Tag Archives: language
Tailoring Time in Hoi An
I didn’t bank on visiting the tailor when I was in Hoi An. It was promoted as the place to have clothes made in Vietnam, but I had told myself that I was on an adventure, didn’t need the clothes, and I was looking ahead to stocking up on work clothes once I had returned […]
Monday Moment: Spot the Accent
Coming from Australia, I have heard many an Australian-Vietnamese accent. A good number of Vietnamese citizens settle in Australia looking for a different, new and possibly better life, and so it was not unusual to hear that familiar twang. Even as our guide introduced himself, I had a feeling that much of his language development, […]
Welcome to Vietnam
When you travel through Cambodia, you learn more about what it means to simply survive. To take what life gives to you, deal with it and carry on. Opportunities are limited, as is education, and a plethora of international support programs continue to work solidly to get Cambodia on its feet independently once more. With […]
Awesome and not-awesome things about my travels
So, after seven weeks traversing the landscapes of South East Asia, I am back in the sandpit of Dubai. As you may have noticed, I got about five posts into my Cambodia leg before internet went haywire. There are controls from the government in Vietnam that restrict access to some personal blogs, and generally I […]
Monday Moment: A Little Yellow Book
When I find myself in a new country with a little extra time on my hands, I find nothing more pleasant than rifling my way through a bookshop for local stories written in English. Now, I’m not just talking about having Shanataram on the shelf at home, but collections of stories from people and […]
What I Learned from Southern Spain: Part Two
Closely linked to my “Christmas in a different country every year” campaign, I rang in the New Year attempting to sing Auld Lang Syne (is that even right?) with dear friends in the Andalucian city of Málaga. We day tripped, photographed, ate, drank, wandered and shopped in the region for a little under a week, […]
What I Learned from Southern Spain: Part One
Closely linked to my “Christmas in a different country every year” campaign, I rang in the New Year attempting to sing Auld Lang Syne (is that even right?) with dear friends in the Andalucian city of Málaga. We day tripped, photographed, ate, drank, wandered and shopped in the region for a little under a week, […]
Mind Your Waistline
I love Middle Eastern flavours; deep, wholesomely flavoured eggplant, sauteed tomatoes and heavy on the olive oil. Rich casseroles filled with minced lamb and spiced sauces, dips and pastes made of roasted and pureed vegetables. Paired with freshly baked turkish pide, a broader range of tea than the standard deep black fare, a healthy dose […]
Nothing like a little GRIM…
I’ve been teaching the kids narratives of late and you know I love to share their best work. I’ve been encouraging them to do all kinds of grim, evil, awful things to think outside the box and take a new attitude to work/life etc. Thus, we wrote a story together. It came in parts, coming […]
The Language of Dubai
In a world of multiple languages born from millions of years of human conversational evolution …you also have the wonderful new sub-category of Dubai Language. In a city of a thousand nationalities and just as many vocabulary differences, the many expats can find a common ground in the ‘invented’ words and local dialect born of […]
Not Another Paneer Makhni
Let’s get this straight from the outset; Indian cuisine is not my food of choice. I’d much rather take up some South-east Asian delights or Arab food any day. On my last school trip to Mumbai, there was absolutely no choice in what I could eat, and we were regularly plied with buffet-style Indian dishes […]
