Author: Migrant Tales

If a person asked me to say what is one of the most important pillars of Finnish culture, I’d respond: the sauna. The sauna is more than a room where people bathe and sweat naked in 80-100 Celsius (176-212 Fahrenheit) temperatures. It’s a way of life for some Finns – so much so, in fact,…

If there ever existed a near-perfect republic, what would it be like? Would its economy be one of the most competitive in the world? Would technological innovation be king within its borders? Would its education system be at the top of the world class? Would it be one of the least corrupt countries around? Some…

My parents taught me such good manners: I always sleep with a tuxedo; bow to women in dreams, dance wonderful waltzes and emphatically agree with everything you say. Such good manners my parents taught me that I even thanked my executioner for chopping my head off: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I said sounding…

Si tienes algún cuento interesante sobre tu experencia como extranjero, sería interesante discutirlo en este blog.

If you have any interesting stories to tell about the experience of living in a foreign country, please tell us about it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Asian nation to do more to defeat a global terrorist threat. One of the most remarkable statements he made at the annual Shangri-la conference on international security in Singapore was that enough isn’t being done to address the causes of terrorism. Gates couldn’t say whether the cause of terrorism was…

Viajar es casi como hablar con aquellos de otros siglos. René Descartes (1596-1650) La declaración del filósofo y matemático francés, puede proveer alguna respuesta de por qué algunos de nosotros somos inquietos viajeros. Cuando nos trasladamos a una ciudad o a un país nuevo, posiblmente seguimos en contacto con los paisajes que formaron nuestra niñez….

Children are all foreigners. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) If each member of the human race was once a foreigner as the 19th century writer and poet suggests, why isn’t it possible to make the switch from foreigner to native when we’re adults? Possibly the root of the problem lies in two culprit words: native and…

    With the world in dire need of a tourniquet to halt the hemorrhaging caused by George W. Bush’s so-called “war on terror” and our insatiable greed that is bringing climate change on us hard and fast, one question we can ask is what can be done? To simplify things, the world could be…

One area where migrants are at a clear disadvantage is in speaking and writing the language of the host country. While speaking and writing a language properly is desired because communication works, language can be used to disenfranchise ethnic groups from participating in society. In light of these challenges, I’ve made up the following quote:…