August 8th, 2013 Jet lag woke me up at precisely 4:50 a.m. this morning and the stifling heat kept me awake. Today’s’ forecast was 37 C, but I could see fluffy clouds blowing in from the south, from the Sahara actually. It is after all, the world’s hottest desert. It would have to be, for […]
ACEI BLOG - LANGUAGE
Keepin’ It Eclectic and Worldwide!
July 18, 2013 This week’s Rhythm Planet features a wide variety of new music from around the world in many different styles. We feature some Brazilian classics from the band Azymuth and French bossa novista Nicola Conte’s new collection Viagem 5, some cool vibes to beat the heat with Joe Locke and Milt Jackson; we debut new albums […]
20 Facts About Turkey
June 07, 2013 In light of the protests that have erupted in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we wanted to share a few facts about this country situated at the northeast end of the Mediterranean Sea in southeast Europe and southwest Asia. North of Turkey is the Black Sea and […]
The Web-based Brain: Redefining Intelligence
May 30, 2013 “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” – Plato How do we choose to measure intelligence, and what kind […]
Dispatches from the 2013 APAIE Conference in Hong Kong
March 14, 2013 There’s nothing like beating jet lag after a 17-hour flight from Los Angeles-San Francisco-Hong Kong, with a ride on the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island first thing in the morning for a meeting. It actually proved to be a relaxing way to get a start on the next two […]
Heroes, Activists, and Martyrs: Lending their names to the streets of Tehran
January 24, 2013 When I heard the story of Granada, Spain planning to approve a measure to name a square in honor of the British punk band The Clash’s Joe Strummer http://www.theworld.org/2013/01/spanish-square-to-be-named-in-honor-of-the-clashs-joe-strummer/ I was reminded of the battery of street name changes that Iranian cities underwent immediately after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The changing […]
Mali: A country under siege; its music silenced.
January 18, 2013 Without music, life would be a mistake. ~-Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Why They Hate Music? When the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran in 1979, he said the following: “Music is no different than opium. Music affects the human mind in a way that makes people think of nothing but music […]
Reflection, Renewal, and Red Underwear
December 20, 2012 At the close of this year—at least in the Gregorian calendar— which is celebrated in Europe and in the Americas, I find myself reflecting on what entering a New Year means to people around the world. As I am at the end of my first year living abroad, the differences and similarities […]
Comments to our blog “Travel: The Bridge to Friendship.”
November 05, 2012 We received a few comments on our Facebook page about our recent blog “Travel: The Bridge to Friendship” (11/01/12) which we’d like to share with you. Please feel free to comment on our blog page and share our posts. Thank you. “Let me first start by saying how much I love your […]
DREAMS OF A COMMON LANGUAGE
May 31th 2012 The West African women are warm and welcoming. I am here to observe their conversational English group, which I will be helping to lead a few weeks from now in July and August, as a literacy volunteer tutor. Their group has been meeting at the library for six months. I am not […]