Articles by Sophia Burton

The Thai Park otherwise known as the Thai Wiese or Berlin's Little Thailand in Wilmersdorf is a spot where Thai women cook under umbrellas and sell their food.
August 1, 2013 2

Happy Weekend: Toi, Toi, Toi, Thai Park

During the summer I'm here almost every weekend, inhaling shrimp summer rolls slathered in peanut sauce, papaya salad speckled with red chili, and iced coffee swimming in globs of cloyingly sweet condensed milk. I may meander the colorful rows for food, but my coffee always comes from the same umbrella: Kaffee Oma's... [Read More!]
July 18, 2013 0

Rave: Education Per Square (Kilo)Meter

After all this talk about Nazis, N-Words, and negative stereotypes, I think it's time we had some good news around here, don't you?

Enter Ein Quadratkilometer Bildung, or "Square Kilometer Education".

Quadratkilometer Bildung (QKB) is an educational development and learning platform that addresses education on a regional basis, with a focus on disadvantaged populations. They call it "closing gaps". I call it common sense... [Read More!]

June 18, 2013 2

Review: Become a German (in just under 650 hours)

You must clean up after your dog. You must ride your bike in the right direction of the bike lane, recites a Russian student. The audience chuckles. First work, then... chants the teacher. The audience groans. Do you know any examples of German humor? asks the teacher. Uhhh, fumbles the Japanese student. 10 seconds go by. I'm still thinking, he mutters and scratches his head. The audience roars... [Read More!]
June 6, 2013 1

The N-Word

When I posted the Who's/Whose Normal? article a few weeks ago, I expected the "N-word" of interest to be Neger, a term that falls somewhere between "negro" and "nigger" on the translation and offensiveness spectrum. Instead, the strongest reactions came in response to another N-Word: Nazi... [Read More!]
June 1, 2013 1

Happy Weekend: A Roma (Re)Image

Your perception of the Roma is inaccurate. I apologize for the bluntness, but you and I both know it's true. And I know you and I both know it's true because it's true for me, and I've studied this stuff. Not only have I studied this stuff (e.g. migration, integration, intercultural relations), but I consider myself a beacon of political correctness, yet I've still dressed up as a gypsy for Halloween more times than I care to admit. Why? [Read More!]
May 22, 2013 3

Lens: Becoming Berlinerin at the Bürgeramt

Bureaucracy is there to keep the rules in check, to decide who can be a part of the stacks of paper and benefits that make up either citizenship or the ominous category of legal (or illegal) residency status. Oftentimes, the line between these two categories is arbitrary, not reflective of individuals but of rules and their guardians. This is my story in a two-part lens about how blood and ink can define who you are in a city, how, as a German citizen, a ruler was used to cleanly draw a line in my passport across my former American city of residence, replacing it with a German one... [Read More!]
May 14, 2013 2

Rant: Who’s/Whose Normal?

It's these little images, phrases, and jokes that become so deeply engrained within our mindsets and pervasive within our culture that they are considered "normal". But in a city as diverse as Berlin - where 1 in every 7 inhabitants is non-German, over 138 countries are represented, and the LGBT population is one of Europe's largest - what or who the hell is "normal" anyway? And whose definition are we even using?... [Read More!]
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