Languages

Recently I discovered that it looks as if I might be classified as a polyglot soon. Wikipedia says it is a person speaking fluently more than six languages. It came as a surprise when I started to count how many languages I am learning at the moment. The languages I am working with are: Estonian, Swedish, Norwegian, German, English, Russian, Finnish, Italian and French, last two being kind of in the background at the moment.

To keep track of my learning process, collect and share useful learning materials I started to create blogs. On this page here I will provide the links to these different pages.

What does it mean to understand more than your own people? How is it possible to communicate and be understood? In my English blog "Discussions with an AppleTree" I wrote some lines about how does it feel in the beginning when you are writing in second languages "To meet the Other in the world of words and languages".

To learn Swedish I created a page back in 2009. The name of the page is "Svenska på nätet" and today I am only writing in Swedish on this page. My writing in Swedish is still not satisfactory but at least I can understand nearly everything that is spoken and written in this language. I have the same kind of level of mastery in Finnish language but I never even tried to write in it.

Last year when I started to teach in Oslo Rudolf Steiner University College, I felt the need to learn Norwegian. It is quite close to Swedish and I can read the research papers in this language but it is quite hard to understand the spoken language first. So in May I created a blog to monitor my development in Norwegian and collect interesting links, materials and my personal thoughts about Norwegian culture and people. The name of the blog is "How to learn Norwegian?" and I write there in English.

German language was first one of the languages I did not like so much but since I have been in Germany numerous times I have grown to like it actually. I have been taking a course in this language for one year back in university times but since then used the language only very little. Recently I have come to contact with many Germans and feel much more motivated to pick up the language again. Last year I started to listen into the language and this year I am already able to speak in the basic level. Few weeks ago I made a blog where I can practice my writing in German and collect some interesting articles, pictures etc for language learning. The name of the blog is "German Online" and my intention is to slowly continue with the process there.

My mother tongue is Estonian, small finno-ugric language with only 1 million speakers. Coming from such a small culture makes it even more important to learn other languages. If I write in Estonians and have 500 people who read what I have said, then I feel satisfied. It equals having 50 000 readers in US, or a bit less in Germany or France. Nearly everything I write in Estonian is original and therefore has a special meaning, there are not many others thinking about the same things, writing about the same topics in the way I do it. In that respect it is an important mission to continue writing in Estonian, build bridges between cultures, thoughts, ideas. Writing and reading in Estonian feels like having a pleasant holiday. I do it quite often and enjoy a lot. I have two main blogs "Kirjed" (started in 2009)  and "Loov ja Vaba" (started in 2010).    

I love writing and creating spaces where people can feel themselves being at home and being free. Every time I meet someone who says that my writing makes a difference I feel rewarded and inspired to continue my work. Languages are giving us a possibility to co-create our worlds, our lives together. My question is always, how can we meet.  

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