Homework #5

1.  The chinese use a more blunt language because they think that it makes them more closer to the person they talk to. To them it is not rude but more of a comfort for them. If you talk to them and are blunt that shows that you are comfortable with them. To me I do not think that it is rude because it makes sense.  When you are talking to friends or family you talk differently because you are close and comfortable with those people.  So i think that in a way that it is polite.

2.  Me and my family went to my great uncles house in Connecticut.  They have a lot of money, nice cars and huge house. They were definitely the cliche rich New England family. It made me feel out of place because it was like they were speaking another language. They were so polite and proper they made me feel rude for speaking how i normally speak.  I think that they speak like that because they feel obligated because of their economic status. They speak like that because it’s the culture that their surrounded by.

3.  I don’t think that our language and the way we speak it really reflects our mindset.  I think that we just do this so we can identify our subjects and who we are talking to or about.  I think the chinese culture is more into being respectful in their language than we are in the US even though it doesn’t seem that way.  When we speak about our selfs we are not saying “self” to be rude but just to show the other person who we are talking about.

HW #4

1.   When I was a kid i felt a huge pressure from my father to play baseball. Since he was a college baseball prospect  back in his day he put a lot of pressure on me to do better than what he did.   I found it very helpful and all around made me a better baseball player and competitor.  Even though i hated the way he would pressure me to lift weights or do drills I wouldnt be the person i am today with out him pressuring me. 

2. Over population is a serious problem that doesn’t really have an ethical way of solving.  I would say that China should deal with it’s over population problem by giving tax breaks to familys that obey these laws about how many children they should have. The less children you have the less taxes you should have to pay.  If a family has too many kids I do not think that they should be fined because you can not control nature. To me that seems unethical and China should change those punishments.

Japan Questions

1.  Three main reasons Women in Japan aren’t having babies is 1. because women in Japan are not getting married as much as they used to in the past. 2. They’re was a population crisis so japan as a society it is accepted to not have kids and 3. The elderly in Japan are living a lot longer today so they kind of fill the gap with the child population in Japan.  I don’t think men and women in the US face the same problem because unlike japan we have a much larger land mass as a country and do not have to worry about overpopulation.  even though we don’t get married as early as we did back in the day we still have kids and continue to populate our country.

2.  The story i felt was most compelling was the one about Mrs. Muroaka. I found it very compelling that she would sacrifice so much of her time and life to take care of her mother in law.  Not her mother but her mother in law. This shows how much she really cares for her family and will sacrifice everything to keep the family together. This reminds me of my dad. My grandmother got really sick and was living on her own, so my dad had her move in with us so we could take care of her and spend the time that we had left with her.  My parents sacrificed so much to take care of her I will never forget it. That’s why this topic was so compelling and stood out to me.

3.  If I worked at the ministry of health in Japan the solution I would come up with is give tax breaks to the families that had 1-2 kids.  This would hopefully help make having kids a more common thing.  I know it sounds bad but people would have kids just for the tax break. Like in China you are punished for having too many kids but in Japan it is the exact opposite. If we gave tax breaks to people with kids it wouldn’t solve Japans population problem but it would definitely help it.

New’s Articles

http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article498429.ece
In this article this shows the hightened state that Israel and Palestine are in. It talks about Israel killing an armed Palistinian gunman. The Israelis say that the man belonged to the PRC (Popular Resistance Committee) a highly armed group that killed 8 israelis in a raid last month.  The PRC said that they were reactting to the Israeli air strike that killed top leaders in the PRC.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/09/06/3089251/new-israel-fund-petition-supports-israels-social-justice-movement
In this article it shows the close ties between American jews and Israeli jews.  About 4000 American jews signed a petition that supported Israel’s social justice movement. They had over 400000 Israeli Jews protesting about living in Israel with respect and dignity.  This article could possibly help me if I choose to write about Us and Israel relations to one another

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkey-Slaps-More-Sanctions-on-Israel-129310538.html
This article is about the ongoing conflict between Israel vs Turkey.  They are in a diplomatic war and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  Israel is accused of killing Turkish activist while they try to break through their blockade of Gaza. Turkey decided to increase sanctions and stop military trading . This would be a good source if I choose to go with the ideae of Israel military conflicts in the middle east.

Interesting Facts Israel

Interesting facts on Israel

1.  Israel is the worlds only Jewish majority state
2. They have one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
3.  Jerusalem is the countries capital but is not recognized internationally
4.  Israel is divided into six different districts.
5.  East Jerusalem is widely recognized as a part of Palestine (except to Israel).

3 Research Topics

1.  Diversity of religion in Jerusalem
2. Israel vs US in technology growth
3. Palestine vs Israel. Transformation of Israel.