They all refute an assertion by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University [...]]]> Today’s New York Times features a Room for Debate section about the need to learn multiple languages. Six panelists, including author Stacie Berdan, agree that it is crucial to learn more than one language to operate in the new, globalized world.

They all refute an assertion by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University and former secretary of the Treasury (and a man with a history of making blanket statements), who wrote What You (Really) Need to Know.

 The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever before. This makes it essential that the educational experience breed cosmopolitanism — that students have international experiences, and classes in the social sciences draw on examples from around the world. It seems logical, too, that more in the way of language study be expected of students. I am not so sure.

English’s emergence as the global language, along with the rapid progress in machine translation and the fragmentation of languages spoken around the world, make it less clear that the substantial investment necessary to speak a foreign tongue is universally worthwhile. While there is no gainsaying the insights that come from mastering a language, it will over time become less essential in doing business in Asia, treating patients in Africa or helping resolve conflicts in the Middle East. [emphasis mine, read more here]

This strikes me as arrogant and short-sighted. Even if more non-Americans are learning English and Google Translate is getting better, that does not negate the value of learning other languages.

Being able to speak more than one language has had an immeasurable impact on my own life.

I learned Spanish before the age of five, thanks to my wonderful Nana Petra. While my parents were working, she totally spoiled me with home-cooked Mexican meals, lacy white dresses, and games of Lotería. She drilled me on pronunciation (A, E, I, O, U) and taught me nursery rhymes.

This early exposure to Spanish paved the neural pathways in my brain to let me think in more than one language.

I continued to study Spanish all through school and all through college, including a year here in Chile.

When I graduated with a degree in Latin American Studies, I moved to China to teach English at a university near Shanghai. I’d never studied Chinese and never been obsessed with Asian culture, but I was able to quickly pick up the basics of child-like Chinese through conversations with vegetable vendors, security guards, and migrant workers on the train.

Over the next few years, I took many private lessons and small-group classes. Thank you Layla and Xiaofei for helping me elevate my Chinese skills from toddler level to that of a nine-year-old who likes to talk about wind turbine engineers and garbage incinerators. Learning Chinese gave me access to get beyond China’s single story, beyond the world of tour guides and textbooks, to take part in everyday life.

Now back in Chile, I use Chinese less. In the last month I’ve used it twice: at a restaurant and with a new Start-Up Chile entrepreneur from China. But linguistic crossover shapes the way I see the world.

Last week I led an entrepreneurship seminar at Casa de la Mujer, a community center in a poorer neighborhood of Santiago. The last day, fabulous Start-Up Chile video intern Javiera came with me to film the class and interview me and the ladies about our experiences. (The video will be ready soon!)

I talked about the course in English and it was SO HARD!  You might be thinking, but Leslie, you’re AMERICAN. English is your first language. How can it be hard?

Since I taught and thought about the class in Spanish, explaining it in English felt distant, foreign, and even patronizing. I stumbled over words; I felt like English made the distinctions between myself and the ladies too dramatic. In Spanish it felt more communal, more egalitarian, more personal. My testimonial, of how leading discussions with these woman has inspired me as an entrepreneur, flowed with enthusiasm in Spanish, but in English it felt forced, hesitant. Good thing Javiera took lots of footage: there should be at least a few clips in which my English is fluent and confident.

Linguistic crossover has had such a profound impact on my worldview. It has given me a broader understanding of words and grammar, but more importantly the tools to navigate the world with flexibility and empathy.

I truly can’t imagine life in only one tongue. I wish every preschooler could have a multilingual headstart!

When I was a sophomore in high school, for a chemistry project, I studied baking. I decided to research the chemical properties of flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder vs. baking soda, etc. I then ignored printed recipes and attempted to create tasty treats. The first few were [...]]]>

Students at work! Photo courtesy of Fundación EcoScience

Do you remember doing hands-on science experiments?

When I was a sophomore in high school, for a chemistry project, I studied baking. I decided to research the chemical properties of flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder vs. baking soda, etc. I then ignored printed recipes and attempted to create tasty treats. The first few were far from delicious: a cake chock-full of chalky cocoa powder, concave lemon cupcakes, a mushy cake with too much mint extract. Eventually, by cake number 25 or so, I had created two real recipes: mint chocolate chip cake and apricot muffins.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it’s one of the few school lessons that I can remember in detail.

Why do I remember that baking soda is a base, and it needs to be combined with acidic ingredients like lemon or buttermilk or cream of tartar in order to produce the carbon dioxide bubbles that enable the cake to rise?

Because I didn’t just read this in a book; I discovered it with my own hands and nose and tastebuds.

I believe that hands-on science education is absolutely critical for the next generation of citizens, everywhere in the world. One must have a fundamental understanding of ecology, biology, and other disciplines to be able to make good decisions about food, transportation, and the world in general, but students will only truly remember those lessons if they discover them with their own hands!

My friend María Cuellar is developing a fabulous science education project here in Chile. It’s a bus specially equipped with science experiments, and it will travel to underprivileged schools throughout the country, to reach 10,000 kids per year. I love the name: Con = with, Ciencia = science, and ConCiencia sounds the same as conscience.

María’s enthusiasm is contagious; here’s her description of the project.

Dear friends,

I’ve told you a little bit about this before, but I’ll explain it again briefly. I am part of a group of scientists and entrepreneurs working on a project called el Bus ConCiencia, a mobile laboratory on a bus that will take scientific experiments to the most remote and impoverished schools in Chile.

Although we have enough funding for the investment part of the project (i.e. the bus, the laboratory modification, the development of the experiments), we still need to find funding for the operational costs for 2012 (i.e. gasoline, materials for experiments, teacher trainings, printing costs, etc.). So, we launched the Bus ConCiencia fundraising campaign! It’s on a lovely Argentinean website called idea.me: http://idea.me/proyecto/89/busconciencia

What we want to achieve with the website is crowdfunding. This means that we are interested in having lots of donations, even if they are small. So, if you want to donate 20 or 5 dollars, that’s really helpful!

Here are the instructions, just in case:
1. You go to this website: http://idea.me/proyecto/89/busconciencia?siteLang=en_US
2. Click on the green button that says “I WANT TO SUPPORT!”
3. Go down and click on your “Reward”, that is, how much you want to donate.
4. Choose whether you want to pay for the shipping cost (for us to mail your reward).
5. Go down and click on “CONTINUE”.
6. Write down your information for ideame (this is what we will use to send you your rewards).
7. Click on “I have read and accept the ideame terms and conditions.” Then “SAVE”.
8. Choose your payment method (I highly recommend PayPal).
9. Write down your information and pay with a credit card.

Please share this link with your friends!

Thank you!!
xoxo,
Maria

For now, here is a translation of the list scribbled above:

Motivations for Entrepreneurial [...]]]>

We asked women aged 13-70, from the Casa de la Mujer Huamachucho´s Escuela de Verano, about their motivations for entrepreneurial endeavors. This is what they said.

With several Start-Up Chile entrepreneurs, I am leading a five-day seminar at Casa de la Mujer Huamachuco, a community center in one of the poorest areas of Santiago, in the comuna of Renca. Soon I will write more about this experience.

For now, here is a translation of the list scribbled above:

Motivations for Entrepreneurial Activity (emprender is the verb form of “start something, as an entrepreneur.” Perhaps the best translation is “bootstrap.” If you have a better translation, let me know!)

• occupy free time
• generate resources
• grow more
• feel more useful — don´t depend on husband
• feel good about yourself at any age
• surge in life, be something
• be independent, own schedule
• teach values to the children
• develop as a person
• have your own money

Back in 2008, when I was working for a software social enterprise in San Francisco, I collaborated closely with a organization called NESsT. NESsT’s main office [...]]]>

image source: http://www.nesst.org/?portfolio=domos

One of my goals for this blog this year is to provide a spotlight for Chilean entrepreneurs, in English, to share their stories with people outside this country.

Back in 2008, when I was working for a software social enterprise in San Francisco, I collaborated closely with a organization called NESsT. NESsT’s main office is in Chile and I often chatted with their communications team on Skype. Here is a description from their website:

NESsT develops sustainable social enterprises that solve critical social problems in emerging market countries.

NESsT is a catalyst for social enterprises in emerging markets and worldwide.

We achieve our mission by providing financial capital, training and mentoring, and access to markets for a high-impact portfolio of social enterprises in emerging markets.

We combine the tools and strategies of business leadership, entrepreneurship and investment with the mission and values of the social sector to enable our portfolio to: better plan, improve management capacity, grow, and increase their social impact.

I still receive NESsT’s newsletters. In the most recent issue, I read that NESsT exited two of its most successful social enterprises. One of these is:

– Domos, that sells intra-family therapy services to companies in Chile thus reducing low productivity levels of employees due to absenteeism and stress. The social enterprise reached 300 beneficiaries and generated a 42% rate of profit.

I think this is a brilliant business model. Companies need dependable staff, and who can be dependable when there is danger at home?

Read more at domoschile.cl (in Spanish) or in this English version (thanks Google Translate!)

 Do you ever find yourself on a client call, while simultaneously organizing basketball practice, brainstorming a blog post and daydreaming about lunch? You might be a slasher in need of some serious self-defense.

The [...]]]>

This article originally appeared on Brazen Careerist. Thanks Brazen for depicting me (or at least my message) as strong and savvy! 

 Do you ever find yourself on a client call, while simultaneously organizing basketball practice, brainstorming a blog post and daydreaming about lunch? You might be a slasher in need of some serious self-defense.

The lifestyle of a slasher – a term popularized by Marci Alboher in her book One Person/Multiple Careers – can be invigorating. As a guest lecturer / researcher / translator / web designer / writer, I love playing many roles and connecting with people from many industries and countries.

But it can also be stressful. When you work with people who have committed a larger part of their own “pie” to a certain task, sometimes they demand more than you have to give. Deadlines can overlap. Weekends can disappear. And the slashes that let you use your diverse skills and interests can become slashes that slice into your sanity, stability and mental health.

The word “ninja” gets used a lot in discussions about working independently – and it makes complete sense. To successfully sustain a slasher lifestyle, you must take self-defense seriously, just like a martial arts pro. But here, self-defense doesn’t mean preparing for physical attacks. It means building and maintaining a strong core, to give you the agility and flexibility to rise to the slasher challenge.

Give these slasher self-defense techniques a try:

Create a day-righting ritual

As someone who might work on several projects in one day, how do you start your morning on the right foot?

Try “day-righting,” a term coined by Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone. He says it’s “The 15-Minute Secret for Individual Effectiveness:”

Almost all of you, I’m willing to bet, have a “morning ritual.” But how many of you have created one by design? This is so important for individual effectiveness, for everyone but especially for entrepreneurs who work independently or at home.

I first became aware of this idea when interviewing a pair of salesman for Who’s Got Your Back. Together, they did an early morning gym session followed by a brainstorm, a process they called “day-righting.” After about a month of this routine, the team told me they saw dramatic improvements in their business and their lives.

Ferrazzi goes on to suggest exercise, journaling, meditation and breathing as day-righting options.

My day-righting ritual has consisted of coffee and newspaper reading with my partner, followed by a quick gym workout, a hearty home-cooked breakfast, and then going into the office to start the workday. In the days when I’ve followed at least part of this ritual, I’ve been able to balance my slashes. The days when I’ve skipped the newspaper, workout and breakfast to immediately sit down in front of my computer, a few hours later I realize that my neck is sore and I’ve been clicking around on the computer without getting much done.

Be conscious of stressors in your environment

Is your office filled with the sounds of colleagues talking on the phone, other people’s music, or buses and honking outside?

Read the rest on Brazen Careerist or Business Insider. 

1) I loved Alicia Morga’s series of posts from her trip to Azerbaijan. She writes:

So why Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire? Well, I was invited by the U.S. State Department to share my experiences as [...]]]> Today I’ve read a handful of fabulous posts about entrepreneur-istas, and I’d like to share them with you.

1) I loved Alicia Morga’s series of posts from her trip to Azerbaijan. She writes:

So why Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire? Well, I was invited by the U.S. State Department to share my experiences as a female entrepreneur with women around the country.

When I landed in Azerbaijan, cultural attaché Chris Jones picked me up at the airport and immediately handed me a cell phone and a large packet. I felt like I had parachuted into a scene in Mission Impossible. …

Azerbaijani folk dance, via Flickr Creative Commons

Talking to women, young and old, I learned how much they defeat themselves. They see no use in trying. There is a culture of can’t – even in the face of real life examples of can.

There are successful women entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan. I was fortunate to meet many, including a woman who started the few and largest bookstores, a woman who opened a tea house for women, and even a woman who started her own bakery with another woman friend at the age of 52. Where at least one person has accomplished something, in my mind it means that more can follow – the path is forged and it’s possible.

But I was frustrated to run up against mindsets that were either completely fixed and negative or unrealistically attached to Oprah-isms – dream it and it will come true – without moving to put in the work. Adding to the problem was the general fear of admitting to not knowing something and a very palpable fear of failure.

Though it’s not difficult to see how that might flow from the top. Dictatorships are not exactly known for their creativity. It’s hard to be creative when you’re not allowed to fail. It’s easy to feel defeated when you’re surrounded by corruption.

Still I did my best to convey hope and inspire the women I met to pursue education and consider entrepreneurship.

Many of the women I met we’re eager to learn and welcoming. Young girls came up to me asking for pictures and easily draped their arms around me. One young girl went to hug me and stopped abruptly, catching herself and sucking in her breath like she had seen a ghost. “Is it okay to touch you?” she asked, “I know that Americans don’t like to be touched.” I laughed and gave her a big hug. [more]

She also gives a list of practical tips for women traveling to Azerbaijan, such as:

some odd but true cultural guidelines:
a. It’s not appropriate to go outside with wet hair; if you walk around with wet hair it implies that you just had sex
b. It’s also not appropriate to put on Chapstick in public – again, it has sexual connotations [more]

2) I was delighted to see fellow StartUp Chile entrepreneur Yifan Zhang on the list of 20 Brazen Young Professionals to Watch in 2012. She’s in great company! Guess who nominated her? Here’s Brazen’s blurb about this brilliant young entrepreneur:

Yifan Zhang: A recent Harvard graduate, Yifan founded Gym-Pact, a mobile app that motivates you to work out; it launches nationally on Jan. 1. Yifan also founded Styleta, a nonprofit fashion organization.

3) I really liked this post by Pam Slim: The Deeper Root. She asks:

Why are you doing this (business) (parenting) (difficult project) (job)?

What will happen if you succeed?

Will it be worth it even if you fail?

Why does it matter?

What will you regret not doing?

What will you rejoice leaving as a legacy? [more]

4) Last but not least, I did this interview for The Workpreneur, which Ryan titled La Entrepreneur-ista. 

Have a great day!

I submitted the following photo and comments to EpicThanks, a charitable celebration of gratitude:

This year I am grateful for [...]]]> This year I have so much to be thankful for! So much has changed since last Thanksgiving, when we ordered “fire chicken” for the whole team at the ad agency in Beijing.

I submitted the following photo and comments to EpicThanks, a charitable celebration of gratitude:

This year I am grateful for Start-Up Chile, a program of the Chilean government that has invited hundreds of global entrepreneurs to bootstrap their businesses here in Chile.

I specifically would like to recognize Start-Up Chile because it has sparked many of the other positive changes in my life. Start-Up Chile has built a community of entrepreneurs, who work side-by-side in this gorgeous office; Start-Up Chile has given me the opportunity to speak to audiences all over this gorgeous country; Start-Up Chile has inspired me to start my own company; and most personally and most importantly, Start-Up Chile has brought me back to this wonderful country, where I studied six years ago. This move has re-ignited my too-long-dormant imagination and shown me great love and hospitality. For this I am so grateful.

Gracias Start-Up Chile!!! Feliz día de acción de gracias!!

I have so much more to be grateful for! I started writing this post while cooking on Thanksgiving Thursday (which is not an official holiday here in Chile, but of course we celebrated anyways!)

I made mashed potatoes and mushroom soup, and Brent prepared a massive 7-hour slow-cooked roast following his mom’s special recipe.

Like my sandals? A special Southern Hemisphere touch!

We collected ingredients for the feast: Chilean wine, the fancy olives I forgot to serve (at two or three consecutive dinner parties! next time…) fresh oranges and lemons from the trees at Marcelo’s house, delicious strawberries and blueberries from La Vega. And a dozen soup bowls, borrowed from the special, locked top cabinet (Gracias Vero!!)

We borrowed extra wine glasses, which stacked so beautifully on this platter, alongside fresh tomatoes and cilantro.

The food turned out really well, and everyone brought dishes to share: homemade lemon pie, apple cobbler, strawberry/avocado/blue cheese salad, and more. The fifteen of us were too busy eating, drinking, and sharing our gratitude to take pictures. This included two adorable toddlers running around, climbing on our child-sized coffee table and couches and asking for chips and juice. I’ll let you imagine them.

I have so much to be grateful for this year.

Every year on Thanksgiving I re-read this classic San Francisco Chronicle column by Jon Carroll. Here are my favorite excerpts.

THANKSGIVING HAS ALWAYS been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Christmas, for instance, we are required to deal with the divinity of Christ — I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me– and on the Fourth of July we must wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated aerial bombardments represent the most useful form of nationalism available.

At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support A) roasted turkey, B) friends and C) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. The Squanto-give- corn stuff has been blessedly eliminated from the iconography, so the thrill of Thanksgiving is undiminished by caveats, codicils or carps. That alone is something to be thankful for. Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, for moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.

…

Our parents, of course, and our children; our grandparents and our grandchildren. We are caught in the dance of life with them and, however tedious that dance can sometimes seem, it is the music of our lives. To deny it is to deny our heritage and our legacy.

AND THANKS, too, for all the past Thanksgivings, and for all the people we shared them with. Thanks for the time the turkey fell on the floor during the carving process; for the time Uncle Benny was persuaded to sing “Peg o’ My Heart”; for the time two strangers fell in love, and two lovers fell asleep, in front of the fire, even before the pumpkin pie.

And the final bead on the string is for this very Thanksgiving, this particular Thursday, and the people with whom we will be sharing it. Whoever they are and whatever the circumstances that have brought us together, we will today be celebrating with them the gift of life and the persistence of charity in a world that seems bent on ending one and denying the other.

Thanks. A lot.

Read more of Jon Caroll’s column. 

One of my favorite things about the word “appreciate” is that it has two complementary definitions.

The first is obvious and common at this time of year: “I appreciate all of you who have made me feel at home here in Chile. Thank you.”

The second comes from banking. “The money in my savings account has appreciated over time.”

The combination of these definitions is stronger: the act of showing appreciation makes the goodness grow over time. (I read this idea in a book; I think it was Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar.)

Thank you all for encouraging me to explore and experiment and write. Wishing you peace, health, and happiness, during the Thanksgiving holiday and throughout the year!

I wrote the following review for [...]]]> I’ve been chatting with Stacie Berdan about international careers for more than a year. She has been very supportive of my international professional and entrepreneurial adventures. I was delighted when she sent me a copy of her new eBook, Go Global! Launching an International Career Here or Abroad.

Stacie Berdan

Stacie Berdan's books

I wrote the following review for Ms. Career Girl, Nicole Crimaldi’s excellent blog for young professional women. Here’s the beginning:

If you’ve ever dreamed of building an international career, you must read Stacie Berdan’s Go Global! Launching an International Career Here or Abroad. I found myself nodding and smiling throughout this concise, convenient eBook.

Stacie draws from her own experience to give practical, step-by-step advice. She worked for a top global public relations firm in Hong Kong for many years, during which she gained the skills and experience to skip several levels on the corporate ladder. This is her second book about international careers. Her first book, Get Ahead By Going Abroad: A Woman’s Guide to Fast-Track Career Success, was published in 2007.

(And GoGlobal is only five bucks! That’s the price of one cocktail in a college bar! Consider it a cocktail with Stacie Berdan and her network of international professionals.)

Some of my favorite tidbits from GoGlobal!: 

• You can launch an international career at home. You don’t have to move to another country, since the modern world of work is packed with international connections.
• Take an honest look at your own personality, to make sure you’re ready for the cross-cultural challenges of working in an international environment. To build your global mindset, study foreign languages, read foreign news, and watch movies from other countries.
• Avoid taking on debt. Debt limits your career options, at home or overseas. There are many ways to gain global experience without going into debt.
• As you prepare to apply for international jobs, begin by defining your global brand. From this you can craft an elevator pitch, cover letter, resume and online presence. I particularly like Stacie’s sequential, non-intimidating process, and suggestion to begin a resume with a Qualifications section that describes your value proposition and 4-5 memorable bullet points.
• Dismal events can lead to career opportunities. Uprisings in the Middle East led to new opportunities for communications firms like Twitter. The tsunami in Japan created new opportunities for construction firms. Both good news and bad news influence the international job market.

Read the rest on Ms. Career Girl! 

On the way to an event, I thought of a comment by Rachel DeWoskin. Rachel’s first book, Foreign Babes in [...]]]> These days I give lots of speeches. In Spanish. A language that is not my mother tongue. A language that I speak fluently, without hesitation. But my accent reveals: I come from somewhere else.

On the way to an event, I thought of a comment by Rachel DeWoskin. Rachel’s first book, Foreign Babes in Beijing, is a memoir about her experience as the “bad girl” on a Chinese reality TV show in the 90s, and how the show mirrored her real life in Beijing. It was one of the first books I read about China.

Rachel DeWoskin. Image via www.racheldewoskin.com

I met her at her book signing at The Bookworm in Beijing when she had just published Repeat After Me, a novel about a young English teacher in New York who falls in love with a Chinese dissident.

During the book signing, Rachel described a Chinese friend, who once said:

“He has IS a successful career and a failed personality.” (see note below)

She saw this as a purer form of the English language. A native speaker is unlikely to say “He has  is a successful career and a failed personality,” but is there really any better way to express this idea? Native speakers use cliches and lazy, context-based phrases, often without clarity.

The extra effort it takes to speak a non-native language can make the ideas resonate. And stick.

I notice this on airplanes in Chile, where I actually listen to the safety announcements in English because they don’t sound like the rushed, almost-automated announcements on American planes. I notice it when my German, Korean, Chinese, and Chilean clients talk to me in English. Of course a high level of fluency, decent pronunciation, and full understanding of the topic at hand are all helpful. But in any case, being a non-native speaker can add power to the message.

I am proud to give speeches in slightly stunted non-native Spanish. I am always learning new words (recently: vorágine, licitación, apalancamiento). I will continue to learn new words for the rest of my life.

At the end of my recent trip to Concepcion, our host Felipe Sepulveda, founder of Atrévete Hoy, made this video of me talking about my new business, to send an inspirational message to the aspiring entrepreneurs of the Región del Bio Bio and beyond. Listening to it makes me cringe a bit: Gah, I sound so American. Is that really how I talk?

But daring to open my mouth and speak imperfect Spanish and talk about imperfectly-formed ideas on stage has opened the door to so many opportunities. I encourage all of you to banish your doubts, grab a drink (it helps, I swear) and start talking!!

P.S. If you can’t see the video, click on the title of the post to watch it on my website, or click here to watch it directly on YouTube. Gracias!

Amended 11/22/11 following correspondence directly with Rachel DeWoskin. She commented, “what Anna actually said was ‘he IS a successful career and a failed personality,’ even wilder, I think.” This reminds me of the question I always get asked here in Chile, after explaining in Spanish that I am American and my work involves solar energy, China, and mining: “But I don’t understand, what are you?”