Search results for 'tag:Genders tag:Whom' matching tags 'Genders' and 'Whom'

Re: To Whom It May Concern

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:29:50 GMT

I recently wrote a letter of explanation to a board of members who oversee the disbursement of financial aid to university students. Not knowing their names / gender / position / titles, I used the phrase, "To whom it may concern:". I double-checked with the English department before sending my statement and I was told that it was perfectly fine to use this phrase.

Re: Help me please.

julielai — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:13:20 GMT

You need to fix the part in red.

Anonymous
Ok... so basically I need to do a five paragraph essay (Paragraph model?) by analyzing 3 quotes from this a passage I read "No name woman" by Maxie Hong Kingston. I'm just having trouble with a few things... some I understand, and others I don't. I tried fixing some errors that I made.. (ie: spelling, grammar). This is just the a 2nd draft. I would apprcieate some help and tips. Thanks in advance!
This is what I need help with:

-Verb Tense

`Unpacking language of quotes -Introducing all quotes fully

-Run on sentences?

         No Name Woman

            Maxine Hong Kingston begins to learn the story of her aunt who in the story is known as âNo Name Womanâ. Kingstonâs mother begins in the first passage, warning her to not tell anyone what she is about to say, referring to the story of her aunt. She explains that the aunt was Kingstonâs fatherâs sister, who killed herself in the family ~~well~~, but thereâs no mention of her at all, because it is as if she had never been born. The aunt brought shame to the family. She became a disgrace to the village, because the ~~action of~~ adultery committed. As a result of that, she ended up with an unwanted pregnancy. This caused so much commotion with the villagers, who were enraged, and raided the family house. The villagers destroyed and broke their possessions, wanting to get rid of the aunt from their community; because the villagers did not permit the coupleâs breaking tradition. As a child, Kingston did not fully understand this part of her Chinese culture. She starts making up her own stories. As an adult, Kingston looks back at her childhood years, to understand the story and her culture.

            Roughly around the age of 12, Kingston starts receiving warnings, and semi-threats from her mother about any unwanted pregnancies. Kingstonâs mother sets the aunt as an example. The mother says:

"Don't let your father know that I told you. He denies her. Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful;" (325)

The mother warns young Kingston, and talks about the aunt who brought disgrace to the family. Kingston is being guided, not to fall in the wrong path as her aunt did. The mother warns her at this moment, because it is the moment Kingston goes into a new stage of life that she must go through carefully (be specific). The mother wants Kingston to learn the values of her culture, traditions, and the people she represents. She describes that the villagers are watching (watching whom?), because they are a community who stick together as a group. It is part of their culture, having private lives is a dishonor to the culture. (doesn't make sense) The aunt dishonored it, by having a baby without a father. The mother is preventing young Kingston from bring shame to the family again. ~~Kingstonâs mother told stories~~

            Adult Kingston remembers when her mother use to tell her stories to warn her about life, and the realities ~~that existed~~. ~~She would tell stories, to teach Kingston morals.~~ Kingston explains:

âWhenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strength to establish realities. Those in the emigrant generations who could not reassert brute survival died young and far from home. Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fit in solid America.â (325)

Adult Kingston discusses ~~about~~ the emigrants who were struggling with poverty, and moved to America. This was the old generation, who struggled with survival. The emigrants re-assert themselves with the new life; some endure (tense) brute survival. Poverty was an issue in old China. The new generation is growing in America. China was the âinvisible worldâ for ~~most that was part of~~ the new generation. Kingston they never been there, but only hear stories about it. ~~America was solid, because~~ the new generation was adapting to new changes. Kingston wanted to uncover more of this Chinese cultural history.

            As an adult, Kingston starts to question if her aunt is really guilty~~, to commit such an act,~~ ~~which would lead to her own demise~~. Kingston searches for answers, because the stories only seem to confuse her. She did not fully understand the Chinese cultural as a child, because she is part of the new generation. This leads Kingston to form her own perspective of the story that her mother had told. She starts rewriting the story in her own words, and her own point of view. Kingston thinks:

âAdultery is extravagance. Could people who hatch their own chicks and eat the embryos and the heads for delicacies and boil the feet in vinegar for party food, leaving only the gravel, eating even the gizzard lining--could such people engender a prodigal aunt? To be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was a waste enough. My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on the family.â (326)

Adult Kingston does not believe that her aunt gave up everything for adultery. She questions, and thinks how cruel the villagers are towards the aunt. Kingston describes her aunt as a âprodigal auntâ ~~meaning she is yielding profusely~~. She questions, if a human being is capable of bringing a newborn to this world, and then getting rid of it without any remorse. She realizes that ~~in Chinese culture, woman had no right to rule, because they had to obey the rules set by the husband. We~~women in that time ~~of Chinese culture~~ did not have a choice because they had to obey their husbands. Kingston wonders if the man responsible for impregnating her aunt wasnât man enough to try to be responsible. She also believes the man might have been responsible for organizing the raid in the first place. Kingston, somehow wanted to defend her aunt. She tries to analyze the possible reasons behind her aunt's unwanted pregnancy~~, in~~ which dishonored her entire family.

            Kingston as an adult, finally realized her aunt was not fully guilty. The aunt ~~went through injustice, and~~ was the victim of rape. While the entire society rejected her aunt, Kingston honored her aunt instead. The motherâs aim was to warn young Kingston, not to humiliate the family by making the same mistake as her aunt did. The motherâs aim also had another purpose, in which she wanted to show the values of her culture, traditions, and making Kingston a better person in life~~, without any disruptions~~. Kingston as an adult reflects back on what she has learned from her mother, and her unnamed aunt. She has also discovered the world that was once invisible to her.

Re: To Whom It May Concern

Yoong Liat — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:47:47 GMT

Anonymous
This is really very simple:
Use Dear Sir/Madam when you know (or can assume) the position of the person you are writing to but not their name or gender. Use To whom it may concern when you don't even know their position. If you use To whom it may concern end with Yours faithfully.

Endi

Hi Endi

Who taught you what you posted? Which book, etc tells you that?

In BrE, when we write Dear Sir / Madam, we write Yours faithfully above the signature.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:34:01 GMT

Hello, another English teacher here. I have been teaching English in China for about 2 and a half years now and also speak fluent French, decent Spanish and am learning Chinese (not as hard as you may think once you get the hang of those tones, easy grammar). Now I'll start off by saying that English seems to be an incredibly easy language to communicate with (and by this I mean to give the general idea of what you're trying to say). However, if you want to learn English like a native speaker then it's a completely different story. The pronunciation CAN be difficult to learn depending on your native language and also the age you attempt to learn it at. Training your tongue and mouth to move the same way a native speaker does can be difficult to do, especially if you're like many of my students who got their start at an older age or didn't have good teachers. I've also noticed that my younger students are able to mimic my speech much easier than the older ones speaking, both of whom are studying at the same level. I started learning French when I was 4 years old (Quebec French, I'm Canadian) and because of the quality of my teachers and my young age I was able to become quite good with my pronunciation. With my Chinese because I'm learning from scratch from native speakers my pronunciation is also decent (notice I said decent, not great, although when speaking Chinese I'm always understood). Native language has a lot to do with it too as the sounds you use in one language may be very different for another. I've taught in both the north and south of China and find that the people all have the same problems. Chinese people have problems with s (they often pronounce it as a sh sound) and with closing their mouth for the letter m ("sometimes" is a nightmare for them and they often say it like "suntine"). L and R can also be troublesome. One can't forget sentence stress as well as well as linking words together to make it go smoothly.

The vocabulary can also be a pain. Someone here mentioned 150,000 words in the English language but the number is actually much higher. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) contains over 600,000 definitions. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged contains 475,000 main headwords and it is believed the language grows by 25,000 words a year. Don't believe me, check Wikipedia. There's also the difference in spelling and vocabulary between the different forms of English. British English and American English use different words and the words that are the same can be spelled differently. American English and Canadian English essentially share the same vocabulary to a large degree but the spelling of Canadian English in many ways is closer to British English. British English is pretty much the English form most Asian and European countries will learn but American pop culture will also have an influence, not to mention the American economy and it's impact. This can all be very confusing. To the person saying they are tired of using "well" as in "well, then..." there are many substitutes you could use.

The grammar is also a nuisance. It's not the hardest of things but certainly isn't the easiest. Sure French has a gender attached to all of it's nouns (which I hated when learning it), but English still has more exceptions to it's rules that need to me memorized. So many even native speakers have trouble with it. A language like Chinese that may seem hard to speak actually has very simple grammar. For example if you wanted to ask someone where they are you would say "ni zai na li" or simply "ni zai nar" (you where?). To ask a question in Chinese you merely ad "ma" to the end of a statement. "Ta hui shuo zhongwen" is "he/she speaks Chinese whereas "ta hui shuo zhongwen ma" is "does he/she speak Chinese?". Also in Chinese as there are no forms of he or she.

It's impossible to say which language is easy and which is hard when compared to each other because there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration. Let's just say that English has it's easy parts and it's ridiculously difficult parts as well. Speaking at a native speaker level can be done and I know people who have done this, but it takes a lot of hard work, good instruction, and a good learning atmosphere. I hope all that made sense, I stumbled onto this site a 2 in the morning and am quite tired.

Re: Could some one help we correct my motivation letter

whl626 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:49:09 GMT

My name is Sandura Shumba, I am a Zimbabwe national living in Namibia, Africa. I want to apply for a M.sc at Tweenty University in Holland. I currently have a B.sc. I am required to write a Motivation Letter why I want to study there. I have written a draft and am wondering if anyone can help me with any correction or suggestions that you might have.

Thank you

To Whom It May Concern

I am a 22 years old Zimbabwean citizen who intends to apply for a M.sc in Information Technology. I currently have a B.sc with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics. This serves as my formal motivation letter for my application.

I am a Zimbabwe national living in Namibia. I obtained my B.sc degree at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia. I have always had a desire to help those who are less fortunate than I. Because I myself also came from humble beginnings. I got involved in a variety of charity projects during my University career, one of which was Physically Active Youth (P.A.Y) volunteer. As a volunteer, I participated as an after school teacher to the underprivileged children. These children who are in dire need of help here cannot afford tutors and most teachers are helpless since they are already overburdened with students. The subjects I teach, in the main, are Mathematics and Physical science.

The children gave me the motivation for my Final year project. As a requirement in obtaining a degree everyone is supposed to initial a project. I created an educational system that would allow school children to take tests, view examination results and actually study for their examinations all on the system. The system was shortly implemented for testing purposes and later being removed. However in this short space of time the system received positive feedback from the test students. Currently there are not enough resources to implement this system but I hope it will come true one day.

I graduated from a University in November 2006. My main focus was on computer science as this was where my greatest interest lay. Then I decided to put all information I had gathered in University into practice. There came the opportunity for me when I was employed as a junior System Analyst\Developer for Sovereign I.T. This is a small Information Technology firm in Namibia. I was part of the team that was contracted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) of Namibia to build the Namibia National Orphan or Vulnerable Children (OVC) database system. The main objective was to use technology to build a system that will enable OVC to receive assistance in the form of grants from donors in a simple way. In addition, it was also for all the social workers to receive information such as statistics on the OVC. This project began on 8^th of January 2007 and is set to end on 31 August 2007.

The system itself was a web-based database system. I participated in the all areas of the Software Development Lifecycle. This was a very interesting experience for me. It made me realize how unfortunate some people really were. However, I also discovered that with technology as an aid some of the difficulties that people experience can be easily overcome. I would like to be at the forefront of developing and implementing new projects that use technology to help alleviate the problems we face not only in Namibia but Africa as a whole.

I feel technology is the solution for the under-developed to become developed in future. Technology is the aid that will help Africa move into the next century where all our problems will be a distant memory then. I hope to be a pioneer in achieving this goal. At present, I still lack the knowledge in computing and the industry. I would like to be an innovator but this requires a truly in-depth understanding of the subject. My goal is to widen my scope of knowledge with a master's degree in Information Technology.

Could some one help we correct my motivation letter

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:56:03 GMT

My name is Sandura Shumba, I am a Zimbabwean Nationaly but currently reside in Namibia, Africa.

I want to apply for a M.sc at Tweenty University in Holland. Icurrently have a B.sc.

They wold like me to write a Motivation letter for why it is i want to study that. I have written a draft and am wondering

if anyone can help me correct it or any suggestiont that you might have.

Thankyou

To Whom It May Concern

I am a 22 year old Zimbabwean citizen who is applying for an M.sc in Information Technology. I currently have a B.sc with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics. This serves as my formal motivation letter for my application.

I am a Zimbabwean national but I currently reside in Namibia. I obtained my B.sc degree here in Windhoek, Namibia. That is at the University of Namibia.

I have always had a desire to help those less fortunate than I. This stems from the fact that I too came from humble beginnings. As a result during my University career I was involved in a variety of charity projects. One of which was Physically Active Youth (P.A.Y) volunteer. As a volunteer, I participated as an after school teacher to the underprivileged children. These where high school children that needed help as they could not afford tutors and most teachers at their schools where already overburdened with students. I taught mainly science subjects but mostly Mathematics and Physical science.

It was these children that formed as the motivation behind my Final year project. As requirement to obtaining a degree each as an individual where suppose to create a project. I created an educational system that would allow school children to take tests, view examination results and actually study for their examinations all on the system. The system was shortly implemented for testing purposes and later removed. However in this short space of time the system received positive feedback from the test students. Currently there are not enough resources to implement this system but in it remains one of my aspirations to see this system fully implemented

I graduated from University in November 2006. My main focus was computer science as this is where my greatest interest lay. I then decided I wanted to take all the information I had gathered in University in put it into practice. The perfect opportunity for me then arose. I was employed as a junior System Analyst\Developer for Sovereign I.T. This is a small Information Technology firm in Namibia. I was part of the team that was contracted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) of Namibia to build the Namibia National Orphan or Vulnerable Children (OVC) database system. The main objective was to use technology to build a system that will enable OVC to receive assistance in the form of grants from donors in a simply way. In addition, for all the social workers to receive information, such as statistics on the OVC. This project began on 8^th of January 2007 and is set to end on 31 August 2007.

The system itself was a web-based database system. I participated in the all areas of the Software Development Lifecycle. This is a very interesting experience for me. It had made me realize how unfortunate some people really are. However, it has also made me see that with technology as the aid some of the short comings that people experience can be easily overcome. I would like to be at the forefront of developing and implementing new projects that use technology to help alleviate the problems we face here in not only Namibia but Africa as a whole.

I feel technology is the way of the future. Technology can help the under-developed to become developed. Technology is the aid that will help Africa move into the next century where all our problems will be but a distant memory. I hope to be a pioneer in helping to achieve this goal. I believe that currently my knowledge of the computing world and the industry as a whole is still very limited. I would like to be an innovator but this requires a truly in-depth understanding of the subject. My goal thus to now expand my knowledge even further by obtaining a masters degree in Information Technology

Could some one help we correct my motivation letter

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:52:16 GMT

My name is Sandura Shumba, I am a Zimbabwean Nationaly but currently reside in Namibia, Africa.

I want to apply for a M.sc at Tweenty University in Holland. Icurrently have a B.sc.

They wold like me to write a Motivation letter for why it is i want to study that. I have written a draft and am wondering

if anyone can help me correct it or any suggestiont that you might have.

Thankyou

To Whom It May Concern

I am a Zimbabwean national but I currently reside in Namibia. I obtained my B.sc degree here in Windhoek, Namibia. That is at the University of Namibia.

Re: Female is the weaker gender. Discuss.

Stannum — Thu, 24 May 2007 20:36:32 GMT

Epitome wrote:
Thanks for your compliment. =D Personally I don give bias views unless its a fact that cant be denied. Your replies had very much deepen my knowledge. =)

To whom is this response directed?

Stannum

Re: Letter Beginnings

Mister Micawber — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:38:54 GMT

Welcome to English Forums, Steve.

I don't think Dear Sirs is old-fashioned; it is a set phrase and still heavily in use. On the other hand 'to whom it may concern' is not really appropriate for business letters-- it is a formula used in testimonials mostly, and is rather old fashioned.

Still, I see the awkwardness of using the male gender in this day and age. If it is a very formal business letter, I would stick with Dear Sirs, but otherwise something like Dear ABC Production Department might be the better part of valour; personally, that is the way I greet in most e-mail business letters.

Re: I'm proud of you

Grammar Geek — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:05:23 GMT

Hi,

I sort of agree with Clive, but not entirely.

You would say that to someone with whom you have a close relationship. For example, if you have a good friend who you know has been struggling with a difficult decision, and she finally makes up her mind and does something that you know was difficult for her, but the right choice, you can encourage her by saying that. (And the gender doesn't matter.) Likewise, your friend has been having difficulty in a class, but he studies very hard and gets a good mark - I think you can say "Good job Mark! I'm so proud of you."

Perhaps this is an American thing? It's like saying "good job." But you cannot (or should not, anyway) say it to someone that you don't have an intimate friendship with, in which you would be truly happy for his successes for his sake.