My Squirrel Day in “Engwish”

What a beautiful day. The air is warm with anticipation for spring, with the sun warming my arching back as I stretch. My tree, or “Mossy” as I know him, is located a couple of squirrel lengths from the stony paths that

New Global Studies Minor to be Offered in Fall 2019

In spring 2019, Swarthmore will offer a new interdisciplinary Global Studies minor. Associate Professor of Political Science Ayse Kaya and Associate Professor of French Carina Yervasi, in collaboration with other faculty members, spearheaded the movement to make this minor a reality at

Rethinking the decline of language education

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture by Dr. Brandon King ’05 on the parallels between legalism and contemporary education. Dr. King graduated with a Chinese major from Swarthmore, and in his year, 19 students graduated with a Chinese major or

Benefits of bilingualism

Last weekend, I volunteered to cook for the Chinese New Year party hosted by the Chinese Department. As I was frying spring rolls — authentic Chinese food — to be served at the party, I had the opportunity to meet with fellow

The beauty of an unintelligible world

I’ll never forget my first experience abroad, which was this semester. Exiting the plane for the first time, as I stepped into Hanoi, Vietnam, it was as if I had been transported to a whole new universe. Looking around me, I was

Order a pizza, and it shall come

Salam sejahtera, saya mampu bertutur dalam pelbagai bahasa dan ia memperkasakan saya — Hi, I speak multiple languages and that empowers me. As an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia (a country that’s not particularly kind to the children of immigrants), I was brought

A Happy Psuedo-Persian New Year

When it comes to observing cultural holidays while at Swat, being away from my home and family has always been a challenge. No matter the occasion, I always find myself defying conventional traditionalism and celebrating a filtered-down, dorm-room-makeshift interpretation of the holiday.

Learning English goodly

Learning English is hard. I really started trying to learn the language when I was in 8th grade. When I was growing up in China, I did not go to an international school, and, at the time, my English class was teaching

Trump’s Subtle Language of Oppression

Cw: xenophobia and homophobia   As I watched Donald Trump’s inaugural address, eyes both welling and rolling, a certain section stuck out to me. It occurred early in the speech as Trump was still getting started. After thanking Obama for his gracious