So tired!! But only four more days....

So before I go to bed, I shall post my IR essay, as promised :)

have fun!

Globalisation in the Developing World
Globalisation is a worldwide phenomenon that has set its roots firmly in developed nations around the globe, yet both scholars and the public tend to question the impact globalisation has had on the developing world, and answers to this question tend to take on a variety of forms. In this essay, by analysing the impacts of globalisation on growth and poverty within Thailand, I will argue that globalisation can have both positive and negative impacts for developing countries but overall, the benefits are shown to be superficial and the negative implications are more indicative of the issues that permeate developing societies.
Defining globalisation can be difficult due to its all-encompassing nature, and consequently it can mean different things to different people. A more common conception of globalisation comes from Friedman, who defined it as: “the process of global integration, giving states better access to the rest of the world.” Others use the same model but focus on different aspects, Drucker for example, places significance on the importance of global competitiveness, as states must compete with one another in order to make a profit, and Abudllah notes that globalisation gives individuals the chance to maintain a national identity while being a member of the wider global society. Yet the common model, most obvious in Friedman’s definition, underpins the essence of people’s ideas about globalisation, and thus for the purpose of this essay, globalisation will be defined as: the growing interdependence of the world’s population, as a number of aspects of daily life such as economy, culture, technology and government become increasingly intertwined.
Similarly, it is very difficult to give the term ‘developing country’ a definition, and as Hoeschele pointed out, such a label perpetuates the cultural values upon which it was conceptualised. Nonetheless, it is still a commonly used term and generally refers to countries that are undergoing economic, social, political and cultural development. More specifically however, developing countries tend to be defined in terms of their socioeconomic status, particularly concerning poverty levels. Thailand is a low to middle income country in South East Asia with a population of around 64 million and a United Nations (UN) human development index (HDI) rating of 0.768. This figure shows that although Thailand has undergone significant progress in the last quarter of the 21st century, its life expectancy, standard of living and education are not yet high enough for it to be considered ‘developed’ by the UN. Additionally, around 10 per cent of the population are still living in poverty. Paralleling its development, Thailand has been gradually absorbed by globalisation. Initially the Cold War gave Thailand increased links to America due to the demand for military goods but as it ended, ideas about socialism were eliminated and regional tensions reduced, and from here on globalisation become increasingly ingrained into most aspects of social life. Thailand has thus become a member of the international community not as a direct result of a sudden change, but through a gradual process. This has had an influence on the overall impacts of globalisation on the country.
Globalisation is extensively regarded as being beneficial for developing countries because it promotes growth, most specifically on an economic level. Globalisation involves the integration of a country’s economy and trade into the world market, a process which encourages competition between different states and companies and consequently causes efficiency and significant technological progress, because countries must strive to keep up with the demands of the international market. Perhaps most significantly, globalisation offers developing country’s more opportunities to accumulate a profit. Generally speaking, among other South East Asian countries, Thailand too has seen this kind of development, particularly in terms of exports and the strengthening of the country’s economic situation. These changes can be analysed in terms of Thailand’s rice market. In the past, Thailand’s rice market was primarily domestic – government regulations like export taxes made it difficult for farmers to make a profit from the international market. Thailand’s increased involvement in the global market, including membership to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has helped its domestic rice market become global, as emphasis is put on policy which makes trade more viable, such as the reduction of import tariffs, which fell to 52 per cent in 2004. Rice from Thailand has gradually become a bigger player in the international rice industry as exports increased from 6.2 million tons in 1995 to 7.35 million tons in 2003. Additionally, Thailand intends to keep up with the global market by integrating new technology into the Thai economy with the IT 2010 plan and the establishment of a Ministry of Information Technology and Communication. Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has also grown steadily from $32 billion (US dollars) in 1980, to $272.5 billion in 2008. Similarly, Thailand’s GDP per capita has increased from just under $700 (US dollars) in 1980 to around $4000 in 2008. In the case of Thailand, it is clear that increased participation in the global economy has encouraged general economic growth in markets viable to the geography of Thailand, as well as technological advances for the purpose of efficiency. This shows us that generally speaking, globalisation has benefits for developing countries as a means of accelerating growth, and indeed in the 1990s, the globalising developing countries grew at a rate of 5 per cent per capita, while non-globalising developing countries only grew at a rate of 1.4 per cent. This idea can be explained by the hyperglobalist theory, which theorises that globalism is a positive force that will inevitably lead to the world’s states and markets being intertwined.
Yet surface indicators such as GDP seem superficial upon deeper analysis of Thailand’s situation, revealing that growth is limited to certain areas. Recent studies have shown that due to lower margins and product quality, as well as higher material costs among other things, Thailand’s competitiveness is at risk. The market share of Thai rice has actually decreased in some countries including Japan and areas of Europe, and while rice exports have been increasing, profit from these exports has actually been decreasing, going from $1,900 million (US dollars) in 1995 to $1,800 million in 2003. In fact, one major criticism of the impact of globalisation on developing countries is that increased integration into the world economy renders the government unable to appropriately cope with change. This is because the state becomes susceptible to factors out of government reach, such as spontaneous changes in the market. The financial crisis of 1997 which hit much of South East Asia including Thailand, stands as potential evidence to illustrate this point. Between 1997 and 1998, the Thai currency devalued by 36 per cent and the stock market index fell by 27 per cent. Furthermore, a number of banks and finance companies were pressured into closure by debt. The global network tends to offer opportunity to advanced countries; for example, the English language is a somewhat detrimental asset to have, and consequently Thailand is put in a disadvantaged position as other South East Asian countries with a strong English background such as Singapore, are favoured by other countries in expansion. This shows that globalisation is not without fault for developing countries. While competition creates efficiency it also comes with risks, particularly of vulnerability and insecurity. Furthermore, it can be argued that economic integration induced by globalisation is not the only factor behind economic growth in a country – perhaps the process happens in reverse, whereby growth promotes economic integration. This aspect of globalisation can be explained by the sceptic school, which summarises that globalisation is overwhelmingly a negative force. In line with scepticism, globalisation, as in the case of Thailand, can be seen as having limited benefits for a country. However, were these surface benefits supplemented by preventative measures, at least initially, perhaps they would be more effective in establishing a strong financial base; particularly in the case of developing countries, whose economic weaknesses put them at a disadvantage. Furthermore, involvement in the global market at least gives developing states the opportunity to expand, because without this involvement, they would be unlikely to progress much at all.
If analysed as a method of attaining economic growth, globalisation can also be argued to dramatically reduce poverty in developing countries. Generally speaking poverty reduction is normal, and the number of poverty-stricken people has decreased by 200 million world-wide since the 1980s – a number coming largely from countries like China, India and Brazil whose globalisation policies have seen extensive economic growth. Thailand too has seen progress; as incomes rise, poverty is falling: in 1990 27 per cent of people were living in poverty compared with only 9.8 per cent in 2002. The number of university students has also grown dramatically, from 15,000 in the 1960s to 600,000 in the 1990s, showing that Thailand is actively up-skilling its workers in order to achieve the high quality levels required to succeed in the competitive global market. By offering opportunities to access wealth, globalisation offers states the chance to alleviate poverty and also encourages education, as different career paths become both more viable and profitable. The theory of hyperglobalisation helps to explain these benefits as it emphasises the role of globalisation in human progress.
Although globalisation is shown to have an overall positive impact on poverty levels, the impact on poverty at rural or local levels is not as significant as statistics would suggest. While some scholars suggest that economic growth and poverty reduction are directly proportional to one another, others emphasise the intrinsic relationship between development and inequality. In the case of Thailand, the latter statement holds some truth, as inequalities are chiefly caused by rural to urban migration, a process heightened by the declining importance of rural occupations and seen clearly in the expansion of Bangkok, a city which went from only two high-rise buildings in 1975, to the bustling centre it is today.Urbanisation is also shown in the changing structure of the economy. As a percentage of the country’s GDP, the agriculture industry has fallen from 44 per cent in the 1960s to 10 per cent in recent years. Consequently, benefits of globalisation have been unequal in their distribution, specifically favouring jobs linked to the economy and more generally favouring urban areas. Technological change is also limited to cities and the role of women in society still needs to be addressed. These kinds of consequences in developing countries undergoing globalisation arise because decisions tend to be made with more consideration for the national outcomes and as a result a large number of people are overlooked. In this way, globalisation is seen to be unsuccessful in redistribution of wealth, as it tends to favour the wealthy. Urbanisation also creates losers and winners and an innate sense of success or failure, and in terms of Thailand the losers are those in rural areas (like farmers) who are still faced with poverty, as well as the decline of the agriculture industry. This idea is explained by the sceptic school, advocates of which see globalisation as further exploitation of the poor by the rich. Overall, it can thus be said that the competitive nature of globalisation creates both winners and losers; however the losers are not necessarily the poor, an idea supported by overall falling poverty rates. Yet globalisation can cause a deepening of the rift between the rural and urban spheres, and Dollar and Kraay propose that in order to balance this problem, states ought to implement social protection measures. It has been suggested that although the Thai government have undergone a number of changes, corruption is still present, and they are more interested in short term profit than long term change. This could be a limiting factor on the positive impact of globalisation in Thailand, however overall evidence shows that globalisation isn’t necessarily good for developing countries because it doesn’t change or eliminate the real problems facing a society.
In 1993, a Thai scholar said, “there has never been a time when Thai society was not globalising”, and other academics have made the same point. However, it is difficult to give substance to the argument that globalisation is beneficial to developing countries in light of such statements. If Thailand has been constantly globalising, and globalisation is good, then we must pose the question: Why is Thailand still considered a developing country? Globalisation is by no means a perfect system and its flaws are a reflection of the imperfect world in which it was made. Furthermore, the impacts globalisation can have are often dependent on the historical and contextual situations of a country, thus it is difficult to pick a general trend that globalisation is likely to follow. The transformationalist theory of globalisation seeks to explain this phenomenon, relating outcomes of globalisation to decisions made by the state as well as power distribution.
As definitions of globalisation and developing nations are often difficult to pinpoint, it is also difficult to isolate a single outcome of globalisation on developing countries. Through the analysis of Thailand, I have shown that globalisation can have both positive and negative impacts for developing countries, but that the negative impacts often outweigh the positive ones. Perhaps globalisation would have more of a positive influence on developing countries if more emphasis was put on protection of the state as well as internal support for minorities, or the establishment of a system of government that suited both the culture of the country and the demands of globalisation, rather than suiting the Western ideal. Every country is different, and as such, conceivably the best thing we can do is to accept that westernisation may not be the only path a developing country can take, an idea becoming increasingly feasible with the recent strides China has been taking in the world market.





Love Erin

Healthy

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that I am feeling better after my spontaneous sickness. But sadly, I got well only to do assignments and whatnot.

The one I'm doing now is linguistics. It's fairly simple. Basically we're given a transcription of some spoken text and have to answer a few questions on it. The conversation it's based on is two girls going 'ooh like I was pulled over by the cops... and she was sort of and then she said like...' etc etc. Ryan was like gosh it's terrible! And then I informed him that that's what girl conversation was actually like. He was shocked.

Here are some pictures from Ryan's ball too!




That's mainly what I wrote this blog for, to show you all these :)

In other news, mum fixed my printer!

or not.

You won't believe it mum, it's still being mean to me. It prints, but in really faded ink. I don't know what's wrong! :/ But I'm over pulling my hair out over it to be honest. It obviously doesn't like me.

And I really don't like it.

Ummm, what else.

Ryan and I went to this seminar today about 'what to do with your BA' it was pretty interesting, just a bunch of people talking about what jobs they had. 1/2 of them had done political studies or IR or both. So that was good.

It's raining.

Hope you're all well!
:)

bleeeeh

Yesterday was possibly the nicest day in the history of Wellington. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and - brace yourself for this - it was actually warm. I know, preposterous, right? BUT I could hardly enjoy the good weather at all because: a) I had (and have) assignments to do. b) I'm pretty much cut off from even looking at the weather in my room. And c) I'm sick.

Isn't life grand?

I prayed the weather might last for a few days, just until I felt better? But no. In fact, Wellington couldn't even be nice for one weekend.

And then my cold got a bit worse.

I took the opportunity to make some soup. Pumpkin soup.

Here is the recipe:
500g pumpkin
250g potato (I used kumara)
1/2 an onion
1 clove of garlic
2 cups vege stock

What you do:
Fry onion and garlic in some oil (after chopping, of course), add chopped pumpkin and potato/kumara and cook for about 4-5 mins. Add the vege stock and some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend.

Yum yum :)

Another exciting thing, Someone was cleaning the windows in the building next to me, but with an ENORMOUS window cleaner.

I thought it looked quite comical, so I took a photo.


Much love,
Erin

Steaming the salmon

Dear everyone,

It's been great seeing you all (of course, not ALL of you, but a large proportion at least) over the last week. I had so much fun with Claire and Alice in the weekend, then with mum last night. Sadly, now it's back to reality and the neverending stream of assignments and tests I have to do now, but only three weeks left of that and then just one exam.

So I'll give everyone a quick rundown of the ACE reunion weekend.

It started on Friday night when Claire arrived at the train station. We spent a lazy night in watching movies and reading magazines. I was just lulling her into a sense of unawareness: she had no idea what would be following her in the two days to come... ;)

The next morning Claire and I headed to the airport to pick up the Alice. We actually missed the bus we were planning to get, but got a later one. Luckily for us, Alice's plane (like Claire's train!) came in about 20 minutes late, so it was perfect.

And then the weekend began.

Here is a quick rundown of the happenings:

1. Walking. I warned them. I really did. But I don't think they could have prepared their feet for the two days of constant walking ahead of them.


I walked them this weekend, precious. Walked them I did. Until their little feetsies cried with pain. Yes precious, yes....

I heard from mum that Claire was traumatised by the walking (well, those weren't her words, but they make this more dramatic). My feet are fine :P

The weather was amazing anyway, so we could hardly waste it by staying indoors!

2. Sushi!

In Japan, they're called kaitenyazushi, but in New Zealand, they're more likely to be called 'conveyor belt sushi shop.' I've been to this particular shop twice, and now Claire and Alice can rant to you about it's fabulous as well.

Alice even had some eel. And liked it ;)


3. Ice cream! Well, I kind of failed on this one: we were going to go to a cake shop but I didn't really think about it being closed. Oh well. It was closed. Luckily, the best ice cream shop ever was just two shops down.

I think this photo says it all.


4. Again, taking advantage of the good weather, our walk took us through parliament. It was a pretty epic Sunday morning of walking actually. We walked:

To Courtenay Place for ice cream
Through the Sunday morning market by Te Papa
Across the waterfront
and finally, through parliament.


Yes, it was a grand weekend.

Other activities included: Shopping, walking, watching movies, walking through the botanic gardens and up to Victoria, riding the cable car and taking the bus. A lot.

Thanks for an awesome weekend guys!


But it doesn't end there!

I had a great night with mum last night too :) I think the highlight was the afgan she brought with her. It was melt-in-the-mouth delicious.

I appreciate everyone's visits! It's been really great just talking to everyone. I enjoy your company.

Dad, I think it's your turn next: I still need to take you to the sushi shop after all! ;D

Haha, love you guys and looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks time.

PS. Big shout out to mum aka the GENIUS who fixed my printer. Somehow, she put up with me abusing it constantly....

PPS. Tonight I made some salmon for dinner! I steamed it with some vegetables in my bamboo steamer. I think I overdid it a little: It was kind of dry in some places. But those places were far and few and most of it was deliciously moist ;D I even managed to get salmon without bones.

Busybusybusy

Phew, what a busy past week and a bit.

Trust me when I say that my head is full of study and my legs are full of walking. I was a wreck by the weekend. Absolutely exhausted! Luckily, while some people would use Saturday night to go out and party, I used my Saturday to catch up on all the sleep I had missed out on during the week. I went to bed just past nine. What surprised me the most is that I was able to fall asleep, pretty much straight away at 9pm. I must have been tired. I slept until 8 and felt fully refreshed to start the week. Good times.

Last week's nights were busy! Tuesday: public lecture + art class. Wednesday: went to dinner with Ryan at a Korean restaurant. Thursday: public lecture. Friday: Wrote drama script with Ryan.

Tonight I'm going to the last public lecture and then my final art class. Then I will come home, do the dishes and sleep (ideally...).

I have a linguistics assignment due on Friday.

A drama to perform in Japanese on Monday.

And to top it all off, it is just raining CONSTANTLY. Yesterday I thought to myself, "at least it's not windy!" And guess what kind of weather we had today? Rain. And wind. Cool. Thanks Wellington :P

But life isn't as complain-y as I make it out to be. Actually I'm rather optimistic at the moment, despite the workload, weather and tired-ness :) Perhaps it's because I have the weekend to look forward to. And Wednesday too!

Plus, surely the weather won't stay terrible forever!

...

In an ideal world anyway.

:P

Love Erin

Who needs printers anyway?

Hello everyone!

First of all, thanks for making my holiday and my birthday a thoroughly enjoyable occasion. I had the best time and appreciate the time (and money :P) that was invested into my two weeks at home.

I had two essays due today. Both of which I have successfully finished and handed in after much stress, hard work and research. But the best part about finishing is that the hard work doesn't stop here. In fact it's only the start of it! I have a busy six weeks ahead of me with numerous tests and assignments to be written. So I apologise for any unsavory behaviour I might display over this period - It will purely be a result of stress and tiredness ^^;

However, I am thoroughly looking forward to next weekend when ACE reunites, Wellington style! Not to mention the subsequent visit from mum! For the moment at least I have something to look forward to :)

But to dampen the mood, I'd also like to make a complaint. Printers are the bane of my existence. Since this year at least. I never encountered any problems with them at home - the printer always printed when I told it to, and the ink never ran out (well, if it did, I didn't have to worry about it :P). But this year, I am faced with both of these problems.

Before my ink ran out, I didn't have any problems but from there everything has just gone downhill. So I eventually went out and bought some new ink for myself. I felt so adventurous, writing down the kind I needed and venturing out into the wide world of printer shops (yes, my life IS so sad that buying ink becomes an adventure). After succeeding in my task, I returned and put the ink in the printer straight away, only to be told that I needed yellow ink too. This baffles me because I'm sure I've only printed in colour once, but more than that I was furious that the printer forgot to mention until that point that I didn't have any yellow ink. So eventually (yesterday xD ) I went and purchased some yellow ink. I said to Ryan, "If I get back and it's low on other ink too, I'll be FURIOUS!" So I went back and put the ink in and after about six thousand years of cleaning....... Its hunger for ink was satisfied.

BUT, the story doesn't end there. I straight away made my move to print an essay before it spontaneously ran out of ink again. I pressed the print button and... Paper jam. But I kept my cool. Deep breaths. Open lid and remove jammed paper. Deep breaths. I pressed the print button again and... Paper jam. But I kept my cool.... until the paper didn't just pop out. It ripped. I can't see the jammed paper any more. It's probably just going to be there forever, mocking me and my inability to correctly utilise a printer. Who needs printers? They're just a waste of time. They just screw you around like a jammed piece of paper.

Who needs printers...?

University students who need to print out assignments, that's who.

I need a printer T_T

It's lucky that I have Ryan who has access to Weir printers. Lucky for my printer that is, otherwise it would be smashed on the pavement by now. On the pavement below my window...

^^

-Erin

Daikon

Cooking up a storm here in Wellington.

I have a few recipes to share on my day off. You might be able to tell what the secret ingredient is in the third one by the title ;D

Recipe number one:
Adapted slightly from a food magazine in order to get correct serving size. It serves two :)

Honey Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients:
Enough chicken for two
Veges for two (Carrot, broccoli, mushrooms, beans etc etc.) I used half frozen veges and half fresh)
1 clove of garlic
3 Tbsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp flour
1 Tbsp water

Method:
1. Chop up garlic and cook in some oil until garlic aroma fills your kitchen. Add chicken and cook.
2. Add veges when chicken is cooked through (if using frozen anyway).
3. Mix other ingredients together in a small bowl and add to the mixture. Stir fry until it thickens.

Garnish with sesame seeds and spring onion if so desired :)

The second recipe involves chocolate.


Yes, chocolate of the kit-kat variety.


At least, only if you want to be fancy like me. Otherwise chocolate chips will suffice :)

Chocolate chip cookies!
Or if you're me, kit-kat cookies ;D

Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour (sifted)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 mini kit-kats

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla essence. Beating well after adding each.
2. Add flour (and salt) bit by bit, mixing well after each addition.
3. Divide mixture into four and add crushed up kit-kats to mixture (separated based on flavour, of course). Or, if you aren't Erin, don't divide it and just chuck some chocolate chips in ^^
4. Spoon out mixture onto greased baking tray. I got about four cookies per kit kat flavour. So that's 16 overall (this recipe is halved from another I found).
5. Cook at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes (give or take).

I used four flavours of kit-kats. The blueberry one was definitely the best. The flavour was really strong and it totally took over the whole biscuit. Yum :)

Now finally, onto the daikon.

I bought a daikon today:


It was from Moore Wilsons and cost me like $3.00 which is really good considering how huge it was. Here is a visual which might enable to you visualise said daikon:


So, about that big! The one I got wasn't even the biggest one either. Some of them were HUGE!!!

On to the recipe...
Miso soup! It was so exciting to make. And eating daikon just transported me right back to Japan. Ahh, sweet nostalgia...

Miso soup:
Ingredients (to make a big ol' pot full):
4 cups of dashi stock (eg 4 cups of water + 1 tsp instant dashi)
1 carrot
170g daikon
1/2 an onion
50g tofu
80g miso paste (I used white but you can get different types. You can also buy miso paste that already has dashi stock infused into it!)
1 Tbsp mirin

Method:
1. Chop up veges into fairly thin half moon shapes. Cut onion long and thin and cook in microwave for 1 1/2 mins, and cut tofu into cubes.
2. Bring dashi to a boil and add daikon, carrot and onion. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until soft.
3. Mix together mirin and miso and add to dashi. Add tofu. Bring to boil.

Done!

I feel extremely accomplished. Can't wait to have a Japanese style breakfast tomorrow and I also can't wait to try many interesting things with my dear daikon.

Not much longer until I'm home!! I can't wait for these tests to be over. They are positively killing me.

Oh! I'll write a birthday list like I said I would.
I must brace myself for some intense thinking, this could take a while...
Cooking books are always good - absolutely any kind!
Mascara!
Skin coloured lipstick
Japanese lunch box (bento box) - from fancy world. Claire knows the kind.
Julie and Julia (DVD)
Sets of anime on DVD!!!! Such as fruits basket.
Exciting kitchen utensils that I could make use of in my culinary adventures. Like a bamboo steamer!!!! That would be very very cool!
New stockings - skin coloured, black, exciting ones!!!
A lifetime supply of daikon...

That's the extent of my thinking for the moment. It's late, i'm tired. Thus, bedtime!!

Ciao~

A day in the life of Erin

This is your (average) day in the life of Erin:

Wake up, eat breakfast, walk up hill, lectures/tutorials, lunch, lectures/tutorials, walk down hill, watch friends, dinner, study, shower, sleep.

I usually do all of these things each and every day.

Thrilling, huh?

I bet you wish you were me.

Then you'd have strong strong legs but also a million things to do concerning studying.

I got my first assignment back on Monday. It was pretty much just a referencing assignment. We had to write a passage but that was only worth 4/20 marks. But the whole thing was 20% of our total grade! Insane!! I got 18/20 :) Next linguistics assignment is due tomorrow and I just finished. It was the hardest essay I've ever written. We had to discuss whether or not this dog (Rico) was able to use language. There was just so much to write and we were restricted to 1000 words (no going over!). So I wrestled with that a lot. But I've got it finished and at 999 words (after cutting out about 150). I'm going to post it here actually. So if you're a) Really really bored. b) interested in what we learn in linguistics. c) Interested in the language learning abilities of dogs. Or d) all of the above feel free to read it :) I don't really mind either way.

Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping"

Language and Rico the Border Collie

In 2004, a dog was discovered to have the skills to learn a new concept based on single exposure, a process called ‘fast mapping.’ Rico the Border Collie was shown to be able to distinguish between over 200 items with a high accuracy; but does skill give Rico the ability to use ‘language’? Human language is often defined by a number of ‘design features’ and it is through five of these features – semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability – that I will assess this statement and prove that while Rico’s capabilities may show elements of language, he is far from possessing the ability to use language.

Many animals possess rich communication systems, but they are thought to be limited to sending and understanding approximately 35 different messages (Bauer, Holmes and Warren, 2006:49). Recent research has shown that surprisingly, dogs (as opposed to apes) possess social-cognitive skills similar to those of young children (Tomasello and Kaminiski, 2009:1212-1214). One example of this, is Rico the border collie who was revealed to have the skill to fast-map. Rico has been continuously introduced to new items since he was only 10 months of age. His familiarity with items is achieved by a game of fetch – the owners show him the item, repeating the name and subsequently place it somewhere around the house where Rico fetches the item on command. Upon completing this task, he is rewarded with food or play. By the time he was 10, Rico could differentiate between around 200 different items. Although this number is incomparable to human children of the same age, his vocabulary size is akin to other language trained animals, including apes (Kaminski, Call and Fischer, 2004:1682-183).

In order to assess Rico’s ability to use language, ‘language’ must first be defined. For the purpose of this essay, ‘language’ will be used with reference to the 13 (now 16) ‘design features’, first conceptualised by Charles Hockett in 1960(88-96), which aim to identify the characteristics that illustrate the uniqueness of human language. All systems of animal communication possess some of these features but only human language has them all (Trask and Stockwell, 2007:22). Thus, we can assess Rico’s ability to use language by discussing whether or not his use of language possesses five of the design features: Semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability.

The primary function of language is to enable efficient communication of meaning. Semantics is the study of meaning, and semanticity accordingly refers to the link between words and their meanings (Allen, 1975:18-19). On the surface, this would seem to be the case with Rico. The article by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) suggests that Rico is able to differentiate between items in relation to their names, and was able to retrieve hidden items 37 out of 40 times. Yet language is far more than the mere association of a name to an object. Rico’s understanding seems to be limited to this association, while humans are able to understand the meaning of the word itself, including the ways words are conceptually linked to one another (Harley,2001:57-58).

Displacement is the ability to discuss things in a remote time or place, for example the past or the future, or outside of here and now (Trask, 1995:5). Rico was shown to be able to retrieve an item from a remote place (another room) upon being asked (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). This kind of ability is reported by Bauer et al., (2006:51) to be “arguably displacement.” While Rico seems to understand such a statement, he is unable to produce one himself, in order to tell us something like “I got the sock yesterday.”

Productivity is the ability to both construct and understand sentences that have never been heard before; such sentences might concern things which have not occurred or situations that have no possibility of ever happening (Lyons, 1970:12-13). Because of the means of the experiments, it remains uncertain as to whether or not Rico is able to comprehend things he has never heard before. As most of his word-learning is done in a fetching context, this is unlikely, but Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) note that there is anecdotal evidence that he is able to understand other sentences, a claim that would have to be tested by further experimental means.

Humans learn language through a process of teaching and learning from their surrounding community from a very young age, a process called cultural transmission (Allen, 1975:19). This contrasts with the ability to acquire a language, which is thought to be inbuilt into our genes (Hockett, 1960:88-96). Rico shows some evidence of cultural transmission through his process of learning. In the tests done by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683), Rico was shown to be able infer the names of objects through a process of elimination. In addition, he was shown to retain this knowledge four weeks later. Children on the other hand learn words much more naturally, by hearing and imitating in a completely immersed environment (Allen, 1975:18-19). Rico’s ability to learn is limited to a fetching game. Furthermore, there is no evidence to show that he is able to infer anything more than simply the names of objects.

‘Interchangeability’ is perhaps the design feature which best exemplifies that Rico is unable to use language. Interchangeablity is the ability to both send and receive messages – to reproduce the messages that have been heard (Hockett, 1960). While Rico has been shown to comprehend the things said to him, his language ability is limited to understanding – he is not able to use language to communicate himself (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). The design features are frequently talked about in terms of one’s ability to produce said feature, rather than just understand. They require the subject to take on an active role, rather than a passive one. Rico does not tell others to get socks for him – he is limited to being the receiver of such orders and as such, ultimately cannot be seen as using language.

In conclusion, Rico’s abilities certainly display a great deal of understanding, including connecting names and objects, and understanding commands referring to something outside his immediate environment. But because design features rely on the active input of language, Rico’s inability to directly communicate renders him overall unable to use ‘language’ as defined by the design features.

References:

Allen, J.P.B. 1975. Some Basic Concepts in Linguistics. In J.P.B. Allen (ed.) The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics. London: Oxford University Press. 16-44.

Bauer, Laurie, Janet Holmes and Paul Warren 2006. Language Matters. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Harley, Trevor 2001. The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Hockett, Charles 1960. The Origin of Speech. Scientific American 203: 88-96.

Kaminski, J., Josep Call and Julia Fischer 2004. Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping". Science 304(5677): 1682-1683.

Lyons, John 1970. Introduction. In John Lyons (ed.) New Horizons in Linguistics. Middlesex, England: Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd. 7-28.

Tomasello, Michael and Juliane Kaminski 2009. Behaviour: Like Infant, Like Dog. Science 325(5945): 1212-1214.

Trask, Robert and Peter Stockwell 2007. Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts (2^nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.

Trask, R.L. 1995. Language; The Basics. London: Routledge.

My brain is officially overloaded.

And now I have a Japanese essay to write.

Wish me luck!

Love Erin.

PS. I don't know if I said this, but i'll be coming home NEXT FRIDAY. That's a week away people. I hope you're excited!! :)

Chicken

It saddens me to hear that everyone is getting sick at the moment! Actually, I can join the club cos I was sick too last week but luckily it passed. I hope everyone else is feeling better too!

Last night was the Weir house ball. It wasn't extraordinarily fun because I didn't really know anyone, and Ryan didn't actually know that many people either, but it was fun to dress up. To wear my ball dress again! I ended up buying some new shoes for the occasion which go perfectly with the dress. And I kind of just arranged my hair quickly because I wasn't too fussed about it. To top my outfit off, I wore my fur jacket. I felt rather glamorous actually. So that part was groovy.


And I must say: tonight I had the most delicious dinner ever. So some recipes will be coming right here.

First a visual:


Almond couscous:
1/3 cup couscous
2 pinches of coriander
1/4 cup sliced almonds
salt and pepper.

Just cook the couscous and add it all together. VERY tasty.

Coronation Chicken:
Enough chicken for one
1/4 onion
clove of garlic
butter
1tsp curry powder
40mL mayonnaise
1/2 tsp honey

1. Cook garlic and onion in butter until soft. Add chicken and curry powder and cook for 5-8 minutes.
2. Mix together the mayo and honey.
3. Once the chicken is cooked, mix through mayo-honey.

Yumyumyum.

And then some broccoli on the side.

Wednesday

I feel like I haven't posted in quite some time - I apologise for that. So i'll make this post nice and pretty with a few photos of the things i've been doing in art class and one food product that i made with Ryan.

Prepare yourselves!

So Ryan and I are both fond of Japanese food and occasionally we cook it together. In the weekend we made katsudon. Katsudon is basically fried pork cutlet (see previous entry) on rice. So I don't need to give you a recipe really but I will give you a visual indication of how awesome it was:


Seasoned with tonkatsu sauce and spring onion. Oh, and there's a mini omelette underneath the meat as well. It was quite literally deliciousness in a bowl :)

On Tuesday night we made hiroshima-yaki. This is something Ryan introduced to me as he had it in Japan. Basically, it's like okonomiyaki but hiroshima styled. Overall, I think it's quite different. It didn't look very pretty so I didn't take a picture. But here's a video of it being made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuVuFP3Somg

And here's an explanation I found:

Hiroshima-yaki, on the other hand, requires a progressive layering of ingredients. It begins with a small circle of batter on the grill, after which comes a heap of cabbage and fillings, proceeding to a fresh egg cracked on top of it all which is allowed to trickle down through the fillings and sort of glue them together.

What happens next depends on the chef, the style, and the fillings. But usually, after the cabbage has cooked down quite a bit, the chef drizzles on another thin layer of batter, and then flips it to cook on the other side.

The effect is to create sort of a stuffed pancake. And because the fillings and the egg are not mixed homogenously, the layered and varied textures of the pancake create an enjoyably interesting eating experience.

So it's kind of like okonomiyaki, but not mixed together with batter. Nevertheless, it's very messy to make but also very tasty!

And then I had another art class yesterday! This week it was all about textures. We were supposed to bring textured things but I didn't really have any. THey had a draw full of them there anyway, so I just had less control over what I was doing really.

First, here are some pictures of what I did last week. They're really bright and vibrant:



And the following two are what I did yesterday. As you can see, they're quite different from one another. And I decided to use the texture idea in a different way by inking up a board and then wiping away the colour and adding more to create really painterly pictures. I like using my hands and getting right into the paint like that.


So I had lots of fun :)

Oh, and here's another recipe I made last night for dinner. It's called 'yakisoba' which literally translates as fried noodles. Basically, you use yakisoba noodles which I found in the metro new world on willis street. It came with two packets and yakisoba sauce powder. Otherwise, you could use 3 minute noodles and for the sauce, the internet says 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup sake and two tsp sugar OR one tsp honey. I don't know how authentic this recipe is though, I guess it sounds reasonable...? Basically, you just fry everything together. I'd recommend cabbage, onion, mushrooms and carrot and whatever meat you want, but you can add whatever floats your boat.

Really easy recipe if you have the right ingredients.

Chocolate is delicious

Oh, the things I have to say are numerous tonight as a number of exciting things have happened recently. First of all, chocolate. Ryan recently got back from Japan and consequently, I have had to relocate my chocolate wall from just above my bed squeezed in the corner to a larger wall of its own. My feature wall.


So there it is :) Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And as you can see about half of the wall is dedicated to the genius that is kit kats.


So what might my wall consist of exactly, you may ask? Chocolate containers of many a flavour. Where shall I start? I'll group them in terms of their brand, rather than where they're located on the wall I think ^^ Cadbury: Black forest, mint bubbly, duo, dairy milk, dream, caramello. Hersheys: Hersheys kisses, cookies and cream. Whittakers: Milk chocolate cashew. Look (Japanese brand): Parfait (x2), New York Cheesecake, coffee, 'a la mode'. Miscellaneous: Strawberry Aero, Milkybar, oreo white chocolate, chocolate mochi (from Tokyo tower), and traditional Japanese chocolate.

Now, what you've all been waiting for, List of kitkat flavours:


Blueberry, banana, purin, kinako (soybean flour), soy sauce, orange, strawberry shortcake, chunky caramel, original, original (limited edition box :o), dark, bitter almond, semi-sweet, Framboise (a raspberry brandy apparently!), aloe yoghurt, miso, green tea, carrot and apple, royal milk tea, ginger ale, milk coffee, ohagi (a kind of rice ball), strawberry, passionfruit and raspberry.

Yes. Many, MANY kitkats ;D

23 flavours to be precise. I have yet to try them all (Ryan brought back ALOT) but so far my favourites include ginger ale (surprisingly delicious!), blueberry, carrot and apple, passionfruit and raspberry. And you can never beat the originals of course! :)

So, other than chocolate, but still on the topic of food: last night Ryan and I went to a kaiten sushi shop. Which we all know as conveyor belt sushi (:P). It was AMAZING. Expensive (compared with Japanese standards anyway) but great fun. My favourites included salmon and cream cheese and the seared tuna. But we also had some beef and even some tempura sushi! As well as that, there were a variety of fried goods to chose from such as fried chicken, dumplings and spring rolls.

On Monday night I signed up for a printmaking class. On Tuesday I went to said class and had the time of my life. It seems that the others do not have much printmaking ability and I'd say my teacher underestimates the amount of experience I've had, but that isn't a problem. It's really good to actually LEARN what I'm supposed to do from a professional rather than making things up as I had been doing before now. It's also good to do printmaking without the pressure of assignments. It's great to just have some fun with art. Over the 8 weeks, we get to do a whole range of different printmaking methods. The first we did was very simple: just inking up a plastic board (I think called perspex) and making a collage with ripped/cut out shapes of newsprint and then printing it. So much fun :)

The Monday

So Ryan's back and all is well in the world.

Except I have about a billion things to do and no time to do them in. Well, that's a lie- I have time to do them in I have just failed to utilize my time well so far. Whoops... ^^;

First of all: Tonight's cooking! I had some bean sprouts that needed to be used. So I used them ;D Ryan gave me two new cooking books. Well, one book called 'hot cake mix' (but in Japanese) and another which is more like a magazine really. In said magazine, I found a recipe for beansprout meat pattie things. So I made them. My verdict: They tasted good but could have been better. But that was through my own fault, not the recipe's. Basically they were a little dry (can you over cook mince?) and I needed to cut up the beansprouts smaller (the recipe told me to, but I was being lazy :P)

Recipe:
Ingredients:
250g bean sprouts
200g pork (I used beef, cos that's what I had) mince
1 Tbsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
salt, pepper, ginger

sauce: soy sauce, sake, mirin 1 Tbsp each + 1tsp sugar

So first you wash and cut up the beansprouts (just in half I think). Then, in a bowl mix the mince with the sake, soy sauce, salt pepper and ginger. divide the mixture into four and shape into patties. Cook in a little oil for 2~3 minutes on one side with lid on. Then turn over and add the sauce (mixed all together first), put the lid back on and cook through.

That's about it. And it serves two :)

So does anyone have any tips for the mince? Like, if I added something would it make it more moist once cooked? Or is it overcooking (but this might just be a made-up idea...)? Any hints would be much appreciated :)

Umm, in other news, I have like a billion things to do, like I mentioned earlier. Tomorrow I have a Japanese culture quiz (worth like 1% or something), Wednesday I have a Japanese vocab quiz (2%), Friday I have a linguistics assignment due (20%) and the following Monday a IR assignment (10%). So I have lots to keep me occupied at the moment.

And I just signed up for one of those art classes mum you'll be glad to hear (if you're reading this). The printmaking one. Although I'm not sure if it'll happen cos it starts tomorrow.... I might have been too late xD But I'll see soon enough I guess! I'm excited, but also kind of nervous actually. It should be fun though!

So that's two things off my list to do: Cooking salmon and art classes.

Woo-hoo! I'm on fireeee!

letters

First of all, thanks for the chocolate and postcard. The chocolate was a pleasant surprise and as you can see from this photo, it wasn't reduced to crumbs! I've eaten it already.... ;D I hope you guys had a good holiday and you have satisfied your need to look at trees (mum and dad anyway...) The campervan south island holiday will be known for looking at graveyards and this recent holiday will surely be known for looking at trees :P

Anyway, since Ryan is coming back tomorrow (:D) it is only natural that I bake him something. I made some blondies. The recipe is from http://www.cakespy.com/ I'll write it out here just in case anyone wants to know. And for my own personal reference to :)


Blondies
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup peanut butter (I didn't have any so I used 1/4 cup of pam's white chocolate spread and it worked just fine :) )

So you just sift together the first 3 ingredients in bowl. Then, in another bowl, beat the (softened) butter and sugar together. Then add the (beaten) egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour bit by bit, mixing well in between. Finally, add the peanut butter (or other thing) and mix. Bake in a tray for 30 minutes on 180 degrees.

This is actually only half of the original recipe! It would have made heeeeaps with the whole thing! I containered them for Ryan and subsequently ate what didn't fit in the container... ;D


On the food note, I recently found a blog that is amazing. So I thought I might share it. It's a blog made by a father. He regularly posts all the different kinds of pancakes he makes for his daughter. They aren't just ordinary pancakes either, scanning through the posts I found ones where he made characters like spongebob, pankcakes made to look like bacon and eggs or a hamburger, but the most impressive of all is the pancake which is a ferris wheel. Actually like a 3D ferris wheel. It's amazing. So if you're keen to be amazed: http://www.jimspancakes.com/

In other news, I've been asked a few times what I do in linguistics or what linguistics is about but I haven't really been able to give a substantial answer so far - mainly because the semester has only started so I don't exactly have a solid idea myself. So far, the lectures have been thoroughly interesting. Generally speaking, it's just all about language. More specifically, so far we have learned about theories on how language began as a human ability, about how and why language and languages are different and about how and why they change.

Today's lecture was on the changes that have happened specifically in English over the years. Accordingly, we looked at English translations of the bible over the last 1000 years. Our lecturer called the four different ages we looked at old English, middle English, early modern English and modern English. I was really surprised at just how much English has changed. The old English (which Ryan informs me is actually not really English, it's another language) is really different - it looks like something out of lord of the rings and when you hear it, it's like they're speaking German with a Scottish accent or something. Very cool.

That's it from me for now!

Tonkatsu

Japan is renown for it's healthy food. Rice, vegetables, lots and lots of fish and certainly not the huge (but essential :P) desserts we have in NZ and in other Western nations. But that doesn't mean that Japan doesn't like a bit of deep frying here and there. In fact quite a few popular Japanese dishes are deep fried. A few include: Tempura, kara age (deep fried chicken) and tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a pretty simple creation: simply a deep fried piece of pork which is covered in Japanese bread crumbs (panko). And tonkatsu was my creation for tonight.

Whenever I've had tonkatsu in Japan or in Japanese restaurants, the pork is always fairly big and thin. Since I couldn't really find such a thing in the supermarket, I bought a butterfly steak and had a great time flattening it with a pot. Seriously, Vanessa and Bex were surprised at just how much fun I was having. So you get your pork, wham it a bit. Then cut some light slits in it (apparently so it doesn't shrink), salt and pepper each side. Then do your coatings: First flour, second egg and lastly Japanese breadcrumbs. Japanese breadcrumbs are supposed to be different than 'normal' breadcrumbs. I'm not really sure how although I've read that they're coarser? Anyway, then you deep fry it until delicious. I mean, what isn't delicious once it's been fried in a nice hot pot of oil? Because I didn't really have the right ingredients and I didn't want to use a whole bottle of oil for one measly piece of pork, I only shallow fried it. But yeah, then you put tonkatsu sauce on top. Lucky for me, I have some so I was all set! I have a recipe for the sauce if you really want it though, so just let me know :)

And this was my dinner:



But not just this, I also had a bowl of rice and some coleslaw which I made out of cabbage, mayonnaise and some toasted sesame seeds.

That's my creation for the day. I'm quite impressed at my diligence with these Japanese recipes actually. It's a lot of fun!

Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday and then it's finally Thursday. So as you can imagine, I am one giant ball of excitement at the moment!