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Screw the Discourse
For roughly the past six months, I’ve been telling everyone I know to listen to the socialist podcast Chapo Trap House. I’ve done this partially to annoy people, but mostly because it’s great, equal parts incisive and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Many of my more moderate friends—and certainly my conservative ones—will be skeptical. Rapidly increasing partisanship has…
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Art Can Only Imitate Life
“Going to Whole Foods, want me to pick you up anything?” This Tinder message— courtesy of Matt, 21—lit up Victoria’s phone, and we both immediately burst out laughing. I was visiting Victoria in her sunny California hometown, and we’d spent the day playing tourist and gorging on acai bowls. Now exhausted and uncomfortably full, we…
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A Cultural Separation
“Merry Christmas!” I proudly exclaimed to a fellow four-year-old at the local public pool on a hot and humid July day. At the time, I couldn’t speak English, but desperately wanted to communicate and feel included. So, I tried to communicate with the only “American” phrase I knew. Although I don’t attempt to communicate through…
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Language—it’s a personal thing
Rather than attend a traditional Chinese school, I opted for Sunday morning dim sum, an informal and delicious way to connect with my heritage. Although dim sum certainly has its merits, few would argue that dumplings have had a transformative cultural effect on their lives. While my grandma would rattle off her order in rapid…
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The Importance of a National Language
According to Ethnologue, a popular online linguistics publication, there are 127 languages spoken in The United Republic of Tanzania, a country comparable in size to the state of Texas. Of these, 125 languages are living, and two are extinct. Of the living languages, 117 are indigenous, and eight are foreign. Fifty-eight are considered to be…
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“Da Kine” Cultural History
“What, you guys no stay go eat yet?” This is a familiar sentiment frequently expressed by my grandmother, perpetually baking in her tiny kitchen in Aiea, Hawaii. “No, we no stay eat. We jus’ pau hana ‘das why,” her neighbor responds. My Caucasian mother—hailing from the distant mainland coast of California—desperately needs a translation. “They…
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Bilingualism Benefits Cognitive Development
The United States provides an interesting paradox: people describe the country both as a traditional “melting pot” of cultures, but also as culturally unaware relative to people from other countries. The sheer size of the country separates it from other areas with significantly different cultures, which makes many of us satisfied simply with interstate travel.…
