Dubai: Globalization on Steroids Essay

Promotions for Dubai on CNN, BBC World, and other satellite channels show a shimmering skyline of glass and steel office towers with their graceful curves and aquiline shapes, suggesting a distant galaxy where all the unpleasantness of urban life has been airbrushed away. But advertising almost always offers more promise than reality, whether the product is potato chips or a city or a country. Seen through the lens of the everyday, nothing in this city is so clear. It’s hard to come to terms with Dubai, be ­cause there is confusion even in the way it is described by the media. It is often referred to as a Persian Gulf country (which it definitely isn’t), or a city-state (wrong again), or a Gulf emirate (also not accurate, because Dubai, the city, is only part of Dubai, the emirate, which is an integral part of the United Arab Emirates). But one thing is clear: during the three years I’ve lived here, it has undergone the kind of transformation that a city might experience once in a lifetime. Each time I leave my apartment block, I drive past shells of unfinished buildings with piles of sand and rubble spilling onto the sidewalks, and I’m struck by another irony of Dubai— that the more the city aspires to be the premier megalopolis of the 21st century, the more it resembles 1945 Dresden. The pace of growth has left many residents wondering what the hurry is. Yet everyone seems to be in a rush. On Sheikh Zayed Road, the 12 lanes linking Dubai with Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital 100 miles to the south, drivers barrel down the fast lanes at 90 miles an hour. Late on a Friday night, drivers weave in and out of the speeding traffic, which results in an appalling accident rate that leaves crushed fenders and tangles of gnarled metal piled along the roadsides. Has any place on earth grown as quickly or been transformed so completely? Aerial photos from the early 1960s show a dusty, ramshackle trading post tucked be-tween the Persian Gulf and the Creek, Dubai’s inland waterway and outlet to the sea. Ten years later it was beginning to take on the look of a prosperous city; a decade after that it had changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. The one-runway airstrip had been replaced by an international airport, a forest of office towers had grown up along the Creek, and residential tracts had spread across barren expanses of desert that stretched to the horizon. Dubai today is often described as a Wild West town, and the widespread economic opportunism lends some truth to the description. Driving the expansion is neither natural resources nor old-world industrialization but rather the gears of a 21st-century economy—banking, technology, trade and tourism, real estate, and media outlets. The tycoons cutting business deals in hotel restaurants and on beach-club patios are representatives of this new global economy—Taiwanese bankers and Lebanese import/exporters, Russian oligarchs and Iranian property investors. But even Dubai is not immune from the vicissitudes of global economics—the September worldwide financial crisis drained almost $6 billion from its financial markets. In spite of its rapid growth and the influence of globalization on Dubai, a bit of the old city can still be found. Walk through the covered market on the Deira side of the Creek, past spice vendors displaying their wares in 100-pound sacks; then go up winding, narrow lanes past the gold, silver, and textile dealers from Pakistan and Iran and the Indian merchants who speak fluent Arabic, their roots in Dubai reaching back generations. From there it is only a short walk up to the Al-Hamadiya School, now a museum, the first place to offer formal education in Dubai. Exhaust-spewing water taxis still shuttle commuters across the Creek between the twisting streets of Deira and the traditional Bastakia quarter, home to the pre-oil ruler’s palace, a covered market, and the site of a former fort. On the Deira side, ships unload pallets of cargo, just as they have ever since Dubai served as a convenient transit point for much of the trade that passed between India and Africa and the rest of the Arabian peninsula. In the neighbourhoods of Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim, quiet side streets lined with white houses topped with red tile roofs glisten in the afternoon sun, suggesting the placid tranquillity of southern California when southern California was tranquil and placid. Early in the morning, Indonesian housemaids sweep driveways with dried palm branches, and South Asian labourers still use these primitive implements to clear the paths in the local parks. It is hard to reconcile such images with those more popularly associated with Dubai. There is the Royal Mirage Hotel, whose silent, soaring hallways and courtyards have been designed in palatial Arabian splendour. Not far away is the Madinat Jumeirah, another hotel complex and an adjoining shopping arcade, where the tinkling music of the oud is pumped into the elevators and down the narrow, serpentine corridors in an effort to re-create the sensual mysticism of the Arabian covered market. But here, too, like almost everywhere in Dubai, the traditional clashes with the modern, and the uneasy blend is meant to serve consumerism: at the Madinat Jumeirah, res-taurants and cafà ©s surround artificial lakes, gift boutiques cater to upscale travellers, and live music echoes from the JamBase, one of Dubai’s hot spots. All of the glitz has made Dubai trendy among the globetrotting business set and holidaymakers interested in a taste of the Middle East—as long as it is tempered with a hefty dose of Club Med— but the changing character of the city is not e ndorsed by everyone. Among so-called locals, or Emirati nationals, there is increasing fear that their culture will eventually succumb to Westernization and foreign influence. Such apprehension is justified, for the demographics are not on their side. Emiratis now account for only 20 percent of the population (an official estimate, probably inflated); within 20 years, as more foreigners pour in from South Asia, the Far East, Russia, and Africa, the percentage is likely to fall to the sin-gle digits. But it is hard for locals to grumble too loudly when they have also been seduced by the global consumer ethos. After midday pray-ers on a blazing Friday afternoon, they head for the blissfully cool shopping malls, as do Indian and Filipino families and British expatriates, to scoop up the latest in mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. Women display designer handbags over their flowing black abayas but wear blue jeans under them, and many young men complement their crinkly clean kandouras with a baseball cap instead of the traditional white headdress. Out in the parking lot, families cram the backs of their Range Rovers and Ford Explorers with plastic shopping bags and a month’s groceries. The good life has created a sedentary life, and with it a sharp rise in obesity and diabetes. As though suddenly seeing the need to change direction, Dubai has begun making desperate attempts to preserve its past. In April 2007 the Dubai Municipality issued a ruling ordering the preservation of more than 2,000 buildings it considered â€Å"having historical significance in the United Arab Emirates.† But the breakneck development all over the city makes this a fool’s errand. Glossy advertisements for unbuilt real estate tracts cover the arrivals hall at the airport, fill billboards beside the highway entrance ramps, and push the news off the front pages of the local news-papers. The inside pages promise more: one full-page ad shows a Venetian gondolier, against a backdrop of faux Mediterranean chic, paddling along an artificial canal, past cafà © tables with Western and Asian patrons relaxing beneath palm trees. The most widely advertised development is now the Lagoons, a name that, like the Greens, Springs, Lakes, and Meadows, belies the arid land it occupies. Indeed, image more than oil (little of which ever existed in Dubai anyway) is now the city’s most valuable export. But what reality might that image exploit? The city was never one of the great centres of Islamic learning or Arab culture, like Cairo or Damascus. It has always been a centre for trade, a way station for commerce. Even today it boasts no impressive mosques; shopping malls are the grandest edifices, and the best-known universities are imported satellite campuses from the United States, England, and Australia. So with no great cultural legacy to celebrate, Dubai has embraced the culture of celebrity. Last February, Tiger Woods was once again victorious in the Dubai Desert Classic, and Roger Federer tried (unsuccessfully) to defend his title in the Dubai Tennis Championships. A year ago George Clooney promoted his movie Michael Clayton at the Dubai International Film Festival, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been spotted frolicking with their children on the b each of the Burj Al Arab, the sail-shaped hotel that is the city’s current signature landmark. Dubai is often described as an Arabian Disneyland, and the characterization is not wide of the mark. Tourists, residents, and celebrities (including Michael Jackson and Rafael Nadal) have slid down the foaming cascades at the Wild Wadi water park. Across Sheikh Zayed Road, the enclosure for the indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates angles into the sky like a giant airplane hangar tipped on end, glowing with a streak of lurid colour at nightfall. To accommodate the 15 million tourists a year that the city is planning to host by 2010, another resort complex of 30 hotels and 100 cinemas was sketched out on the city planner’s boards, but as a sign that even Dubai’s aspirations have been tempered, the project has been put on hold. Not, however, the Mall of Arabia, which promises to surpass the West Edmonton Mall as the world’s largest shopping and entertainment complex. The most impressive feature of Dubai isn’t the George Jetson architecture, or even the Burj Dubai, destined to be the tallest building in the world when completed, but the fact that people who would normally be at each other’s throats in their home countries—Indians and Pakistanis, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Serbs and Bosnians, Ethiopians and Eritreans—manage to live and work together in remarkable harmony. This is also part of the legacy of Dubai, that for generations it has served as a crossroads of cultures and a transit point for people as well as goods, and so it evolved into a tolerant neutral space where the petty feuds of other parts of the world have no place. The downside of this polyglot society is a paucity of the shared concerns that can form a social consciousness and hold a society together. â€Å"I don’t want Hezbollah running my country,† the Lebanese receptionist at a medical clinic says when I ask her thoughts on the fallout of the Israel-Lebanon war. That issue is a nonstarter for the Asian staff who share her office. â€Å"She was a beautiful, beautiful woman!† the Pakistani security guard outside my apartment building croons, two days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who spent part of her political exile in Dubai. Being so far from the cafà © tables of Lahore or Karachi, it is probably the first chance he’s had to pour out praise for the populist leader. Dubai is just a short airplane hop from the crises in Sudan, Iraq, and Palestine, but in an odd irony, this global city remains blissfully alienated from the pressing global issues that surround it. Car bombings in Baghdad and street battles in Gaza seem to exist in some parallel universe far from Dubai’s beach clubs and poolside barbecues. If talk radio is a barometer of popular sentiment, Dubai lacks social angst, or even concern about the world’s troubles. On Property Week, callers swap tips on the latest real estate investments. On another show, listeners offer advice on ways to kill time in traffic and compare the brunch buffets and weekend getaway packages offered by five-star hotel chains. One program is devoted to nuanced analysis of rugby, soccer, and cricket matches for United Kingdom and subcontinent expatriates. When the local English daily celebrated its 35th anniversary, readers praised the paper for its coverage of business, sports, and entertainment, but there was no han-k-ering for more articles on inter-national current events, some fright-ening-ly close to home. Life in Dubai is not all whimsical indulgence, however, for vice has arrived as an inseparable part of the global village. Dubai’s crime rate, still modest by Western standards, has risen to a level that would have been unknown a generation ago. Street crimes are still rare but drug seizures are not, and black markets in consumer goods have sprung up. (In a caper that Butch Cassidy would have envied, a gang of thieves drove two stolen cars through an entrance of the upscale Wafi City Mall, smashed a jewellery store display window, and made off with the goods.) Where economic adventurism thrives, so does the world’s oldest profession. Prostitutes from China, the Philippines, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet republics hover near hotel entrances, hoping to snag returning guests. To its credit, Dubai can be called a true microcosm, but it’s hard to believe that a coherent society can be composed of guest workers who have migrated solely for lucrative jobs and have no longterm stake in the city’s future. Beneath the veneer of harmony is the disturbing sense that everyone knows his or her place. Class asserts itself in an unsavoury caste system where national and ethnic identity determines whether one is offered employment or a lease for an apartment. The city’s reputation as a haven of safety and security in a troublesome part of the world is upheld by affirming an â€Å"old world order† left by the colonial power Dubai would like to believe it has moved beyond. Social equality is a noble ideal promoted by the government but flouted in practice, proving once again that the democratic society is still a modern notion, at war with the more widespread tendency of human beings to create a hierarchy. A landlord may refuse to rent apartments to â€Å"bachelors,† the code word for men from the Asian subcontinent working in Dubai who may be supporting wives and children back home. The term would never apply to an unmarried German electrical engineer or a Canadian English teacher. â€Å"Eight years,† a taxi driver replies when I ask how long he has been plying the roads of Dubai, and I know this means 12 hours a day, six days a week. On Friday afternoons he probably goes to the closest Western Union office, like hundreds of others, to wire money back to his family in Mumbai or Peshawar. Class asserts itself also in the division between servers and the served. I still feel a little awkward when supermarket clerks address me formally and the deliveryman from Pizza Hut (â€Å"Ahmad,† according to his name tag) is overly grateful for a modest tip. But I remind myself that since Dubai is not a democracy and few of its residents come from democratic countries, there is no way its society could resemble one. If someone had to pinpoint one spot on earth that epitomizes the most unsavoury aspects of globalization, Dubai could be Exhibit A. It is a place where the whims of a consumerist society overwhelm a simple native Bedouin culture, the predilections of the affluent obliterate local climate and ecology, and the divide between rich and poor is unapologetically laid bare. Discussion points Read the above account of Dubai and discuss the following questions in groups: 1. To what extent can the Dubai story be regarded as the epitome of Globalisation? Explain your answer. 2. In what ways can Dubai be regarded as vulnerable? 3. What negative aspects of the Dubai story can you identify? 4. How might these negative aspects be mitigated?

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â€Å"Where are you from? † My stomach tightens and my mouth goes dry as I rack my brain for an answer that doesn't Involve explaining my entire life story. My anxiety over such a simple question may seem unnecessary, but I have spent the past seventeen years trying to come up with a suitable answer to that same question. I have grown up a proud daughter of a united States Army soldier, and in my father's line of work, never knowing where we'll be sent next is part of the job description. I was born in New York and from there moved to Georgia. Then we moved to Rhode Island, back to New York, Kansas,Virginia, and finally Washington. That's seven states. Not to mention, I have attended six different public schools and lived in seven different houses. You could say I've always been the new girl. My life is not Just in brown cardboard boxes though; it's picking up and moving at any given time. What can I say In response to this question? Should I say the snow drifts in New York be cause that's where I was born? Or should I say the rolling hills of Kansas because three years Is the longest Vive spent In one place? Some may feel sorry for me, but I couldn't Imagine Miming any other way.We are not defined by a geographic location, but rather the challenges we face and how we learn from them. Unexpected deployments and goodbyes have shown me that some lessons are harder than others, but I know that I am heading towards a bright future. Through my travels I have experienced a wide range of cultures and lifestyles that some can only dream of. Being an Army brat has made me adaptable, flexible, and empathic. So, a simple answer to this question Just wouldn't do my story Justice. I take a deep breath, smile, and say â€Å"I'm from everywhere. †

Free Essays on Advantages of Online Learning

Advantages of online learning Small class size means one-on-one instructor guidance and personalized communication. The big difference is that there's no classroom to go to. There's no commute. You'll never have conflicts with family obligations, business travel or vacations. There's no chance of arriving late or missing a class because of illness. You don't even have to comb your hair if you don't want to! Ignore the clock. Come whenever it's convenient for you. Your course is conducted according to a schedule, but there are no "live" classes to attend. Instead, lectures, coursework, assignments, questions, discussion, all take place at your convenience - online. Plus, you'll receive personalized instructor feedback, and share insights and information with fellow online students. You choose the hour of day (or night) to attend class. You choose the place - at home, at work - wherever you have access to a computer, modem and an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Except for turning in assignments when they're due, your schedule is totally up to you. It is basically quality education without giving up quality time. Online courses are an exceptionally accessible, flexible resource whether your goal is professional advancement, personal enrichment or earning transferable degree credits. You'll get the same high-quality instruction and course content that you demand, but without the day-to-day obstacles that prevent so many of us from pursuing our opportunities. Universities should start offering most of their classes online. Teachers could have more free time and in turn become better teachers.... Free Essays on Advantages of Online Learning Free Essays on Advantages of Online Learning Advantages of online learning Small class size means one-on-one instructor guidance and personalized communication. The big difference is that there's no classroom to go to. There's no commute. You'll never have conflicts with family obligations, business travel or vacations. There's no chance of arriving late or missing a class because of illness. You don't even have to comb your hair if you don't want to! Ignore the clock. Come whenever it's convenient for you. Your course is conducted according to a schedule, but there are no "live" classes to attend. Instead, lectures, coursework, assignments, questions, discussion, all take place at your convenience - online. Plus, you'll receive personalized instructor feedback, and share insights and information with fellow online students. You choose the hour of day (or night) to attend class. You choose the place - at home, at work - wherever you have access to a computer, modem and an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Except for turning in assignments when they're due, your schedule is totally up to you. It is basically quality education without giving up quality time. Online courses are an exceptionally accessible, flexible resource whether your goal is professional advancement, personal enrichment or earning transferable degree credits. You'll get the same high-quality instruction and course content that you demand, but without the day-to-day obstacles that prevent so many of us from pursuing our opportunities. Universities should start offering most of their classes online. Teachers could have more free time and in turn become better teachers....

Sociological Autobiography Research Paper Example

Sociological Autobiography Research Paper Example Sociological Autobiography Paper Sociological Autobiography Paper Essay Topic: Autobiography of My Mother In Brooklyn, New York on July 10th, 1979 that was the day I decided to make my grand entrance into this world. At birth I was given an ascribed status of an African American female, which would play an important role in my life as I grew older. My parents were married and very young at the time of my birth. My maternal grandparents thought it would be best if I lived with them while my parents worked and went to school. This arrangement worked out for several years and seemed beneficial for both my parents and I. I lived with my grandparents until I was about 5 years old or when my mom and dad divorced. As a result of the divorce, my mother became a single parent. My mother raised me on her own until she met Mr. Wayne. After the divorce, my dad lost contact with me, our relationship became estranged. During that time my father earned his achieved status as a dead-beat dad. That status would soon change when my father met his second wife. My step-mother expressed to my dad if he wanted to be with her, he has to be involved in his child’s life. She has been a blessing to me from the beginning of their relationship. My father reconciled any differences he had with my mother and began to rebuild our father/daughter relationship. My mother and Mr. Wayne eventually got married and moved in together. Growing up in a blended family had it pros and cons. I was an only child, on my mom’s side for about 10 years until my brother Zuri came along in 1988. I didn’t have siblings on my dad’s side until 1996 when my brother Terrell was born and 1999 when my sister Sharina was born. My childhood upbringing definitely had a tremendous force on how my future adult life would turn out. My mother, father, and grandparents all had an impact on my outlook of life. They all worked very hard to provide the best for our family. I grew up in what sociologists would the call the working lower-middle class. Although life with my primary group was great at 16 years old, I began to get tired of the switching of the households every other weekend. It was frustrating especially being a product of a blended family. I had social ties with my friends at school and I had a boyfriend with whom I thought I was madly in love with. My social network was increasing and it was important for me to maintain those relationships with my secondary groups or at least I thought it was. Growing up in New York City offered me an opportunity to live in an environment with no obstructions. I was able to connect with a diverse population on a daily basis. I had friends from various ethnic backgrounds.

Review of Winterbourne View by Teresa Curtis Essay Example

Review of Winterbourne View by Teresa Curtis Essay Example Review of Winterbourne View by Teresa Curtis Essay Review of Winterbourne View by Teresa Curtis Essay A review of the Winterbourne View Panorama I watched this documentary this morning with my class on the goings on at Winterbourne View Residential Hospital for adults with Learning Disabilities. I watched as a member of staff made complaints and went to the top to report what was going on in the home and was not taking seriously and ignored and nothing done about his complaints not even an investigation and ended up having to go to the BBC Panorama team. I am ashamed at the fact that the staff member, a senior male nurse called Terry Bryan had to go to people not in the health care industry to alk about what was happening and becoming a whistle-blower in order to help the patients as much as he could. I heard as the narrator stated that there was several different staff reporting abuse and still no investigation done to check for abuse. I heard the horror in the whistle blower Terry Bryans words as he told us what he experienced. I was disgusted as I watched carers poke a females eyes and hit her bare back after she had been restrained causing her to scream in pain. I saw the carers automatically restrain the patients, even when they had done nothing wrong nd there was no need for restraint to be used. The fact they restrained them when not needed was bad, but the fact that they also used incorrect and dangerous ways of restraint shows me that they had either not been trained properly or disregarded any training they had and could end up killing the patient. In one episode of restraint that was included clearly showed a carer, leaning on the patients chest, with her other arm pushing on the neck above the carotid artery, which could cause serious damage or death. I watched clips of different carers abusing the patients, such as ne carer kicked the back of a patients leg whilst pulling their Jumper until the fell to the floor. Another carer stood on a patients hand, a third carer restrain someone using a chair and even worse another carer repeatedly punching a patients head, admittedly not hard, but continued to do so until they sais ding ding even though the patient was scared and wanting it to stop. I watched carers dump cold water on a patient and leave them outside during winter so that she was shaking, drag patients out of bed to the floor, and hit a patient repeatedly, I heard the narrator tells us that he undercover Journalist named Joe Casey was hired after a week of training with no experience caring but had extra training organised by the panorama team. On his first day I was horrified at the amount of abuse he recorded. They showed a carer verbally abusing a patient he shoved to the floor and was restraining by saying suffocate on your own fat abusing the patient both physically and mentally. I watched and listened as one member of staff had a conversation with Joe and gave him a piece of advice concerning a patient who had been restrained with the arm bove her carotid artery and then a quilt used to cover her mouth. She told him the minute she gets anywhere close to you, you Just have to do what you got to do. If youre on your own, like. If you have to smash her and you smash her, but you know, you dont let tnat Ine minute sne sta rts snoutlng, I dont let ner on ner Teet. I get ner straight down. And when he replied with Oh right, so get her straight in the floor? she replied with The minute she starts shouting. You wont calm her down. Itll get worse and somebodyll get hurt. Either a patient or yourselves. And then thats a big, big statement you have to write why somebodys got hurt. And the first thing managementll ask you, why wasnt she on the floor. Yeah I Just whack them all down. I listened as Joe said when describing what he thought that It was pretty much run by a group of bullies for the own entertainment. They showed their footage to Clinical Psychologist Andrew McDonald, an expert in the handling of patients with Challenging Behaviours. It was clear to see that he was appalled at what he was seeing and he called it Stonehenge. He told us the techniques they were using for estraint were not taught techniques and that in his opinion they were making it up as they go along. The whistle-blower, Terry Bryan had gone to the hospitals management a year before with a list of the patients he felt was in the most danger but was ignored. I watched as staff made threats to the patients scaring them into complying and distanced from their family isolating them to Just each other and the carers. I watched as one patient had his bottle stolen from him that he takes everywhere and purposely kept away from him making him a source of nter tainment for the staff and later heard from Dr Andrew McDonald how doing that could trigger a panic attack. The hospitals Job was to evaluate and treat the patients to try and get them back into the community. They were meant to assess patients psychological and psychiatric state and work out the best way to respond to the patients needs and behaviour and figure out the best way of supporting them. I was appalled to learn that the NHS was signing large checks weekly for each patient and was not being told what the money was being used for and placed their trust in them without checking up on complaints made. There should have been activities and days out planned with the money as well as entertainment for the patients to use in the hospital as well as there was more than enough money to organise a few things for the patients to enjoy. I was shocked at the system wide failures that was pointed out due to the lack of checking and communication over the complaints received. I was also shocked that no links had been made by the police, NHS commissioners and other companies that received complaints about Winterbourne View. The things the patients suffered through is nothing but institutional and ystematic abuse as they were not only abused by the carers but the system that was meant to protect and help them. The most disturbed thing in my mind about this whole thing is that the staff was experienced and was not new to the Job, such as one having 6 years of experience and clearly was showed to be abusing the patients. Overall I am disgusted at the lack of humanity shown by the staff involved and the neglect by the NHS shown. I am disgraced at the amount of abuse that happened in a 5 week period that the undercover person was there for. I believe that the NHS not nly failed to do its Job but failed in the responsibilities parents, relatives and friends gave them to protect the patient but they utterly failed and caused more damage because they simply did not follow up complaints. There is no excuse for what nappenea Decause tnere were more tnan enougn complalnts not only to tne company but to the health care watchdog and police who should have looked into the complaints more deeply as well as communicate to be able to see that there was a problem at the hospital. And the fact that there were at least 40 safeguarding alerts here nothing was done to find out about them. In my opinion after this event the system needed a complete review and overhaul and other hospitals need to be looked into to find out if they are abusing the patients and causing more damage as well as spending tax payers money for things not needed wasting it away as Winterbourne View clearly showed that they were not using the money responsibly. This should never have happened and probably would not have happened if the NHS Commissions, Police, Social Services and anyone else involved had done their Jobs right. This review was done by Teresa Curti

Helpful Online Resources for learning German

Helpful Online Resources for learning German To a lot of people, German sounds a bit weird. It doesn’t have the verve of French, the fluidity of English or the melody of Italian. And when one actually engages in learning the language, it turns out to be quite complex. Starting with its interesting ability to form words that never seem to end. But the real depths of the German language lie in the grammar. Even though there are more complicated languages and most Germans themselves do not necessarily use it correctly, there is no way around it should you want to master the language. To give you a head start, here are some helpful online sources for German grammar.   The â€Å"Deutsche Welle† (DW) is the German state international radio. It broadcasts worldwide in roughly 30 languages, offers a TV-program as well as a website. But, and this is where it gets interesting, it also provides educational programs, such as online language courses. As the whole DW is state-funded, it is able to offer this service free of charge. Tom’s Deutschseite:  This page has a funny background. It was created by a guy called Tom (obviously), who originally set it up for his non-German girlfriend to support her.   Canoonet:  This compilation of grammar-resources is provided by the Swiss IT-company Canoo. Even though the website looks rather outdated, it can prove to be a good help to learn some more about German grammar. The information was compiled and authored by a professional linguist.   German Grammar  supplies a large extent of examples and exercises. The site is run by a Berlin-based company, offering numerous services online. To be honest, to profit from the page, one has to look past its very old-fashioned exterior. One might say that the site tries to match the German language in its alleged drought. But the sheer information could be a goldmine.   Learning Grammar with Lingolia:  A much more modern looking platform for learning German grammar is provided by Lingolia. Besides German, the website also offers resources for learning English, French and Spanish and can further be viewed in Italian and Russian. The site is very well structured in a practical tile-design and easy to use. Lingolia also provides an app for smartphones, so that you can even check your grammar on the go.   Materials by Irmgard Graf-Gutfreund:  On her privately owned website, Austrian teacher Irmgard Graf-Gutfreund has compiled a large collection of materials to support German classes. Among other employers, she used to work for the Goethe Institute. On top of the huge grammar section, one can find materials to all areas of studying German. Note that the page is in German and though the language is quite simple, you should already know some basics.   Deutsch Fà ¼r Euch – Youtube Channel:  The â€Å"Deutsch Fà ¼r Euch (German For You)† Youtube Channel comprises a long list of video tutorials, including many clips that elaborate on German Grammar. The channel’s host, Katja, uses a lot of graphics to supply visual support for her explanations.

Organizational Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organizational Analysis - Essay Example Being aware of the major differences in a group and maintaining patience can help minimize such problems. Having worked in a team during this season, I experienced some challenges, problems, and conflicts that required sound decision making and problem solving skills as per the context in which the occurred. Our research team was given the task to deliver case studies and exhibitions of the module in an excellent way. The challenge was realized in building a good relation and communication network between my team members. This was due the differences in our cultural backgrounds. I am from Qatar, yet all my group members are of Chinese origin. Many people assume that challenges in cross-cultural teams arise from dissimilar styles of communication, yet this is just one of the many challenges that can create obstacles to the ultimate success of a team. These categories of challenges include direct versus indirect communication, differing attitudes towards authority and leadership, trouble with fluency and accents, and conflicting norms in making decisions (Minssen, 2006: 14). In the context of my group, I realized that the challenge in communication was mainly based on the principle of direct versus in direct communication (Trenholm & Jensen, 2008: 13). Qatar being an Arabian country, I always thought that communication in Arabian culture is typically explicit and direct. The meaning of words is on the surface and the receiver of the message does not have to have much about the context of communication or the speaker to make an interpretation. This is not true in the Chinese culture, where I found that the meaning of words is embedded in the manner in which the message is presented. The challenge was mostly due to the indirect communication that I noticed among them. For instance, my Chinese team members would often take a break and have some conversations in the middle of discussions. Little did I know that their main aim was to maintain harmony in