Culture as Non-Consensus: Exploring Coherence Among Native Speakers’ Perceptions of German Expressions of Affection

From early in their learning experience, foreign language (FL) learners at American universities explore socio-cultural connotations that, it is argued, are signified by FL words. Textbook authors and teachers follow an implicit canon of difference, a list of iconic words that over time—and without the benefit of empirical evidence—have come to represent essential differences in outlook between their native and the FL culture (Kubota, 2004). Despite the fast progression of the theory of teaching culture in FL learning (Kramsch, 2015; Risager, 2015), large empirical gaps remain. Todate, there is little evidence that native speakers (NSs) of the FL perceive their cultural practices, including the cultural contexts in which language is used, homogenously enough to warrant their status as cultural traits. Using the example of expressions of affection, this exploratory study drew on qualitative and quantitative questionnaire data to investigate whether German NSs’ (N=52) accounts of their own and of most fellow Germans’ language behavior converged enough to derive a comprehensive and reliable cultural norm. Results indicated a lack of consensus among German NSs’ self-reported views, eluding the assumption of a pertinent community-specific norm. Implications for FL teaching and learning, as well as directions for future research, are discussed

Germany and the European Business Cycle - An Analysis of Causal Relations in an International Real Business Cycle Model

This paper studies the role of the German economy for the existence of the so called European business cycle, a term referring to the regularly observed synchronization of the national business cycles in Europe. Using a three-country general equilibrium model, we are able to simulate impulse response functions mimicking the important features observed in the data. Focusing on the importance of shocks affecting the German GDP we show that trade-related transmission from Germany to the other European economies is only of minor importance for the synchronization of national business cycles. On the contrary, our findings suggest that the influence of common shocks and of technology spillovers accounts for most of the parallels in economic performance.European business cycle; Transmission; Open economy macroeconomics; Real business cycles

The Union County Economic and Workforce Competitiveness Project

This report is intended to assist Union County officials and their partners to develop an economic growth and workforce development strategy for the county that is informed by an analysis of available labor market information, input from various experts in the region's economy and future development plans, and other relevant data

Quantum Teleportation with Entangled States given by Beam Splittings

Quantum teleportation is rigorously discussed with coherent entang led states given by beam splittings. The mathematical scheme of beam splitti ng has been used to study quantum communication and quantum stochastic. We d iscuss the teleportation process by means of coherent states in this scheme for the following two cases: (1) Delete the vacuum part from coherent states, whose compensation provides us a perfect teleportation from Alice to Bob. (2) Use fully realistic (physical) coherent states, which give s a non-perfect teleportation but shows that it is exact when the average en ergy (density) of the coherent vectors goes to infinity.Comment: 25 pages, Latex 2

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Retail Industry

Explores the changing skill and education needs of the modern retail workplace. Identifies key skills employers require and the jobs for which employers report the most difficulty finding and keeping skilled workers

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Public Health and Other Disaster Management Employers

This report explores the priority workforce needs of New Jersey's public disaster management system. An advisory group of disaster management-related employers from law enforcement and state and local public health systems and educational institutions was convened in the spring of 2006 to identify priority workforce skill needs. Researchers also conducted interviews with state officials, domestic security, public health, and disaster planning experts, as well as reviews of labor market information, state and national websites, and industry and scholarly literature