"You've been here 20 years? Wow, must be nice to be fluent."
A question and a statement. The first is easy to answer because it's an objective fact. The second is not so simple because "fluent" is almost entirely subjective.
The Holy Grail of language learners everywhere. That magical moment when the ears hear, the brain engages with no effort, and perfect sentences spill forth from one's mouth.
This weekend I went to a church dinner and from the moment I stepped into the church for Mass and the late hour I left the presbytère, it was French and nothing but French. If I hadn't been a francophone then I would have missed 99% of the fun.
But you know what? At the end of the evening I was tired and with fatigue my language skills degraded. My accent became more pronounced and to my horror I had to correct myself more than once. I know enough to catch most of my own errors but I still make them when I start writing checks my body can't cash.
So does that mean I'm not fluent? Not according to my dinner companions. After making one really flagrant mistake, I apologized and the woman next to me said, "Don't worry about it, Victoria. If I could speak English as well as you speak French..." That was nice to hear and made me feel much better.
But I still thought about it as I walked home. With nearly 20 years in this country, why can't I speak as well as a native speaker? It occurred to me as I walked up the avenue de Paris that I needed to apply the serenity prayer to language learning.
The Things We Cannot Change
The Funny Accent: I started learning French at the same time I was learning Latin - mid adolescence (early 1980's). Latin was required at the Catholic school I attended in Olympia, Washington but we were allowed to choose another language in our second year. I chose French over Spanish which turned out to be a serendipitous decision. My French teacher was a native speaker - a war bride who came to the US not long after World War II. Her English was correct but heavily accented and it wasn't easy to understand her. She must have arrived in the U.S. when she was in her early 20's. About the age, I note, that I came to France as a young bride.
There is evidence that there is a critical period for acquiring a native accent but it varies according to the source. Some say it's in childhood and others say the cutoff is roughly mid-adolescence. But most linguists agree that there is one for accent (but not necessarily for other language skills). Karen Lund has this nice but pessimistic article Age and Accent.
No one should ever beat himself up because he or she has an accent in the second (or third or fourth) language. And it should be noted that native speakers often find it very pleasant to hear their native tongue pronounced with a interesting accent. I cannot count the number of times my French spouse has been told, "Don't lose that French accent!"
The Odd Syntax: This is the way words are put together to make meaningful sentences. It's not the same as grammar; it's entirely possible to put together a sentence in the second language that is grammatically correct but rings false in the ears of a native speaker. The evidence for a critical period here is less conclusive but a lot of second-language learners struggle with this one because it's a bit more complicated then just learning the "rules".
Is this a big deal? Not necessarily. Sometimes it's like accent in that a sentence may sound a bit odd but native speakers find that kind of interesting or amusing. As long as the listener can easily grasp the meaning the speaker is trying to convey, then no harm, no foul. Still, those of us who started learning a second language late will more than likely struggle with this all our lives. Syntax can be improved, however, by talking with native speakers (throw out the grammar and focus on how things are really said in the real world) and by reading novels or articles that use everyday speech.
Opportunities Lost: And that advice would be much easier if English speakers didn't have the blessing (or curse) of speaking what is for the moment an international language that other people want to learn. Access to a native anglophone in restaurants, shops, on the street, at work and even at home is seen as a wonderful opportunity.
However, for the novice French (or German or Chinese) speaker, being asked constantly to speak one's mother tongue can be very frustrating. A language student who proudly puts together a sentence in French (or any other language) is very disappointed when the effort is wasted because the co-worker or waiter or cashier replies in English.
The two parties in these conversation at odds with each other because fundamentally they have opposing interests. Both are second-language learners but the non-native speaker wants to use the native language while the native speaker wants to use his second language.
The thing to remember at these times is that you (and I) cannot control what people do. We can ask nicely and we can negotiate, but in the end they are in total control of what comes out of their mouths. And to get mad or frustrated about it is futile. Better to be gracious and serenely accept the situation.
The Things We Can Change
Other Opportunities: The antidote to those missed opportunities is to seek out people and places where using the second language is not optional, it's a necessity. In my case it was working for a very strict French-only company where I had no choice but to use French if I wanted to keep my job. Looking around me today, I see many other possibilities: clubs, churches, volunteer work. This actually serves two purposes: language acquisition and integration. Become a part of the community you live in. Getting out of your usual haunts not only enriches your vocabulary and speaking/understanding skills, but by living a variety of contexts, you learn more and more about your adopted country and just how diverse it really is. The young IT people I used to work with in Paris and the people I know today at my church are all French, but they are very different people who use very different lexicons.
Make a Virtue out of a Weakness: Let's say you are just starting to learn a language or you're like me and second language skills tend to degrade under stress or fatigue and you feel like you've been gagged because you can't keep up with the conversation. Here's an idea: Instead of fuming and beating yourself up, think of it as being liberated to concentrate on understanding the other person and not missing a single word, idea, expression, or emotion. One of the best gifts you can give anyone anywhere is your full attention.
Let Go of Pride and Perfectionism: Learning anything usually starts with swallowing your pride and taking on a "Beginner's Mind". It's a real blow to the ego when you can't do something as simple as ask for bread in a bakery in a foreign land. Hell, a five year old native speaker could do better than you (and me back in 1989). Today my Frenchlings speak much better French than I ever will and that's just the way it is. Comparisons are deadly and all too often unfair. Give it up (I'm trying). This is not a race and nobody gets to be perfect - not even native speakers. Personally, I think Vince Lombardi was full of it and the constant striving for perfection does not make for excellence, it makes for neurotic, fearful, unhappy human beings.
Rightsizing. The average human being is pretty egocentric. We bring that self-centeredness to language learning. It's all about me - two sides of the same coin where we think we are the center of the universe. It's my ability to speak well (pride) and my errors (shame). And as you saw from my description of the church dinner, I managed to feel both in the space of a few short minutes.
I forgot that the purpose of language is to communicate with other people - it's not a showcase for innate (we think) intelligence or a whip with which we can flagellate ourselves . To the extent that communication and connection are indeed happening and that we all understand each other, then there really is no problem at all, is there?
That's the first piece of wisdom I have to offer but there is yet another I found that did even more to put things in perspective.
There are over 300 million native speakers of English and about the same number of francophones in the world right now according to the estimates I found.
English or French, first or second language, not one person on this planet speaks those languages in exactly the same way as any other person. I don't use French the way my Italian neighbor does and my friends in Tokyo don't speak English the way my friends in Paris do. Even native speakers vary as anyone who went from Quebec to France and back again knows. Different accents, levels, experiences and contexts. Close enough so we can understand each other but with plenty of room for improvisation, personality, and "errors" that may one day become standard usage. And that, my friends, makes each speaker of any language wonderfully, deliciously unique.
So let's turn my earlier question on its head.
Instead of: "Why can't we speak the local language just like the natives?"
How about: "Why in heaven's name would we want to?"
Monday, March 10, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Le Carême
It was the Mercredi des cendres (Ash Wednesday) - the day that marks the beginning of Le Carême (Lent), the 40 days of preparation for Easter. On that day we are marked with ashes on our foreheads and then we go about the rest of our day wiping them off our glasses.
(Question for the supporters of the Quebec Charte de la laïcité: If I'm a functionnaire and I do this clear and very visible sign of faith, am I still allowed to come back to work, or do I have to go home after Mass?)
For those of you for whom Ash Wednesday is an odd foreign custom, here are a couple of videos to help you out:
Ash Wednesday and Lent in 2 Minutes (English):
Les Cendres, un nouveau départ (French)
Thursday felt like a continuation of Wednesday. I went into town and strolled through the Notre Dame Cathedral.
And there was community there, too, but a different one. With me was someone I had previously only met via email and through his blog Multicultural Meanderings. Thank you, Andrew, for the walk, the coffee, the pain au chocolat and, above all, for the chance to talk.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi,
dona nobis pacem.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
The Consequences of FATCA Finally Reach National Parliaments
Looking at the FATCA landscape it's hard not to conclude that we are seeing a "democracy deficit" in action.
For the most part lawmakers in democratic nation-states appear to be completely out of touch with their constituents who are impacted by this nasty bit of extra-territorial U.S. legislation. There are citizens who are screaming for relief but, for the most part, their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
But very recently a few brave souls listened and then brought up the consequences of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in their national parliaments.
Is it too little, too late? Let's face it, these questions are being asked after the fact - after the law was originally passed in the U.S. in 2010, and after agreements (IGAs) were signed in these countries. Still, it's something worth watching. Let's have a look at where these questions were asked, who asked them, and what was the government response:
The United States:
At the recent IRS Oversight Hearing, Congresswoman Jamie Herrea Beutler brought up a communication from one of her constituents abroad. His banks accounts have been closed, she reported, and she wanted to know what was going on. We don't want him or others to have to "disavow" U.S. citizenship, she said.
Americans abroad, do me a favor. Before you watch the video, take a deep breath because the answer from the new IRS Commissioner is almost guaranteed to infuriate you. Now either he is seriously misinformed (Mr. Commissioner, I don't see Canadians outside Canada or Brazilians outside Brazil cited by local banks as being persona non grata - only "US Persons", and, gee, aren't we the lucky ones?) or he is misleading Congresswoman Beutler.
Some readers are reporting problems with the video so here is the direct link to it on Youtube:
IRS Oversight Hearing - Beutler/IRS Commissioner Exchange
The exchange occurs at the 1h14min mark.
Canada:
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party in Canada, raised questions about FATCA in the Canadian parliament. Listen to Finance Minister Flaherty's response. He does not answer the question about Charter violations but he does say that the CRA (Canadian Revenue Authority) will NOT collect taxes on behalf of the American IRS:
For the most part lawmakers in democratic nation-states appear to be completely out of touch with their constituents who are impacted by this nasty bit of extra-territorial U.S. legislation. There are citizens who are screaming for relief but, for the most part, their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
But very recently a few brave souls listened and then brought up the consequences of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in their national parliaments.
Is it too little, too late? Let's face it, these questions are being asked after the fact - after the law was originally passed in the U.S. in 2010, and after agreements (IGAs) were signed in these countries. Still, it's something worth watching. Let's have a look at where these questions were asked, who asked them, and what was the government response:
The United States:
At the recent IRS Oversight Hearing, Congresswoman Jamie Herrea Beutler brought up a communication from one of her constituents abroad. His banks accounts have been closed, she reported, and she wanted to know what was going on. We don't want him or others to have to "disavow" U.S. citizenship, she said.
Americans abroad, do me a favor. Before you watch the video, take a deep breath because the answer from the new IRS Commissioner is almost guaranteed to infuriate you. Now either he is seriously misinformed (Mr. Commissioner, I don't see Canadians outside Canada or Brazilians outside Brazil cited by local banks as being persona non grata - only "US Persons", and, gee, aren't we the lucky ones?) or he is misleading Congresswoman Beutler.
Some readers are reporting problems with the video so here is the direct link to it on Youtube:
IRS Oversight Hearing - Beutler/IRS Commissioner Exchange
The exchange occurs at the 1h14min mark.
Canada:
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party in Canada, raised questions about FATCA in the Canadian parliament. Listen to Finance Minister Flaherty's response. He does not answer the question about Charter violations but he does say that the CRA (Canadian Revenue Authority) will NOT collect taxes on behalf of the American IRS:
France:
And here is Frédéric Lefebvre, a representative of the French abroad (North America) asking in the Assemblee Nationale about the closing of their bank accounts in France because of their connection to the U.S.:
After watching this broadcast one of Mr. Lefebvre's constituents in the U.S. wrote to thank him and copied me on the correspondence. Here are some excerpts from what this Frenchman abroad wrote to his representative (and may I say how much I wish that I, an American abroad, had that kind of representation in my national parliament):
"Monsieur le Ministre
Je suis un citoyen Français marié à une américaine, et travaillant aux Etats-Unis.
Je tiens à vous remercier pour votre intervention en séance sur la fermeture de comptes bancaires détenus par des Français établis aux USA. Les Français vivant aux Etats-Unis, ainsi que ceux résidents en France, mais d'origine Américaine ont besoin de votre soutien et de votre aide.
Je tiens à préciser, comme vous l'avez mentionné lors de votre intervention que les fermetures sont dues principalement à la loi FATCA et non au fait que les comptes ne soient pas actifs. Comme vous le savez, cette loi demande à tous les établissements financiers étrangers de fournir au FISC Américain les noms des ressortissants Américains, et Français possesseurs d'une carte verte, montant des comptes et liste des transactions sous peine d'un prélèvement de 30% de tous les flux financiers en provenance des US. En fait, le but principal de l'accord signé en Novembre est d'éviter ces sanctions.
La fermeture des comptes n'est qu'une partie des problèmes liés à cet accord. Depuis plusieurs années, les Etats-Unis traitent très sévèrement les personnes qui ont des liens financiers avec d'autres pays. Ces personnes ne sont pas seulement les riches Américains qui cachent leur fortune dans des comptes à l'étranger. Sont inclus aussi les immigrants aux Etats-Unis ainsi que les américains résidant à l'étranger. La punition pour ne pas avoir déclaré ces comptes est extrêmement sévère. Ces gens, qu'ils soient coupables d'évasion fiscale, ou simplement d'ignorance dans le cas des immigrants et expatriés, doivent payer comptables et avocats pour corriger 8 ans de déclarations d'impôts, payer tous impôts dus, intérêts et pénalités de 20%, ainsi qu'une amende confiscatoire de 27.5% de la valeur combinée maximale de leurs comptes sur les 8 dernières années. Cette dernière pénalité peut atteindre des sommes extravagantes pour l'immigrant ou l'expatrié de classe moyenne qui n'était pas au courant qu'il devait déclarer au FISC américain les maigres intérêts d'un compte non fermé avant son immigration...
Comme vous l'avez justement mentionné lors de votre intervention, à cause de cette loi, certaines institutions financières, plutôt que de mettre à jour leurs systèmes informatiques et contacter tous leurs clients pour savoir s'ils ont soit une carte verte, soit la nationalité américaine, préfèrent tout simplement fermer leur compte ou refuser d'ouvrir des comptes à ces nouveaux clients, ou limiter leurs investissements...
Renoncer à la nationalité américaine est bien sur une possibilité dans certains cas, mais qui n'est pas sans frais non plus. Je vous encourage à lire ce document, expliquant les implications financières associées au renoncement de la nationalité américaine.
http://citizenshipsolutions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/NewZealandandtheExitTax.pdf
Je suis très déçu que la France ait signé cet accord, sans négocier des conditions de régularisation raisonnables pour les personnes impactées, dont la plupart ne sont pas des fraudeurs fiscaux et dont les données vont être transmises... FATCA n'est d'ailleurs pas un accord bilatéral. C'est une barrière commerciale qui est imposée unilatéralement par une des parties(les Etats-Unis) envers l'autre : la France. Le choix était pour la France est de se voir imposer le coût de mise en conformité ou de perdre l'accès au marché américain à cause des sanctions de 30% menacées par les US. Le coût de conformité sera initialement pris en charge par les institutions financières, mais sera inévitablement répercuté sur les clients. Tous les Français seront pénalisés par les coûts que les banques devront mettre en ouvre pour trouver leurs clients américains, sous forme de frais, ou de retours en investissements moindres...
Accepter FATCA, c'est accepter le système américain d'imposition basé sur la nationalité, et non la résidence, comme c'est le cas dans le reste du monde. La convention internationale et celle de la France, est d'imposer les individus en fonction de leur lieu de résidence. Cette nouvelle loi américaine, va à l'encontre du droit souverain du gouvernement Français qui est d'imposer les gens sur leur juridiction territoriale et aussi va à l'encontre de la politique du gouvernement Français qui est de protéger les français de certaines pratiques de gouvernements étrangers - dans ce cas, des amendes excessives imposées par le gouvernement américain en cas de non-conformité... Les promesses du gouvernement américain sur la réciprocité sont vagues et manquent de crédibilité.
Maintenant qu'un accord intergouvernemental a été signé avec les Etats-Unis, quel sont les recours pour les personnes impactées ? Que pouvez-vous faire pour les aider ? Une assurance que le gouvernement regarde de plus près certains cas de fermeture de comptes par certaines banques n'est pas suffisant! Il nous faut une assurance qu'il n'y ait pas de discrimination. Pourquoi ne pas voter une loi qui interdise la discrimination basée sur la nationalité ? ...Comment assurer que les nouveaux immigrants aux Etats-Unis soient prévenus de leurs responsabilités fiscales en regard du FBAR et de l'importance de divulguer leurs comptes sur leur declaration d'impot?
Serais-je et mes enfants traités comme citoyens de seconde classe à notre retour en France, simplement parce que j'ai travaillé au Etats-Unis et qu'ils sont nés là-bas ?"
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Flophouse American Diaspora Reading List
“Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.”
Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Expatriation, Expatriates, and Expats: The American Transformation of a Concept by Nancy L. Green. This article (available on-line) was published in 2009 in the The American Historical Review. Great essay about American expatriation in the legal and cultural senses. How did the right to expatriate (the right to leave) go from a mechanism for "nation-building" to one of excluding Americans from the nation?
Americans Abroad: A Comparative Study of Emigrants from the United States by A. Dashefsky et al.
Published in 1992 this is a study of Americans migrants in Australia and Israel (Canada is briefly mentioned as well). It asks provocative questions about motives for leaving, adaptation in these countries, and why the migrants stayed, returned to the US, or decided to move on to a third country. In the final chapter are some interesting conclusions and proposals for policies around this emigration one of which is: "Deter efforts to force migrants to change citizenship or otherwise make a permanent, formal commitment to one society or another."
The Unknown Ambassadors: A Saga of Citizenship by Phyllis Michaux.
Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad by Gabriel Sheffer
A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico 1948-1965 (2002) by Diana Anhalt. a fascinating portrait of American political expatriates, a "small group of controversial Americans who found refuge in Mexico during the late 40's and throughout the '50's..." Flophouse review here.
Beyond Borders: Portraits Of American Women From Around The World by My-Linh Kunst
The American (2007) by Franz-Olivier Giesbert. A rather dark book but with a unique perspective. The author is an Accidental American in France who wrote about his relationship with his American father. Flophouse review here.
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language by Katherine Russell Rich
Tales of Mogadiscio by Iris Kapil
Time for an update of the Flophouse American Diaspora Reading List - the best books and articles I've read recently about American people and communities abroad. New books are in green. As always, please feel free to add to the list or recommend a title.
The first part of the list has general books/articles - the larger view. Some talk about specific issues, like citizenship, others are studies, portraits or serious research about Americans abroad.
The second part of the list has books I've read that are the accounts of Americans in different countries. These are not books that tell a potential American migrant how to live in Mexico, for example. These are personal accounts that talk about what happens to American identity when it gets transplanted somewhere else for a year or two or for a lifetime.
Expatriation, Expatriates, and Expats: The American Transformation of a Concept by Nancy L. Green. This article (available on-line) was published in 2009 in the The American Historical Review. Great essay about American expatriation in the legal and cultural senses. How did the right to expatriate (the right to leave) go from a mechanism for "nation-building" to one of excluding Americans from the nation?
Americans Abroad: A Comparative Study of Emigrants from the United States by A. Dashefsky et al.
Published in 1992 this is a study of Americans migrants in Australia and Israel (Canada is briefly mentioned as well). It asks provocative questions about motives for leaving, adaptation in these countries, and why the migrants stayed, returned to the US, or decided to move on to a third country. In the final chapter are some interesting conclusions and proposals for policies around this emigration one of which is: "Deter efforts to force migrants to change citizenship or otherwise make a permanent, formal commitment to one society or another."
Leaving America: The New Expatriate Generation by John Wennersten.
Published in 2007, a very interesting book that re-examines the "American Dream" in the light of American emigration. Talks about Americans in Canada, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. It's one of the few I've found that includes African-American emigration and women migrants. Some good statistics (or at least estimates) at the end of the book.
The Unknown Ambassadors: A Saga of Citizenship by Phyllis Michaux.
Published in 1996, this is the story of how Americans abroad organized around issues of particular importance to Americans living outside the US: citizenship for the children of Americans who were born abroad, voting rights, and many other issues like Medicare from the 1970's to the 1990's. This is the diaspora going to the homeland government for recognition as a distinct group with particular interests. It's a battle that is still ongoing but this book is important because it's the only one I know of that gives the the history and the context behind today's efforts.
"Gilded Prostitution": Status, Money, And Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-1914 by Maureen E. Montgomery. The title is a bit off-putting but if you are an American woman married to a foreign national this is a good one. The marriages examined here are between elites (U.S. and U.K.) over a century ago and yet some of the negative (and positive) attitudes about women who marry foreigners and leave America are all too familiar. Under it all, of course, were questions of citizenship (should women lose their citizenship because they marry "out") and taxation where money followed these women abroad.
Americans Abroad, How Can We Count Them? This book which came out in 2010 is the transcript of a hearing held in 2001 by the U.S. Congress House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Sub-committee on the Census, on the feasibility of including Americans civilians abroad in the census. This is the diaspora meeting the homeland government directly and the interplay between homeland interests and the interests of Americans abroad is fascinating. In particular the testimony of the representative from the U.S. State Department shines a light on the relationship between the US Embassies/Consulates and the American communities in the host countries.
"Gilded Prostitution": Status, Money, And Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-1914 by Maureen E. Montgomery. The title is a bit off-putting but if you are an American woman married to a foreign national this is a good one. The marriages examined here are between elites (U.S. and U.K.) over a century ago and yet some of the negative (and positive) attitudes about women who marry foreigners and leave America are all too familiar. Under it all, of course, were questions of citizenship (should women lose their citizenship because they marry "out") and taxation where money followed these women abroad.
Americans Abroad, How Can We Count Them? This book which came out in 2010 is the transcript of a hearing held in 2001 by the U.S. Congress House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Sub-committee on the Census, on the feasibility of including Americans civilians abroad in the census. This is the diaspora meeting the homeland government directly and the interplay between homeland interests and the interests of Americans abroad is fascinating. In particular the testimony of the representative from the U.S. State Department shines a light on the relationship between the US Embassies/Consulates and the American communities in the host countries.
This is a general book about diaspora politics but I include it here for two reasons: 1. It will put the efforts for recognition in the three previous books on this list in a much larger context. There are patterns, general strategies that all diasporas use or try to use as they attempt to manage the relationship with the homeland over different issues and 2. He examines the question of whether or not the American communities abroad (some of which have a history that goes back to the American Revolution in the 18th century) constitute a true diaspora.
"The inclusion of those overseas Americans in this category raises some interesting theoretical questions: Can the Americans, who themselves are of diverse ethnic origins and are citizens of a civic state rather than an ethnic state, be regarded as belonging in the category of ethno-national diasporas, or do they constitute yet another borderline case?"
A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico 1948-1965 (2002) by Diana Anhalt. a fascinating portrait of American political expatriates, a "small group of controversial Americans who found refuge in Mexico during the late 40's and throughout the '50's..." Flophouse review here.
Innocents Abroad: Americans Teachers in the American Century by Jonathan Zimmerman.
This book focuses on one of the largest and most visible group of Americans who live and work abroad: teachers. Zimmerman talks about the distinct differences between those who went abroad in the first half of the 20th century and those who left in the latter half. Though the social, historical and political frameworks changed over time, he notes that there has always been a diversity of opinion and a debate about just what these Americans were doing (or supposed to be doing) abroad. There are things in here that will make Americans wince - not just how some Americans viewed the countries where they worked (especially those that were a part of the American empire like Puerto Rico or the Philippines) in the first part of the 20th century, but also how this continued with a different twist in the second half of the century.
Beyond Borders: Portraits Of American Women From Around The World by My-Linh Kunst
A beautiful book about American women abroad - the photography is stunning. These are ordinary women who have done (and are still doing) extraordinary things outside the US: Jean Darling (Ireland), Yuzana Khin (Thailand), Gillian McGuire (Italy), Kim Powell, (France), Lucy Laederich (France), Marcia Brittain (Uruguay), and Jane Cabanyes (Spain) to name just a few. The book came out of a FAWCO (Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas) project and is the work of two members: My-Linh Kunst (photography) and Charlotte Fox Zabusky. A longer Flophouse review of the book can be found here.
The Transplanted Woman by Gabrielle Varro
I read this one many years ago and will read it again and do a longer review. Gabrielle Varro is a CNRS researcher in anthropology and sociology who has studied bi-lingualism, immigration and the sociology of mixed-marriages. This book came out of a study that she conducted with AAWE of French-American marriages and families over generations. Some of it is about the dynamics of cross-cultural marriages but it also looks at American identity as it is transmitted through the American wives of French men. A Flophouse discussion of Varro's work can be found here.
**************************************
The American (2007) by Franz-Olivier Giesbert. A rather dark book but with a unique perspective. The author is an Accidental American in France who wrote about his relationship with his American father. Flophouse review here.
Second Skin (2012) by Diana Anhalt. Some stunning poetry from the author of A Gathering of Fugitives. She writes about her host country (Mexico), languages (English/Spanish) and much more. One of my favorite lines from her work:
"Today I speak Spanish to survive,
but I write in English for its punch,
for the way it slices through excess, draws blood,
attracts sharks. (They know this voice and come to me.)"
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language by Katherine Russell Rich
All about the trauma of losing identity and forming a new one in a new language and country. Very honest account of how she felt during the process. A longer Flophouse review of the book is here.
Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball: The best of Joe Bageant edited by Ken Smith
The musings of a "redneck socialist" which are mostly about homeland politics but there are some excellent essays in this book about his time in Belize. His political views are pretty clear: "Capitalism is dead," he said, "but we still dance with the corpse." Really engaging writer and his expat perspective is one you don't come across everyday. Just have a look at his bio.
Tales of Mogadiscio by Iris Kapil
This is a series of essays written by an American woman in a cross-cultural marriage (her husband is Indian and they got married in the 1950's). She was a serial expat but this book is about the two years the family spent "on the economy" in the capital city of Somalia in the 1960's. Very nicely written and beautiful descriptions of what that city was like before the country descended into chaos and became the epitome of a "failed state." Kapil has a fine blog called Iris sans frontières.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Old Houses are Still the Best Houses
"A building properly conceived is several layers of longevity of built components."
Francis Cuthbert "Frank" Duffy, architect
If you are about my age and had hippy, soixante-huitard parents, you may remember The Whole Earth Catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972. I believe that a dusty copy is still to be found in my parent's library in Seattle along with Lorenzo Milam's Sex and Broadcasting.
It was completely by chance that I stumbled on a book Brand wrote back in the 1990's called How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built.
A delightful book. In it he turns the whole business of architecture on its head. Instead of thinking of building projects as an attempt to capture the perfect house, office space or monument, he looks at these projects as just the beginning of the building's life and he asks how they be constructed to last and to evolve over time. A dynamic, as opposed to a static, process. New eras, new owners, new uses.
Brand has a rather jaundiced view of architects and he quotes Marvin Minsky who said, "The problem with architects is that they think they're artists, and they're not very competent." I'm not qualified to agree or disagree with that comment but Brand's examples of bad buildings (or ones that in retrospect haven't aged well) are well chosen. The Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou (The Pompidou Center), for example, is one that when it opened in 1977 was a very impressive, exciting, modern structure. Looking at it now in 2013, it appears rather shabby and a bit dated.
Moving from monumental architecture to something a bit closer to everyday life (from art to craft, one might say) the best houses, he says, are old (or new) ones that start simple and are robust and built to last. He favors the "house as box" - a design that has been around forever and is still, in his view, a good one, "because it is profoundly adaptive." Like the Saltbox which was a very simple U.S. style built between the 17th and 19th century. Or these two examples from my archives: an early 20th century stone house in Brittany, France and a small dwelling in our old neighborhood, Shirokanedai, in Tokyo, Japan:
These are houses, "vernacular buildings", that can grow depending on the owner's wishes and needs. They can be bumped out or up. The "skin" can be changed and porches, verandas and extra rooms added.
It's not just the outside that can be changed but the inside, too. The interior is very simple in these houses and is usually constructed with a corridor (or staircase) in the center with rooms on either side. "Let there be," says Brand, "a central passageway and stair hall, say, with roughly identical pairs of rooms on each side upstairs and down."
In the Brittany house, that is exactly what one finds: a hallway with a very steep staircase and rooms (and stone fireplaces) on either side going up 2 floors. The owners (my in-laws) didn't have to spend much to recuperate the attic space and turned it into bedrooms with windows and a small bathroom, thus making a four-bedroom vacation home out of a very basic two-bedroom fisherman's house. (House still doesn't have heat, though.)
Another good example is the house I live in now - a 1929 brick house that was previously owned by a laborer (a tiler by trade) and his wife. We think there were remodels in the 1950's and in the 1970's. They clearly went down and dug out the basement to create a laundry room and bedrooms for their two sons. Since water and sewer didn't start being installed on our street until 1929, we strongly suspect that what is the bathroom (salle de bains) today was something else when the house was first built. Perhaps a second small bedroom for children or maybe the kitchen was bigger.
What we can see from the plan (and the size of the lot) there are an almost infinite number of changes inside and out that would be relatively inexpensive to make. Not a lot of work frankly to make the kitchen larger, to grab the space that is today the front porch to make the living room bigger, or to tack a veranda onto what is called the salon in the plan. (Provided, of course that the architecte de la ville agrees.)
We are thinking about the last but we're taking our time. The house was well-maintained for many years but the tiler's widow had to let some things slide and it seems prudent to tackle things like the leaking gutters, the rotten railings, and the peeling paint first. Anything more complicated than that will have to wait because, to be honest, we have more will right now than wallet.
And that, according to Stewart Brand, is a Good Thing. Why?
For one, Brand agrees with David Owen (The Walls Around Us) that all houses suffer a nervous breakdown when new owners move in.
"Form follows funding."
Too much money and the owners do tout et n'importe quoi. They indulge their fantasies and the results are often quite ugly, impractical, inflexible, and go out of style in just a few short years. These then become the nightmares of future owners who say to themselves, "What were they thinking?" Too little money means that basic maintenance isn't done and the house suffers serious structural damage that new owners must try desperately to fix.
Music to my ears since that describes us perfectly (at least until the Frenchlings finish university). And here I was feeling guilty because there is so much to do and there just isn't any way we can do it all right now.
I'll buy Brand's argument that makes a virtue out of a necessity. Fantasies cost nothing and, “if dreams were thunder and lightning was desire, this old house would have burned down a long time ago.” (John Prine).
And if you're interested Steward Brand did a How Buildings Learn series for the BBC in 1997 which is up on Youtube. Very well done and you can learn more about what he really thinks of the Pompidou Center:
Francis Cuthbert "Frank" Duffy, architect
If you are about my age and had hippy, soixante-huitard parents, you may remember The Whole Earth Catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972. I believe that a dusty copy is still to be found in my parent's library in Seattle along with Lorenzo Milam's Sex and Broadcasting.
It was completely by chance that I stumbled on a book Brand wrote back in the 1990's called How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built.
A delightful book. In it he turns the whole business of architecture on its head. Instead of thinking of building projects as an attempt to capture the perfect house, office space or monument, he looks at these projects as just the beginning of the building's life and he asks how they be constructed to last and to evolve over time. A dynamic, as opposed to a static, process. New eras, new owners, new uses.
Brand has a rather jaundiced view of architects and he quotes Marvin Minsky who said, "The problem with architects is that they think they're artists, and they're not very competent." I'm not qualified to agree or disagree with that comment but Brand's examples of bad buildings (or ones that in retrospect haven't aged well) are well chosen. The Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou (The Pompidou Center), for example, is one that when it opened in 1977 was a very impressive, exciting, modern structure. Looking at it now in 2013, it appears rather shabby and a bit dated.
Moving from monumental architecture to something a bit closer to everyday life (from art to craft, one might say) the best houses, he says, are old (or new) ones that start simple and are robust and built to last. He favors the "house as box" - a design that has been around forever and is still, in his view, a good one, "because it is profoundly adaptive." Like the Saltbox which was a very simple U.S. style built between the 17th and 19th century. Or these two examples from my archives: an early 20th century stone house in Brittany, France and a small dwelling in our old neighborhood, Shirokanedai, in Tokyo, Japan:
 |
| Brittany, France |
 |
| Tokyo, Japan |
These are houses, "vernacular buildings", that can grow depending on the owner's wishes and needs. They can be bumped out or up. The "skin" can be changed and porches, verandas and extra rooms added.
It's not just the outside that can be changed but the inside, too. The interior is very simple in these houses and is usually constructed with a corridor (or staircase) in the center with rooms on either side. "Let there be," says Brand, "a central passageway and stair hall, say, with roughly identical pairs of rooms on each side upstairs and down."
In the Brittany house, that is exactly what one finds: a hallway with a very steep staircase and rooms (and stone fireplaces) on either side going up 2 floors. The owners (my in-laws) didn't have to spend much to recuperate the attic space and turned it into bedrooms with windows and a small bathroom, thus making a four-bedroom vacation home out of a very basic two-bedroom fisherman's house. (House still doesn't have heat, though.)
Another good example is the house I live in now - a 1929 brick house that was previously owned by a laborer (a tiler by trade) and his wife. We think there were remodels in the 1950's and in the 1970's. They clearly went down and dug out the basement to create a laundry room and bedrooms for their two sons. Since water and sewer didn't start being installed on our street until 1929, we strongly suspect that what is the bathroom (salle de bains) today was something else when the house was first built. Perhaps a second small bedroom for children or maybe the kitchen was bigger.
What we can see from the plan (and the size of the lot) there are an almost infinite number of changes inside and out that would be relatively inexpensive to make. Not a lot of work frankly to make the kitchen larger, to grab the space that is today the front porch to make the living room bigger, or to tack a veranda onto what is called the salon in the plan. (Provided, of course that the architecte de la ville agrees.)
We are thinking about the last but we're taking our time. The house was well-maintained for many years but the tiler's widow had to let some things slide and it seems prudent to tackle things like the leaking gutters, the rotten railings, and the peeling paint first. Anything more complicated than that will have to wait because, to be honest, we have more will right now than wallet.
And that, according to Stewart Brand, is a Good Thing. Why?
For one, Brand agrees with David Owen (The Walls Around Us) that all houses suffer a nervous breakdown when new owners move in.
"A few days after the deal is closed, water begins to drip from the chandelier in the living room, a heating pipe bursts, and the oven stops working. The house is accustomed to being handled in certain ways. Then, suddenly, strangers barge in. They take longer showers, flush the toilets more forcefully, turn on the trash compactor with the right hand instead of the left, and open windows at night. Familiar domestic rhythms are destroyed. While the house struggles to adjust, many expensive items...unexpectedly self-destruct. Then, gradually, new rhythms are established, the house resigns itself to the change of ownership, and a normal pace of deterioration is restored."For another, Brand argues that the enemy of good preservation and prudent remodeling is money.
"Form follows funding."
Too much money and the owners do tout et n'importe quoi. They indulge their fantasies and the results are often quite ugly, impractical, inflexible, and go out of style in just a few short years. These then become the nightmares of future owners who say to themselves, "What were they thinking?" Too little money means that basic maintenance isn't done and the house suffers serious structural damage that new owners must try desperately to fix.
Music to my ears since that describes us perfectly (at least until the Frenchlings finish university). And here I was feeling guilty because there is so much to do and there just isn't any way we can do it all right now.
I'll buy Brand's argument that makes a virtue out of a necessity. Fantasies cost nothing and, “if dreams were thunder and lightning was desire, this old house would have burned down a long time ago.” (John Prine).
And if you're interested Steward Brand did a How Buildings Learn series for the BBC in 1997 which is up on Youtube. Very well done and you can learn more about what he really thinks of the Pompidou Center:
Monday, March 3, 2014
Old Friends
I once joked that I knew more people in the French military than I ever did in the American one. Looking back over the past 30 years or so I see that this is not entirely true. It's just that some experiences loom larger in my memory than others.
Years ago, through my father-in-law who was a retired French army officer who served in Europe, Indochina and North Africa, I often met other retired military at lunches or other family events and sometimes papa would read letters to us from the men he had served with and who were still on active duty. It made for interesting listening, especially during the First Gulf War.
One gentleman I remember well was a retired colonel who was serving in French North Africa (World War II) when the Brits/Americans landed and he told me that they didn't really want to shoot Americans but, hey, orders were orders, right?
On the American side the only veterans in my family were my grandfather who served in the Aleutian Islands and my great-aunt who was in the Navy during World War II . Grandpa was a medic and had this deep furrow in his forehead where he'd been shot in the head during his service. He miraculously survived to come home and marry his sweetheart, my grandmother, from Naches in Eastern Washington. My great-aunt died before I knew her but I still have her rosary and a pin that belonged to her that says "Pistol Expert."
When we moved to Japan I met Americans serving in or retired from the U.S. Navy. And it was after we'd moved back to France that I realized that the story of Americans abroad all too often does not include retired U.S. military. Everyone seems to know (or think they know) quite a lot about American creatives in Paris but no one talks about about the men I met in Asia who were long-term expats (10+ years). These were veterans who, after retiring and marrying local women or exploring business opportunities, just never went back to the U.S. to live. You run into them occasionally in books written by Robert Kaplan, for example, but that's about it and that's a shame.
Returning to the French side this weekend we had some old friends over for Sunday lunch and as we talked and joked it came to me in a flash that I had known the gentleman sitting next to me for around 25 years now. I first met him in Nantes in the late 1980's. He was one of several room mates that my French spouse was living with at the time while they suffered their way through engineering school. At that time France still had the draft and so when they finally graduated they had national service to look forward to. My spouse did his service in the U.S. but this fellow decided to go into the French navy. At the time I moved to France in 1989, he was on a ship, the Jeanne d'Arc and seeing the world (or at least a part of it).
I know this because I remember vividly when he came back and stopped by our apartment to tell stories and give us a Jeanne d'Arc 1989-1990 campaign medallion which I still have.
Years ago, through my father-in-law who was a retired French army officer who served in Europe, Indochina and North Africa, I often met other retired military at lunches or other family events and sometimes papa would read letters to us from the men he had served with and who were still on active duty. It made for interesting listening, especially during the First Gulf War.
One gentleman I remember well was a retired colonel who was serving in French North Africa (World War II) when the Brits/Americans landed and he told me that they didn't really want to shoot Americans but, hey, orders were orders, right?
On the American side the only veterans in my family were my grandfather who served in the Aleutian Islands and my great-aunt who was in the Navy during World War II . Grandpa was a medic and had this deep furrow in his forehead where he'd been shot in the head during his service. He miraculously survived to come home and marry his sweetheart, my grandmother, from Naches in Eastern Washington. My great-aunt died before I knew her but I still have her rosary and a pin that belonged to her that says "Pistol Expert."
When we moved to Japan I met Americans serving in or retired from the U.S. Navy. And it was after we'd moved back to France that I realized that the story of Americans abroad all too often does not include retired U.S. military. Everyone seems to know (or think they know) quite a lot about American creatives in Paris but no one talks about about the men I met in Asia who were long-term expats (10+ years). These were veterans who, after retiring and marrying local women or exploring business opportunities, just never went back to the U.S. to live. You run into them occasionally in books written by Robert Kaplan, for example, but that's about it and that's a shame.
Returning to the French side this weekend we had some old friends over for Sunday lunch and as we talked and joked it came to me in a flash that I had known the gentleman sitting next to me for around 25 years now. I first met him in Nantes in the late 1980's. He was one of several room mates that my French spouse was living with at the time while they suffered their way through engineering school. At that time France still had the draft and so when they finally graduated they had national service to look forward to. My spouse did his service in the U.S. but this fellow decided to go into the French navy. At the time I moved to France in 1989, he was on a ship, the Jeanne d'Arc and seeing the world (or at least a part of it).
 |
| http://www.netmarine.net/g/bat/jeanne/campagnesmod.htm |
He liked the Navy so much that he stayed and made a career there. Over the years it was not easy to stay in touch because he was a submariner (yes, folks, France has subs including nuclear ones) and because they and we were on the move. Nonetheless, we were at his wedding and he had a special place at ours (he was the Best Man). We had a very memorable visit with them when they were living in the south of France. We went to Japan and they went to Noumea in New Caledonia for a couple of years.
Not too long ago we discovered that they are living not too far from us - a rather rare occurrence. It just seemed right that we take advantage of the opportunity to get together and so we invited them for lunch.
It was so good to see them. So much to talk about and it turned out that their eldest daughter was in Quebec at the same as the elder Frenchling. Ah, if we had only known that a year ago...
For every emigrant/immigrant there are two essential questions that are always asked: "Why did you leave?" and "Why did you stay?" The second is, I think, more important than the first but the answer one gives changes over time. What said at 25 is not what I would say today now that I'm nearly 50. Today my rationales have to do with people. Not just those who are alive but also those who have passed away. In my memories the countries of my heart and the people I have known are a tapestry where these experiences are not disconnected, but ones woven into a whole cloth from which I can extract threads and follow them back into the past.
And that makes the present very rich, indeed.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Concerned about FATCA or Confused about Filing US Tax Returns? Some Low-Cost Help.
U.S. tax season is nearly upon us and as FATCA gets closer and closer to being implemented many US Persons in countries around the world are desperately looking for help.
Not the individuals who can easily afford expensive cross-border tax experts, but those lower and middle-income U.S. citizens/Green Card holders who live outside the United States who have discovered to their horror that these matters are of direct concern to them.
It has come to my attention that there are organizations out there (some of which I work with) that are offering low-cost seminars to help US Persons understand the FATCA law and to offer assistance for first-time filers of US Tax Returns. These seminars are free or low-cost (and that means under 50 Euros/70 USD/75 CAD). Here is a short list by date with links to where you can get more information and register/pay.
If you know of other free or nearly free events, let me know and I will happily add them to the list.
And, above all, if you don't see a session/seminar/workshop near you, contact these organizations and see if it's possible to organize one in your city/country/region.
March 2, 2014 - London, UK: Solving the problems of U.S. citizenship – Information session, The Church Hall, St Pancras Church House, Lancing Street, NW1 1NA, London, United Kingdom. Cost: 15 GBP/18 Euros (Posted at the Isaac Brock Society).
Not the individuals who can easily afford expensive cross-border tax experts, but those lower and middle-income U.S. citizens/Green Card holders who live outside the United States who have discovered to their horror that these matters are of direct concern to them.
It has come to my attention that there are organizations out there (some of which I work with) that are offering low-cost seminars to help US Persons understand the FATCA law and to offer assistance for first-time filers of US Tax Returns. These seminars are free or low-cost (and that means under 50 Euros/70 USD/75 CAD). Here is a short list by date with links to where you can get more information and register/pay.
If you know of other free or nearly free events, let me know and I will happily add them to the list.
And, above all, if you don't see a session/seminar/workshop near you, contact these organizations and see if it's possible to organize one in your city/country/region.
March 2, 2014 - London, UK: Solving the problems of U.S. citizenship – Information session, The Church Hall, St Pancras Church House, Lancing Street, NW1 1NA, London, United Kingdom. Cost: 15 GBP/18 Euros (Posted at the Isaac Brock Society).
March 8, 2014 - Waterloo, Canada: Solving the problems of U.S. citizenship – Information session, Conrad Grebel Univ. College, Rm 1300, 140 Westmount Rd. N., Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G6 Canada. Cost: 20 CAD. (Posted at the Isaac Brock Society.)
March 13, 2014 - Paris, France: AARO Tax Seminar -Tax 101: An Introduction to Basic Tax Reporting Requirements for US Citizens Residing Abroad. Help for first-time filers in a workshop setting. Forum 104, 104 rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris, Cost: AARO members €10; Non-members/Guests €15. (Association of Americans Resident Abroad event.)
March 16, 2014 - Montreal, Canada: Foreign Account Tax Information Act (FATCA) Information Session. Professor Allison Christians and Toronto lawyer John Richardson will be speaking about disclosure, compliance, and other obligations raised by FATCA. McGill University, Chancellor Day Hall: Maxwell Cohen Moot Court (NCDH 100), 3644 rue Peel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada , H3A 1W9. Cost: Free. (Event hosted by the McGill Heward Stikeman Chair in Tax Law.)
March 17, 2014 - Paris, France: AARO Tax 202: AARO Annual Tax Seminar. This session is destined for those who have some familiarity with filing and just need to know what's new this filing season. Mona Bismarck American Center for Art & Culture, 34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris, France. Cost: AARO Members 10€; Non-Members/Guests 20€. (Association of Americans Resident Abroad event.)
March 22, 2014 - North Bay, Canada: Solving the problems of U.S. citizenship – Information session, Legion #23,150 1st Ave W, North Bay, Ontario P1B3B9, Canada. Cost: 20 CAD. (Posted at the Isaac Brock Society.)
April 5, 2014 - Munich, Germany: Solving the problems of U.S. citizenship – Information session, Eine WeltHaus München, Schwanthalerstr.80, München, Rm 211-212 (top floor). Cost: 14 Euros. (Posted at the Isaac Brock Society.)
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