Little Mongolia
This evening I'll return to Little Mongolia for the second time in three days. The photo above is the view from my apartment. A twenty minute walk around the lake, or less than a mile as the shuvuu flies.
Knowing that I need to maintain - and improve if possible - my Mongolian language for followup fieldwork in summer 2008, I've arranged to begin language exchange with some recent immigrants. One day a week I'll teach English and one day a week we'll speak Mongolian. Today's the English session. Since they hardly speak English, we'll be starting with the basics. Anyone with teaching ESL (or *SL) experience? I'm taking suggestions.
When I arrived at Hill Castle Apartment Hotel on Tuesday, I saw that more than half the names in the electronic directory (like this one to the left) were Mongolian. And there are lots of units in that building. Hence the name Little Mongolia. (I'm not sure if anyone besides me calls this place "Little Mongolia".)
This reminds me of the idea of using immigrant populations for remote design/user research, that is to work with immigrants as a part of designing for their home countries. I've heard arguments for this before, but I'm still not convinced. There was a fellow at HCI International in 2007 who talked about working with Mexicans in Chicago to understand new business opportunities in the mobile phone sector in Michoacan. When I asked afterwards how useful the Chicago portion of the work was, he basically said it didn't help much. Still, it's an intriguing idea since I pass through Little {Ethiopia, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Korea} on my regular commutes.
hey jaspal
i can run some ideas by you. give me a few days--maybe we can talk over the weekend.
this is also a useful book: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Teaching-Teacher-Development-Scrivener/dp/0435240897
(oh crap! i see it's crazy expensive. maybe i can get a copy from my old school for you).
so you're back in the usa now? give me a call--# is the same.
mike
Posted by:mike | 07 February 2008 at 04:25 PM
Woah! Are they stuffing you full of buuz and milk tea?
Posted by:Ulaana | 10 February 2008 at 01:43 PM
That is crazy expensive. US$140 used on amazon.com, but only GBP7.50 on amazon.co.uk. Tips from your experience would be very cool. I lost all my US phone numbers, but I've got your email...
Ulaana, this week I didn't go to Little Mongolia until after the 3rd day of Tsagaan Sar so no crazy buuz incidents. I'm still getting stuffed of course.
Posted by:Jaspal | 13 February 2008 at 01:00 AM
You know what it the best part about buuz?
You guessed it: That the juice stays INSIDE! Za!
Posted by:BuuzBusterGeneral | 13 February 2008 at 09:09 PM
BuuzBusterGeneral, you've got it right! We've got to find a time to chat about buuzology and related research.
Posted by:Jaspal | 14 February 2008 at 11:11 PM
Hi there,
Your research sounds interesting and can be useful to Mongolia but I still didn't get its sense. First, I thought it is a social science research but then I understood it is related to engineering science. I can be wrong. I'm a graduate student from Mongolia. I would be glad if share about your research work with me. Thanks.
Sara
Posted by:Sara | 22 March 2008 at 04:19 AM
Sara, Really it's both. My work is at the intersection of engineering and social science. I'll send you email about it and we can talk more.
Posted by:Jaspal | 26 March 2008 at 12:05 AM