Tracy Novinger

Cultural gaffes provoke hard feelings but fortunately one can learn to "speak" a foreign culture. "Intercultural Communication" and "Communicating with Brazilians" explain how to spot cultural differences and give a short list of tips to keep out of trouble. Crossing cultures is the story of my life. I speak four languages fluently and I get along in two others.

Well before the advent of tourism, three generations of my family lived on the small island of Aruba where I was born. We moved to Brazil where I attended schools taught in Portuguese and I subsequently obtained an M.A. in Communications in the United States. When we lived in Brazil, my father told me that my English sounded strange. It was my first language, but I had never lived in the U.S. Although I didn't really have a foreign accent, I sounded like a book in sentence structure and vocabulary--I read English more than I spoke it. After college, I lived and worked for some nine years in Tahiti where I was a French-English translator under oath for the courts of French Polynesia.

My husband and I have four grown children. Now, Glen and I hike and travel a lot. Thank you, Glen, for your loving support when I write.

With reference to my novel "Betrayal on Aruba Winds" published in March 2018, Rudyard Kipling wrote that "If history were told in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." Tiny Aruba played a surprising and significant role in WWII. Referring to this story, the world is still thirsty for oil and Venezuela continues in chaos. Please also see http://tracynovinger.blogspot.com/ and "Tracy Novinger, Author" on Facebook.