Gori Girl

Photo Credit: ashengrove

Friday Connections: a time when I give links and a bit of commentary to things I’d blog about if I had the time. This week the categories are international photography (in honor of the DSLR arriving today purchased for our India trip), some language learning tools that have been suggested to me (or that I’ve found) recently, and race relations in East & Southeast Asia.

International Photography

• How to Take International Street Portraits
  A very neat list of suggestions from the wonderful Digital Photography School site. Here’s their list of articles on Travel Photography, generally.
• we are tourists, we are attractions
  A post by Dave and Jenny of Our Delhi Struggle on how being the subjects of others’ photography made them reevaluate how they snapped their own pictures of the sites in India. Reminds me a bit of my experience of “being a rock star” in India.
• Ethnic Groups of China
  Breathtaking colorful photographs of the numerous ethnic groups of China, pictured in their homelands with traditional dress and cultural items. (The photograph at the top of this post is of the ethnic Miao, although from a personal photographer).

Language Learning Tools

• Kids One
  An Indian children’s site that teaches Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil. Features include traditional rhymes, animated fables, stories, and mythology, and vocabulary lists.
• So You Want To Learn A Language
  If you’re learning any language, I think your first stop should be here. Absolutely amazing collection of links!
• Word Champ
  Now that I’ve got the Hindi script down pretty well, I’m starting to make flash cards using the Word Champ site, which was recommend on my Hindi Learning Plan post. I really like this site – loads better than LiveMocha’s flash card section (altho LiveMocha is good for other things). I’m GoriGirl there if anyone wants to friend me.
• Language Impact
  Another great site recommended by a reader. Here you’ll find a bunch of advice about how to best go about learning a language. I especially like the articles on how to use technology to help yourself, since many books aren’t that up-to-date on that topic.

Race Relations in East and Southeast Asia

• Mixed-Race TV Contestant Ignites Debate in China
  An NPR article (forwarded to me by D.Jain) on a young woman whose looks (she’s Chinese/African-American) have created quite a stir in a China that isn’t sure how to deal with mixes-race citizens.
• Baby Boom of Mixed Children Test South Korea
  South Korea is also grappling with the issue of mixed-race Koreans. 11% of marriages in S. Korea are now interracial – a very recent trend.
• Love in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband
  An interview of an intercultural couple living in Japan. The same blog also has a second and third interview with two other intercultural couples.
• Finally, to finish things off, a sweet video about young love in Malaysia, a country that has a difficult history with race relations of their main ethnic groups – Malay, Chinese, Indian, and various tribal groups.