Send Factor

Producing silk isn’t as easy as it sounds. We’re going to examine some of what’s involved including a look at what typical mass production is in some of the more productive countries such as Japan, China and Thailand.

Silk production is done in stages. The first stage is hatching the silkworm egg in a controlled environment. This is usually done in an aluminium box. The boxes first have to be examined to make sure they are free of disease. The female silkworm usually lays about 300 to 400 eggs at a time. In an area about the size of a piece of typing paper about 50 moths can lay over 20,000 eggs at one time. Each of these eggs is about the size of a pinhead and virtually undetectable to the human eye. After laying the eggs the female dies almost immediately. The male lives only for a short while after this.

The eggs are then tested for disease. If they are disease free they are then raised in a controlled environment. The eggs are fastened to a flat surface by a substance that is secreted by the female. The larvae hatch out of the eggs in about 10 days and are about a half a centimeter long. After the larvae hatch they are placed under a layer of gauze. Afterwards, they are fed a large amount of cut up mulberry leaves. During this time they are left to shed their skin, which they do about four times during the process. Sometimes they’ll feed the larvae orange juice or lettuce. The larvae that are fed the mulberry leaves are the ones that produce the finest silk. Each larvae can eat over 50,000 times its size in food.

After the larvae has reached its maximum length, which is about 7.5 centimeters, it stops eating. This takes about four to six weeks. After this happens it changes color and attaches itself to some kind of object like a frame, tree branch, twig or shrub. Once attached, they start spinning their silk. This goes on for about three to eight days.

This is where the hard work by the silkworms comes in. Over the next few days, the silkworm produces a thread by making a figure eight motion over 300,000 times, during which time it is actually constructing a cocoon. This is a non stop process. The cocoon is made because this is where the silkworm plans to live during what is called its chrysalis stage. During this stage it sleeps and sheds its skin. During this stage, which lasts about sixteen days, the silkworm begins the next process of turning into a moth. The problem, for the silk manufacturer, is if the pupae remains alive it will secrete a substance that will destroy the cocoon, thus ruining the silk threads. To prevent this from happening the pupae are killed. This is why activists have such a problem with the process.

The truth is, the percentage of silk that is actually saved in this process is very small. Thousands of pupae die. It takes about 80 kg of cocoons to produce just 1 kg of raw silk.

America is the cultural melting pot of the world. More so today than even as defined in history. The future looks as though children will have to speak at least one other language than English in their adult lifetime. The second most widely used language in the world, contrary to beliefs, is Chinese.

In classrooms around America, multi-cultural classes are popping up to incorporate traditional lessons with cultural diverse studies. By doing so, children are learning to appreciate the diversity and traditions of other cultures along with their own. On the pacific coast, in Bellevue, Washington, children have the opportunity to learn Chinese along side of cultural traditions and history. The philosophy being the socio-economical need for those who speak Chinese to be available to meet the demands in tomorrow’s world.

Linguistic diversity is impacting schools everywhere. The need to preserve the Chinese language and traditions while co-existing in American is equally as important to the Chinese as the need to learn Chinese is for Americans. Chinese-Americans wish to hold tight to their heritage and merge with English traditions and ways. By learning Chinese, we allow them to do just that. Communication and unity of needs are met by interchange of language dynamics. When learning a second language, like Chinese, human relationships and connections to their cultures become enhanced and reflective of a common goal.

The bilingual classes in Bellevue encourage learning Chinese at a young age when the child has stronger cognition and learning processes. Many programs like these, develop a multitude of different learning schedules to be able to reach out to as many as they can. By being flexible they are able to offer unique programs, like after school, pre-school, or summer school activities. Also, popular in this area, are “meet ups”, or groups where people meet up to engage in cultural exchange. It could be an American wishing to improve his Chinese or a Chinese-American wishing to keep up on their native language or to teach others about their cultural richness. These ‘meet ups’ provide endless opportunities for gaining vast knowledge and application of the Chinese language and culture.

Learning the Chinese language today or teaching our children to be bilingual for tomorrow may fast become one of the best decisions we could make. In looking ahead at world economy, China and America are creating paths to one unified place in financial and social affairs. It is in our best interests to have complete understanding and a working knowledge of the Chinese language in order to keep focus, improve communications, and wean ourselves off the idea of minority status. The future will address more blending of cultures and the need for sensitivity in a diverse one world economy. Ethnic identity remains important for each groups heritage whether Chinese, Spanish, or even Irish. Holding onto those roots encouraged immensely, but also adding knowledge of other cultures mandatory for success in relationships of the future. By learning Chinese now creates those healthy relationships of tomorrow.

1. Decide if you’re really up for the job. Meaning, you have to know how far you can go to spend time with teaching yourself on how to play. There are several considerations before embarking on a purchasing deal. If you only wanted a piano for display purposes, then might as well buy antique China porcelain. Pianos are instruments and not just a property that will serve its pleasure to the eyes.

2.If you have decided that you wanted to play real music through your piano, then, might as well include in your list a couple of piano lesson leaflets or books. This will help you dearly especially if you wanted to learn by your own.

3. Choose your instructor. There are a lot of options to choose from when guiding your way through piano lessons. First you could learn on your own basing on two things: manuals and through the internet. The good thing about learning on your own is that you own your time when you decide when and where to practice. And, these are cheap resources of knowledge and principles, although you should recognize your mistakes in the occasion that you make one.

The second option that you can go for is to hire or ask someone to spend even an hour of his or her time to teach you. You are lucky if someone in the family already knows how to play the piano because if not, it is very rare to find a person who can be hired to teach on such an affordable price. What’s good about finding someone to help out is that you can learn faster than learning it by yourself.

4. Either of the many variables mentioned, the next step would be tuning your piano. This would be an easy task to conquer because even before buying or delivering the instrument, you could ask someone in the music store to tune it for you.

5. Understand the manual. Don’t just read it, follow it and keep it locked inside your head. The books that you bought would be very effective only if you let yourself be taught by it.

6. Do not skip on every lesson. Every instruction is vital to complete the whole of your knowledge. Think of it, they wouldn’t be included in the instructions if they don’t mean a pinch of importance.

7. Familiarize yourself with the different chords. Unlike with the guitar wherein you can strum or pluck, in piano playing, you just have to press the right keys. It would be helpful if you would know the low pitched and high pitched tunes. Better yet, if you’re not able to remember, label your keys.

8. Warm up at the beginning of every practice to stretch your hands and make them work as a team and not just every man for himself. Playing the piano requires that every single finger attached to your hands must press the appointed keys. It’s more like encoding an article. Make your fingers move through every key.

You can play even though you’re not playing any sense out of it. This will help your fingers be more flexible and reliable. If you have struggled enough, try catching on the easy pieces.

9. Give yourself time to practice at least an hour every day. This would not make your fingers feel stressed out to advance to the next level of learning. Play with ease and relaxation.