Meet The World :: Japan Japanese Culture Cultural Essays

Meet The World Have you stayed in other countries or met the people who have different cultures from yours? Yes, I have. I stayed in England for a year, and I have been living in the U.S for seven months. I went to two different English schools when I was in England. All students were of course from outside of England. Most of them were from Europe which is Spain, Italy and so on. Others were from the Far East like Korea, Thailand and Japan. I even met a few people who are sons of millionaires from East Asia such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan. When I was in Chicago, I met people who were from Korea, China and Mexico. As you know, I met English and American people as well. I also made friends who were from other countries like Argentina, Brazil and all over the world. In addition, I experienced and learned lots of things from their cultures. Some cultures are totally different from my culture. They sometimes made me surprised, and I realize that I will never get accustomed to them. On the other hand, t he other cultures are very important for everyone to understand. To meet many people and to experience different cultures is how my life and my way of thinking have greatly changed. I think you might feel like traveling other countries! First of all, what I felt when I met people was they were very casual when communicating with other people. Their actions seemed to lazy to me though. For example, I saw them in my class in the U.S. Students eat snacks, drink juice, and put their legs on the desk during the class! They go out of a classroom without asking the teacher. It was my first culture shock. In Japan, we have to respect teachers, so we must not drink, eat, or put legs on desks. We do not learn such things. In contrast, we have already known good manners. My second example is, people especially Europeans hug, kiss cheeks and shake hands. When I first went to England, I was a high school student. I was so nervous when I had to hug and kiss men! But I got used to doing that soon. Besides, I noticed that most of Europeans kiss twice to each cheek, but Swiss people kiss three times. To shake hands became a custom among the young Japanese.

National Westminster Bank Essay

Q1. Analyse the customer contact process during the account opening procedure. What aspects of the branch’s operation impact on each stage? From analysing the branch’s operation it is clear to see which parts of the banks operation impacts each stage of the account opening procedure. Firstly the customer arrives into the bank, usually customers go to the cashiers section, they are then referred over to the enquiries counter, where they are greeted by enquiry personnel who find out which of the banks service the customer requires. If the customer wishes to open a new account, a member of the records staff comes to administer the account opening procedure. It is the records staff who deals mostly with new customers. The records staff must to have a good basic knowledge of all the banks operations to be able to advise the new customer which account is best suited for them. They must find out if the customer wishes to invest money or if they wish to avail of the banks credit facilities. The records staff would not have an in depth knowledge of the investments available to new customers so more often than not a member of the investment section is called over to advise the new customer. Read more:  Banker’s Draft Natwest For credit facilities, the new customer is referred to the lending section for processing, as this operation is outside the record section staff jurisdiction. Once they account type has been established, the â€Å"formalities† begin (processing of customer details). Records staff go through forms to ensure that all key information has been gathered. This is probably the longest part of the account opening procedure with the customer as a lot of details need to be processed. Once all the details have been gathered by the records staff, the direct customer contact finishes. Customer details are then passed onto the administrative section and the machine room to finalise the opening of a new account and the paper printing (cheque books, log books, ATM cards etc.) How the different operations interact upon the Records section: Q2. How would you improve the process? Once the bank identified their problems the set out an improvement plan. They key areas identified for improvement were identified: > Signage > Inexperienced Staff > Limited staff for rush hours > Uneven flow of walk-in customers at peak times From a recent survey customers identified the following problems: > Account opening forms were not properly explained > Bank’s standard account pack was not sent out to customers > Some customers waited more than the standard 9 days to receive cheque book and bank card > Customer personal details were recorded incorrectly > Staff seemed uninterested in the customers needs > Customers wouldn’t recommend the bank to others All of the above points were taken into account in the banks improvement plan. Firstly the signage issue was tackled. This issue was clearly a problem when we visited the bank, see fig.1 It was evident from this, that the enquiries desk wasn’t clearly noticeable or signposted. To eliminate the problem of new customers queuing at the cashier’s desk (adding to queue delays in the bank) new signage was positioned around the bank clearly highlighting where the new customers were to go. While it was unfeasible to move staff permanently from section to section, records staff who are generally young and junior members of staff could be temporarily move around each of the banks operations. This would add to their training knowledge and enable them to give more specialised advice to customers. By doing this staff will get to know each others jobs, they will become more confident in their work, giving the sense of importance to the banks operation. This increases staff motivation which reduces boredom as boredom leads to mistakes. To assess the overall performance of staff’s training and progress, the bank could introduce ‘mystery shoppers’, a member of staff from another of the banks branches comes to open an account, goes through the whole procedure and at the end evaluates the staffs performance, identifies areas for improvement etc. As it was, the cashiers would go for their lunch, and it was the job of the records section to cover the cashier positions during lunch. This however was the busiest period for new customers wishing to open accounts. During the lunchtime rush customers could feel they were been rushed, inevitably resulting in mistakes occurring. To deal with this issue, lunch time for the bank staff could be divided up more evenly. Only a set amount of cashiers go for lunch at any one time, these cashiers do not take their lunch until the first group comes back, this way there is always somebody covering the records section to deal with new potential customers if they arrive during the lunch time period. To ensure the records section were not over burdened by new customers during the lunch time period, a system of ‘appointment only’ during the lunch time rush was set up. This way the records section could easily deal with walk-in customers in the mornings and afternoons, and during lunch time they knew how many customers to expect and spend the required time needed with each customer opening an account. This way the customer feels more at ease and the records section staff do not feel under pressure and rushed, reducing the amount of mistakes made. Customers felt that the account opening forms were not properly explained to them. This issue was tackled by more staff training and the ‘mystery shopper’ also helped by giving feedback. This helps the junior staff in training to interpret the forms better and be much more capable of explaining the forms to customers. In terms of the bank’s standard account pack not been sent out to customers, the bank set up a system of having all the leaflets on hand so the member of staff dealing with the new customer could make up a package there and then to suit the customers needs. It was identified that some customers waited more than the standard 9 days to receive their cheque books or ATM cards. This waiting period was improved by a more clear line of communication set up between the records staff, administration staff and the machine room. This was also helped as now there were fewer mistakes and the records staff had more time to process the forms during the day as the ‘by appointment only’ and not having to cover the cashier positions fully during lunch had clearly freed up some extra time for them. To deal with the problem of customers personal details not been recorded properly, the customer was asked to fill in a form which clearly legible showing how to spell their name address etc. Once all the forms had been filled out, it was advised that the supervisor provided an extra check on the forms before they were sent for processing. To assist with the implementation of this system a sort of a Kanban system could be set up, â€Å"In-Kanban†, â€Å"Out-Kanban† this way everything was fully completed before it was sent for processing, and there would be no mix ups, on what was processed and what has to be processed. Also as part of this kanban system to finalise the last step, approval by the manager must be signed on the form. The problem of the customers feeling rushed was solved when the records section were released from other duties such as fully covering the cashiers during lunch. If all of the above points are implemented successfully, the bank will be back on track to a successful and complimentary word of mouth.

Censorship is Not an Effective Way to Protect Children Essay

Teachers suspended, radio and television personalities fired, authors disinvited to speaking events, all because their words, opinions or shows did not agree with what a handful of people consider appropriate. One would think these types of situations regarding censorship happened decades ago, not in a time now, where people pride themselves on having an open-mind and the ability of forward thinking. However, censorship still prevails in America today, and not only censorship of pornography or violence on television, but it seeps into our textbooks and classrooms too, all in the name of protecting the children. Many reasons exist for people to favor censorship, both by the government and in schools. These people may feel†¦show more content†¦(National Coalition Against Censorship) This means that the government censors what public schools can teach. According to the law, teachers can only to teach about contraceptives by telling of their failure rates. Teachers cannot answer a direct question from a student if it does not relate directly to the abstinence-only lifestyle. (National Coalition Against Censorship) This provides an unrealistic and dangerous curriculum in our public schools. Children should have access to material that will lead them to make better and healthier decisions about sex and material that will lead them into adulthood better prepared. Some school administrators, teachers, and parents do not make informed decisions when deciding what material students can access. They merely read a bad review or skim the pages of a book and decide it has unsuitable content. Ellen Hopkins, an author of the young adult series, Crank, notes that books like hers have a helpful storyline for young adults, but adults quickly to jump to conclusions that they contain inappropriate material. 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