During the last month we have been able to follow a star to be born after Sara-Marié Forsberg uploaded on the 3rd of March, 2014 her video ‘What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners’ to Youtube. In two weeks the video has been viewed over 9 million times.
Everyone who has for years or for decades tried to improve his pronunciation in foreign language understands, what kind of a talent Sara-Marié has.
Yet in a discussion I read someone’s irritated comment that Youtube will soon be full of presentations of similar verbal apes. Thank God when that happens. No matter how unbelievable the talent of Sara-Marié feels like it is latent in every human being. Everyone has the freedom to activate the powers that manifest the talent.
In my text ‘We All Have Our Role To Play’ I wrote that although our conscious mind don’t understand language spoken in foreign words, our subconscious mind understands everything. When we open the channels for our subconscious mind it begins to search in our surroundings those things that broaden our understanding in our conscious mind. Our subconscious mind, our inner being has direct connection to the consciousness of the Universe, which is our collective mind, our main memory. The core idea of our freedom is how smoothly we connect to the main memory and if we manifest wholeheartedly our inner being. When the connections are perfectly functional we can download whatever we want to our receiver, to the brain.
Sara-Marié doesn’t really speak languages that she imitates. However she can use emotional intelligence and take her talent to a whole new level by claiming all dimensions of the languages and by starting to communicate in languages. I don’t mean learning of languages in a traditional sense, but claiming the capability to communicate in languages, which happens as naturally as Sara-Marié has got the talent to imitate languages. I believe this is possible. I will write more about this functional emotional intelligence in my next writing.
When we talk about freedom it brings in my mind a friend of mine, who in all her modesty represents for me the kind of freedom I would enjoy immensely, if I would be completely healthy and would be able to move freely.
I met this friend, who I call Taru in this text as I was accomplishing translation studies in Germany. At first she gave a very indecisive and shy impression of herself. When Taru begun to tell me more about herself I noticed, how wrong the first impression can be.
One year earlier Taru had married a Nigerian man. At first they had been living in Finland, but because her husband got along better in Germany they moved to Germany, where they had originally met each other.
In her teens Taru had grown up with the Middle Eastern culture and besides German she wanted to begin Arabic translation studies.
As we were walking along the Rhine-river Taru told me that she had accomplished the senior high school as evening school and worked in the daytime in a kindergarten.
A thing that had never even occurred to me, although working had been more important to me than going to school ever since I was thirteen.
After the final secondary school examinations Taru took a year off and worked in a kibbutz in Israel.
During the whole school-time I lived in an illusion that someone had decided what I should do.
Unfortunately the marriage of Taru was over as soon as it had started.
The couple had barely settled down in Germany as her husband brought to their home his Nigerian partner.
Taru was devastated and broken-hearted. She was ashamed that her relatives could feel self-important now and say:
“We did warn you, cause we knew it will end up this way.”
But it is not a shame to trust people. It is a shame to betray people’s trust.
After digesting basic knowledge in Arabic Taru had advanced language studies in universities in Jordan and Syria.
After divorce Taru moved back to Finland. She begun to study information technology and continued her Arabic studies as minor subject.
In summer she took a job in a cow farm in Swiss Alps as herdsman. While studying she taught other students programming. When she wanted to dedicate her time to Arabic Studies she took a year off and studied in Berlin.
In her home university Taru got a position as a researcher of computer linguistics. Afterwards she worked on projects, which had to do with computer aided translation.
Taru begun also doctoral level studies, but when she felt she was going stir-crazy she took a job in a market garden in Netherlands.
At that time I was going to spend a year in China. She had planned to go to Australia for a year and we made a deal that on her way to Australia we will meet in China.
So, on one sunny day we met in Hangzhou, where she had travelled by train from Guangzhou. The next week we crisscrossed the streets of Hangzhou, Taru riding a bike and I driving my electric wheelchair. In the daytime Taru went sightseeing while I followed my own programme.
One day Taru’s camera was stolen. The loss irritated her immensely. Not so much the economic loss, but Taru had used so much time to find a best composition. Now when she needed her camera most it was vanished like ashes to the wind and she had to start all over again.
After recovering from the first shock Taru said that she had to get a statement from the police about the theft, so that she can get compensation from the insurance company. I showed her on a map the location of the nearest police station and without further parley she made her way there.
At the police station no-one spoke English, but just as she was going to leave the station she met in the courtyard a police, who had recently returned home from Australia and spoke better English as she did herself.
Taru had bought only a one-way ticket to Australia. She wanted to earn the money for the return-ticket by working in the country during her stay there. She hired herself out in a farm as a helper, in a motel as a maid and in online customer support of a website while she was exploring the country and its people. Taru told me that she applied for jobs at her whim and every time she was accepted. When she wanted to relax she spent some time hiking in New Zealand.
After the year in Australia Taru made a little tour in Southeast Asia and from there continued her trip to the Middle East to the places, where she had studied ten years earlier. She sent me a card from Yemen.
After the Middle East tour she flew home to Finland via Egypt and Paris . A good finish for her trip was over 120 miles hiking tour in the Finnish and Norwegian Lapland. After that she was full of energy to face her new challenges.
Read also:
We All Have Our Role To Play
New Humans: Homo Noeticus
From Education to Emotional Intelligence
Youtube Video:
Sara-Marié (Smoukahontas): What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners