Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Announcing the 2010 World to the Wise Cultural Tour
LONDON June 12-19, 2010
Many Americans have the feeling of coming home when they discover this land that is the mother country to many of our ancestors. Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, some of the most amazing museums in the world, the Tube, the River Thames, cream tea, shortbread, meat pies, homes of some of English literature’s greats, and on and on!
PARIS June 19-26
Often called the Pearl of Europe and the City of Lights, this gem has probably inspired more songs and literature than any other city. Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, the Palace of Versailles, the Latin Quarter with its sidewalk artists, the Arche de Triomphe and Champs Elysées…not to mention the obligatory sidewalk cafés, croissants, pastries, baguettes, cheese. (Oops, got a little side-tracked there.…) One evening will be spent with local Parisian friends over dinner, comparing our impressions of each other’s culture, laughing at ourselves, and learning to appreciate the inherent beauty of every culture.
AMSTERDAM June 26 - July 3
One of the most charming cities in all of Europe, Amsterdam has a character all its own. Journey back to the Golden Age of the Netherlands, when Amsterdam was one of the largest and most powerful commercial cities in the world. Visit the world-famous Rijksmuseum, home of the Dutch Masters, as well as the amazing Van Gogh Museum. Take a boat ride on the city's intricate canal system while admiring the charm of the 17th and 18th century row houses that line the canals. Visit the historic home of Anne Frank, as well as the Ten Boom house in Haarlem, made famous in Corrie ten Boom's moving book, The Hiding Place. Experience the world's largest tulip fields and greenhouses, as well as the home of the famous Delft Blue China. And spend an evening over dinner with local Amsterdammers and learn the meaning of gezelligheid (hint: coziness to the max).
As mentioned above, travelers will have the choice of joining us for one, two, or all three consecutive weeks in three of Europe's greatest cultural capitals.
It's time to start planning (and saving) now! To get on our mailing list to receive updates, just click here and enter your name and e-mail address in the form on the right side of the page.
Join the culturally curious for an unforgettable adventure!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
"DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?"
One great way to develop cultural intelligence is learning a foreign language. This can seem like a daunting task for many, though, and I've just begun a manuscript on how to approach learning a language in such a way that you'll feel the richer for it, not ready to hurl yourself off the Eiffel Tower. I was living in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, where an American associate of mine told me of a time when she had gotten lost on a weekend outing in Germany. This was back in the late 60’s, when far fewer Germans spoke English than do today. She would stop in each village and look for someone who spoke English and could point her back to her intended route. At each stop, she would ask (in a much louder voice than necessary – something many of us tend to do, as if the other person were hard of hearing):
“DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?”
– only to be answered with “Nein, es tut mir Leid.” (No, I’m sorry.) This went on for some time, until finally, in one last desperate attempt, she approached a middle-aged gentleman who she thought surely knew at least enough English to bail her out of her predicament. In an emphatic and over-articulate voice, she pleaded,
“SIR, DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?” -- to which the gentleman replied with matching emphasis and intensity:
“LADY,
THAT’S
THE
ONLY
THING
I
SPEAK!”
He was with the American military and stationed in southwestern Germany, one of the largest American communities outside the United States at the time.
Let’s face it – English speakers do not enjoy a reputation of being particularly multilingual. After all, they don’t need to be – take the Americans, for example: their neighbors to the north speak English, to the east and west is ocean, and to the south – well, there are enough Mexicans in the tourist industry who speak English that it’s not a necessity to speak Spanish. And what of the thousands of Hispanics who now call the US home? Well, they have to learn English if they want to survive, right?
Compare this to the Dutch, for example, in whose country I lived for five and a half years; if they want to be understood anywhere outside their small country (with the exception of Belgium and a handful of Caribbean islands), they have to learn at least one other language. This is most often English, followed by German and French. In fact, many European high school students study more than one foreign language at a time.
There’s no question that one can get by with English in much of the world – which is a fact that doesn’t exactly have a motivating effect upon anglophones to learn a foreign language.
Now let’s be honest – most of us have hidden behind this fact as an excuse not to study a foreign language. Not only that, we have also somehow convinced ourselves that Americans (and while we’re at it, we may as well add Brits, Australians and New Zealanders, all island nations, interestingly enough) are simply not good at learning another language.
This is not necessarily true, nor does it have to be.
In the 21st century, where globalization has reduced the size of the planet we live on, our excuses not to learn another language hold less and less water. The only reason we’re not good at it is the mysterious and formidable power of suggestion; and if we are capable of convincing ourselves that we’re a lost cause, then surely we are capable of the inverse. As a matter of fact, there are lots of us who are living proof. We’re also proof that learning a foreign language not only opens up new microcosms of the brain, but also opens up a whole new macrocosm waiting to be discovered and explored. Learning another language isn’t simply about forming sentences like assembling a machine with a new set of tools; it’s about discovering entire cultures behind the language. The more we resist the idea, the more we deprive ourselves of untold riches.
It’s like suddenly being able to see in vivid color what you once only saw in black and white.
What follows are some tips on how to approach learning a foreign language that will not only make the process make more sense, but also make it a little less painful, and – who knows – you may even find yourself hooked for life, as is the case with yours truly. Some of the tips might seem like no-brainers; but you might be surprised how a simple mental shift can make a world of difference.
(The above content is copyrighted material and may not be used or reprinted without written consent from its author.)
Friday, October 9, 2009
A President Wins the Prize
Many Americans were surprised as they awoke this morning to the news of President Barack Obama's being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Some have asked if the prize is now given for good intentions and not just accomplishments. One thing seems clear: the European image of Obama is still one of hope, while at home he faces criticism from all sides on multiple issues. Monday, September 28, 2009
A House Divided
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
'Playing for Change'

When music producer Mark Johnson came across street singer Roger Ridley's soulful voice in Los Angeles a few years ago, he had a brainstorm: record and film Ridley's raw and powerful rendition of an international hit such as "Stand By Me", then add voices and instruments from around the world to the arrangement. 40 people, to be exact -- from nations ranging from Nepal to South Africa, from France to India -- who have still never met each other. The "Stand By Me" video has gone viral on YouTube and is one of ten songs on the collection called Playing for Change, all produced by Johnson with his extremely mobile recording equipment.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Multilingual Mosaic
Friday, August 21, 2009
Happy Day for Hungary
In 1989 my family and I were living in Lausanne, Switzerland, when the earth beneath Europe began to shake. The fall of the Berlin Wall is what attracted the world's attention; but the necessary shaking had begun three months earlier when Hungary decided to open its border with Austria, allowing hundreds of people to flee communist Eastern Europe.


