Tag Archives: culture

Preparing students for the digital AND GLOBAL world

Leadership Day is organized by Scott McLeod: Dangerously Irrelevant (blog on Big Think). Summary of this post: Digital, linguistic, and cross-cultural skills are required for jobs in the global economy; what jobs are actually like in global business, and suggestions for schools.  … Continue reading

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Educational Success: Expectations are Key

My experience studying abroad When I studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1981-82, I realized that the French system of education (and likely that of other countries) expected a lot more of students compared to the American system. Here’s what … Continue reading

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Where are you from? Third culture kids

It used to be easier to tell where someone was from. People immigrated and stayed in the new place, or traveled for brief periods and then went home. But more and more often, people live for extended periods in other places, … Continue reading

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From the Icelandic Volcano to a World School

A year ago, we received daily reports about the effects of the horrible earthquake… not the ones in Christchurch or Sendai, but in Port-au-Prince. And then there was the eruption of the volcano in Iceland, which disrupted aviation for a … Continue reading

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Please, say “thank you.”

A teacher named Dave organized a summer exchange program. My mother saw the ad in the paper, and we hosted a 17-year-old French girl for a month during the summer when I was 15. The next year, the exchange program … Continue reading

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The U.S. must come out of its monocultural cocoon

There’s an old joke, commonly known among linguists: What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?—Bilingual. 3 languages?—Trilingual. Only 1 language?—American. School taught me a lot about western civilization and local history, but not much about the rest of … Continue reading

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It’s Groundhog Day: recognizing cultural differences

Today is Groundhog Day. Have you seen the movie “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell? The French title is “Un jour sans fin” — ” A Never-ending Day.” Here in New England, we seem to be living through The … Continue reading

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