Three Cheers for New Zealand!

I’m always amazed at how people from almost every nation around the globe manage to find their way to Inspiration Lane, the site I created which is also linked on the sidebar. And, I’m always delighted when students write about their enjoyment of this site, such as the English language student from Taiwan, Christina, whose glowing review was featured in my June 2007 essay. Equally thrilling for me is when a teacher discovers this site and finds it to be useful - especially when such a teacher may be located many miles away from me here in the USA.

So, I was extremely happy to recently learn there is a national association of ESL teachers in New Zealand, and their teacher leaders saw enough value in my creation to link Inspiration Lane to their organization’s site. Wow! A whole country of teachers visiting Inspiration Lane!

I am almost embarrassed to admit how little I knew about New Zealand until their acceptance of my site inspired me to find out more about their land. My lack of knowledge about their nation had led me to vaguely conclude they were located somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean in, oh, maybe Europe, perhaps near Finland, or Norway or Denmark. Truly, this is what I previously thought. What a surprise for me to discover their island nation is actually located off the coast of Australia!

For a long time I also believed almost no one else knew about New Zealand -- until I read a column in last Sunday’s newspaper about the country singer Shania Twain. She owns several homes around the world, one I had heard about in Switzerland, a second house in her native country, Canada, and a third located guess where? You guessed it: New Zealand.

In addition to Shania being there, according to some sources: over 80% of the flora and fauna of New Zealand is native only to that island country. That’s a lot of new and fascinating nature for a visitor to discover!

In the same week, I saw a news article in The New York Times, explaining how New Zealand is one of the few countries to have completely eliminated farm subsidies, and to have done it successfully. This process began years ago - under the leadership of a progressive liberal government, believe it or not!

Shortly thereafter, I noticed the Drudge Report featured this link to a New Zealand newspaper article, explaining how a group of vegans in that country have decided not to have sex with partners who are meat eaters. News about New Zealand suddenly seemed everywhere!

But my favorite article about New Zealand is what I recently read on Wikipedia, concerning this fact: New Zealand is the only country in the world where women leaders have served, simultaneously, in all the top positions of its government. I thought this quite a remarkable achievement, as here we are in the USA, often acting as if having a woman president may never happen.

Finally, I marvel at how often these New Zealand teachers visit my site from all over their country. I’m really enjoying reading the web sites of these visiting schools. Here are a few of the New Zealand schools that have visited Inspiration Lane:

-- Wellington East Girls' College
-- Te Awamatu College
-- Bluestone School

Consequently, three cheers for New Zealand, in honor of its:
(1) spirit and beauty;
(2) bold leadership, in having LOTS of women in charge at the highest levels of government; and
(3) wisdom, in choosing to include my site on their national web site for New Zealand’s ESL teachers.

Hip, hip, hooray! Thank you, New Zealand! And a big thank you to its teachers and students, as your links make the miles seem fewer, the distance between us a whole lot smaller, and the knowledge we do share that much greater.

Susan Alyn, M.A., also known as "summer," is an ESOL certified teacher in Florida, USA, and the creator and editor of Inspiration Lane.