Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers Essay Example for Free

Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers Essay With the growing trend of volunteer vacations, research has been warranted in regard to understanding the motivational factors of individuals who participate in such endeavors. With this understanding, the goal is to increase these travel offerings in the industry, which will bring better understanding between cultures. This study examines different travel motivation factors for someone who chooses to use part of their vacation participating in volunteer or humanitarian activities. Considering that ‘mission’ often has connotations of a religious purpose, the phrase ‘travelling with a purpose’ brings on even more significance as this concept expands. To understand travel motivation in general, a variety of scales and theories have been researched. Maslow, Dann, Iso-Ahola, Plog and Pearce are some included in the Literature Review. A qualitative focus group and semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. The analysis of the data revealed that four main themes for why people traveled with a purpose emerged. Cultural immersion was a strong objective; the desire to give back; the camaraderie that occurs on volunteer vacations; and the fourth theme focused on family. Non-verbal communication and bonding occurs at several levels with the local people and family members. This is a good example of cultivating peace through tourism. Keywords: volunteer tourism, travel motivation factors, benefits, impacts Introduction The concept of ‘volunteer tourism’ is a growing trend in the tourism industry and is starting to draw attention from researchers and marketers alike (Wearing, 2003). In the United States, for instance, a broad variety of organisations offer volunteer vacations. They vary from tour operators to non-profit organisations. One of the longest published guides to these organisations, Volunteer Vacations, by Bill McMillon et al., listed only 75 such organisations in its first edition in 1987 (Campbell, 1999). In its newest edition, published in 2003, the number of organisations increased to 275. These organisations offer a wide spectrum of volunteer vacation experiences. Volunteer vacation destinations range from local to regional to global reach. Volunteer vacation costs range from $100 and under to $3000 and above, with project length from under one week to six months or more. While summer appears to be the most predominant travel season, there are packages and programmes pro vided in all seasons. Analysing how an organisation positions itself within the volunteer tourism sector may reveal factors that influence a potential tourist’s organisational choice. The organisational types of volunteer vacation experience suppliers are comprised of a mix of non-profit organisations and for-profit tour operators. Some examples 1368-3500/05/06 0479-19 $20/0  are ‘Cross-Cultural Solutions’ (www.crossculturalsolutions.org), ‘The American Hiking Society’ (www.americanhiking.org), and ‘Earthwatch’ (www.earthwatch. org). Types of projects offered for volunteers vary widely and include agriculture, archaeology, community development, conservation, construction, education and teaching, environmental protection and research, technical assistance, historic preservation, medical and dental, work camps. The nature of volunteer vacation offerings appear to be closely allied with the organisations’ respective missions and mandates. For instance, Ambassadors for Children (AFC), a not-for-profit charitable organisation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, offers global volunteer opportunities by providing trip opportunities for hands-on interaction with disadvantaged children of the world, balanced by opportunities for sightseeing and experiencing the native culture of the destination (www. ambassadorsforchildren.com). AFC has facilitated volunteer activities for passengers travelling to destinations like Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Alaska, Vietnam, Belize, Guatemala, N ative American Reservations, and other communities in need. Humanity International seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world. Volunteers build houses together in partnership with families in need. Global Volunteers offer opportunities that include teaching conversation English, nurturing at-risk infants and children, renovating and painting community buildings, assisting with healthcare, and natural resource projects. Other organisations are geared more towards ecotourism such as Catalina Island Conservancy and Wilderness Volunteers, both giving back through stewardship of organising and promoting volunteer services. The commonality of the volunteer vacation suppliers appears to be the singularity of volunteering theme-focused experiences that reinforce organisations’ overall mission. Despite the growing popularity of volunteer tourism, systematic academic research in this field, particularly from the perspectives of the volunteer vacationers, is still in its infancy stage. Preliminary research appears to sugge st that volunteer tourism can take two different forms based on participants’ mindsets: the ‘volunteer-minded’ versus the ‘vacation-minded’ (Brown Morrison, 2003). The ‘volunteer-minded’ individuals tend to devote most or all of their vacation time to volunteer activities at the destination. Volunteerism is the central notion for them. This type of volunteer tourism is often called a mission or service trip. The second form of volunteer tourism takes on a lighter undertone where the individual is largely ‘vacation-minded’, but spends a small portion of the vacation on volunteer work at the destination. The term ‘VolunTourism’ refers to this type of tourism experience where a tour operator offers travellers an opportunity to participate in an optional excursion that has a volunteer component, as well as a cultural exchange with local people. These brief encounters have often proved to be the highlight of the individuals’ vacations. This latter form of volunteer tourism has gained popularity among tourists. While this classification scheme takes a simplistic approach, it provides a baseline for typology development of volunteer tourists. While there has been increasing research on volunteerism which sheds insights on motivational and destination choice factors of the ‘volunteerminded’ service trip participants, very little research has been con ducted on the ‘vacation-minded’ volunteer tourists. There is lack of conceptualisation and fundamental understanding of why individuals take part in volunteer work while  on a vacation trip. What motivates them? What benefits do they derive from the volunteer experience? What are the highlights of the volunteering experience? How do the volunteer activities influence their overall vacation experience and satisfaction? As a result, more research is warranted to fully understand this growing form of volunteer tourism. The focus of this research was on the ‘vacation-minded’ volunteer vacationers. The purpose of this study was to examine the motives that drive vacationers to participate in some form of volunteer or humanitarian activities while on a leisure vacation trip and the benefits that the volunteer tourists derive from the experience. This study also sought to broker the link between motivations for the general form of tourism and those for the volunteer vacationing. The outcome of this research was expected to contribute to better understanding of the destination choices and tourism experiences sought, thus bearing important implications for organisations that are targeting this particular market segment. Literature Review The literature review of this study was intended to provide some contextual background for the research. It centred around two key components of volunteer vacation: the tourism component and the volunteer component. More specifically, it dealt with the general leisure travel motivations and how they pertain to and interplay with volunteer tourism. Motivational scales To understand travel motivation, a variety of scales and theories have been proposed and empirically tested in tourism literature. The importance of motivation in tourism is quite obvious. It acts as a trigger that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). Many researchers have used motivational theory to try to interpret the motivations of tourists. On the premise that motivations derive from a real or perceived need, it is justifiable to analyse tourist choices of destinations and activities as a consequence of need deficiency (Burns Holden, 1995). Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ – self-actualisation, esteem needs, love needs, safety needs, and physiological needs forms the basis for further development and applications to understand travel behaviour and demand for tourism (Maslow, 1954, 1970). The decision to visit a destination is a complex amalgam of needs, motivating an individual to set and prioritise goals in a belief that achiev ing these will satisfy the perceived needs. One of the main reasons for the popularity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is probably its simplicity (Hudson, 1999). This hierarchy could be related to the travel industry in the sense that unless individuals have their physiological and safety needs met, they are less likely to be interested in travelling the world to make a difference. Self-actualisation can, in fact, be considered the end or goal of leisure (Mill Morrison, 2002). Vacations offer an opportunity to re-evaluate and discover more about the self, to act out one’s self-image as a way of modifying or correcting it. Echoing Maslow, Pearce (1982, 1993) suggested that travel behaviour reflected a hierarchy of five levels of travel motives. The five levels of the Travel Career Ladder are: relaxation; stimulation; relationship; self-esteem/development; and fulfillment. As with a career at work, people start at different levels  and are likely to change levels during their lifetime. Pearce explicitly recognised that tourists’ travel motivation can be self-directed or other-directed; they do not always seek the same type of f ulfillment from travel, and that people can descend as well as ascend on the ladder. To what extent tourists do so from one trip to the next, or whether this only occurs over longer time periods, is not quite as clear (Oppermann, 2000). Classifying tourists into different typologies is an approach to link psychological motives to behaviour. The earliest model that forms the basis of tourism typology theory was established by Stanley Plog (1974). He constructed a cognitive-normative model based upon psychographic types. At one end of the continuum are psychocentric tourists and at the other end allocentric tourists. The allocentrics are explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and untouched (by tourists) destinations. Middle-centrics are likely to display characteristics of a limited adventurer, but they want home comforts. It is this group that represents the mass tourist market. Psychocentrics dislike destinations that offer unfamiliarity or insecurity. It is suggested that the psychocentric is dominated by safety needs. Dann (1977) made a significant contribution in suggesting a two-tiered scheme of motivational factors: the ‘push’ and the ‘pull’. The push factors social-psychological motives that drive the desire to travel. The pull factors are external factors that affect where a person travels to fulfil the identified needs or desires. Dann suggested that anomie and ego-enhancement were the basic underlining reasons for travel. Crompton (1979) agreed with Dann’s basic idea of push and pull motives but went further to identify nine motives for travel. They were: the escape from a perceived mundane environment; exploration and evaluation of self; relaxation; prestige; regression; enhancement of kinship relationships; facilitation of social interaction; novelty; and education. He classified the first seven motives as push factors, and the last two as pull factors. There was no mention of the need for the authenticity of the destination. Mayo and Jarvis (1981) suggested that travel motivations could be divided into four categories: physical motivations such as rest, cultural motivations such as the desire for knowledge, interpersonal motivations such as the desire to meet people, and status and prestige motivations such as the desire for recognition. In 1983, Beach and Ragheb developed a model called the Leisure Motivational Scale, which sought to summarise motivators into four components, based on the work of Maslow. The four types of components were intellectual, social, competence-mastery, and stimulus-avoidance. The most recent motivational theories are founded on very complex interactive  models, which are based on personal and situational factors (Graumann, 1981; Schmalt, 1996). Behaviours are increasingly associated with life satisfaction, or perceived quality of life (Kernan Unger, 1987). Kernan and Domzal  (2001) believe that people express who/what they are, to themselves and to others, by engaging in action–leisure activities. Swarbrooke and Horner (2003) believe the main factors determining an individual tourist’s motivation are probably: personality, lifestyle, past experience, past life, perceptions and image. Changes which occur in an individual’s life stage may also have an impact on travel motives. Having a child, an increase or reduction in income, worsening health, and changing expectations or experiences as a tourist are circumstances that will affect motivation. Swarbrooke and Horner stated that no tourists are likely to be influenced by just one mo tivator. They are more likely to be affected by a number of them at any one time. Bello and Etzel (1985) investigated the role of novelty in pleasure travel. They argued that people with a low level of arousal in their daily routines seek a higher level of arousal in their vacation (a novel trip), whereas those people who lead a hectic, fast-paced life with frequent problems and challenges seek vacations that provide a minimum of stimulation and/or a familiar environment. Similarly, Wang (2000) emphasised  that holidaymaking is an institution of escape. It is freedom from the modernised mode of existence that is associated with rigid schedules, deadening routines, and stressful deadlines. People on holiday have entry into an alternative track of tempos and rhythms. They have freedom to change. The motivation to travel is to have a specific lifestyle separate from the routines of daily life. Understanding tourism motivation is important. It acts as a trigger that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). In other words, it represents the whys and the wherefores of travel in general, or of a specific choice in particu lar. The extensive literature on leisure travel motivation provides a solid theoretical background and some guidelines for studying the volunteer vacation phenomenon in this general tourism motivational context. Volunteering and volunteer vacations Volunteering has been a buzzword for some time for many socially oriented individuals both in the US and throughout the world. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 63.8 million people volunteered from September 2002 to September 2003, an almost 7% increase from the previous year. Women are more likely than men to volunteer, and individuals between the ages of 35 and 44 years old make up the largest group of volunteers (Kellicker, 2004). Stebbins defines volunteering as ‘un-coerced help offered either formally or informally with no or, at most, token pay done for the benefit of both the people and the volunteer’. Similarly, other definitions of volunteering have included the recognition that volunteers are those who provide assistance, or unpaid service, usually for the benefit of the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1986). Others emphasise the characteristics of the action perceived as freely chosen, without financial gain and generally aimed at hel ping others (Stebbins, 1982, 1992; Van Til, 1979). In terms of the volunteering process, the ‘American model’, proposed by Leopold (2000) starts with what is needed and then recruits volunteers to do the work. In Europe there is a membership tradition where everything starts with the members. It is up to the members to decide what to do. Regardless, volunteering has been viewed as beneficial to the well-being of the  volunteers (Cnaan et al., 1996; Stebbins, 1982; Thoits Hewitt, 2001). Volunteering gives participants a  sense of purpose, provokes serious contemplation, encourages concern for others, provides the opportunity to further an interest, and generates a sense of deep personal fulfilment (Stebbins Graham, 2004). Stebbins (1992) suggests that volunteering bears durable benefits for the volunteer such as self-actualisation, self-enrichment, recreation or renewal of self, feelings of accomplishment, enhancement of self-image, self-expression, social interaction and belongingness. Thoits and Hewitt (2001) empi rically examine how volunteering affects six different dimensions of well being: levels of happiness; life satisfaction; self-esteem; sense of control over life; physical health; and depression. Their research reveals that people who are in better physical and mental health are more likely to volunteer, and conversely that volunteer work is good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteer are happier and experience better physical health and less depression. Broad (2003) suggested that volunteers were more open to positive attitude changes when exposed to a different culture, which may explain why volunteers frequently reported becoming more broad-minded, content, and relaxed, and less selfish and psychocentric as outcomes of volunteering, along with a changed way of looking at the world. Stebbins  (1982, 1992, 2004) has conducted some pioneering work in conceptualising volunteerism in the context of leisure. There continues to be much research in regard to serious leisure volunteers and their motivation to volunteer as well as the fulfilment they derive from their diverse pursuits. Stebbins believes that the motivational reasons and socioeconomic conditions vary vastly with different demographic categories of people taking up volunteering. Each category is rather differently motivated, but the twin motives of altruism and self-interest are common to all categories. In his consideration of ‘serious leisure’, Stebbins points out that it is an important part of people’s lives in its relation to personal fulfilment, identity enhancement and self-expression (1982). Since volunteering in many cases involves some form of travel, the phenomenon has been examined closely in the context of tourism. The term ‘volunteer tourism’ refers to tourists who volunteer in an organised way to undertake holidays that involve ‘aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment’ (Wearing, 2001). Volunteer tourism has also been viewed as a form of alternative tourism or ecotourism emphasising the sustainable, responsible and educational undertone of the activity (Moskowitz, 1995; Wearing, 2001). Wheelan (1991), for instance, suggested that ‘ecotourists represent a potential army of recruits with free time and money to spend on sustainable development efforts’. Further, volunteer tourism experience has been viewed as a contextual platform for the intertwining interactions among the ecotourism element, the volunteer element, and the serious leisure element (Stebbins, 1982, 1992; Wearing, 2001). Travelling overseas as a volunteer appears to have begun around 1915 (Beigbeder, 1991; Clark, 1978; Darby, 1994; Gillette, 1968). Although most of the literature in this field has focused on profiling the volunteering tourist ( Brown Morrison, 2003; Wearing, 2003), there has been increasing interest in understanding vacation volunteers’ motives and the benefits derived. Exploratory research on volunteer vacationers suggests that their motivations appear to be similar to long-term volunteers, but the relative value of various factors can differ, with  self-actualisation being very important for short-term volunteers (Gazley, 2001). Brown and Morrison (2003) propose that a volunteer vacation helps heal ‘corporate burnout’ by providing the individual with a sense of accomplishment outside the workplace. The role of peace appeared to be another discussed benefit. And, according to Bud Philbrook (pers comm), president and CEO of Global Volunteers, volunteer service engenders hope and friendship, both of which are crucial to waging peace: ‘The more people volunteer all over the world and make friends with local people, the more peaceful the world will be.’ However, alongside ‘service trips’ or ‘mission trips’, where the primary purpose of the trip is volunteering and individuals spend the majority of the trip participating in volunteer work at the destination, there is also a lighter form of volunteer vacation that is gaining popularity. Here, the main purpose of the trip remains largely as a leisurely vacation, but the tourists also spend a small component of their leisure time on volunteer work at the destination. This form of volunteer vacation, although not a new practice, has gained increasing popularity. Rather than taking up a trip just for volunteer work, these groups of individuals join leisure-oriented vacation packages that provide a volunteering component as part of the itinerary. Tourism theories and research have ranged from micro-social-psychological  explanations to macro-social explorations concerning the globalisation of tourist venues. Given the rise of volunteer tourism, tourism practitioners have begun to strategically incorporate volunteering activities into their product planning. Some market-sensitive travel companies are offering leisure tour packages with optional excursions that allow tourists to participate in volunteer work. However, empirical research for this type of volunteer vacation is very limited. Many questions remain to be answered. For instance, what motivates vacationers to spend part of their vacation working at the destination? Are their motivations similar to the service trip or mission trip volunteers? What benefits do vacationers derive from participating in volunteer activities? And what are the highlights of the volunteer experience? Does the volunteer experience enhance the overall vacation experience? This research, there fore, was aimed at further exploration of these important issues. Study Objectives The objectives of this study were threefold. They were to discover: (1) What are the motivational push factors that drive some leisure tourists to seek volunteer experience during their leisure trip? To what extent do these motives differ or coincide with the general tourism motives? (2) What are the perceived benefits that vacation tourists derive from participating in volunteering activities at the destination? To be more specific, what are the immediate impacts participacting has on the overall vacation satisfaction? To what extent does it transcend the temporal boundary and exert long-term influence on the individuals? Methods This research adopted focus group and in-depth personal interview approaches, instead of a more quantitative approach such as structured surveys. The researchers believe this is an area of investigation that is at its exploratory stage. There are no proven measurements or theories for researching this particular phenomenon. In addition, unlike traditional quantitative research, focus group and in-depth personal interviews are centrally concerned with understanding attitudes rather than measuring them. In an academic sense, the goal of a focus group or personal interview is also to gain access to more inclusive sets of feelings and emotions that a structured instrument could not capture. These research methods are more direct, sensitive, and interactive in nature in assessing attitudes, motivations and opinions. Thus, it was believed that qualitative research methods would facilitate better in-depth understanding of motivational factors of volunteer vacationers instead of merely obtai ning the distant panoramic view through quantitative channels. It was hoped that that these approaches would draw out the ‘motivational factors’ behind the ‘top of mind’ opinions – which is critical to understanding what is driving volunteer vacation. A focus group session was conducted in May 2004. The focus group was composed of nine people with ages ranging from 40 to 72: four males and five females. All were married. The focus group attendees  were from a variety of life situations ranging from an engineer, healthcare consultant, and business owner, to a retiree, stay-home mother, and community volunteer. While university education appeared to be the norm for the group, the participants’ educational background varied by level from high school education to PhD. The diversity in backgrounds of the participants was intended to reveal different insights and opinions on the volunteer tourism issue. A few commonalities brought the group together. They all had extensive leisure travel experiences. They had a shared interest and passion for travel. All had participated in volunteer work while on a leisure trip. The volunteer experience ranged from visiting an orphanage and volunteering at local hospitals to participating in Habitat for Humanity projects. The volunteering experiences occurred during leisure vacation trips but the volunteering locations varied from domestic desti nations such as New Mexico and Alaska to international destinations such as Guatemala, Cuba, and Brazil. The focus group participants were asked to share their thoughts. The discussion centred around three issues: (1) Why would an individual become involved with using part of his or her vacation for volunteering activities? What are his or her motivations? (2) What are the highlights of the volunteer experience? (3) What are the benefits and impacts of the vacation volunteering experiences? In order to separate motivational factors from beneficial factors resulting from volunteer vacation experience, we conducted a second focus group session that  was made up of three males and three females who were first-time participants of volunteer vacation. This focus group was conducted in June 2004, before the individuals departed for their first volunteer vacation trip. Both focus group sessions were video and audio-taped. Transcripts were made by a graduate research assistant who was also present at both focus group sessions. Following the focus group sessions, the researchers conducted 10 in-depth personal interviews with individuals who had participated in volunteer work on a vacation trip. The interview sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes each and were audio-taped and subsequently transcribed. The purposes of supplementing the focus group sessions with in-depth interviews were three fold: (1) it was felt that in-depth personal interview allows more time and space for personal reflection on the part of the interviewee; (2) it was logistically flexible to include and capture the viewpoints of the younger individuals that felt underrepresented in the focus group sessions; and (3) employing a multi-method approach (focus group plus in-depth personal interview), researchers could cross-validate the themes and patterns of the findings from the focus group sessions. Based on the review of literature in volunteerism and volunteer tourism, as well as the results of the focus group session, the personal interviews took on a semi-structured format with a list of 15 open and semi-open questions that centred on motivational factors and impacts of volunteer vacation. All 25 study subjects were members of Ambassador Travel Club, the largest travel club in the US, and were recruited to participate in the study on a voluntary basis. The researchers considered different approaches for the text data analysis. Text analysis software tools such as CATPAC were initially considered. However, the researchers felt that the computer-aided, more quantifying approach does not seem to handle well the complexity of language context, the dynamics of the group interaction and the richness of relationships revealed in the text data. As a result, a decision was made to use the more traditional approach of content analysis. Both researchers analysed the transcripts simultaneously but independently. The results were later compared and compiled together. This effort, while more time consuming, resulted in a more consistent interpretation of the text data and increased the reliability of the study. Results The motivator: Why volunteer while on vacation? Using the multi-method approach, four major motivational themes appear to take shape concerning why individuals volunteer while on a leisure trip: cultural immersion, giving back, seeking camaraderie and seeking educational and bonding opportunities. Cultural immersion When asked, ‘Why volunteer while on vacation?’ it was found that being able to physically and emotionally immerse oneself in the local culture and community is a strong motivational factor. It was a common sentiment from the research subjects that participating in volunteer work provided the travellers with invaluable opportunities to immerse themselves in a local culture to a degree that would not be possible without the first-hand interaction with the local people  and community through volunteer work. These volunteering experiences enable travellers to experience and learn beyond the typical tourism platform, where one is surrounded by staged settings typified by beautiful beaches and fancy resorts, to see the people as they really are, their lives and their living environment. It appeared that volunteer travellers tended to attach strong value to seeking and experiencing authenticity of a place. They also demonstrated their insatiable curiosity about other people a nd places and their belief that working and interacting with the local people and communities leads to opportunities to become immersed in local culture and connect with the local people in a more profound way. As a result, long-term relationships and friendships were built between the hosts and the visitors as testified by the participants: I’m a doer, you know. I like to do stuff for people and it gave me a chance to do that. And also, you know, as other people said, to really get immersed into the community and I think when you work with people you really can see the real aspects of the population there much more so than, you know, in a hotel lobby. And so on even if you are friendly and outgoing and so on, you just don’t get to really know what peoples’ lives are like and this gave us such an opportunity to do that and get acquainted and make relationships. Giving back and making a difference The second motivational theme that emerged was the desire to give back and reach out to the less privileged. Many participants felt that they do well in life and wanted to give back. Spending time to help people in need is a good way to just do that. ‘A trip with a purpose’ is appealing to participants because it offers them a chance to help with the less fortunate instead of pure self-enjoyment. It appears individuals who are seeking a ‘purpose-driven life’ as put by one of the focus group participants, are drawn to the notion that volunteer vacation serves as a means to give back to society. So I decided to do it because I do well in life and I like to give back. I enjoy doing that kind of work and so I think my main reason was it’s time to start giving back again.  My daughter and I went. My husband and I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, and I just got to thinking that it’s really nice to go just and lay on the beach and have people wait on you and I really enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. And we also enjoyed immersing yourself in the culture through taking bicycle trips but it just seemed to be kind of selfish, so I thought maybe it would be nice to be a little unselfish. Seeking camaraderie A third motivational theme attests to the camaraderie that is sought on volunteer vacations. For well-travelled individuals, these trips bring together the ‘most enjoyable groups’, according to half of the study subjects. Meeting and interacting with people from the same travel group who share common interests and values appear to be major motives behind volunteer vacation. Many interviewees and focus group members concurred that travelling with people with similar minds and making friends certainly added value and enjoyment to the overall leisure trip experience. ‘Working with fellow group members in the volunteer And you know you are working side by side with a lot of good people. It also shows other cultures that Americans are willing to give in a physical way, in terms of getting down and dirty. Folks from Guatemala were taken back by the fact we were working. I think it is just another way of making ourselves ambassadors for the good people in our society. Seeking camaraderie appeared to be a sentiment voiced by the majority of the first focus group as a stronger motivator for volunteer vacations. However, considering the first focus group participants were composed of individuals who had various levels of prior volunteer vacation experiences, the researchers were concerned that seeking camaraderie could be attributed more to a ‘benefit’ factor than a ‘motivational’ factor. That is, would individuals actually choose volunteer vacation because they anticipate building new friendships or was it a benefit realised in retrospect resulting from the vacation volunteer experience? The researchers conducted a second focus group with six individuals prior to their first volunteer vacation. The second focus group appeared to confirm that meeting with and having a good time with people of similar interests was one of the motivational aspects that they were looking forward to. As one participant put it: ‘It is about blending good hard work and volunteering with some fun activities wrapped around it and know that there will be some pretty neat people doing the same thing.’ Seeking educational and bonding opportunities for children The volunteer vacationers appear to be also motivated by the educational and family-bonding opportunities that volunteer vacation experience presents. In the case where volunteer vacationers travelled with their children, informants agreed that the volunteer experience was an opportunity for them to impart their value system to their children. They believed that the volunteer experience they shared with their children can teach children that there are people in the world who are less fortunate, that there is broad diversity in the world, and that material items should be of minimal importance. Informants also believe that the volunteer experience helps teach children the value of giving, an important component in life. It is  apparent that participating in volunteer work with children while on vacation is perceived as having an educational component for the younger generation as testified by one participant: Well, in conjunction with the father–daughter bonding quality time to spend with my daughter, the thing that appealed about Ambassadors for Children for me was that many of our children live in a privileged world compared to the rest of the world. And I wanted my daughter to understand the environment, the social issues, the lack of any kind of parenting that some of these children are exposed to, just to give her a better understanding of the world outside, of course, the sheltered environment that many of us live in. And Ambassadors for Children sort of fit that bill. It was something that I could actively participate in instead of serving on a committee. That attracted me to Ambassadors for Children initially and  now it is that I can have hands-on experience with the children and share those experiences with my family also. Another related, but distinct, motivational factor is seeking better bonding opportunities with children. Volunteering together with children appears to be a very good interacting context for parents and their children and/or  grandchildren. For many interviewees and focus group members, it is very important to be able to spend quality time with loved ones, especially children or grandchildren, and taking a volunteer vacation together appears to enable them to achieve that goal. A volunteer experience builds a special shared experience with children, as echoed by one father: Initially I became involved with Ambassadors for Children because I’m a father and I have daughters. And there were so many things I could do with my son athletically. I coached sports. I’m involved obviously in games and things with my son all the time. But for a father sometimes there are limits how he can interact with his daughters. So I wanted to look at something my daughter and I could do together other than going to the mall or going shopping or going to the beach. So I looked into Ambassadors for Children and that’s how I initially got involved in it. The benefits and impact of volunteer vacations It appears to be consensual among all participants that the volunteer component of the vacation became, in fact, the highlight of the total vacation experience: This personal interaction with the family, and their obvious appreciation of having a home and having people that they didn’t know willing to help them – that made the whole experience. I think again that the self-fulfillment and the memories you bring back of what happened between you and the people that you met to me are wonderful. And you think of travel and the beautiful sites you’ve seen, but the kids’ faces are the most beautiful. I think the vacation was fun! I just think it (the volunteer experience) was another element to bring to it that was even neater. It just gave you a little more culture and that puts you in direct touch with the people and that helps you talk to them a little more. It was a lot of fun. I think there’s a great number of people who are looking for new experiences. In other words you can only lay on the beach so many times, you can only stay in nice hotel so many times and although that’s good and it’s good to  get away I think people many people are looking for new experiences and here’s an opportunity for you to travel to have a vacation experience and at the same time take a small time out of that vacation experience and do something that is meaningful, and do something that last in your memory and do something that makes a difference. The volunteering component of the leisure vacation seems to have become a vacation experience enhancer in multiple ways. First, meeting and interacting with people with shared interests from the same travel group has added value to  the overall leisure trip experience. It was brought out repeatedly that participants genuinely enjoyed the interaction and group dynamics of their travel companies. This type of travel companionship and interaction appears to enhance the enjoyment of the overall leisure trip. Second, volunteer vacationers discovered that material needs were of minimal importance and the little things that happen such as the exchange of love, care, curiosity, understanding, and appreciation were the highlights of their trips. Third, in a broader sense, the volunteer vacationers became the ambassadors for their own country. The helping and commitment appeared to provide a window for international communities to understand the American people, projecting  the friendly, g enerous and helpful American image as was attested by one informant. . . . But I always want the children to know and understand that we’re from the US, that we represent American people that we’re being American interest there . . . People have done things for them that they didn’t have to do. They’ve taken their time their money and their energy to help these people. And maybe some day that will make a difference. Maybe instead of someone having bad thoughts about the US they can remember there were people that came here for me and helped me from a dental standpoint, from a medical standpoint, from a clothing standpoint, or whatever, and maybe they won’t have such a negative bias towards the US like so many people do these days. When asked whether there were any enduring benefits or impacts from their volunteer vacation experiences, the study participants also agree that the impact permeates beyond the vacation trip itself. A sense of self fulfilment and personal growth are among the most mentioned enduring effects: You go thinking you are going to help people makes their lives better. But you end up getting far more out of it than you put in. It is a real blessing. I don’t know how to put it into words but it went above and beyond my expectations I guess. What I expected to get out of it and how it still affects me today three years later and my friend that went with me how its changed her life dramatically its just one of those things that blows me away when I look back it was just a beginning point for what I can see myself doing in the future and for her as well. Another common sentiment is that the shared volunteering experience appeared to have an enduring effect on enhancing family relationships. Well its helped me to in some ways to communicate with my children that the life that they have is a very privileged life and a lot of people don’t have even the percentage of opportunity or life that they’re able to enjoy. I don’t think children get that by seeing it on television, I think children have to have a personal relationship with particularly young children have to have personal experiences to help you communicate with them. The one thing that I do notice is we have a lot of stuff around the house. We’ve collected bits and pieces. But stuff that we’ve gotten on these trips has fairly prominent locations and all of it tends to say, ah . . . that was a neat  experience. They are reminders. There’s a Guatemalan embroidery here, and a Cuban picture there, and a picture from Brazil. It’s a great shared experiences when you get back to, you know, talk about it. When we talked and shared pictures with friends and so on to remember the, you know even if we didn’t always do the same thing. We were there at the same time and saw a lot of the same things and met a lot of the same people and had very much the same feelings. That’s a neat thing to share and compare. Many informants also emphasised the realisation of the stark differences in material life: ‘how privileged we are versus them’. The transcending effect is especially apparent among the younger informants. In the individual in-depth interview sessions with individuals in their teens and early 20s, informants agreed that the volunteering experience went beyond their expectations for the trip, and impacted their lives in a profound way. For instance, several interviewees said that their future career choices would be influenced as a result of their volunteering experiences. It challenged me. It opened my eyes to other parts of the world. My passion for children and missionary work has grown. My friend who went with me is now in Uganda on a mission! It just brings you back that basic humanity with everything else stripped away, we are just the same and that is exciting and encouraging. I see them in God’s eyes. We’re all the same. We have the same needs, the same wants, the same desires and same fears. They want family just as much as I do. Discussions and Conclusion Using qualitative focus group and personal interview approaches, this study examined the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism from the perspectives of vacationers who spend a small proportion of their trip volunteering at the destination. More specifically, we sought to understand what the underlying psychological factors are and whether they are similar to or different from two phenomena: (1) volunteerism – those of pure missionary or service trips where individuals devote the entire or the majority of their time to volunteer work, and (2) mainstream tourism where individuals travel for pure leisure purposes. The goal of the research was to broker the linkages between volunteer vacation motives, mainstream tourism motives, and volunteerism travel motives. The findings of this research appear to suggest some similarities as well as differences between the ‘volunteer-minded’ travellers and the ‘vacationminded’ travellers. The motivatio ns of the volunteer vacationers appear to be conforming to some degree to volunteering motives in general in such aspects as ‘personal fulfilment’, ‘identity enhancement and self-expression’ (Stebbins, 1982, 1992, 2004), ‘promoting peace’ (Philbrook, pers comm) and ‘cultural exchange’(Broad, 2003). However, this study also revealed factors that appear to be specific to the phenomenon of volunteer vacationing. For instance, volunteer vacationers appear to attach high values to the opportunities for educating children and bonding with family members. Seeking camaraderie also appears to be a strong sentiment that is reflected in both motivational and benefit discussions  among the participants. Further, volunteer vacationers seem to be driven by sense of adventure and desires for exploration and novelty, that are not as prominent with the more serious volunteer travellers. Borrowing Plog’s (1974) theorisation, the volunteer vacationers can also be labelled as allocentrics – explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and untouched destinations. While both groups have demonstrated certain altruistic motives, the notion of altruism for the volunteer vacationers is much less apparent. Using an ethnographic case study approach, Broad (2003) examined the relationship between volunteers, their volunteering experiences and the outcomes that eventuated. Broad’s study subjects were serious volunteers in Phuket, Thailand. His study found that just under two-thirds of volunteers were motivated by an ‘altruistic desire to help’, although other motives similar to the volunteer vacationers were also present such as working with like-minded people, or a desire to develop personality as a result of volunteering. Interestingly, serious volunteers also indicated that their volunteering was at least partly motivated by a desire to travel and a chance to experience a new culture. This study also revealed some intriguing patterns of the interplay between the general leisure travel motivation and motivational factors underlining  volunteer vacation. It appears that the motivational factors for volunteer vacation intertwine with multiple layers of general leisure vacation motivation. While volunteer vacationers demonstrate that there is a definite notion of self-actualisation and authenticity, the highest level of needs as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the volunteer vacationers appear to also be strongly motivated by lower-level factors such as love and social needs as well as learning needs. Another interesting observation is that the volunteer vacation motivational factors appear to follow the directional argument about self- and others-directed motivations, as proposed by Pearce (1982) in his ‘travel career ladder’ model. This investigation showed that the motivational factors were largely driven from two different aspects: sel f-directed – acquaint, learn, feel better, self-actualise; other-directed – help, connect, understand. The benefits resulting from the volunteer vacation experience also seem to align with the directional argument. They can be grouped as self-enhancement (such as becoming a better person) and other-enhancement (such as imparting values on children). This study also adds a new dimension to this post-modern tourism phenomenon and is in line with trends that mass tourism is in more of a spiritual search and a desire for travel opportunities that increase the sense of place. While the increasingly popular ecotourism experiences emphasise the notion of learning, environmental obligation and social responsibility, which breaks away from the mass commodified tourism products, volunteer vacations present an altruistic theme in which participants can make a difference and help others. What is the significance of spending only a small proportion of time volunteering during a holiday? The volunteer vacation purports an infusion of an ideological divergence from the market-driven priorities of mass tourism. This divergence, however unintentional, seems to converge well with the societal needs of the fast-paced, stress-driven contemporary world. Individuals are in fact increasingly using tourism, especially experiences with a strong spiritua l notion, as a means of improving their home life, rather than merely escaping from it. This  could explain the rapid growth of volunteer vacation as a travel phenomenon in recent years. The benefits derived from the volunteer vacation appear to be temporary or enduring in nature. Temporary or immediate benefits could be having a higher level of satisfaction with the overall leisure trip as a result of the volunteering experience. The enduring benefit effects centre around the developments of both self and others, as well as social relationship enhancement. The social interactions pertaining to the volunteer vacation domain appear to enhance relationships in a multifaceted manner: (1) Interacting with people from the destination community promotes mutual understanding and appreciation and friendship. (2) Interacting with travel group members with similar interests and values promotes friendship and peer bonding. (3) Interacting with family members, such as spouse and children, promotes healthier family relationships and tighter bonding. This research contributes to the tourism literature by brokering the linkages between the volunteering, volunteer vacationing, mass tourism vacationing and motivation to travel. The volunteer vacation phenomenon appears to bridge the altruistic motives of volunteering with the general commodified tourism experiences. In this regard, the outcome of this research also bears some practical implications for the tourism industry practitioners.  Volunteer vacation seems to provide a new avenue for tourism satisfaction. As demonstrated in this research, this concept brings about a higher level of trip satisfaction for the participants. We are identifying a new and unique market segment that is neither a pure leisure trip nor a pure volunteer experience. Implementing this concept will create authentic cultural experiences unlike any other in the industry. This philosophy and practice of volunteer tourism can be linked to the mainstream tourism with its focus on market priorities. The outco me of this hybridised approach in the global marketplace of tourism can potentially generate new market dynamics and promises while enabling every traveller to be an ambassador for peace. The authors acknowledge that while this research presents an interesting snapshot of the emerging volunteer vacation phenomenon, the generalisability of the research outcome is limited, as it is based on a small sample from one organisation with qualitative methodologies such as focus groups and personal interviews. Substantially more research is needed in this area to better attempt to understand the dimensionalities of the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism and the interplay of mass tourism motives and volunteer motives. To achieve this goal and increase internal and external validities of the research findings, more stringent measurement scales will be developed based on the qualitative analyses and extensive literature review. Quantitative approaches based on structured measurements and more inclusive or representative samples should be adopted. Nonetheless, this research serves as an excellent baseline for more statistically rigorous follow-up research which s hould produce broader inferences in this specialised field of tourism studies. References Australian Bureau of Statistics (1986) Volunteering in NSW. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Beach, J. and Ragheb, M.G. (1983) Measuring leisure motivation. Journal of Leisure Research 15 (3), 219–28. Beigbeder, Y. (1991) The Role and Status of International Humanitarian Volunteers and Organizations. London: Martinus Nijhoff. Bello, D.C. and Etzel, M.J. (1985) The role of novelty in the pleasure travel experience. Journal of Travel Research Summer, 20–26. Broad, S. (2003) Living the Thai life – A case study of volunteer tourism at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, Thailand. Tourism Recreation Research 28 (3), 63–72. Brown, S. and Morrison, A. (2003) Expanding volunteer vacation participation. An exploratory study on the mini-mission concept. Tourism Recreation Research 28 (3), 73– 82. Burns, P. and Holden, A. (1995) Tourism: A New Perspective. London, New York: Prentice Hall. Campbell, K. (1999) You name it volunteers do it. Christian Science Monitor 91 (60), 19. Clark, K. (1978) The Two-way Street – a Survey of Volunteer Service Abroad. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Cnaan, R.A., Handy, F. and Wadsworth, M. (1996) Defining who is a volunteer: Conceptual and empirical considerations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 25, 364–83. Crompton, J. (1979) Motivations for pleasure vacations. Annals of Tourism Research 6, 408– 24. Dann, G. (1977) Anomie, ego-enhancement and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 4, 184– 94. Darby, M. (1994) International development and youth challenge: Personal development through a volunteer experience. MA Thesis, School of Leisure and Tourism Studies, University of Technology, Sydney. Gazley, B. (2001) Volunteer vacationers and what research can tell us about them. E-Volunteerism (12). Gillette, A. (1968) One Million Volunteers. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin. Graumann, C.F. (1981) Motivation. Wiesbaden: Akad. Hudson, S. (1999) Consumer behavior related to tourism. In A. Pizam and Y. Mansfeld (eds) Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism. New York: Haworth Hospitality. Kellicker, P. (2004) Volunteer vacations: The health benefits of helping others. On WWW at http//www.http://somersetmedicalcenter.com/110299. Accessed 07.07.04. Kernan, J.B. and Domzal, T. (2001) Playing on the post-modern edge: Action as self-identity. In A.G. Woodside, G.I. Crouch, J.A. Mazanec, M. Oppermann and M.Y. Sakai (eds) Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. Oxon: CABI. Kernan, J.B. and Unger, L.S. (1987) Leisure, quality-of-life and marketing. In A.C. Samli (ed.) Marketing and the Quality-of-Life Interface. Westport, CT: Quorum. Leopold, C. (2000) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On WWW at http//www.e-volunteerism.com/fall2000/intlexchintro.html. Accessed 07.07.04. Maslow, A.H. (1954) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Brothers. Maslow, A.H. (1970) Motivation and Personality (3rd edn). New York: Harper and Row. Mayo, E.J. and Jarvis, L.P. (1981) The Psychology of Leisure Travel: Effective Marketing and Selling of Travel Services. Boston: CBI Publising Co. McMillion, B., Cutchins, D. and Geissinger, A. (2003) Volunteer Vacations Short Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others (8th edn). Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Mill, A.S. and Morrison, A.M. (2002) The Tourism System: An Introductory Text. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Oppermann, M. (2000) Where psychology and geography interface in tourism research and theory. In A.G. Woodside, G.I. Crouch, J.A. Mazanec, M. Oppermann and M.Y. Sakai (eds) Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. Oxon: CABI. Parrinello, G. (2002) Motivation and anticipation in post-industrial tourism. In Y. Apostolopoulos, S. Leivadi and A. Yiannakis (eds) The Sociology of Tourism Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. London: Routledge. Pearce, P. (1982) The Social Psychology of Tourist Behavior. Oxford: Pergamon. Pearce, P. (1993) Fundamentals of tourist motivation. In D.G. Pearce and R.W. Butler (eds) Tourism Research, Critiques and Challenges. London: Routledge. Plog, S.C. (1974) Why destination areas rise and fall in popularity. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly 14 (4), 55–8. Schmalt, H.D. (1996) Motivationpsychologie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Stebbins, R.A. (1982) Serious leisure: A conceptual statement. Pacific Sociological Review 25, 251–72. Stebbins, R.A. (1992) Amateurs, Professionals and Serious Leisure. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Stebbins, R.A. (2004) Introduction. In R.A. Stebbins and M. Graham (eds) Volunteering as Leisure, Leisure as Volunteering – An International Assessment. Oxon: CABI. Stebbins, R.A. and Graham, M. (eds) (2004) Volunteering as Leisure, Leisure as Volunteering – An International Assessment. Oxon: CABI. Swarbrooke, J. and Horner, S. (2003) Consumer Behavior in Tourism. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann. Thoits, P.A. and Hewitt, L.N. (2001) Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42, 115–31. Van Til, J. (1979) In search of volunteerism. Volunteer Administration 12, 8–20. United States Department of Larbor Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2003) Volunteering in the United States. On WWW at http//www.bls.gov/newsrelease/volun.nr0.htm. Accessed 07.07.04. Wang, N. (2000) Tourism and Modernity. Oxford: Elsevier Science. Wearing, S.L. (2001) Volunteer Tourism: Seeking Experiences That Make a Difference. Wallingford: CABI. Wearing, S.L. (2003) Editorial. Tourism Recreation Research 28 (3), 3–4.

High School Essay Example for Free

High School Essay I. Problem/Needs a. San Nicolas Elementary School (s. y. 2013-2014) has 765 enrollees, 43 teachers, non-teaching, staffs, personnel, including its maintenance. Previous school years, survey through interview shows that the school has no canteen. What they did was a classroom canteen wherein teachers allow outside vendors to sell foods, snacks in each classroom during break time. This practice made wrong impact and its advantages to the entire school campus. Instead of 30 minutes break time, survey shows they have 45 minutes and lessons are affected. b. Outside vendors are not known by the pupils and teachers. They just offer their cooked foods to students without knowing or not sure with the safetiness of what they are going to take in. They don’t know how and who made the foods. Other parents also go inside the school to give snacks to eat to their children during recess time which make break time longer. School staffs observed this situation and they made a decision to really have canteen as soon as possible. c. During the first meeting of the school year 2013-2014, the PTA meeting tackled the topic about school canteen, they should have it. As a situation to the need of the school, the principal set another meeting to meet interested parents who wants to manage the canteen. As a result, school pupils, teachers and other personnel now have their break time properly. Manager of the canteen improved the school canteen, and prepared it for the new canteen. Now, San Nicolas Elementary School is nearly for safer, healthier and more convenient canteen for everyone. II. Statement of Vision, Mission and Values Vision: The school will provide a good source of foods for the pupils, teachers and parents of the school. Healthy foods, price of foods will surely be right for everyone. Mission: The school will have a canteen on its own, managed by the school itself or any representatives from the PTA member. Foods will surely be healthy and nutritious. Kind of foods to sold will be strictly monitored to sure the safetiness of all the entire school. Values: Having a school canteen will promote orderly and organized school especially on break time. Everyone in school should support its canteen that could help in the progress and improvement of the entire school. III. Marketing plan a. Research and Analysis: It is more than two years when San Nicolas Elementary School has no canteen. Former managements of school canteen believed that their services and foods offer are not satisfying. It was observed by our interviews that students and teachers would more like to go out or buy outside their snacks during break time. In addition to that, price of the previous canteen are not affordable by the students. PTA meeting was conducted and during the said meeting, the principal announced that all parents who are interested to manage the school canteen this school year 2013-2014 is free to pass bid form containing rental which is the highest offer as a rental of the school will have the opportunity to handle the canteen. The form also contains the expected menus, foods offered and its prices. The monthly rental of the school canteen will be an income of the school which will be used for school improvements at the end of the school year. This move of the school as a solution of the problem believes that it will turn to an advantage of the entire school. Students and teachers will be comfortable to spend their break time inside the canteen, safetiness and healthy foods will be as sure. Accidents will be impossible because students will no longer go out to nearby stores to buy foods and also monthly income of the school will be at stake. b. Marketing Strategies: Students will be the first customer of the canteen, so offers will be for students at most. Foods will be based on the taste of the consumers so as by the teachers also. Foods will be simple snacks so that prices will also be affordable and reasonable especially for ordinary students. Prices will be strictly monitored. Special promos or simple promo will also be given. Simple promo like free juice or offering discounted prices on sets of snack items. Like: 1 special miki regular price is Php 15. 00 with boiled egg on toppings plus 1 refresh juice is at Php 6. 00= student will pay only Php 20. 00| Foods or snacks will be changeable, based on what is saleable to consumers. IV. Production Plan Quantity| Unit| Supplies| 533050102550301010| KilosKilosPcs. SticksBoxesPcs. Pcs. SticksBagsBags| PancitMikiBoiled eggBarbecueAsstd. Fruit drinksSandwichesShanghaiBanana cueAsstd. BiscuitsAsstd. cupcakes|.

Effect of Globalization on Arabic Culture

Effect of Globalization on Arabic Culture Globalization may be defined as the set of social, economic, political, technological, cultural arrangement and procedures resulting from the altering characteristic of production, demand and marketing of products and services which includes the base of multinational political economies. These changes or alteration are multinational and transnational dynamics which pose great impact on the ultimate objective accomplishment in the determination of business environment, global trade regulations etc (Globalisation). There are four key features of globalization which are as follows: Globalization is the integration of various national economies into global market. It transits the economy from high volume in to high value; it is possible through increase in the number of exhaustive products and services information. It vanish the traditional clash of capitalism and socialism and bipolarity. It leads to the configuration and integration of new business alliance (Globalisation). Introduction to Arabic Culture: The Arabs are considered as the ethnic group of people, we can identify them from their conventional cultural values, language and ancestral civilization. The origin of Arab people is from Arabia and their original language was Semitic being Semites. The Arab Culture comprises of the unique features of Arabian people including language, food, dressing modes, rites and rituals, deities, music, dance, art and craft, literature, social structures etc. The Poetry Composition is a unique feature of Arabian literature which has been revealed through the holy Quran. Arabian music prefers melody and rhythm in comparison to harmony. The Arabian Cuisines were prepared mostly by rice, barley, dates, and meat and yoghurt products. The dress ups of Arabian people provides them unique identity in the world, the Arabian women use to wear robes and always prefer to cover their hairs and faces, and Arabian men also wear robes along with the turbans (Najjar, 2005). Effect on Language: Language is considered to be the most prominent part of any culture because people use to communicate with the help of it, and communication plays an important role in transferring the cultural attributes from one generation to another. Due to the over interference of western culture and globalization in the Arab their language shunned and changed towards the English. As English is simple to learn easily and quickly, it captured and spread in the Arab region and surpassed the Arabic language. Most of the Arab people prefer English over Arab language which leads to the Arabic languages deterioration and make it the secondary language. English has been preferred by the Arabian youths and on the contrary Arab language opposed by them as they considered English as superior language which provide them honorable status in the society (John A. Morrow, 2007). Effect on mode of Dressing: The mode of dressing which was followed by the Arab people traditionally revealed their modesty. But due to the globalization the traditional dressing mode has been replaced by western dressing patterns, and the original ethnic dress ups of Arab people have been preserved for old aged people. The present young generalization of Arab have been influenced by globalization a lot, they generally prefers dresses of western culture like jeans, t shirts, and other dresses which leads to too much exposure in comparison with traditional Arab dresses. It posses significant negative impact on the Arabic cultural and ethnic values, beliefs, and norms as the globalization leads to over dominance of western culture on the Arab people and their dressing mode, which ultimately affects the identity and original dress ups of Arab (Najjar, 2005). Effect on Identity: With the emergence of globalization, Arabs have lost the major part of their traditional conventional culture due to its regional market penetration by western culture countries. The identity of individuals lies in their traditions and culture which includes values, beliefs, customs, rites, rituals, dress ups, language, food, arts and crafts, dance and music etc., culture can be observe in the individuals characteristics. Globalization has led to the desertion of various aforementioned features of Arabian Culture which leads to destruction of the Arab Culture as a whole. It leads to various problems like difficulty in identifying and discriminated Arab people on the basis of cultural aspects as they follow other cultural values. If these conditions would not going to change, the traditional culture of Arab get disappear entirely which leads to loss of rich cultural heritage (Najjar, 2005) . Effect on Arab Heritage Culture: The globalization, modernization and secularization provide various significant benefits to the Arabs in terms of technology, economic development, and political scenario. Apart from these benefits globalization leads to harm the traditional culture heritage of Arabs. The conventional art and craft, music and dance, language and literature, food and dressing mode have been replaced by the western cultural attributes (Najjar, 2005). Conclusion:Â   The Arabian youth do not understand the significance of their conventional culture and its preservation. Globalization has affected the Arabian Culture tremendously through internet, films, music, art and literature, so the strategies pertaining to transformation of Arabian Culture should be taken as early as possible so as to retain its original identity and overcome the losses of globalization.

Romeo And Juliet - Vendetta In Verona :: essays research papers

	The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare clearly demonstrates how tragedy can be caused when the rage of past generations is carried over to a younger generation. The key factor that demonstrates this theme is the constant feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. The rage between the two households directly relates to the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet. 	A major dispute is going on between the Capulets and the Montagues. These two households, "both alike in dignity," (1.Prologue.1) have been feuding for so long that they even forget the reason they are feuding. Romeo and Juliet, "a pair of star-crossed lovers who take their life," (1.Prologue.6) are results of how tragedy can be caused when the rage of past generations carries over to a younger generation. Tybalt is also an example of the theme. At Capulet's party, he walks up to Lord Capulet and says "Tis he, that villain Romeo" (1.5.67). Tybalt learns this rage toward Romeo and all the other Montagues through past generations. 	Putting the objections and differences of Romeo and Juliet's parents aside, however, Romeo and Juliet fall in love as soon as they meet, and decide to risk being wed in secret. The reason for the secret marriage is because both Romeo and Juliet know their parents would be angered by their marriage. The only people to know about Romeo and Juliet's secret marriage other than themselves is the Friar and the nurse. 	Due to the secret marriage, Romeo and Juliet tragically die. Had Romeo and Juliet announced their wedding, they could still be alive. Juliet would not have had to fake her death to get out of the arranged marriage with Paris if she had told her parents about her and Romeo. Romeo does not receive the information of the Friar and Juliet's plan in time, and he kills himself in anguish over her death. As Juliet awakes from her slumber, she sees Romeo dead. Juliet then kills herself in bereavement over Romeo's death. Had Romeo and Juliet announced their wedding, then none of these tragic events ever would have happened as a result of their parents dispute. 	As well as the lives of Romeo and Juliet being affected, so were the lives of people around them that they loved and cared for. Not knowing of the secret marriage, Tybalt and Mercutio engage in a duel. Romeo tries to stop the duel when he says "Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier down" (3.

Dulce et Decorum est Essay -- English Literature

Dulce et Decorum est The poet reacts to the war by turning normal poetic language in to something that appears normal on the surface but in reality is tainted. The poet also breaks from normal poetry to show society the normal images of war. The ability to move the reader makes the poem work which aids the reader in to understanding the false propaganda. The poem is about soldiers in trench warfare and is a great example of writing graphically to show the horrific side of war yet being completely truthful. The poet does not withhold any information from the reader and conveys what it was like to fight in the War. The poet shows the pain in the poem. His tone, depression, lack of hope reveals his message. He uses long sentences and metaphor to show the tires soldiers. Picturing ‘old beggar under sacks’ tells us what war has done to them. It also tells us they are battle weary and scared of what is ahead of them. The use of similes in the first stanza allows the reader to understand the anguish of war. The poet is able to use words the words to paint a vivid and terrifying picture of trench warfare in the mind of the reader. The Hags is connected with the word beggers as they both outcasts in society. What's more words like beggers, hags and blood-shod shows what the war has done to the soldiers of war.. Through his use of vivid words and portrayal it makes us understand the effects of war and what it involves. The Stanza continues ‘Till on the haunting flares’, this suggests that the soldiers are possibly disturbed and are being haunted by the flares. The last line further shows the effects of war, the soldiers are deaf to the gas shells dropping right behind them. In the second stanza the poem begin... ...ers were once the ‘children ardent for some desperate glory.’ ‘Children’ here is used as the same reason as ‘boys’, who were brainwashed in to sacrificing their lives. The innocent are willing to believe in the lie about the war, but the war was totally different first hand hence the anger towards those who propagated dying for your country in being noble. ‘The old Lie’ the poet users a capital ‘L’ in lie. This puts the war in perspective of being glorious and patriotic. The readers attention does not wonder during the poem because of the poets consistent imagery. By the end of the poem the reader can fully appreciate the irony between the truth of what happens at the Trenches and the lie being told at home. The whole poem is contradictory to what was being spread with ‘Dulce et Decorum est.’ (It is a sweet and glorious thing to die for your country.)

The Lyrics of My Grandmothers Life :: Music Personal Narrative Papers

The Lyrics of My Grandmother's Life At age seven she was a star on stage, singing the role of "Becky" in the Tom Sawyer operetta. When she was ten she dunked "Mouse's" head in the teapot as the "Mad Hatter" in Alice and Wonderland. She was hoping to be "Alice", but even back then the eighth graders got all the good parts. But the experience was satisfying anyway because "Mouse" was played by her grade school rival, the same girl who competed with her for the best position on the basketball team and who once made a better pot holder in Home Ec. Doris Horton Thurston, my seventy-five year old grandmother, has always had a song in her heart and on the edge of her tongue, waiting to flow over in a cascade of expression. She sees music as a connection to the world, a form that lets her reach outside of everyday life to different people, different cultures and different times. From generations before her and for generations to follow, from the memory of her mother's piano playing and her father's voice as a child to the orchestra concerts of her youngest grandchildren, she holds the connection to music close to her heart. Her childhood was one of family hikes and plum trees and dipping fish out of the Lewis River when the smelt run came through. It was filled with holiday candles on the Christmas tree, carved cribbage boards and two younger brothers. In high school she ran track and played clarinet in Mr. Griffith's band. She danced to We Three are All Alone and Carolina Moon on the gym floor of Woodland High School. Throughout it all she pursued her love of music: chorus, octet and solo performances, piano lessons and family singing around the piano. She worked alongside her Mother, Dad and brothers, Troy and Dane, in the neatly tended and carefully guarded rows of the family garden. She hummed the lilting notes of an Ave Maria aria or the harmony line to My Wild Irish Rose, which she somehow heard in her head when her father's rich baritone caressed the melody and her mothers fingers danced on the piano keys. She hoped the vegetables they were tending could be sold to earn a little extra for the next month of piano lessons. Despite the never-ending presence of the depression throughout the thirties, she was never hungry or cold.

Pretense rather than Reality Turns Blanche Dubois

Pretense rather than Reality Turns Balance Dubious Desire into Devastation in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire By bouquet Research Paper Title: Pretense rather than Reality Turns Balance Dubious Desire into Devastation in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire Course Title: Research Paper and Viva Voce course code: ENG – 426 Date of submission: 02. 05. 2013 Submitted by RMI Roy Erg. NO. 2008236032 4th Year 2nd Semester Department of English Shallot University of Science and Technology, Sylphs Submitted to DRP. Handmaid Seeker Roy Associate ProfessorThis Research Paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree B. A. (Honors) in English. Shallot University of Science and Technology, sylphs- 3114 (Signature of Supervisor) DRP. Handmaid Seeker Roy Associate Professor (Signature of Author) Declaration I hereby declare that, this research paper entitled â€Å"Pretense rather than Reality Turns Balance Dubious Desire into Devastation in T ennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire† is based on my own study under the guidance of my supervisor, DRP. Handmaid Seeker Roy, Associate Professor, Department of English, Shallot University f Science and Technology.I have prepared this paper in the form of Research Paper as partial fulfillment of the degree B. A. (Honors). I have neither taken any part of this paper directly from any other sources nor submitted any part of it or in full to any other institution or for the award of any degree. Acknowledgment First and foremost, I would like to thank my respectable supervisor DRP. Handmaid Seeker Roy who shared his ideas with me and offered his time and helpful comments during the stressful period. This work is a product of my sincere effort and my oppressor has certainly being a helping one in this regard.I am grateful to him for his invaluable guidance and co-operation. I should also thank my dearest friends who were always eager to assist me. I acknowledge my debt to all of the faculty members of my department for their contribution to my education and this work. 02 May, 2013. Into Pretense rather than Reality Turns Balance Dubious Desire Devastation in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Abstract In today's rough and tough world, there seems to be no room for failure. The pressure to succeed in life sometimes seems unreasonable. Others often set expectations for people too high.This forces that person to develop ways to take the stress and tension out of their lives in their own individual ways. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, the main character Balance Dubious is incapable of living in the present and facing reality and that's why she takes lies and pretense as a defensive shield. Throughout the play she lives her life in illusion. An in-depth psychological study of this text will show that the final catastrophe of Blanches life is the outcome of her own lie and pretense.This paper ring the truth that Allan, S tella and Stanley pretense has a clear influence on Blanches devastation. Balance Dubious the protagonist of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire is a fallen woman in society's eyes because of her numerous sexual liaisons. Losing her ancestral estate due to a foreclosed mortgage, losing her young husband to suicide years earlier and her Job,evicting from a motel, she seeks solace and refuge with her married sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski who are living in New Orleans. She comes with her new desires leaving behind her licentious past.Pretentious Balance is disdainful of the cramped quarters of the Kowalski' two- room apartment and of the apartment's location in a noisy, diverse, working-class neighborhood. In the Kowalski household, Balance pretends to be a woman who has never known indignity. Her false propriety is not simply snobbery, however; it constitutes a calculated attempt to make herself appear attractive to new male. She always pretends to be a young lady despite crossing that period earlier. The raw and unrefined working class Stanley can not put up with her pretense.Stanley intense tater of Balance is motivated in part by the aristocratic past Balance represents. His view of life, stripped of illusion and artificiality, sees beneath the pretenses and disguises of others. He investigates Blanches past and very cruelly reveals it to Mitch with whom Balance is dreaming of her marriage. As a result Mitch leaves her. Later Stanley in a state of drunkenness rapes Balance. After doing all these Stanley goes back to his real life and pretends as if nothing has happened. Still Balance knows truth and reality.Until the very last scene Balance does not lose touch with reality. In the last scene Stella confesses to Eunice that she simply cannot allow herself to believe Blanches assertion that Stanley raped her. Stella pretends only to save her own married life. Finally Balance losing her grip on reality soon goes to an insane asylum, but Balance believes she is leaving to Join her millionaire. All her hopes and desires of a better life ends up here with her going to an mental hospital. The researcher wants to show that Blanches own pretense is responsible for her fall.Reality can be fearful to a pretender as truth can only be harmful to a liar. Reality as tough for her but not hard enough to lead to her insanity. If she had shown the mental strength of accepting reality without pretending, certainly her life would have been different. A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. Multiple works and researches have been done on this famous drama by different critics. Alvin B.Korean presents A Streetcar Named Desire as Williams clearest treatment of the human dilemma which entails the dramatic dilemma. He offers in Streetcar two polar says of looking at experience: the realistic view of Stanley Kowalski and the eggn og- realistic view of his sister-in-law, Balance Dubious. Joseph N. Riddle showed A Streetcar Named Desire- Nietzsche Descending where Williams borrows from Nietzsche in great chunks, often undigested, using his sources with that liberal freedom that has become characteristic of the American artist in search of a theme.Again Leonard Bergman exemplifies traditional tragedy of A Streetcar Named Desire which enlist the array of forces emporal and eternal, comprehensible and beyond human ken- against which the heroic struggle must be waged. A Streetcar Named Desire is an inspired refutation of the linking of modern American drama with the common man. Balance Dubious was a troubled woman who throughout the play lives her life in illusions. To deal with the problems and hardships of her lives she retreats into her own separate world of illusion and lies.Balance says: gel don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, Magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. Eh (Sc. 9 p. 204) . The story begins with Balance going to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella, and her husband Stanley for a while. She describes her voyage: eighty told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields(Sc. 1 p. 177). This Cheshire is the driving force, the vehicle of her voyage.This driving force encourages her to evade harsh reality and create an illusory world with her imagination. When Balance first appears in agelessly Fields, she is presented through her congruousness appearance: she is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace ND earrings of pearl, white gloves and hate(Sc. 1 p. 1 17). In appearance, she is a glamorous, ladylike aristocrat, who is perhaps slightly nervous. She parades about the house as if she is a regal figure, wearing elegant gowns and delicate Jewelry.Balance likes to appear riche r than she really is, in a similar way to costume Jewelry emulating real gold or silver. Her reaction to Stellar apartment is somewhat shocking an its a part of her pretension: ego, left not going to be hypocritical, I'm going to be honestly critical about it! Explain this place to me! What are you doing in a place like this? H (SC. I p. 121) This reaction would be Justified if she had her previous high standards as a result of growing up in Belle Reeve, a great big place with white columns. Now she is a penniless woman with no place to live in.But her words to Stella shows that in her mind she is still living in her aristocratic world and unable to bear this common surrounding. She pretends to be someone very concerned with moral values and social reasoning. She does not want to be seen by the men before she powders herself. She hides behind a mask of manufactured beauty, struggling to stay attractive. She says: guy know I haven't put on one ounce in ten years, Stella? I weigh what I weighed the summer you left the Belle Revere (Sc. L p. 123). It seems that she believes she is still having the same glam-our as she had ten years earlier.Balance cannot seem to leave behind the moribund past of Belle Reeve and accept the sterile, modern New South of the Elysian Fields. Thus when Balance gets to New Orleans, she decides that in order to not reveal anything, she must create the illusions that she is happy and the reason she is there only because she's on vacation. This is so that nobody would think less of her. Even she lies to her loving sister Stella and hides the fact that she has lost her Job. gel was so exhausted by all left would been through my nerves broke. So Mr. graves is the superintendent – he suggested I take a leave of absence (Sc. P. 122). Thus she conceals the truth so that no one can know her weaknesses. But such attempts only reveal her pretension and superficiality throughout the play. She says to Stella: Egypt don't you look at me, Stell a, no,no,no, not till later, not till leave bathed and rested! Looked at in this merciless glare! Eh And turn that light off I won't be (Sc. L p. 120). She tries to avoid bright light of any kind. Her reaction to light can be regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well as her vanishing beauty and youth. By hiding from the light, she tries to escape reality.She covers the naked light bulb with a Chinese paper lantern, saying, gel canine stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action (Sc. 3 p. 150). This remark shows that Balance would rather hide behind polite phrases than accept truth and reality. However her illusory world soon confronts with Stanley straightforwardness and honesty which seems to pose a strong threat towards Balance. Balance deceives everyone for a good portion of the play. Stanley does not enjoy agencies, he says that visage men are took in by this Hollywood glam-our stuff and some men are note(Sc. P. 137). As Balance Dub ious has created a sort of glass cube around herself, for protection, and people such as Stanley threaten to shatter that glass cube by learning her secrets. Swell, life is too full of evasions and ambiguities , I think. I like an artiste who paints in strong, bold colors, primary colors (Sc. 2 p. 137). She is denying her reality and urging for a life filled with all brightness and colors. In front of Stanley she pretends that she is not vulnerable. Pretension is her primary means of self-defense. She is not deceitful out of malice. But, Stanley does not buy into her facades.Stanley and Balance gradually become enemies. He starts questioning her and others about her last few years. Stanley continuously tries to discover her true history so that he can destroy her pretensions and let everyone know the real Balance. He does this because he is straightforward and doesn't like to be deceived. Stanley search ultimately explores the reasons of her pretensions. :What initially leads to her illusions is love. When she was young sixteen, . Made the discovery – love All at once and much, much too completely (Sc. 6 p. 182). She met Allan Grey and fell in love.The young couple got married and, to Balance, were falling more and more in love, when one day coming into a room that I thought was empty (Sc. 6 p. 183), this illusion would be shattered. In this room she found her husband, Allan, and a older male friend of his. Allan Grey was gay. Allan was in fact a pretender himself, by trying to appear straight. At first, they tried to deny it but very soon the illusion was totally destroyed as Allan killed himself. From that moment she is afraid of reality and hides herself behind her pretentious world. But she forgets illusions honest last forever and pretensions must face truth someday.Balance came to Elysian Fields to forget her horrible past, and to have a fresh start . In fact Balance admits in the fourth scene that she wants to make herself a new life. Though she forgets, creation of happy life based on lies will soon be demolished with the blow of truth. After coming in New Orleans she meets a friend of Stanley, Mitch, and eventually she starts to think that maybe he is the one. Immediately, she realizes that, Mitch needs someone too. With Mitch she puts on the airs of a woman who has never known indignity. Although Balance was once a kind, normal, sweet girl, her very being has deteriorated.Now, all thefts left is what she struggles desperately to maintain on the outside. Balance thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and therefore she does not want him to know her past or her true age, and the best way to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where he could possibly see her wrinkles and fading youth in her face. However her deception soon brought into light by Stanley. Her promiscuity in laurel, sexual relations with anyone who agreed to it and finally her mistake of trying to seduce a 17 – year old student of hers. While stayi ng in New Orleans she tries her best to forget her past and purify herself.She is always having baths so no one can see her dirty or tired. She is obsessed with bathing, though it doesn't t necessarily washes her dirty past. Her past catches up with her and destroys her relationship with Mitch. Mitch accuses her of lying and pretending. But she denies such accusation asserting that gender inside,' didn't lie in my hearted(Sc. P. 205). Suddenly everything begins to fall around Balance Just as quickly as she has built it. Mitch realizes that Balance has been deceiving him and looks down on her true impure self. It is now that Balance completely unravels.Mitch leaves her and she is left all alone only with her broken illusions. This incident with Mitch makes Balance mentally and emotionally battered. Then Stanley comes to inflict more damage to her. Still then Balance is making stories about her supposed lovers (Sheep Hunting) to salvage her pride, pretend to play along with the charad e. He asks peculiar questions that force Balance to a point where she could no longer keep up her act. Then, to deliver the ultimate insult to Balance, Stanley brutally rapes her. This shock actually leads her to a permanent illusive world.Previously she used to lie with others but now she loses her touch with reality. Nobody is ready to accept her fairy tales anymore though this time she is telling the truth. Even Stella denies her truth. Stella tells Eunice: who replies: gel couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley', . Goon's ever believe tie Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you've got to keep owing† (Sc. Al p. 217). Here it almost seems as though Stella is realizing what is reality and what is not. But she pretends to disbelieve Balance in order to avoid any kind of rift in married life.Thus Stella makes a conscious decision to believe Stanley instead of her sister because to do otherwise would be both emotionally and economically difficult wit h a new baby so she, too, is engaging in a measure of self-deception. Stanley is also revealed to be capable of deceit, he does not admit the truth of what happened between him and Balance to his friends, to Stella, and maybe not even to himself. Stellar deception shatters the least hope and strength of Balance. She is no more be capable of pulling herself to face the reality. Once she created this fantasy world to hide the hurts from her youth.But now she begins to fabricate lies so complex that even she believes them. All she ever desired was a good, clean life. What she acquired is complex enigmas buried in the deepest catacombs of her soul and an asylum, or psychiatric hospital to live with her own imagination and deceive none but herself. Finally Alliances shocking reality would not disturb Blanches life so much if he had never pretended to be straight. Balance felt she could evade reality and live up with illusion. But that was not to happen because reality stays with people l ike shadows.Balance blurt the truth in front of Allan which results in the suicide of him. It messed up her life and she sank herself into an illusory world to get some relief. Her illusion gave her temporary relief but snatched the opportunity of real happiness. She lied to her sister who as a result denies to accept her truth at last. She thought of finding happiness and escaping sorrow by hiding herself under the roof of Mitchell love. She wished to be loved and supported by Mitch. But he hardly spent a peaceful moment with Mitch as she was always afraid of the revelation of her lies.