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About Me

A month ago I jumped into a cab in Singapore, the guy asked me 'Who are you and Where are you from?? You dress like an Indian, you speak like you're English ?'. I explained I am a Kiwi (New Zealander), married to Japanese, lived in Asia for 14 years (Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia), live in Malaysia and have written a book about Vietnam. That's me ! I love Asia (and the world) and all the cultural diversity it offers. With that I feel a real empathy to the rich cultural heritage which is vastly misunderstood and judged upon. The media does a sterling job at creating cultural barriers, I give an alternative to that content, yes there is some Weird stuff out there that goes against our grain and we don't particularly like, don't worry someone has the same issues with you. Once we get over that issue or clothing you don't like, we can discover a whole raft of things we love about that culture and people - I call this getting to the WOW !

Location:
New Zealand, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Current organization:
Weird and WOW
Current role:
Socially Conscious Entrepreneur
Gender:
Female
Areas of expertise:
Cultural Understanding, Cross Cultural Marriages, Living in Asia, Self Publishing, Ability to Influence Change, Dynamic Speaker, Event & Project Management
I am:
Brainstormer, Buddhist, Change Agent, Philanthropist, Photographer, Project manager, Social entrepreneur, Startup, World traveler, Writer/Editor
Associations:
Friends of Vietnam Heritage FVH, Malaysian - New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, Hanoi International Women
Languages:
English
My website links:
www.WeirdandWOW.com, www.WE-are-EXPATs.com
Universities:
none
Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture

More About Me

I'm passionate about

bridging lives. Providing tools + a platform to bridge any cultural divide. Creating a world where children of all ages can play together. Offering tips and tricks for great global living.

An idea worth spreading

I celebrate cultural diversity + similarities - every culture, race, country, city, village, person has some weird stuff that we may not like, once we address that and find out what is behind it, we could probably understand it, but still not like it but that is ok. Once we get over the Weird stuff we can see a HUGE WOW about those people. There is so much to other people and cultures we are missing out on because of mis information, the media and other preconceived ideas. We are so good about globalizing our economies, industry etc but have forgotten to globalize us people, we need tools to do that either at home in our back yards or across the world. We tend to put people into a box - lets get them out and humanize them - see what is similar and we can relate to + lets put the human kindness back into the human kind.

Talk to me about

Bridging cultural divides with entertainment that not only entertains but educates. Asia - I have lived here for 14 years in 4 different countries, married to an Asian + LOVE Asia !!

People don't know that I'm good at

training horses, especially naughty ones in a loving but firm way ! ! Event coordination is also my specialty sport. Communicating with people without any language skills.

My TED Story

I finally feel at home ! I can express myself and reveal my true self to you ! For almost 5 years I have been working on, cultivating, and incubating my message to the world ~ watching Ted talks makes me know it is all possible and I am grateful of that !

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +4.80 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

    1 day ago: Hi all !

    For me 30 years ago Education didn't work for me and now I see students getting labeled stupid or trouble makers when it is nothing like that at all. I also was suffering from being a child, a bored child in school at that and one that didn't know how to learn !!

    There is so much to this education story and one I am not sure if the educators are ready to face yet ???

  • A comment on Talk: Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

    Apr 30 2013: WOW Seth - how awesome !!

    Not just your talk - but YOU !!

    I met you at MegaBooks in LA in 2008 and you have really expanded yourself !!

    Thank you for the inspiration !
    Christina :-D

  • A comment on Talk: Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong

    Mar 19 2013: Hi all !

    I have been faced with the exact problems that Dan outlined in the first part of the talk; he also helped me understand about overheads and the need for them to promote growth.

    I have a hybrid innovative business that supports the 3x P's People + Planet + Profit and have faced a lot of flack about making money while doing good, some funding organisations have refused to see me because they see me as a parasite, when I see it as sustainable business practice.

    Also talking about taking risk on new innovative revenue models is hard for people to get their head around anything that they can't put in a box.

    Discussion on time was interesting when Amazon took 6 years to make a profit when we talk about a 4 year period everyone runs for cover.

    Sorry for Dan when things turned bad for him, when people don't understand a new innovative model and the value of it.

    I want to thank TED for sharing this.
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

    Jan 13 2013: Awesome Larry

    Yeah . . . . fear is stopping me !!

    Freaky !! . . . but it is true !!

    Gotta stop that !!

  • A comment on Talk: Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education

    Jan 10 2013: Hi all !

    Last semester I took on of these MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) with Stanford from Venture Labs and it was a seriously awesome experience.

    Everything Daphne talked about was real for me. I am a New Zealander living in a town of 50,000 (Nelson) sitting at home working on Designing a Learning New Environment with 6000 other people around the world.

    A 10- week course was intensive with 6 assignments due every Sunday for the first 6 weeks, a team project and peer reviews (which really helped the learning). My team were 2 from Spain and 1 from India. Tricky at times with a wonderful learning experience and a team project I am extremely proud of.

    The quality of the lectures were at a high level with getting to the true essence of every subject.

    I can personally recommend them as a serious way to learn today leading edge information.

    I greatly admire Daphne - for her to see the needs of others when she has had such a background where education is just normal life.

    Awesome !!
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: Maz Jobrani: A Saudi, an Indian and an Iranian walk into a Qatari bar …

    Dec 30 2012: . . . . we need more of this . . . . . loved his last talk and this one.

    . . . . . there is good people everywhere is certainly true ! We need a huge global shift to seeing people for who they are instead of what country they come from.

    Awesome !
  • +2

    A comment on Talk: Louie Schwartzberg: Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.

    Mar 13 2012: Dear Louie

    Thanks for reminding me about me . . .

    It is so easy to get hung up on stuff . . . . stuff that doesn't matter !

    Live today like was your first and your last . . .. just beautiful.

    Love Christina :-D
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: Susan Cain: The power of introverts

    Mar 8 2012: Dear Susan

    I watched with amusement of your talk and ended up shaking my head.

    Like you said no one is solely one thing introvert or extrovert !

    If you meet me for sure you will put me in the extrovert team - but this is only one part of everyone, including you who talked at TED. And if you meet extroverts speaking, most is because they have like you worked very hard at learning how to present your message effectively and it is not as easy as you think, we have just practiced more.

    My education did not serve me as an extrovert and my experience was the introverts were the ones admired for being studious when we just process information differently.

    Team work is about collaboration and without the team it cannot be called team work; all the teams I have worked in consider all team members views - so it isn't really fair to say us introverts rule the roost and don't consider everyone's views especially those of the introverts.

    Of course extroverts spend time contemplating, that is what they bring to the teams - it is not we are one or the other - we are always both.

    Thank for your perspective on introverts !
    Christina :-D

  • A reply on Talk: Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

    Mar 8 2012: Dear Carl

    I really cannot believe that you would bring the country of China into your opening paragraph !!

    What an earth do know about China - do you think it is much more dangerous with more criminal acts than in America or do you perceive that ?

    I am interested why you would say that ?
    Thanks for enlightening me !
    Christina

  • A comment on Talk: Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

    Mar 8 2012: Dear Byran

    So great to hear your heart felt genuine talk today !

    I loved your story where you wrote a letter to the court suggesting they look at this case of the 13 year old boy as an older guy from a good neighborhood and background.

    My mission is just that . . . . let us treat everyone and every culture in the world with that same starting point instead the perceived differences that only divide us without any compassion, humanity and justice. These are your words, I will use them as you gave me such a powerful message which makes me feel connected to you.

    For me I have been battling my vision to connect people and cultures of this world from a standpoint that looks behind what we consider weird about them and unravel and reveal that story.

    I felt your despair of your story of walking up to the courthouse before meeting the janitor.

    I feel despair also as no one gets me and the power of my message, for me we are all human no matter what job we do or country, culture, race or religion we come from - everyone has wisdom to add to every equation.

    Thank you for always working at putting the word 'kind' back into human-kindness !

    With love and gratitude
    Christina Minamizawa
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