Wednesday, October 30, 2019

There are a number of problems associated with the rise of English as Essay

There are a number of problems associated with the rise of English as a world language - Essay Example Different factors work together in attaining such a privileged position. Research personals have pointed out various reasons that help to attain the position. In this regard David Crystal has the opinion that the military power is crucial. He rightly comments: â€Å"a language becomes an international language for one chief reason: the political power of its people- especially their military power† (Burns & Coffin 2001, p. 30). The international economy plays a vital role in determining the future of the English language. Due to globalization the patterns of trade is undergoing drastic changes and new working practices emerge powerfully. For example screen based labour is getting wider acceptance nowadays and it affects the use of the English language in composite ways. At present one can observe a perceptible increase in the number of persons learning and using the English language but a close examination will prove that the long term growth of English is comparatively lesser than its former status. The 20th century witnessed many scientific, economic, and cultural developments and in fact it boosted the relevance of English as well. But it cannot be expected that it will last long as there is a trend of wider mixed language use in the recent years. Mainly four sectors can be identified where English may loose its dominance. Say for the audio- visual market, computer based communication, the associated pro cesses in economic globalization and foreign language training in developing countries where the regional trade may use other language of economic importance. For hundreds of years the English language has been dominated over the mono lingual speakers but now it is expected to have a bilingual future. Language professionals have the opinion that an increasing proportion of the world’s population will be fluent speakers of more than one language in the coming years. It really will affect the dominance of English over the world population. Social value shifts also affect the language of English in a negative way. The actions of governments, institutions and individuals have helped the promotion of English in the recent years. But it was guided by the logic of economic rationalism. Now there is a great change in the public opinion that quality of life is as important as the income. These type values shifts will question the ethical issues associated with the dominance of a world language like English and cause a reassessment of its impact on other cultures (Graddol 1997). The advantages of a world language like English are several. For example in business it can be very important as a medium as the business personals working together may vary of their nationalities. There a common language has got such a great relevance and it decides the effects of their dealings. But at the same time it has got certain demerits or disadvantages as well. First of all the existence of a global language will make an elite monolingual linguistic class and they will have a dismissive and complacent attitude towards other languages. Moreover the accessibility of a common language will make the people lazy of learning other languages. They will be reluctant to utilize such an opportunity though they get a chance. Some times the global language can cause the disappearance for a minority language and it may belittle the necessity of such languages. Above all the practice of a sin gle language can be a threat to social harmony and mutual understanding. This has got historical evidence. The American civil war, the Spanish civil war, Vietnam War former Yugoslavia and contemporary Northern Ireland are

Monday, October 28, 2019

Plato and Crito Essay Example for Free

Plato and Crito Essay In Plato’s Crito, Crito attempts to persuade Socrates to flee from his death sentence. However, Crito fails because Socrates presents a counter argument which invalidates much of Crito’s original pleas. Despite this, a fallacy of justice may have been created. Even so, the Republic’s conception of justice seems to have little impact on Socrates’ existing ideas on justice. The first argument presented is the fact that the majority will look down upon Crito and others for not preventing Socrates death; they will find it to be a â€Å"shameful thing both for you and for us† because it seems â€Å"that [Crito] let the opportunity slip because of some vice, such as cowardice† (46a). Another reason which he presents to Socrates is that Crito and the others are â€Å"justified in running the risk† of â€Å"further penalty† for helping him to flee from execution† (44e). While Socrates says that he fears for them, Crito goes on to elaborate that even the sum of money to help him escape is overall â€Å"not large† (45a). He expounds further that people are willing to support him wherever he might go (45c). Next, Crito goes on to mention Socrates two sons; Crito feels that by being executed when there is a possibility to escape, he is â€Å"betraying those sons† (45c), that â€Å"one ought to see their upbringing and education through to the end† (45d). Overall, Crito feels that Socrates would be â€Å"throwing away [his] life†, which would ultimately set him in his enemies own wishes instead of his own (45c). Socrates starts his counter arguments by stating that he cannot just start rejecting the arguments that he had stated before just because of his current, unfortunate situation (46b). Because of this, he begins an examination of the arguments presented by Crito. Socrates states that the majority’s opinion is not what matters because it is not well informed, but rather it is the opinion of â€Å"the person who understands just and unjust things† (48a) that is the most valid opinion to follow. To conclude this section of his argument, Socrates proposes that â€Å"the most important thing isn’t living, but living well†, which he says is the same as living justly (48b). So, by this logic, the concerns that Crito had should be determined just or unjust for Socrates to escape when he had not been acquitted. Socrates reasons that â€Å"doing injustice in any circumstances is bad† and therefore â€Å"one should never do injustice† (49b), â€Å"no matter what one has suffered at [injustice’s] hands† (49c). He further explains through his use of the Laws that violating the contract of the city (his â€Å"deeds† within it [52d]) is only going to undermine the laws in such a way that he would indeed be held to his original charges of corruption (53c). He concludes his argument by stating that in the afterlife, Socrates will have â€Å"all this to offer as [his] defense to the authorities there† (54b). Overall, these arguments that Socrates puts forth are generally sound. However, one overarching theme that could be debated is the conception of being just by submitting to the laws. In many ways, it could be said that Martin Luther King Jr. by resisting the unjust established laws he was himself being unjust and would ultimately end up leading to a worse society. It seems obvious, however, that his actions made a positive difference to the world. Perhaps if Socrates resisted, he could have changed the unjust laws to make them just in such a way the city more just. Crito may have been right when he said that Socrates was giving in – his full potential would ultimately never be realized. If one was to attempt to define the justness of Socrates actions here by using Plato’s Republic, then it may seem that there may be a series of different arguments for justice. However, it is my own conclusion that none of the arguments for the definition of justice in the Republic would really influence Socrates in the slightest. After all, Socrates has already said he would not reject any previous arguments, all of which made in Crito are to be considered previous arguments, so it could be inferred that Plato, as the writer of the Crito, used his ideas of justice as the foundation for the dialog and eventually the Republic. Even the case of supplementary information, justice is explained in part in the Republic as â€Å"doing one’s own work† (433b). Socrates indeed did his own work and was just, but this does not address justice in an unjust city where one’s own work might be considered to be unjust. Further, the three virtues of the soul, moderation, courageousness, and wisdom (435b), were also fulfilled to some extent. Even more, by the classes of the people in the city (435c-441c), it could be said that Socrates followed his class assignment in the just city, but this is not a correlation to Athens, a city with a different class structure. Largely, the expanded view of justice is just more refinement of the original view of justice presented all throughout Plato’s dialogs. Expanded or not, the base remains the same and so it follows that Socrates’ arguments against Crito are relatively the same, even in light of the Republic. All said, Socrates arguments in response to Crito seem to be mostly plausible. Despite the world losing a skillful philosopher, at least the laws and justice of the city were upheld and Socrates therefore lived a just life, regardless of his sentence.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Communication in Health Care Essay -- Healthcare Communication

Introduction This is an analysis of a taped interview between a nurse and a patient who is taking pre-employment medicals. The information given during the interview, including her name, Pink Cloud is fictitious because of the need of confidentiality. During the interview, objective and subjective data will be collected. The areas of communication focused on in the analysis are verbal, questioning and listening skills. Analysis will be made and later suggestions and recommendations will be made on how to make improvements in the future. To achieve this, direct quotations from the will be used to make references to the three theories being analysed and will be supported by the literature. Analysis of the interview An interview is a planned interpersonal conversation with a purpose between two people who interact largely through a question and answer format to achieve specific goals. Verbal communication is a way in which people communicate face to face. The key components of verbal communication are words and phrases, intonation and clarity and brevity. Different words and phrases have different meanings. The denotation meaning is shared by individuals who share a common language while connotative meaning is the interpretation of a word’s meaning influenced by feeling and thoughts of people. Therefore, Nurses should carefully select words that cannot be interpreted, especially when explaining a client’s medical condition (Taylor & Crisp, 2006). Additionally, other concepts of verbal communication skills such as questioning and probing, paraphrasing and understanding are used when talking to patients. Questioning and probing is where various types of questions and statements... ...Apler, J. P. (2006). Professional nurse communications skills sets in health care team interactions. Journal of Professional Nursing , 22 (2), 180-189. Boyler, D. &. (2004). Enhancing collaborative communication of Nurded and Psysican Leadership. Journal of Nursing Administartion , 34 (2), 60-70. Dixon, J. &. (2006). Skilled communication:making it real.Advances in critical care. Journal of Continuing Education In Nursing , 17 (4), 376-382. Robertson, K. (2004). Active listening:more than just paying attention. Australia: Australian Family Pysician. Roter, D. (2004). The enduring and evolving nature of the patient-physician relationship. Journal of clinical oncology , 22 (13), 10-15. Stein-Parbury, J. (2009). Patient and person. New York:Churchill Livingstone. Taylor & Crisp. (2006). Fundamental of Nursing. Sydney , New south wales, Australia: Vaughn Curtis.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg (local i/ t? sb? r? /, with an /s/ sound),[6] was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War[7] and is often described as the war's turning point. [8] Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj.Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade. Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south. On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard .On the Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines. On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge.The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle. That November, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address. The Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg (local i/ t? sb? r? /, with an /s/ sound),[6] was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War[7] and is often described as the war's turning point. [8] Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj.Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade. Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south. On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard .On the Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines. On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge.The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle. That November, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Medicine in Colonial America

Medicine in Colonial America was much different from today, but gave us a lot of insight in the human body’s needs. Due to lack of education, experience, proper tools, and hygiene, many patients died. However, there were also many people who were saved through the medical procedures and lived full and healthy lives. Few doctors in Colonial America actually received a formal education through a medical school, because there was really only one school: the Pennsylvania Hospital (Rorke, n. d. ). This program was far too expensive and for some located too far away, thus they could not attend.Furthermore, because of the lack of complete knowledge, these schools would not have provided any more information than one would obtain by learning from another doctor, which in most cases would be a much cheaper education, thus, most doctors learned through apprenticeships. They had to complete a 7 year apprenticeship before being considered a doctor. Of course there were Quacks, or citizens who pretended to have medical knowledge just to make a profit. Moreover, there were female medical practitioners, called midwives.They received no formal education and learned through apprenticeships as well. They birthed children and cared for the ill that could not afford a doctor’s care, or lived too far from a medical facility. When not even a midwife was available to treat a patient, the women of the households were responsible for the family health. Another group that provided medical care was Catholic monks who came over from Europe and brought along their wisdom of operating techniques, healing herbs and essential oils. These monks had a special way of numbing their patients with a plant called henbane.Their patients overcame the operations more quickly while less of them died in contrast to using barbaric operation and healing techniques that many colonial doctors were using. Today, we have many medical schools that are still very expensive and vigorous, but provide a more well-rounded education. Just like the doctors of Colonial America, doctors today undergo a sort of required apprenticeship after medical school, called a residency, which, for a surgeon ranges from five to eight years, depending on their specialty.Midwives are still available, but usually take care of pregnancies. Today, midwives must go through special training to become either a CNM- certified nurse midwife, or a CM- certified midwife. There have been great advances in medical procedures since the late 1700’s. For example, according to Rorke (n. d. ) to amputate a limb, doctors in colonial times would first numb the patients’ pain by intoxicating them with brandy or rum and have them bite on a wooden stick.Then, the medical team would hold them down on the table, while the doctor tied a leather tourniquet around the patients’ limb. The surgeon would start to cut through the flesh with his amputation knife and then saw through the bone itself using an a mputation saw. Subsequently, the bone shavings were removed by pouring whiskey or just plain water over the wound. Conversely, the remaining limb was burned with a hot iron to close the blood vessels and veins. They could then wrap the stump with pure cotton bandages and let it heal. Only approximately 35% of patients survived this procedure!The procedure itself sounds cruel, but the patients’ lives might have been at risk if it had not taken place, such as the rotting of the flesh, or blood poisoning, caused by an accident, or being shot with a bullet or poisoned arrow. Another example would be dentistry. Most colonists had awful teeth, because they did not have toothbrushes and toothpaste. Thus, teeth needed to be pulled. Because there are no anesthetics, having your teeth pulled was a very painful process. The dentist would hold the patient down on a chair and yank the tooth out using a pair of everyday pliers.Once again, there were many quacks in this field that would pul l good teeth from patients and sell them to people who wanted real-tooth dentures. Moreover, in 2009, archeological teams found human remains where someone, presumably a doctor, had drilled three holes into the skull. This may have been done to relieve the skull of pressure caused by a blow to the head. Archeologists believe that this could have been the first attempt at brain surgery and may have planted the seed for today’s brain surgery procedures (CBSnews. com, 11 Feb. 2009).Hermann Boerhaave’s theory of wellbeing was that a person has four humors: bile, phlegm, blood and urine. If these humors were imbalanced, a person would become ill. To make him or her feel better, you must balance the humors (Brinkley, 2004). According to Rorke, â€Å"one must sweeten acids, purify the stomach, and rid impurities by bleeding and purging† or by using leeches to increase blood production, to balance these again. Most doctors actually let patients bleed out, because their â€Å"humors† were not balanced, whereas midwives prescribed laxatives to remove bile.Furthermore, Boerhaave believed that a â€Å"fever was the body’s attempt to keep from dying,† even though we now know that it is actually the body’s response to killing whatever is making the body sick. Although this sounds absurd when considering our knowledge with today’s medicine, many doctors and midwives used this theory to aid the ill and actually succeeded in some cases. Hygiene was the one major contribution to nosocomial, or hospital obtained, infections. Because doctors in the colonial times did not know about bacteria, viruses, and contagious diseases, they did not clean the equipment or even their hands.Today, doctors and surgical staffs take extra care to clean everything. Surgeons take an average of five minutes to wash, scrub, and sanitize hands, whereas surgeons in colonial times took an average of zero seconds. Doctors would not even wash their h ands when rotating between patients. As discussed in class, doctors would go from a person with a severe flu to a woman giving birth without washing their hands. This could not only sicken the woman, but also make the child ill. The death rate of women suffering from Puerperal fever was extremely high.This fever is caused by a bacterial infection from unsterile equipment and conditions during childbirth, and the woman’s body not being able to rid the toxins from childbirth fast enough. This could ultimately lead to death. One cannot stress the importance of hand washing and personal hygiene enough! Obviously, or at least it is obvious today, one must clean any equipment that touched a person, even if it’s just a stethoscope. Disease could spread from such an object to another person causing them to become ill as well. Scalpels, saws, drills, anything that goes into a person, must be sanitized.Today, hospitals heat the instruments so that almost all of the bacteria die, and then they soak them in an antibacterial solution to ensure there are no harmful things on them. Furthermore, some hospitals send the tools to be sanitized to a company that sanitizes them for the hospital. This cuts back on hours cleaning and provides security that the equipment is safe and clean, resulting in happy patients and staff. I believe today’s health care is mostly based around customer service. You want to make sure the patient is happy, healthy, and satisfied with your performance.The patient even has a choice to live or die by signing a DNR- do not resuscitate- form. In colonial America, however, the doctor really did not care if you enjoyed their service or not, they were trying to help you in the long run. Doctors also had more freedom to refuse treatment than they do today. In some ways I would like our health care to be like that of colonial America in regards to customer service, because there are so many people going to the emergency room who have a mi ld cold and hold up the patients who are in critical condition and really need to be seen as soon as possible.I am indifferent to DNR’s. I believe a person must be in critical condition, such as terminal cancer, to be eligible to sign this form. As previously mentioned, medicine has evolved tremendously between colonial America and now. It is still ever-changing, because we find a cure to diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Doctors can achieve great things, but only with the help of education, experience, sterile tools, and personal hygiene.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

All-purpose Corpus

All-purpose Corpus All-purpose Corpus All-purpose Corpus By Maeve Maddox Corpus is just one of thousands of everyday Latin words that have not only outlived their original speakers, but have replicated in English like amoebas. Latin corpus means â€Å"body.† It entered Old French as cors and passed from there into Middle English. From then on the spelling and pronunciation fluctuated until the various spellings and pronunciations took on meanings other than just plain â€Å"body.† Corpus and its plural corpora proliferate in medical terminology, giving such labels as corpus callosum and corpora striata, which name structures in the brain. Apart from learned uses, the word corpus has spawned several words that everyone is familiar with and a few that occur in literature. I’m going to look at seven of these words. 1. corpus [kohr-puhs] First there’s the word corpus itself. Although no longer used to refer to a living body, corpus still means â€Å"body† in a figurative sense. A corpus is a body of literature, a body of information, or an author’s body of works. In this sense, corpus means â€Å"collection.† There’s a subcategory of linguistics called corpus linguistics that gathers and studies collections of speech and text gathered from non-literary, non-academic sources. An example of the linguistic corpora studied is the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), an online collection of 450 million words gathered from U.S. sources, 1990-2012. 2. corpse [kohrps] Once the word for a living body, the noun corpse now means only a dead one. When it comes to choosing words for their emotional effect on the reader, corpse is probably one of the creepiest words in English. 3. corporation [kohr-puh-rey-shuhn] In 1534 a corporation was â€Å"a number of persons united, or regarded as united, in one body.† In 1611 a corporation was â€Å"a body of people legally authorized to act as a single person.† Eighteenth-century jokers called their abdomens â€Å"corporations.† I love this OED citation from Thomas Smolett (1721-1771): â€Å"Sirrah! my corporation is made up of good wholesome English fat.† In modern U.S. law, a corporation is an organization formed with state governmental approval to act as an artificial person to carry on business (or other activities), which can sue or be sued, and (unless it is non-profit) can issue shares of stock to raise funds with which to start a business or increase its capital. 4. corps [kohr] This incarnation of Latin corpus came into English a second time, again from French, this time in the expression corps d’armà ©e, literally â€Å"body of the army.† The term reflected a new way of using the army by breaking it down into smaller, more mobile tactical units. Such a unit was a corps. The word came to mean any body or company of persons associated in a common organization. In the current U.S. Army, a corps is a large unit made up of from two to five divisions. A division is made up of from 10,000 to 18,000 soldiers. Corps is also used in the name of one of the branches of the U.S. military, the Marine Corps, and government employees who serve abroad in U.S. embassies are members of the â€Å"diplomatic corps.† Corps is a popular name choice for civilian organizations that wish to suggest that their work and purpose have a military-like focus: Job Corps, Peace Corps, Mom Corps. The expression esprit de corps is used to describe the sense of enthusiasm, loyalty and devotion to a group that characterizes an organization like the Marine Corps. 5. corpulent [kohr-pyuh-luhnt] The adjective corpulent means â€Å"large, bulky, fleshy, fat.† A corpulent person has a lot of body. 6. corporeal [kohr-pohr-ee-uhl] The adjective corporeal is used to describe anything that has substance. A living person is said to be corporeal; a ghost is incorporeal. There’s a legal term, incorporeal rights, that refers to property that cannot be seen or touched, but may be owned and inherited, like copyrights, trademarks, and patents. 7. corpuscle [kohr-puh-suhl] The noun corpuscle is probably most familiar in the context of biology class. Corpuscles: Minute rounded or discoidal bodies constituting a large part of the blood.† The word comes from Latin corpusculum, â€Å"little body.† In English it can also mean â€Å"any minute body (usually of microscopic size), forming a more or less distinct part of the organism.† 8. corposant [kohr-puh-sant] This one isn’t so familiar an offspring of corpus, but it’s interesting so I’m including it. You may have heard of something called St. Elmo’s Fire. It’s a light-producing weather phenomenon. In the days of sailing vessels, sailors often saw the light playing eerily about the masts. The common name derives from the patron saint of sailors. The other name, corposant combines Latin corpus sanctum, â€Å"holy body† or â€Å"saint’s body.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should KnowItalicizing Foreign Words10 Varieties of Syntax to Improve Your Writing

Monday, October 21, 2019

Particle De in Japanese

Particle De in Japanese Particles are probably one of the most difficult and confusing aspects of Japanese sentences. A particle (joshi) is a word that shows the relationship of a word, a phrase, or a clause to the rest of the sentence. Some particles have English equivalents. Others have functions similar to English prepositions, but since they always follow the word or words they mark, they are post-positions. There are also particles that have a peculiar usage which is not found in English. Most particles are multi-functional. The Particle De Place of Action It indicates the place where an action takes place. It translates into in, at, on, and so on.   Depaato de kutsu o katta. I bought shoes at the department store. Umi de oyoida. I swam in the ocean. Means It indicates means, method, or instruments. It translates into by, with, in by means of, etc.  Ã‚   Basu de gakkou ni ikimasu. I go to school by bus. Nihongo de hanashite kudasai. Please speak in Japanese. Totalizing It is placed after a quantity, time or amount of money, and indicates an extent.  Ã‚  Ã‚   San-nin de kore o tsukutta. Three of us made this. Zenbu de sen-en desu. They cost 1,000 yen altogether. Scope It translates into in, among, within, etc.   Kore wa sekai de ichiban ookii desu. This is the biggest in the world. Nihon de doko ni ikitai desu ka. Where do you want to go in Japan? Time Limit   It indicates time consumed for a certain action or occurrence. It translates into in, within, etc.   Ichijikan de ikemasu. We can get there in an hour. Isshuukan de dekimasu. I can do it in a week. Material It indicates the composition of an object.   Toufu wa daizu de tsukurimasu. Tofu is made from soybeans. Kore wa nendo de tsukutta hachi desu. This is a bowl made of clay. Required Cost   It translates into for, at, etc.  Ã‚   Kono hon o juu-doru de katta. I bought this book for ten dollars. Kore wa ikura de okuremasu ka. How much would it cost to send this? Cause It indicates a casual reason or motive for an action or occurrence. It translates into due to, because of, owing to, etc.   Kaze de gakkou o yasunda. I was absent from school due to a cold. Fuchuui de kaidan kara ochita. I fell down the stairs due to carelessness.