...idiosyncratically freckled

Silicon Valley

2012-02-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forget how nerdy the area I live in is. I was on my way to meet a friend for tapas after work and I noticed the two streets I passed on my way to the freeway. The first was "Java" and the second "Innovation". Welcome to the Silicon Valley! It's also interesting having an office right next to Lockheed Martin and armed guards who are trained to notice if I accidently turned right stead of left as I leave my office parking lot and into their heavily secured gates. Then after tapas I was driving back home when I passed Facebook's headquarters and their giant "Facebook Like" symbol. Gotta love living in the San Franscisco Bay Area!

Newcastle Upon Tyne

2012-02-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

I'm now 80% decided that I will accept my unconditional offer to attend Newcastle University located in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The more I think about my different options the more Newcastle makes the most sense. I really wanted to like Bristol, the location is perfect, but in the end it is the program at Newcastle that is winning for me. If all goes as planned I will be studying Cross-Cultural Communications and Education. Now that I am just about sure where I will go to school, Daniele is now in the process of applying at Newcastle for a postgraduate degree in Bioinformatics and Computational Systems Biology. What a mouthful!

I'll know more in the coming days. :)

Next Steps

2012-02-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

This photo has nothing to do with this post, but I just think my niece is the cutest

I've purposefully been not updating my blog, not out of laziness, but because I've been going through a waiting period. I've been working at my latest job to save money for my next steps and I figured daily updates about how the lack of efficiency at my current job is driving me crazy would not make for the most interesting writing, but now as I've been progressing onto my next steps I feel excited.

Right now I am still playing the waiting game. I knew that going into 2012 it would be a year of building myself up for my next steps, it's been frustrating, but I'm seeing progress. Last Friday I finally had a brostrom procedure to fix ongoing issues from an old ankle injury and as I've been healing I've been putting into motion other actions to get me past the waiting.

Newcastle Upon Tyne

This week I filled out my application for the June FSOT. I'm excited about testing this time since I'll go into this exam knowing more about how to prep myself, and I'll be sure to give myself more than two days to study. This I'm hoping will get me a higher score, which should help with my application. The other big news is that I will be starting a one year postgraduate program this fall in the United Kingdom. I finished applications two weeks ago and have already received offers from two of the four schools I applied to in the UK. I applied to one other program in Helsinki, Finland, but the more I read about my different options the more I am sure the UK is a better choice for me. I'm waiting to hear back from the final two schools before I make a firm commitment to one, but I've been so addicted to looking up as much as I can about each program, the research conducted at each school, information about the cities, opportunities I have access to as a student, and how to best take advantage of being a graduate student in the UK as an American.

Bristol

I've applied to cross-cultural, intercultural programs rather than focusing on international relations like I've noticed many FSO hopefuls have done, but to me that feels like an advantage to me, not for, but to. If I've learned anything from this past process it's that the FS should be plan b. I'm excited about what I want to do with my degree. It feels like I'm finally taking the right steps to firmly pull away from my current career and into something I can love. What I'm happiest about this is that I spent enough time in my current profession to reach the top of what I can without letting it completely consume my life. Right now I am working as a Senior Account Manager managing a portfolio of $10MM in advertising dollars, not bad for a a first career. It means I can walk away from it all knowing I went as far and high as I wanted to in my first career without wondering "what if I stayed a little longer, what could I have achieved?"

So what do I have planned with my career? Well I want to focus my research on the international student experience and to come up with solutions to break barriers for integration into the host community. I've had two experiences in my life that have had the most affect on me regarding why I want to work with international students to promote cultural diplomacy. When I was little I used to watch international students from China congregating in my parents' restaurant trying to navigate their way in a foreign country. The sense of community they built with each other stayed with me for the rest of my life. Then when I was the foreigner in a new country living in Shanghai, I watched how a wonderful visionary created community for the expatriates living in Shanghai. Once again I was struck by the feeling of community that was developed from nothing more than conversation. I guess after working in an industry where every day people are coming up with more ideas to get people addicted to the internet and connected to their different devices, I've seen how segmented people can be from each other. I have more plans with what I will do after I graduate, and if I find myself without an offer from the FS, it's funny how all the choices I am making now are bringing me closer to the dream ideas I always wanted but thought reaching them was as possible as touching the moon.

But until then, it is a matter of waiting and being patient. I am glad I waited a year before starting graduate school. It is giving me enough time to save money so that I can afford to live a good life as a student without worrying about finances. Ok, of course I won't have the same earning power I have now, but at least I won't have to pick between staying home or making the most of studying overseas. When I first graduated from university I was told I wouldn't want to go back to school after working for a few years. I was told I wouldn't want to give up my earning power to be a student again. It is true that with this decision I can expect a much lower salary compared to a digital advertising sales account manager, but it doesn't scare me as much as I thought it would. Of course there are moments when I wonder if I will make ends meet after going down this new path, but I feel more well informed about how to survive in the working world and I've also learned from working in the Silicon Valley that it is up to me to create the opportunities and not wait for someone to give me permission to do what I want to do.

Ok, I feel like this post as been a mouthful, but I'm just excited to have finally found direction and take steps to achieve it.

We're Not Curing Cancer

2011-11-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

There have been two statements that have been floating around in my head lately. The first I read while caught without any reading material on my way to Seattle for a business trip. I picked up United's Hemisphere magazine and saw Allen Gingsberg's Howl quote rewritten as "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to get people to click ads." Later, as I was grabbing drinks with coworkers, one of them mentioned a speech given by a senior executive of our company, "we're not curing cancer." She liked to hear that because to her it put the work we were doing in perspective, because often (ok, all the time) we are under a lot of pressure to perform and as a result we get caught up in our work, but to me it was a reminder that the work I am doing, well, isn't curing cancer.

Now, I'm not saying it's my goal in life to cure cancer, but it was a hard reminder that since I was little I had always wanted to do something meaningful with my life. How I ended up so far from what I wanted to do is another story, but this was a reminder of the distance between where I am and where I want to be.

Visas For Love

2011-11-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

After yet another long week of work, including a quick overnight business trip in Seattle, I arrived home, turned on the televison and saw a commercial for this movie.

Talk about hitting home. I've been in a long distance relationship (a short survey of the diners at my client dinner last night concluded that it's become quite the norm), but what makes it especially hard is I'm dating a non-American. In all other respects this is great, I love it, but when it comes to both of us trying to settle down together in either the States or Italy, it becomes a point of strain. We've decided to settle here in the States, and we thought the fact that I live in the Silicon Valley would make finding a job for him as a Software Engineer easy (well, easier), but so far that's not the case. Since the H1-B visa route has been difficult to make happen, instead he's flown here a number of times and I've been to Italy to visit him as well, each time it's a sweet month of being together, but each time we are together we know in the end we'll break each others hearts when it comes time to say goodbye. Sadly, though international relationships are becoming more common, immigration laws haven't caught up.

We've discussed the marriage route, and though our relationship is heading in that direction, the idea of expediting our plans for the sake of a visa cheapens the idea of marriage to both of us. We both hold the idea of marriage sacred. Even while we looked into what is needed for a fiance visa and the whole process of getting to live in the same country, it takes away the romance of getting married.

While we are both tired of always missing each other, for the time being, we'll just have to continue being THAT couple at the airport, the one that holds each other until the last minute and mouthing "I love you" while waiting in the security line. We get the looks every time, mostly people smiling with amusement, love always makes people smile.

Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7

2011-10-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

After playing with my Olympus e-pl2 for a few months, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased the Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 lens. From what I've seen, it is the perfect prime lens for the micro 4/3 camera system. So far from my experience, I have no regrets selling the Canon Rebel XSi for the micro 4/3. When I did have my dslr camera, I never took it out with me, never. The size and weight of that camera defeated the whole purpose of having a camera, to take pictures!

I'm quite satisfied with the photos I've been taking so far (still learning about photography) and now it's time to upgrade my equipment as well. I can't wait until it arrives. Where to go this weekend to test out my new lens? :)

Life Stages

2011-10-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

This past week I was in Portland, OR for a work training. Never mind the fact that I've already thrown myself into the systems at my new office and navigated my way around various departments in the organization, I wasn't about to say no to a trip, even if it's only an hour and a half flight from San Francisco.

The training itself was dull. After already working on my accounts, I was hoping for answers to "why" versus, "how", but the training focused on the latter, which was what I expected. So instead I used my time to focus on more interesting things, including seeing my cousin and her adorable baby girl, Talia. I quickly found no interest in the other people in my training, and for once didn't care about wanting to be included. I knew I didn't have much to contribute to conversations about pregnant beauty queens, celebrities, and servers with Italian accents (I laughed about that later with my boyfriend), and I knew my conversation about trekking, diving, Palestine's bid for statehood, the goal of Occupy Wallstreet, etc were of no interest to them. Luckily, my cousin and her husband were able to satisfy those topics of interest. What I realized later, since it actually became the theme of my trip (for some reason themes naturally become part of my trips), was we were in different life stages.

My cousin and her husband did their best to try and convince me to move to Portland, and the thought has more than lingered on my mind. Had I been 22 just starting to navigate my way and hoping to be out 4-5 nights a week to check out the latest hot spots, Portland would never have appealed to me, but I realized, after doing all that at 22, I now want a lifestyle that is more family and community focused. I have my goals in mind and I'm wondering if a move is a possible next step...

Just a few photos of Portland, and two of little Talia:

Ah Ha!

2011-10-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was reminded Friday why I left advertising in the first place. All romantic ideas of perhaps it'll be different this time went out the window (thankfully!) . I spent this weekend reflecting. On Friday I found out another person I once knew passed away recently. He ran a website in Shanghai that lead me to discover the expat scene there while on vacation, which in turn made me want to move there. Once in Shanghai, his events helped me get used to a new country and make friends who've impacted my life so much. I thought about all the people who have passed away since summer and I realized there is something they all had in common...they were all people who lived great lives.

My grand uncle and aunt were good people. They loved their family and friends, and were always willing to help others, they saw even the smallest things in life as something to celebrate. The former ambassador lived a full life serving our country and became a trusted resource for a number of presidents. When he retired he enjoyed life, traveled and volunteered, anything to be around people and enrich their lives. The entrepreneur, he created a resource that many first timers in Shanghai depended on. His twice a week events were a slice of reassurance and comfort in a place where everything was new and thus more difficult. Many expats in Shanghai have him to thank for finding their footing.

And so I thought. And I thought some more. I know what I want long term (not giving up on that Foreign Service Officer dream), but what else do I want to do? I know I am currently applying to a graduate program that, in itself is very exciting, but I thought about what I would do after the program, and I am a bit stumped.

And then it hit me.

It was so simple, so obvious, but it makes the absolute most sense for me. So now I am really excited. I haven't exactly written off the global affairs program, but now there's more for me to research and discover. Could this almost two year long search for a new career finally be coming to an end?

I think so. :)

Finding Joy In The Un-Cosmopolitan

2011-10-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Last night I went bowling. It has been years since I’ve found myself in a bowling alley and it was actually quite fun. It was Daniele’s idea, I told him to think of somewhere to go once I returned home from work. Part of the fun of dating someone from another culture is he makes culturally normal things to me new and exciting again. Being able to show him different aspects of American, Chinese, and Chinese American culture helps me differentiate between those three identities I grew up with. On the other side, learning about Italian culture and gaining a world view from a European perspective has been enlightening, and discovering much of what I grew up relating with Italian culture is more precisely aligned with Italian American culture.

On the way home I told him I was surprised how much fun bowling was. Yes, we were both terrible, but being away from something for so long and then returning to find it fun again has been a theme with Daniele’s current visit. The other day I was saying how in some ways I want to move somewhere not quite as cosmopolitan as San Francisco. In theory it should be wonderful to be able to have so many options and variety in food as we do in California, in any given day I can have congee for breakfast, have a spicy Mexican hot chocolate on my way into work, have Burmese tea salad and noodles for lunch, and tapas for dinner. With that said, I would love to live somewhere with just good regional food. I’d be quite happy having Ethiopian dishes throughout my day, because it would bring back some of the joy that gets lost when you are surrounded by options. I remember my 24^th birthday in Shanghai. I commented to a friend how I was craving avocados and she mentioned it was scarce to find in Shanghai, but on the night of celebration #3, my friend hosted a dinner party and surprised me with guacamole made from scratch. Right now I can get avocado in just about anything I want, but during that birthday, avocados tasted extra delicious to me.

Updates

2011-10-11T11:11:00.001-07:00

Hi folks. So there have been a lot of changes going on right now. I started a new job, one very similar to what I had been doing before, but this time out of necessity (a means to an end) and a clear path in mind. I am finishing up my application for graduate school and I am really excited about the prospect of going back to school and really cementing a career change. I’m hoping taking these concrete steps will take me out of this funk I’ve been in, and therefore release me from this prolonged writer’s block I’ve been suffering. I have to admit, I really miss writing. Ever since I was a little girl I loved to write, probably a result of my love for reading. I know my skills are a bit rusty from lack of practice, but as I sit and write my personal statement for my application, I feel happy to put fingers to keyboard to type something out that isn’t an email, work related, or a search query. First loves are hard to ignore.

As I start the daily commute to work, I can’t help but take notice of the march of black, white, and gray clad workers as they trudge to their respective offices. It really feels like a daily migration of wild animals instinctively following some agreed upon ideals to follow cycle. It has been a hard transition back into this world. As with the last time I left and returned, I’ve found everything virtually unchanged and easy to navigate. The office environment is pretty much universal among most companies.

I just need to stay focused, finish up my application and wait for good news.

Two Cows

2011-10-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

One of those popular viral emails that float around from time to time. This one made me chuckle here at work.

Socialism	You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Communism	You have two cows. The government takes both of them and gives you part of the milk.
Fascism	You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
Totalitarianism	You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.
Nazism	You have two cows. The government takes both and then shoots you.
Bureaucracy	You have two cows. The government takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain.
Capitalism	You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.
Anarchism	You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

American corporation	You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.
French corporation	You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.
Japanese corporation	You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
German corporation	You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.
British corporation	You have two cows. Both are mad. You try to sell them in Europe.
Italian corporation	You have two cows but you don’t know where they are. You break for lunch.
Russian corporation	You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
Swiss corporation	You have 5000 cows, none of which belongs to you. You charge others for storing them.
Chinese corporation	You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the numbers.
Indian corporation	You have two cows. You worship them until they drop dead.

MIA

2011-10-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, I've been MIA for a few days with a lot going on right now. I'll be back to posting soon.

Why Kosovo But Not Palestine?

2011-09-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

From counterpunch.org

In his September 21 speech to the United Nations, President Obama announced that he would veto U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, because its independence was not a result of a negotiated settlement with Israel. He said that “peace depends upon compromise among people who must live together long after our…votes have been tallied….That’s the lesson of Sudan, where a negotiated settlement led to an independent state. And that is and will be the path to a Palestinian state — negotiations between the parties.”

But President Obama neglected to mention a recent prominent example of unilateral independence, the State of Kosovo, which was recognized by the United States three years ago–even though its statehood did not come about through a negotiated settlement with Serbia. If an independent state of Palestine should only be recognized with Israel’s approval, then why did the U.S. recognize the independence of Kosovo in 2008, over the objections of Serbia? Why recognize Kosovo but not Palestine? click here for the full article.

And for those curious about the 1967 borders the article references, see below:

Life Is Short

2011-09-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today I received two sets of news that reminded me of the fleetingness of life. Juxtaposed with the birth of a niece earlier this month and a wedding to attend this weekend, it feels like an end of an era and a changing of hands from one generation to another. My question is, when I look back, will I be proud of my generation, will I be proud of what we did? Will we be known as the generation that overvalued and glorified the tools we use to run our days, is that the legacy we want to leave behind? Today we have more tools to do amazing things, but less people doing things worth admiring.

I guess I'm just processing the news that two people I admired have passed on. I look at their lives and see what I admired, what others admired about them and I wonder, when it's my turn, will I have lived a life worth remembering or will I have let myself be lead astray focusing on things that do not matter.

Life is short.

All The World Is A Stage

2011-09-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

I memorized this monologue for a Shakespeare competition in high school. It's funny how even 12 years later it can still waft into my head in its completeness.

From As You Like It

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

QEP Results 2011

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

A comprehensive review of your file does not allow us to continue your candidacy to the next step of
the Foreign Service selection process, the Oral Assessment.

What a way to start my week. Can't say I'm not disappointed or too surprised considering a slow down in hiring, and I've always been told I'm much more impressive in person rather than on paper. I'll give myself a moment to feel sorry for myself, then it's back on my feet for another year of adding more stories and working on attributes to make myself more competitive next year.

Palestine

2011-09-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

By the way, why is Palestine's bid to be recognized as a state by the United Nations not bigger news? I've talked to a handful of people and no one has even seen it mentioned on most American media channels. It's a history making change that already has the world divided.

Click here to read more about this. If you're new to the conflict, I would recommend searching for both opposing and supporting views and read a bit about the history before forming an opinion.

Photography Is Magic

2011-09-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

I was browsing on Flickr looking at photos taken with the lens I am hoping to buy (Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7) looking at all the beautiful photos when it hit me, photography is magic and photographers are magicians. Ok, I know that's not a new thought, but it's different when an individual gets struck with an idea rather than reading what others have said, even if it is the same thought that countless others have had before. Take for example, I was doing research on my physics paper in high school when I found myself picking up a book on Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I grew up hearing E=MC^2, but I never actually stopped to think about what it meant. It sounded so profound when I read that it meant engery is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. I know I probably didn't grasp it to even 1/10 of the extent Einstein did, but that "ah ha" moment is something marvelous.

So my hours of Flickr distraction have brought me to that conclusion that photography is magic. It took explaining how a camera works to my boyfriend and seeing photo after photo of the mundane transformed into the extraordinary to come to this conclusion, but it's such a "wow" moment. Alright, I know, this isn't as profound as I probably think it is, but to a girl who has traveled the world and studied a variety of subjects to find something still magical in life, it's amazing.

Music has it's similarities as well, but that's easy to forget with all the crap on the radio.

QEP Results...Almost There

2011-09-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

As this week nears its end and the State Department website has posted September 26th as the first day to sign up for OA's, I'm waiting (patiently?) for next week to receive the long anticipated QEP results. As the end to this step in the process comes closer, I've started to over analyze all my narratives. Perhaps a story about using play on words in Mandarin to diffuse a tense situation with humor instead of my communication's narrative of choice, creating a career counseling group as a test pilot for a potential career path to show my ability to come up with creative solutions to a problem, or maybe a night of conversation with a displaced Frenchman running a hostel in Spain who grew up in Morocco using Spanish (him), English (me) and hand gestures (both) to communicate.

Or perhaps it was wise not to use a story of the British businessman who showed me to an underground casino in Shanghai, and the story of being stripped and scrubbed by a matronly Moroccan woman who directed me in Arabic to stretch out my arm, flip over, push this, etc while at a local hammam during my first trip in Morocco, were a good idea to leave off my submission, after all, some stories, even if they demonstrate one of the 13 Dimensions, are better left for a conversation after hours and after a few drinks with my fellow A-100 class.

But in the end, I know I submitted what I felt demonstrated who I am, whether the anticipated results are positive or negative, I can be proud of who I am and what I wrote. Ok, back to figuring out how to get anything done with my fingers and toes all crossed. ;)

iSpeak Photo Series

2011-09-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

I'm loving photographer Adrian Fisk's iSpeak series on India and China. As I develop my own photography skills and figure out my own style, it's nice to have a reminder that photography that has an impact isn't always about just capturing a once in a lifetime perfect shot.

From Adrian's website about iSpeak India:

For the last few centuries the west has dominated economics, politics and culture, but now it's the east that could determine our future. Two countries dominate this new horizon, China and India.
India has a population of 1.1 billion of which 685 million are 30 years and under. These young Indians will inherit this new found global influence, but who are they and what do they think about life?

And iSpeak China:

It is the young Chinese who will inherit this new found global influence, but who are they and what do they think about life.
I traveled on a 12500 km journey through China to find an answer to this question. I looked for young Chinese aged from 16 - 30 years, gave them a piece of paper and simply told them they could write what ever they wanted to on the piece of paper, I then photographed them holding the paper.
The results were fascinating.

Check out Adrian's website for the images from both series, the ones from illiterate workers in both countries were especially touching.

BBC Languages

2011-09-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

The other day Daniele and I were talking about languages as we let ourselves get distracted from our task at hand. We sometimes go over the Michel Thomas Mandarin lessons together as we've found it useful for me to explain or clarify certain parts of the lessons. Before long I sent him a link to one of my favorite sites for language introduction, the BBC Language page. I was happy to see they've expanded past the usual romance languages and now include many of the world's major languages. We got a kick out of each language's language fact page, zeroing in especially on tongue twisters, longest words, and false language friends (words that sound like something words in English but have a completely different meaning). Another fact we liked to see for each language was the jokes section, it's interesting to take a peak at how each culture looks at humor.

Here are a few facts from the BBC, check out their page for more language lessons, who knows, you may find yourself in love with learning about a language you never considered before.

FRENCH

The French would probably tell you their longest word is
anticonstitutionnellement, a long adverb meaning ‘in a very unconstitutional way’. It contains 25 letters but is hardly ever used!

In a foreign language, you can easily find yourself in embarrassing or funny situations. For example, if you want to thank someone, you could say Merci beaucoup, Thank you very much. Take care with the ou and try not to pronounce it u, otherwise you could be complimenting somebody on their ‘beautiful bottom’!

ITALIAN

If you ask Italians, they would probably tell you that the longest Italian word is precipitevolissimevolmente, extremely quickly, with 26 letters

Arguably this is the most difficult tongue twister in Italian:
Trentatré trentini entrarono a Trento tutti e trentatré trotterellando
Thirty three people from Trento entered the city, all thirty three waddling

If you’d like pepperoni on your pizza, don’t be too surprised if you end up with peppers instead. The Italian word peperoni is the plural of peperone, which is a pepper, so to make sure that you get the spicy sausage that you’re after, ask for salame piccante

CHINESE

This is a great tongue twister for practising the tones, which are marked above the vowels. (I remember this from my childhood!)

吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。
Chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí, bù chī pútao dào tǔ pútao pí.
When you are eating grapes, you don’t spit out the skin, but when you are not eating grapes, you do spit out the skin.

ARABIC

Tongue twister

مشمشنا مش مشمشكم ومشمشكم مش مشمشنا، لما مشمش مشمشكم، ما كان مشمش مشمشنا
[Mishmishna mish mishmishkom w mishmishkom mish mishmishna, lamma mashmash mishmishkom, ma kan mashmash mishmishna.]
Our apricots are not the same as your apricots, and your apricots are not the same as our apricots. When your apricots were ripe, our apricots were not ripe yet

Muzzy

2011-09-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a report about how many of the fast paced programs geared towards children are suspected of doing more harm than good. As opposed to shows with a slower pace and emphasis on repetition that has been showed to increase comprehension. An example of a show that I remember studying (I can't recall if I studied it for a child development class or for my own knowledge years later) is Blue's Clues. Though to an adult viewer, there is nothing more dull than watching such a slow paced show, it has meticulously created using what researchers know about early childhood learning to be more conducive to child development.

With that in mind I thought about what my favorite programs were when I was a young child. I never missed an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood (perhaps this explains my love of cardigan sweaters) and Shining Time Station (ah, now I understand my adoration of trains), especially their juke box band segments.

While showing clips from Youtube to my Italian boyfriend, I was reminded of a commercial I would see constantly growing up. Anyone else remember Muzzy? It was a language learning program for children created by the BBC. While watching the clips on Youtube my boyfriend and I quickly had stuck in our heads the songs for learning French vowels and French numbers. Très amusant! Check out the commercial below...ah what fun to take a trip down memory lane.

Critical Skills: Language

2011-09-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

After posting about the Foreign Services, I ran into another article about critical skills that caught my attention. Here's an article from the Huffington Post regarding talks of removing funding for the Foreign Language Assistance Program. I remember when I was still in school, there was a debate about making Spanish mandatory to learn in California. In the end, the attempt to make our state more globally functional was shot down, with the common refrain of, "It's America and Americans speak English."

After traveling a bit and meeting numerous polyglots around the globe, I saw first hand the distinct advantage to having command of a number of languages. In some cases it was a tool for survive. As one shop owner in Egypt mentioned to me, he taught himself as many different languages as he could muster because it made business easier for him as the variety of tourist in Egypt opened up. Already he had command of his native Egyptian Arabic, English, Russian, Italian, French, and when I spoke to him he was learning Portuguese and asking me to teach him a few things in Mandarin. His ability to speak those languages were not regulated to a few phrases, as he demonstrated to me while switching languages to converse with a Russian couple who wandered into his store, and then to Italian for a group of Italians that were browsing. Of course the argument can be made that working in tourism makes it a necessity to speak multiple languages, but are we that blind as to think it's not a need for our entire nation?

Even when I travel through a session of multiple countries, I've seen how useful it is to even have travel essential command of the necessary language. True, English is widely spoken in metropolitan areas, but that's not always the case for the older generation, nor smaller cities. When I was in Spain, I couldn't find the hostel I was staying at. Even though I was in Malaga, a city used to foreigners, when I asked for help, it wasn't uncommon for me to not be able to find English speakers. Luckily, I always teach myself a few phrases and was able to ask in imperfect Spanish (let's not forget the lispy C's of Spain) how to get to where I was going. There were repeat performances each time I sat down in a non-touristy restaurant and ordered in a language that went beyond pointing. With that said, I was always slightly embarrassed when I would meet other travelers from different countries and the language of choice was English, not because of a preference for it, but to accommodate my lack of advanced language skills in French, Italian, Polish, Arabic, etc... With that said, I'm off to study my business Mandarin vocabulary and trying to get my head around Italian verbs so I can speak with my boyfriend's family. Oh how I wish I took language learning more seriously when I was younger.

Is Diplomacy Broken?

2011-09-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

An interesting article about the Foreign Services from Tufts. It delves into issues faced by State to make the Foreign Services more effective amid changes in the global environment as issues that did not exist in the past come into play today, and changes in expectations of a new generation. Among one of the points this piece makes is with the instability of support for hiring, there are gaps in effective training after the initial A-100 class.

“I am optimistic that the officers hired since 9/11 will perform well,” Harry Kopp, a former Foreign Service officer and author of Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the U.S. Foreign Service, told me. “I am not optimistic that the Department of State will be able to sustain the hiring plan or resume it after an interruption” in funding. The hiring pause in the 1990s, Kopp said, left experienced Foreign Service officers—those employed for more than 10 years—“in short supply,” with the result that officers hired since 2001 “often lack the one-on-one mentoring that has always been an important element” in professional development.

Worse, relatively inexperienced officers are ending up in high-pressure, high-stakes posts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Other positions remain unfilled as senior officers retire. “The failure to get to the 25 percent hiring goal will damage U.S. diplomatic efforts,” Kopp said. “It is hard to quantify the costs of work that will not be not done or populations that will not be reached, but there will be real costs. American diplomacy under such circumstances will be something less than it could be.”

For the full article, click here.

With all the issues faced by State, I still believe in the work Foreign Service Officers do and their ability to be effective. The application process is used to screen applicants who can be flexible and effective given limited resources and encounters with roadblocks as they progressive to achieve their aims. I've worked in a corporation that went through constant restructuring (it is the nature of internet media companies) and I've seen how difficult it can be to get a job done without the support of superiors, but I've also seen how if one is motivated and not easily discouraged, the individuals can figure out what needs to be done with what limited resources they have, and come out ahead with their own workarounds. It's the idea of sink or swim, and I think State hires smart people who know how to swim.

An Argument For The Foreign Services

2011-09-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

DipNotes, the official State Department blog recently reposted an article written by senior Foreign Service officer, Terrence Williamson, about the necessity of the United States Foreign Services. In it, he recalls actions taken by the Foreign Services to assist Americans during the Icelandic volcano, without the Foreign Services, who would have taken care of these Americans?

In 2010, American travelers faced a crisis created by nature when an Icelandic volcano erupted and brought air traffic in Europe to a halt. Flights were shut down for more than a week because the ash would have caused serious damage to airplanes. As a result, nearly 30,000 U.S. citizens were stranded in Europe.

Some were elderly -- including a few World War II veterans -- and some needed medicine

Others ran out of money and risked being kicked out of their hotels. From our embassy in Berlin, I led a task force to coordinate assistance to those who needed medicine or lodging until the crisis passed.

As the Super Committee decides what programs will go through what types of cuts, he makes this argument for the Foreign Services:

...without an adequately funded State Department budget, our embassies and missions could struggle to perform the central and elementary tasks: protecting Americans, implementing programs that eradicate illness, hunger and economic deprivation, and opening new markets to American businesses.

Deep and draconian cuts would be penny wise and a ton foolish.

I read this article shortly before reading a different article. A former GOP staffer, Mike Lofgren, writes about his disillusionment and echos the sentiment of many Americans.

All of these half truths and outright lies have seeped into popular culture via the corporate-owned business press. Just listen to CNBC for a few hours and you will hear most of them in one form or another.

He cites numerous examples of mismanagement and misrepresentation of the American people, further using the debt ceiling crisis of last month to illustrate the detrimental effect of the current state of American "politics" on the perceptions overseas.

During the week that this piece was written, the debt ceiling fiasco reached its conclusion. The economy was already weak, but the GOP's disgraceful game of chicken roiled the markets even further. Foreigners could hardly believe it: Americans' own crazy political actions were destabilizing the safe-haven status of the dollar. Accordingly, during that same week, over one trillion dollars worth of assets evaporated on financial markets. Russia and China have stepped up their advocating that the dollar be replaced as the global reserve currency - a move as consequential and disastrous for US interests as any that can be imagined.

With the juxtaposition of coming across both opinion pieces, it shows to me just how important the Foreign Services really are, especially at a time of uncertainty such as now. Our reputation is being slaughtered. One of the first things I was taught in business is that reputation is key, without a good one, you have no leverage.