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Independence Day: More than not having to pay for William and Kate’s wedding
After being out of the country last year, I’m glad to be back in Washington D.C. again to celebrate July 4th. Doing international work makes it all the more important to be anchored by my own national identity and and recognize what America has given me, what I contribute in return, and how to explain my [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged African-American, Beijing, China, Declaration of independence, Freedom, George Jean Nathan, Gordon Wood, identity, Independence Day, James Fallows, Langston Hughes, Leonard Cohen, music, Nationalism, poetry, pop culture, Quotes, Self-determination, Tienanmen Square, U.S.A. Leave a comment
Can you spot the overseas-born Chinese woman?
Monica Tan, an Austrailian-born, ethnically Chinese writer in Beijing, put together a slideshow including herself alongside Chinese people, to test whether a stranger on the street can really guess her nationality. As James Fallows notes , this is a great followup to the series Fallows wrote a few months ago titled “Walk Like an American,” about what mannerisms or other traits [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Austrailia, Beijing, body language, China, culture, James Fallows Leave a comment
Father’s Day: What my Dad taught me about building bridges to make a difference
I think I originally learned bridge-building from my parents, and especially my father, who has a talent not only for finding what he has in common with others, but taking the next step to use that commonality to claim the voice and authority needed to make a difference. I first noticed this at a young [...]
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Harvard Business School elevator pitch builder
The elevator pitch is an easy and important tool for telling your story to anyone. I’ve found elevator-pitch practice to be one of the most helpful parts of the career training in my MBA program, and in turn it’s been a very helpful tool as I’ve worked with one of my coaching clients. (Contact me if you’re [...]
Superhero social networks
Samuel Arbesman describes research on what the science of social network analysis can tell us about comic book characters, and by extension, real life: The Marvel Universe does exhibit the statistical features of a real social network in some simple ways. Furthermore, similar to our own world, they found distinct differences between the social [...]
Why is it easier to understand a fellow non-native speaker?
A British friend in Colombia once asked me about this. There are some fascinating answers in a discussion between James Fallows and his readers. Apparently It’s called the the “mismatched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit” by linguists Tessa Bent and Ann Bradlow, here: Results showed that for native English listeners, the native English talker was most intelligible. However, [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Colombia, communication, cross-cultural, English, language, linguistics, Spanish Leave a comment
Are your processes messing with your relationships?
Have you ever dropped the ball on connecting with someone you met because you didn’t have a good plan for how and when to follow up? Or have you ever been frustrated when an overworked or disorganized HR department turns the hiring process into a stop-and-go, hurry-up-and-wait guessing game? Whether you’re on the giving or receiving end of the [...]
You only have two choices: get quiet or get numb