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Action Learn Your Affiliate Business

You want to develop your home-based business but feel isolated and unsure? One of the downsides of working for yourself is the loss of social interaction that frequently accompanies working for someone else.

Sometimes the issues involved in building your own business seem overwhelming – computer viruses, accounting, marketing strategies, web development, search engine optimization, privacy legislation, tax returns, anti-spam legislation, skeptical relatives and so the list goes on.

Action learning is one way to overcome this sense of isolation and uncertainty, build confidence and continuously improve your Internet business.

Action learning involves learning through action while collaborating with others on personal and business development. It is based on the principles of collaboration, mutual respect and honesty.

Learning to collaborate

Once we build our own business, we typically develop the competitive mindset that we need to survive. We research the competition, determine where our competitive advantage lies, decide what products and services we will offer at what prices and determine how to position ourselves within the competititve marketplace. It is very easy to isolate ourselves and withdraw from our normal circle of supportive relationships. However, it is possible to develop and maintain new relationships while building your business.

For example, I have three professional women friends who have been meeting monthly for a number of years over coffee by the river. They meet to explore with each other ways to develop themselves and grow their respective businesses.

At each meeting, they focus on a major issue for one person while the other two act as critical friends. Sometimes, they may take in turns within one meeting to offer personal or business issues for discussion. The number of issues covered in a meeting will depend on the available time and the depth of the issues involved. Issues may be personal, relationship, family or business. They recognise that life balance is critical to business success and to their capacity to offer value to their clients/customers.

Supportive challenge through mutual respect

The action learning approach combines support with challenge. The aim is to support each other emotionally while being prepared to challenge each other intellectually.

The challenge comes from asking fresh questions that are designed to unearth fundamental assumptions or beliefs about the nature of the problem being addressed. Often our own false beliefs about ourselves, our business or our competition holds us back from realising personal and business growth.

In our everday life we often experience the separation of support and challenge. Support without challenge can reinforce the status quo and perspectives that are unhelpful or damaging. Challenge without support can be self-serving (building oneself up while taking the other person down)and damaging to the self-esteem of the other person (by reinforcing feelings of inadequacy).

Supportive challenge has as its object, building the self-esteem of the other person while helping them to recognise the limitations of their existing mindset about a problem, person or issue. It is about helping the other person to be the best they are capable of being.

Learning to be honest

A fundamental value of action learning is the willingness to admit what you do not know or understand. This is often difficult in the social and business culture that we have today where knowledge and efficiency are so highly prized. However, honesty is the starting point for real learning.

Honesty requires trust and preparedness to be vulnerable. This is a lot easier if you are sharing with supportive friends. Openness builds if the group meets regularly and each person brings to the meeting the intention of working together to build personal and business effectiveness. Over time, honesty grows, relationships develop and effectiveness builds in all spheres of your lives.

Action learning as mutual coaching

Action learning can be a form of mutual coaching where people agree to take action on insights gained from the meetings. The value of the process is enhanced when each meeting includes a review of progress made since the previous meeting. Reflection on action and outcomes from those actions is fundamental to action learning.

If you engage in action learning you will be supported to go outside your comfort zone and try new things. You will be pleasantly surprised at what you are capable of achieving with the supportive challenge of reflective friends.

Learn The Hot Dog Business!

Hot Dog Vending

A Hot Dog Cart is a specialized mobile food stand for preparing and selling street food, to passerbies. A cart operator must meet health regulations designed to protect the public from food poisoning from food borne illnesses. They are quick and easy foodservice, supplying millions of people with food every day.

It is generally a compact, full self-contained and designed to serve a limited menu. An on-board or stand-alone cooler is used to keep them safely chilled until ready for reheating. It also provides a cold storage for beverages such as soda, and water. Most carts now use propane to heat the foods, making them independent of electrical power. A colorful umbrella is often installed to protect the food preparation area from contamination, provide some shade and advertise the cart’s location

They are generally built from materials that resist corrosion, hygiene friendly and are easy to keep clean. They are generally made of polished stainless steel, but some carts also have components made from plastic, wood and fiberglass. The food preparation body of the cart in often mounted on a chassis that can be easily transported to a vendor’s location either by hand or towed by a vehicle. There are several types of carts that range from lightweight push cart that weight up to 200 lbs, to fully enclosed walk-in carts weighing a ton or more.

The mechanics are essential to the taste and safety of the food. The inside contains pans that steam or boil you food. They are constructed so that the proper temperatures are consistently met and the food is well cooked.

The first one was manufactured for Charles Feltman in 1867. Charles Feltman owned a pie-wagon that delivered fresh baked pies to the inns and lager-beer saloons that lined Coney Island’s beaches. He clients wanted hot sandwiches to serve their clients. But, his wagon was too small. So he presented his idea the manufacturer of his pie-wagon manufacture. The solution was adding a tin lined chest to keep the rolls fresh and rigging s small charcoal stove to boil sausages. When the new pie-wagon was finished, low and behold the first one was created.

They are popular for many reasons. One reason, of course, is the hot dog itself. They are a permanent place alongside pizza and the cheeseburger as an American classic.

Another reason the they are popular is the cart itself. In most cases people eat their food at home, office or in a restaurant. It is a novel experience to grab a hot dog from a cart. This novelty offers the hot dogs cart a unique ambience.

People who buy from a Vendor want to be cheered up. They want to be reminded of old times when things were better, or so they thought. And nothing is better then buying a good tasting hot dog for a lot of people.

Finally it offers a quick affordable meal. They are designed for the smoothest, quickest delivery possible of fresh food.

Why Become a Hot Dog Vendor?

“You are never unemployed when you work for yourself”

James O Mazzola:

Why Selling Food Is Good Business

Selling is the oldest business in human history. In the annals of human evolution, the individual is able to sell what they have either for barter or money. Selling food in one of the best business that has sprung forth from human interaction.

Food is in constant demand. It is one of the basic needs of an individual. Not everyone though has the time or the skills and equipment to cook food. From here on end, people have chosen to go to these skilled cooks. Now, one of the most constant and consistent business that has earned money are those that are in the food service. They can be as simple as a hot dog stand to fine dining.

Food never goes out of style. No matter how ancient or original the recipe is, so long as it tastes good and is fulfilling, food never goes out of style. The demand for food is constant and with the increase in population, food demand is definitely on the increase. The art and science of the food preparation is the centerpiece of the business. Making good food makes for good business.

The Allure of Hot Dog Stands

When you are in a public park, out door event or on a street corner, you are sure to find a cart in the area. You can see there are many people milling around the hot dog stand, looking in and often buying hot dogs. There is a reason why this is such a regular sight to see and here are the reasons why the allure of stands attracts so many patrons.

A full meal. A hot dog stand provides a customer a full meal at a cheap price. They provide much protein and nutrients to help you on your way. It is cheap and often does not cost more the five dollars. The sandwich provides the fiber and the condiments provide the flavor for the full meal.

Food to go. Aside from waiting in line, you do not spend much time waiting for the food to be prepared. Once you have paid for it, you can easily walk away and eat your meal.

Food fun. Vending Carts are often served in bright colored ways. They provide boiled hot dogs and the aroma in the immediate area makes you hungry. The condiments are brightly colored, making it not only appealing to your palate; it is a feast to your eyes.

Vending is not gimmicky. They are bought and sold everywhere and they are very popular. In fact, hot dogs are such and American tradition that it would be impossible to find a city or a sports event without them. They are most popular when they are purchased for a vendor.

Follow 10 Rules & Learn How Not To Lose Money In Stock Markets

Investing and trading are as professional as running a business. Just like any other business, much planning is going to invest and trade. The aims, aims, structures, targets, budget allocation and monitoring that apply to online stock trading and investing as much as they run in business.

However, losses are one aspect of online stock trading and investment that is at least understood.

In the business of investing and trading the stock market, there are two main inputs – information and capital. Information can be borrowed or it can be your own. By lending information, we mean relying on someone’s recommendation or listening to the media or just a friendly ‘tip’ to buy the stock. Capital is the money given for an online commodity trading business and investment.

Both inputs include information, especially whether a trader or stock market investor is similar to business assets, using which company is derived from its revenue. Money is on the other hand as consumables or raw materials that are used to add value and in turn generate more money.

When running manufacturing units there are some materials that will either be a waste or the output will not be in accordance with the quality norms. Initially, during the routeing process the losses would be more, but as production is stabilized, losses are falling and very negligible at all compared to the overall layout of things. Similarly, in online stock trading and investing the losses, the expenses one needs to take to learn.

So, the whole game of reducing your losses and leaving your profit is run.

Here are 10 ways that can help you reduce your losses.

1. Know what you want: The first thing for a person is to know if he is a trader or investor. Even in stock trading, he will have to know what kind of trading he would like to do. Would you like to be a sweeper, a daytime trader, a swing trader or a trendy and personal follower? Similarly, when investing, the person needs to question whether it is a value investor or you want to invest in growth stocks or turning stories. Knowing exactly what you want and what you’re looking for is half the battle you’ve won. In this way, one would not run to try the next great idea in the town and add to their losses without knowing what they were doing.

2. Getting a plan: Once the person has decided that he wants to be a trader or investor, the next move is to get a business plan in place. The plan not only includes the strategy that will be played but also the whole process of the amount of time allocated to research, money allocation, stockbroker choice, hardware and software requirements (trading app) and the work. But central to the business plan is the strategy that the trader or investor will use. The strategy must be studied to the detailed details before submitting it to a test. All levels of access and departure, loss prevention and re-registration in the trade should be calculated out. The idea behind having a plan in place is not to respond to stock market developments but to be proactive in advance for any backup.

3. Test of the scheme: Before starting to trade or invest with real money it is important to test the strategy. The post-test test gives an indication of how the strategy has worked over time. Knowing how long a period of losses gave an idea that a series of such losses could take place in the future. Therefore, the stock market trader is not harassed and losses are a trust in his strategy and succeed in the loss of loss losses. The majority of market losses are taken by traders who try many systems and jump from one system to another after taking a few losses. Undertake a proven strategy, but in the case of losses one can break down their position so that the losses are limited.

4. Trust yourself and your strategy: The most important feature of a successful trader or investor is that they trust someone else but their own and their strategy. They take their losses in their path because they know it is part of the strategy that they have been following for many years. Beyond the losses, there are profit strands. If there was nothing wrong in the process of acting in the trade then the profits will take care of the losses. Do not trust your strategy as a businessman who does not trust his own product. Is it possible for the businessman to succeed if he sells a product that cannot be trusted?

5. Getting enough capital to start: Before starting online trading or investing, even part-time, it’s important to get enough capital. This is not only important to cover the losses that will take place, but also because there are opportunities there would be more than one job open in the market and the trader may have uneven balances. If the trade with a higher capital allocation loses one, the trader would only lose confidence in its system due to one trade. Share online trading and investment work on large numbers law. The law states that no single trade defines the trader or the strategy.

6. Data must be collected over a series of trading and then evaluated. A trader should have sufficient capital to continue so that he can collect enough data from the trading series. Taking small losses is important as it will keep emotions out of play. Online commodity market trader in its initial days would not be enough capital and a great loss can be cut.

7. Managing money: If there is one thing that will define whether or not a trader succeeds, regardless of its strategy, then it is the responsibility of managing money. Managing poor money over time will result in losses even if the trader has developed the best strategy. Similarly, a good money management system will help the trader maintain over a longer period even if it trades a bad strategy. The idea is to get the best from both worlds. Capital must be divided in a way that does not compromise more than 1 per cent of your capital on a single trade. This will allow you to collect a larger data point before increasing your size or allocating more capital.

8. Abolition of noise: Noise in the media is a key factor in online trading that divides and invests, and does not think about traders or other investors. It’s normal to be driven by ‘experts’ in the media that says where the stock or market is headed, especially in the formative days. There will be a small test of what these experts said in the past and how the recommendation will have worked out enough for the trader to stay away from them. Social media jobs on these specialists also bring the experience of others who followed the experts. If you need to be successful you must be your own man. You need to take responsibility for the losses and profits and not blame others for their recommendation. This can only happen when you stop listening to others and get your own style. Your own mistakes, even in small things like the internet, have stopped working, because you should ideally have a conflict arrangement. Only profit will start to pour out.

9. Measure your performance: you are your best coach and the best book you ever read as a trader is your own trading logs. Learn from them and make them a point not to repeat them. It is important for a trader to keep track of the number of winning crafts, loss of crafts and the average size of the loss and average earnings. A trader must succeed in maintaining the average amount of loss and the number of losses as small as possible. Just keeping the number of losses is small but take big losses by extending the stopping point.

10. Learn from your mistakes: It is important that you make all the mistakes one can do when you are in the learning period because if you learn from it, you will not repeat it. And if you’ve hit all the mistakes that can be done when trading, very few things will be done. It is very important to keep track of your trades and read it regularly, not forgetting the mistakes you made earlier. It can be possible to reduce losses by not replicating your mistakes. Losing loss and not learning from it is a bigger loss.

11. Learning to forgive and forget: Trade is a new trade. The previous trade that has led to gain or loss is history. Learn to forgive yourself if the previous trade was a loss and forgetting a winning trade because the next one can block you. Like a cricket where the bat cannot be over-confident even if it has hit the five previous balls out of the border, the sixth one can send it packing. It is important to maintain discipline and not go over the road in a winning streak as well as not having depression with a series of losses and trading stop. Online sharing trading has a lot to do with cricket, you need to stand in the wicket, a score of so many belts, although many can lead to a single and maybe few will not lead to any, but the key is to stand there for the loose ball that has to be hard and one you do not need to waste it. Rule 80-20 applies to trade as it has too many other areas. 80 per cent of the profit comes from 20 per cent of trading, but one will have to be there to take all the trading.

12. A trader should not join psychological losses, he should not take it personally, and that’s why it’s important to have a small trading when learning the ropes.

Learn How to Make Money Online With No False Promises

If you want to learn how to make money online the right way, with no hype and no false promises, then you will have to make the effort to ignore all these seemingly unbelievable offers that are being made to you. If you have recently lost your job, then you are vulnerable, and prey to every shark in the internet waters – and there are lots of them.

I know what it is like because I was like you. I lost my job, and tried to make it online but found it very hard. I spent a lot of money trying to learn how to make money online: one lump sum of $6,500 to be taught what I now know was elementary stuff. I was taken for a ride, and when I eventually found out that the Corey Rudl that I paid for this was one of the most well respected internet millionaires online, I was disillusioned.

These guys have no shame. They are still at it. I have just been offered an unbelievable opportunity, only about 40 slots left, to learn how to make $300 a day that can expand to many times that. The guy selling his ideas that made him so much money is doing it because he wants to ‘give something back’. Why do I find it difficult to believe that?

Why not just carry on earning his ‘many times’ 300 bucks a day? Why go to the bother of having a website designed and everything else involved in marketing his offer when he is already earning at least $30,000 a month if we are to believe him? Personally I am sick of it all, and after a few years in this business trying to make a living have concluded that they are all in it together; there is a clique of well-known names, and I know them all; they help each other to screw the rest of us.

You won’t learn how to make money online from these guys. The way that I did it was to teach myself, and then to figure out what these guys were actually doing. Many of them were software engineers, designing software to carry out keyword research, or to enable you to check your website statistics or something else in that vein. Others were ex-sales guys who knew how to lie, and yet others would come up with a good idea, run it to death till it was no longer working, and the sell it to us showing how much money they made from it – only it couldn’t work any more because:

a) Google had banned it, or b) Clickbank had banned it, or c) Technology and rules had changed and it was no longer any good.

These are the only circumstances under which these guys are going to give you their internet secrets. That’s a fact. So what is the best way to learn how to make money online? Honest truth? There is no best way. I have found that there are several ways, and they can be made to work, but they won’t earn you 300 bucks a day.

Perhaps two or three together might, and if you used each of them you could make a good living online. It’s the old saying: make $20 a day from one website and all you need do is to do the same with another 50 websites and you have a grand a day. Sure – only the guys that say that aren’t doing it. So why not if it’s so easy?

You can learn how to make money online if you are prepared to accept that you won’t do it overnight. If you are prepared to learn the groundwork, and then build up from a solid foundation, it is possible to make a good living. That’s what I found, and part of the way that I do that is what I am doing right now: writing this article. Article writing, article marketing, call it what you want. It doesn’t matter. It lets me advertise free.

That might not seem a lot to you right now, but it will, believe me. Free advertising is worth every penny you pay for it, and that’s not all that there is to online success. It’s taking every opportunity that comes, knowing what to do with it and making the most of it. You don’t have to make a fortune from every opportunity, but you should remember what I said earlier: make $20 dollars from one website. . .

Suddenly it looked possible to me, and do you know what the major factor in all this was? Education! I don’t mean college education, though I have that. I mean learning how to get things working online. How the internet works. How the World Wide Web works, and how to use what I learned about marketing and advertising and designing websites to actually sell stuff online.

Not just my writing skills that I did as an article ghostwriter, but how to use the online tools that are available free to everybody, and the genuine information available, not that trash given to us by millionaires that feel like screwing us for another million. How to use all that to make money online.

It can be done. You can learn how to make money online. I had my fill of false promises and being sold redundant software and redundant ideas. I did it and so can you. You might just survive with your online home business, but you must learn the basics – that’s where the strength of your home business will come.

Learn to Trade Forex – It Can Be a Foundation For Your Home Business

If you learn to trade forex, the profits can be very lucrative. These profits can be used to realize your dreams in other areas; such as starting your very own home based business; whether online or offline.

We’ll discuss what forex trading is, some of its advantages and also some of the things you would want to keep at the forefront of your mind should you ever enter the trading ring.

Learn What Forex Trading Is?

Forex simply means foreign exchange. Every country has its own specific monetary currency. Forex is the trading of the various world currencies.

Each countrys currency has its own value. Numerous conditions, internal and external, cause the value of each countrys currency to fluctuate. For instance, favorable conditions may cause one countrys currency to rise and another’s to fall.

Forex trading has to do with those fluctuations. The currencies are traded against each other and profits are made.

Advantages of Forex Trading

One great advantage is that this market is open from Monday to Friday, 24 hours a day. You can wade into the market at three in the morning if you so desire. This is a huge advantage for some. In the still of the night or early morning, when the children are fast asleep, for many, this is the best time for deep concentration. This has to be a powerful advantage.

Trading approximately 4 trillion dollars every single day, forex boasts the biggest marketplace in the world. Yes, even bigger than the stock market.

The Entry Bar Is Set Low

Another big advantage is that you can start trading with less than $250; sounds unbelievable doesn’t it? But it’s true. The best way to trade is to use small amounts initially. Then work your way up to larger amounts as you get better at trading.

Be Aware!

There are many problems that can trip you up in the trading arena. The biggest is getting too greedy. Guard against that. Don’t allow yourself to be swept away by greed. You’ll surely lose your money if you do. Never go beyond your self-imposed limits. If you find yourself using money assigned to other areas, you need to take stock. Check yourself.

When you learn to trade forex, remember, it has been known to drive emotions. You must be aware and fight against this. It is a sure recipe for financial loss, maybe even disaster. Never allow yourself to become engulfed in emotional trading. Train yourself to make trading decisions based on logic. Always use well thought out strategies.

Learn Foreign Exchange Hype and Make Lots of Money Fast

Earning money entails making the right choices and being determined to do what it takes to put cash into your bank account. That is why engaging yourself in the trade world is a good option if you want to earn really big.

The trade world is a lucrative and exciting business wherein you can earn a lot of money and at the same time learn a lot of the tricks of the trade which is an asset for your future plans and goals.

In engaging in the trade business, you should be very careful and discerning with which option of the most common forms of trading available you should have. These three common forms of trading are: Shares/Equities/Stocks; Options and Foreign Exchange or Forex.

Now you might be probably all dazed on all of these business jargons that were mentioned earlier. Read along and let me show you what is in store for you in this world called the Trade.

Let us start with defining what a Share, Equity and Stock are. In reality, these three actually refer to the same thing. As their name suggests, when you purchase a share, you own a piece, a portion of that company. You then become an investor in that company.

When you are already an investor, you are now entitled to a share of the company’s profits. These shares are called dividends. It is almost the same with having money in the bank, you also get paid with interest for investing your money.

Shares on the other hand are traded on exchanges. To be able to trade shares, you must need to use a stock broker to be able to purchase them for you, a stock broker may normally charge a fee for the transaction which depends on the number of people who are trading actively.

In trading shares, it is best for you to only trade to win when the price is increasing or going along. The downside of trading is that it is more complicated to make money when the price is decreasing.

The other form of trading, the Trading Option is, in reality more complicated than trading shares by themselves. The big difference between share and options is wherein stocks actually give you the ownership and rights on a small piece of the company, options are just contracts that provide you with the right to buy or sell the stock at a specific price by a specific date. You should keep in mind that in every option transaction, two persons are always involved- a buyer and a seller.

One of the best benefits of trading options is the leverage that it provides. With trading options, you can get bigger exposure by just utilizing only a small amount of your trading capital.

The final form of trading, the Foreign Exchange or Forex is actually the best form of trading among the three. With Forex, the risks are very minimal, the work is just easy and it is very rewarding.

The Foreign Exchange Market has transactions 24 hours a day, 5 and 1/s days a week and daily exchanges are actually worth approximately two trillion dollars. Forex is also made up of about 500 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange. It is very obvious that trading institutions behind Forex are very credible and this may assure you that you would not be cheated on.

In getting started with the trade world, you should be able to learn all of the tricks of the trade because not everyone inside this world would be willing to help you. Instead, you should help yourself by being determined and willing to learn the correct strategies which you are going to apply when your trading days come.

Learn The Importance Of Graphic Designing Services

Graphic design is a major element of today’s IT world. The potential and scope of growth associated with this field are really enticing, and this is the reason why more and more people are plunging into the arena of graphic design. However, being a graphic designer or the owner of a graphic design company is not that tough; the real challenge lies in making your business grow at an impressive speed. So, how to promote your graphic or logo design company in the market?

Logo designing is one of the important aspects of any graphic design services, hence it is important to keep this point in mind. In addition to this, the landing pages along with exposure in social media is another interesting criteria to remember.

. Below are some of the tips you can consider:

• Tip #1: Having a Facebook page or Twitter account for your graphic design company isn’t enough. In order to get the attention of your potential customers, you need to post consistently. So, use the Facebook page of your business, Twitter account, etc. to post ideas and samples of your creativity. In short, showcase your portfolio.

• Tip #2: Showing your talent through generic contents is also necessary. Come up with interesting graphics that carry the potential to attract the common users. In addition, make sure the contents can be shared easily.

• Tip #3: Business cards will never be out of fashion, and for this reason, make sure your logo design company has got a powerful and interesting one. Nevertheless, the design has to be crisp and not too loud. A business card can prove to be an effective sales pitch.

• Tip #4: Apart from the business card, postcards can also prove to be an effective tool for marketing. Getting the postcards printed is quite easy, and the effect they create in the mind of your potential customers is really powerful. Make sure you include your contact details on the postcards.

• Tip #5: Understanding your client’s business niche is also essential. If the client or customer wants to hire you, it is obvious that he/she wants you to know a lot of things about the business niche. So, if you are dealing with a customer who is related to bakery business then you need to showcase some samples of logos and graphics associated with the bakery.

Promotion of a graphic design company in the web world can be a bit challenging because already there are many players in the field. Therefore, you have to be consistent and smart with your approach. This way you can generate positive results. Good luck folks!

Learn This Japanese Before It’s Too Late!

Learn Japanese! You ask business representatives a lot of questions. But, I’ll bet that one you ask all the time is, “What are your hours?” In Japan, you’ll find yourself needing to ask this important question frequently. More importantly, you’ll need to understand the person’s reply. This Newbie Japanese article makes it easy for you to ask for a business’ hours. You’ll also learn important Japanese words including donichi (“weekend,” “Saturday,” “Sunday”) and heijitsu (“weekday”). This awesome Japanese article provides easy instructions for asking and talking about the times of day, such as morning and evening. If you’re looking for a simple Japanese article that teaches you questions you’ll ask all the time, look no further!

Vocabulary: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:

kangoshi – “nurse”
shinsatsu – “medical examination, consultation”
jikan – “time”
donichi – “Weekend, Saturday, Sunday”
yasumi – “closed, holiday, day off”
asa – “morning”
hiru – “noon, daytime”
heijitsu – “weekday”

Grammar: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:

Useful Vocabulary and Phrases

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donichi – “weekend, Saturday, Sunday”

heijitsu – “weekday”

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The word donichi is a combination of the first Chinese character of the days Saturday (do-yoobi ) and Sunday ( nichi-yoobi ).

Please also review the seven days of the week in Newbie series season 4 Article 19.

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Practice:

Translate the following words into English.

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Nichi-yoobi –
Getsu-yoobi –
Ka-yoobi –
Do-yoobi –
Sui-yoobi –
Moku-yoobi –
Kin-yoobi –
Sen-shuu –
Kon-shuu –
Rai-shuu –

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asa – “morning, AM”

hiru – “noon, daytime”

yuugata – “early evening”

yoru – “night, evening”

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We often use those words instead of gozen (“AM”) and gogo (“PM”) in a conversation.
*To learn more about the usage of gozen and gogo see Newbie series season 4 Article 22.

Asa no hachi-ji — gozen hachi-ji
Hiru no ichi-ji → gogo ichi-ji
Yuugata no go-ji → gogo go-ji
Yoru no hachi-ji → gogo hachi-ji

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yasumi – “holiday”

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Sometimes, the polite prefix o precedes yasumi in formal speech.

For Example:

O-yasumi wa itsu desu ka.
“When is the holiday?” or “When’s your day off?”
Watashino yasumi wa donichi desu.
“My days off are Saturday and Sunday.”

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Shinsatsu wa nan-ji kara nan-ji made desu ka.

“From what time to what time do you do medical examinations?”

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shinsatsu – “medical examination”

wa – topic-marking particle

nan-ji – “what time”

kara – “from”

made – “until, to”

desu – copula (linking verb)

ka – question-marking particle

When asking for the business hours of shops, banks, or restaurants, use eigy ( “business, sales,” or “operation”) instead of shinsatsu.

For Example:

Eigy wa nan-ji kara nan-ji made desu ka.
Literal meaning: “From what time to what time is your business hour?”
“When are you open?”

*For more information on the usage of kara and made, see Newbie series season 4 Article 17.

*For more information on the hours of the day, see Newbie series season 4 Article 12.

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Examples

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Shinsatsu wa nan-ji kara nan-ji made desu ka.
“When are you open?”
Heijitsu wa gozen juu-ji kara gogo go-ji made desu.
“We are open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on weekdays.”
Do-yoobi wa gozen juu-ji kara gogo ichi-ji made desu.
“We are open from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Saturdays.”
Nichi-yoobi wa oyasumi desu.
“We are closed on Sundays.”

Learn to Tolerate and Compromise

The Straits Times – “Singapore’s Internal Security calls up Christian pastor for insensitive comments” on 9 February 2010

In this year, The Straits Times told a story about a Senior Pastor Rony Tan, from Lighthouse Evangelism, who was called up for an investigation by the Internal Security Department (ISD) after receiving complaints about online video clips that showed him making insensitive remarks about Buddhism when he was interviewing his two church members. When the members, a former Buddhist monk and nun, were sharing their experience as Buddhists, Pastor Tan mocked about Buddhism’s beliefs and practices on reincarnation, karma, nirvana, chanting and meditation. He was making statements like being under the influence of demons, “the blind leading the blind”, and false religion. ISD responded, “Pastor Tan’s comments were highly inappropriate and unacceptable as they trivialised and insulted the beliefs of Buddhists and Taoists. They can also give rise to tension and conflict between the Buddhist/Taoist and Christian communities.”

After realizing his mistakes, Pastor Tan ordered his church to immediately stopped circulation and removed this particular sermon. He also made a public apology for his comments on his website, and wrote this, “… I sincerely apologise for my insensitivity towards the Buddhists and Taoists, and solemnly promise that it will never happen again… to tell my members not only to continue to love souls, but also to respect other beliefs and not to ridicule them in any way, shape or fashion. Let’s put our goal to build a harmonious Singapore a top priority.” In addition, he paid a visit to the leaders of the Buddhist and Taoist communities to give his sincerely apology. Venerable Kwang Sheng, from Phor Kar See Kong Meng San Temple had accepted his apology: “It is good that the authorities have looked at this matter, but this is a matter of national concern. We want to appeal to the public and the authorities to make sure there is no second time… Singapore is a multi-religious, multiracial society. There is no point arguing over who is right and who is wrong” Singapore Buddhist Lodge chairman Lee Bock Guan further emphasized, “Buddhism teaches us to forgive; everybody makes mistakes.”

There are a couple of lessons for us from this incident:

The Impact of Online Media

With the wide usage of internet and various popular social media such as YouTube and blogs, anything that is posted online can be read or watched by thousands or millions of people. This online media is a double-edged sword as the message or information is so accessible by anyone and it can easily arouse tension or disagreements if the content is insensible or inappropriate. The authority can also track back to the source without any difficulty. Therefore, before posting anything, we need to think whether the information should be made available to the public.

Being a Responsible Communicator

No man is an island. Every day we interact with people and our words will influence others in either a positive or negative way. If you are a teacher, pastor, business leader or politician who speaks in front of a large audience, then it is even more important to be conscious and mindful of what you are saying. The general rule is not to discuss about religious, politics and sex. However, when you choose to go into such topic, be prepared to face the consequences (from the opposing views).

Knowledge of Different Cultures/ Religious

This incident clearly indicated that the pastor did not really do his homework and understand about various religious and their history. As different religious have different beliefs and practices, a particular religious practitioner’s acts or behaviours might not be clearly understood by other religious’ believers. Thus it is effortless for anyone to make a judgment without finding out the story or meaning behind a belief/ act and just mock at their religious. By spending time in learning of other cultures or religious, it can broaden our horizons and teach us to be more appreciative to the religious diversity. Our education system can pay a part in providing the knowledge to the people esp. when they are young and receptive.

The Straits Times – “Twin threats of race and religion” on 17 August 2009

In 2009 National Rally, PM Lee Hsien Loong highlighted a tussle between a Malay wedding and a Chinese funeral regarding to the use of void deck premise. There was an elderly who died in 2008 and her family went to set up alter at the void deck of a HDB block before seeking the approval of the Town Council without knowing that the premise had been reserved for a Muslim wedding. Both parties did not want to change their arrangement and this created a tension. Thus the Town Council and the grassroots leaders had to step in to solve the issue and offered to wave charges and help to put up posters to direct their guests to the correct place. Luckily, the Malay family was willing to shift to another nearby void deck even though they had booked the premise first.

According to the statistics collected, such incidents will happen in every 300 funerals. The Town Councils have to handle these cases carefully and either the Malay wedding or the Chinese funeral has to budge. If such cases are not deal with properly, they can become a potential serious racial or religious conflict. One such case can jeopardise the peace and harmony in Singapore. PM Lee reminded us not to take our harmony and cohesion for granted and learn to be sensible and tolerate for religious differences as well as a willingness to give and take. There is no end to potential causes of racial or religious friction in our neighbourhood such as noise from the auction in 7th moon, heavy traffic or parking problems from the Friday prayer or church service and smoke or stray ashes everywhere due to burning of joss sticks.

PM Lee has also outlined four basic rules for religious harmony in another article:

All groups have to exercise tolerance and restraint.
Keep religion separate from politics.
Government must remain secular.
Maintain the common space that all Singaporeans share.

I have learnt that there are still many little clashes that are happening everywhere in Singapore and it is common and natural for us to have conflicts in our lives as they let us understand more about other people’s cultures, religious and beliefs. From each conflict we encounter, we will know ourselves and others better and learn to prevent similar conflicts to occur again. Singapore took years to build the harmony and stability that we are enjoying now. As what PM Lee had said, we must not take things for granted and need to continue to tolerate and compromise. I have also participated in a new initiative with Singapore United on the Community Engagement Programme where youth leaders who are from different religious groups come together for an open faith discussion and going for educational field trips to places like SCDF and Mosque. It is very meaningful and informative.

Learn Hindi Before Traveling

India is one of the most favored tourist destinations in the world. This colorful country with its diverse culture, rich biodiversity and mouth-watering food is a hot to-do on the lists of most travelers. For a western traveler, a visit to India can seem intimidating, with its colorful people and culture and most of all, its tongue twister-like languages. First of all, what every traveler should know is that they can get along fine with English in all major Indian cities.

The language that will be most useful to a traveler to India is undoubtedly Hindi. Though people in each state of India speak a different language, Hindi is the national language and the connecting linguistic thread that is understood and spoken by people in every nook and corner of this vast country. Hindi is a completely alien language to someone from the western world, with its own script and phonetic sounds that bear no resemblance to western languages.

All that a traveler requires is very basic knowledge of the Hindi language that they will most need to use in everyday practical situations. A traveler needs to know the basic Hindi phrases that will help them navigate through a new place, find and travel to places of tourist interest, find restaurants to dine in, hotels and boarding houses to stay in. They will also need to understand numbers, time and date related information, to understand the price of stuff they might be interested in buying and to understand local train and bus listings as well.

The best solution for people looking to gain a basic understanding of Hindi before traveling to India would be to go for online or CD based basic Hindi courses that are available for travelers. There are many language programs out there that offer fine-tuned language solutions for travelers. For example, the Berlitz Hindi Travel Pack is a versatile product aimed at travelers to India. The travel pack consists of an audio CD that covers various basic sentences and phrases that one is most likely to use in real-life situations such as eating at restaurants, looking for accommodation, sight-seeing, shopping, making friends and so on. The CD format ensures that the traveler has access to this information anytime, anywhere during his/her journey. Since it is in an audio format, the learner can listen to the pronunciation of each word and phrase as many times as they want until they feel that they have completely grasped the sounds used to utter it.

Along with the CD, a phrase book also forms a part of the Berlitz Hindi Travel Pack. This book contains more than 1000 oft-used phrases and words, with pronunciation guides, a dictionary for reference and a special section on phrases that would be apt to use during emergency situations that a traveler might unfortunately encounter. The phrase book will be a handy tool to any traveler, which can be perused through leisurely or readily referred to when required. This is just one of the Hindi learning packages that are targeted at travelers. There are many books, CDs and online learning programs that aim to get a traveler to India familiarized with the local tongue.