In general, I adopt a pretty healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to generalized cultural attributes. While it's true that some generalities exist among cultures, for the most part, most differences among people remain superficial, at best. Other times, generalities become self-reinforcing -- I've always felt that Americans from the northeast affect the proverbial…
The New Life The weather cleared up today, and the forecast shows clear skies through Wednesday. Both moving days in Pasadena fell on cold, rainy days, and the weather in Hirakata was no different. Cherry blossoms on the Kansai Gaidai campus I arrived Friday night, and tomorrow I will attend my first meeting. The campus…
After eight and a half years, I taught my final day at the USC International Academy today. I am leaving USC to begin teaching at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan for the University of North Texas. Having come to the field of ESL later than many, I never experienced overseas teaching. Since I want…
Trevize leaned his head back and laughed heartily. Pelorat’s quiet face took on a trace of hurt. “Why are you laughing at me?” “Not you, Janov,” said Trevize. “I was laughing at my own stupidity. Where you’re concerned, I am completely grateful. You were perfectly right, you know.” “To take up the importance of human origins?”…
One of the deterrents of regular exercise is the time it consumes from my daily budget of productive hours, so I've developed a habit of catching up on podcasts at the gym to fill more of my day with literature and quality language. It so happened that tonight's listening regimen struck a serendipitous chord on…
As a child, a friend chided me once for ending every sentence with "don't you think?" It was a habit I had picked up from my mother, who often spoke that way. Today, I recoil at the overuse of tag questions. By tag questions, I refer to those contracted verb phrases that contrast with the…
Recently, video has played a larger role in my communication classes as a result of an increase in focus on students' interactive competence. In part, this stems from educational technology such as Flip, which has made it easier to incorporate short, focused video feedback in a communication class. Therefore, I was delighted when Kim Alejandro…
Small changes Create Workflow Hiccups This was week 3 of the year but the first week of class. The holiday break was not especially long, but I sure was rusty. My mental state drifted far from its workflow state in those few weeks. On the first day, I couldn't even find the PowerPoint I had…
The first week of 2023 has already passed, and the spring semester looms on the Monday horizon. I'm spending the weekend populating calendars and uploading syllabi. Conferences, curricula improvement, and major moves will make this a hectic semester. In the midst of it, I've resolved to blog more. This year I will incorporate more pragmatics…
"Greeting somebody in the street proves no esteem whatever, but failure to do so conclusively proves the opposite."— Georg Simmel 1858-1918: A Collection of Essays, with Translations and a Bibliography, ed. K.H. Wolff. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
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