When the opportunity arose to give a TEDx talk about a subject very close to my heart, there was only one thing to do: start writing. Two weeks later, I had the time of my life on the stage of Byscenen in Trondheim. With this video, I hope to bring the message closer to your heart, […]
As much as I like to talk about the joys and benefits of multilingualism, the most crucial aspect of language is of a different nature. Language can be a matter of life and death. Translators without Borders makes a tremendous effort to solve communication problems in crisis areas. This organisation deserves to be better known. […]
A friend of mine had read somewhere that our brain can react to a traumatic incident by wiping it out of our memory. The matter is thrown into the dustbin of total oblivion in order to let us continue our lives without constantly being forced to revisit that excruciating moment. This probably happened to me a few years ago. […]
I encourage people to learn foreign languages. I tell them that making mistakes is a very powerful way of learning. “Get out there, use whatever knowledge you have, stumble, have a laugh and move on,” I say. I live by that myself. So why does this rule not apply to restaurants? It does. I applaud […]
Last autumn in Bologna, I registered for a “mystery dinner” in a room high up in the Basilica di San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore. I had pictured an Agatha Christie-type game where everybody would play a role and we would have to find the culprit. I had prepared by looking up the Italian word for butler. The event […]
When I pick redcurrant, I am all over the place. I pick totally at random. Other pickers start at the first bush and systematically strip their way through to the last. They will start top left, pick to the right, down a notch and to the left, as if unknitting a sweater. My picking method […]
Together with seven colleagues, I went on a one-week seminar to France. The other participants in the course came from all over the world. We soon bonded and ended up spending our evenings together. After dinner, we would sit in the hotel garden, or on a pub terrace with Pau castle as a backdrop, and […]
A Norwegian couple went on a language course in Otranto, Puglia – a beautiful historical town at the heel of the Italian boot. When enrolling, they had given their occupations as “farmacista” and “pastore”. The teachers were expecting a pharmacist and her shepherd husband. They thought it was an interesting match. During the first lesson, […]
One type of language mistake can arise when you honestly think you got it right, so you don’t feel the need to look it up. My American friend Katie is learning Italian. Last April, we were in Sicily together. One evening she said: “Let’s have dinner at the Jewish Scholar’s.” “Jewish Scholar?” “Yeah, it’s a […]
I have an old Polish friend with whom I speak German. Apart from a slight accent, his German is flawless. One morning, on our way to a meeting in Warsaw, he told me: “Yesterday evening, I saw something very special on television. It was a programme about “schwarze Neger”. There was an interview as well. […]
