Personal Narrative- Bartering in Italy
People everywhere are yelling in a distinct accent that I have come to recognize in my week here in Italy. As I walk down one of Florence’s many markets with my father, men and women alike are shouting out descriptive adjectives for their products in butchered English. They were just a part of the medley of noises around me. Tourists are laughing and clicking away at their cameras; drivers are slamming doors to their vans after dropping off the merchandise to the vendors. There is an energy in the air. Carts are inches away from each other, packed in one after another as far as my eighth grade eye can see. Looking around I see other American tourists looking annoyed by the enthusiastic salesmen, but I am in my place, shopping. I can’t wait to start buying presents for my family and myself. We had just stopped at a bank that morning and I am eager to spend my new euros. Unbeknownst to me though are the unspoken rules of the market place: bartering.
The excitement is building up inside of me, just like Eudora Welty feels when she reads, as described in a passage from One Writer’s Beginnings. I know exactly what I am looking for; two purses for my mother and sister. Nothing to big, or to small. One is going to be black, one brown. Try as I might to keep my mind on the task at hand, it is difficult to concentrate on just purses when there are fascinating items all around me! Leather jackets, jewelry, bolt upon bolt of the most gorgeous fabrics I have ever seen, and so much more. I can’t help but walk over to the people when they call to me; I am drawn by their eagerness and obvious love for their product. They have to be really great scarves if the man holding them thinks so much of them,...
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...ly settling on fourteen euros, we purchased the purses and walked back into the current of people on the seemingly endless road of Italian goods. “I’m impressed,” I told my dad. “Sorry I almost ruined it.” My father laughs with his big hearty laugh and smiles at me; his smile is so big you can even see it past his beard. “It was your first time in the situation. Bartering is something you pick up. You learned your lesson for the day, let’s go get gelatos.”
My father became my teacher and taught me several valuable things on that trip to Italy, one of the most important being negotiating. I got numerous chances before we left to use my newly acquired skill, and did so when ever possible. I learned not only how to achieve in getting what you want, but also the importance of discriminating between the truth and the falsities that are often lurking in sales pitches.
On this day, I tried to observe the conversations that buzzed around me even though I decided not to use “naturally occurring conversations” as part as my methodology. Since it was a weekend the Italian strip was busier than ever. In this part of my research, I positioned myself on College street, between Euclid Ave and Manning Ave. Since it was a weekend the Italian strip was busier than ever. There were children running up and down sidewalks, Italian music blasting from each restaurant and people outside enjoying a glass of wine on the patios. I first started my research by walking up and down the small section of Little Italy that I chose. I walked up and down this small section to be sure I would not miss any written texts, pictures, or historical artefacts that would be beneficial to my research. By walking around each small area I paid close attention to the conversations that surrounded me. I simply wanted to see how many people spoke fluent Italian in the area. This gave me an idea how Italian this area still was. I was stunned to find that the area was more Portuguese and Japanese than I thought. Around me I heard all types of language in conversations, including Japanese as the more dominant language. I found that fluent Italian was not commonly spoken. I could easily tell who seemed Italian due to their heavy accent, although I only briefly caught one couple speaking Italian throughout this
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive autosomal dominant neurodegenerative genetic disorder. HD was originally named Huntington’s chorea after Dr.George Huntington, an American physician who first gave a detailed note on the symptoms and course of the disease in 1872.Recently the name has been changed to Huntington’s disease to emphasize the fact that chorea is not the only important manifestation of the disease but several non-motor symptoms are also associated with this disease.[1]
Huntington's disease is a progressive brain disorder that is caused by a single defective gene on chromosome 4 — which is one of the 23 human chromosomes that carry a person’s entire genetic code (alz.org, 2013). This defect is dominant, w...
In a perfect world, hatred would be without justice; love would be totally innocent. However, utopias like that are nonexistent; thus, one can easily look around, like Auden, and exclaim, "No hatred is totally without justification, no love is totally innocent." In The Merchant of Venice, there is an imperfect world, as well as a perfect world. The flawed world is the materialistic and bustling city of Venice. The impeccable world is the fairy-tale city of Belmont. Despite Belmont's perfection, a bit of justified hatred from Venice would ruin its innocence. (Paradise lost.) Alas, as Auden suggests, there are no utopias.
Alice Walker integrates the connotation and symbolism of traditional quilts through her short story, “Everyday Use”. More importantly, Walker illustrates her point through the reasoning of the quilts between Dee and her mother. During Dee’s visit home, she found the quilts in a “trunk at the foot [of her mother’s] bed, then visualized the patches of art work hanging against a wall. Dee also knew that the quilts were priceless. Miss Johnson asked Dee, “What would you do with them?” Dee said, “Hang them. As if that was the only thing you could do with the quilts” (Walker 456). In contrast, Maggie and her mother kept the quilts in a safe place, because they understood the significant role the quilts played in their
Huntington’s disease – Is a fatally rare condition that causes the gradual deterioration of the nerve cells in the victim’s brain, typically affecting persons fro...
Caring for a person suffering dementia often comes with a myriad of deleterious effects on mental health including, but not limited to stress and depression at higher levels than non-carers, decreased social activity, disruption of sleep, poor physical health, decreased social activities and feelings of guilt, sadness, stigma, frustration, anger, anxiety, helplessness and isolation (------). Furthermore, these challenges are compounded with with the grief that accompanies watching a loved one progress into cognitive decline leaving them distant and estranged, and eventually dying
The idea of mercy is important in The Merchant of Venice because it provides a focus for the contrast between Venetian Christian society and the alien invader, represented by Shylock. Mercy occupies a "central" position in the trial scene (IV.i.), where the power struggle between aristocratic Venetian society and the threatening force Shylock comes to a climax. My thesis is that the contrast between (and equation of) mercy and revenge in the trial scene reveals the true nature of Venetian society as insecure , hypocritical and vengeful.
In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" and Toni Morrison's "Recitatif," materialism and the desire to be envied are vital ingredients in the themes of the stories. Both authors enhance their themes through the manipulation of plot and the use of women as their central characters. Maupassant and Morrison prove the notion that women are effective characters in depicting themes that deal with the social issue of craving material wealth.
It's 6 a.m. and your alarm clock goes off. For most people you get up and get ready. When you have Huntington's disease it makes simple things much more difficult. A life with Huntington's disease would be a challenge.
In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio is the merchant, and complains to his friends about how depressed he is and he cannot explain why. His friend Bassanio is in desperate need of money to court Portia, wealthy women of Belmont, so Bassanio asks Antonio for a loan. However, Antonio cannot give Bassanio the loan because he has just invested all of his money into a number of ships that are still at sea. Antonio advises Bassanio to go and meet with Shylock, a Jew who is a moneylender. Bassanio takes Antonio’s advice and the both of them go to meet with him. When Bassanio and Antonio meet with Shylock, Shylock has nothing but a long-term grudge against Antonio, who had made a habit of talking about him and the way he ran his business. But, Shylock decides to give Bassanio three thousand ducats with an exception that should the loan go unpaid, he will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Antonio agrees, and Shylock gives Bassanio the loan.
During this course, I have learned a lot about negotiating. We learned about almost every negotiating technique there is. We learned about cross-cultural negotiations, body language, Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), variables in negotiating, and many more. Before this course, I did not know that much about negotiating. I thought that negotiating was just about trading or convincing someone to give you what you want and you did not care about the other side, resulting in a win-lose. I now know that negotiating is about getting what you want, but also giving the other side what they want as well to result in a win-win. This paper is about how I am going to improve my negotiating skills over the next six months. In order for me to improve my negotiating skills, I believe I need to improve the following skills- my body language, communication, planning, and my interpersonal communications. By improving those skills, I can become an effective negotiator.
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she misplaces the closest thing she has to the life she dreams of and not telling her friend about the mishap, she could have set herself aside from ten years of work. Through many literary devices, de Maupassant sends a message to value less substance articles so life can be spent wisely.
Craftsmen and their apprentices were at the very beginning of this basic economic system, as they are responsible for creating the actual products to be later traded and sold. However, this is also one of the most boring element to this economy, as there is no unknown, exotic element to craft. Therefore, by romanticizing the base of the economy, production, the author can make the whole economy more interesting. Dekker exemplifies this idea in the beginning of The Shoemaker’s Holiday and throughout the play. He is able to mix romance into all aspects of the play. For example, Dekker writes, “Thou knowest our trade makes rings for women’s heels: / Here take this pair of shoes cut out by Hodge, / Stitched together by my fellow, Firk, seamed by myself, / Made up and pinked, with letters for thy name. / Wear them, my dear Jane, for thy husband’s sake… Remember me, and pray for my return. / Make much of them, for I have made them so” (9). It is Dekker’s goal to romanticize and personalize a common good, in an effort to make it mean more than it is. By listing who made it each part, the shoe gains meaning to the beholder and ultimately becomes a token throughout the novel. Despite being nothing more than a common shoe, it suddenly holds importance to both Jane and her husband Ralph. This contrasts sharply with a sonnet or something else of a more eloquent nature that
Contemporary Issues in The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is still relevant today because it deals with issues that still affect us. Throughout the play a distinction is made up of how things appear and how they are in reality. The issue of appearance versus reality is demonstrated in varied ways, mainly by the use of real-life. situations.