I believe every single person and being I come across knows something that I don’t know, and vice versa. For this reason, every interaction is a chance to learn something new, for ourselves and the people we interact with. This post explains my thinking and its far-reaching implications.
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In this post I’ll tell you a bit about how I wrapped up 2017, my fresh intention for the new year and three of the dreams I know we can accomplish in 2018.
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Miksi juuri tämä kysymys? Pari päivää sitten olin Helsingin junassa ystänä kanssa. Puhuttiin suomea ja vastapäätä istuva mies pahoitteli, että oli salakuntelemassa ja halusi kysyä vain pari asiaa minulta: mikä mun äidinkieli on, miten joudun Suomeen ja…kuinka kauan oon opiskellut suomea? Pahoin.kysymys.ikinä. Jos tunnet minut henkilökohtaisesti, ehkä tiedät, etten vastaa tähän kysymykseen selkeästi. Minun mielestä se…
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“Words are not important in themselves, but as resonators for a center. […] All language is a longing for home.” — Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi (pg. 17) If all language is a longing for home, and we speak English in a sea of Finnish, we will always associate home with another time, another place and another people. We will always see ourselves as other. And guess what?
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Meet Maria Weidner: a native Berliner with an Indonesian soul. Maria is also a German teacher and artist. The first time I heard Maria speak Indonesian, time stopped. Maria, German a few moments ago, was no longer a German woman. She’d been transformed into an Indonesian woman, who is clearly Indonesian! Witnessing such a sense of ease, fluidity and joy when Maria speaks Indonesian (a language she learned as an adult) forces us to re-think all the things we thought we understood about culture, languages and ‘who we really are.’
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In this vlog post, I discuss why I’m not learning any new languages right now and what I’m excited about instead. I also touch on a few of the following topics: Learning for fun from home vs learning abroad for ‘need’ vs learning for a real need + studying vs. learning + The pull of curiosity vs. the push of obligation + timing of language learning (also vs studying) + Looking at language learning in the context of your life
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Meet Fiel Sahir: a classical guitarist who speaks multiple languages. He’ll show you how much overlap there actually is between learning a language and playing an instrument!
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It’s been quiet over here… a little too quiet sometimes. Silence can mean different things to different people: in Finland, silence is almost sacred. In Canada, we tend to say that silence is golden, but we run from its intimacy when it does grace us. Online, it can mean anything, but mostly it’s interpreted as abandon. A silence blog or website is an abandoned and neglected one. If I can choose, I’d interpret the silence on these pages as…
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I’m a firm believer that each and every one of us creates our own reality – including the things which hold us back. From the joy to the discomfort we experience abroad, and everything in between. We do so with our thoughts, and our amazingly sophisticated brains, with which we can imagine absolutely anything. Then our bodies follow suit and behave as if what we have imagined is real. As the saying goes: …
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Our actions & subsequent results are a product of consistency. The extent to which we’re able to take consistent action towards something, is directly correlated to whether we’ll reach that goal or not. Seems obvious enough, but this can be tricky. This is why I often cite Henry Ford’s quote, especially in the context of language learning: “Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you’re right”
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I’m a multibelonger to Finland, Canada and Romania, without ONE language or culture to call my own – I have several. My intention is to be present where I am and find inner peace and harmony where ever life takes me. I’m embracing the gems of the ongoing cultural and linguistic transition which is my life and hope to inspire others interested in doing the same. Click here to find out more!
