Using a Foreign Language
Back in Vietnamese classes again and meeting the age-old problems. The Asian teachers and students...
Read More
Asians Plus Math Does Not Equal Asians and Critical Thinking
Fifth graders across Asia can do math that I didn’t see during my BA. Yet when they need to calculate a 10% discount, they reach for the calculator. I have spent the last month exploring this, and many other mysteries that...
Read MoreShan Migrant Workers in Thailand
Stateless, undocumented, exploited and fearful, they say it’s still better than going back to Burma. Down a dirt road outside of the city, I find myself in a makeshift camp, a small clearing in the jungle, containing a handful...
Read More
Development East and West (Part 1)
Burma ethnics never wanted to be Thai citizens. They never wanted to own land in Thailand. These...
Read MoreDictionary Culture and Anti-Fluency
Doing my translation homework, I looked up the Vietnamese word, “buc,” and found it had three meanings: picture, face, or sultry. That’s not confusing. While face and picture could sort of be related, sultry was definitely...
Read MoreWhat Makes a Polyglot? And What do Polyglots Think? (Part 2)
This is the second article in a series about polyglots on the internet (Part 1 here). I sent email to polyglots I found on YouTube, Facebook, and elsewhere on the internet and interviewed them. This entire article is an...
Read MoreHistory of my language studies in Europe and Asia
Currently, I am living in Saigon, Vietnam, studying Vietnamese 60 hours per week, with the goal of becoming a qualified translator for Vietnamese language. My commitment to Vietnamese comes after years of frustrated language...
Read More
What Makes a Polyglot? And What Do Polyglots Think?
Many people wish to learn a foreign language. Unfortunately, like weight loss, playing the guitar,...
Read MoreKids Acquire Languages, They Don’t Learn Better Than Adults
This is number four in a series on this topic of Children allegedly learning languages faster than adults. If a child were adopted by a Vietnamese family and I were also adopted by a Vietnamese family, and the kid and I both...
Read MoreLinguistic Risk Taking vs. Academic Study
When I was in China, I was admitted into the hospital, suffering from severe stomach issues and dehydration. The doctor asked me what was wrong. I didn’t know how to say diarrhea. So, instead, I said, “Last night, I went to the...
Read More