Comparing Love in the Film, Secrets and Lies and Toni Morrisons Belove

Possessive Love in Secrets and Lies and Beloved  Ã‚        The word â€Å"freedom† is subject to various degrees of interpretation in the sense that it can be used in more than one context.   One definition of freedom is the idea of having your own sense of self without the control of others.   On the other hand, a lack of freedom is the idea of feeling trapped and smothered in a situation one has no control over.   Freedom can relate to school, relationships, or even within oneself.   A lack of freedom can have nothing to do with other people but with the ball and chain that can be placed on by oneself.   Of course the outside world will be involved, but the pain of feeling trapped comes from the frustration that fills one’s soul.   A lack of freedom can result from a twisted circle of other events and other people.   In the novel Beloved and the film Secrets and Lies, the enslavement that Roxanne and Denver feel result from their mothers’ possessive love.   Sethe and Cynthia both have horrific pasts , leaving them in captivity and causing them to have unhealthy relationships with their daughters.   Sethe and Cynthia love the only way the know how, possessively and dependently, causing Denver and Roxanne’s mental enslavement.   In the film Secrets and Lies, both Cynthia and her twenty-one year-old daughter Roxanne, live a life of captivity.   Cynthia’s is due to her unexplained past, while Roxanne’s is in result of her overbearing mother.   Cynthia’s lack of freedom does not result from another’s actions, but from her own past.   The trauma and lack of love she has experienced, has been blocked out and instead of dealing with it, she lives off of the attention of others.   When she meets her daughter Hortense, whom she had given up for adopt... ...or a life as it is now under Beloved’s control, she chooses a life for herself.   By having support for the first time, freeing both of her daughters, and restoring her sense of self, Sethe is on her way to a life of happiness and trust, rather than dependence on others.   Although their backgrounds are completely different, both Cynthia and Sethe battle the same demons.   Their pasts have consumed them and dependence on others, or complete isolation is the only way they know how to deal with it.   This causes the mental enslavement of Roxanne and Denver.  Ã‚   In order to overcome their emotional scars, they must learn to stand on their own two feet.   Only when they do this will they be able to release their daughters, and restore their own self worth and freedom for all.       Works Cited Morrison, Toni.   Beloved.   New York: Penguin Books, 1998.      

Interest Rate :: essays research papers

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) carried out the zero interest rate policy. The decrease of the interest rate was expected to work for recovery of the Japanese economy. The interest rate was already very low and the analysts wonder its effectiveness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Due to the collapse of the bubble economy, the Japanese economy became sluggish and suffered from six trillion dollars debt. The increase of the government bonds caused the increase of the loan rte. It also caused the appreciation of yen and damaged the Japanese export companies because the stocks of the Japanese export companies were increasingly sold. Because the Japanese economy is largely supported by the Japanese export companies, this situation worked against Japan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In January, 1999, the Japanese government issued twice as much government bonds as usual. Soon later, the BOJ decided to decrease the interest rate to zero in short-term money market. Consequently, life insurance companies, which lent money to banks and earn money by its interest before, were forced out of business in short-term money market. Life insurance companies instead began to buy government bonds. Due to the increase of the demand of the government bonds the value of the government bonds remained the same even though the government issued bonds too much. As a result, the interest rate did not rise and money supply did not decrease.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The zero interest rate policy was to some extent successful this time, but the interest rate cannot be decreased more than zero when the value of the government bonds decreases next time. Besides, most companies did not borrow from banks to invest new facilities even the interest rate is zero. Most companies had to downsize the organization and reduce employees and corporate bonds to survive in the recession. Even if they started new business and made new goods, Japanese consumers would not buy such things.

A Poetic Tragedy Essay -- Literary Analysis

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, accepted to have been in written between 1599 and 1601. Perhaps the most famous tragedy ever written, the plays is about Prince Hamlet’s revenge for his father’s murder which eventually leads to his own death. The central character of the play is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Hamlet becomes the tragic champion who successfully makes his reprisal for his father's death by murdering the antagonist, monarch Claudius, but he furthermore misplaces his own life as well as the inhibits of those dearest to him in the end. At the opening of the play, Hamlet’s dejected for his father's death and the quick remarriage of his mother and King Claudius motives his attempt to find out the truth, and furthermore, his dead father informs him about his murder as a ghost, which determinants him to revenge (Edwards 52). Hamlet’s madness, hesitation to action, demand for visual proof, and final revenge are conventions of a dramatic form called revenge tragedy. All through the play, from searching the killing to justifying the truth, and finally revenge, Hamlet is bent on avenging his father’s death. Claudius is in alignment to come to his aid of revenge, which is the principal theme all through the play. The play, focused in Denmark, explains how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius for killing the historic King Hamlet, Claudius's own male sibling and Prince Hamlet's dad, and then marrying Gertrude, the King Hamlet's widow and mother of Prince Hamlet. The play vividly journals the path of natural and pretended madness—from swamping failure to seething rage—and discovers topics of deceit, revenge, incest, and lessons in fraud (Hoy 99). Throughout the play, Hamlet has numerous opportunities’ to ave... ...William. Literature for Composition. Longman, 2011. Print. 908-1011 Edwards, Phillip. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New Cambridge Shakespeare ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 52-63. Hoy, Cyrus. Hamlet. Norton Critical Edition ser. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1992. 99-111 Lott, Bernard. Hamlet. New Swan Shakespeare Advanced ser. New ed. London: Longman, 1970. 72-88. Ronald Knowles. Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 52, No. 4 (Winter, 1999). 1046-1069 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Article Stable : http://www.jstor.org/stable/2901835 Spencer, T. J. B. Hamlet. New Penguin Shakespeare ser. London: Penguin. 1980. 67-81 Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor. The Complete Works. By William Shakespeare, The Oxford Shakespeare. Compact ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 231-241.

Fredrick Douglass

Fredrick Douglass Essay The great civil rights activist Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation in February 1818. His given name, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, seemed to portend an unusual life for this son of a field hand and a white man, most likely Douglass's first master, Captain Aaron Anthony. Perhaps Harriet Bailey gave her son such a distinguished name in the hope that his life would be better than hers.She could scarcely imagine that her son's life would continue to be a source of interest and inspiration nearly 190 years fter his birth. Indeed, it would be hard to find anyone who more closely embodies this year's Black History Month theme, â€Å"From Slavery to Freedom: Africans in the Americas. † Like many in the nineteenth-century United States, Frederick Douglass escaped the horrors of slavery to enjoy a life of freedom, but his unique personal drive to achieve Justice for his race led him to devote his life to the ab olition of slavery and the movement for black civil rights.His fiery oratory and extraordinary achievements produced a legacy that stretches his influence across the centuries, aking Frederick Douglass a role model for the twenty-first century. One reason Douglass's story continues to resonate is that his life embodies the American dream of overcoming obstacles and reaching one's goals. Young Frederick Bailey spent his first twenty years in slavery, first on a Talbot County, Maryland plantation, then in the ship-building city of Baltimore.In the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, he recounts the adversity of his early life. He rarely saw his mother who worked as a ield hand, had barely enough clothes to cover his body, and had to eat from a trough like a farmyard animal. As he grew old enough to work he passed through a series of masters, some kind and some cruel. The influence of Frederick Douglass reaches beyond his symb olic role as America's most famous former slave, although in his lifetime moving from slavery to freedom proved a tremendous accomplishment.He continues to be relevant to both history and modern American culture because he moved beyond enjoying freedom to edicate his life to the principle that struggle is necessary to achieve progress. His desire to make his world a more Just place led him to fght for the abolition of slavery and to support social Justice and civil rights for African Americans and women. We would do well to follow his example, and to take inspiration from his famous words that â€Å"It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. † Fredrick Douglass By Ishman2941

In some countries such as MEDCs population is stabilizing due to low birth rates and low death rates

In some countries such as MEDCs population is stabilizing due to low birth rates and low death rates. However, other countries, mostly in LEDCs, the population isn't stabilizing and instead is increasing. Reasons for this are that people are now living longer due to better health care, while poor education and poor knowledge of birth control means that birth rates are increasing while death rates are decreasing leading to overpopulation. Governments have now begun to recognize the problems caused by population growth and have introduced anti-natalist policies aiming to reduce fertility. Countries suffering from overpopulation are India, Singapore, Nigeria, China and India. Here the governments have implied policies such as later marriages, birth spacing and inheritance laws. Also in India, if a man volunteers for a vasectomy he would receive a free transistor radio. However, perhaps the most famous policy of all is China's ‘one child policy'. China is the third largest country in terms of areas – 9596960 km2. In terms of population it is the biggest nation with 1.2 billion people, who make up 21.5% of the world's total population. The problems China faced were that only 7% of China is land area. While only 50% of this land is farmable and only 13% suitable for arable farming. This situation is then made worse by 94% of the Chinese population living in the badly overpopulated southeast of the country, which consists of 43% of land. While only 6% live in the northwest of the country, which consists of 57% of land. This has led to an imbalance between population and resources. Secondly in 1949, China was made a communist country. At this stage, China sought to maximise its population for military and strategic strength. By 1960 CBR had peaked at 45/1000. The sheer size of the Chinese population put increased demands on services such as food, housing, education and employment. In fact during the 1970s the government feared that further population increases would result in mass starvation by the end of the century. This triggered the government to enforce anti-natalist policies. Options were considered such as: Increase death rate – however not a legitimate government policy. Encourage out migration – too many Chinese for this to be successful. Import more resources – implications for the rest of the world, especially LEDCs. Therefore the only option was to reduce the birth rate, which led to the 1979 ‘one child policy'. This included: Compulsory abortion if a couple already had one child (if a couple managed to escape abortion and have more than one child then there were economic penalties). The introduction of ‘Granny police' – who were older women who went round checking younger women weren't pregnant. Compulsory sterilisation – the government would send in the army to gather men and sterilize them. Later marriages and the use of contraception were also encouraged. The one child policy found greatest success amongst the urban population – where it was more strictly enforced and accepted. Therefore in 1994 the government introduced the ‘new family plan'. This aimed to educate farmers, in rural areas, on the basis that they will naturally come to understand why fewer children means achieving prosperity sooner. The outcomes of the one child policy were that the Birth rate was reduced from 45/1000 to 22/1000. In this respect the policy has therefore been regarded as a success. Couples are wealthier due to economic improvements while they no longer fear the official penalties of increased housing, schooling and medical costs for larger families. However, there have also been a number of problems with the policy. Firstly, there is now an ageing population, which have a number of potential problems in itself. In the early 90s there were about 100 million Chinese people over 60 – which encountered for 9% of the population. By 2030 it is expected to have increased to 25% of the population. This is likely to lead to a limitation in the labour supply. While pensions and retirement benefits are few, and there has never been much state pension for the elderly. Other problems are that most Chinese families want a son. This has led to some female babies being allowed to die after birth through deliberate exposure, neglect or in some areas the feeding of poisonous berries. This leads to a gender imbalance. This could cause problems for China, as it is likely to lead to a considerable amount of unmarried men, causing social instability and a growing demand for prostitution. There is also the tendency for the child to become spoilt. This will be the only child a couple will ever have, therefore all their ambitions and money are channelled into the child's education, well-being and comfort. However, in the course of time such a spoilt child could become the sole support for up to six aged people. In conclusion, without the one child policy china would almost certainly be chaos and an economic mess. Therefore although there are serious problems with the policy, the success of dramatically reducing the population outweighs the potential consequences that China now faces. However, it is not only China who have introduced dramatic anti -natalist policies to reduce the population. Indonesia attempted to even out its differences in population density between its inner and outer islands through a transmigration scheme.

The Study of Human Resource Recruiting and Selection

The recruit and selects is human resources management foundation work, it is the enterprise recruits talented person’s main way. This research intends to compare the human resource planning when carrying out recruitment and selection activities within an organization, as well as the issues of managerial shifts. The purpose of this research is to provide the relationship between the recruitment and selection, no matter it is in traditional firms or high technique company. In addition, some related issues will be addressed to analyze the relationship among variables in the viewpoints of strategic human resource. The aspects of recruiting and selection consistent recruiting methods, the recruiting effectiveness, besides it know how, the supporting staff is more appropriate to be sent outbound of he is more accommodating to the environment. Recruitment and Selection Recruitment is the process of seeking and attracting a pool of qualified applicants from which candidates for job vacancies can be selected. And selection is the linking of selection activities to he organisation’s strategic business objectives and culture. At the first of recruits procedure is human resource planning, make a planning of recruitment involve times, jobs and number of people. The second is recruitment, to acquaintance the market, accepts the application. Then is selecting include preliminary interview, interview and other test, after all of these, the company may consider to make a decision about employ and send a message. At last we should make an evaluation about the programmed decision and efficiency. Recruits and selects contains separately in the human resources plan, takes two important components. ? Recruitment In the recruitment industry there are essentially four ways of recruit new employees. First method: utilization of employment agencies. Which serve as a central location for employers and employees to meet. In an employment agency, one application for employment can be considered for numerous positions with various companies. Second method: recruitment websites. Serve as a virtual employment agency and function in essentially the same way. Recruitment websites have a broader range, however, since prospective employers and employees can be located anywhere in the world. Third method: headhunting Involves the active search for exceptionally skilled, talented individuals for professional and executive recruitment. The â€Å"headhunter† travels anywhere that the potential employee benefits package that is difficult to refuse. Fourth method: in-house recruitment Involves the promotion of employees from lower-wage jobs to higher ones within the same company. Also, in-house recruitment may include the posting of bulletins on lunch room bulletin boards, narrowing the job search to current employees or their families and friends. ? Selection Making the wrong hiring choices is costly and time consuming for organizations of all sizes. An effective way for businesses to identify the best candidates for a position is through a structured, job focused interviewing process, where interviewers have effective interviewing skills and understand the legal aspects of employment practices. For example, the strategy of managerial talent the TCL selects. ? Clear about managerial talent’s quality and ability request: Along with TCL enterprise group's growing strong, is getting higher and higher to all levels of managerial talent's quality and ability request. he final goal, is adapts the high strength market competition, the acceleration and the international market trail connection, thus causes the enterprise to advance to the internationalization. The excavation wisdom, the multi-skill, the highly effective outstanding person managerial talent becomes most important. TCL proposed that , to be a qualified administrative personn el should have the following quality: 1. Specialized quality: Does is faces the world, face future superintendent, must have the high ideological awareness, with good occupational ethics. Has the intense historical mission and the sacrificing spirit, approves the enterprise culture highly 2. Policy-making quality: The decision-making materially is to achieve the organization goal, correct analysis, effective action process. Participates in the critical moment decisive function which in the enterprise competes and grows strong 3. Leadership quality: The leadership is one should say that rallies together to achieve the organization goal the behavior. The outstanding leader has the very strong influence and the rallying point. Has the high prestige in the populace. 4. Intelligence quality: The intelligence is refers to the people to know the objective things, and using understanding actual problem ability. To the administrative personnels, the intelligence quality is engaged in the leadership work the precondition. The administrative personnels pay great attention to strengthen the self-development consciousness, improves own intelligence quality. Thus, can better deal with the market competition. 5. Innovation quality: The superintendent is the enterprise innovative activities initiator. Enterprise innovation including mentality innovation, knowledge renewal and so on. The innovation is the modern competition win sharp weapon. Therefore, the modern enterprise policy-makers should have the very strong innovation ability ? Grasps the science efficient path to select managerial talent 1. Democracy recommendation: The democracy recommendation chooses only then the beginning, it indicates the people to the above-mentioned person to be possible the receptivity. In order to manifest chooses only then the objectivity, fairness, integrity. Therefore, the democracy recommendation throughout chooses only then one of essential methods. 2. Achievement inspection: The working ability determination's most practical method is manifests through the achievement. Usually inspects its work thought to be correct or not, the method of work is whether scientific, working efficiency height. This achievement inspection way, becomes the modern human affairs science inspection the new system. Human resource planning. A human resource plan is a systematic process of matching the interests, skills and talents of individual community members with the long-term goals and economic opportunities in the community. Like all activities, creating a human resource plan needs to involve the relevant community sectors, so that their participation and input will lead to strong community support. A very real need to see results makes planning seem wasteful of time, diverting efforts from doing. Impatience with planning is always a challenge. Public expectations may be unrealistic, looking for jobs as an immediate outcome. Careful assessment may turn up more human resource development needs than the projected or existing resources and funding can handle, and this may require excruciating choices. Conclusion Recruitment and selects has two meanings; first, recruitment with selects is the enterprise obtains the human resources the method; second, recruitment with selects means that chooses the most appropriate staff. Realizes the person hillock match, matches personally with the team, matches personally with the organization. How is the employment recruit work quality to the enterprise the influence often long-term, even decisive. Formulate exterior personnel replacement plan goal is has the plan to buy in the personnel to supplement in the future the vacant job. The exterior personnel replacement plan is not only plans simply needs to introduce any personnel, but also to introduce how many personnel. And must coordinate to work out a series of plans to guarantee that can incur to the appropriate human resources. According to the plan step and the content, may divide into again the exterior personnel replacement plan two sub-plans, namely recruits to plan and to select the plan.

Euphemism in Cross-Cultural Communication

Cross-Cultural Communication Vol. 8, No. 6, 2012, pp. 66-70 DOI:10. 3968/j. ccc. 1923670020120806. 1356 ISSN 1712-8358[Print] ISSN 1923-6700[Online] www. cscanada. net www. cscanada. org Cross-Cultural Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemisms WANG Xiaoling[a]; ZHANG Meng[a],*; DONG Hailin[a] [a] College of Foreign Languages, Hebei United University, West Xinhua Road, Tangshan, China. * Corresponding author.Supported by Study on Application of Cross-Cultural Teaching Concept in New Standard College English Teaching; Key Project of Ministry of Education for the Year 2010, the Eleventh Five-year Plan for Educational Sciences (Grant No. gpa105030). Received 18 August 2012; accepted 7 December 2012 Abstract The use of euphemisms is a common linguistic phenomenon in all languages. By using euphemisms, people can indirectly and politely express their ideas, without making the listeners feel awkward and unpleasant. As a mirror of culture, the generation and development of euphemis ms are closely related to culture.Euphemisms in English and Chinese are also abundant, but they have both differences and similarities in expressions and cultural connotations. The cross-cultural contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemisms can help people correctly understand the deep meaning in English and Chinese languages and overcome the obstacles in crosscultural communications. Key words: Euphemisms; Culture; Cross-culture; Contrastive study WANG Xiaoling, ZHANG Meng, DONG Hailin (2012). CrossCultural Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemisms.CrossCultural Communication, 8 (6), 66-70. Available from: http://www. cscanada. net/index. php/ccc/article/view/j. ccc. 1923670020120806. 1356 DOI: http://dx. doi. org/10. 3968/j. ccc. 1923670020120806. 1356. â€Å"speech†, so the word â€Å"euphemism† literally means â€Å"word of good omen†. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (2000) defines â€Å"euphemism† as â€Å"A kind of expressing method which aims at making people feel less embarrassed by using some words with vague and ambiguous meaning instead of those which may make people feel unpleasant and not respected†.The generation of euphemism has its social foundation. While communicating with others, people often face the situation where they can not directly express what they want to say, or sometimes a direct expression will cause the listeners awkward and unpleasant. In these cases, people tend to choose an indirect and roundabout way to express their ideas and thoughts, so as to avoid the embarrassment. With this purpose, euphemisms come into being. Whereas the use of euphemisms is not only a social phenomenon, it is also a cultural one.The generation of euphemism is also closely related to culture. Due to the low social productivity in the early stage of human society, people were lack of scientific and cultural knowledge, thus there existed a superstitious belief that the direct call of t he name of God or a ghost will bring them bad fortune. Then the names of God and ghosts became language taboo and people found substitutes of these names. These substitutes then became euphemisms of that time. With the development of the society, euphemisms in all languages also changed.And this on-going change has always being relying on culture. Different nations possess different natural environment, social patterns, ideological systems, modes of production and values. All these can be reflected in the use of language, including the use of euphemisms. 1. EUPHEMISM AND ITS RELATION WITH CULTURE The word â€Å"euphemism† originated from a Latin word. Its prefix â€Å"eu† means â€Å"good†, and â€Å"phemism† means 2 . C U LT U R A L S I M I L A R I T I E S A N D DIFFERENCES REFLECTED BY ENGLISH AND CHINESE EUPHEMISMS When we compare different cultures, we will find that theCopyright  © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 66 WANG Xiaolin g; ZHANG Meng; DONG Hailin (2012). Cross-Cultural Communication, 8 (6), 66-70 similarities and differences of the developing course of human society are manifested in cultures. Language is not only the mirror of culture, but also a part of culture. So the similarities and differences of cultures are undoubtedly reflected by English and Chinese languages, including euphemisms. 2. 1 Cultural Similarities Reflected by Euphemisms Euphemism as a cultural phenomenon has its specific role to play in culture.Cultural similarities reflected by English and Chinese euphemisms can be concluded by the functions of euphemisms. Basically speaking, the functions of English and Chinese euphemisms are the same, which can be divided as taboo-avoiding function, politeness function, and deception function. These functions show the universal characters of human culture. 2. 1. 1 Taboo-Avoiding Function In English and Chinese, there are some words that cannot be directly said out.For example, during the ti me when Christianity was prevalent in the western countries, the name of God â€Å"Jehovah† became the biggest taboo, so many euphemisms were created to replace the name, such as â€Å"the Almighty†, â€Å"the Supreme Being†, â€Å"Holy one†, â€Å"the Eternal†, â€Å"the Creator†, â€Å"the Maker†, â€Å"the Savior†, â€Å"the light of the world†, â€Å"the Sovereign of the Universe†, â€Å"Our Father†, etc.. In ancient China, the names of emperors are also tabooed. For example, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, changed â€Å" † (the first month of a lunar year) into â€Å" † so as to avoid the pronunciation of the character â€Å"? which is the same as the character â€Å"? † used in his name. Another example is the euphemistic expression of â€Å"death†. People generally believe that the greatest misfortune is nothing than death, so there are taboos and euphemisms ab out death both in English and Chinese. The word â€Å"death† cannot be directly mentioned, and euphemisms about death are various. In English, the word â€Å"die† can be replaced by â€Å"to pass away†, â€Å"to expire†, â€Å"to be no more†, â€Å"to breathe one’s last†, â€Å"to come to an end†, â€Å"to join the majority†, â€Å"to go to one’s rest†, â€Å"to sleep the final sleep†, â€Å"to be gathered to one’s father†, â€Å"return to dust†, â€Å"run one’s race†, â€Å"be no onger with us†, â€Å"to be at peace†, â€Å"to be at rest†, â€Å"to be asleep in the arms of God/ Jesus†, â€Å"pay the debt of nature†, etc.. In Chinese, the word â€Å"? † can be replaced by â€Å" † etc.. 2. 1. 2 Politeness Function It is a normal human psychology for everybody to be respected and keep dignity before the others. So to avoid hurting others’ feelings and pride in a conversation, people often use euphemistic expressions in stead of words that will lead to the unwanted result. For instance, in Chinese, people will call those who are physical handicapped â€Å"? ?† in stead of â€Å" . Similarly, in English, the word â€Å"handicapped† is euphemistically expressed by â€Å"disabled† to show people’s respect. The â€Å"deaf† people are described as â€Å"hard of listening†, and â€Å"blind† people are â€Å"the visually challenged†. At present, euphemisms about body figure are more often used than ever before. As more and mo re people pay attention to their figure, you need to be careful while talking to those who have much weight. The word â€Å"fat† could never be used. But you can use words like â€Å"plump, stout, out-size, over-weight† to describe such person. In Chinese, it is also more polite to use words like â€Å" † etc..The politeness function of euphemisms is well demonstrated by the description of these low or humble occupations. To some extent, the occupations people are engaged in can show their social status, so people in the low hierarchy are usually sensitive towards their jobs. A decent and respectful call of their occupation will show respect for such persons. Therefore, â€Å"sanitation engineer† is created for â€Å"garbage collector†, â€Å"cleaning operative† is created for â€Å"road-sweeper†, â€Å"domestic help† is created for â€Å"maid† and â€Å"security officer† is created for â€Å"janitor†. In modern Chinese, there are also similar euphemisms about occupations.For example, people call â€Å" † in stead of â€Å" †, and â€Å" ?† or â€Å" † in stead of â€Å" †. These euphemisms about occupations not only show the raise of civilization level, but also people’s awaren ess of social equity. 2. 1. 3 Deception Function With the development of the society, the use of euphemisms is not only limited in avoiding taboos and caring for the listeners’ feelings. On many occasions, it is also employed to hide the facts, and to achieve some ulterior goals. Euphemisms of this kind are widely seen in political and economic areas to deceive the public or distort the pacts.For example, words used in war, such as â€Å"invasion† and â€Å"raid† are disguised as â€Å"incursion†, â€Å"involvement† and â€Å"military action†; Failure in a war is disguised as â€Å"break off contact with enemy†; The thousands of homeless people in the war are called â€Å"transfer of population†; â€Å"Attack† is disguised as â€Å"active defense†, etc.. These cosmetic words conceal the nature and cruelty of war, and provide reasonable excuse for waging wars. For politicians, these euphemistic words are good tools to whitewash themselves and protect themselves from being excused or charged. Euphemisms in the economic area are also widely seen.For example, â€Å"economic crisis† is replaced by â€Å"depression† or â€Å"recession†; â€Å"poor nations† is replaced by â€Å"underdeveloped nations†, â€Å"developing nations†, or â€Å"emerging nations†. These words all cover up the reality to some extent, and the real meaning of these words need careful thinking. 2. 2 Cultural Differences Reflected by Euphemisms Due to the culture difference between English and Chinese, a topic often being talked about in one culture 67 Copyright  © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture Cross-Cultural Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemisms ay be tabooed in another culture, and something unacceptable in one culture may be quite normal in another. 2. 2. 1 Different Attitudes Towards â€Å"Old Age† The westerners are afraid of old age. In their opinion, old age indicates decay. So in many western countries, inquiring others’ age is seen to be an offense, because â€Å"age† is a sensitive topic. There are many euphemisms describing old age, such as â€Å"senior citizen, advantage in age, the mature, seasoned man, full of ages, be feeling one’s ages, past one’s prime† etc.. On the contrary, it is a tradition for Chinese people to respect the old.As far as Chinese people are concerned, â€Å"old age† stands for wisdom and experience. In Chinese, people often add the word â€Å"? † after a person’s family name to show his respect, such as â€Å" † and â€Å" †. Besides, the word â€Å"? † can also be added before a person’s family name to show intimacy with this person, such as â€Å" †, â€Å" †. If a person has much experience in an occupation and is respected by others, people will call him or her â€Å" ?† â€Å" † or â€Å" † etc.. Other words indicating old age like â€Å" † all show respect to these old people. 2. 2. Attitudes Towards Privacy The westerners attach much importance to privacy, which includes age, marriage, income, religious belief, political tendency etc. , and they do not want the others to know much about these contents. For example, a western lady will take an immediate aversion if she is asked about her age and marriage state. While in China, you can often hear people around talking about age, marriage and even income. Topics like â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" † are not forbidden either. Inquiring others’ salary or the price of some private belongings is also seen as impolite in the west.If you really want to know the price of an item, you can ask â€Å"It is expensive? † in stead of directly asking â€Å"How much is it? † But in China, you will have no worry to ask the price. Religious belief and political tendency are also private in the west. Questions like â€Å"What party do you vote for? † and â€Å"What’s your religion? † cannot be asked. But in China, these questions are also free to ask. 2. 2. 3 Naming and Appellation Chinese people attach more importance to family than people in the west, and their respect for the elder generation is also shown in naming and appellation.The name of a young should not be the same as his or her elder generation, even the pronunciation should be different. Young people could not directly call the name of the elderly ones; Instead they call them according to the rank in the family such as â€Å" , , , ? ?† etc.. Comparatively, English-speaking people do not have such strong sense of family rank and social stratum. In the western countries, there is no taboo in naming and appellation. People of different rank in the family hierarchy and social status could call each other’s name directly. It is common to hear children call their parents and even grandparents’ names.And it is also very common for a younger person to have a same name with the elder generation. The westerners believe this kind of appellation and naming is a way of showing intimacy and will draw close the relationship between people. To some extent, it reflects the westerners’ pursuit of equality. 2. 2. 4 The Use of Numbers Cultures about numbers exist in both Chinese and English. There are different taboos about number in different cultures. In the western culture, the number 13 is seen as an unlucky number which people tend to avoid in their daily life.For example, it is rare to see 13 people gather around the same table while having dinner or meetings. It is also forbidden to have 13 dishes on the dinner table. House number, storey number and other number marks all avoid using this number. In Chinese, the pronunciation of â€Å"4† is similar to the character â€Å"? † (die) , so people are unwilling to use this number in doorplate, story number, phone number etc.. The pronunciation of number â€Å"3† is similar to the character â€Å"? †, so weddings and birthday parties are not held on this day.Besides, there is a saying in Chinese that good things should be in pairs, so it is also a tradition to hold important things on even number days, so as to wish that good luck could come. 3. EUPHEMISMS AND CROSSCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 3. 1 The Definition of Cross-Cultural Communication Chinese scholar JIA Yuxin and GUAN Shijie defined cross-cultural communication as â€Å"communication between people from different cultural background† (JIA, 1997) and â€Å"communication between people or group from one cultural background and people or group from another cultural background† (GUAN, 1996).Larry offered his definition of â€Å"intercultural communication† as â€Å"Intercultural communication is communication between people whos e cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event† (Larry, 2009). In conclusion, inter-cultural communication, which is a kind of communication behavior, is the communication between people from different cultural background, social psychology, and people speaking different languages. 3. The Influence of Culture Differences on Cross-Cultural Communication While communicating with a person of another language, people always carry out the communication process on the basis of their own language and culture. Obviously culture differences will manifest themselves in the understanding and use of euphemisms throughout cross-cultural Copyright  © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 68 WANG Xiaoling; ZHANG Meng; DONG Hailin (2012). Cross-Cultural Communication, 8 (6), 66-70 communication. Thus cross-cultural understanding barrier or improper use of euphemisms will lead to pragmatic failures. . 2. 1 Pragmatic Failures Cause d by Different Expression Modes English and Chinese euphemisms are typically different in structure and expression mode. Because of these differences, speakers of one language often have difficulty in grasping the information of another language. For example, Chinese speakers will be confused when they hear those English euphemisms consisted by numbers like â€Å"go to the fourth† (go to the toilet) and â€Å"a forty-four† (a prostitute). There are also some euphemisms in the form of abbreviation, like B. O. (body odor), V. D. C. (venereal disease), and T. B. tuberculosis), which will lead to understanding difficulty if the readers are lack of relative background information. Similarly, the profound Chinese culture has given birth to quantities of unique expressions, such as â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" †, which also make the westerners confused. Besides, the use of twopart allegorical sayings, such as â€Å" — (? )†, â€Å" — à ¢â‚¬ , and â€Å" — (? )† etc. is also a unique feature of Chinese euphemisms. The use of this special structure can help release the mood in an over straightforward Chinese expression, and help readers guess the meaning inside it.But the English readers are not familiar with this kind of Chinese expressions, so they can only sigh towards the contained meaning inside this kind of euphemisms. 3. 2. 2 Pragmatic Failures Caused by Different Value Orientations in Euphemisms The cultural value difference of euphemisms is best illustrated by words in political and social area. Many euphemistic words in political area are used to conceal the real political purpose. For example, in the Vietnam War, the U. S. government called the invasion â€Å"U. S. nvolvement in Vietnam†; The air raid to Libya is called â€Å"surgical strikes†; Civilian casualties in the Iraq War are understated as â€Å"collateral damage†. These euphemisms reflect the subtle attitude of the U. S. government to some extent, and at the same time, they show the handiness and concealment of political words. It is easy to be cheated by these diplomatic words without enough cross-cultural study. For another example, in the western countries, the word â€Å"sexy† is used to describe an attractive and charming person. If a lady is described as â€Å"sexy†, she will take it as praise and will be very happy.But in traditional Chinese culture, the connotation of â€Å"sexy† is somewhat close to â€Å"coquettish†. If a westerner who does not know much about Chinese culture describes a Chinese lady as â€Å"sexy†, she must feel uncomfortable and take it as an insult rather than praise. But with China enhancing its communication with the western countries, more and more Chinese people have accepted the western culture and began to praise others as â€Å"sexy†. 3. 2. 3 Pragmatic Failures Caused by Different Class Concept Many words in our daily life such as â€Å"big and small†, â€Å"high and low†, â€Å"good and bad†, â€Å"rich and poor† all indicates social rank.Compared with Chinese, English euphemisms about social rank are larger in quantity and more alert in usage. For example, in the western countries, people advocate democracy and pursuit gender equality, so they have much difficulty in understanding males in Chinese feudal society calling their wives â€Å" † and â€Å" †. English-speaking people are also alert to the rank below â€Å"the first class†. So in 1989, when West Germany held the 56th World Foundry Congress, the English instruction classified hotels as follows: A) Deluxe B) First Class C) Standard D) Private rooms.This kind of ranking criteria does not define the hotels below the first class into â€Å"the second class† and â€Å"the third class†, thus avoiding people’s psychological gap. At the same time, it upgrades each class invisibly. However this kind of ranking is difficult for Chinese people to understand and use. In cross-cultural communication, in order to avoid these pragmatic failures, language user of both English and Chinese need to sharpen their cross-cultural awareness. It is also necessary to acquire as many as possible euphemistic expressions in another language.The more characteristics we know about the culture and its euphemisms, the less barriers and pragmatic failures we will encounter. Of course, we should also bear in mind the proper situation where a certain euphemism is used; otherwise the overuse of euphemisms will appear to be pretentious and unnatural. CONCLUSION To sum up, euphemism is a common and long-standing linguistic as well as socio-cultural phenomenon in both English speaking countries and China. As a mirror of culture, euphemisms strongly reflected similarities and differences between English and Chinese cultures.These similarities and differences have brought ab out conveniences and difficulties in the process of crosscultural communication. Only when people from different cultures are fully aware of the different cultural background, cultural value orientations and cultural conventions, can they remove pragmatic barriers and carry out smooth and harmonious communication successfully. REFERENCES Bussmann (2000). Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. CAI, Yan (2005). 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Intercultural Communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Larry, A. Samovar, Richard, E. Porter, & Edwin, R. McDaniel (2009). Communication Between Cultures. Beijing: Peking University Press. LI, Zhongsheng (1991). Taboos and Customs in Chinese Language. Xi’an: Shanxi People’s Press. PAN, Min (2004).Comparative Analysis of English and Chinese Euphemism. Journal of Huaiyin Institute of Technology, (8), 42-44. XUE, Yan (2001). On English Euphemisms. Journal of Lanzhou Commercial College, (12), 108-111. Copyright  © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 70 Copyright of Cross-Cultural Communication is the property of Canadian Academy of Oriental & Occidental Culture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.