Times Square, NY

Times Square is the most popular tourist attraction in the world with approximately 330 thousand visitors every day, over a million every New Year’s Eve and fifty million a year. Sometimes called ‘The Crossroads of the World’ and ‘The Center of the Universe’, it begins where 7th Avenue meets Broadway and extends from West 42nd Street to West 47th Street, and is best known for the electric billboards called ‘spectaculars’ that blanket the surrounding buildings. Times Square is known for its lights, its crowds, and… its stores. In general, the stores are known to carry a wider assortment of products in order to accommodate all the traffic, and of course compete with the many other stores in the immediate area. Some of the stores offer more than just shopping alone. Therefore, this is a place that will highlight the many things to do and see in Times Square. 

The First is Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, the world famous wax figure attraction has over 200 wax figures of famous musicians, A-list stars, sports legends, world leaders and more. Second is ‘The Ball’ is a 12 feet diameter sphere and covered with Waterford Crystal triangles. It is capable of creating more than 16 million colors and billions of patterns, and has been the ball since 2007. The third is The advertising billboards that surround Times Square are called ‘spectaculars’ and comprise some of the most expensive outdoor advertising space on the planet. The fourth is the most famous pedestrian plaza transformed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Times Square into a pedestrian plaza in 2009, in order to ease traffic congestion and cut down on pedestrian accidents. The trial was so successful that Times Square became a permanent pedestrian plaza in 2015.

Many first-timers in Times Square tend to stay on Broadway only; PLEASE don’t make this mistake! Saunter up 6th and 7th Avenues for more “pop culture” landmarks, such as the Late Night Theater, Rockefeller Center, and the entrance to Central Park. You don’t have to live in NYC to know where the good deals are. “People watching” is one of the most interesting, ever-changing, and free experiences New York has to offer and the visitors can thank The Times Square Alliance for keeping tourists in the know about specials, discounts, and events going on in Times Square, which are updated daily, so you’ll never miss a beat. Head to the Alliance’s site for specials and discounts on a wide range of events from happy hours, to lunch specials and other awesome activities. Now that you are armed with sample places for enjoying one of the busiest sections of the beautiful “City That Never Sleeps,” get out there and enjoy this famous neighborhood!

Short Story

Katy James Memory

I am a woman who live in the busiest city in the world. My name is Katy James; my red carrot hair, blue eyes and white skin make my friend call me “Ginger”. I work as a nurse in one of the biggest hospital in Manhattan. My noble job making my behavior should full of care and love with each other, but one day I turn into my dark side and make people turn their judgment?

One day in the Harriman State Park…

I went with my friends Tommy. It was getting darker and as we drove deeper in the woods, ambience got still and foggy. There wasn’t any chores of pretty birds or sound of water breaking into a water fall, just purring of the scooter. I stopped somewhere “what’s here?” he asked.

I turned the ignition off and got out and said, “There’s something I want to ask you”

“What is this Katy?” she asked getting out.

“Why did you tell Laura that I talked rubbish about her to you, why did you lie? You used me!”

“Laura? Who is she? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Now you want to pretend like you don’t know her”

“No! I don’t! damn you freak I am getting out of here!” he went fast to his scooter and Laura came running from behind me and hit his head with a rock in her right hand, she hit him real hard. He didn’t scream or fought back, he turned around to look at her and had a paused expression of a dog thrown off rooftop. He fell down as if his batteries had dried out. She twisted to look at me, her eyes were red, there was blood on her face but it wasn’t hers, she was breathing heavy and fast. She horrified my guts.

She ran to attack me, I grabbed her by forearms and kicked her stomach and pushed her away. She fell down, I dodged the rock which she threw being prone and kicked her again but the pretty face which knocked her out.

I tried to wake Tommy’s up, he was bleeding in my hands. I felt his nerve on my fingers and it was still beating. I called cops from his phone and put it back in his bag before trying to cover his head with my handkerchief… just then my head started hurting, I felt like it was going to explode and to contain it I pressed my temples. I heard a deafening shrill and I popped.

I woke up on a hospital bed, there was an old man coughing pretty bad on a bed beside mine, the tube-light on the wall across was too bright in my eyes. That room stunk of faces and blood. I tried to look at things and make out what they were, everything blurred and a white form walked past to the old man and gave him a tablet. I sat up, rubbed my eyes and looked at a watch on the wall, it was 3:03 am, and roughly nine hours had past. The nurse asked me if I wanted anything, I didn’t tell her that I wanted to get out, and then she left. In addition, I realize my job in the hospitals in Manhattan.

There was no one else but us in that ward, I disoriented; I still had my own clothes on. My head didn’t ache, it felt as normal as waking up in middle of a night to get ice-cream from refrigerator. I opened the white door and went outside. The hospital was crowded, I couldn’t make out which hospital I was in but it looked familiar. A lot of hospitals look similar from inside, white walls, same white dress code, posters and TV on walls showing animations about health and life.

I started walking left then people recognized me, as I am a murder. people stares make me sick and I want to run out of hospital, but then I woke up with a loud of noise because of my apartment in Manhattan was near with the railways station. When it is the first morning train passing by, the wall was shook like an earthquake and the sound of honking machinist also makes her heart thrill. It make the railways being her alarm clock. Nevertheless, I never care with that. I always start the morning with a silly smile as I opened the window and take a deep breath. I realized that there was something odd about her at that time, I remember about last night it just a dream. Then, I calm myself by making my favorite cup of Italian coffee and get ready to go to work.

Hoe to Write a 'Literature Review'

The step that you have to do in writing a Literature Review is knowing about "what is your discussion about". here is an example about Hospitality Languages in General use:

1.      Blue G. M., & Harun M. (2003). Hospitality Language as a Professional Skill

a.       Purpose

T  Hospitality Language to communicate between hosts and guests from different linguistic background in Hospitality language.

T  Interviews with hotel staff reveal that some hospitality skills could be developed through in-service training.

b.      Result

T  Argues that particular patterns of language are associated with host-guest interaction.

T  Corresponding to the different stages of the arrival–departure hospitality cycle may be termed ‘hospitality language.

T  The concluding section recommends that communication skills be given more serious attention by human resources managers, researchers and educators in the field of hospitality management.

c.       Theoretical Foundation

T  Kasavana. (1993). the ‘Guest Cycle’ in Hospitality language as a professional skill, p. 424

T  Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

T  Blanton, D. (1981). Tourism training in developing countries: The social and cultural dimension. Annals of Tourism Research, 8, 116–133.

T  Jones, P., & Lockwood, A. (1989). The management of hotel operations: an innovative approach to the study of hotel management. London: Cassell.

2.      Shieh W. (2012). Hotel Employees’ Perception on Their Workplace English Use: An Example From Taiwan

a.       Purpose

T  To Know the HEPA (Hotel English Performance Assessment) framework, a 40-item questionnaire was developed to probe employees’ communicative performance at workplace.

T  As the demand for hospitality personnel trained to deliver high-quality guest service in English continues to grow, such proficiency cannot be promoted without first analyzing carefully what the needs for workplace

b.      Result

T  The results aid an understanding concerning the gaps between hotel English needs and employees’ self-assessed performance.

T  The results aid an understanding concern to contribute to help to draw up the criteria needed to strengthen employees’ language proficiency

T  The results aid an understanding concern to improve quality service in the international hotels. 

c.       Theoretical Foundation

T  Blue, G. M., & Harun, M. (2003). Hospitality language as a professional skill. English for Specific Purpose, 22, 73-91.

T  Harun, M. (1998). English at the hotel counter: A discourse analysis of hospitality language (M.A. dissertation, University of Southampton)

T  Wang, L. L. (2001). Professional competencies required for food and beverage employees working front of the house in international tourist hotels (Doctoral dissertation, National Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan).

T  Douglas, D. (2000). Assessing languages for specific purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3.      Sirikhan S., & Prapphal K. (2011). Assessing Pragmatic Ability of Thai Hotel Management and Tourism Students in the Context of Hotel Front Office Department

a.       Purpose

T  Effective and appropriate communication in the hotel business needs more than linguistic knowledge.

T  Assess students’ pragmatic ability in the context of the hotel Front Office department

T  Study whether the levels of English proficiency have a significant effect on pragmatic ability, and investigate similarities and differences of linguistic forms related to pragmatic ability produced by the students with different levels of English proficiency

T  Study the errors that interfere with the students’ pragmatic knowledge. The subjects were 90 fourth-year Thai university students related to hospitality services

b.      Result

T  The findings revealed that the FOP-Test could distinguish the students’ pragmatic ability into high, average, and low levels;

T  there was a significant effect as a result of the levels of English proficiency on pragmatic ability; and the linguistic features that differentiated the students’ pragmatic abilities, in all groups, were the use of politeness markers and address forms;

T  Students produced pragmatic failures, in both pragma linguistics and sociolinguistics. These errors were perceived as ineffectiveness and inappropriateness in hotel staff and guest communication.

c.       Theoretical Foundation

T  Blue, G.M., & Harun, M (2003). Hospitality Language as a Professional Skill. English for Specific Purposes 22: 73-91.

T  Diethelm Travel’s Thailand Tourism Review. Diethelm Travel’s Tourism RoundTable: Bringing the Experts Together. Available from: http://www.bangkokpost.com/tourismreview2006/21.html [January 11,2008]

T  Ruiz Garrido, M., & Iborra, S. (2006). Why Call It Business English If We Mean English for Tourism? Some Reflections. ESP SIG Newsletter. December: 9-12.