[From student views on language] What I found interesting was the depth of their (students’) awareness of where they were ‘at’ culturally in comparison to their parents. Almost all of the students acknowledged that they had a ‘lacking’ of some sort when it came to their first language and culture. However, they all stated that they were ‘someone’ ( Read more... )

Richard Rodriguez in Harpers: In truth, we built the Model-T Ford because we had changed; we wanted to remake the world to accommodate our restlessness. We might now say: Newspapers will be lost because technology will force us to acquire information in new ways. In that case, who will tell us what it means to live as citizens of Seattle or Denver ( Read more... )

Scene: two tourists upon their arrival“Isn’t this great? What a tub? Wonder when they built it-must be before the war ( Read more... )

this is sorta wonderful. i know there are other artists who recreate childhood photos, but in this case, the motion makes the meaning.

Click to view

Have decided the stuff we buy function like concrete tetrapods scattered to prevent erosion at the crumbling shore of our personality. Bulwarks against all the other people you could be if you bought all the other stuff there is to buy. You're not necessarily trying to convince anyone but yourself. Books in particular, because I need reminders ( Read more... )

Back in Seoul for the holidays ( Read more... )

The first Friday I got here I tottered to downtown Honolulu to see a performance of The Statehood Project at Kumu Kahua Theatre. 18 sketches on what the last 50 years of statehood has meant to people in Hawai'i that has prodded me to pondering. "Last star on, first star off." (square roots are better anyway) Ambivalence about statehood isn't that ( Read more... )

The authors delineate three different styles of identity adopted by children of immigrants -“ethnic flight” (abandoning their own ethnic group and mimicking the dominant group), “adversarial identities” (constructing identity in opposition to the mainstream culture and its institutions), and “transcultural [bicultural] identities” (developing ( Read more... )

“He was a cruel man but he led our country to greatness,” said Munkochir at the Chinggis Khaan bar... “If you look at Lincoln, Hitler and Julius Caesar, it’s kind of the same thing.”

Chapter Three. Halloween is important here, even if you aren't a kid.

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