Saturday, May 23, 2020

Education Is The Most Powerful Weapon - 1373 Words

â€Å"Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world† (Nelson Mandela). United States. has a powerful educational arsenal, its community colleges. For the reason being, community college should be free for students of less fortunate and other students who cannot afford college after high school. If the government proposed free community college to the students, each and everyone will have the chance to get an education as well the opportunity to have a better future. Free community college is a really important matter that will not be solved in a year, It is an extensive idea of the United States and it s not a partial matter. It s an American issue about how we re going to be as one nation. Who are we providing for and†¦show more content†¦Students drop out of college, and the problem is usually time and money. Those who are able to take out loans for college also are required to pay the money back. Besides that, most employers do not allow work ers to change their schedule when student need to change it. Some students who drop out of college eventually return back to finish their degree, but most of them don t ever re-enroll back again. If the government proposed free community college to its students, everyone will happily attend college and get an education without the frustration of paying tuition fees or any other bills that have to do with college. Although, Government offers free education to students with great academic performance and talents, but are not considering all the students that cannot afford education. Another key difference between the students from a rich family and students of a poor family is that rich kids can attend college and get their education with no exasperation while the poor kids struggle to get their education. â€Å"The high sticker price of the universities is cited as a huge barrier to educating lower-income students while loans end up filling the gaps in student aid, which don t cover other associated costs. For instance, at a public university such as the University of California, Berkeley, the top public university in the U.S., tuition is $13,878. However, the total cost of attendance with books, supplies, room and board and transportation

Monday, May 11, 2020

How to Understand Mandarin Chinese Tones

While residents across China use the same written character system, the way the words are pronounced differs from region to region. Standard Chinese is Mandarin  or Putonghua, and it consists of five pronunciation tones.  As a student of the Chinese language, the hardest part to differentiate is first, second, and fifth tones.   In 1958, the Chinese government rolled out its Romanized version of Mandarin. Prior to that, there were several different methods to sound out Chinese characters using English letters. Over the years, pinyin has become the standard around the world for those wishing to learn to properly pronounce Mandarin Chinese. This is how Peking became Beijing (which a more accurate pronunciation) in pinyin. Using characters, people simply know that that character is pronounced with a certain tone. In Romanized pinyin, many words suddenly had the same spelling, and it became necessary to designate tones within the word to differentiate them. Tones are of vital importance in Chinese. Depending on the choice of tone, you could be calling for your mother (maÌ„) or your horse (mă). Heres a brief introduction on the five vowel tones in the Mandarin language using the many words that are spelled ma. First Tone: ˉ This tone is designated by a straight line over the vowel (maÌ„) and is pronounced flat and high like the ma in Obama. Second Tone:  ´ This tones symbol is an upward slant from right to left over the vowel (maÃŒ ) and begins in the mid-tone, then rises to a high tone, as if asking a question. Third Tone: ˇ This tone has a V-shape over the vowel (mă) and starts low then goes even lower before it rises to a high tone. This is also known as falling-rising tone. Its as if your voice is tracing a check mark, starting at the middle, then lower then high. Fourth Tone: This tone is represented by a downward slant from right to left over the vowel (maÌ€) and begins in a high tone but falls sharply with a strong guttural tone at the end like you are mad. Fifth Tone: †§ This tone is also known as the neutral tone. Has no symbol over the vowel (ma) or is sometimes preceded with a dot (†§ma) and is pronounced flatly without any intonation. Sometimes its just slightly softer than first tone. There is another tone as well, used only for certain words and is designated by an umlaut or  ¨ or two dots over the vowel (lü). The standard way of explaining how to pronounce this is to purse your lips and say ee then end in an oo sound. Its one of the hardest Chinese tones to master so it may help to find a Chinese-speaking friend and ask them to pronounce the word for green, and listen closely!

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Comparing and Contrasting the Two Major American Political Parties Free Essays

In the United States there exists largely a dichotomy with respect to parties of political affiliation, and while other parties can and do exist, most people refer to the US as it is now as a â€Å"two-party state. † The two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have existed in our country for over one hundred fifty-three years each, and the struggle for power in which they both partake has been no small matter, becoming more and more hotly contested as time goes on. While both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party (GOP herein) seem starkly opposite at surface level, the two often have similar goals, aspirations and plans for our country, with the main point of contention being the methods by which such things are brought about. We will write a custom essay sample on Comparing and Contrasting the Two Major American Political Parties or any similar topic only for you Order Now Fiscally, the Democrats and GOP both want a free economy with as little national debt as sustainably possible, but, for the most part, the Democrats favor government action, and the GOP favors private action. With respect to social policy, the Democrats favor more progressive legislation, and the GOP favors more traditional legislation. As the US stands currently, in a recession, no American could disagree that everyone’s goal for the economy is to get out of the recession. The real question is â€Å"How do we do it? † Republicans say that we should cut spending, cut taxes and allow those cuts in taxes to promote job creation in the private sector: jobs come from businesses, and when the people who own the businesses have more money, they can hire more people to do more work, which would raise GDP and reduce the national debt. Democrats say that we should raise taxes to increase revenue, and use the increased revenue to sponsor various economic stimuli to promote greater productivity and job creation. This sort of top-down/bottom-up perspective has led many Americans to believe the motivations of the two parties to be a conflict of social classes, with Republicans representing largely the rich, and Democrats representing largely the poor. Undoubtedly, the largest differences between the two major parties exist in the social platforms of each. The GOP is composed mostly of those who are socially conservative, the Democratic Party, of those who are socially liberal, but there are certainly those within each party whose beliefs vary. The Democratic Party generally supports legislation promoting social tolerance, i. e. policies which limit the government’s ability to tell any person what to do, provided that they not infringe upon the rights of others. This amounts to policies in favor of things gay marriage and marijuana legalization and policies opposed to abortion restrictions, welfare drugs tests and public funding of religious institutions and schools. The GOP generally supports social legislation which maintains the status quo, protecting the foundation of America which those before us have provided. In this manner, the GOP usually favors legislation that protects the sanctity of marriage (i. e. ne man, one woman), prevents drug addicts from receiving welfare and prevents people from harming themselves with drug use, and the GOP generally opposes legislation that would allow any of the previous things to occur. Interestingly, however, the GOP strongly supports the exercise of the Second Amendment to its fullest capacity, opposing almost any gun control law, while the Democrats generally favor gun control with respect to some of the more dangerously liable guns such as assault rifles or even some semi-automatic rifles. In terms of demographics and geography, the Democrats and Republicans are quite contrasting. By and large, the Republican Party is most powerful in the South and Midwest, while the Democratic Party gains its power mostly from the North and the West coast. Republicans are more likely to be older, more wealthy, more religious and white (though this obviously does not mean all Republicans are white). Democrats are more likely to be younger, more educated and more ethnically varied than the Republican Party. These snapshots into the average Democrat or the average Republican must be taken with a grain of salt, however, as demographics and geographic are not causes of the party composition, but merely correlations which have been concluded. While the Democrats and Republicans have long been considered bitter rivals, and for the most part it is true, the two major parties in America are not quite as disparate and incongruous as many would think. They both have the same major goals for the economy, but only the methodology differs. They have different ideas for social policy, stemming from the more religious and more secular worldviews which most Republicans and most Democrats respectively hold. With the differences aside from both, the Democrats and Republicans in political offices do come together to prevent the one which they fear most: the success of any third party. Both parties will stop at nothing to maintain whatever power they each have. How to cite Comparing and Contrasting the Two Major American Political Parties, Essay examples