It’s a novel of sex, romance, power and religion.

And in a post-September 11 world looking for a window on the Middle East, it is significant that Alaa Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building is also a novel of Egypt that has just been translated into English.

Increasingly, writers, readers and publishers are turning to literature as a bridge between cultures, particularly Western and Arab societies estranged since Muslim extremists from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Recent years have seen the arrival of a Web site devoted to translating fiction and new grants for literary translations. Last year, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest of its kind in the world, chose the Arab world as its “guest of honor,” giving several hundred Arab writers and intellectuals an unprecedented chance to exchange ideas with their Western counterparts and meet publishers and agents.

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When senior Jose Kafie lived in El Salvador, his parents were actively involved in his education. They hosted a parent reunion, met with his teachers regularly and made time to talk with Kafie about school. However, once his family moved to Silver Spring in search of more opportunities, everything changed.

Now, Kafie’s parents must work long hours at several jobs to support the family and are rarely available to talk with Kafie or his teachers about his schoolwork as they once could in El Salvador. The language barrier between Kafie’s family and the school makes active parental participation nearly impossible. “It was like there was this huge wall, and they couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t express themselves to my teachers like they used to,” Kafie says.

Students all over the county must deal with this lack of communication between their parents and their teachers. MCPS has over 16,000 international students representing 154 countries and 120 languages. More than 74 percent of these families speak a primary language other than English, according to a 1999 issue of MCPS’ The Bulletin. Although MCPS has made attempts to make translations available to families who need them, their efforts have not been effective enough to prevent the alienation of non-English speaking families. As a result, these families know very little of what goes on at school and in their children’s education.

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Known as Exam Hell, school entrance exams are notoriously stressful in Japan, but students in their droves are turning to what they believe is one very lucky charm -– a bar of Kit Kat.

As well as being a favourite lunchtime snack, students are now bringing the Nestlé chocolate bar into the exam room because the phrase “kitto katsu” means, “If I try, I will win.”

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This past weekend’s Iraqi election — held in Nashville as well as Baghdad — was an inspirational reminder of our city’s growing diversity and role in the wider world. Nashville was one of only five U.S. cities hosting the overseas voting for Iraq’s first free election in 50 years, chosen due to its Kurdish population — which at an estimated 8,000 is the largest in the country.

The Athens of the South is also home to large groups of Mexicans, Vietnamese and Somalis, among others. In fact, from 1990 to 2000, Nashville’s foreign-born population more than tripled from 12,662 to 39,596. In the five years since the last U.S. Census, it’s safe to say that it has continued to grow at a good clip — witness our ever-expanding dining choices on Nolensville Road.

About this time last year, Metro completed a yearlong study “looking at how immigrants are adjusting and contributing to life in Nashville and Davidson County,” and recommending ways to help them adapt to the local culture and economy.

It’s a commendable start, but only half of our responsibility. Globalization is a two-way street; as we welcome immigrants and their contributions to our city, we should also share our experience and expertise with the world.

Tennessee State University is one institution that’s made global exchange a priority by partnering over the past few years with universities in Malawi, Thailand, Ukraine, and now Tunisia. In September, the school’s Office of International Business Programs received a $194,000 grant from the State Department to share faculty, students and expertise with the University of Tunis el Manar — with the overarching goal of increasing U.S. understanding of Islamic societies.

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The hottest issue among politicians and religious leaders is the “culture war”– a supposed crisis in moral and religious values that is ripping at the fabric of the nation.

A scholar from the University of Michigan School of Business is jumping into the fray. But he is not armed with another bombshell. Instead, sociologist Wayne Baker is waving a white flag at all sides in this conflict.

“We need to think about this in a new way. I believe that this culture war is a myth in this country,” Baker said Thursday as he gave dozens of other scholars in the business school a first glimpse at his research. “We think we’re divided — and we’re really not.”

The widespread panic has been driven largely by political and religious activists hoping to whip up support for their causes, Baker said.

“There’s a whole cottage industry of people selling this idea that there’s a crisis, and that we’ve lost our values, and that we’re deeply divided as a nation over that,” he said. “It’s not true.”

Before going public with his findings, Baker spent nearly a decade examining surveys and other social research data, gathered since 1981 in countries around the world.

“If we group together traditional values about God, country and family, including the importance of God and patriotism … it turns out these values are widely shared by Americans, and they’ve been solid over the last 20 years,” Baker said.

“That’s different than the picture in Europe, for example, where these values are not as important. But, in this country, we’re a very traditional society.”

Comments from scholars in the audience seemed to support Baker’s conclusions, which are summarized in a new book, America’s Crisis of Values.

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We are working toward universal broadband access in rural Alaska, strengthening distance learning and telemedicine services and encouraging homeownership and entrepreneurship

For example 0ver the past two years we have provided eight rural Alaska school districts with grants of $400,000 to $500,000 each to provide distance learning opportunities.

The equipment purchased with these grant funds connects rural classrooms and provides students with learning opportunities not only here in Alaska, but elsewhere in the world.

After learning that her rural Southeast Alaska district was successful in receiving a grant, one superintendent told me she plans to use our equipment to provide Spanish language instruction to her students, and to partner with a school in China to provide language and cultural instruction.

Finding Arabic or Chinese as class offerings in area school systems is rare.
But some Arlington parents want the schools to take a more forward-looking approach with foreign language instruction.

The Arlington school system is adding Italian to the curriculum next year — the first new foreign language it has added since 1988, according to The Washington Post. The school system says a survey revealed that Italian would be the most popular new language to offer.

But parent Peter Rousselot is worried that the schools aren’t really preparing students for life in the 21st century where Arabic and Chinese may be in higher demand.

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Had your fill of pad Thai and the same ol’ spring rolls? Psst: Pass the “secret” menu

Looking to take a walk on the wild side? Several Thai eateries offer “secret” native-language menus with fare that isn’t on the regular menu. These include dishes with unfamiliar, exotic or unusual ingredients (Mudfish! Yum!), or kick up the heat to a level that would make some of us melt.

Internet food-chat site users have translated menus for these spots, so now non-natives can also delve into more adventurous dining if they request the secret menu. (Be patient, some of these eateries have a limited amount of translated menus on hand.)

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It seems every aspect of American life is undergoing a “Globalization” except one — our literary culture. Explanations for this phenomenon vary, from lack of interest to lack of availability, but one thing is certain: A majority of Americans have a profound disinterest in the literary and cultural works of other countries.

Just think about it — aside from African-American and Anglo-Saxon literature, how many translated foreign works did you read throughout your education? According to Wayne State University literature experts, the chances that you’ve read any are pretty slim.

Robert Elsie, a German anthropologist, came to Wayne State Thursday as part of The Humanities Center’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. Elsie, a specialist in Albanian culture, has translated over 35 Albanian books into English.

According to Elsie, foreign language works comprise only 2-3 percent of the American literature market.

Walter Edwards, an English Department linguistics professor, suggests “the principal reason for the lack of interest in foreign literatures is the economic, political and cultural dominance of the United States … There are exceptions, of course, but typically the dominant culture is often ethnocentric.”

Anca Vlasopolos, an English professor and director of the Comparative Literature Program at WSU, suggests that the problem lies more in the fact that “literary translation is a thankless, ill-paid endeavor, often entailing difficulties of obtaining permission, etc., so few people who are not masochistic engage in it.”

A third factor, according to Russian professor Ken Bronstrom, “is the gradual movement toward visual media as the preferred forms among Americans, especially film and television.”

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Does the Bush clan worship the devil? Signs here point to “not likely,” but overseas, you might get a different answer.

During the inauguration festivities, the first family’s “Hook ’em, ‘horns” signal – right hand raised with the index and pinkie fingers extended – was interpreted as a salute to Satan and horrified thousands, especially in Norway.
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The two-finger salute – flown by George, Laura, Jenna and even Grandma Barbara during inauguration festivities – has generated Internet chatter and news reports. For the record, the gesture is a sign of love for the University of Texas Longhorns, whose fans – whose numbers famously include the Bush family – often shout “Hook ’em,’ horns!” at sporting events.

It’s easy to understand where the confusion comes in – this is, after all, a hand signal that is estimated to be 2,500 years old.

For much of that time, it’s been associated with pagans and the occult, and today it’s best known among heavy metal music fans.

In the beginning, though, it was about a bull.

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A Brazilian newspaper on Thursday accused the New York Times of illustrating a story on obesity in Brazil with a picture of three flabby-looking Czech women on a beach famed for its shapely local beauties.

The Times story went to the heart of Brazil’s self-image as a place of sunny sexiness and was the second in less than a year to provoke strong criticism in Brazil, where the globally influential newspaper’s coverage has faced heavy scrutiny by local media.

The Jan. 13 story by correspondent Larry Rohter was based on a government study that said more than 40 per cent of Brazilians are overweight.

It noted that Brazil’s “gifts to global culture” included the Girl from Ipanema and the thong, or “tanga,” bikini.

The photograph, by John Maier, showed three overweight women in bikinis on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema Beach.

However, according to Globo newspaper, the women were not Brazilians but Czech tourists. “Certainly I am not a girl from Ipanema. I am a woman of a certain age,” 59-year-old Milena Suchoparkova told Globo in an interview.

“I think I’m overweight but I never was skinny. I was always robust but I wouldn’t say I was obese,” said Suchoparkova, Czech-born but a naturalized Italian.

Globo, one of Brazil’s biggest dailies, ran its story under the headline “New York Times Screw-up.” It ran a separate article on Rohter and questioned the Times’ ethics and credibility.

Suchoparkova and her friends were upset because, they told Globo, the photographer had not asked their permission before taking the shot. They were not mentioned in the story itself.

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A successful UND student and faculty exchange program is being honored today by an international nonprofit that tracks global education networks.

The Institute of International Education has recognized UND with an honorable mention as part of its 2005 Heiskell Awards for Innovation for UND’s joint business management initiative with the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

UND also recently hired its first Chinese Studies tenure-track professor and has added Chinese language instruction to its curriculum.

UND’s Executive in Residence program sends former business CEOs with experience in China to make contacts with American businesses in China, paving paths for students.

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Getting a French-speaking audience to theaters in the United States to watch a post-World War II-era drama about a reform school isn’t going to make a movie distributor much money.

That’s part of the reason why “Les Choristes,” France’s current Academy Award hopeful for best foreign film, is coming out in this country as “The Chorus” and is being advertised as a universal feel-good story about how singing in a choir turns a group of troubled boys around. In Canada, where it was released a few months ago, it was “The Choir.” This fall in England it was “The Choirboys,” probably the closest to the original title, but perhaps not the most strategic choice for America.

“I’ve always been a fan of original titles,” says Gary Faber, vice president of marketing at Miramax Films, which is releasing the film here. “But this one was a simple decision. People couldn’t pronounce it.”

The last few years have shown that foreign movies, with the right combination of art, luck, and canny marketing, can make real money. Three years ago “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” made more than $128 million, rather surprising for a movie about a bunch of people fighting over a sword in medieval China. The same year, “Amelie,” about a French imp, pulled down $33 million. In 2002, Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding” proved that a film primarily in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu could still make $14 million. And this fall, “Hero” made $53 million despite being held for two years by its distributor.

To pull in those kind of numbers, you can’t rely on just the art-house crowd. You have to seduce viewers who generally stay away from subtitled movies. That means being both good and very careful when it comes to promotion. Depending on a film’s subject and its intended audience, trailers and ads play up its familiar or exotic aspects, even while downplaying the fact that viewers will have to read their way through it. This can involve completely wordless trailers, English-language voiceovers that aren’t in the films themselves, or print ads that create interest without implying anything too foreign.

It’s not so much about trickery — making the films look American so people won’t realize they’re going to be seeing a foreign film — as about getting audiences to long to see a film so much that they’ll go even if they have to read what’s being said.

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What makes a city international? Its people! The 2000 U.S. Census reports the foreign-born population of Marion County at 4.5 percent. Their number has increased 157 percent since 1990.

We are a composite of people from throughout the world. In fact, there are 129 languages other than English spoken in homes of Marion County public school students. International Baccalaureate degrees are offered at private and public high schools throughout the area, as are instruction in foreign languages and English as a new language.

The demand for English-language instruction for newcomers is on the rise in businesses and organizations. So, too, is the interest in learning Spanish. The city’s Hispanic population is projected to reach 24 percent of Indiana’s population by 2030.

Foreign-owned businesses employ 137,400 in Indiana, ranking the state 14th nationally…

It is as important today as at any time in the history of our city to build bridges of understanding. It makes good business sense to be a welcoming, open, international city…

Economic, cultural, social and political advantages will be ours to the extent that the world recognizes Indianapolis as an increasingly international, cosmopolitan and welcoming city.

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An increasing number of national students are preferring private schools to government schools to the extent that about 30 per cent of the students enrolled in the various private schools in the country are originally from the UAE. According to official figures, out of an estimated 290,072 private school students, around 50,000 are UAE nationals.

When your favourite No. 1 newspaper asked a cross-section of the national population for the reason for their choice, a majority of the parents responded that they want their children to acquire sound communication skills in English.

When lack of proficiency in English — both written and spoken — is pointed out as one of the reasons that hamper the career prospects of many UAE nationals, parents believe that providing their children with quality education will help them overcome the shortcoming.

Among their reasons for opting against government schools are better quality of English teaching and scope for cross-cultural interaction in private schools that will widen their horizon of thoughts and enhance their communicative skills. Mostly preferring the American or British curriculum, parents are willing to shell out a chunk of their income, even when free education is available in a government school.

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