Italia Essay -- Italy Vacation Tourism Papers

Italia This trip started out in the usual frantic last minute preparation that is customary to me. I ran around Wal-Mart buying travel shampoo and extra film before rushing home to pack less than twelve hours before leaving. However, not all the planning for this trip was last minute. In fact, this was a trip that had been planned out for a good six months before leaving. After finishing my last final for the spring semester, I am heading out on a plane with my parents and three of their best friends to take on Italy for two weeks. It is my parent's thirtieth wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we are going to the land they love most in the world. This is going to be their third trip there, the first being for their twenty-fifth anniversary and the second being with Jerry and Gayle, who are tagging along again. Their friend Jan, who has never been overseas before, is also coming and I am rounding out the group. I have been overseas before, but never to Italy, and I am excited to see for m yself the beautiful landscapes my parents are always showing people from the pictures they bring back. I awake somewhere over the Swiss Alps. My dad continuously points out different mountains and geographic locations like I actually know what he is talking about. The Alps are beautiful; blinding white tops above a mist of clouds that block the rest of the mountain from plain sight. Soon we are flying into Italy and the fear and excitement of visiting a place for the first time kicks in. I begin to worry that I didn't study the language enough. Oh well, too late now. I glance at my mom finishing her breakfast in the seat in front of me. I am glad that she seems to know a lot more Italian than the rest of us. She will become our interpreter... ...a small enclosed patio and views of the hills beyond. To the right are the cobbled streets of the town we just left. The bells of the church ring out and the sound of children yelling as they play in the streets fill the air. Our guide lets us into the house and we explore the spacious rooms of the home that will be ours for the first week. Everything is simple, but charming and everyone wants to quickly unpack. We walk the guide back out to her car and as I'm standing there exploring the view, I feel something hit my shoulder from above, bird droppings. As I am just about to launch into a spiel about how unlucky I have been since arriving, the key holder looks over at me and exclaims at the luck I have. Apparently bird poop landing on you is considered a blessing. I laugh at the absurdity of it all, but in the end I think this might just turn into a great trip yet.

Role of Smallpox Vaccine in the Prevention and Treatment of Variola maj

Role of Smallpox Vaccine in the Prevention and Treatment of Variola major and Variola minor Smallpox has claimed the lives of many ever since the Middle Ages. However, it has now been eradicated due in part to a very effective vaccine. The vaccine has saved the lives of thousands and has eradicated the disease in the history of man kind. This miracle vaccine can greatly diminish the effects variola and even stop the disease from becoming fatal. The vaccine is also the only known way to fight the smallpox, and until an antiviral agent is found, it will be humanity’s only defense against this deadly and devastating disease. The pathogenic virus Variola causes the well-known and often deadly virus smallpox. Smallpox has been eradicated for about 25 years, mostly on the part of a successful vaccine. As mentioned earlier, Variola is a virus. There are three forms of the virus that are most prominent: variola, variola hemorrhagica, and varioloid. (2) All these viruses are classified as the cause of smallpox though simulate different symptoms. Any individual with any of these viruses can either have variola major or variola minor. Variola major is the more severe form of smallpox. (2) Unvaccinated patients diagnosed with variola major have a 30-50% fatality rate, while if the same patients had variola minor, they would have a 1-2% chance of death. (3) In vaccinated patients, only 3% of people diagnosed with variola major die. With a few exceptions, no vaccinated patients with the minor form of the disease have died. Smallpox is characterized by a series of symptoms. These symptoms will first occur within 7-17 days after exposure to the virus. (3) The symptoms may include fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting or severe muscles ac... ... may have been one of the most influential vaccines ever developed. Its role in the prevention of smallpox has been great. Role of Smallpox Vaccine†¦5 References 1. Center for Disease Control. (2004, December). Smallpox Disease Overview. Center for Disease Control. Date retrieved: July 12, 2005: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp 2. Thomas, R. (1907). Variola. The Eclectic Practice of Medicine. Date retrieved: July 21, 2005: http://www.ibilio.org/herbmed/eclectic/thomas/smallpox.html 3. Utah Department of Health: Bureau of Epidemiology. (2002). Smallpox (Variola). Smallpox (Variola). Date retrieved: July 21, 2005: file:///X|/Epidemiology/ELS_old/epidemiology/epifacts/smallpox.html 4. World health Organization. Smallpox. World Health Org. Date retrieved: July 21, 2005: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheet/smallpox/en/print.html

Anne Of Green Gables †Essay Essay

Anne Of Green Gables is a work of children’s literature written by Lucy Maud Montgomery and was first published in 1908. The social and cultural understanding of children depicted during the period in which this novel is set differs greatly from the understandings and expectations of children in today’s society. In the novel Anne Of Green Gables, children are depicted as more of a possession to be moulded by their families, children were expected to act ‘respectably’ and ‘sensibly’ even from an early age and to listen to and show respect to their elders, which differs from today’s society where children are allowed to play and any inappropriate behaviour can be chalked up to ‘kids being kids’. There are still some similarities to today’s cultural understanding of children and those displayed in the book. For example, in Anne Of Green Gables the importance of schooling and education is one of the key elements and this is also recognised in today’s society as being a vital aspect of a child’s upbringing. Another difference in cultural understanding is the aspect of a child’s part in the family, particularly orphans. In the time the novel is set, orphans are down cast and regarded virtually as ‘slaves’. However, not only orphans played different roles in the family, all children were expected to do more housework and contribute more constructively to the running of a household than what is expected in today’s society. Anne Of Green Gables also shows the slightly sexist stereotypes of male and female roles in the family and the behaviour expected of both of them. This essay explores all of the above points, and provides commentary from both a literary and historical point of view. Within the work of children’s literature Anne Of Green Gables the importance of a child’s schooling is clearly evident. This is first seen when Marilla Cuthbert, not even having ‘officially’ adopted Anne Shirley yet merely placing her on ‘trial’ decides to send her to school. Even though Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert have not yet adopted Anne, she still sees fit to give her even some education. Renaissance humanist, Desiderius Erasmus â€Å"placed considerable emphasis on an early education, directly attacking those who ‘out of a false spirit of tenderness and compassion allow children to be pampered by their dear mothers and spoiled by their nurses†(Cunningham, 43). This train of thought is carried throughout to today’s society but in a slightly different fashion. Emphasis is still placed on a good early education through pre-school and other such programs in order to give children the earliest possible learning possibilities. The importance of a child attending school can also be seen on a social level. Anne, after having arrived on Prince Edward Island, has little or no friends and is socially unaware of what is acceptable and what is not. This could be due mainly to her tragic upbringing after the death of her parents. However, after attending school she is exposed to a new level of social etiquette she has not been exposed to in her past. This leads to her creating a â€Å"bosom friend† in Diana Barry. The novel also endeavours to show us the importance of doing well in schooling and that â€Å"although school and the outside world differ from each other, they belong together†(Quigly, 45). Anne is tied for the top of her class and as a result gains acceptance with a once sceptical and at times harsh community, especially in regards to Miss Rachel Lynde who was outraged when Marilla told her of her decision to adopt an orphan. We also see the pride Marilla has for Anne, although this can not be contributed entirely to her schooling endeavours. We can see that this plays a large part especially when she passes the entrance exam to Queen’s College. The way children were treated and expectations placed upon them in Anne Of Green Gables also differ from today’s society, children were seen as more of a possession to â€Å"be moulded like wax whilst its soft†(Cunningham, 43). From an early age children were expected to act respectfully and sensibly and it was expected that they would contribute constructively to the up keeping of the household showing the treatment of â€Å"children to be autocratic†(Hendrick, 1). The novel also shows us the difference between orphan children and non-orphan children, we are shown the down-cast class status orphans have within the community and Ms Lynde portrays this perfectly telling Marilla stories of orphans murdering their adoptive parents showing the naivety and willingness to believe that a child brought up with no parents had not been ‘moulded’, and therefore was dangerous. This coupled with the influence Miss Lynde has on Marilla causes Marilla to come to the decision to put Anne on trial but â€Å"when Anne is first made aware that she came to Green Gables by mistake, she knows that she is, in a sense, on trial and may not remain there. She decides not to go outdoors because that will only increase her love for the place and cause her to miss it all the more if she must leave.† (Sullivan). This shows how quickly people will judge especially when influenced by others. This influence is made more apparent as Anne is just a child and the consideration of what is best for her is not really considered. We see Anne as a dreamer when we are first introduced to her she escapes into her own fantasy’s through books and escapes the torment of her past and what she believes her terrible future by making friend with her reflection in the glass, â€Å"the image in which Anne may find refuge from the wounds of fragmentation, and postpone her inevitable confrontation with her alienated representation† (Slater). However, it is not until she is introduced to other children that we see the true extent her isolation has had on her social behaviour. She has little understanding of social behaviour and etiquette and how to handle challenging social situations. For example, loosing her temper when Gilbert Blythe is rude to her or when Miss Lynde insults her and Anne explodes at her. These examples show that Anne’s lack of social exposure has lead her to be unable to handle tough social circumstances and can not control her temper. Seeing Anne transform from childhood to adulthood is a perfect example of how children can be moulded by their families. Through Marilla’s actions and influence Anne is moulded into the lady she becomes. Throughout the novel we can see aspects of Marilla’s personality and behaviours mirrored in Anne. Anne goes from being naive and short tempered to becoming a strong minded, learned girl much like Marilla, in addition to this Anne chooses her friends much like Marilla who has a close group of female friend â€Å"Anne chooses kinship in a similar arbitrary and heterogeneous fashion†(Marcuse,164) showing that even small parts of a child’s surrounding can have both profound and subtle effects on the child’s personality. We can see through how Anne is moulded by Marilla that â€Å"the way childhood was spent was crucial in determining the kind of adult that the child would become† (Cunningham, 41) and this is proven by the end of the novel when Anne decides to stay in Avonlea with Marilla and teach rather than go to college. Anne Of Green Gables also shows the rather sexist beliefs of the time. This can be seen constantly by Marilla and Anne staying home cooking, cleaning, sewing, scrubbing the floors and Marilla telling Anne on numerous occasions to ‘make sure Matthew’s dinner is ready and served on time’. This shows the contrast between the roles expected of women and men, it was the men’s task to work the fields and perform any manual labour needed and the task of the women to ensure a clean house and dinner for the man. However, we can also see some contrast to this idea in the fact that femineity and masculinity have a very fine line in this book, in the case of Anne and Marilla at any rate, we can see that Anne and Marilla show many traits of Masculinity that are displayed in the novel they are both extremely strong willed and whilst Marilla seems submissive at times ignoring her feelings in order to maintain her friends Anne will speak her mind and thinks before acting, she is very strong willed. We can see this contrasted with the Barry’s beliefs, Diana Barry is not allowed to attend special after classes for students wishing to attend Queen’s. We can assume that this would be due to the typical belief that women should care for their husbands and Diana would be trained as a housewife instead, this shows that â€Å"major differences thus exist between children according to were they live their social class gender and ethnicity† (Gittins, 36). The Barry’s decision is in direct contrast to that of Marilla’s. Marilla encourages Anne to attend special classes and wants the best life and education for her. Marilla is not married, and believes that a girl should know how to fend for herself. Such beliefs wouldn’t be common during those times. Anne Of Green Gables shows us the contrast between modern beliefs and beliefs during the period the novel is set in. We see particularly strong differences in the way female and male roles are portrayed, and in addition to this the roles depicted in the novel have a sexist connotation about them that would not be seen in today’s culture. We also see the difference in class culture and the expectation of orphans and the stereotype they are labelled with. Anne Of Green Gables highlights this fact and reminds us that no matter what a child’s background, it is their eventual upbringing and early education that will determine their future, the surrounding and environment a child is exposed to will determine the eventual outcome of a child’s personality and decisions no matter how obvious or subtle these influences may be, a major part of this surrounding is the exposure to education and schooling and it is because of this point the book manages to effectively highlight the importance of schooling not just on an educational level but also on a social one and the effects it can have on a child’s personality and beliefs. The belief that schooling is a vital part of a child’s upbringing are still held in today’s society and although Anne Of Green Gables was written over a century ago, the messages contained within still hold value in today’s society.

Every Picture Tells A Story Essay

This picture shows a number of African-Americans queuing. Their line extends from one edge of the photograph to the other suggesting a long queue. The men and women are wearing coats suggestive of the fashion during the early part of the 20th century. It must also have been a cold day in autumn or early spring in that they have to put their hands inside their pockets to keep warm. In the background is a giant billboard depicting an American family comprising of a mother, father, two children and a dog. They are inside a car driving through the countryside. On top of the billboard are the words â€Å"World’s Highest Standards of Living† and on the right in cursive, â€Å"There’s No Way Like the American Way†. These words suggest to the viewer the affluence of an American lifestyle, specifically the average American family. To belong to an American family is the best place to be in the world. The photographer is trying to point out the irony between the two elements in the picture. The whole image suggests a pictorial commentary about inequality in American society and the illusion that the billboard advertises. The â€Å"highest standards of living† that the billboard ascribes is only applicable to the white American. The traditional, smiling, healthy, nuclear family contrasts sharply with the pensive expressions on the faces of the people in the queue. The bright billboard and the dark colors in the people’s clothing further emphasize this point. The viewer does not know what they were falling in line for but from the fact that some of them are carrying bags and buckets, they are probably queuing for food rations. The situation regarding racial divisions is not as bad today as it was decades before or the time when the photograph was taken. There are still some poor people who fall in line in soup kitchens, for food stamps, and temporary shelters, but they would be comprised of black and white Americans. Billboard ads though, have not changed. They still promote the good way of life to entice customers; still pretending that American life only offers good things.

Marketing Analysis on Google Inc Essay

With the objective of â€Å"To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful† (Google, 2012), Google expands its business to strive towards becoming the leader of internet-related provider, in particular in Internet research and advertising technology. The company has expanded nationally and globally, providing its search service in a large number of different languages and countries through its own unique strategy. The report starts with a discussion about the market Google is operating in, how Google smartly manages its internationalisation and globalization strategy according to its own market position in different stage. Followed by the comment on whether its diversification strategy appropriate across the whole international market. The report then will evaluate this strategy mainly focus on the aspect of the potential to damage its own brand, especially based on the case of their failure expansion in the Chinese market. Then the report will look at impact for the market as Google fully enter the Android market, Google’s business model in terms of reating revenue will be described and processed by the critique of whether the model would be sustainable in the long term. The report finally will define the market Google operate in and how it enters into android market will be explained in detail. Additionally, there are some recommendations provided in terms of its sustainable development through the whole report. ? Defining the market which Google Inc’ operates in? The market in which Google operates in is collaborative and interactive; Google has acquired and merged with different companies, which have given it a competitive edge over other firms. It recently acquired Motorola and this brought a lot of speculation as to whether it could handle the hardware business without any prior experience or necessary skills According to the case (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012), Google had no skills in the supply chain, monitoring physical stock or achieving efficiencies. However such acquisitions have benefited Google because it has been able to have more reach as it can now target mobile users with the new hardware business. Other companies it has collaborated with are HTC and T-Mobile on implementing the Android platform. Competition The environment is also quite competitive. Having to face giants like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook means that Google has to be highly adaptable and maintain their market share by being more aggressive in their marketing strategies. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012), Google says that their acquisition of Motorola will be able to intensify the competition. Motorola’s purchase will fully bring Google into the mobile market as they will now have hardware for their operating system Android, Also Motorola will strengthen the patenting of Google as they have more than 17,000 patents in their name. Apple and other mobile providers might feel threatened by this move. (Rusli and Miller, 2011) Diversification More to this, Google has not focused on its core business of being a search engine rather it is diversifying and looking for new opportunities for growth. Google has expanded into other segments such as maps and Google scholar, in the communications section there is Gmail and an enterprise segment where cloud computing and Google docs are involved, social networking among others. This means that Google is not only able to reach a wider audience but that it is able to spread risks. Diversification means that in case one area of their business fails they have an alternative to rely on. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) Innovation Google’s survival could be attributed to its highly innovative structure. It has a culture of being innovative and an atmosphere that encourages employees to bring new ideas and creativity. However, Google must keep on innovating in order to outdo their competitors and to keep at pace with the changes in the highly volatile global environment (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) Infrastructure Together with all the companies that Google has acquired, they also have data centers and servers which it uses to create its web presence and to store information. These infrastructures increase reliability and make information access faster. Google Inc’ had a total of 90,000 servers by 2010 and they invested heavily on technology this gives Google a good platform. Pg. 4 Some of it is virtual for example cloud computing. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) ? What’s internationalization and globalization strategy? In which way Google is going? Internationalization strategy is a development strategy that enterprises want to offer their products and services outside their home country, it usually reflected in the form of greater existence in different locations around the world. That is why internationalization also refers as international expansion (Stephen and Karin, 2002). Internationalization strategy is a development planning during the process of internationalized operation and management, which is designed to give the assistance of improving company’s competitiveness and environment adaptability. Corporations have adopted this strategy view overseas market separately. They treat the markets differently due to various markets’ features. Globalization strategy refers to the procedures of global integration, which incorporate the international operations and markets into a united strategic entity (Stephen and Karin, 2002). Corporations that use this strategy are generally powerful multinational enterprises, they attempt to monopolize markets in their own industries. However, if using this strategy inappropriately, it is more likely to have a detrimental effect on the whole company. The merit of globalization strategy is that companies can concentrate their efforts in building competitive advantages by leveraging capabilities and coordinating activities through boundaries. Which like a double-edged sword, the demerit is that it is hard to coordinate between each subsidiary as well as between headquarter and subsidiaries, because each host country has their own business characteristics. According to the collected evidences Google tends to be relying on the globalization strategy. To begin with, as mentioned above, one reason for companies adopting a globalization strategy is that they want to monopolize the market in their own industry. Definitely, Google achieved this goal. In October 2011, Google accounts for 82. 4% of the worldwide desktop search engine market share. Furthermore, in 2008, Google shifts its international marketing structure form representation offices to Research and Development center, and then to partnerships with other enterprises, which reflected that Google gradually integrated the competitive advantages from the alliance partnership and improved its own capabilities (Ronen, 2009). In addition, Google has many R&D centers worldwide. For instance, if the software was R&D in Israel, this software is not only specialized in Israel market, but also launched globally by using different languages. Therefore it is clear that Google did not focus on localizing their products or services for different markets nowadays. Finally, globalization is focusing on building united competitive advantage. In order to keep its competitive edges, Google transfers and share outcomes of technology innovations within various R&D centers, and with alliance partnerships to connect the operation nd management activities from different counties and locations. Google’s retrieval from china, impacts upon globalization plan. According to the list of info-facts (2012), China is the second most powerful country in the world. And in Fleming’s (2010) report, â€Å"U. S. , China, and India will be the three most powerful countries in 2025†. These illustrate that China is a hugely influential nation around the world. Moreover, China has more than 500 million internet users (Efrati & Chao 2012), and the number is still increasing. China is a market which cannot be ignored. Google’s retreat from the Chinese market has definitely impacted upon Google’s overall global expansion strategy. Most of the Asian countries have strong regional relationship and China has a widely impact on them. As we all know, eastern countries are in high context cultures, but, Google is from a low context culture which is totally different from high context culture. Their ways of running a business are quite different. It seems that if Google cannot operate successfully in China, it cannot operate well in other Asian countries either, such as Japan and Korea. And this will deeply impact its global expansion strategy. As the picture (adapted from Chardonneau’s slides) shown in appendix 1, Asia owns the biggest internet market, and Google’s coverage in Asia is so weak. If Google still wants to achieve its global expansion strategy, it has to come into the Asian market and first of all, Google needs to solve the problem in China. In fact, Google’s quit in China offers its competitors a good opportunity to enter into the Chinese market. After all, not all the international companies are unable to handle the operation problems in China. Since Google announced its retreat, its market share has declined 5% and its biggest competitor in China, Baidu has increased by 50% (Powell 2010). Other internet companies like Microsoft, Sohu and Tencent where all benefit from this great opportunity which offered by Google (Powell 2010). Cultivating your competitors will obviously diminish your own benefits. More and more powerful competitors will absolutely hamper Google’s global expansion. In addition, they need to keep putting efforts to the beta test before they aunch any new products into new market, especially in the Asian market. It needs to customize it according to different market to satisfy local consumers. As discussed above, one of the main reasons why Google failed in the Chinese market was because it did not use ICP, which is a compulsory for all websites operating in China (Zhou, 2009). ? Diversification strategy working in the international market The multi-diversification strategy is generally appropriate a cross the whole international market. This strategy is being used in different markets, while the only difference is whether it more focus on direct-diversification or indirect-diversification that depends on the intensity of competition on the core products. Briefly, since 2004 Google’s endeavor mainly focuses on encouraging innovation by bottom-up through the whole company. It acquires innovative companies to diversify into new areas or to add value to existing technologies and services (Kotelnikov, 2012). From â€Å"personalized web†, â€Å"Google News†, â€Å"Website Optimizer† to acquire technology to put up online display and banner advertisements by buying out â€Å"DoubleClick†. Followed by the direct diversification, Google, starts to expand its new product line through indirect diversification strategy. For instance, Google enters the social networking space through launching â€Å"Orkut†, â€Å"Google Checkout† then was launched as a payment gateway for online buyers and â€Å"Google Chrome† which is a representor of a desktop browser, see appendix one. Firstly, in the current global market, Google’s diversification strategy take the development of its core products as a priority. It makes a great contribution on perfecting its core competency—search engine, which is the most profitable product. Additionally, it also increases the reputation of â€Å"innovation† for Google all over the world. Multi-products line adds more values for the consumers will become the main competitive advantages for Google in the long-term in the international market. Therefore, the benefit of diversification strategy is to protect current market share and attract potential customers by World of Mouth. Particularly, Google launches early nd often in small beta tests before releasing new products into the market, with many markets becoming more and more competitive as a result of new competitors from global or deregulated markets, those who innovate best will win in the future (Kotelnikov, 2012). Secondly, while even through the company put great efforts to add more value on its core products, the competitors also come up with substitute products, for example, â€Å"Powerset† from Microsoft and â€Å"Search Monkey† just launched by Yahoo attack the weakness of Google, providing a much flexible search engine. Google needs to add up more new product lines to create and exploit economies scope. In particular, â€Å"Baidu† whose market share in China is up to 78. 3%, while only 16. 7% of â€Å"Google’s Hong Kong Site†(Baidu, 2012). Google can use its direct-diversification strategy, which pays attention on internal growth of search engine to increase its market share in the market, which doesn’t have a strong competition, such as Australia. The indirect – diversification strategy should be used in the market that already has some strong competitors such as China, Korea. It is certain that the risk of this diversification strategy is there is a huge investment in the new businesses and the majority of the new businesses haven’t started making profit for Google. However, take current global market trend into consideration, the strategy will work in the long term in the international market. If we look closely at year 2009, revenue from ads on their sites accounted for 83% of the total. Compared to 2008, this item represented 90% of Google’s total income. Nevertheless, the growth rate of these â€Å"windfall† is, so far, relatively modest (Sebastian, 2010). Thinking of Google, what product stands out? But are there too many? Is Google too ubiquitous now is an arguable question in recent years? â€Å"I think that, ultimately, we do have too many products and we need to condense them,† Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search, said Friday at the SXSWi conference in Austin (Matt McGee, 2011). According to the map of Google’s product in the appendix, Google products now covered in many different fields such as search engine, social network, music, mobile system etc. But there is people say † As Google Becomes More Ubiquitous, They Get More Sloppy † (Jeff Y, 2012) â€Å"Google is taking information from almost all of your Google services † (Tsukayama, 2012). It was very serious privacy issue and been intensely discussed. † Google makes its money by selling yourself; by knowing where you live, what videos you like watching, and your entire search and surfing history, Google sells targeted advertising to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year. Selling you is 96% of Google’s revenue stream. ( Anthony, 2011). Google was not obligated to pay a fine for doing so but the brand was damaged to some extent. Google also faces the risk from failed product or services. â€Å"It comes down to having too many things going on at once. At Google, quality control is slipping. † (Jeff Y, 2012). For example, Google lunched Google Buzz in February 2010, it was considered a threat to Facebook and twitter but it’s been shut down very soon in November 2011 by Google because of the lack of users and the late show in the market compare with twitter. The failure of Google buzz damaged not only the real money but also the trust and confidence of consumers toward the brand. (Rob, 2010) Besides, with too many successful products, customers may lose what the brand Google really represents which is also a risk of brand damage. â€Å"We’re very aware that our business is based on the trust of users and if damaged then that’s the worst thing we could do. † The new privacy director said. (Google, 2010) But will all these factors really hurt Google? The answer is uncertain. As we can see from the Googleland map in appendix , Google’s main product is always the search engine and they use all the other products to support it. â€Å"Today, with approximately 70 percent domination of the global search market, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnivorous and ubiquitous Google keeps upping the ante to stay on top of the search engine game. â€Å"(Callari, 2012) Therefore some people argued that as long as people still use and trust the Google search engine, the Google brand will not be hurts seriously. Google’s foray into Android market, all around impact. In this section, we will focus more on Google’s capability after it has bought Motorola and gain access to becoming one of mobile phone providers with its own Android OS. After Google has bought Motorola, there are a few implications to mention here. First of all Google will be the owner of all patents from and therefore will be of a great support for Google when their mobile phone enters the market where Apple is a dominant player (Reisinger, 2011). During the launch of a new phone company is most likely to be sued by their competitor arguing over the originality of the phone. Therefore after having Motorola as a patent support Google may save a lot of money in this aspect. Secondly is that Google now has a capacity to create and manufacture their own mobile phone and tablet PC. The benefits of buying Motorola also extends to the field of hardware that Motorola has been in for sometimes, what Google has bought to it self is the hardware manufacturing ability, ranging from TV top box, internet TV to internet router and live stream (Bryant, 2011). Therefore again apple will have to be careful since now Google has a potential to fight Apple not just in the field of mobile phone but also as a TV top box provider i. . Google TV (Purdy, 2011). Thirdly it is not clear that when the new Motorola, Google phone is released, it will come with the newest Android OS or not. But move to buy motorolla to gain access to manufacturing capability can really affect Google’s android mobile partner. One clue to this argument is current news about Samsung, which has been Google’s main Android phone provider, has announced that its mobile phone in a short future will also feature the windows operating system (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). Although the news said it was all about Samsung providing more variety to the consumer, but it can also be thought of an uncertainty avoidance move by Samsung who might feel an aggressive move by Google coming into the hardware market. Perhaps besides Google and Motorola as the two winners from the incident, Microsoft surprisingly might gain benefit from this incident (Wortham, 2012). This move from Google is actually what Microsoft is hoping for because besides Google, the only well know non-phone maker operating system is the â€Å"windows 8† from Microsoft. The moment of changes to watch out for is the time that Google’s partners feel that they are indeed competing against Google instead of having Google as their partner (Wortham, 2012). Microsoft windows 8 here will then act as a preferable alternative operating system for those ex-Google’s partners to adopt. So what will happen in short-long run for the market? In the short run it will not change much because the majority of the mobile phone relies on Android OS. Breaking off partnership with the OS they rely on is really not a good idea in the short run. Also since by law after closing the deal that Android will still remain free for another five years (Waugh, 2011). In the long run the story may be entirely different. It is expected that mobile phone manufacturers may start thinking about an alternative plan according to Google’s moves. If Google still keeps its promise that buying Motorola is just for its own defense, then it is still a great idea to have such a big company as your support (Wortham, 2012). How does Google create revenue? To scrutinize the business model of Google Inc, one impressive feature in this model is that Google offers free resource to the end user. Analyzing the reasons behind it, Google’s philosophy is to share information universally and make it accessible globally (Google, 2012). Thus, the characteristic of free is a necessary catalyst which accelerates Google to become the largest search engine company around the world. By doing this, advertisers have become the main income rather than the end users.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Oppositional Defiant Disorder: Case Study and Research Samaritan L. Carlo Suffolk County Community College SYS 213, Exceptional Child Able Keller is an English-speaking and physically healthy four-year-old boy. He lives with his mother and eighteen-year-old sister, and attends preschool during the week. Babel's mother works seven days a week and he is supervised on the weekends by a nanny. His current nanny began working for the family fairly recently; the two nannies prior to her both worked for less than two months before quitting.Babel's parents have been divorced for two years. His mother is his primary care-giver and is father sees him infrequently. Lately, Babel's mother and preschool teacher have been unable to cope with his disruptive and distressing behaviors. Babel's teacher estimates that his disruptive behaviors began at the beginning of the school year, which was approximately eight months ago; his mother says that the behaviors began roughly one year ago and have been i ncreasing in severity and frequency since then.Babel's sister has also voiced concerns regarding her brother's spiteful actions towards her due to the strain his recent behaviors have put on their relationship (PAP, 2013). Babel's mother reports that Able cannot go more than two days without becoming extremely irritated with necessary daily tasks. Once, Babel's mother requested that he go wash his hands before dinner. Able became irrationally frustrated, blatantly refused to wash his hands, and began lashing out in a manner which she describes as â€Å"one of his tantrums. Babel's mother also describes an instance in which their last nanny was on the receiving end of Babel's disruptive behavior. The nanny took away Babel's toy at his refusal to brush his teeth and get ready for bed, and later found her toothbrush in the toilet boil. After further acts of blatant defiance by Able, the nanny resigned and Babel's mother was forced to find a new nanny. Able exhibited a similar behavior towards his sister when she asked him if he could grab her a pencil for her homework. Able was instantly irritated at this request and yelled â€Å"Don't tell me what to do! He then proceeded to rip up her homework and run to his room. According to his mother, destruction of property in such an aggressive manner has been very infrequent in Babel's behavior. However, his spitefulness resulted in the loss of a nanny and his sister's increasing emotional sisters that her â€Å"sweet baby brother† has taken on such a resentful attitude towards her (PAP, 2013). Babel's preschool teacher told his mother that his behavior will no longer be tolerated and recommended that he be assessed. His teacher explains his behaviors in class as â€Å"defiant and disruptive. Almost daily, he actively ignores class rules, such as not talking during reading time, and becomes even more defiant when his violations are addressed by the teacher. His teacher has paused class multiple times to stop hi m from distracting either the whole class or individual students. She ports that the most troublesome aspects of Babel's behavior are the frequency of the disruptions and his responses to being reprimanded. Once, when a classmate went to the teacher after Able ignored her plea that he stop poking her arm, Able became outwardly more motivated to continue poking her relentlessly.When his teacher explained why his behavior is unacceptable, Able accused the classmate that he had been poking of initiating the incident and provoking him by being â€Å"annoying. † Babel's teacher reports that he has yet to accept blame or responsibility for any of his misdoings and that he is often ostracizes by his peers. Classmates have called him â€Å"annoying† and † a tattle-tale. † Teachers discourage this taunting behavior, but the discrimination has led to further emotional distress within Able which has been exhibited by more frequent moods of frustration and irritability at home (PAP, 2013).Babel's behavior has been extremely distressing at home and in school over a duration of at least eight months, but has not presented a problem elsewhere thus far. His teacher has felt stress due to her inability to get him to obey rules, a lack of time to address his disruptions, and phone calls from parents whose children claim to have en harassed in some way by Able. His sister has become distraught over his behavior and his mother has been put under enormous pressure to maintain a trustworthy and reliable nanny.Due to the duration of his irritable, defiant, and occasionally vindictive behaviors, which have occurred at home and at school, have had negative consequences in his academic, social, and emotional functioning, and have caused distress for several people in his life, Able has been diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder of a moderate severity. Babel's defiant, argumentative, ND vindictive symptoms put him at risk for developing Conduct Disorder, and his increasing emotional distress due to peer issues at school increases his risk of developing an emotional disorder (PAP, 2013).Recent research of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is characterized by the emergence of two themes: developmental precursors to the disorder and the dimension of irritability. The study of precursors to ODD are discussed by Tinfoil and Malta (2013) in their research study which examines the relations between interpretative understanding, moral emotional attribution, and sympathy with the ability to predict ODD symptoms.Burke, Babylon, Rowe, Duke, Steep, Hippies, and Walden (2014) discuss varying dimensionality models of ODD, the identification of irritability by certain symptoms, and the implications of the results for further research on ODD. Tinfoil and Malta (2013) suggest that the limited success of current ODD treatments may be attributed to the lack of empirical research on the disorder's developmental antecedents. Their research responds t o this insufficiency by assessing supposed key components in the genesis of antisocial behaviors: social-cognitive development and moral emotions (Tinfoil & Malt', 2013).The study analyzes a sample of 128 four- and eight-year-old children with ODD and investigates the links between the symptoms of ODD and interpretative understanding, or theory of mind skills, in children (Tinfoil & Malt', 2013). The research of Tinfoil and Malta (2013) also analyzes ODD symptoms in relation to sympathy and moral emotion attribution (MEA), and examines the mediating role that each of these may have on each others' development. The participants of the study include 128 English-speaking children and one caregiver each parent assessments (Tinfoil & Malta, 2013).The only exclusion criterion is a hill with autism spectrum disorder, and the ethnicities of the participants vary (Tinfoil & Malt', 2013). Symptoms of ODD in the children are rated by caregivers using ADSM-oriented scales, interpretive understa nding ratings are obtained by professionals using the Landed and Chandler's puppet activity, sympathy is measured by caregiver and child self-reports, and MEA is evaluated using each child's negative or positive responses to the presentation of hypothetical vignettes of varying lapses in morality (Tinfoil & Malt', 2013).The procedure of the research study involved each child and their caregiver attending one session at the research ABA, the parent providing written consent and the child providing oral agreement, and the child being interviewed for a duration of approximately forty-five minutes by psychology undergraduate students (Tinfoil & Malta, 2013). The caregiver for each child filled out the symptom questionnaires outside of the interview room during the process (Tinfoil & Malta, 2013). Tinfoil and Malta (2013) find that interpretive understanding, sympathy, and MEA all influence ODD symptoms.Ratings of child sympathy by the caregivers play a mediating role on the effect of in terpretive understanding on ODD symptoms, and MEA strength significantly influences interpretative understanding in the domain of rule violation (Tinfoil & Malt', 2013). The research of Tinfoil and Malta (2013) indicates the necessity of further research on social-cognitive and affective-moral factors that could potentially precede ODD and help with early prediction, and highlights a possible origin of the rule-violating behavior so prevalent in Babel's case as a deficit in MEA.Recent research on ODD also focuses on the importance of irritability and on reaching a consensus regarding which symptoms best identify irritability (Burke et al. , 2014). Burke et al. (2014) introduces the study by explaining how existing data purports that symptoms of ODD represent a unidirectional assembly and are distinct from those of other disorders. Recently, studies have found conflicting evidence regarding the dimensions ODD symptoms are categorized by, which questions the reliability of assessment using the existing ODD model (Burke et al. 2014). Also, inconsistencies exist concerning which symptoms of ODD comprise which dimensions (Burke et al. , 2014). Burke et al. (2014) suggests that a factor model of the disorder may help solve these conflicts surrounding the concept of diagnostic irritability. The study tests single and multi- dimensional models of ODD including factor and competing models, analyzes various elements of measurement within symptoms, and aims to identify the extent to which specific dimensions relate to each other and general ODD symptoms (Burke et al. 2014). The study also attempts to determine if there is a distinguishing dimension of irritability within ODD, if one model of ODD is superior to all other models, and if there is an additional general dimension of ODD (Burke et al. , 2014). ODD symptom data of five community samples of five- to eighteen-year-old boys and arils is evaluated by Burke et. Al (2014) using assorted measurement scales and care- g iver reports.Methods of assessing symptom presence, frequency, and severity are the Revised Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, Parent Version, Child Symptom Inventory-4, Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Scale, Developmental and Well-Being Assessment, and Emory Diagnostic Rating Scale (Burke et al. , 2014). The data is analyzed using five models of ODD dimensionality and two models of irritability, which identify irritability as either touchy, angry, and spiteful, or touchy, angry, and frequent loss of temper (Burke et al. 2014). Burke el al. (2014) concludes that the best model for symptoms of ODD is a general factor model in which irritability and oppositional behavior factors exist alongside a general ODD factor, and in which irritability and oppositional behaviors significantly correlate with each other (Burke et al. , 2014). This model is consistently better across multiple samples and is made up of eight general ODD items, each correlated with either an irritabilit y or an oppositional behavioral dimension (Burke et. Al, 2014).The irritability mission includes temper, touchiness, and anger; the oppositional behavior dimension includes argumentativeness, defiance, annoyance, balefulness, and spitefulness (Burke et. Al, 2014). Burke et. Al (2014) also finds that irritability is most accurately characterized by touchiness, anger, and temper loss. The implications of the results are the emergence of strong evidence for a multidimensionality within ODD, and support for an identification of irritability characterized by loss of temper, touchiness, and anger (Burke et al. , 2014).Although the research is unable to answer attention questions regarding the existence of a third dimension, the initial questions are addressed concerning the underlying structure of symptom dimensions and provide evidence for a superior set of characteristics of irritability (Burke et al. , 2014). Lastly, Burke et al. (2014) addresses that possible limitations in the study were due to the variability of the questionnaires, the variability of the scaling systems, and the different research structure for boys and girls in the samples. References American Psychiatric Association. (2013).Section II: Disruptive, impulse-control, and induct disorders. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th De. ). New York: PAP Press. Burke, J. D. , Babylon, K. , Rowe, R. , Duke, E. , Steep, S. D. , Hippies, A. E. , & Walden, l. D. (2014). Identifying the irritability dimension of ODD: Application of a modified factor model across five large community samples of children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1-11. Tinfoil, M. & Malt', T. (2013). Interpretive understanding, sympathy, and moral emotion attribution in oppositional defiant disorder symptomatically. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 44, 633-645.

Zero Translation of Brand Name of Electronic Product

Brand name translation is important for these companies to make their products acceptable in China. But brand name translation is more difficult than translation of other text types because of its features and functions. Among all translation theories, functionalist translation theory, proposed in Germany in 1970s, breaks through traditional translation theories and focuses on functions of translation action. It provides zero translation with theoretic support. Zero translation is appropriate for brand name translation because zero translation emphasizes the effect of translation.This thesis is going to introduce the difficulty of brand name translation, zero translation and functionalist translation theory with many examples of electronic product brand name to prove that zero translation is an effective method for translating brand name. Key words: Zero translation; Functionalist translation theory; brand name; electronic products I , , , ,20 70 , , : ; ; ; II Zero Tra nslation of Brand Name of Electronic Product Introduction During recent decades, China has become one of the largest markets in the world, and all international companies sell their products and services in China, including electronic products. In order to increase sales in China, many companies translate their brand names in Chinese to help Chinese consumers recognize and accept their products. However, there are many difficulties in translating brand names. On one hand, brand names and their translations must be informative and concise.On the other hand, there are unavoidable differences between the culture of SL and that of TL. Equivalence-based theory focuses on the translation and the equivalence of content. But if the translation of brand name is simple, it often cannot express the cultural meaning of brand name in SL or the characteristics of products, and users of TL cannot understand the brand’s meaning or imagine the product’s characteristics as users of SL d o. If the translation of brand name expresses the cultural meaning of SL fully, it usually cannot be simple and easy to be memorized.Thus, how to translate brand names is difficult. In 1970s, functionalist theory was put forward and it emphasized the purpose of translation rather than the equivalence of content. The purpose of brand translation is to transmit the information of products such as advantages of products and the culture of company to domestic consumers. In consideration of conciseness and cultural differences, many brand names are translated with transliteration and transference. In 2001, Professor Qiu Maoru brought about a new term, zero translation, after the study of non-translation by Professor Du Zhengming in 2000.In the view of Qiu, zero translation includes omission, transliteration and transference. In recent years, some studies have proved that zero translation is an effective method of brand name translation and it agrees with the functionalist translation the ory. Since 1970s, with the development of technology, a large number of electronic products, such as computers, mobile phones, digital 1 cameras, have been developed and produced, and they have succeeded in changing people’s life style and work pattern.This thesis is going to prove that zero translation is an applicable method of brand name translation by providing some typical examples and by analyzing the usage of zero translation in brand translation. Chapter 1 Literature Review 1. 1 Study of Du Zhengming Professor Du Zhengming defines zero translation as non-translation and he thinks that not only transferring the original form of SL into TL is a kind of non-translation but also transliteration is a kind of non-translation because non-translation is the opposite of translation and because translation is to translate meanings.Du negates zero translation as a special method of translation, and it was unacceptable by others that his concept of zero translation covered transl iteration and non-translation. 1. 2 Study of Qiu Maoru In 2001, Professor Qiu Maoru published an article named Translatability and Zero Translation in Chinese Translators Journal and brought forward the item, zero translation. â€Å"Zero translation means translating words in SL without using the ready-existing words in TL. It includes two meanings: 1. translating with a deliberate omission of words in SL; 2. ranslating without using the ready-existing words in TL. † (Qiu 26) It is the first time that zero translation appears and triggers more debates on the definition of zero translation.But the omission should not be considered as a kind of zero translation because it is different from transference and transliteration. The omission is used to keep briefness without losing cultural meaning of SL, but the other two are applied for avoiding losing cultural meaning, therefore the purpose of omission is different from those of the other two methods. 1. Study of Liu Mingdong 2 In 2002, Liu Mingdong divided zero translation into two kinds, absolute zero translation and relative zero translation on the base of the study of Qiu. The absolute zero translation means direct usage of original form in SL and it includes ellipsis and transference. Relative zero translation is to express words of SL with the appropriate usage of words in TL and it includes transliteration, sound-meaning combination translation, complementary translation, image translation, literal translation with notes and adaptation.Although Liu developed the concept of zero translation, he still did not clarify the definition of zero translation. 1. 4 Study of Zhang Mengya In 2011, Zhang Mengya, in an article discussing brand zero translation, divided zero translation into two kinds, narrow zero translation and general zero translation. The former is transference and the latter contains transliteration and complementary translation. She further analyzed zero translation under the functionalist tra nslation theory and thought that zero translation of brand name helped companies express their spirit based on the consumers’ cultural habits.Although the definition of zero translation is still unclear, translators have accepted the concept of zero translation and take it as a common translation strategy. This thesis will not focus on the definition or the classification of zero translation and it will analyze the usage of zero translation in brand name translati on to prove the applicability of zero translation. Chapter 2 Introduction to Brand Name In the modern society, the world has unprecedented prosperity of economy, which embodies the improvement of living standard, the decrease of unemployment and the production of various commodities.Meanwhile, competition is so fierce that all companies seek their own advantages to expand sales. Some companies with long history and virtue of excellent quality regard brand name as a significant advantage because it symbolizes recogni tion and faith of customers. What is brand name or trade 3 mark? â€Å"‘Brand name’ is the name given to a product by the company that makes it† (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 207) Brand name is a distinctive sign that help customers distinguish or identify particular products or services which produced or provided by a specific person, enterprise or a group of persons or enterprises.For example, in 1972, in order to change its brand name to a special one, Standard Oil Company in New Jersey spent million dollars and hired hundreds of people and they managed to discover a group of letters, Exxon, which had been never used in any language on Earth and thus would avoid ambiguity. When people see Exxon now, only Exxon Oil Company appears in their minds because Exxon has no other meaning but Exxon Oil Company and it is easy to be distinguished. This example shows some features of brand names such as conciseness, identification and novelty.In the following part, the author will discuss features of brand names. 2. 1 Features of Brand Name: Conciseness, Identification and Novelt y Brand name helps consumers to distinguish its products or services from others', therefore it must be so easy to be recognized that people are likely to notice its products among products of the same kind, in other words, brand name must be concise and distinctive. Identification helps people to be aware of differences between different products.For example, brand names of mobile products of Apple Company include iPhone, iPad, iPod and iTouch and the company plans to produce a television called iTV. It is easy to recognize products of Apple Company because their brand names begin with the letter I, and even some people think of Apple Company when they see any sign beginning with the letter I. Brand name should be short because it is hard to be remembered if it is too long. It is undeniable that a long brand name leave people deep impression, but they can hard ly distinguish it from similar ones.Because some shorter ones are imitated, for instance Hike imitates Nike and Kuma imitates Puma, let alone longer ones. Brand names are supposed to leave people deep impression as long as possible and some particular brand names always appear in their mind when they want to buy something. Novelty is a feature of brand name and it can not only avoid ambiguity just as the example of Exxon shows but also offer 4 people pleasant feeling and fresh impression. Nokia adopts Lumia as its next series of Window Phone because Lumia is easy to be pronounced in all languages and has no negative meaning in any culture. . 2 Functions of Brand Name As mentioned above, brand names are concise and novelty, as a way of identification. Those features are met to suit the functions of brands. 2. 2. 1 Informative Function Brand name is directly linked to product, showing people their features. But brand name usually shows only one of their features of product because it is short. Some brand names come from the location or the main founder of company. For example, BMW, the world-famous automobile brand, is the abbreviation of Bavarian Motor Works, which shows that the company is located in Bavaria.Nokia, one of the largest handset manufacturers in the world, is just the name of the small town in Finland where the company was created in 1865. Goodyear, the third largest tire maker, is named after Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber. Sennheiser, the famous audio equipment manufacturer, is named after its founder, Fritz Sennheiser. Some others show the quality or the cultural meaning of product such as the effect of products and the goal of purchase.For example, Lux, a soap brand name owned by Unilever, stresses the effect of the soap, which lusters the skin, because the letter lux shares the same root word with the letter luster and it is the unit of illuminance. Pampers, the most famous brand of baby diapers owned by P;G, reflects the love from parents to children. These brands named after people and location have little cultural meaning and they just show the history or information of company. But others are created on the base of culture and their results of translation are meaningless if they are transmitted without the ground of culture. . 2. 2 Stimulating Consumption When a company launches new products, it must consider and identify target 5 customers to meet the particular need of them because people of different ages, nations and genders have various needs and preference. Even for the same kind of goods, for example mobile phone, different people have different needs. Females usually focus on the appearance, elders prefer to long standby time and teenagers intend to pursue high-end configuration and more functions. Thus, with the limit of cost, new products should highlight their different advantages.Similarly, brand names should also cater to target customers to stimulate consumption. Brand names of aut omobile should reflect the pursuit of speed or safety, for example, the letter Rover in Land Rover, an automobile manufacturer that specialize all-terrain vehicles, is the name of an ancient Nordic nation, representing bravery and riding waives. Volvo is a world-famous automobile manufacturer too and its brand name means rotating wheels, representing moving forward. However, cosmetic brand name should leave people, especially women, feelings of beauty and youth.People always imagine refreshing and cleanliness when they use products of Clean-Clear, and another brand name, Biotherm, shows perfect combination of human and nature, because bio represents human life and therm mineral springs. 2. 3 Common Methods of Brand Name Translation There are some common methods of brand name translation, including transliteration, literal translation, free translation and mixed translation. â€Å"Transliteration is a method which is used often. It refers to write a word, sentence, etc. n the alphab et of a different language on writing system†(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 2136) Many companies adopt transliteration because it can keep the pronunciation and exotic flavor of the original form closely. Some of brand names that adopt transliteration are Nokia as , Motorola as and Adidas as . Literal translation is the rendering of text from one language to another word-for-word and it expresses the meaning of words or characters of brand name. Therefore, literal translation is the most common because it convey message of brand name directly and keep fidelity of brand name.Apple as , Blackberry as ? 6 ?, and Red Bull as apply literal translation. â€Å"Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner or the content without the form of the original. Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original†(Newmark 46). This method maintains the original meaning and achieves fluent and natural expression in TT, but it sacrifices the original for m. Free translation has advantages in expressing functions and effects of products and in arousing identification of customers. For instance, Whisper as ? belongs to this method.Mixed translation combines transliteration with literal translation to preserve similarity of meaning and pronunciation. For example, Safeguard as and Head ; Shoulders as . 2. 4 Difficulties in Translating Brand Names The above part presents features of brand name, including conciseness, identification and novelty. When international companies sell their products or services in a foreign country, they usually translate their brand names into the local language because these foreigners are unfamiliar with products or brand names in foreign languages. Thus it is necessary to translate brand names.But translating br and names is more difficult than creating a new brand name because translation not only conforms to these features but also faces the difference of culture. The difference of culture has existed s ince the beginning of translation. Unlike translation of article, which can explain cultural differences by annotation, translation of brand name has no room for annotation because brand name must be short. Therefore translation of brand name always loses a part of information of the original form such as pronunciation, form and cultural meaning. For example, in China, Lux is translated as which only maintains pronunciation but has nothing to do with effects of product, therefore Chinese customers are unlikely to feel effects of product when they see this Chinese brand name. Like the translation of Lux, that of other brand names usually keeps pronunciation but neglects the cultural meaning. But it is true that some translators abandon cultural meanings deliberately to avoid conflict of culture because of special cultural preference and taboo. Arabs disfavor panda traditionally because panda looks like pig that Allah forbids Islamists to eat in the Quran. In western culture, peacock is 7 greedy and evil animal just as Lord Shen, who is a white peacock and the main villain in Kung Fu Panda 2, therefore peacock should not appear in brand names in western countries. In order to solve problems of the translation of brand names, translators have sought many translation strategies such as homophonic pun, transliteration and paraphrase, and a new concept of translation strategy has appeared since the beginning of 21st century. In the following part, the author will introduce this new concept, zero translation. Chapter 3 Introduction to Zero Translation 3. 1 The Concept of Zero TranslationThe concept of zero translation was mentioned firstly by Professor Qiu Maoru in 2001. In his article Translatability and Zero Translation, published in Chinese Translators Journal, Professor Qiu brought forward the new item, zero translation. In order to explain this item, he pointed out that zero translation meant translating words in SL without using the ready-existing words in TL and classified it into two kinds. The first one is translating with a deliberate omission of words in SL and the other one is translating without using the ready-existing words in TL. The first kind is used to olve problems of lexical and syntactical differences between two languages and it is called Omission by Zhang Peiji in A Course in English-Chinese Translation. But there is no lexical or syntactical problem in brand name translation because of the limit of length. The other kind includes transference and transliteration. Transliteration maps the sounds of source language to the best matching script of goal language, meaning English words are translated into Chinese characters and they have phonetic connection. Transference is a translation technique that employs foreign words directly in goal language.Professor Qiu thinks that both transliteration and transference belong to zero translation because they use no ready-existing words of TL. In 2001, Liu Mingdong further studied z ero translation on the base of result of study of Professor Qiu. Liu divided zero translation into two kinds, absolute and relative zero translation. Absolute zero translation is to use foreign words directly 8 without any change. Both transference and ellipsis belong to this kind. The other kind is to translate original words by using words or characters of goal language with artful change. It contains transliteration, sound-meaning combination translation, complementary translation, image translation and literal translation with notes and adaptation† (Liu 30) Liu realized that it was difficult to find an equal script of TL for all translation actions and that adopting zero translation is unavoidable. Although many scholars have proposed their own opinions on zero translation and had a heated discussion since the appearance of zero translation, widely accepted methods of zero translation contain transference, transliteration, sound-meaning translation and complementary transl ation. . 2 The Difference between Zero Translation and Non-translation Zero translation is different from non-translation, which is presented by Du Zhengming. He thinks that non-translation was opposite to translation. Defining zero translation as non-translation, Du stresses that the aim of translation is to convey meaning of original content and transliteration is not a method of translation because transliteration hardly expresses original meaning in TL. In his view, employing the original form of SL without any change belongs to non-translation too.But his viewpoint is not accepted widely. The discussion of zero translation and non-translation refers to that of translatability and untranslatability, which has been debated since May Fourth Movement. Proponents of translatability acknowledge difficulties in translation as the result of cultural differences, but such difficulties can be solved by translators. The task of translator is to achieve better effect of translation by expl oring new translation strategies. The idea of proponents of untranslatability is opposite.They emphasize the incommensurability between languages, which means that the information of one language cannot be conveyed fully in another language. What is more difficult than the incommensurability between languages for translators is the incommensurability on culture level and the latter one embodies in the former. They overemphasize deficiency and the uselessness of translation. But they absolutize the cultural 9 difference and something special in one language. Changing and reforming special information in SL are common in practice of translation and such information is only a small part of the context of SL.The fact of translation history for thousands years also refutes the untranslatability. From the above introduction, it is clear that zero translation is different from non-translation because non-translation negates the aim of translation and the practice of translators but zero tr anslation is an effective strategy to cope with untranslatability. In Zero Translation vs. untranslatability: On Essence of Zero Translation, Luo Guoqing stated that untranslatability was paradox and pseudoproposition. â€Å"Translation is cross-linguistic and bidirectional communication.Translators have ability to lead readers into the culture of SL to cognize the item of SL, which is progressive and respective sense of zero translation. â€Å"(Luo 120) In the age of information explosion, workload of translators has increased sharply and they are likely to face more untranslatable items. In such situation, zero translation is a good solution because it can not only prove efficiency but also realize communicational function. Zero translation approaches the original form with no or little change and provides better understanding of cultural meaning of SL for readers than traditional methods do. . 3 Usage of Zero Translation Before the concept of zero translation was proposed, its methods had been adopted in translation of, especially, proper names, abbreviation and words with special cultural meaning. Now, the writer is going to provide some examples of zero translation. 3. 3. 1 Translation of Proper Names Proper names include people's name, place name, terms and abbreviation. Because of differences of pronunciation and writing system, proper names are more difficult to translate than other words. In TL, there always is no equal part corresponding to words of SL.But they are the most active part of language, thus they 10 will be communication obstacles if they are not translated. The translation of proper names, which should consider SL and keep accuracy, often adopts transference, transliteration and complementary translation. The following part will discuss the translation of people's name, place name, terms and abbreviation. Terms are professional words in particular areas with characteristics of time and profession. Because their meanings changed with th e development of their own areas, translation of them must be accurate and zero translation is the best way to translate them.Examples of transference are DNA, SARS, USB and GPS, and those of transliteration include clone as , gene as and Hertz as . Although these examples look simple, zero translation manages to meet terms' requirement of accuracy and standardization. In Zero Translation: Translation Strategy of Standardization of Scientific and Technological Terms, Wang Juxiang and Sang Yuanwei concluded that standardization of scientific and technological terms are translated most precisely by zero translation. (Sang, and Wang 35) People's name and place name contain obvious cultural identity.Place name often indicates geographic feature, products and history of the place. In the past, Chinese names were transliterated on the base of Wade-Giles romanization, which was invented by Thomas Francis Wade, a British diplomat. But the accuracy of Wade-Giles system has weaknesses, for example Peking as and Chingtao as ? ? . With development of Standardization, people's name and place name are transliterated on the base of Pinyin such as Beijing as . Many translations have been fixed and some of them are Tom as , Alice as , London as .Because of cultural permeation, it is common for people to speak original names without any translation to express their friendliness. Most names are transliterated but some adopt sound-meaning translation, for example Cambridge as and New Delhi as . Such diversification of translation means that translation of name is becoming less strict and the world more open and inclusive. 3. 3. 2 Translation of Abbreviation An abbreviation is â€Å"a short form of a word or expression. â€Å"( Longman Dictionary 11 of Contemporary English 3) Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase.It is convenient for people to read and write. For example, people usually do not speak or write Orga nization of Petroleum Exporting Countries but its abbreviation, OPEC. Such words have clear meaning but are too long for communication. They are created with social and scientific progress to meet the need of communication and have been widespread. Such words include ATM, NBA, GDP and VIP, etc. People can translate every word of original form into Chinese characters and results of such translation are correct, but these translations are still too long, for instance , , .Therefore most abbreviations are transferred and some abbreviations are transliterated. Table 1 Translation of Abbreviation Abbreviati Original Form Translation on Zero Method Translation OPEC Organization of Petroleum Transference Exporting Countries OPEC Transliteration WTO World Trade Organization WTO Transference WHO World Health Organization WHO Transference CEO Chief Executive Officer CEO Transference GDP Gross Domestic Product GDP Transference TOEFL Transference TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Langu age DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid ? Transliteration DNA Transference 3. 3. 3 Translation of Words with Cultural Meaning Zero translation is an effective strategy to translate words with unique cultural meaning. Such words, created in the history and tradition of particular group of people, have obvious features of area, history and nation. They are difficult for 12 translators because there is no equal part in TL. For example, people of TL cannot have the same feeling of people of SL when they read or hear Avatar because, in culture of TL, there is no such a god or person like avatar. Thus it is better to adopt transliteration to solve this problem.In translating ancient poems, it is difficult to translate traditional musical instruments such as . This unique instrument always leaves people deep beautiful impression of young women. If it is translated as violin or other western instrument, foreign readers are likely to have incorrect feelings. Thus it is better to translate it as pi pa by pinyin. The study of zero translation needs theoretic support. In the following part, the writer is going to analyze zero translation under functionalist theory. Chapter 4 Introduction to Functionalist Translation TheoryTraditional translation theories focus on equivalence of text, which means the transmission of message, but neglect functions of translation such as cultural communication. Nida's theory of dynamic equivalence and that of functional equivalence break the limit of traditional translation theories, but they are inadequate to process cultural elements in ST. In 1970s, functionalist translation theory appeared in Germany and flourished. It deemphasizes the equivalence of text, puts translation action into cross-cultural communication and considers function of translation as the core of theory.There are four people making great contributions to functionalist theory. They are Katharina Reiss, Hans Vermeer, Justa HolzManttari and Christiane Nord. This part is going to introduce their studies. 4. 1 Katharina Reiss Reiss proposed a model of translation assessment based on functional relationship between ST and TT in the book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism. She points out that function of text should be a criterion of translation criticism. Her theory adheres to equivalence-based theory and advocates that the ideal translation is the achievement of equivalence of content, language form and 13 ommunicative function. But in practice it is impossible to achieve such equivalence. She is aware of the fact that not all functions of TT are the same as those of ST, and the form of TT is unnecessary to be same as that of ST, which means translation action does not need to achieve equivalence in traditional theories. Thus the function of translation is more important than equivalence. Translation criticism should depend on the circumstance of text, not on the analysis of features of original text, which takes precedence over traditional th eories.She thinks that a text has many functions but only one is dominant and this one controls the whole translation action. The judge of text type helps translators to determine the level of equivalence that should be achieved and to select the proper translation strategy. Reiss divides text types into three kinds, informative text, expressive text and operative text. Brand name belongs to the last kind whose purpose is to lead readers to act in a certain way. â€Å"Therefore, both the content and form are subordinate to the extralinguistic effect that the text is designed to achieve.Operative text translation should be guided by the overall aim of bringing about the same reaction in the audience. â€Å"(Zhang 10) 4. 2 Hans Vermeer Vermeer put forward the most important theory of functionalist theory, Skopos Theory. Skopos is a Greek word, meaning aim or purpose. He thinks that translation, like other human actions, has particular purpose, which is the core of the whole action o f translating. Just as his teacher, Reiss, does, he considers that the purpose of translation determines which method should be used. ‘Skopos theory' focuses above all on the purpose of translation, which determines translation methods and strategies that are to be employed in order to produce a functionally adequate result†(Mundy 97). Skopos theory has three rules, the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. The skopos rule means the result of translation enables translation of text to realize its functions in the situation it is applied and with people who use it. In other words, the aim of translation determines the action of translation and the result of 14 translation decides selected strategy.The coherence rule, also called intratextual coherence, means that TT must be natural and fluent in TL and be understood by receivers, given the culture and circumstance of them. TT is the transmission of ST, and the content of TT must bear relationship with tha t of ST. Such relationship is called fidelity. From the above introduction to skopos theory, it is clear that the most element of translation action is addressee. Because receivers' culture, knowledge and needs determine the method and the strategy of translation. The three rules should be applied in zero translation of brand name.The aim of brand name translation is to keep the flavor of brand name in ST, which is the first rule. The second rule is to make the result of translation acceptable and understandable in culture of TL. The last one, the fidelity rule, preserves features of original brand name as many as possible. Therefore zero translation of brand name must adhere to the three rules. 4. 3 Justa Holz Manttari Manttari further develops functionalist theory and expands the area in which functionalist theory is adoptable. In her theory, translational action is regarded as a complex action designed to meet particular needs.Translation, driven by purpose, is to transfer messag e with cross-cultural communication. She mainly studies translational action, roles in such action and circumstance in which translational action occurred. 4. 4 Christiane Nord Nord firstly systematizes functionalist approaches and introduces functionalist translation theory comprehensively in her book Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained in 1997. She agrees with the above three scholars' theories and creates her own theory, function plus loyalty. In her opinion, translators would abandon useless part of ST after they clarify the purpose of translation.She stresses the importance of ST and thinks that translators should be responsible for ST writers, TT addressees and initiators, and such responsibility is 15 loyalty. Loyalty is different from fidelity because fidelity is just the relationship between ST and TT but loyalty is interpersonal relationship among translators, ST writers, TT addressees and initiators. Besides purpose of translation, tra nslators have to reach a balance among other groups. TT must achieve the purpose of translation such as cultural communication and satisfy ST writers, TT addressees and initiators as much as possible. . 5 Zero Translation of Brand Name in the Light of Functionalist Theory According to functionalist translation theory, translation is a purposeful action and different text determines different translation strategy and criteria. Breaking through traditional translation theory, functionalist translation theory emphasizes the importance of function in evaluation and action of translation. In translating brand name, â€Å"it is essential that in the target language the same effect be achieved as the original in the source language†(Reiss 41).As a new kind of translation method, zero translation can achieve functional equivalence furthest. Functions of brand name are transferring information of products and stimulating consumption. Translation of brand name must realize those functi ons of original brand name. In other words, translation of brand name helps people of TL to understand and accept products by transferring features of products and meaning of original brand name across cultural boundary and to persuade potential consumers to make a purchase. Zero translation is an effective method to translate brand name for following advantages.Zero translation transmits information of brand name with no loss or least loss of original form. It leaves customers of TL the same feelings as SL people have by lead TL customers to understand meaning of brand name in the circumstance of SL. Thus zero translation can preserve functions of SL brand name as much as possible. Another advantage is identification. Because zero translation keeps the form or the pronunciation of brand name in SL, it is easy to avoid confusion. For example, Windows, an operating system developed by Microsoft, once was translated as , but its owner was unwilling to use this translation because ? w as likely to mislead Chinese users to consider it as an operating system developed by domestic 16 companies, and customers lost original user experience and feelings. Therefore Microsoft insisted on transferring Windows in China. The next chapter is going to provide some examples of electronic products to prove the applicability of main methods of zero translation such as transference, transliteration and complementary translation. Chapter 5 Zero Translation of Brand Name of Electronic Products People's lifestyle and working pattern has been changed by electronic products including computer, digital camera and mobile phone, etc.These products bring about convenience and have been necessities for most people. In recent decades, many international companies produce and sell their electronic products in China. In order to compete with domestic products, those international companies apply different translation methods to make their brand names acceptable in China. Some Chinese intend t o buy products of foreign brand names because these products signify wealth and taste. In such situations, zero translation keeps form and pronunciation more completely than other translation strategies.The writer finds that zero translation is common in translating brand names of electronic products because zero translation preserves the original flavor of brand name and wins customers' favor. Transliteration is often applied to translate brand names, which are easy to be pronounced in Chinese and others are translated by transference and complementary translation. 5. 1 Transliteration Many foreign companies are named after its founder or the place where it was founded, and their meanings make no sense in Chinese culture. It is difficult and useless to transmit meaning of those brand names.Therefore transliteration is the best method if their phonetic symbols are similar with pronunciation of Chinese characters. Dell and Nokia belong to this kind. Some brand names reflect the his tory of company. For example Motorola 17 is the combination of â€Å"motor† and rola. Motor means the company produced cars and rola is the suffix of Victrola, the name of predecessor of Motorola. The literal meaning of such brand name will not help people of TL accept its product because of the lack of cultural ground. It is better to transliterate them to keep the pronunciation.Transliteration is also applied to translate brand name with special meaning. The former name of Sony Corporation was Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, but it was too long. In 1958, the former name was changed to Sony. The Sony name was created by combining sonus, the original Latin for sonic, meaning sound, with sonny, denoting small size, or a youthful boy. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation th at is the same in any language. The feature of Sony is conciseness and its meaning. But if translators want to express its meaning, TT will be too long and lose its feature.In China, it is transliterated to ? ? , which preserves the conciseness and the pronunciation of Sony. The writer will list more examples of brand name of electronic products. Table 2 Transliteration of Brand Name Brand Name Transliteration Canon Nikon Olympus Casio Leica Philips Alcatel Semheiser Shure 5. 2 Transference Some brand names are difficult to transliteration because of the difference of pronunciation between two languages and to translate their literal meaning with the 18 limit of length or the lack of original feelings.For this kind of brand name, the best translation method is transference. Thinkpad, created by staff of IBM, combines think with pad. The pad is the notepaper used in IBM and the letter think is IBM's motto printed on the top of the note paper. Because the literal meaning of Thinkpad is ?, which makes no sense in China, it is better to keep its original form. Like the translation of Thinkpad, transference is also applied in translating Android, a mobile operation system developed by Google, Shuffle, a MP3 player produced by Apple, Nexus, a mobile phone designed by Google, and Palm, a mobile phone producer. . 3 Complementary Translation â€Å"Complementary translation in brand name translation is a method by which translated brand name is not only homophonic with the original, but also has specific meaning. † (Zhang 27) It keeps phonetic feature of brand name and change the form of TT with artful skills. For example, the translation of Galaxy, a series of mobile phone designed by Samsung, is . The literal translation of Galaxy is , but it cannot express its top status among mobile phones as does. The writer collects fifty foreign brand names of electronic products and analyzes their translation methods.Here is the result of the survey. Table 3 Result of a Survey on Methods of Brand Name Translation Translation Transference Transliteration Number Percentage Literal Free Mixed translation method Complementary translation tran slation translation 7 24 5 3 5 6 14% 48% 10% 6% 10% 12% Zero translation 72% 19 Conclusion In this thesis, zero translation is divided into two kinds, absolute zero translation and relative zero translation, like Liu Mingdong’s classification, but the former one is transference and the latter covers transliteration and complementary translation.The item, zero translation was brought about following the concept of untranslatability, which is undeniable to some degree because of the difference between culture of SL and TL. The aim of zero translation is to express effects of product and information pf producer in the culture of SL without any loss and zero translation is better than other translation strategy because it shows the cultural meaning in the form of SL. Zero translation focuses on the purpose of translation without the emphasis on equivalence of content, therefore zero translation corresponds the functionalist theory.By analyzing these examples of brand names of ele ctronic products, this thesis proves that zero translation succeeded in meeting requirements of brand translation, thus zero translation is an applicable method in brand translation. 20 Reference 1. Du, Zhengming. [ ], , , (? )2000. . : ?, 2000 2. Holz-Manttari, Justa. Translational Action: Theory and Method. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1984 3. Liu, Mingdong. [ ], ? . ? , 2002,(1): 29-32 4. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2004 5. Luo, Guoqing. [ ]. :. , 2011,(2): 116-120 6. Mundy, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies Theories and Applications. London and New York: Routlege 2001 7. Newmark, Peter. A textbook of Translation. Shanghai: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2001 8. Nord, Christiane. Translating as a PurposefulActivity-Functionalist Approaches Explained. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001 9. Qiu, Maoru. [ ], ? . ? , 2001,(1): 2 4-27 10.Reiss, Katharina. Translation Criticism: The Potentials and Limitations. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004 11. Sang, Yuanwei; Wang, Juxiang. [ ], : â€Å" †. , 2006(2): 32-35 12. Vermeer, Hans J. Skopos and Translation Commission. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000 13. Zhang, Mengya. [ ], â€Å" â€Å", ? 21 , 2009 22 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my tutor, Professor Liu Shizhu, who is a devoted, professional, resourceful scholar.He has helped me in more than one way during my college study as well as in my thesis writing. He lights the way for me. Thanks to his inspirational ideas, I chose translation of brand name as the thesis theme. In the writing process, he helped me with encouragements and guidance. I should say that without his help, there is no chance that this thesis would be present. In the second place, I would like to thank my family for their care an d support for me. There is nothing more valuable to me than the love from family members.I still remember the day when I got stuck on writing the thesis; it is my father’s words encouraged me to look ahead. I should thank my mother for her delicious dishes and I owe a lot to my grandfather. My family has taught me to be a decent person, a person values honor and cares for others. Last but not least, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me make this thesis possible and better. My lovely friends, my cheerful roommates, and the girl I want to spend my life with. They all help me, on the thesis or in my life. 23 24