An English teacher at Huron High School used one of my columns to stimulate classroom discussion of a Maya Angelou book they were reading — which was so lively it spilled into a second day, and even more impressive, students who normally never talked in class really got into the discussion.
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Written by frances on October 3, 2011
Looking into the eyes of another and engaging in their arts and learning their language are such important ways to get to know another person, another people, and to help us get past the easy labels and fears.
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Written by frances on September 23, 2011
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is this Monday. That means mooncakes! A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese (Zhong Qiu Jie),Vietnamese (Tet Trung Thu) and Korean (Chusok) festival that celebrates the end of the harvest, family and food. It’s sort of like Thanksgiving (without the turkey), Octoberfest(without the beer) and Sukkot (without the tent). It is always celebrated on the largest full moon of the year, the Harvest Moon.
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Written by frances on September 17, 2011
In the hubbub of back to school preparations—registration, green emergency cards, forms, fees, textbooks, pictures, school supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes, scheduling extracurriculars, new lunch and snack ideas, catching up with old friends, etc., I keep ending up in the bentobox or lunchbox section of every store I enter, be it the Chinese grocery store, the Japanese bookstore, Target, Walmart, CVS, or Busch’s grocery store. I confess. I have a fetish for bento boxes. A fondness for tiffins. A weakness for Tupperwares. Don’t get me started on lunchboxes.
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Written by frances on September 10, 2011
I do not do sports. This is not my culture. I am scared to death.
“How are you?” the teacher asks before class. “Terrified,” I answer.
…As we try to comprehend the madness unfolding in Norway…
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Written by frances on August 1, 2011
With this Bollywood flash mob dance performance, Bollyfit creator and CEO Anuja Rajendra wanted to create a sense of connectedness in the community that we do not normally get in the bustle of our daily lives, to have a large group of people moving to the same music, dancing the same dance, touching each others’ lives for one moment.
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Written by frances on July 6, 2011
It is the end of the school year, and everyone is beginning to leave for the summer, especially many international families I know. Summer is the time to go “home” to visit parents and grandparents, time to attend weddings and family reunions, time for kids to hone their language skills while playing with cousins, time for study abroad and “Loveboat” trips for the teenagers and college-aged.
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Written by frances on June 29, 2011
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