International Women's Day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women. There are some countries in which International Women's Day is celebrated as a national holiday. The Suffragettes are honored for their work to get the right to vote for women. The holiday celebrates the successes of women but also reminds the world [...]
Ana Cruz, Costa Rica Christine Connally's Cluster, Maryland I celebrated the Chinese new year with all my friends at the Chinese new year parade in WashingtonDC. It was really fun because we saw dragon dance, Chinese music, bands and different activity from Chinese culture, and of course we can't leave without eating the most popular [...]
For telling us about her celebration of Chinese New Year. Many thanks, Penny, for sharing your festivities with Global Awareness! Chinese New Year Essay by Penny Yong, Malaysia. Chinese New Year (CNY) is one of the big celebrations in Malaysia aside from Ramadan and Deepavali. Each year we kick-start CNY with a reunion dinner on [...]
Chinese New Year is the longest (15 days) and most important Chinese holiday. It is also called the Festival of Spring. Each year has its own corresponding animal from the Chinese Zodiac. 2013 was the Year of the Snake, and 2014 is the Year of the Horse. Some say that as the year 2013 ended, the [...]
I recently did a language simulation for host families and community counselors. Redundancia allows participants to experience communicating in a new language. The exercise allowed us to view one of the challenges faced by our au pairs as they attempt to fit into a new culture. Without fluency in a language, communication is severely hampered; [...]
Thanks to all the au pairs who participated in the Global Awareness Scavenger Hunt. I hope you had a great time browsing the site to find the answers to our Global Awareness questions. There were many of you who had the correct answers, but prizes go to the first 3 au pairs who submitted the [...]
I recently had the good fortune of attending a program about Girl Up, an innovative campaign of the United Nations Foundation which mobilizes the general public , specifically American adolescent girls,to raise funds and awareness of UN programs that serve the hardest-to-reach adolescent girls in developing countries. Melissa Hillebrenner, Director of Girl Up was a [...]
I was recently talking to Karla, a very lovely au pair from Costa Rica. Her English sure sounds fluent to me, her host family and anyone in the community who meets her. "And that's the problem," she said. Her spoken language is good: vocabulary and grammar, but she said that she often can't find a [...]