Bilingualism in the Basque Country Spain

Bilingualism in the Basque Country Spain Agur the first time I heard this word I lived in San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain. It is Basque and it means bye. When I laid on the beach some weird language I could not understand was spoken over the public address system and after that language followed a Spanish speaking lady saying that a child had been found. I was fascinated by this language, how can it be that it is so different from all the other languages I know? When I heard about the paper subjects I immediately knew I wanted to find out more about the Basque language and the bilingual system in the Basque Country in Spain. In this paper I will discuss the multilingual history of Spain, describe the situation of the Basque language in the Basque country and I will develop more about the educational systems to stimulate Basque language proficiency. I hope to give the reader an insight in the Basque educational system, the Basque Country itself and in the multilingual history of Spain. This paper consists out of a liter ature review on the basis of earlier studies because it was hard to find evidence on my own. At first this paper will describe the history of multilingualism in Spain, has the Spanish government always allowed bilingual education? Which co-official languages exist in Spain? Then a closer look will be taken on the Basque Country: a description of the area will be given, percentages of bilingual speakers, the attitude of Basque speakers towards Basque; why and when do they speak the language? In the next paragraph the educational models that were created by the Basque government will be described. These models were created to improve the second language proficiency in Basque for Spanish-speakers. An overview will be given of the three existing educational models. Finally a paragraph will discuss the attitude of Basque speakers and non-Basque speakers; where is Basque mostly spoken? Why there? Has the number of students studying Basque increased of decreased? This paper will be ended with a conclusion which sums up all the major findings of this paper. History multilingualism Spain Spain, as we know it today, is a multilingual country. It consists out of seventeen autonomous communities. Six of these communities (Catlonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic islands, Galicia, the Basque Country and Navarre) recognize a language of their own which is, together with Spanish, the official language in their territory. All Spanish autonomous communities have received legislative power in some areas. One of those areas is education, so the Spanish autonomous communities can adapt their own rules on education. So all the six communities with their own language can offer education in this language. This sounds all very positive; the possibility to teach children in the minority language and to have the minority language recognized as being an official language. Yet the life story of multilingualism has not always been like this. Thanks to historical developments, we can speak of the multilingual country Spain, but multilingualism used to be forbidden during the dictatorship of General Franco (1939-1975). After the Civil War (1936-1939) General Franco came in power and this put an end to the second republic. During Francos regime he declared Spanish as the only official language, and Franco forced the minority languages to disappear from the public domains; they could not be used in the media, public administration nor in education. The use of the languages was limited to domestic use, the people could only speak their language in their homes and not on the street, at work or other public places. When Francos regime came to an end, Spain established a democracy and a new Constitution was passed (1978). Many new regulations were adapted and the new Statues of Autonomy were passed. These statues divided Spain in the following autonomous commun ities: Aragà ³n, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-Leon, Catalonia, Ceuta and Melilla, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia and Navarra. The country was not only divided into different areas, some areas also retrieved an official status for their own language, which was the case for Catalan, Basque and Galician. Spanish became the official language of the Spanish state, but the autonomous communities can have an own official language next to Spanish. This meant that all the minority languages in Spain were acknowledged. Nowadays Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque country and Galicia have two official languages; Spanish and the official language of their territory. All the Parliaments of the above mentioned communities together created the Laws of Linguistic Normalization in 1983. This was a reaction on the regime of Franco. The laws not only gave minority languages the co-official status next too Spanish, but also the right to know and use the other language in any context, the principle of no discrimination on linguistic grounds and control of the educational system, culture and media to the autonomies (Huguet et al. 2008). Another aim of the Laws of Linguistic Normalization is to ensure that students have a balanced command of Spanish and their second language by the time they leave school. This aim has led to Catalan, Valencian, Balearic, Navarrese, Basque and Galician educational systems to create bilingual schools where mother tongue Spanish speakers can develop their language competence in the minority language (Lasagbaster and Huguet, 2007, Huguet, et al 2008). During the last twenty years bilingual education has increased in Spain. The Laws of Linguistic Normalization give autonomies the right to develop their own educational systems following a bilingual criteria. A description of the educational system in the Basque Country can be found on p. 8 of this paper. Figure Map of Spanish bilingual communities In figure 1 (Huguet, et al 2008) the communities with their own official language besides Spanish are highlighted: the Balaeric islands (where Catalan is spoken), the Basque Country and Navarre (where Basque is spoken) , Galicia (where Galician is the minority language) and Valencia (where Valencian is spoken). The autonomous communities of Aragon (where both Catalan and Aragonese are spoken) and Asturias (where Asturias is spoken) are also added to the figure. In Aragon and Asturias the minority languages have no legal status. Tabel Percentage of inviduals who can understand and can speak the minority language (Huguet et al, 2008) Catalonia Valencia The Balearic Islands Galicia The Basque Country Navarra Individuals who can understand (passive) 97 89 92 99 44 23 Individuals who can speak (active) 79 56 72 89 29 16 This table shows an enormous difference between the communities. In Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Galicia over 90% of the population can understand the minority language and many (although less than 90%) can also speak the minority language. Yet in the Basque Country and Navarra the percentages are much lower, less than 50% of the population can understand the minority language and even a lower percentage can speak it. But in the case of the Basque Country, many things are done to improve the situation of the minority language as we will discuss in the next paragraphs. The Basque country The Basque country covers an area of approximately 20,742 square kilometres and is divided into seven provinces: three belonging to the French Pyrenà ©es Atlantiques community (Lapurdi, Nafarroa, Beherea and Zuberoa), and four to two autonomous regions in Spain (The Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre). In this paper the situation of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) will be described. The total Basque population exists out of 3 million inhabitants, with 92% being Spanish citizens. In the BAC live around 2.1 million inhabitants, of which 24.7% are bilingual and 16.3% are passive bilingual. Basque is a minority language spoken by only 27% of the population. The Basque language is the only non-Indo-European language in Western Europe and although the language has been in touch with many Roman languages (Spanish, French, Catalan), it is completely unrelated to them. This is probably one of the most important reasons why so few people of the Basque population (almost 60%) do not understand Basque at all. The language differs so much from Spanish and other Roman languages in Spain that it has no interface with other languages in the country. Spanish is the first official and dominant language in BAC, so that makes all Basque speakers bilingual because they speak Spanish and Basque. Since Spanish is also the dominant language is makes proficiency in Basque not necessary in many areas. (Perez Vidal, ..) The monolingual Spanish speakers in the BAC do not necessarily need the Basque language to survive in the BAC. Everyone around them speaks English, in formal settings the language spoken is mostly Spanish, the media mostly publishes in Spanish, and so everything around them is in Spanish. This especially counts for the bigger cities, such as Bilbao or San Sebastià ¡n (Donostia in Basque). In smaller villages in the country side there are more people who speak Basque and speaking Basque becomes more of a necessity. Thanks to the promotion of Basque in schools there has been an increase of 95,000 Basque speakers from 1981 to 1991 (Garmendia 1994, Perez Vidal ..) and in the next decade (1991-2001) the percentage of bilinguals in the range of 16-24 years old has almost doubled, from 25% to 48% (Gobierno Vasco, 2003; Huguet 2008). Basque is in the process of reversing language shift (Fishman 1991, Cenoz 2005). Reversing language shift is putting a stop to the declining use of a language and increasing its status in the population. Joshua Fishman created eight steps in which a dead or threatened language can be brought back to life. The Basque language is in the process of being revitalised. The Basque language is used more and more by the Basque population and the attitudes towards the language are increasingly positive. Basque is used as a medium of instruction, on the Basque television channel, on the Basque radio and in Basque newspapers. Even though the use of the Basque language increases, the other official language of BAC, Spanish, is used more for these purposes. So Basque is present in the media of the BAC, yet Spanish takes a bigger role and is more used in the Basque media. But a high percentage of Bascophones do use the media in Basque; 77% of the Basque bilinguals listen to the Basque radio and 82% watches the Basque television (Cenoz 2005). Bascophones speak Basque in the private domain and they tend to use Spanish for formal settings. Bascophones use Basque to talk to their children, and mostly use Spanish to communicate with other family members. The factors that influence the usage of Basque are: the number of Bascophones in the subjects social networks, the relative ease with which the subject has to use Basque and Spanish, and the number of Bascophones in the sociolinguistic area where the subject lives. (Euskararen Jarraipena I 1995 cited in Cenoz 2005: page 43). So even though the Basque language is growing in popularity, it is remarkable to see that Bascophones prefer to use Basque in their domestic area and speak Spanish in more formal settings. Basque in education Bilingual education has been present in the Basque educational system since the 19th century. Some schools were bilingual or even trilingual (i.e. Spanish, Basque and French). Spanish schools are either public or private. Public schools are usually fully or partially funded by the Spanish government so parents do not have to pay a lot of money for their children attending school, private schools are not financed by the government, which means that parents have to pay more money if they want their children to study there. During the 1960s a number of private Basque schools (ikastolas) were founded. The ikastolak schools are created as a promotion tool for the usage of Basque in education, and even though in the 1960 it was illegal to use Basque in education, the number of students increased over the years. Today most of the ikastolak are part of the Ikastolen Elkartea, which is a covering body preoccupied with the promotion of different projects to improve the quality of education (in kindergarten, primary and secondary education). With the Law of Linguistic Normalization both Basque and Spanish became compulsory subjects at school and three models of bilingual education were created. These models are based on the assumption that bilingual education has important advantages. For example, bilingual education can have a positive effect on cognitive development and communication ability. Bialystok found that bilingual children were superior to monolingual children on measures of the cognitive control of linguistic processes. (Bialystok 1978b cited in Baker, 2006: page 157) The three different bilingual models in the BAC are: Model A, B, and D. (The C does not exists in Basque). Model A: This model is intended for mother tongue speakers of Spanish who want instructions in Spanish. All subjects are in Spanish, except for Basque, which is taught four to five hours a week. Model B: This model is intended for mother tongue speakers of Spanish who want to be bilingual in Spanish and Basque. Both languages are used as languages of instruction for 50% of the school time. Model D: The model was intended as a maintenance program for the Basque, but many Spanish students are studying according to this model as well. Basque is the language of instruction and Spanish is taught as a subject for four to five hours a week. Model D schools can be seen as both total immersion programmes for majority language (Spanish) students and first language maintenance programmes for native Basque speakers. Parents can choose the model they want for their children and both models are available at public and private schools. From 1983/1983 to 2004/2005 the amount of pre-university students enrolled in Model A has decreased from 415.456 (79.34%) to 81.603 (26.69%), yet Model B has increased from 44.458 (8.49%) to 69.941 (22.88%) but Model D has increased the most: from 63.699 (12.17%) to 154.164 (92%). The majority of all the pupils (92%) are enrolled in Models B and D. (Huguet et al 2008) In Table 2 we see the number of students in the different models in the BAC in the year 2001-2002. At every level, either kindergarten, primary school or at compulsory secondary school the highest amount of students is studying according to model D, where Basque is the language of instruction and Spanish is a subject. Model B is the runner up, where both languages are languages of instruction, and the lowest amount of students study in Model A, where Spanish is the language of instruction and Basque is taught as a subject. This shows the trend that a lot of students choose to study Basque and that the language its popul arity is growing. (p.t.o. for table) Table Number of students in Models A,B, and D in the BAC (2001-2002) Model A Model B Model D Other Kindergarten and primary school 24.831 45.807 85.676 1.255 (3- 12 year-old children) 15.8% 29.1% 54.3% 0.8% Compulsory secondary school 26.370 19.131 31.651 597 (12-16 year-old children) 34% 24.6% 40.7% 0.7% Language attitude The status of the Basque language has increased during the last fifty years. The number of students studying Basque has increased and this influences the number of bilinguals in the BAC. But there still seems to be a gap between the knowledge and the use of Basque in daily life. As mentioned before: Basque can be found in education and in the media, yet Spanish is still the prevailing language. Bascophones usually tend to use their language in the home situation and not in more formal settings. It is remarkable that more and more native Spanish speakers decide to study Basque (in either Model B or D schools), yet Basque is still a domestic language. Spanish is still the dominant language in the BAC, the use of Basque in daily life is limited to areas that are dominated by Bascophones. Maybe the language attitude towards the Basque language has an influence on the use of Basque. Lasagabaster (2005) has done a research on this subject; Attitudes towards Basque, Spanish and English. He defined attitudes with the words of Skehan (1989): attitudes are part of the so-called affective variables of language learning, together with personality, motivation, the learners expectations, social cultural experience or anxiety. Lasagabaster states that attitudes are a key factor in sociolinguistics and language learning. He used 1087 participants, all undergraduates in the age range of 18-50 and all studying at university. The participants studied at one of the three campuses in which the university of the BAC is divided: Arba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. Lasagabaster found that the degree in competence in Basque influenced the students attitudes towards Basque; very competent students had a more positive attitude than those with little or good demand of the language. The same counts f or Spanish, if a students speaks very well Spanish, the attitude towards the language will be more positive than the attitude of someone whose Spanish is of a lower level. He also found that students living in a dominant Basque-speaking area (such as small towns) are more favourable towards the Basque language than those who live in dominant Spanish-speaking areas (such as big cities).This can be explained by the migration from Spanish workers to the BAC on the labor market. The younger generation in the BAC tends to use Spanish instead of Basque. This can be explained by the fact that majority languages usually seem to be cooler than the minority languages to the teenagers, therefore they prefer to speak Spanish. Conclusion Schools should try to intervene in the attitude towards Basque. They should try to create language awareness courses to change the attitudes towards the minority language. Teachers could do this by showing the students how rich the world becomes with so many different languages. A positive attitude towards Basque is increasing, but more should be done to change the status of Basque as minority language in its own territory. The government should try to change the language attitude towards Basque. The heritage of Franco (the use of domestic Basque) should be disinherited. The Bascophones should feel that they can also use their own language outside their homes and use it at work or on the street. But therefore more people should learn Basque, because otherwise only a small amount of colleagues would understand the Bascophones. By implementing more Basque on educational and media level the usage of Basque will grow. More people will be forced to speak or learn Basque and the attitude t owards the language will increase positively even more. It will not only be dominant in the smaller villages, but also in the bigger cities. As a result the language will be everywhere and the native Spanish speakers who studies Basque will learn the language with more ease. The only risk of so many non-native Basque speakers is that they will influence the language and add a Spanish influence to the grammar or lexical level. Unfortunately, attitudes are difficult to change. The attitude towards Basque has been negative under the leadership of Franco (which lasted for almost 40 years) and to changing this attitude immediately is impossible. It takes small baby steps, but those baby steps are heading the right way. In the example of Spain we can see that there is a political influence on language education and attitude. During Francos regime the use of minority languages in public was forbidden, this influenced the attitudes towards the minority languages. Nowadays Basque is still not used often in formal settings, Bascophones tend to use Basque for domestic use and Spanish in formal settings. Most of the media in the BAC are in Spanish and not in Basque. It seems that Francos regime still has an impact on the use of the Basque language in formal settings. But to close of with a positive note: bilingualism in the Basque country has come a long way. Basque used to be forbidden and nowadays the attitude towards the language is growing positively. More and more students are attending model D schools, schools where the language of instruction is Basque and Spanish is taught as a subject. Although the situation of Basque is improving, there are still few people who speak the language, but thanks to the increase of students the number of bilinguals in the BAC also increases. Hopefully this will prevent Basque becoming a dead language and remain a vivid language.

Is Love A Key Element When Choosing A Marriage Partner? Essay -- essay

A famous quote by John Lennon saying that â€Å"love is the answer and only you know that for sure† was not entirely truthful the fact not realised was that, for the many people in today’s contemporary â€Å"dating† grouping, truly knowing what the answer actually is in regards to dating is often easier said than done. Therefore, the answer certainly is not love. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (1974), love is defined as a â€Å"strong affection, a warm attachment, attraction based on sexual desire, cherish, to feel passion, devotion or tenderness for ~, caress and to take pleasure in ~ â€Å" (p.417). In the modern-day world where the preferences and choices of human mate selection has become a topic of broad exploration, it is highly questionable as to whether or not â€Å"love† is the principal influence that leads an individual’s decision of choosing a life-long partner. The choosing of a marriage partner today seems to be a crucial aspect of life decisions that makes all other choices in one’s life seem to be more or less trivial when comparing accordingly. When you come to a decision as to who you want to marry, share the rest of your life with and become one with, you are changing every aspect of your once single and independent life. For the reason that life changes so significantly when a marriage partner has been chosen, there are countless factors that have an effect on the choices that individuals make. Firstly, Botwin et al. (1997) insist that â€Å"personality plays a critical role in mate selection and marital happiness† (p.128) but many other attributes such as the many dating processes, the many problems that often occur in relationships, and individual preferences all highly motivate, aspire and aim to encourage people in today’s society toward finding their preferred marriage partner. Society often questions the difficulty involved for an average person to simply decide â€Å"who† they desire to marry. What's more is the reality that many people also criticize the individuals who have no idea who they want to marry. Research by Doosje et al. (1999) shows that â€Å"both men and women value most in their partner that she/he is kind and considerate, socially exciting, creative and intellectually stimulating† (p.46) which goes to prove that couples want their marriages to work and do not even consider them to eventually fail. Buying a car or buying a house is a diff... ...enges that young adults face in today’s society but even more importantly, it is the largest challenge that the future of the family life will be facing for years to come. Bibliography Botwin, D., Buss, D., & Shackelford, T. (1997). Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors in Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 65(1), 107-136. Doosje, B., Rojahn, K., & Fisher, A. (1999). Partner Preferences as a Function of Gender, Age, Political Orientation and Level of Education. Sex Roles, 40 (1/2), 45-163. Nock, S. (1995). Spouse Preferences of Never-Married, Divorced, and Cohabitating Americans. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 22(3/4), 91-108. Simpson, J., & Gangestad, S. (1992). Sociosexuality and Romantic Partner Choice. Journal of Personality, 60(1), 31-51. Townsend, J., and Levy, G. (1990). Effects of Potential Partners’ Physical Attractiveness and Socioeconomic Status on Sexuality and Partner Selection. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 19(2), 149-163. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. New York: Pocket Books New York, 1974. New International Version Youth Walk Devotional Bible. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

A Book Review of All Quiet on the Western Front

While All Quiet on the Western Front may help us understand the effects of the Great War on Germany, it is as an account of trench warfare and a simple story of human endurance. It is understandably one of the most famous of war novel.â€Å"All quiet on the western front†Ã‚  Ã‚   talks about the vehemence of war, friendship, bewilderment and mishap. It gives a description of German soldiers’ experiences. It is a clear, simple narration. Quite terrible are those dreamlike pictures in its ditches.The same for the severe feeling of being alone for the friend on leave only to return to the forefront .Remarque is the intensely interesting story of war experience of Paul Baumer who is a member of German army in world war one.He is positioned on the western front having a role of fighting against the French and English soldiers. He however hated the war believing that it was needless and that the war has decimated the generation he belongs .This fight of the adolescent Germans was seen by Paul as useless which they have been forced to do.This was a time that Germany was trying to gain influence in the world .Paul and 7 others eventually die   in the book as depicted in the last chapter. Paul gives a picture of dying men around him in many of the battles. The pattern of Remarque’s presentation in the book is awesome. All pages with the exception of the short paragraph in the last chapter are described in first person.The portrayal of the characters makes the reader feels as if at the scene of the battle. Two passages I really found interesting in the book the first being   where Paul expresses his longing to survive: â€Å"I think no more of the dead man   : â€Å"I think no more of the dead man. He is of no consequence to me now. With one bound the lust to live flares up again and everything that has filled my thoughts goes down before it† (138-139).Here  Ã‚   the objectives of all the armies is   illustrated and it is that they all want to live and arrive home safely and they are desperate to achieve this by all means whether good or bad. The book also teaches that to escape the fear of war the best thing is to face it. In another passage, Paul talks about how his teacher previously advised about the battle to the German youths:   â€Å"Kantorek would say that we stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had as yet taken no root.The war swept us away† (16).In this place, the book depicts how young men, unprepared for war but preparing for their future are forced to give their dreams and aspirations in other to face a gruesome and deadly battle. What a mature strong men may not survive is being faced by this young people i.e. famine, poverty, thirst, terrors and demise of friends or even they themselves. Will they survive?Even after the war, if they survive they are old and what can they do with their lives again? No jobs, no families, and no homes again. Unfortunately various life e vents appear purposeless after fighting in the trenches.â€Å"All quiet on the western front† relates the events of one man who suddenly found himself in the war he knew little or nothing about. Paul Braumer was laboring in trenches while for the purpose of the uplifting of the Germany he volunteered himself for war having been persuaded by his teacher.He and his friends served as members of the infantry. Paul wondered not only the possibility of escaping without himself being killed  Ã‚   as he watched his friends dying one after the other but also the likelihood of surviving a world without war. He observed the trenches of western government were soaked in human blood from the death and massacre of the people.Remarque in his book allows for a period of relief amidst hell of battle. His approach is simplistic, clear and direct without losing the essential purpose and value. There are also periods of lyrics and thoughtful ruminations. Patriotism and countryman spirit are co nfronted by entity of the pompous schoolmaster who persuaded the writer and his fellows to join together.Disconnection from the civilian way of life is seen following the narrator’s leave having previously left the school for trenches with no assurance of establishing ties. It allows for a pensive thought on the generalized effects of war most marked by hindsight. Horrors are slimly depicted. With progression of the novel in terms of its character transformation, character reinforcement, the breaking and twisting in the battle front, we are being gradually challenged by the Aristocrats and the disastrous genre of the book.The Genre of the book is tragedy. In one scene of the book, Paul and his friends were together in the open space over the boxes being used as latrines: â€Å"And it will be 2 hours before we get up again† (page 7). Paul rails: â€Å"There he lies now but why? The entire world should have passed.† The book depicts the combination of joy, happine ss sorrow and the outbreak of violence.All quiet on the western front is laudable as it will compete to emerge as one of the best if not ever best book written on war. I enjoy reading the book and the lesson I learn is that war can be terrible. I give the book distinction and I can recommend it anytime, anyday.   

How Pericles changed Athens essays

How Pericles changed Athens essays There are two important matters that the Funeral Oration of Pericles proves, these two matters are, the great respect that Athenians have for their warrior class and how the Athenians were exceedingly proud of their city and its customs. The following paper discusses the way of life of Athenians and how the Funeral Oration of Pericles influenced it. It is a well-known fact that the Athenians had a great deal of respect for the warrior class and believed them to be among the top members of their society. The warriors were seen as the top portion of their classes. They are classified as heros and/ or idols. The Athenians were also extremely proud of their city and its traditions. To the people of Athens their country was at the top and there was no other country that could be superior. The purpose of the funeral oration was not only to respect the departed but also to reward the citizens national pride and their passion to defend their country. The oration was a eulogy that focuses on the prominence of Athens and her ancestors. A member of the family gave the eulogy, generally it was a son if possible. It was required by the law for the dissertation to have some necessary components. The speech had to be in regard to the lives of both the deceased and the ancestors of the deceased. At the end of the eulogy that Pericles gave he spoke in reference to the soldiers and the ancestors of Athens. Although it seemed that he was not sure if he had an impact on the people and he was unsure as to if he had been able to get through to the citizens of Athens. He states, My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my ability, and in words, at least, the requirements of the law are now satisfied. (Thucydides, 109) The speech recounted the significant life that the departed lived and the great achievements that these people accomplished. Pericles spoke to the public about the soldiers who had ju...

How To Easily Find Content Marketing Ideas

How To Easily Find Content Marketing Ideas I couldn’t believe my eyes. It seemed like every single content marketing idea that I had just come up with was already readily available on Google. And when it came to social media content and content marketing these names- Neil Patel, Kevan Lee, Belle Beth Cooper, and Garrett Moon- kept popping up again, and again, and again. As a young, budding content marketer, I was distraught, and yet curious. How were these people able to come up with all these content marketing ideas and topics- some of which had barely germinated in my mind? Were they extraordinarily creative? Were they even mortal? As it turns out, yes, they are all regular human beings just like you and me. And just like us, they had to start somewhere, too. The good news is, thanks to technology, we live in a time of unprecedented access to resources and knowledge. By tapping the right sources, you  can easily come up with enough marketing  ideas to last a year and beyond. Before we get started, it’s important to have a place where you can note down all your ideas- which is also known as a â€Å"swipe file†- even if they are just half-formed. Your swipe file could be on a  Google Docs spreadsheet, , or recorded with a plain ol’ pen-and-paper. If you’re ready, let’s dive into it. How To Easily Find Content Marketing Ideas via @legendt 1. Look At What Others Are Writing About- And Do A Better Job You probably already have a list of blogs and publications that you look up to and hope to emulate one day. Why not start emulating them right away? Have a look at their top posts, and come up with similar ones, but better. There’s a reason why these blog posts did well for them, and if your target audience overlaps with theirs, you can be sure that this will be a win. Backlinko’s Brian Dean calls this  the skyscraper technique. Here are four ways that you can make your post superior to the original (Thanks, Brian!): Make it bigger or longer:  Go for broke, and find 100 ways to do help your audience  instead of just 50. Making a comprehensive guide gives your audience a one-stop solution for what they're searching for, shows your expertise, and builds your credibility. Make it more up-to-date:  A list post that did well in 2015 will likely do well again in 2016, and the year after, and so on. Build on what you know already works with your more recent  knowledge. Make it look nicer:  An infographic that visualizes text content that resonated with readers will certainly attract more attention. Heck, infographics are some of the most-shared types of social media content, and  content with visuals included about every 100 words can grow your shares by 30%. Make it far more detailed:  100 bullet points will never compete with 100 points with brief descriptions. Case in point: I recently noticed that there were multiple posts on beautiful resume designs that topped the first page of Google, but the biggest post listed only 50 examples. I decided to shoot for a list post of 70 well-designed resume examples. This particular blog post  ended up becoming our most-viewed article for that week  and was shared more than 600 times on our social media channels in the same time period as well. Not too shabby. If you’re not sure which blogs to look at, try entering your topic keywords into BuzzSumo, which will then magically churn out a list of the most-shared related content on the blogosphere: 2. Listen To What Your Customers Are Asking About Think that it’s hard to come up with content marketing ideas for your niche? Try doing it for a pool company, and you’ll realize the true meaning of hard. Yet back in 2009, Marcus Sheridan’s company River Pools and Spas was able to use content marketing to dominate the pool industry. His solution for coming up with topics is exceedingly simple: To answer his customers’ questions. â€Å"The problem in my industry, and a lot of industries, is you don’t get a lot of great search results [online] because most businesses don’t want to give answers; they want to talk about their company,† he said in an interview  with The New York Times. â€Å"So I realized that if I was willing to answer all these questions that people have about fiberglass pools, we might have a chance to pull this out.† When brainstorming with his clients over at his online marketing consulting business, The Sales Lion, Marcus reveals that he has â€Å"never had a company come up with less than 100 questions in 30 minutes.† There are a number of ways to find out what your customers are asking about in your industry and business: Ask your sales teams who have regular interactions with the customers. Use a live chat app such as Zopim or Olark to chat with them online. Even better, organize a community meetup to engage with your users face-to-face. Hootsuite does Hootups, for example, while we run PiktoTours  regularly at Piktochart. This method is highly recommended- we get a lot of invaluable feedback and suggestions from these meetups.Simple and effective #ContentMarketing:  Listen to questions and respond with valuable answers.3. †¦And Listen To Others In Your Industry,  Too Your customers might be an excellent source of potential  marketing ideas, but they might have missed out on a question that others asked. How do you find out what the rest of the industry is curious about? Find out where they gather to talk shop. Facebook groups, Twitter chats, and forums are some of the platforms that will bring them all together. It pays to become an active participant, as you can get industry-wide exposure over there. Another popular platform that attracts questions across a variety of industries is Quora. According to Marc Bodnick, Quora’s head of business and community, the QA website has around  500,000 topics as of 2014. That’s a whole lot of potential blog topics to pick out right there! To optimize your efforts, focus on questions that have a lot of followers, answers, or views, like this one: With 1,700 followers and over 300,000 views, you can be sure that many people are curious to know what the perfect startup team is. Sounds like a great blog post in the making! You can find most of these high-traffic questions in the topic FAQ: As a bonus, you can post your answer to the topic with a link to the blog post you’ve written to get a boost in traffic as well. It will drive traffic to your blog in no time. This is because all the followers of a question will receive a notification email as soon as you post your answer. Game, set, and match. Answer your audience's questions and share your take where they already hang out.4. Interview Industry Rockstars Every industry has its rockstars. Startups have Elon Musk. Designers have Jony Ive. And marketers have Seth Godin. And their success and experience make them a treasure trove of tips, tricks, and advice- things that your readers are dying to learn. To get the most from them, it’s important to know them well first. Here’s where a little journalistic inquiry will come in handy. First, find out what their stories are, and what is so extraordinary about them. Look for content marketing ideas and think about what your readers can learn from them  like Contently did when they interviewed Seth Godin on the future of branded content.  Come up with topics accordingly. What is their secret to being so productive? How could they do what they do so darn well? What were some of the greatest mistakes  they've made? Connect their expertise to what you know your audience will dig, and you'll have a winner. 5. Be Authentic Okay, that sounds like fluff, but hear me out. People love stories.  It’s built into us- we can’t help but look for the story in everything. This is because  it's â€Å"a way for humans to feel that we have control over the world.† And you are most uniquely qualified to talk about your own stories. I don’t mean  for you to make up fictional tales. Talk about your journey, struggles, and opinions. For example, what are your goals, and how are you trying to achieve them? Groove’s Alex Turnbull managed to build out  a popular blog out of their singular mission: To reach $100,000 (and now $500,000) in revenue. Think that you have nothing worth sharing? Everyone does, according to  John O’Nolan from Ghost: "These posts aren't just an exercise in narcissism, they can be incredibly useful for other people in your industry. Everyone has to start somewhere, and by learning from your mistakes the next generation can progress even quicker.† Companies like Buffer  and iDoneThis  have also dedicated whole blogs to telling the inside story. Put the spirit of point 1 into action (publish better content than anyone else), and have a look at what kind of topics these example companies tackle- they could apply to you, too. 6. Keep Up-To-Date Every industry has its  own set of buzzwords and trends  that constantly go in and out of fashion. If you’re quick enough, you can ride these waves and come up with post after post where you can put your two cents worth in. Take the â€Å"guest blogging scare† of 2014 for instance. Google’s former head of the web spam team Matt Cutts had denounced guest blogging  as a spammy practice, foreshadowing that Google would not view them kindly. The marketing community blew up: One by one, articles which mostly  disagreed  with  Matt started popping up everywhere. The most convincing writers were able to lead the conversation on this topic. Buffer also did a great job  analyzing what the change of Twitter favorites to likes would really mean for marketers, just a day or two after the news was released. You can stay abreast of trending topics in your niche by using Google Alerts. Create an alert with keywords that are relevant to you and your company, and have it send updates to you as and when things surface. NinjaOutreach  is also an effective tool for finding out what topics are currently hot in the social media world: Also, do keep a close lookout for recent research and studies on topics in your niche as well. A recent study by Constant Science found that  roughly 65 percent of participants think that web content is a â€Å"hit or miss† or â€Å"unreliable.† Research-backed blog posts are an advantage you can easily tap on. For example, we focus a lot on design-related topics over at the Piktochart blog. As such, I check the Visual Design section of Nielsen Norman Group’s website  daily to see if there are any great tidbits that I can latch on to. 65% of people think web content is hit or miss. Data-driven, research-backed content stands out.7. Refresh Old Hits Not every blog post that you write will be a hit. Chances are that one or two might be, and end up bringing the bulk of traffic over to your site. These articles are your crown jewels.  See how you can create updated versions of them that are relevant to today so you can repeat that initial success. Hubspot does this on a regular basis: Also, it’s worth putting in some time to analyze what makes them so good, and see if you can spin some content marketing ideas off of them. Do a blog content audit  to find out which of your posts are suitable to do this. As Crew’s editor Jory Mackay found out, it is a tedious process, but well worth the trouble. If your definitive guide to making infographics  is regularly bringing in substantial repeat traffic, for example, it shows that there is interest among your readers in the process of creating infographics.  Topics like "100 infographic ideas that work",  which comes before the creation process, and "50 ways to market your infographic",  which comes after, might also be attractive to your audience in this case. Success shows audience interest. Learn from it to inspire new #marketing ideas.This Is Just The Beginning... As you can see, content marketing ideas are a dime a dozen. Coming up with them is the easy part. The tough part comes after, when you put pen to paper (or your fingers to the keyboard)- that’s a whole new ballgame  with different rules! So don’t get too wrapped up in ideation. Once you have a decent number of topics, get started right away. As Derek Sivers puts it: â€Å"To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.†

Implications of ignored behavioral problems Assignment

Implications of ignored behavioral problems - Assignment Example Teachers get frustrated when all their teaching efforts get countered by these ignored, unsolved behavioral problems. In some extreme cases some teachers simply lose interest in making things right. This occurs as a result of lose of morale, and gets depicted by the quality of teaching services offered which is likely to be poor. They often fail to take an interest in the character details of their students. Before one knows it, the students’ unruly behavior has spiraled out of control. Problematic character is not conducive in any educational setting and hinders effective learning and teaching (Jenson, 2002). Both teachers and parents are charged with the responsibility of guiding students’ behavior. When in school, teachers get expected to outline to the students what gets viewed as appropriate and inappropriate character. However, when the students are at home, their parents get expected to maintain the same standards of behavior upheld in the schools. Persistent behavioral problems create tension between teachers, parents and the administration. The blame game that is usually involved is the manifestation of the tension. Tension between education stakeholders also affects the education environment (Jenson, 2002). Ignoring behavioral problems will more often than not lead to the progression into fully blown negative traits that inform moral decadence (Jenson, 2002). A look into the character of people who get considered as harmful to society usually reveals traces of behavioral problems in early life stages that went

International management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

International management - Essay Example The report recommends that the plan limit the number of marketing objectives to four; identifying international markets, developing generational marketing strategies, maximizing opportunities arising out of the 2012 London Olympic Games and increasing the membership and private donor support. Data compiled by the Office of National Statistics and the Department of Culture are utilized to identify target markets in Western Europe and North America. The remaining global nations are targeted through existing Olympic Games partnerships. The core marketing strategy revolves around the use of digital media networks and interactive video technologies. The SHIPS website should be completely re-designed and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter should be utilized to market the SHIPS product to younger people. The report recommends that a full-time marketing manager be hired to oversee all aspects of the marketing plan, its implementation and the evaluation of outcomes. A budget of $140,000 pounds has been identified to implement the marketing strategy and a timeline of 23 months has been established leading up to the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games. London’s Ships of Historic Interest Partnership (SHIPS) is dedicated to the preservation of the unique heritage of Britain as a maritime nation. Its seven historic ships provide an orientation and education to visitors about the important role that sea trade played in helping to shape the economy of Britain and several other European nations as well (londonships.org). One of the major challenges that SHIPS faces is to expand the scope of its message to target audiences outside of the United Kingdom where few people know of the historic ships as a potential tourist destination during visits to London. This comprehensive marketing assessment provides analysis and