Challenges of Customer Service in an Airline Industry

Challenges of Customer Service in an Airline Industry Communication(Phone) Communication problems in the workplace can cost your company productivity and money. Without efficient communication, your company is unable to exchange information essential to daily operations and create a communication network to carry new product data. Understanding examples of workplace communication issues can help you to create policies that will address problems and create an efficient communication network in the office Language Barriers A diverse workplace has several benefits to a business, such as a variety of solutions to company issues and insight into international markets during expansion. But the language barrier that can sometimes occur in a diverse workplace, or any workplace, may become a communication problem. There might be language barriers between people of different ethnic backgrounds, people of different ages and people with different levels of industry experience. Any language barrier is going to slow communication or create misunderstandings that make communication ineffective. Personal Issues Effective communication in a workplace is based on professional correspondence designed to assist in the daily operation of the company or the continued growth of the organization. When employees allow personal issues to affect company communication, a communication problem develops that could take a long time to track down and resolve. People who refuse to communicate based on a personal disagreement are damaging the companys ability to do business and slowing the growth of the organization. Lack of Feedback One-way communication can become an ineffective way to exchange information throughout the company. Employees and managerial staff should provide feedback at all times to improve the quality of information disseminated and the manner in which the information is delivered. For example, if a department tends to send out information in a format confusing to other people in the company, then that department needs to be informed of its communication problems immediately or else the information coming from that group will always pose a communication challenge. o New Hires When new employees are brought into the organization, they need to receive a comprehensive introduction into the proper ways to communicate throughout the organization. Companies that do not include communication training in their new-hire orientation programs will be forced to struggle with new hires that are forced to learn proper communication procedures by a process of hit and miss. Also some other examples for communication challenges: Accent Tone Understanding Clear Dialog Ticketing Parking Long Lines Long custom lines, parking problems. Passengers are not happy to stay in a long line buy their tickets they want to tack there tickets as soon as possible. Also the lack of parking spaces. Customer Needs Ability to give what exactly customer need. Airport Checking Extra Baggage Extra Cost Overweight baggage, Liquids include, Cabin baggage restrictions, Locked suitcases are some examples regarding extra baggages. Anyhow if passenger want to take the baggage’s passenger will have pay extra money to take those extra baggages. Group check Sometimes large families come to the airport at the last moment and hard to check because they are in a rush to get on-board and the other massive challenge was sitting them all together. Departure gate Locating all passengers On-board Travels the aircraft from A to B safely No choice of meal Preferred seats Looking after special peoples such as elders, walk aid, etc. After landing The baggages are not arrived How you would handle a PRM onboard. Definition and responsibility It is the responsibility of the airport to assist disabled passengers and passengers with reduced mobility. If you have reduced mobility, the airport will provide you with assistance within the terminal buildings, car parks and other public areas. If needed, airport will also assist you with check-in, security check, and border control, moving around the gate area and boarding the aircraft. A person with reduced mobility (PRM) is defined as any person whose mobility is permanently or temporarily reduced due to physical incapacity (sensory or locomotory), intellectual deficiency, age, impaired vision or hearing, or other cause of disability that means they require assistance at the airport when travelling. Assistance services are free of charge for PRM passengers. Arriving at the airport If you require, an assistant will come and meet you when you arrive at Airport. Alternatively, you can also go directly to the check-in desk. If you need assistance, report to one of the pick-up points marked with the international disabled access symbol at least two hours before flight departure. At the airport There is a dedicated check-in desk at the Airport for passengers needing assistance. The desk is labeled â€Å"Special Passengers† and is marked with the corresponding international symbols. If passenger wishes, staff will assist you all the way from the check-in desk onto the aircraft. If passenger requires special assistance, passenger will be allowed to board the aircraft before the other passengers, so that the staff can ask about the needs for in-flight assistance and more easily assist the passenger onto the plane. During the flight Passengers with reduced mobility will primarily be seated by the window. Airlines do not supply assistive devices, such as elevating seat cushions, so you must be able to sit in a regular aircraft seat. If passenger requires help in taking medication, eating, visiting the toilet, getting up or communicating, you must be accompanied by a personal assistant. After the flight When passenger arrives to the destination, passenger will be met by a member of staff, who will provide all the assistance need to continue your journey. If passenger needs help to disembark from the aircraft, this will happen after the other passengers have left, so that we have more space and time to assist the passenger. After disembarking, passenger will be assisted all the way to your next mode of transportation (a connecting flight, car, taxi or bus). How a passenger can request for WCHR from his selected airline. Ticketing, Online booking, Check in When you going to buy the ticket you can request WCHR If the passenger going to buy the ticket online the passenger can still request a WCHR online And check in desk at the airport Definition of WCHR Are passengers who can negotiate steps and move about in the aircraft cabin but who need a wheelchair or other assistance to move between the aircraft and the terminal building or within the terminal itself and between arrival and departure zones in the terminal. References Journals Eugene W. Anderson. Customer Satisfaction and Word of Mouth.Customer Satisfaction and Word of Mouth11.3 (2013): 1-10. Print. Dr Stephen Goodwin. The Journal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior will beholding its biennial conference .The Journal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior will beholding its biennial conference15.6 (2014): 5-8. Print. David Lewis. Customer Satisfaction.Make Hidden Persuaders Work for You: Aroma, Music, Color, Font Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24995/make-hidden-persuaders-work-for-you-aroma-music-color-font#ixzz31svhR6q21.1 (2014): 1. Print. Web sites Marisa Currie-Rose. Website Satisfaction By Google Consumer Surveysanalytics.blogspot.n.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. No name. Customer Satisfactionhttps://www.surveyshare.com/templates/.n.p., n.d. Web. 2014 Nov 14. http://www.customerthermometer.com/

AIDS :: AIDS Essays

AIDS is the final, life-threatening stage of the infection with human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiecy syndrome. The name refers to the fact that HIV severely damages the patient’s disease-fighting immune system. Cases of AIDS were first identified in 1981 in the United States, but scientists have traced cases to as early as 1959. Millions of AIDS cases have been diagnosed worldwide. HIV can be present in the body for 2 to 12 years without producing any outward signs of illness, yet there are definite symptoms. Infection with HIV appears to be lifelong in all that become infected. People infected with HIV eventually develop symptoms that also may be caused by other, less serious conditions. However, with HIV, these symptoms are prolonged and much more severe. They include enlarged lymph glands, tiredness, fever, loss of appetite and weight, diarrhea, yeast infections, and night sweats. HIV is commonly connected with a "wasting syndrome," which results in substantial weight loss, a general decline in health, and, in some cases, death. The virus also infects the nervous system. There, HIV may cause dementia, which is a condition characterized by sensory, thinking, and/or memory disorders. HIV infection of the brain may cause movement or coordination problems. HIV’s disruption of the immune system makes infected people susceptible to illnesses that are not normally serious. These diseases are called opportunistic illnesses because they take advantage of the damaged immune system. With the onset of several of these illnesses, an infected person is considered to have AIDS Researchers have identified three ways in which HIV is transmitted: sexual intercourse, direct contact with infected blood, and transmission from and infected mother to her fetus. The most common way of becoming infected in through sexual contact. In the United States, sexual transmission has occurred mainly among homosexual and bisexual men, but it is becoming more frequent among heterosexual men and women. HIV is transmitted through all forms of sexual intercourse, including genital, anal, and oral sex. Treatments have been developed, but cures for HIV and AIDS have not yet been found.

Plessy vs. Ferguson :: essays research papers

Plessy vs.Ferguson   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson started when a 30-year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was put in jail for sitting in the white car of the East Louisiana Railroad on June 7, 1892. Even though Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, he was considered black by Louisiana law. Plessy didn’t like this idea, and so he went to court and argued in the case of Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Lousiana that the Separate Car Act, which forced segregation of train cars, violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment was made in order to abolish slavery, while the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law. The name of â€Å"Ferguson† was given to the case because the judge at the trial was named John Howard Ferguson.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Judge Ferguson had previously declared that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states, but he ruled that within the state, the state government could choose to regulate the railroad companies that operate within their respective state. The ruling was that the judge found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car. Plessy proceeded to appeal to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which also found him guilty. In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Plessy’s case and found him guilty once again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My view on this particular case sides with Plessy rather than Ferguson. I believe in total equality and the idea of no difference between fellow human beings. There should be no distinction made between that which is for the white man, and that which is for the black man.

Investigate how the Concentration of a Sucrose Solution affects the Rat

Investigate how the Concentration of a Sucrose Solution affects the Rate of Osmosis Introduction: Diffusion is the movement of particles from a high concentration to a low concentration until they are spread out evenly. An example of diffusion is when an aerosol is sprayed. The particles spread out from the high concentration at the nozzle into the rest of the room and that is how the smell moves. Osmosis is the passage of water molecules from a weaker solution to a stronger solution through a partially permeable membrane. Osmosis is a type of diffusion involving water - the water molecules move from a weak solution (with a high concentration of water) into a strong solution (with a low concentration of water). The cell membrane in a plant cell is partially permeable - it has small holes that can let in small molecules but not large ones. This allows water through and therefore allows osmosis. When the cell has all the water it can take inside of it the osmosis process stops. The water pushes up against the cell wall which is strong enough to stop it bursting. The cell is turgid and the plant needs turgid cells to give it rigidity and allow it to stand upright. If the cell has not enough water in it, it is flaccid and doesn't support the plant which goes limp. In order to prepare for my experiment I did a preliminary experiment to get an idea of how I would do my real experiment and what apparatus and solutions I would need. I weighed 11 potato chips and put them into separate boiling tubes. I filled each boiling tube with a different concentration of a sucrose solution from 0 molars (water) through to 1.0 molar with 0.1M intervals in between. After 30 minutes I removed the potato chips and measured their mass. I found that the chips in the concentrations of 0M to 0.2M had increased in mass and the rest had decreased in mass. For my experiment I have chosen to use five concentrations of sucrose solution - 0.0M, 0.1M, 0.2M, 0.3M and 0.4M. I have chosen these concentrations for two reasons. Firstly they cover the point at which the increase in mass changes to a decrease and therefore I can hopefully find the equilibrium where the mass stays the same, and secondly they are all at equal intervals so it will be easy and accurate to draw a graph for my results. Prediction: I predict that out of the five potato chips used in the experiment at least two will... ...tato chip in the solution for different time periods. I could then compare the gradients of the lines of best fit for the 5 different times, and also draw graphs for each molarity across the 5 time periods. I could also do an experiment using the same concentrations as I did in this experiment, but measuring the mass of the potato chips after every 3 or 4 hours until the mass stays the same, and see how long potato chips in different solutions took to reach a final mass and to see how large it's mass would get. Finally I would like to do the same experiment as I did here, but try it out on different types of plants and compare the rates of osmosis of the different plants. This would give an idea of which plants were more efficient at taking up water and I could see what types of plants had the fastest rate of osmosis, and whether there was a link between the rate of osmosis in a plant and the habitat it exists in. For example I might find that plants that live in hot, dry conditions have a faster rate of osmosis than plants which live in cold, wet environments. These experiments would help give a better idea of how the rate of osmosis is affected by the concentration of a solution.

Types of Sensors

Types of Sensors Sensor technology is a growing form of technology that has caught everyone’s attention in the recent times engineers have been continuously working on new forms of sensors for incorporating different features into a technology. A sensor is nothing but a special converter that helps in measuring the physical quantity of an object and then converts the same into a special signal to be sent to the technological devices. Sensors facilitate the sending and receiving of these special signals for carrying out different activities.If you look at some of the major technologies these days including the mobile phones or the laptops, you would find out that they all are making use of some form of sensor in order to do their job. We would here discuss some of the major types of sensors usually used. There are special sensors that are devised and used especially for acoustic, sound and vibration purposes. There are numerous devices like the hydrophone and microphone which a ct as sensors and are mainly used for the purpose of transmitting sound and vibrations from one object to another.These sensors are usually employed in devices that need to transmit and transfer sound and other vibrations. Sensors are not only used for sound or vibrations but they are also commonly used for different automotive and transportation devices and mechanisms. Some of the commonly used automotive sensors include defect detector, mass flow sensor, oxygen sensor, parking sensor and speed sensor. The names of these sensors clearly define their purposes and applications.The chemical industry is also full of innumerable sensors, which are used for different applications. There are special carbon dioxide sensors that help in detecting the presence of carbon dioxide in a given space. Other than that, holographic sensor, infrared point sensor, olfactometer, oxygen sensor and smoke detectors are some of the common types of sensors that are used for industrial and other technologica l applications making use of different chemicals.Electric current and magnetic sensors are also commonly used at different places and for different purposes. There are special sensors installed for detecting radio directions and even voltage fluctuations and changes at times. Engineers are trying to monitor the environmental changes and developments all over the world right now. And hence the environment and weather sensors have also become so popular and common. Not only can the environmental sensors detect rain, snow or soil oisture they can even be used for making people aware and precautious of the forthcoming events. In addition to these sensors, there are several other types of sensors like velocity, navigation instruments and optical light and pressure sensors. These sensors make technologies much more beneficial and more useful for the people in all ways, giving them better use of the devices. Reference link: http://classof1. com/homework-help/engineering-homework-help

Law and Order in Civil Society

The laws that govern us in the UK are often used to describe the freedoms that we enjoy. There are no political prisoners (although follows of Julian Assange may disagree), freedom of speech is widely practiced and people can go about their business without fear of persecution. It has not always been this way in the UK, but a succession of investigations, inquiries and laws bought in since the 1980's had bought Britain to this place. Robert Leach describes Law Making as â€Å"ostensibly the most important function of parliament†. (Leach, 2006, P233). Lets start by looking at the law as a whole. The law is essentially to protect its citizens. Law's passed down by the central powers, investigated and enforced by the police and the Judiciary will determine the level of punishment if necessary. Laws don't just ensure that people can't commit murders, robbery or vandalism but will also cover how your employer may treat you and the obligations they have to support you as an employee. Laws will also affect how one companies do business with another and how you drive your car. Law affects us as an individual on a daily basis, not just when we have done something wrong. There are many different variations of law's. International law will affect how nations interact with each other. National law is the law of the land, and can vary widely between states. In the United Kingdom corporal and capital punishment has been removed, but corporal punishment can still be found in some states such as Iran and capital punishment can be found in more developed nations such as the USA and India. In the UK THE National legal system is broken into three; that of England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. National laws will fall into one of two categories again; public & private. (Martin, 2007, p1) Public law will involve the government or the state, and there are three main types of public law; Constitutional Law – covering electoral or democratic issues and disputes; Administrative Law – looking at how the state is allowed to operate; Criminal Law – the application, enforcement and punishment of the individuals who break clearly stated law. (ibid, p2) Private law sees no state involvement, as the disputes are ones of a private matter. This could be an individual who felt that the new television he or she bought was not up to the standard advertised (contract law), a brother and sister trying to settle their late father's will (family law) or a PLC's obligations to their shareholder (company law). There are many more forms of private law and many laws laid down to regulate the state in which we live. (ibid, p3) As we can see, the laws in this country cover many different areas and many different groups. The laws are there to protect the people. Without laws, there would be anarchy. In the early 19th Century an man called John Austin defined law as being a command issued from a superior (the State), to an inferior (the individual) and enforced by sanctions. Some would consider this an inaccurate description as the law (and the State) can be challenged in the 21st Century. (ibid, p9) The Police are the front line force of law enforcement. They are responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and deciding whether to charge a suspect. They play a wide and important role in the overall application of the law. The Police hove powers over suspected criminals that can be used to assist the conviction of the guilty. However, the police have been criticised for abusing their powers, occasionally leading to serious miscarriages of justice as the well know cases of the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6 demonstrated, and it was incidents such as these that led to the introduction of PACE. (Elliott, 2010, p384). The Police and Criminal Evidence act 1984 (PACE) was introduced to modernise the power of policed in the UK as a result of an inquiry led by the Royal Commission on Common Procedure (RCCP). PACE provides the code of practice that police forces have to abide by. Failure to comply with PACE can lead to misconduct charges against a police officer. As PACE is a code of practice rather then an Act of Parliament it can be easily amended if necessary. (Malcolm, 2007, p154) The codes cover several areas; Code A deals stop and search powers, Code B gives powers to search premises and seize property, Code C deals with detention treatment and suspect questioning, Code D relates to identification procedures, Code E deals with tape-recording suspect interviews, Code F guides on visual recording with sound interviews, Code G on arrest powers and Code H terrorism suspects under the Terrorism Act (2000). (Martin, 2007, p149). PACE affects every police officer in the country, but police forces in the UK are traditionally run as local police forces. The theory behind having a more decentralised approach was to create links to the community being policed and reduce the risk of Police oppression. A more centralised approach was taken with the Police Magistrates' Courts Act (1994) which allowed the Home Secretary to set objectives for all UK police authorities. The power increased further with the Police Reform Act (2002) and the Home Secretary will now produce an annual National Policing Plan which will set strategic policing policies for Police Forces in England and Wales. (Elliott, 2010, p382) The Bichard inquiry into the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 was heavily critical of the Humberside police (ibid, p382). Published in June 2004 the inquiry noted that the failings of the Humberside Police were ‘systemic and corporate' (Bichard, 2004, p7). Despite the effects of this report, the Chief Constable of Humberside Police refused to resign. The Home Secretary suspended the Police chief, who challenged the legality of this action. The matter went to court where the Home Secretary's right was upheld. Since the inquiry the Police and Justice Act (2006) has increased the powers of the Home Secretary over the Police. (Elliott, 2010, p382) It is not just the Home Secretary that has powers over the police, but ordinary citizens as well. Should they wish to make a complaint to a police authority then this must be recorded by that police authority. The police must ‘obtain and/or preserve evidence' which is relevant to the complaint. Minor complaints can be dealt with by an acknowledgement of the error and a formal apology. If the complaint is upheld for a serious matter then senior figures form the police force will investigate and take any appropriate disciplinary action. If the complaint relates to a senior officer, the matter will be investigated by a separate police force. (Martin, 2007, p165) The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) exists to supervise the complaints procedure against police officers and staff and will set out and enforce the standards which must be followed. The IPCC also has powers to investigate any serious issues they may discover or that are bought to it's attention (Martin, 2007, p166). This was the case with John Charles De Menezes when his family made a formal complaint in 2005 (IPCC website – accesses 29/12/2010). The IPCC is designed to protect the people form those whose role is to protect the people. Acts such as PACE exist to give clear guidelines as to what a police officer can and can't do, yet there is an inevitable clash with Civil Rights issues In order investigate criminal suspects and criminal activity effectively the Police will need to have powers to stop and search individuals, to enter a person's house and make arrests if they suspect an individual is guilty of a crime. The power to interview and interrogate suspects and hold them in detention if necessary is a vital part of the investigative process. These are indisputable facts, and the power the police have over the individual is great. So what of civil rights? Anyone who is suspected of a crime should be safe in the knowledge that they will not be tortured, beaten or have a false confessions taken from them. (Davies, 2007, p153). In light of events in recent years police may need to prove that a suspect has not been chosen as a suspect because of their race or ethnicity. The BBC documentary â€Å"the Secret Policeman† first aired in October 2003. Film-maker Mark Daley went undercover in a police training camp to find out if the police was an institutionally racist organisation. Despite the reporter finding that this was not the case, there were several instances of clearly racist and bigoted behaviour which was described by the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality as â€Å"truly shocking†. (BBC Website – accessed 29/12/10) Following the documentary ten police officers involved resigned and twelve more were disciplined and three police trainers were removed following a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) investigation, in agreement with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The Campaign for Racial Equality launched a formal inquiry and made 125 recommendations for change. (BBC Website – accessed 29/12/10) A topical issue of recent times concerns the policing of demonstrations. On 01 April 2009 Ian Tomlinson was assaulted at the G20 demonstrations in London. Although not a participant of the demonstrations, the Mr Tomlinson was in the area at the time of the protest. Later that day he seemingly died of a heart attack. A short while later, The Guardian released footage showing Mr Tomlinson being violently pushed to the ground by a policeman shortly before he died. A second autopsy alleged that Mr Tomlinson had died of internal injuries. (Elliott, 2010, p416). Allegations of Mr Tomlinson being beaten by police prior to the footage of him being forced to the ground by an officer continue, and a full inquiry will begin on 28th March 2011 (www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk – accessed 05/01/11). The debate between police powers and civil rights will continue over the next few years from 2011. The outcome of miscarriages of justice such as the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6 led to the introduction of PACE. The Secret Policeman documentary sprung from the MacPherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence which called the police â€Å"institutionally racist†. The death of Ian Tomlinson, as well as the recent clashes between police and demonstrators over university tuition fee's in November and December 2010 and the Police's use of the ‘Kettling' technique, has called into question the policing of demonstrations. With more demonstrations planned for 2011 as well as the results inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson, police power and accountability will debated again. The simple truth is that police officers need the rational-legal authority to investigate and prevent criminal action. Without it they could not effectively enforce the law. None the less, civil liberties that many people have fought and died must be protected. Malcolm Davies is right when he says that â€Å"legislation on police powers must balance conflicting needs of crime prevention and due process† (Davies, 2007, p153).

Osamu Dazai Essay

Osamu Dazai was one of Japanese novelist and considered one of the most important storytellers of postwar Japan. While known primarily as a novelist, Dazai also earned recognition for his numerous short stories, including â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†), â€Å"Sarugashima† (â€Å"Monkey Island†), and â€Å"Ha† (â€Å"Leaves†), which were published in Bannen, his first collection of short stories. Like most of his longer fiction, Dazai’s short stories are autobiographical and reflect a troubled life marred by alcoholism, drug addiction, and several suicide attempts. Nevertheless, Dazai’s fiction showcases his artistic imagination and unique confessional narrative technique. Dazai was born the youngest of ten children in Kanagi, a small town in northern Japan, to one of the wealthiest families in the region. While Dazai’s later years were turbulent, he grew up a sensitive child in comfortable surroundings. Later in his life , however, his wealthy background led to self-consciousness, contributing to a nagging sense of isolation that is an undercurrent throughout his fiction. Dazai underwent his apprenticeship in writing during the 1920s while attending secondary schools in Aomori and Hirosaki and published many of his early stories in magazines founded and run by aspiring young authors. By the time he attended Hirosaki Higher School, however, Dazai began to live the unconventional lifestyle that brought him much fame. Despite his widely recognized talent, however, alcoholism, drug addiction, affairs with geishas, suicide attempts, and frequent psychological traumas plagued him the rest of his life. In 1930, Dazai enrolled in the Department of French Literature at Tokyo University, but by the end of his first year, he ceased attending classes. Instead, Dazai became involved with left-wing politics, caroused, and renewed his relationship with a geisha he met while attending Hirosaki Higher School. His family disapproved of this relationship, leading to one of Dazai’s suicide attempts. He attempted to take his own life on at least three other occasions and finally succeeded in a double suicide with a young war widow in 1948. This episode, among several instances of double suicide in Dazai’s fiction, is retold in his widely acclaimed novel, No Longer Human. Dazai’s highly autobiographical fiction first garnered popular and critical attention after the publication of his first collection, Bannen (The Final Years). The first and most significant of these stories is â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†). With its highly personal tone, â€Å"Memories† reveals a common narrative technique in Dazai’s writing. Revealing his childhood and adolescent traumas, as well as his need for companionship and love, Dazai’s first-person narrative attracts the reader’s sympathy while raising doubts about the authenticity of the narration beca use of exaggerated rhetoric. â€Å"Gangu† (â€Å"Toys†), another tale in Bannen, illustrates Dazai’s playfulness. In this tale, the narrator — after briefly relating his financial troubles — details his plans to concoct a tale recounting the memories of an infant. While these and other early pieces exemplify the personal tone of much of Dazai’s work, another group of tales shows his talent for imaginative storytelling. Two tales — â€Å"Gyofukuki,† translated as â€Å"Metamorphosis,† and â€Å"Sarugashima,† translated as â€Å"Monkey Island† — provide good examples of this. In place of the Dazai like protagonist present throughout most of his other short fiction; â€Å"Metamorphosis† is about a peasant girl who, on the verge of puberty, takes on the appearance and identity of a fish. â€Å"Monkey Island† presents two humanoid monkeys as its protagonists. In astonishment, one of the monkeys soon realizes they are the objects of attention, rather than the spectators, of the humans walking through the zoo. In his final years, he composed a series of stories that evince his interest in domestic issues, as titles such as â€Å"Villon’s Wife,† â€Å"Father,† and â€Å"Family Happiness†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggest. As critics have remarked, the stories of these collections are among the few works of artistic value produced by a Japanese author under the strict government censorship during World War II. While famous in Japan and avidly read — especially by the younger generation — Dazai has not achieved the international stature of Japanese writers such as Natsume Sseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, and End Shusaku. This is partly due to problems with translating Dazai’s highly personal style. Yet Dazai has earned himself a position in modern Japanese letters more or less comparable to that of an F. Scott Fitzgerald, as opposed to a William Faulkner, in modern American literature. Donald Keene, Dazai’s principal English translator, has described him as a Japanese writer â€Å"who emerged at the end of World War II as the literary voice of his time.† While Dazai’s body of work is sometimes criticized for its narrow scope, many critics maintain that h is fiction contains some of the most beautiful prose in modern Japanese literature. Dazai became celebrated for two short novels, The Setting Sun and No Longer Human, both translated into English. I read both of them back when I was reading all the Japanese fiction I could get my hands on, but did not care for either, and have not read either again. The Setting Sun was published in 1947, and is set in those years shortly after the end of the war. It was a very popular novel, and the title came to represent Japanese of the upper classes who had fallen because of the war and American occupation. But Dazai was already well known for personal characteristics reflected in the major characters as well–nihilism, drunken dissipation, despair (a kind of model for our hippie generation)–so, although the central character is a young woman, Kazuko, the novel is read as strongly autobiographical. This is true for No Longer Human, too, which is perhaps even more autobiographical, and, as Donald Keene describes it, is â€Å"an attack on the habits and traditions of Japanese society, but above all †¦ a record of his alienation from society.† (1063) I was not attracted to the narcissistic qualities in these two novels, or to the fact that Dazai, after having failed in two previous love suicides (in which the women succeeded) succeeded in a love suicide June 13, 1948 (he and the woman drowned in the Tamagawa Reservoir). I just didn’t much like him or his characters–never used those novels in courses I taught. But I did use one of his short stories, Villon’s Wife, several times, because it was in the anthology I most frequently used in the survey course of Japanese Literature, Donald Keene’s Modern Japanese Literature, and I actually came to like that story very much (sort of like Oe’s The Catch, the exception that proves the rule). The husband in the story may be the closest self-portrait of all, and the most despicable, in his drunken dissipation, unfaithfulness, and unforgivable treatment of his wife, but the story is told by the wife, who, in her attempts to accommodate herself to all of this comes through as an attractive and courageous character–and you realize that even Dazai, in his more sober moments perhaps, must have appreciated her virtues. Anyway, that’s the one I recommend–then, if you want to read either, or both, of the novels, you will be reading fiction that was very popular in Japan in the decade after the end of the war, and may, indeed, reflect some of the values in flux in that traumatic time, particularly for young Japanese who would have seen themselves as having lost everything. I will be comparing Akutagawa to Edgar Allan Poe next month for their short lives and some of the qualities of their fiction, and it is easy to compare Dazai to Akutagawa (1892-1927), as well . Akutagawa was more of Tanizaki’s generation, but died in his late 30s, as a suicide, as Dazai did. But, I am happy to say, I am very fond of Akutagawa–a highly disciplined literary artist. (MAIN BODY) â€Å"NO LONGER HUMAN† This book, by Osamu Dazai, is an example of the Japanese genre of shishosetsu, a kind of autobiographical fiction. It’s different from what we think of as autobiography, in that the purpose is not so much to tell a story – there is no real emplotment, beginning, middle, end in the traditional (or Aristotelian) sense, but rather, the text is a sort of rambling exploration of the self. Style is de-prioritized, sincerity and immediacy are tantamount. There is no constrained form, but rather, an attempt to establish a direct link between author and reader, to explain a particular perspective. The book is largely autobiographical, based on events from Dazai’s own life. He was a literary rock star, but a deeply miserable guy, attempting suicide several times before finally succeeding. There’s actually a monument at the spot where he killed himself (along with his mistress), and apparently people gather there on the anniversary of his death every year. In any case, the book itself is interesting. It makes me want to learn Japanese, for starters, because no matter how great the translator, there’s no getting around the fact that the grammatical structure of Japanese is completely different from that of English, most importantly, for this book perhaps, in that it is entirely possible, and even common, to construct a sentence in Japanese with no subject. Apparently the entire book is written in this form, which would be particularly appropriate to the work itself. Though I wonder if the Japanese reader would really think of this as particularly artful, given that it’s apparently a standard thing to them. But I guess that’s a question for psycho-linguists to answer. The book is the related story of a very unhappy guy who is essentially chronicling his downward spiral. Though it’s hard to say if it’s really a downward spiral – though he does pinpoint a moment at which he ceased to be human, itâ €™s not entirely clear that he was ever really human (by his own definition) to begin with. One question is what it means, in his eyes, to be human. There is a clear parallel to Notes from the Underground (Dazai was big into Dostoevsky, and the main character refers to Crime and Punishment), in that both are notes from deeply unhappy men who are convinced of their own uniqueness, but there are definitely differences. Dostoevsky’s character is raging against rationality, and the way in which it dehumanizes people, so in a sense, though he calls himself a mouse, etc, he could be seen as claiming that he is really the only human. Dazai’s character, Yozo, sees himself as inhuman, mainly, it seems, because he lacks certain basic human traits. He claims, for instance, that he has never felt hungry. However, there is also a certain issue of domination at play – he is unable to say no to anyone, to turn down anything. In this sense, one could say that he is entirely determined by the outside world. Despite the fact that he has an inner life, he keeps it hidden from the outside world. In fact, his behavior is entirely, he claims, an act, he â€Å"plays the clown† for the amusement of others, refusing to let his own feelings show. But I’m not certain if this is really the case. For instance, he wants to be an artist, and actually disobeys his father in order to pursue his artistic career, and confesses to the other authority figure in his life, Flatfish, that he wants to make art. So it seems as though the masking process is incomplete in this case, and at times he does behave authentically. I wonder if the same could be said for the Underground Man? I think that it’s slightly different in his case, in that the construction of the Underground Man is such that he can’t behave authentically, because he has no stable self. Yozo, on the other hand, certainly has an inner life, it’s just a rather empty one. He doesn’t seem to have any real will of his own, or rather, the will that he does have is purely towards self-destruction – he can get booze and drugs, and drink himself into a stupor, without any difficulties. But then again, he also seems to have a brief lull of happiness, directly following his marriage. But even there, it’s hard to say if he’s happy. Maybe it’s most accurate to say that he is so constructed as to be incapable of happiness? Hmmm. There’s more thinking to be done here. Unfortunately, I seem to like each Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) book less than the previous one. No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku, 1948) is more epigrammatic that The Setting Sun (Shayo, 1947), but perhaps I am too old for it (as I was once too young to read Proust) to be much moved for the plaint of a creature too delicate for the world. I can’t muster sociological interest in it as social history of the 30s either, since dissipitation is basically timeless (though the preferred means vary). I read the epilogue differently from translator and longtime Columbia professor Donald Keene: as showing the notebook’s writer was successful at mimicking good nature, not that his widow is right and the writer wrong. (â€Å"In the way that most men fail to see their own cruelty, Yozo had not noticed his gentleness and capacity for love†-p. 9; really? a capacity for love? and gentleness? or solipsism mixed with diffidence?) I am not so sure that Keene was right that the Japanese â€Å"are certainly much more like Americans than they are like their ancestors of one hundred years ago. As far as literature is concerned, the break with the Japanese past is almost complete† (p. 7), though this is more credible now than it was six decades ago. Dazai seems very traditionally Japanese to me in many ways, a descendant of Sei Shà ´nagon both in wit and to some degree in aesthetics (Dazai is still plenty delicate and fairly indirect, even about what she would have considered vulgar and even sordid matters, very regretful and very perishable). Would Keene have been moved to translate Dazai, if there was nothing of the Japanese tradition that Keene venerates in Dazai? Let alone, recall translating Dazai â€Å"as if I were writing a book of my own,† an experience he only otherwise had with Kenkà ´Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Essays in Idleness (On Familiar Terms, p. 189). I like Keene’s characterization of Yozo as a man â€Å"who is orphaned from his fellows by their refusal to take him seriously† (p. 8, see p. 139), which in turn is a result of his desperate clowni ng. Of course, this resonates with my experience of people not believing I could possibly be serious when I am, and feeling I’m not like other people, incapable of â€Å"getting by.† And â€Å"unusual or extravagant things tempt me† (p. 23). It is interesting that someone who felt himself different from an early age and for whom â€Å"it would be no exaggeration to say that my only playmates while I was growing up were girls† (48) became a diffident lady-killer rather than a homosexual. Ã…Å'ba cannot forget his abuse by a female servant when he was young. In high school, he played the buffoon. At university, he finds bad influence from Horiki and leads a life of debauchery (nonstop smoking, alcohol abuse, promiscuity), culminating in a double suicide (it cannot seriously be billed a â€Å"love suicide†) in which the married woman drowns and he survives. After being expelled from the university, Ã…Å'ba is â€Å"clan and sober† for a time in a relationship with an innocent young woman, but Horki shows up and leads Ã…Å'ba back into temptation, now adding morphine to alcohol abuse and being incarcerated in a mental asylum, where he is numb rather than violent. As for being zombified by Japan’s defeat, Dazai seems to me to have been as self-destructive and intellectually nihilistic while the Japanese Empire was rising as in the general anomie after Emperor Hirohito renounced divinity and the US occupied the archipelago. (Imamura’s â€Å"Pigs and Battleships† show some of this social breakdown and women who were better at surviving it than the men.) The original publication sold more than six million copies in Japan, more than any Japanese novel other than Kokoro (1914) by SÃ… seki Natsume. A manga version was published in 2009, the centenary of Dasai’s birth, and also filmed. (CONCLUSION) Attending Meiji Gakuin University from the age 15 to 19, Toson gradually became aware of literature under the influence of unconventional traditions of the school. Toson literature is even said to originate during his days at the university. Toson joined Bungakukai, a literary group, and as a romantic poet, published a collection of poems including Wakanashu. Later, Toson turned a novelist and published Hakai (â€Å"The Broken Commandment†) and Haru (â€Å"Spring†), and is thus regarded as a prominent naturalist novelist. His other works include, Ie (â€Å"Family†), considered to have achieved the highest level in Japanese Naturalism literature, Shinsei (â€Å"New life†), a confession of his own incestuous relationship with his niece, Yoakemae (â€Å"Before the Dawn†), a historical novel modeled on the life of his father. Altbough he began his serialization of Tohonomon (â€Å"The Gate of the East†) in 1943, he died of a stroke at his own hom e in Oiso, Kanagawa prefecture on 22nd of August. (BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST) Dazai, Osamu, and Donald Keene. No Longer Human. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981. Print. Lyons, Phyllis I., and Osamu Dazai. The Saga of Dazai Osamu: a Critical Study with Translations. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1985. Print. Hachimaki, Emi. â€Å"ä º ºÃ©â€"“å ¤ ±Ã¦   ¼.† é â€™Ã§ © ºÃ¦â€"‡å º «Ã£â‚¬â‚¬Aozora Bunko. Aozora, 1 Jan. 1999. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . (REFERENCE) http://kirjasto.sci.fi/dazai.htm http://www.jlit.net/authors_works/dazai_osamu.html http://wlc.drake.edu/wordpress/japanese/2010/02/28/osamu-dazai%E3%80%80%E5%A4%AA%E5%AE%B0%E6%B2%BB%EF%BC%89/