Mel Aki

The mention of Starbucks will oftentimes cause a collective groan amongst people, but it was not always this way. There was a time when Starbucks was something special.I remember back in the 90s, when going to Starbucks was a treat. The comfy couches and the cool music made it the “third place” that everyone wanted to be in.Becoming a barista at Starbucks in Ohio in the late 90s was my first entry into the world of coffee and it led me to a longstanding career as a barista in many other independ...

I’m a black woman and I've always been attracted to Asian men. It probably started with all those Hong Kong action movies that I watched with my mom as a teenager. But, growing up in a segregated city in the Midwest, there weren’t many Asian people around. In four years of high school, there were only three Asian kids, including a cute Chinese boy that I had a crush on in tenth grade, who transferred to another school, just as we were becoming friends. As an adult, I had actually wanted to meet...

To Catch a Predator, which started out as a segment on Dateline NBC in 2004, has turned into a decades long crusade by Chris Hansen to catch sexual predators, who prey on vulnerable children. Since the Dateline investigations, he has gone on to continue the crusade with subsequent incarnations, such as Hansen...

When people mention love bombing, it’s always in the context of narcissistic, abusive romantic relationships, but no one ever seems to notice that mothers oftentimes love bomb their own children.Love bombing is a form of psychological and emotional abuse and is defined as “a manipulative tactic where someone uses excessive attention, affection, or compliments to gain control over another person.”In romantic relationships, love bombing includes giving a partner excessive flattery, praise, and att...

Recently, I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Greeley, Colorado. How did this self-proclaimed “Girl of the City” get here? I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and when I was five, I told my mom that I was moving to New York City one day. By a fluke, I finally got my chance to move there when a coworker, who was moving to Brooklyn, said she needed a roommate. I planned on living there forever.
In New York, one of the first questions asked when you meet someone is, “What borough are you from?” I quickly...

By: derbeth – CC BY 2.0
Between middle school and college, I studied Spanish, French, Japanese, and American Sign Language. Over the years, I learned a few words in Korean, Turkish, Hebrew, Portuguese, and other languages from my friends and coworkers, so working at Berlitz Language School in Rockefeller Center in New York was a dream come true.
Every day, I met people from all over the world and I got to practice the languages that I had little opportunity to practice when I lived in Clevelan...

The story will tug at your heart strings. A sweet old lady, who is becoming too frail to continue making her handcrafted jewelry, is retiring. Her inventory is being sold off at her closing sale, with up to 80% off.Mrs. Duncan, who has been in business since 1996, looks like she could be your grandma or great auntie, but there’s a catch. Jewelry maker, Sheryl Duncan, doesn’t exist.I fell for it. I should have known it was a scam, but the beautiful rings in the ad intrigued me. What caught my eye...

Knowing Japanese songs won’t only keep you in the loop with celebrity gossip and references in Japanese media.They can also help you increase your vocabulary and improve your pronunciation.In this post, you’ll learn 11 Japanese songs to get you started in your learning journey.

Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Good for: Beginner learnersMastering Japanese starts with the basics: hiragana and...