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A Little Slice of Germany on a Mountainside in South Korea
As I was finishing up writing about China’s penchant for imitating foreign architecture, I thought I’d end with something like “Not to be left behind, South Korea has its own German village.” But when...
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Fake News: You Can Fool Some of the World All of the Time
No matter how you slice it, some people in some countries are just so gullible. Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of North Korea, has had a busy few weeks. Not only did he watch a basketball game in the...
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10 Lessons for Cross-Cultural Conversations from That Mila Kunis Interview
Have you seen the viral video of actress Mila Kunis and BBC Radio 1′s Chris Stark? Kunis was on the interview circuit for Oz the Great and Powerful, in which she plays the witch Theodora, and sat down...
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Preschooler Lessons in Taiwan
Last week’s post on adoption got me rethinking some of my family’s experiences. Here’s a story we put in a newsletter three years ago. One of our sons is Taiwanese and had been in our Taipei home for a...
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Pitt Pal: Facilitating Friendships with International Students
Tucked in the southeast corner of Kansas, in the heart of the United States, is Pittsburg State University. Though it’s far from any international borders, this school with an enrollment of less than...
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Asian-American Stereotypes: “A Whole Different Issue”
60 Minutes devoted a segment of its April 7th show to Jeremy Lin. Lin’s is a great story—born to Taiwanese parents in California, he graduated from Harvard and now plays basketball for the NBA’s...
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A Scholar, a Footballer, and a Tourist Walk into a Foreign Country . . .
Did you hear the one about the Fulbright Scholar in China studying stand-up comedy? The student, Jesse Appell, put together a spoof of Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” called “Laowai Style.” Lao wai is a...
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Wrapping Our Western Minds around Yoga . . . and Bindis and Other Things Hindu
I’ve been collecting links to stories about yoga—its acceptance, and rejection, in Western culture—and have been content to let my list grow. Then, several weeks ago, one of my sons joined a local...
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Why So Few African-American Missionaries and Why Should That Change? Seven...
In the world of Christian missions, statistics play a large role. How many people groups are “unreached”? What percentage of a country’s citizens are believers? How many languages still don’t have a...
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An Ambassador from the Brazilian Rain Forest to New York’s Concrete Jungle
In September of last year, Nilson Tuwe Huni Kui traveled from a village of 600 in the Amazon rain forest to New York City. The 29-year-old Tuwe has a unique way of describing jet lag: “First you arrive...
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Barnga—When Cultures Play by Different Rules
When it comes to cross-cultural simulation games, Barnga is an oldie but a goody. Barnga was created by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan in 1980, while working for USAID in Gbarnga, Liberia. During a...
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An American Wedding, Up Close and Personal
One of my favorite cross-cultural stories comes from a former colleague in campus ministry at a university. He had taken a group of international students to tour the state capitol building, and when...
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At Eight Years Old, New Family, New Country, New . . . Everything
I missed Wo Ai Ni Mommy when it aired on PBS in 2010. Neither did I see it while it was still being streamed on the internet. But there are plenty of pieces online that give insight into this...
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I Like “I Like Giving”
George was born in Romania to an impoverished family who couldn’t care for him. When he was fourteen months old, he weighed only 9 pounds. Fredericksburg.com reports that his medical report already...
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Neighbors Being Neighbors after Joplin Mosque Destroyed by Fire, a Look Back
A year ago, on August 7, a mosque in Joplin, MO, was burned to the ground in an early-morning fire. The cause of the fire has not been determined but was deemed “suspicious,” especially since an...
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Al Jazeera America Launches Today—Are You Watching?
Ask Americans what Al Jazeera is, and my guess is that more than a few will assume that it must be an organization of terrorist fighters. Even among those who know that it’s a news outlet, many...
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Four Ways to Leverage Multi-Cultural Experiences to Raise Successful Kids
In an increasingly globalized world, there are several ways to use multi-cultural experiences to help your children get a leg up as they move toward adulthood and future careers. Here are four of them....
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Language Study: Live (There) and Learn
Man, I really should have studied French harder in college. That’s how I ended my last post. Actually, I did study hard, got good grades in my three French classes, and was only three hours short of...
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8 Maps and Globes That Will Change Your Perspective of the World
Last week, out of the blue, my 7-year-old son said, “Guess what?” (He doesn’t really want me to guess. When I try, I’m always wrong.) “Guess what? The earth doesn’t have an upside down.” Of course,...
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Pico Iyer on Home, Travel, and Stillness (plus, Have You Seen the TED...
Pico Iyer, best-selling author on the topic of crossing cultures, finds the concept of “home” difficult to describe. It’s no wonder. His parents are Indian. He was born in England. At the age of eight...
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