Person to Person Diplomacy for Cross-Cultural Appreciation

“Getting to know you” is a lyrical description of the premier event that took place in Chicago this past weekend.  Partners of the Americas (POA), one of the largest volunteer organizations in the Western Hemisphere, hosted the first Midwest Regional Conference on volunteerism that featured the power of citizen diplomacy, the primary force in bringing…

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Advertising in China: The President, Blockberry, and Cultural Appropriation

 My first reaction?  Totally inappropriate.  My second reaction?  If it meant not raising taxes due to new revenue streams, why not?   Although, “why not” might be answered by Conan O’Brien’s experience with international advertising (below). The Wall Street “China Journal admittedly hasn’t verified this with Robert Gibbs, but we’ll go out on a limb and…

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First Steps to Cultural Understanding for US Teens

That’s Grace and Nicole.  Two teenagers enjoying an outing together.  Except that Grace is from Nicaragua, and Nicole is from Wisconsin.  The two met through the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas Youth Ambassadors Program. “The Youth Ambassadors program, begun in 2002, brings outstanding public high school students from across Latin America to the United States…

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The Importance of First Voice in Intercultural Communications

 Photo by Miguel Yuste, El Pais Yesterday I don’t know that I would have even clicked to open the article on NPR about the kidnapping of Honduran President Manuel Zalaya and essentially the coup that is taking place there as we speak. Today, I am desperate to find cell phone numbers for my three friends…

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Help! I can’t pronounce my Hindi name in Hindi!

I still remember an article I read several years ago about an informal ‘competition’ among Korean Culture Schools about who was teaching the ‘right’ traditions.  As immigrant parents strove to teach their US born children about their cultural heritage, there was concern about consistency and capturing the ‘real culture’ of their…culture. Indeed, when I was…

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Cultural Transfer with Holi Inpired Banzai Squirt Gun?

Photo “Holi in Udaipur” by Andifeelfine  I happened to see a commercial for the Banzai Color Stream Battle Blaster between SpongeBob’s (ahem—I mean, MY SON happened to see a commercial for it between SpongeBob’s…) and immediately thought of the Hindu holiday Holi (actually—I thought—wow, that’s a commercialized version of that Indian holiday where they splatter…

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Would you go on a multicultural family ‘play date’?

First off, I have to tell you my husband HATES the word “play date.”  In the olden days (both in the US and Brazil) you just went outside and whoever else was out, that was who you played with.  But in today’s world of single parents, two working parents, carefully orchestrated schedules and a good…

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