Journey from the Center of the Earth, and Back Again [—at A Life Overseas]
When I was born, it was quite the event and a lot of really great people wanted to meet me, or so I’m told. Just a few years later, my kindergarten teacher praised me for being especially polite. And...
View ArticleMy CCW Top 40 “Playlist” [—at A Life Overseas]
I’m not a very sophisticated musicophile. I like what I like without a lot of reasoning, don’t follow specific genres, can’t decipher a lot of lyrics (or don’t remember those I can), and don’t have...
View Article“Quiet” Insights: On Introverts, Pseudo-Extroverts, and Voices in a Crowd...
Did you hear the one about the team of five cross-cultural workers who walk into pre-field training and take the Myers-Briggs personality assessment? Three of them get a code that’s “E” something...
View ArticleCan You Talk the Talk? Swimming in the Alphabet Soup of CCW-ese [—at A Life...
How are your language skills as a cross-cultural worker? No, I’m not talking about the language(s) you’ve learned for living and working in your new home. I’m referring to your fluency in CCW-ese, or...
View ArticleWhat’s Your “Fancy Like . . .”? [—at A Life Overseas]
If I were to say that I was “fancy like Applebee’s” you might make some assumptions about me. For instance, I might be an American, not the richest guy in the world, and someone who listens to country...
View ArticlePhotographers, Can You Do Us Cross-Cultural Bloggers a Favor? [—at A Life...
From a recent edition of the weekly web journal Brigada Today, I found out that there’s a photography conference, “Depth of Field,” coming up, February 7 and 8. It’s designed for pro photographers, but...
View ArticleA Life Overseas: Send Us Your Photos . . . Yes, for Real
This post appears at A Life Overseas. I got several responses to my post last month, “Photographers, Can You Do Us Cross-Cultural Bloggers a Favor?” One of my favorites is “We are debating whether your...
View ArticleBa Da Ba Ba Ba—I’m Learnin’ It: Lessons from McDonald’s Abroad
Not long after we landed in Taipei in 2001, the head of our church’s missions-ministry team asked about our first impressions. Here’s what we sent to him: people-people-people, stinky tofu, cell...
View ArticleFor Those of Us Who Aren’t Fluent in a Second Language, Even in Our Dreams...
I’ve heard it’s the holy grail of fluency: dreaming in your target language—walking around in your dream world, saying whatever you want to say and understanding everything that’s said. Sounds pretty...
View ArticleWaiting and Watching at the Airport [—at A Life Overseas]
If all the world’s a stage, then one of the best seats is at the arrivals gate at an international airport. And if you’re like me, you’ve spent quite a bit of time waiting to pick up travelers,...
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