Banana

Banana. When I look at this word, neither an ice cream sundae nor monkeys come to mind. Instead, I see my former self: yellow on the outside and white on the inside. Not long ago, when one got to know me, my native color of yellow peeled off, revealing the color of white that consumed the heart of me. When I entered high school, I began to feel ashamed and inferior because of my ethnicity. This was odd because I live in Hawaii, the paragon of racial diversity. But suddenly, I became aware of shared characteristics Caucasian girls seemed to posses. To me, they were beautiful, intrepid, intelligent, gregarious, and especially confident- all the qualities I longed to have. I began to feel ugly and small, even envious of their defined facial features and the strong certainty, with which they presented themselves. This admiration soon devoured me that I even tried to create double-eyelids with strips of tape. Thus, I was dubbed the nickname â€Å"Banana† by my sister. Soon, my mother and friends identified me as this deceiving fruit. This insecurity consumed me even more when I attended a leadership program in New York City. There, I met the most bright and self-assured girls. As I acted as a spectator throughout the week, my admiration for Caucasians rapidly grew. The division between Asians and Caucasians that constantly lingered in my mind was clearly illustrated one night when SeRyeong, one of the few Asians at the program, and I joined three Caucasian girls to Times Square. As we walked through the Friday night crowd, the three girls were in their own clump, always in front of SeRyeong and me. Everytime we tried to catch up to them, this gap always found its way back. This unconscious form was a mockery that bolstered my assumption: Caucasians would always be better than what I could ever be. To justify my insecurity, I began to blame the Asian race, especially my Asian pare nts. I convinced myself of the stereotype that Asians are raised to be submissive, demure, and vulnerable. I was never encouraged to openly raise questions. My family neither converses effusively at the dinner table nor always says â€Å"I love you† at the end of phone calls like my Caucasian friends do with their parents. When my parents and I get into a fight, I can never defend myself. Because of their academic expectations and tough love, I can neither achieve their full satisfaction nor that of my own. I believed these characteristics were the reasons why I was a small, insecure banana. But by constantly scorning my parents and Asian upbringing, I literally like a banana, bruised often and easily. Slowly, I began to realize that my insecurity was not a result of my ethnicity, but of me; my assumptions of Caucasians and Asians did not matter. I only blamed Asians to justify my assumptions and to hide from the fact that I was setting myself up for my own misery and insecu rity. I was my own hindrance from becoming the confident person I longed to be and could be; I was bruising myself. All this despondency, jealousy, and deprecation were completely avoidable, thus I’m the only one to blame. Although my trip to New York City was just about a year and a half ago, as a young woman who is about to become an adult, I had to overcome my weaknesses. As I mentally grew and matured during this time, I knew I needed to let go of this hindering mindset. My years as a banana have been turbulent and belittling, and truthfully, I am still in the process of shedding away my â€Å"Banana† name. But, I cherish these years for I learned that I am my most powerful catalyst. I am no longer oblivious to myself as a possible weapon of obstruction from becoming the best of me. I am beginning to let go of my immature and narrow assumption that I need to be Caucasian to feel beautiful, smart, and confident for I can embrace these characteristics regardless of my ethnicity. I am learning to no longer see myself as solely â€Å"Asian†, â€Å"wannabe-Caucasian†, or â€Å"Banana† for these distinctions do not consume me; I alone define myself.

Classroom observation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Classroom observation - Essay Example Classroom observations raise the level of teachers’ consciousness and anxiety no matter how casually a director may perform them, because the teachers know that their capabilities are being assessed and their performance is being critically analyzed. The acquired consciousness is quite likely to sap a teacher’s ability to demonstrate the best he/she has. On the other hand, owing to the great significance of classroom observations in the improvement strategies of the educational setup, their importance can not be denied and they can not altogether be eliminated. Therefore, there is need to devise ways in which classroom observations can be conducted with least inconvenience to the teachers. (Monarch) identifies ways in which the activity can be performed in the most meaningful and supportive manner. Classroom observations can be improved by pre-observation discussions, and providing the teacher with an opportunity to express his/her concerns about the class. It is advisa ble for the teacher and director to mutually select a focus of observation prior to conducting it. Data can be collected on pre-formatted layouts. Finally, feedback strategies should be well managed and the teacher’s perspective should be appreciated (Murdoch 2). Works Cited: Murdoch, George. â€Å"Classroom Observations - making them useful for teachers.† pp. 1-2.

What is e-commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What is e-commerce - Essay Example In the last decade, with the growing popularity of the internet and more people having their own personal computers, the market for e-commerce is outstanding. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Today most major retail stores have a virtual store as well, making it even easier for their customers to access their products. E-commerce was first developed in the nineteen seventies as a way for businesses to electronically send information to one another in a faster and more efficient way. With the introduction of the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) businesses were able to send documents like purchase orders and invoices electronically from one facility to the next. In nineteen seventy nine "online shopping was invented in the United Kingdom by Michael Aldrich and during the nineteen eighties it was used extensively particularly by auto manufacturers such as Ford, Peugeot-Talbot, General Motors and Nissan" (Seybold). It is believed that the reason why e-commerce has grown so quickly since its first invention in the nineteen seventies is because it is efficient and makes transactions more simple and accessible to everyone. Since it's first introduction e-commerce continued to grow. "From the nineteen nineties onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing" (Graham). The ERP software allowed businesses to store and retrieve information in real time, making online purchases more secure for both the customer and the seller. This "modular software design should mean a business can select the modules they need, mix and match modules from different vendors, and add new modules of their own to improve business performance" (Graham). Data mining is a process that transforms data into information and can be particularly helpful in detecting fraud and keeping online purchases safe while at the same time providing useful marketing information to companies about a consumer's interests. With the invention of this new process, people felt more secure purchasing items and services online because they knew that their financial infor mation would be safe. The results of data mining can help companies market their products to a specific customer group. "Based on the collections on data mining, data warehouses were intended as large-scale collection, storage, and staging areas for corporate data. Data could be retrieved from one central point or data could be distributed to 'retail stores' or 'data marts' that were tailored for ready access by users" (Frieden). Along with the invention of the EFT and EDI these three new processes are what ultimately propelled e-commerce into what it is today. The main concern for the future of e-commerce is the continued security of customers and making sure that transactions remain private. Even though online transactions are growing in number and popularity everyday, many analogists believe that e-commerce is heading for a fall. Consumers find it easier to bargain shop online, then they do shopping in physical stores. It is easier to do because all that is required is a simple click of the mouse, but a negative side affect to the opportunity for consumers to buy online is that many companies will go out of