(Note: as I struggle with learning a foreign language, I wrote this little piece. It’s supposed to be humorous – or is it?) This semester we have learned how to ask for directions to the library, analyzed passages by the greatest of the foreign language’s authors,and parsed details about the proper uses of the subjunctive… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Emerging Markets
México: Adventures of a language learner
My Spanish skills are not bad. I studied for a while before arriving in México, and I continue to work with a grammar workbook, read books in Spanish, watch Spanish-language television shows, and practice in daily life. I walk along the shore of Spanish, taking it in, but occasionally taking a step and finding myself… [Read More]
Mexico: My upcoming trip, women and philanthropy, and other fun stuff
In March, I received word that I would be representing the University of Illinois at Chicago as the Fulbright-García Robles US Studies chair at the Universidad de Guadalajara for the winter semester. Along with escaping a Chicago winter, I will be teaching a course on business and American culture (FIN 435 in the UIC catalogue),… [Read More]
South Africa: Ivory from Paradise
I’m finally at the end of the African book project. It took a lot longer than I thought it would. The last country on the list is also the wealthiest in Africa, the Republic of South Africa. I read Ivory From Paradise, by David Schmahmann. It’s the story of a white family that scatters from… [Read More]
Swaziland: Without the King
Swaziland is the only absolute monarchy left in the world, and that status does not seem to be serving its subjects well. Mswati III has been king since 1986. GDP per capita is $9,800, and Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world. There are allegations that the nation’s wealth, which is also… [Read More]
