MASH Professional Development

Since starting my MA at the University of Birmingham, I've been colleagues and great friends with a group of very talented and research driven guys (sadly, it is a male dominated industry). During our coursework, they decided to start MASH-Meet Ask Share and Help, a collaborative group for University of Birmingham graduates. In addition to the conferences they have organized in Japan, they have recently started a Professional Development column on ELTnews.com. Guess who is featured this week?

This has been a great tool for professional development and collaborative research projects including publishing. More on that as it develops...

Another 4,000 written, only 12,000 words to go!

That's it folks! I've finished my 6th module or assessment essay for my MA course. Feels good to have that out of the way. Just have to run to the library and print it and submit it and I'm done!

This one was about the global spread of English, otherwise known as 'englishization' which I might add is not in any dictionary or referenced by hardly anyone other than academics (and mostly linguists at that)! So, in my mind it doesn't even really exist as a word, at least not in mainstream media yet. So, if you haven't heard of it...don't worry, neither has anyone else!

Time to pack up, say good-bye, fly home and start the dissertation! Eeps!

Another 4,000 written, only 16,000 to go

Finished one more assessment for the MA. This one was the most boring of them all. It was a critical analysis of two articles from the Journal of Intercultural Communication. Blah!

Only one more essay and then I can start the dissertation. And if I write the next paper the way I want to, it will be the lit review and background for the dissertation! Ah hah!!

Diversity Exploring Part II

A Few Residents from Asbury Overseas House

(Countries Represented include: India, Venezuela, China, Italy, UK, USA,

Congo, Egypt, Vietnam, Korea, Norway)

Since I’ve moved in, my Sri Lankan, Ghanaian, Russian, Korean and French floor mates have moved out and been replaced by an female Egyptian doctor, a Christian Egyptian, a Parisian man originally from Togo, his girlfriend from Gabon and a British woman who lives in the Ukraine.

The Egyptian doctor helped me find the local GP when I was sick. She also brought me a plate of veggies with mayo one night. She studies cardiovascular disease.

I’ve had several interesting conversations about ‘liberalism’ with the Christian Egyptian in our wireless internet room which prompted me to put stickers of Hindu gods and “save Tibet’ on my laptop which prompted him to give me a few interesting looks the next time.

I met an Indian family from Madurai living in my house. And another family that used to live in Chennai.

My sticker of Lord Muruga on my computer sparks lots of conversation among the Indian children when I’m checking Internet in the common room.

During a house potluck dinner I complimented the woman from Madurai on her delicious payasam in Tamil.

Several weeks ago my German classmate invited several of us over to her flat to watch the Eurovision Decision-England. As usual I was the only native speaker among Polish, Spanish, and Korean women.

On the bus to London I sat next to a Muslim Tamil-speaking man from Sri Lanka.

On the bus coming back from London I sat next to a man from Nigeria.

I went to a birthday party for a woman from Iran. She showed us pictures from her wedding and taught us Persian dancing.

Several days later she came to my birthday dinner and brought her Persian music—more dancing with women from Germany, Spain, South Korea, the US and Iran.

While my mom was visiting, several people stopped us in stores to comment on our ‘cute’ American accent. One woman had diamond and gold studs embedded into her teeth.

In the course of my moms four-day visit we ate pub grub, Bangladeshi curry, Persian chicken with tea for two, a Full English, and enjoyed a New York family restaurant.

I gave a presentation on “English as a Global Language” with a classmate who moved here from Algeria when she was in middle school and didn’t speak ANY English. She is now studying to become an Arabic-English translator.

This same friend from Algeria invited me to her house and baked me sponge cake, biscotti, and jam cookies. While I was enjoying tea and cake, we heard the call to prayer and she went in another room and prayed.

I was invited to an Iranian New Years dinner with students from Mexico, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, the US and of course, Iran.

The next night I went out drinking with the above Iranians. At the table there were Americans and Iranians drinking beer, vodka, and whiskey while comparing international gestures of offense. If only the US President Bush and the Iranian President Ahmadinejad could have a similar light-hearted conversation.

I have had lots of great conversations about fundamentalist Christians with the American on my floor who is studying theology. We were kindly handed Easter ‘booklets’ by our British floor mate.

I attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city center with the above mentioned American. In addition to the dance troops, bag pipers, and every other person with painted green faces, there was a Sikh drumming group and an African music group in the parade.

The rich international community and experiences I’m having in Birmingham continue to surprise me! It is unlike anything I have experienced anywhere in the world. The only sad thing is, I don’t feel like I have many British friends as part of THIS experience. Although I know lots of Brits from my three years in Japan so I don’t feel as if I’m missing out too much! If I had the money I could spend my days traveling the UK visiting them all…alas the funds have quickly disappeared and I’ll be living out my last weeks in Birmingham enjoying the diversity and multi-culturalism.

Ann...on the loose!

Until I have the time to write and post some pictures, there is a great update on my mom's blog, Ann...on the loose! about her whirlwind visit to Birmingham, my 30th b-day and all the adventurous in-between! It was a fabulous visit!!!

Another 4,000 written, 20,000 to go

Well, I've made it through another 4,000 word essay. They do seem to be getting much much easier. Or maybe I'm getting lazier. Since I'm on-campus I was forced into giving a power point about my topic several weeks ago. So it was much easier to write up after having organized all the information for a presentation! I have six weeks to complete 8,000 more words and then it's on to the last 12,000--the mighty dissertation!

For all you interested EFL/ESL nerds out there...for this essay I designed a teacher education course for volunteers in India. Maybe someday I'll actually get to use it!

Exploring old Brum

The Japan to India 2007 tour is officially over. And here I am, in Birmingham, England about to start classes. After hours and hours of worrying about visas and procedures and documents, I made it into the country without even a skeptical glance. It was almost disappointing considering all the documents I had printed, ordered, requested and copied to prove my legitimate status as a student for the coming four months. But I'm here. I arrived in good 'ole Brum (as it's apparently known) two days after arriving in the UK. I spent the first day recuperating from travel with relatives in Sussex. I spent the second day with a friend's family eating gourmet food in Swindon. And now, I'm here.

I woke up to sunny skies today! A miracle! To keep myself occupied and to soak up that precious Vitamin D, I layered on the coats and jumped on the train to explore the city center. It is an active downtown full of people of all shapes, sizes, nationalities, religions, and cultural backgrounds. There were Sikhs driving buses and eating hot dogs, Indians shopping at the Chinese grocery store, and hordes and hordes of people from all walks of life looking for the best bargains in the open markets! On one street corner there was a kilt wearing man playing the bagpipes and across the street their were Hare Krishna's playing instruments and chanting. The obvious diversity of the city after traveling (and living in) very homogeneous cultures is a pleasant change.

At the library I picked up all the brochures I could find about lovely ole Brum. There seems to be a lot going on and if I have the time (and money) I can take in museums and theater galore. Not to mention explore places like Stratford-Upon-Avon, Coventry, and Warwick. My schedule could get pretty busy in the next four months and that's without classes!






I tried to take in the sights and sounds of this new town. And how best to do that than by eating food from a cart--the local greasy stuff. I got chips 'n curry. This really translates to a slightly curry flavored sauce smothering a plate of french fries. It was ok, but for $3, it was about the cheapest food on the street. After standing on the street and stuffing my face with grease, I needed a different kind of cultural experience. So I ordered a latte and sat at Starbucks people watching! But I won't be doing that very often. A tall latte is about $6US! Eek!


My new humble abode for the next four months. I am only onw of about 80 people (including 20+ children) from 25+ countries living here. I have a small room with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. My very friendly and helpful neighbor is from Sri Lanka. Others I've met on my floor are from France, China and the Congo. But my fridge buddy is a kimchee lovin' Korean--fridge stinks!! The trials and tribulations of international living!