Intro
In today’s society, leaders are expected to guide by their actions and allow others to follow their lead. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, guides her people by following through with what she tells her citizens she will do, communicates to other nations about possible ways of dealing with certain situations, providing new ideas to solve difficult problems, and stand as an example of how to treat others no matter the viable differences or past history. Through the applications of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act and Encouraging the heart, we can see how powerful and impressive Angela Merkel really is.
To understand the Chancellor’s impact on Germany, it is important to understand her past. Angela Merkel, a theoretical chemist turned Prime Minister, has not only changed the world but also in addition to that has inspired others to do the same for the common goal of a better, more stable, world. Born in 1954 in East Germany, Angela Dorothea Kasner was a child to academics. Her father, Horst Kasner, was an English and Latin teacher and a Lutheran pastor. Most of Merkel’s childhood was spent in the countryside outside of Northeast Berlin (Langguth, 2005). Living on the communist side of the Berlin wall may have been one of the biggest influences on her childhood that in time transitioned into her adulthood.
As a schoolgirl in a Soviet school, Merkel was not only expected to do well in learning German but expected to learn Russian as well; she excelled at it, receiving awards for her proficiency in the language. She wanted to show her peers and superiors her aptitude to learn so she studied very hard (Kottasová, 2013, n.p). Merk...
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Growing up around those who had just emigrated from the former Soviet Union helped me become aware of how important the process of acquiring language can be – both for my parents and for myself. My family, speaking both Russian and Bukharian, barely spoke any English, but they were still determined to learn the language as soon as possible. As my mom sat in front of a television, pausing every few seconds to test her pronunciation, my fascination for the adaptation of speech and language began. I became further fascinated when watching old home videos of myself struggling between the three languages that I grew up surrounded by.
Hagen W (2012). ‘German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation’. Published by Cambridge University Press (13 Feb 2012)
Many historians in the period 1970 – 2000 attempted to write a complete account of the Weimar republic and very few succeeded, however, E.J Feuchtwanger’s ‘From Weimar to Hitler’ published in 1993 is one of the most successful overviews published. Feuchtwanger excellently examines the high politics of the Weimar re...
Leadership is a complex idea that is often is hard to define. Everyone seems to have different characteristics that they feel contribute to a good leader. Even though there is no straightforward definition of leadership, there are still certain personality traits, behaviors, skills, and motivators that people admire in a leader. The best example to show how leaders utilize these characteristics is to examine a prominent figure in pop culture, such as Beyoncé. Her life is transparent enough that we can analyze her leadership skills, and how they change in any given situation. Beyoncé’s impact as a leader will be analyzed in three different categories.
"The leader must understand that he leads us, that he guides us, by convincing us so that we will follow him or follow his direction. He must not get it into his head that it is his business to drive us or rule us. His business is to manage the government for us."-- Theodore Roosevelt
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Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea was written by Mark Blyth, and published by the Oxford University Press in 2013. The text conceptualizes the theory of austerity, and provides countless scenarios in which austerity has failed to combat inauspicious economic conditions, for example, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and the Great Recession of 2007. Austerity is a fiscal policy mechanism used by governments during business cycle contractions to reduce government deficits, usually by increasing taxes, reducing government expenditure or a combination of both tactics.
At the height of the Cold War, the capitol of Germany – Berlin, was divided into East and West Berlin. West Berlin was democratic, while East Berlin was Soviet controlled and largely Communist. There was a huge difference in ideologies and a clear split between those that were pro Democratic, and those that were pro Communist. This speech specifically targeted one side of the split – those of a democratic ideology. Because of this clear target audience, those who have a different view on politics are excluded, and will have a largely negative response. Giving this speech in an area where the nations people were highly split prompts the need to show a clear stand in ideology throughout the speech. Therefore the physical and ideological split within Berlin provides context for the ideals within the
Because of the state of Germany’s economy, Hitler portrayed himself as the saviour of Germany, the man that was going to restore the respect that their forefathers had earned & installed. However, under no uncertain terms was he going to do it alone, he pr...
Warren Bennis’s leadership theories from On Becoming a Leader serve as a guide to understanding the qualities and strategies that great leaders often exemplify. Classic leaders like Hillary Clinton have vision, passion, and integrity. These three things are the basic ingredients that Bennis proposes that most great leaders have in common. These are all aspects of leadership that allow people to better understand themselves and the world around them. In Hillary’s case, it is because of her determination to take the lead on different social issues around the world as a prominent figurehead that has allowed me to take a closer look into how she uses these basic leadership ingredients in her own practices....
Many people against second language learning argue that learning a second language is meaningless because it is never used after learning it and is soon forgotten. The problem is the country’s secondary language education methods. Rather than teaching at a young age, which they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Making children learn a second language at a young age is a better method because the earliest years of childhood are a critical period and at a later time, the brain’s ability to learn a new language is greatly diminished (Richards). Another problem is that most often, there isn’t enough repetition of what is learned in order for it to “sink in” to the memory of students. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout that students’ academic career, not...
Lying can have consequences. Mathilde always longed to be of a higher class. She was a woman with very good looks, but she wanted more of wh...
Imagine a seven year old boy sitting in class. He is anxious for the day to begin and anticipates its end. Finally, his teacher starts to speak about what will be happening in class that day. The boy looks up in wonderment and confusion. His teacher is speaking in a completely different language than the boy is accustomed to. This little boy is growing up in Latvia, but the language he has grown up learning, in his home, is Russian. The boy, having always heard both languages while growing up, eventually pieced together what the teacher was saying; and later realizes he is going to have to adapt to a new language. This seems to be a common occurrence in Latvian schools. Because of Latvia’s history, back and forth, between Soviet and independent rule, a large population of Russians have migrated, or been moved to, Latvia. This has had a large impact on the way education works in Latvia. The Eastern Union (EU) has also, recently, started to make a difference in the way education works in Latvia.
The debate regarding the role of foreign language education in the public school system leaves much to be considered—from the role foreign language learning plays in our cognitive and cultural development, to the study of what it takes to become fluent in a foreign language in terms of time, energy and opportunity cost, compared with the application of the language later in life. With many stakeholders, including academics, journalists, and politicians, lending their perspectives to the argument, it’s important that we understand how the leader of our country values foreign language education, in order to better understand how foreign language will be effected in education legislation. During President Obama’s campaign run in 2008, he advocated for foreign language education, as demonstrated by CNN.com’s campaign footage, “Sen. Barack Obama on Learning Foreign Languages.” Speaking directly to his constituency as well as undecided voters, he proclaimed the value that bilingual abilities can provide Americans, as well as his own embarrassment for not being fluent in another language. Obama uses ethical appeals to express that we need to be less worried about immigrants learning English, “They’ll learn English,” and more concerned with teaching our children Spanish because having such a skill will enhance their lives; logical appeals to advocate teaching our children a foreign language early in life, while its easier to learn; and emotional appeals by proclaiming “it’s embarrassing” in regards to Europeans coming to our country speaking multiple language, including ours, whereas when we go to Europe, “all we can say is merci beaucoup.” Because Obama’s intended audience is moderate-to-liberal, or more progressive, he is able to delive...
Sinek, Simon. “How great leaders inspire action” TED. Newcastle, WA. 16 Sept. 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.