Empathize vs. Sympathize

Empathize vs. Sympathize Empathize vs. Sympathize Empathize vs. Sympathize By Maeve Maddox A reader says, Ive always been confused on how to use [the words empathize and sympathize] in proper context. For about 300 years, English speakers didn’t have to choose between sympathize and empathize to express the idea of sharing another’s feelings. Empathize hadn’t been invented yet. The first OED example of sympathize in the sense of â€Å"to share the feelings of another† is dated 1607; the first use of empathize with this meaning dates from 1916.    However, the noun empathy was introduced in 1895 by a psychologist to describe â€Å"a physical property of the nervous system analogous to electrical capacitance, believed to be correlated with feeling.† This definition of empathy did not survive, but the word has found a lasting place in the vocabulary of psychology as the English equivalent of German Einfà ¼hlung: â€Å"sympathetic understanding.† This kind of empathy is â€Å"the ability to understand and appreciate another person’s feelings and experience.† Before the psychological term empathize entered the general vocabulary, speakers did just fine with sympathize when they wished to speak of feeling the joy or pain of others. Now that we have a second word for the same concept, empathize has come to denote a stronger, more personal sense of fellow feeling than sympathize. For example, I may sympathize with the fire victim who has lost her home and all of her possessions, but I cannot empathize with her because, mercifully, I have not experienced that trauma in my own life. On the other hand, because I had to spend a day and a night in a Red Cross emergency shelter during an ice storm, I can empathize with people who must live in shelters for extended periods. The great gift of literature is that it enables readers to empathize with a wide variety of fellow creatures. They don’t even have to be human. When I read Black Beauty, I empathized with a horse. Sympathy and empathy are equally beautiful human characteristics. Sympathize is appropriate in most contexts. Empathizeis best suited to situations that you have experienced yourself, either in the real world or through the power of literature. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Punctuating â€Å"So† at the Beginning of a SentenceAmong vs. AmongstProverb vs. Adage

Llano Estacado in the U.S. and Around the World

Llano Estacado in the U.S. and Around the World Llano Estacado literally translated from Spanish-to-English means Staked Plain, and it is a region at the southern end of the American Great Plains in the southwestern United States. The Geographical Region The Llano Estacado region  encompasses parts of  eastern New Mexico  and northwestern  Texas. It is marked by large mesas at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet. One of its most popular landmarks is the Caprock Escarpment in Texas. Possible Historical Reference The settling of the western United States in the 1800s was known for its land runs with settlers on foot and horseback racing to claim lands by driving a stake into the ground. Llano Estacado may be a historical nod to the stakes or posts driven  into the ground in this region that were used as landmarks delineating property. Some suggest the plain was called Llano Estacado because it is surrounded by cliffs resembling palisades or stockades, which explains the definitions of palisaded plain or stockaded plain. The Caprock Escarpment is a 200-mile long cliff or palisade that delineates the border of the Llano Estacado region from the high plains.   Spanish Translation   Llano Estacado  can be translated to mean palisaded plain, stockaded plain, or staked plain. Llano is a direct translation for the word plain or prairie.  Estacado  is the past  participle  of  estacar. Estacar  is the verb meaning to tie to a post. Of the three possible translations, the three have very similar meanings. Many words in English are derived from Spanish words. The English word stockade comes from the Spanish word  estaca, so originally stockade and staked meant basically the same thing. The same can be said for palisade, it comes from the French word  palissade, meaning stake. The word palisade is related to the Spanish word  palo, meaning stick, which may be a close relation to the word stake. Non-American Spanish Speakers What does a native Spanish speaker not from the United States assume as the meaning for the term Llano Estacado? A native Spanish speaker would approach the term in the same way an English speaker would understand staked plain. As in English, it is not a common term, but it does evoke a certain meaning when you give the term some thought. The understanding of the term would likely be different for someone living in suburban Madrid than it would be for someone living on the plains of Argentina.

Is the death penalty effective (argument) Essay

Is the death penalty effective (argument) - Essay Example Different studies conducted in different states have concluded differently about the deterrent effects of death penalty, which makes it difficult to deduce the effectiveness of capital punishment (Durlauf, Fu, and Navarro 1). Despite the subjectivity of its effectiveness from statistical observation, and the fact that death penalty is the harshest of all punishments that can be possibly given to the criminals, its usefulness and effectiveness in establishing peace in the society cannot be denied. Spending millions of dollars on death penalty is worth it because it is really effective in reducing crime rate, establishing the right justice system, and inculcating fear of law in the criminals. Capital punishment eradicates the possibility for the same criminal to reengage in crime ever. It is as simple as this; no more criminal means no more crime. Every criminal that is released from prison after completing the assigned duration of imprisonment carries the possibility of reengaging in crime. In fact, many criminals do reengage in crime. After their release, they are exposed to the same environmental, social, and cultural factors that convinced them to commit the crime before. This is the reason why many criminals are returning prisoners. Death penalty provides the most effective solution against crime recurrence. There is no recompense as fair as death penalty for certain crimes. The relatives of a person who has been murdered mostly want nothing less than murder of the murderer. The criminal deserves to be given death penalty because he/she has caused the same to someone else; â€Å"if those murdered are the sort inclined to forgive those who injure them, their murderers can take comfort that on dying they might be forgiven and at one, in the sense of having a morally balanced relationship restored, with their victims† (Aspenson 104). Fair judicial system demands that a criminal is granted punishment commensurate with the weight of the

Business Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Operations - Essay Example At the same time, it will concentrate on giving unique skincare diagnosis, facials, manicures, pedicures and other services, which are customized as compared to it competitors. Market segmentation is considered to the process in which customers are classified in accordance to their needs and objectives. It offers several advantages to an organization(Worthington, Britton & Rees, 2004). Firstly, it allows the company to concentrate on the main market. At the same time, it allows them to offer unique products and services. It assists the organization to emphasize and concentrate on its skills. Dove Spa will concentrate on targeting females of Streetly, between the ages of twenty and sixty. This segment has been selected because women between these ages are conscious about their looks and mostly take care of themselves. They used wide ranging beauty products. Dove Spa will give them skincare diagnosis, facials, manicures, pedicures and other services, which are customized. The competition is fierce in this industry and therefore, it is important that Dove Spa stands out unique as compared to its competitors. Marketing mix is considered to an important concept and it is the fundamental part of the marketing strategy. It concentrates on quality of services and products, which would be offered by the company. It concentrates on four essential components, which include price, product, position and promotion (Worthington, Britton & Rees, 2004). It concentrates on devising a marketing strategy, which would target every segment. The same strategy would be used for Dove Spa in order to advertise and promote it in effective way. It would assist the company to accomplish its aims and objectives. The main challenge for Dove Spa would be to develop an appropriate and strong business strategy in order to saturate itself in the market. Research suggests that the internal environment of the

Outline and evaluate the negotiating skills you have used Essay

Outline and evaluate the negotiating skills you have used - Essay Example Specified means of negotiations can be utilized in numerous situations, be it in legal systems, industrial disputes, government, or domestic relationships. General negotiation skills are learned and applied in an extensive range of activities to resolve any difference that arise in a work place. I was working in the United Credit Bank in Azerbaijan, during my internship, where I used to deal with the reporting process. On several occasions, I used my negotiation skills to be permitted to make some significant changes in my reports. However, it could have been more successful if I could have identified these issues prior to producing the report, so I wouldn’t need to enquire from my manager to give me permission for making the changes in the reports. As much as the idea was not viewed negatively by my manager, I realized that I could have behaved in a more successful way. Some of the negotiating skills I used include the following: Preparation First, I used to prepare myself fo r the negotiations by deciding on when and where I would meet my manager after writing my reports. At this stage, I also used to limit the time I could use when asking her of any issues to prevent any disagreement and unnecessary conversations between the two of us. I always made sure that I have gone through my reports especially those concerning any monetary records to be fully aware of the facts so that it could be easier for me to clarify my position to the manager. In this context, I specifically went through the rules and regulations of the bank and made sure they were on my fingertips to prove that I had not violated any policy. By this, my boss could not spend much time trying to clarify information that she expected I was familiar with (Nadler, 2003). Analyzing the problem As a bank employee at that time, I had to ensure that my internship become successful, hence I took my time to determine what my manager really expected of me. Before I could approach her, I used to analy ze the issues in my reports, especially in record keeping so that both our interests could not disagree. I often detailed by analysis by identifying the interested parties, such as the manager herself, the auditor, and other executives, and spot out the issues they could have criticized. However, sometimes I could not single out the real issues as required. Active listening during discussions Putting in mind that I often did not spot out the actual issues of concern, I could forward my cases exactly the way I saw them. Major skills used here included questioning, clarifying, and listening to my manager. Sometimes I could take notes as she explained to record important points put forward just in case I needed more clearing up. Nevertheless, it came to my notice that I rarely applied this skill efficiently because I tented to concentrate more on noting than listening. This led to hardships at some points as she could end up talking too much than I expected and that I never got an equa l chance to present my case as she always did. Another impact I noted when I seemed to write much and listen less was that I failed to notice her body language, which could have enabled me to know if she was happy with my questions or if she demonstrated something important. She could at times forbid me from writing and use my pen to illustrate her point by rectifying the issues in my reports, and this is when I often concentrated. Control of emotions The United Credit Bank of Azerbaijan is a large bank with many daily activities and

The Criticism Of The Modigliani And Miller Hypothesis Finance Essay

The Criticism Of The Modigliani And Miller Hypothesis Finance Essay Capital structure has a major implication to the ability of firms to meet the various needs of stakeholders. There were various studies carried out on capital structure and major development on new theories for optimal debt to equity ratio. The first milestone on the issue was set by Modigliani and Miller(1958) through which they presented in their seminal work two important propositions that shaped the economic theory behind capital structure and its effect on firm value. The Modigliani and Miller hypothesis is identical with the net operating income approach. At its heart, the theorem is an irrelevance proposition, but the Modigliani-Miller Theorem provides conditions under which a firms financial decisions do not affect its value. They argue that in the absence of taxes, a firms market value and the cost of capital remain invariant to the capital structure changes. In their 1958 articles, they provide analytically and logically consistent behavioural justification in favour of their hypothesis and reject any other capital structure theory as incorrect. The Modigliani-Miller theorem states that, in the absence of taxes, bankruptcy costs, and asymmetric information, and in an efficient market, a companys value is unaffected by how it is financed, regardless of whether the companys capital consists of equities or debt, or a combination of these, or what the dividend policy is. Miller (1991) explains the intuition for the Theorem with a simple analogy. Think of the firm as a gigantic tub of whole milk. The farmer can sell the whole milk as it is. Or he can separate out the cream, and sell it at a considerably higher price than the whole milk would bring. He continues, The Modigliani-Miller proposition says that if there were no costs of separation, (and, of course, no government dairy support program), the cream plus the skim milk would bring the same price as the whole milk. The main content of the argument is that increasing the amount of debt (cream) lowers the value of outstanding equity (skim milk) and selling off safe cash flows to debt-holders leaves the firm with more lower valued equity,thus keeping the total value of the firm unchanged. Furthermore, any gain from using more of what might seem to be cheaper debt is offset by the higher cost of now riskier equity. Assumptions: The Modigliani-Miller theorem can be best explained in terms of their proposition 1 and proposition 2. However their proposition are base on certain assumption and particularly relate to the behaviour of investors, capital market, the actions of the firm and the tax environment. According to I.M Pandey(1999) the assumptions of the Modigliani Miller theorem is based on: Perfect capital markets These are securities (shares and debt instruments)which are traded in the perfect capital market situation and complete information is available to all investors with no cost to be paid. This also means that an investor is free to buy or sell securities, he can borrow without restriction at the same terms as the firm do and he behave rationally. It also implies that the transaction cost(cost of buying and selling securities) do not exist. Homogeneous risk classes Firms can be group into homogeneous risk classes. Firms would be considered to belong to a homogeneous risk class if their expected earnings have identical risk characteristics. It is generally implied under the M-M hypothesis that firms within same industry constitute a homogeneous class. Risk The risk of the investors is defined in terms of the variability of the net operating income(NOI). The risk of investors depends on both the random fluctuations of the expected NOI and the possibility that the actual value of the variable may turn out to be different than their best estimate. No taxes In the original formulation of their hypothesis, M-M assume that no corporate income taxes and personal tax exist. That is, they are both perfect substitute. Full payout Firms distribute all net earnings to the shareholders, which means a 100% payout. Proposition 1: the market value of any firms is independent of its capital structure. M-M(Modigliani and miller) argue that for firms in the same risk class the total market value is independent of the debt-equity mix and is given by capitalizing the expected net operating income by the rate appropriate to that risk class. This is their proposition 1 and can be expressed as follows: Value of firm= Market value of equity + Market value of debt = V= (S + D) = = Where V = the market value of the firm S = the market value of the firms ordinary equity D = the market value of debt = the expected net operating income on the assets of the firm = the capitalization rate appropriate to the risk class of the firm. Also, M-M extended proposition 1 by arguing that there is a linear relationship between cost the cost of equity and the financial leverage. Financial leverage is measured by the Debt to Equity ratio(D/E).The cost of equity capital can be denoted by the following relationship: = + ( ) DE Where denotes cost of equity capital; denotes overall cost of capital and denotes cost of debts of the firm L . Based on the assumption that there is no corporate tax then is equal to the rate of interest on financial leverage employed by the firm. The diagram below shows the cost of capital under the Modigliani and Miller proposition 1.http://htmlimg3.scribdassets.com/2vohdy2ptsw5n23/images/12-7ef603c995.jpg Example: Example 1 Example 2 DE 2/3 1 0.18 1.18 0.10 0.10 23.3% 26% It can be seen that due to an increase in financial leverage the risk premium of equity shareholders have increased from (23-18) = 5% to (26-18) = 8 %. We can also verify for the , which is given below: When debt equity ratio is 2:3 + = 18% The similar result is obtained when DE is 1. + = 18% It can be concluded that the overall cost of capital, which is the weighted average cost of debt and cost of equity, is unaffected even if the degree of financial leverage is increased. As per the M-M model, however , any benefits arising by substituting cheaper leverage for more expensive equity are offset by an increase in both the costs as reflected on the following graph. Arbitrage process: Arbitrage process is base on the principle that Proposition 1 is based on the assumption that 2 firms are identical except for their capital structure which cannot command different market value and have different cost of capital. Modigliani and Miller do not accept the net income approach on the fact that two identical firms except for the degree of leverage, have different market values. Arbitrage process will take place to enable investors to engage in personal leverage to offset the corporate leverage and thus restoring equilibrium in the market. Criticism of the Modigliani and Miller hypothesis: On the basis of the arbitrage process, M-M conclude that the market value of firms are not affected by leverage but due to the existence of imperfections in the capital market, arbitrage may fail to work and may give rise to differences between the market values of levered and unlevered firms. The arbitrage process may fail to bring equilibrium in the capital market for the following reasons: Lending and borrowing rates differences: Based on the assumption that firms and individuals can borrow and lend at the same rate of interest does not hold good in practice. This is so because firms which hold a substantial amount of fixed assets will have a higher credit standing, thus they will be able to borrow at a lower rate of interest than individuals. Non-substitutability of personal and corporate leverages: It is incorrect to say that personal leverage and corporate leverage are perfect substitute because of the existence of limited liability a firms hold compare to the unlimited liability of individuals hold. For examples, if a levered firm goes bankrupt, all investors will lose the amount of the purchase price of the shares. But if an investor creates personal leverage, in the event of a unlevered firms insolvency, he would lose not only his principal in the shares but also be liable to return the amount of his personal loan. Transaction costs: Transaction cost interfere with the working of the arbitrage. Due to the cost involved in the buying and selling of securities, it is necessary to invest a larger amount in order to earn the same return. As a result , the levered firm will have a higher market value. Institutional restrictions: Personal leverage are not feasible as a number of investors would not be able to substitute personal leverage for corporate leverage and thus affecting the work of arbitrage process. Corporate taxation and personal taxation: M-M theory is also criticize for the reason that it ignores the corporate taxation and personal taxation. Retained earnings: It also ignores personal aspect of financing through retained earnings. In real world , corporate will not pay out the entire earnings in the form of dividends. Investors willingness: Investors will not show much interest in purchasing low rated issued by highly geared firms.

How the 13 Colonies Were Named :: American History, Informative

How the 13 Colonies Were Named   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first thirteen colonies were either named after people, Indian names or, places in England. The original states/colonies are, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, South Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire and New Jersey.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The three states that are named specifically after Indian names are Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Puritans named Massachusetts, after a local Indian tribe whose name means â€Å"a large hill place.† Rhode Island was named after the Indian name for â€Å"Red Island.† It was officially called â€Å"The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations† in 1790. The third state named after and Indian name is Connecticut, which gets its name from and Algonquin word meaning â€Å"land on the long tidal river†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The eight colonies that are named after people in England are Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York. Georgia was named in honor of England’s King George II. North and South Carolina were both named in honor of King Charles I. (Carolous is Latin for Charles). It is believed that Lord Baltimore who received a charter for what is now the land of Maryland, named the state after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I. Delaware was named by the Delaware Indians (also known as lenni-lenape) after the person Lord de la Warr. The â€Å"Keystone State,† more commonly known as Pennsylvania was named by William Penn in honor of his father. William combined the name Penn and Latin term Sylvania, which means â€Å"woodlands† to come up with â€Å"Penn’s Woodlands.