Culture in the Blender

I was walking down a hallway in my university’s analysis center with a Chinese staff scientist, whom I spoke English with. (I don’t even know what ‘electron’, let alone ‘transmission’ or ‘microscope’ are in Chinese.) Another Chinese student came along, and they started speaking Chinese. The second the staff member opened his mouth, it was [...]

This seems to be the time to have deep things to say about celebrating the 4th of July, whether it’s about American hypocracy in some way or other or tear-jerking statements about freedom and liberty. What I have to say is neither.
Conversations with non-Americans have made me think about this country for a while now. [...]

While getting my iTunes library in order and exploring some new music suggested by a friend, I started looking up old Europop on YouTube. Following a trail of “Oh, it’s this song!”, I found Dr. Alban’s Look Who’s Talking. I do not feel that that listening to that song says anything about the race of [...]

Learning a new language is learning new ways to express yourself.
Becoming part of a new language and culture is to make yourself more than you were.
At the heart of true multiculturalism lies multilingualism.

Dear Americans,
The world is watching you. The world always has been watching you. They watched you far before 9/11, and they’re still watching. People watch what your President does, how he negotiates, how he smiles, what he has to say to them. They watch to see what you’re wearing, where you shop, how you talk, [...]