Chinese Outsourcing

As "China's outsourcing market is in its infancy," it is showing promise as a leading competitor in our global economy. Domestically, its outsourcing market is in its early developmental stages, so its impact on the countries overall economy as a whole is meager, but proving itself to be a promising major role.

A VanceInfo Technologies report "forecasted China's outsourcing growth to soar 30 percent annually from 2009 to 2013, compares with an impressive but modest 19 percent growth elsewhere in the world for the same period." Chinese outsourcing is largely composed of IT, which alone with BPO exceeded "$9 billion and $6 billion, respectively" in 2007. As of 2009, China had "more than 6,600 outsourcing firms that provided services for foreign companies, according to the PRC Ministry of Commerce." 

Looking at these numbers, China seems to be taking a role as a major competitor in outsourcing, especially in the IT and business areas. However, Chinese companies are new to outsourcing. Chinese companies have “recognized the need for outsourcing, complementary skills, local and international experience, and industry practices together with cost saving”, proving them to be a major new competitor in respects to outsourcing in the global economy. Chinese companies, although new to outsourcing, are ready jump in with both feet and test their best new technologies and business approaches on the global playing field.

In regards to technology and engineering, China has found this to be a strength and will build upon this in how they approach outsourcing. According to the PRC National Bureau of Statistics 2007 China Statistical Yearbook, “China graduated more than 1.5 million engineering majors… In comparison, the United States graduated 124,388 engineering and engineering technology majors in 2006, according to the US-based National Science Foundation. An inequity with this would be the difference between what is defined as an “engineering student”, which Wright points out in her report. What is considered to be a standard for Chinese may not be what the United States defines the position as. This leaves one country at more of an advantage over the other, depending on which has higher standards. This creates an inequity in regards to offshoring between the U.S., China, and other competing countries (ex. India).

Overall, the Chinese attitude toward offshoring is positive and is thought to bring their economy prosperity and success. Their education system, population, and business-mindset give them an advantage in the global economy, as they have an influx of people to offshore. China is a rising competitive power in the global economy, not only through their relations with America which we are all familiar with, but also through their rise in outsourcing IT businesses and their companies attitudes to globalize.

"China’s Emerging Role in Global Outsourcing." China Business Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. <http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/chinas-emerging-role-in-global-outsourcing/>. 

Living Language: Autocorrect Poetry

Language slows us to communicate 
Without languageOur ideas would benefit mantillasAnd without our KawasakiAnd our through a And our ability to express themDo w werewolf have an identifying If we are unable to communicateIf we are unable to express If we are unable to articulate I'd we are unable to convey Our thigh Our beliefs Our ideasOur moralscodicilsAre we really able to be who we are?If the essential Thu. is that define us At winnable you be spoken And understood Are we really who we are?NoWe are notified 

Clearly, I am not the best texter, so this prompt suited me and quite frankly I thought it would be the funniest. Even writing the title to this blog post, my MacBook wanted to change "poetry" to something probably along the lines of "possum". Communication, now, is conveyed mainly through technology. Think about it, whens the last time you got a personal letter in the mail of any sort of substance (the letter from that same college you get every week doesn't count)? Now, we send emails, Facebook chats, and texts, among other things.  And with all of these, we deal with autocorrect. 

When phones first came out with the option, my friends and I would frequently stop and laugh at all the ridiculous things we would end up sending each other. I even call my best friend Nesty now because that’s what my first smartphone would always change her name to. But now, its such a commonality, that we find ourselves reading around the autocorrected ridiculousness and somehow our brains are able to, for the most part, still understand what is trying to be said without dwelling on the corrections. The idea that we can understand “gob” as “go” or “duck” as pretty much any word my phone feels should be duck, is quite telling. Although I don’t think this means we will necessarily begin to adopt these silly changes into our language, I do believe it changes the playing field for how we are able to communicate.

Going back to the idea of the letter, autocorrect has allowed us to significantly decrease the formality of our language. Because we are able to understand words that very loosely resemble the other words they were intended to be, we lose the sense of responsibility for going back and editing what we are trying to convey and our desire for conciseness. With letters, the ritual was you sat down and wrote in the most understandable language as neatly and correctly as possible. Now, we don’t think twice when we get a text from a family member saying “meat you at DEA mall tonight!” The meaning still gets across, but our ability to understand has become heightened.

So what does this all mean? Well, I don’t think we can entirely throw all our rules about language away, because after all, without a basis and a “standard” to go off of, would we really be able to understand autocorrects madness? Without standards to language, nothing would be able to be understood. There would be no right or wrong to guide us to understanding each other. However, putting all of this into perspective, language does reveal itself to be adaptable once the standards are solidified and widely understood and recognized. Once a standard is established, something that everyone can make have basis of understand off of, then there are no limits to how it is manipulated and utilized. And autocorrect is no exception.  

Ukraine: News

            Without a doubt, the Ukrainian crisis is going to be one of the largest news stories we see this entire year. It is going to be a historically significant event for the border country, and potentially for the countries involved in the conflict as well. As weve seen in America, news surrounding the Ukraine has been pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia. When we offered our $1 billion dollar deal to the border country, we were quick to highlight our own heroic actions and villainies Russia.

            In Russia itself, the news is surrounded by controversy. A news source called Russia Today has had an incident that sparked huge online conversation. Abby Martin, an American reporter for the “Kremlin- funded” network, openly expressed her reaction to the situation in Ukraine on air, and has found herself in hot water. Her anti-Russian reaction involved her saying "What Russia did is wrong, I will not sit here and apologize or defend military aggression." As you can tell, saying this on a Russian news source would cause quite a stir. Although the network did not fire her, they did say that they would be sending her to Crimea, so she can experience first hand the conditions and situation she was commenting on, as if her seeing this would convince her otherwise.

            In Canada, the news is taking a more diplomatic and conservative approach. As CTV News reported (A Canadian network), “Canada will send representatives to be part of an international observer mission to Ukraine, the Harper government announced Wednesday, as well as impose economic sanctions on some members of the former Ukrainian prime minister’s regime.” The Canadian report of events was subdued and calm, much different than the more exited and hyped-up news coming out of America. Canada comparatively seemed to be taking a critical, reassuring, and subdued report on the acts in the Ukraine, compared to those of Russia and the U.S.

            The similarities and differences are slight between American, Russian, and Canadian news reports of the situation in Ukraine. America and Russia, being major players in the crisis, respectively, have seen very animated news stories, while Canada on the other hand is taking the critical approach. These differences can be easily accounted for, as Russia and the U.S. are key players in this decisive moment for Ukraine, while Canada doesn’t really have much involvement (yet, at least). Because Russia and the U.S. are looking to gain civilian support of whichever actions they take, the news they report must be lively and rousing to build up the situation.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-to-send-observers-to-ukraine-impose-sanctions-on-former-regime-1.1715729#ixzz2vBe7bHJX

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/abby-martin-russia-today-news-anchor-criticizes-ukraine-invasion-on-air-1.7302349