English Required - Other Languages Need Not Apply

Since I have a daughter who recently had to pass the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in order to apply to North American universities, I found this TED talk particularly poignant.

Patricia Ryan is a Third Culture Adult who has lived and taught English in the Middle East for over 30 years. Her perspective on English requirements for entry into Anglosphere universities might surprise you.  This is someone who loves language - her own and others.  She is 100% correct that we should be paying as much attention to language loss as we do to language acquisition.    

She is also quite funny.  I always enjoy speakers who can gently get their point across with humour and goodwill.

Flophouse Favorite #6 - Cherry Blossom time in Tokyo

Put aside for a moment the headlines, the videos and all the discussions on the Net about the natural disaster in Japan.  Current events are transitory.  What has us all a'flutter today will be a note in a history book tomorrow.  Today I want to think about the Japan I remember.  Some things, like great cities and their citizens, endure.

Japan is the most amazing country I have ever lived in and Tokyo is, in my opinion, one of the world's most beautiful cities.   Founded in 1603, it has been Japan's cultural, business and administrative center for over 400 years.  During that time, the city has experienced a few earthquakes.  On average about 50 a year.  Last time I looked, the city was still standing and I predict that it will still be there long after you and I are dust.



Right now they are getting ready for one of the most beautiful seasons of the year:  the Sakura or Cherry-blossom time.  Not only can you see acres of gorgeous blooming cherry trees, there are also outdoor parties and picnics everywhere (some fairly sedate and some quite wild) which makes it the perfect moment to walk through the city, along the canals, and through the parks.

If you do go to Tokyo (and I strongly urge you to go at least once in your life) think about a getting a copy of Sumiko Enbutsu's book, Tokyo:  Exploring the City of the Shogun.  She proposes a number of walking tours though different historic parts of the city, all of which are wonderful.  I personally love best the walks through traditional Japanese neighborhoods - the small gardens are heartbreakingly beautiful.

Recent History Revisited

Over a fine lunch served after the elder Frenchling came home from school (yes, they go to school on Saturday here) we had a long and illuminating talk about recent history.  My daughter is preparing for her final exams in June (the "Bac") and today her history teacher used the class time (all 2.5 hours) to have the kids write an essay about Communism from 1947 to 1991.   Listening to my daughter talk about how she answered the question, I became excruciatingly aware of two things:

• My elder was born in 1993.  To her what she has learned in school on this topic is practically ancient history.  I, on the other hand,  was born in 1965 and I remember (and I was surprised to discover how vivid some of those memories were) many of the events she talked about:  the Vietnam War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Gorbachev and Perestroika, Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall. 
• Her interpretation of these events is based on information and a perspective that has come from her teachers in the French public school system.  Mine comes from what the American media (radio, television and print) was reporting at the time and what my teachers in the American public school system taught. 

It should not have been a big surprise that there are some significant differences in our perspectives.  Not surprisingly, in the French school system, world history is viewed through the prism of French interests, dreams and fears.  And, I can confirm by my own experience that this is equally true of the American one.  However, this is very hard to comprehend if the only educational system you have ever known is the one you grew up in.

Alas, I have no solution to this and I am not even sure it's a problem.  I just don't see a culturally neutral way to teach history.  For one thing, history is taught in school by fallible human beings who have their own opinions about what is important and what it all means. (My Frenchling reports that her teachers are quite to the Left of the political spectrum.  I remember mine as being fervent Free Market advocates.)  For another, the public schools systems in both countries exist to create citizens - not world citizens but citizens of a specific country with a collective memory that we all agree should be transmitted to each generation.  Finally, to be entirely pragmatic, in the few short years that our children are captives of the school system, there is simply not enough time to teach everything from every perspective.  Choices are made and sometimes what is included is less significant than what isn't.

This bothers me less than you might think.  I would not think of asking the French school system to include an American perspective in their curriculum any more than my husband would ask the American schools to include the French one if we were living in the States.  What I would hope for in either case, above and beyond the facts and the perspective on those facts, is a bit of humility - an admission that this may not be the whole story.  That other people in other places might look at the same facts very differently and come to very different conclusions.  In addition, children should be actively encouraged to seek out these people and places and to take those perspectives seriously.

In my day, we called that "intellectual curiosity."

Migration is Not Gender-Neutral

Over the years it has become blazingly obvious to me that men and women do not have the same migration experience.  They are not treated equally when they choose to leave their home countries and they are not treated the same in their country of destination.  Every more dramatic is that immigration laws and policies are often tailored to the "average" migrant who is presumed to be young and male.  These laws can have horrific impacts on women who get to suffer twice:  they are discriminated against as women and as foreigners.

I have been looking for an article or research on this topic for some time now.   It has not been an easy search.  Governments and international organizations do have basic statistics on male and female migration rates, workforce participation and levels of assimilation but that does not begin to tell the whole story.  Today I discovered this excellent article by Monica Boyd and Elizabeth Grieco:  Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory

Country of Origin
The story starts in the country of origin.  The family, the larger society and even the government, have the power to either prevent a woman from migrating or to deny her the resources and support she needs to be able to leave.    If she is married she may need her husband's permission to migrate and take any dependent children with her.

In addition, national policies may favor the migration of young men while putting barriers (sometimes said to be "protective") in the way of young women.

Country of Destination
There are several ways that the national immigration policies of the destination country impact women.

• An assumption of "dependent" status.  A woman's immigration status is often linked to a relationship she has with a man (father or husband).  It is fascinating to read the "Foreign Brides" arguments on the Internet.  I tried but was unable to find the equivalent passion for or against "Foreign Grooms."  But they do exist.  Out of the relatively few mixed marriages in France (43,400 in 2004) only a slight majority involve Frenchmen marrying foreign women (about 55%).

I can attest to the fact that marriage to a citizen is a double-edged sword.  It does make the immigration process easier but consider this - you have been granted residency on the basis of your marriage, not because of your job skills, educational attainments or other legitimate talents that you have to offer the host country. Given the divorce rates in many countries, that is very shaky ground indeed in the first few years of residency.

• It follows from this assumption of dependency that women are cast in the "family" category as wives, mothers or daughters.  It may be assumed that women "dependents" will not work or have a desire to work.  Men, on the other hand, are assumed to be independent and seeking employment regardless of whether they are married to a citizen or not.  

I would also argue that above impacts the economic equality of immigrant women within their marriages to citizens or to other legal residents.  In most countries it is a fact that women make less than men.  Many skilled immigrants are under-employed compared to their education level and skill sets during the time that they assimilate and learn the language.  If you combine the two, this means that the difference between the native husband's income and that of the foreign woman struggling (with little or no encouragement) to start or restart a career, can be enormous.  As a result of this inequality, she may have less power when it comes to deciding how the children are brought up, what language(s) to use in the home, and what traditions will be followed.

Integration
All of the above has a strong impact on assimilation.  A woman migrant's status when she enters the country can determine later access to resources in the target country:  language-classes, job training, even government programs. Without these things (which are often more readily available to unemployed or working male migrants) it is more difficult for a woman migrant to find work, to integrate and to later to seek citizenship in her own right.  From my own experience, I can attest to the fact that participating in the work force in my host country forced me to learn the language and customs very quickly.  At this time I am not a legal citizen but I nevertheless have come to feel (mainly through my work, but also through friends and family) that I am a member of this society even if I cannot vote.

And that, I would argue, is the "gold standard" for determining a successful level of integration - a sense of belonging.  Citizenship is just a legal category - being a productive member of society and feeling "at home" goes much deeper.  It is both a tragedy and a travesty that migrant women have so many barriers to overcome before they can achieve both.

Deep Survival Chapter IX - Bending the map

Following the publishing of the first chapter summary of Deep Survival a few days ago, here is another one. It's all about what "being lost" actually means to your brain, and what should your correct answer to that be.

"Bending the Map" by Victoria Férauge

The word "lost" provokes powerful feelings in each and every one of us. We associate it with a sense of disorientation, of loneliness, and of despair. Since childhood we have all heard cautionary tales of what can happen to those who stray into unknown territory and can no longer make their way out.

In "Bending the Map" Laurence Gonzales examines the physical and psychological effects of losing one's way. Anyone can get lost, he says, but most of us are not prepared for the experience since we have spent a goodly portion of our lives doing everything we can to avoid it.

It starts in the depths of our brain, in the hippocampus, with cells that enable us to create a mental image of where we are and where we are going. "Place cells" fire faster in a place we are familiar with. When we go somewhere new and strange, these cells go to work to try and recreate our "mental map".

In another completely separate part of the brain, is the amygdala which governs our response to all that information. When you are in an unknown and threatening place, it is the amygdala that screams "Danger!" Between the work of "remapping" and the screaming emotions bubbling up from our heads, our ability to formulate a rational strategy is compromised. We are then driven by emotions we cannot even identify (except that they are so urgent and painful) that push us to "walk another 10 miles over that ridge and surely the lake will be there..."

We then enter an altered state of consciousness where we refuse to update our mental map and admit that we are in a world of trouble. This is why so few people turn back and retrace their steps or stay put and start doing what is necessary to survive. Instead, driven by emotion, we panic, become delusional, and finally exhaust ourselves in a frenzy of futile activity. If we are so unlucky as to find ourselves in the wilderness where the human being is a rare and unwelcome tourist, the end point of this downward spiral can be death.


"Being lost," says Gonzales, "is not a location; it is a transformation. It is a failure of the mind." A man sets off for a hike in the woods and physically and psychologically deteriorates to a shadow of his former self after a mere three days lost in the woods. In the end, when the choice is between resignation at one's impending doom or action, what is the correct action?

Gonzales believes that in order to save ourselves, we must pragmatically accept that where we are is most definitely not where we intended to be when we set out on our journey.  The first step in surviving is also the "First Rule of Life:  Be here now." This is when we start over and map the real world that we find ourselves in.

In the end if we do most of it right, we will probably find our own salvation. As Gonzales says, "To survive, you must find yourself. Then it won't matter where you are." And you will never ever truly be lost again.

Superman's Immigration Status?

This is simply too good not to share with you.

Comic books seem to have a universal appeal and some of the characters (like Superman or Batman) are known the world over.  There is just something about the imaginary world of the superhero, antihero and international supervillain that keeps us and our children haunting the local FNAC over the weekend.

Just for fun, two U.S. attorney's have created a blog called Law and the Multiverse to consider legal questions around superhero and supervillain activities.

For example, have you ever wondered, "What is Superman's immigration status?" Is he an asylum seeker, an illegal immigrant or an extra-terrestrial adoptee?

Or, what about superheroes and international law? How would a superhero go after a super-villain led international crime organization without getting the United Nations upset?

The blog is delightful.  Enjoy.

Insaisissable …

More poetry from our guest poet, Corinne Texier.

Insaisissable …

Douce et tendre à l’aurore de ma vie, 

Délicieuse et délicat à l’enfance de ma vie, 

Exaltée et Cruelle à leur entrée dans ma vie, 

Tristesse et peur, ils ont fait de ma vie. 

Mais qu’ont-ils fait de cette fleur ? 

Qui part sa beauté d’âme en pleur, 

Cherche à réconcilier son esprit et son cœur, 

Au détour du chemin retrouver son honneur. 

Les couloirs du destin sont insondables, 

Son cœur était devenu impénétrable, 

Par cette envie de vivre, insatiable, 

Les épines en font une fleur insaisissable. 

La vie est à cueillir comme cette rose, 

Des épines et une fleur à peine éclose, 

Chagrin et allégresse, la rend moins morose, 

Délice et volupté de l’âme pour qui l’ose. 

Bruissement et chuchotement pour appeler la vie, 

Soleil et rosée au fond de son cœur, 

Ont su éloigner les nuages de la peur, 

Pour qu’elle puisse renaître à la vie.