MSI Press Blog

  Curritiba Curritiba was never on my original itinerary for workshops in Brazil, but when Areta and I met at a national meeting in Brasília, plans rearranged themselves almost instantly. She invited me to her institute in Curritiba—she was the director—and of course I said yes. I no longer remember the exact workshop topic; it must have been something connected to language teaching or what we then called “learning differences,” long before the vocabulary settled into today’s understanding of neurodiversity. What I do remember are the people, and I remember the town. The City My time in Curritiba was lovely. It was winter back home, but in Brazil it was a balmy summer. Ipês, jacarandás, and bougainvillea spilled color everywhere, and the air carried that soft, humid perfume that makes life feel unhurried. The whole city seemed wrapped in green—parks, tree-lined streets, gardens that looked tended by people who loved beauty as much as practicality. And the people matched the...

Campinas Campinas was a place that would become larger than life for me, though nothing about it announced that at first glance. On the surface, it was simply a prosperous inland Brazilian city—warm, sprawling, modern in some places and worn in others, with jacaranda trees spilling purple blossoms onto wide avenues, and a rhythm that felt both industrious and relaxed. It was a university town, a tech hub, an agricultural center, and a place where people lingered over coffee as if time were elastic. I arrived expecting an assignment. I left with a story. The flight from Los Angeles to São Paulo was uneventful in the best possible way—comfortable, quiet, and long enough to settle into the strange suspension of international travel. I was in the middle cabin, up front, exit row, aisle seat B, with more legroom than I deserved. In seat A, by the window, was a gentle, pleasant conversationalist who introduced himself as Eduardo Pereira. The hours gave us time to talk, and Eduardo—soft...

  German Although I could speak German, Johanna and I always spoke Russian. Living in the University of Moscow dorms, we both naturally communicated in Russian all day long. So, when we had some together time, staying in Russian seemed natural. Besides, my Russian was better than my German, at that time at least, and Joanna did not speak English. Russian was the most obvious and best lingua franca. I did know how to speak German, however, I had started my study of German with two years of high school study, followed by upper level university courses. As a linguistics major, German was one of the languages I ended up studying to a high level. Then, in graduate school, I majored in comparative literature, with an emphasis on German and Russian literature. I took comprehensive exams in comparative literature and language exams in Russian and German. I lived in Deutsches Haus (German House) in the university dorms, where my roommate, Brigitte, was from Koeln (Cologne), Germany. She, ju...

  Although I have only visited a couple of times, it feels as if I have been there much more often. There is a comfort in Austria for me—I speak the language, and I grew up in the mountains, though nothing quite like die Alpen . Austria is a country of soaring peaks, shimmering lakes, and villages that look as though they were painted into existence. Life had a commonsense approach, one that allowed time for people to actually "live" and enjoy their time--Volksmarch on a daily basis; time for casual meetings of friends a small cafes for apfelstrudel and bier [beer], or my favorite, Johannisbeere [black current juice]; and an evening at a concert hall for heavenly music.    My connection to Austria is not only through its language and mountains, but through friendship. Johanna—a name I use here since she prefers not to be identified—has been my anchor there. I stayed with her during visits, and she once came to the USA, where we scooted down into Mexico for a day. 👭 The ...