaction has been defined as the lack of correspondence between the patient expectations and their final perception of the healthcare service provided. They conducted a cross-sectional study to establish patient satisfaction levels by using a valid questionnaire and patient dissatisfaction were established from the complaints made by the patients attending the outpatient pharmacy. The reasons for complaint were grouped based on the classification system created by Pichert et al and also on the items described in the patient satisfaction survey. Patient satisfaction was evaluated with the help of a patient satisfaction indicator Satisfaction index recognized by the Regional Ministry of Health for the Autonomous Community of Valencia. The results show the high patient satisfaction index with the services provided by the outpatient hospital pharmacy department. The aspects scoring least points in patient satisfaction were mainly dispensing area (waiting room and access to the OP) and the dispensing process (waiting time and the consultation hours) which were also the main reasons for dissatisfaction. Pharmacist’s technical expertise and professional attitude are the most valued aspect in the patient satisfaction survey. Pharmacist’s professional competence and the pharmacist-patient relationship were the reasons for complaints made by the patients to the Patient Service Department of the hospital. The features that require improvement are area and process at the dispensing and the increased structural and human resources required. They concluded that, although the satisfaction index high and is useful for identifying what impro vements are needed, it is also important to identify the reasons for dissatisfaction to complement this information. Maria Luz Traverso, Mercedes Salamano, et al., published a study in the journal International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2007, entitled â€Å"Questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care in Spanish language†. The main objective of their study was to design and validate a questionnaire in Spanish language, to assess patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care provided by the community pharmacies. A questionnaire of 27 items, with randomly assigned order consisting give dimensions which includes general satisfaction, explanation, managing therapy, consideration and setting was designed. The reliability of the instrument’s scale was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha and to determine the questionnaire construct validity, Mann-Whitney test was applied to compare the data form two groups of pharmacies. Although overall results of the construct validity test did not presented significant changes among the two groups of pharmacies in whic h one group provides pharmaceutical care and other group do not provide pharmaceutical care, but 23 items presented significant variances among the two groups of pharmacies. The results suggest that the developed questionnaire was found to be a reliable and valid instrument in Spanish to evaluate patient satisfaction related to pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies. R.K.Sharma, conducted a study to identify the patient satisfaction level in both out-patients and in-patients entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction- A case study of zonal hospital† which was published in Nursing and Midwifery Research Journal, 2005. They assessed the patient satisfaction in terms of services and amenities. In this study it was observed that most of the indoor and outdoor patients were dissatisfied with most of the amenities. Most of the patients were satisfied with the behaviour and attention given by the doctors but were not satisfied with the behaviour of paramedical staff and other employees of the hospital. And most of the patients were not dissatisfied with the availability of the medicines in time. It concludes that frequent patient satisfaction surveys are essential to make necessary improvements on basis of opinions and suggestions given by patients. C Jenkinson, A coulter, et al., performed a study entitled â€Å"Patients’ experiences and satisfaction with health care: results of a questionnaire study of specific aspects of care† which was published in Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2002. The purpose of their study was to determine what aspects of health care provision are most likely to influence the satisfaction with care and willingness of the patient to recommend hospital services to others and also to determine the extent to which satisfaction is a significant indicator of patients’ experience of healthcare services. They had done a postal survey in which the questionnaires based on picker survey of patient experiences questionnaire was used. From the descriptive statistics it is evident that there is an association between the level of satisfaction and the number of item completed in the questionnaire. The study states that patient satisfaction scores and the related issues of willingness to recomm end a hospital to others present a limited and optimistic picture. It also suggests that detailed questions about specific aspects of patients’ experience are more beneficial for observing the performance of different departments of the hospitals and which helps in improving the health care delivery. Differences Between Leadership and Management | Tesco Differences Between Leadership and Management | Tesco Management is a function that must be exercised in any business (Maccoby, 2000, pp57-59) management is a process of planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, and controlling and it is a systematic way of doing things. According to Mullins (2010, p429) Fayol describes these elements as: Planning examining the future, deciding what needs to be achieved and developing a plan of action. Organising providing the material and human resources and building the structure to carry out the activities of the organisation. Command maintaining activity among personnel, getting the optimum return from all employees in the interest of the whole organisation. Co-ordination unifying and harmonising all activities and effort of the organisation to facilitate its working and success. Control verifying that everything occurs in accordance with plans, instructions, established principles and expressed command. Leadership is an attempt to influence group or individuals (Russell C, Richard J, 2002, p406) he further explains that leadership gets organizations and people to change. Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. Differences between Leadership and Management Mullins demonstrated the differences of leadership and management. Managers tend to adopt impersonal or passives attitudes towards goal. Leaders adopt a more personal and active attitude towards goals. In order to get people to accept solutions, the managers needs continually to co-ordinate and balance in order to compromise conflicting values. The leaders create excitement in work and develop choices that give substance to images that excite people. In their relationship with other people, managers maintain a low level of emotional involvement. Leaders have empathy with other people and give attention to what events and actions mean. (2010, p374) Leadership differs from management in a sense that: Management includes focus on function, authority relationship and creates stability. However, for a business to excel leadership is vital, because leaders motivate, secure commitment and inspire people. Relationship between Management and Leadership Leadership and management are the terms that are often considered synonymous. Leadership is defined as the potential to influence and drive the group efforts towards the accomplishment of goals. This influence may originate from formal sources, such as that provided by acquisition of managerial position in an organization. According to Mullins (2010, p374) Despite a continuing debate on differences between management and leadership, there is a close relationship between them and it is not easy to separate them as distinct activities. He further describes management and leadership, they overlap and you need both qualities. Increasingly, management and leadership are being seen as inextricably linked. It is one thing for a leader to propound a grand vision, but this is redundant unless the vision is managed so it becomes real achievement. A manager must have traits of a leader. Leaders develop strategies that build and sustain competitive advantage. Organizations require strong leadership and strong management for optimal organizational efficiency. Both managers and leaders aim to achieve goals, mobilize and utilize resource. Section 2 Managers have to perform many roles in an organization, how they handle various situations will depend on their style of management. According to Mullins (2010, p381), there are many dimensions to describe leadership style and he simplified three fold heading; The authoritarian (autocratic) Style: The manager alone exercises decision making and authority for determining policy, procedures for achieving goals, work tasks and relationships, control of rewards or punishments. The democratic Style: The leadership functions are shared with members of the group and the manager is more part of team. The group members have a greater say in decision making, determination of policy, implementation of systems and procedures. A laissez faire (genuine) style: The manager consciously makes a decision to pass the focus of power to members, to allow them freedom of action to do as they think best, and not to interfere; but is readily available if help needed. There is an often confusion over this style of leadership behavior. The word genuine is emphasized because this is to be contrasted with the manager who could not care, who deliberately keeps away from the trouble spots and does not want to get involved. From my own experience of working in ABA Beverages, management decided to implement HACCP using autocratic style of leadership style. This decision of quality control was taken to attract new customers and satisfy existing customers. According to Wikipedia (ONLINE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_analysis_and_critical_control_points) HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control points), is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that identifies physical, allergenic, chemical, and biological hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP is referred as the prevention of hazards rather than finished product inspection. A key role of the quality manager in the company is to maintain the food safety. He has vital responsibilities and challenges to achieve HACCP. In order to achieve HACCP, he uses autocratic style of leadership. This autocratic style was necessary because it is a matter of food safety. Employers view this safety principal as a critical, therefore use autocratic style. Employees must comply with instructions at all times. The positive impacts food safety is met, objective of customer satisfaction met. If they do not use autocratic style, quality would be compromised and customers would not be satisfied. Sri Lanka Red Cross Society SLRCS (Sri Lanka Red Cross Society) (ONLINE: http://beta.redcross.lk/vision-mission.asp) has operated since 1936. The SLRCS covers all 25 administrative districts of the Sri Lanka and the total membership 100,000.The total number of active volunteers 6,500. From my own experience of working in SLRCS, during the war in 2007 in Sri Lanka, it was involved to help victims who affected by war. They have divide teams and work under a coordinator. The coordinator gives freedom to the team leader to take appropriate actions within agreed boundaries (within set time limit and safety clearance). For example teams have to reach the camp and distribute all foods to beneficiaries. In case any problem arises team leaders have to make the decision. At this point Laissez Faire style help to achieve the scope of the organization. Here, team leader is trusted to make decision by the coordinator follows laissez faire style. On the other hand, when the team is in dangerous war zone, for the safety of team members team leader follows an autocratic style of leadership. For example if the supply not distributed on the agreed time limit or if the situation becomes dangerous, team leader take own decision either stay or leave for the camp and team members fol low his autocratic style of leadership. Tesco Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer in United Kingdom. One of the business objectives of Tesco is customer satisfaction. Tesco is a customer-orientated business. It aims to offer products that provide value for money for its customers and to deliver high quality service. Tesco wants to attract new customers, but it also wants to keep its existing customers happy. To keep at the top of its game and to maintain its number one spot in the market, the company needs skilled staff at all levels and in all roles. The style of leadership can vary depending on the task. Some managers allow teams to take charge of their own decision-making for many tasks. Team leaders will set the objectives but empower team members to decide how these objectives are achieved. This has several advantages. It helps to motivate individuals in the team and it draws on the expertise of the members of the team. Berian manages a team of 17 in a Tesco in-store bakery. One of the key challenges of Berians job is to ensure his team produces the right products to meet demand at key times. His usual management approach is to allow the team to take responsibility for achieving the desired result. In this way, the team not only buys into the activity, but also develops new skills. For example, when the bakery expanded its product range and Berian needed to ensure that all the products would be on the shelves by 8.00 am, rather than enforce a solution, he turned to the team for ideas. The team solved the problem by agreeing to split break times so that productivity could be maintained. Berians approach produced a positive outcome and increased team motivation. (ONLINE: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/developing-appropriate-leadership-styles/management-and-leadership.html#axzz2DWoXdm7O) Berian uses democratic style of leadership to achieve the target. This style encourages ideas, feedback, suggestion and team sprit from all team members. Words 525/ 1480

Review of the on stage performance Of The Lion King Essay -- Drama

Review of the on stage performance Of The Lion King Drama In 1999, a spectacle hit the west-end after it roared through Broadway in the USA, and a few weeks ago I went to see it at the Lyceum Theatre. Disney's award winning animation, The Lion King, was brought to life in musical fashion by director Julie Taymor. It was seen with its story line intact, but as a completely original and sophisticated piece of theatrical art. With over 40 actors, singers and dancers giving a stunning performance of puppetry, song, dance, fairytale and even humour. The story concerns young lion prince Simba, whose birth has pushed his evil uncle (Scar) back to second in line to the throne. Scar plots to kill both Simba and his father, King Mufasa, and steel the throne for himself. Simba survives and is left to believe his father's death was his fault, and so leaves the kingdom. He comes across a warthog and meercat called Pumbaa and Timon who look after him. Throughout the play this duo add many humorous moments that stick with the audience. He grows fully and is left with the decision whether to return to his rapidly crumbling kingdom at the hands of Scar. He faces Scar in a great and emotional finale. There is a very enchanting performance from Josette Bushell-Mingo as Rafiki, who takes on the wise old baboon of the play and acts as the plays narrator. Also, a convincing part by Cornell John as Mufasa and the young Simba is played impressively by a naturally cheek... Review of the on stage performance Of The Lion King Essay -- Drama Review of the on stage performance Of The Lion King Drama In 1999, a spectacle hit the west-end after it roared through Broadway in the USA, and a few weeks ago I went to see it at the Lyceum Theatre. Disney's award winning animation, The Lion King, was brought to life in musical fashion by director Julie Taymor. It was seen with its story line intact, but as a completely original and sophisticated piece of theatrical art. With over 40 actors, singers and dancers giving a stunning performance of puppetry, song, dance, fairytale and even humour. The story concerns young lion prince Simba, whose birth has pushed his evil uncle (Scar) back to second in line to the throne. Scar plots to kill both Simba and his father, King Mufasa, and steel the throne for himself. Simba survives and is left to believe his father's death was his fault, and so leaves the kingdom. He comes across a warthog and meercat called Pumbaa and Timon who look after him. Throughout the play this duo add many humorous moments that stick with the audience. He grows fully and is left with the decision whether to return to his rapidly crumbling kingdom at the hands of Scar. He faces Scar in a great and emotional finale. There is a very enchanting performance from Josette Bushell-Mingo as Rafiki, who takes on the wise old baboon of the play and acts as the plays narrator. Also, a convincing part by Cornell John as Mufasa and the young Simba is played impressively by a naturally cheek...

Argumentative Essay about College Experience

Hey Ben! I was talking with Sean yesterday when he told me the news, you're planning to delay college. This came as a shock to me when I heard it. By not attending college, you may get a year's rest and a chance to think your decisions through, but if you ever do decide to attend college, you will miss out on a lot of opportunities as well. I think you should consider going to college rather than driving the open road after High The information you've learned in High School will be more fresh in your mind now than 1 year from now. You have passed 12 years of schooling, yet now you believe it is time to rest and see other places and people for a year or more before attempting college. College adds 4 more years of intense work, yet knowledge learned within High School can make learning new material easier for you. Other people often find themselves getting sidetracked once they put off the option to attend college, that can only hinder your ability to eventually become a college graduate. College can be a fun experience if shared with friends and people of similar age. By aiting an extra year or two, you will find it more uncomfortable within your classes. The entire college experience involves parties, football games, and drinking beer with your buddies as well as an education. As you get into the entire experience and enjoy college, you will understand and appreciate what a college offers. The ideal time for college is now more than ever as you also have scholarships and your parents to help with the expensive money arrangement which is needed. Parents can be a great help in paying for your college, and may be willing to pay much more mmediately after graduation from High School, than paying 2 years afterwards. Scholarships are always helpful to students, paying for a little bit of an expensive college. Although, to use the scholarship, you must go immediately to college. A College education right now is a lot more beneficial to you and your future than you may realize. It can lead to earlier jobs with increased salaries, better college experience, and scholarships to help pay for it all. I hope the arguments I mentioned above help you to see the other side of this situation and choose appropriately. Argumentative Essay about College Experience Hey Ben! I was talking with Sean yesterday when he told me the news, you're planning to delay college. This came as a shock to me when I heard it. By not attending college, you may get a year's rest and a chance to think your decisions through, but if you ever do decide to attend college, you will miss out on a lot of opportunities as well. I think you should consider going to college rather than driving the open road after High The information you've learned in High School will be more fresh in your mind now than 1 year from now. You have passed 12 years of schooling, yet now you believe it is time to rest and see other places and people for a year or more before attempting college. College adds 4 more years of intense work, yet knowledge learned within High School can make learning new material easier for you. Other people often find themselves getting sidetracked once they put off the option to attend college, that can only hinder your ability to eventually become a college graduate. College can be a fun experience if shared with friends and people of similar age. By aiting an extra year or two, you will find it more uncomfortable within your classes. The entire college experience involves parties, football games, and drinking beer with your buddies as well as an education. As you get into the entire experience and enjoy college, you will understand and appreciate what a college offers. The ideal time for college is now more than ever as you also have scholarships and your parents to help with the expensive money arrangement which is needed. Parents can be a great help in paying for your college, and may be willing to pay much more mmediately after graduation from High School, than paying 2 years afterwards. Scholarships are always helpful to students, paying for a little bit of an expensive college. Although, to use the scholarship, you must go immediately to college. A College education right now is a lot more beneficial to you and your future than you may realize. It can lead to earlier jobs with increased salaries, better college experience, and scholarships to help pay for it all. I hope the arguments I mentioned above help you to see the other side of this situation and choose appropriately.

Homeless And Mentally Ill Offenders - 1119 Words

Since the closure of the asylum’s doors, the prison compound has become the home to mentally ill offenders. They receive help by getting treated, but others, are abused further inside the prison’s walls. Each year, the number of inmates diagnosed increases, but also the ones who get arrested already mentally ill. The public shies away from them, but they also think they should be treated in a hospital, not in a prison. While there are many cases out there, that have either made a significant difference to their treatment, or just a little nudge to change, the numbers do not drop. The inmates who got the disease before being arrested was most probably because of lack of care by family members. Study shows that overall, there are 500,000 homeless cases in the 2014. Just alone in Texas, the change in homeless in minus three percent, which means it is steadily increasing, and people who need help are not being attended. Then they have a confrontation with the law, for eithe r the possession of illegal substances, public disturbances, or more elicit crimes. Once in custody, they are assessed to find the exact procedures the inmate may need. They are even housed within the facility with alike cases to prevent them from being harmed. Cases that include but are not limited to is, retardation, organic brain syndrome, and more serious mental illnesses like psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and major depression. Many of the mental diseases do not cause violent reaction,Show MoreRelatedWeek1 PBSfilm Essay1369 Words   |  6 Pagesso many people are diagnosed with mental illness in the criminal justice system? Why do you think so many offenders in the criminal justice system suffer from mental illness? I believe so many are diagnosed with mental illness in the criminal justice system due to their repetitive actions of law breaking. In the beginning, these offenders are unaware a mental illness exists. So many offenders have pre-existing mental illnesses which are untreated; others may acquire a mental illness while incarceratedRead MoreHomelessness And Mental Health And Substance Abuse878 Words   |  4 Pagesto 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness (DMHAS, 2014). Consequently, mental illnesses disrupt people’s ability to carry out key aspects of daily life, such as self-care and household responsibilities. As a result of these factors and the stresses of living with a mental disorder, people with mentally illnesses are much more likely to become homeless than the general population (Karger, Stoesz, 2014). Even if homeless individuals withRead MoreHow Crimes Involving The Mentally Ill1056 Words   |  5 Pag es How Crimes Involving the Mentally Ill Are Handled Introduction: Crimes linked to a mental disorder are seen to be abnormal from the established norms in society. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, a mental illness is a condition that impacts a person s thinking, feeling or mood and may affect their ability to relate to others and function on a daily basis.1 These variations often cause deviations from accepted behaviors. Behavior that is said to be not normal oftenRead MoreMental Illness And Mental Health1284 Words   |  6 Pagesbasically channeled the mentally ill into the corrections system. Often mentally ill offenders are released into community care. Lurigio emphasized that community based care â€Å"compartmentalizes† mentally ill offenders and creates limitations on whom they treat. This creates yet another gap within the corrections system for offenders to fall into. Those who require treatment may not get what they need because community care can only treat so much. These â€Å"missed† offenders are often the most seriousRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System Lacks The Necessary Fiscal986 Words   |  4 Pageslacks the necessary fiscal resources to manage the needs of mentally ill offenders. Mentally ill offenders have limited access to mental health professionals, medical staff, and criminal justice professionals who can accurately assess, evaluate, diagnose and treat their mental health issues. â€Å"Prisons and jails have a legal obligation to provide health and mental health care for inmates† (Ford et al. (2007), yet mentally ill offenders are not receiving services they need or are entitled to receiveRead MoreMental Disorders and Mentally Ill Offenders2098 Words   |  8 Pagespsychotherapy. The symptoms and signs of mental illness differ depending on the disorder. Some signs include confused thinking, or alcohol/drug abuse (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012). Throughout this paper, I will discuss what is currently known about mentally ill offenders based on the correl ation between mental disorders and criminal activity. Since the 1970’s, severe mental illness has been increasingly linked to the criminal justice system (White et al., 2006). Recently, it was estimated that individualsRead MoreEssay on Homeless and Deinstitutionalization914 Words   |  4 PagesHomeless and Deinstitutionalization Deinstitutionalization- a term popularized in the mid fifties to early seventies, was an experiment involving the release of some 830,000 mental patients. By reducing state mental hospitals by 60%, this ideology was found very appealing by Liberals due to mental patients receiving their freedom (Website 1). It was also liked by conservatives because of the large amount of money that would be saved by cutting the mental health budget. A very debatable questionRead MoreMentally Ill and Criminal Justice3176 Words   |  13 PagesThe mentally ill is over-represented in the criminal justice system when compared with the larger United States population. People with mental illness are incarcerated approximately 8 times more frequently than they are admitted to state mental hospitals, and are incarcerated for significantly longer time than other inmates (Ascher-Svanum, Nyhuis, Faries, Ball, Kinon, 2010). This has been linked to an increased danger to themselves, other inmates and persons employed in the prison system. EffectivelyRead MoreThe Rehabilitation Of Homeless Offenders709 Words   |  3 Pagesfacilitate continued debate and long-term sustained impact on the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of the homeless offender. It is also to be hoped that additional benefits will occur from the research findings, including ensuring: †¢ The research will be made available for the development of further work into the rehabilitation of homeless offenders. †¢ Raising the profile of the homeless amongst academics and society, and encouraging continued informed debate. †¢ Raising the profile, statusRead MoreThe Death Of Christopher Lopez918 Words   |  4 PagesA lawsuit has been filed over the death of Christopher Lopez who was a diagnosed mentally ill inmate. On March 17, 2013 Lopez died while incarcerated in the San Carlos Correctional Facility. Lopez died on a concrete floor struggling to breathe while guards watched through the food slot to his cell. The reality of it which is why this is beyond frustrating and unacceptable in America is because Lopez s was a schizophrenic. Lopez was given a psychotropic drug to deal with his schizophrenia. Lopez