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Build peace: be on time
My Mom and Dad had written a few words on a paper and hung it on the wall in our kitchen. We grew up watching our parents invite all kinds of people into our home for dinners. Strangers. This included any person who was lost in the airport or someone they found lost on the street....A warm meal, pajamas, a clean bed in the guest room, a bathroom, and the next day after breakfast, often supplied with a gift (usually a sweater or socks), and a map they provided a ride to the train or bus station. Most of those people spoke a foreign tongue that none of us understood. But at the end of Mom and Dad's "hospitality adventure" my parents had added a line to their list on the wall and that person had walked away with theirs. To this day my family receives letters and visits from those travelers and their children and even grand children. Every time we gather together there is “letter” readings and....tears of joy.
The paper on the wall read:
Italian: Ti Amo
German: Ich Liebe Dich
Japanese: Ai Shite Imasu
Chinese: Wo Ai Ni
Swedish: Jag Alskar Dig
Greek: S'Agapo
Hawaiian: Aloha Wau La Oe
Irish: Thaim In Grabh Leat
Hebrew: Ani Ohev Otakh
Persian: Du Stet Daaram
Russian: Ya Lyublyu Tyebya
Albanian: Une Te Dua
Finnish: Mina Rakkastan Sinua
Turkish: Seni Seviyorum
Hungarian: Se Ret Lay
Maltese: Jien Inhobbok
Catalan: Testimo Molt
French: Je t'aime
Spanish: Te Amo
Eskimo: Nagligivaget
English: I love you
Now I wish my parents had learned to say " We love you" instead.
Will you help me rewrite this list and include your language too ??
~~ With Happy New Year Wishes~~
Kate Blake 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
Hebrew : anahnou ohavim ot-hem
anahnou (we), ohavim (love,) ot-hem (you)
Persian: Maa Doostetoon Daarim
Japanese: Watashi Tatshi Wa Anata O Ai Shite Mas
Italian: Amiamo voi tutti
French: Nous vous aimons
Spanish: los amamos
Filipino : Mahal namin kayo
Korean: Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
Turkish: Sizi Seviyoruz
Bosnian: Mi vas volimo
Croatian: Mi vas volimo
Serbian: Mi vas volimo
Hawaiian: Aloha kākou
Chinese: Wo Men Ai Nin
Arabic : Nouhiboukouma
Makedonian: Ve sakame
Afrikaans: Ons je lief vir jou
German: Wir lieben Sie
Dutch: Wij houden van je
English: We love you
Yoruba: A nife yin.
Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda
Polish: Kochamy was
Russian: My vas lyubim
Bulgarian: Obichame vi
Danish: vi elsker jer
Swedish: Vi älskar er
Norwegian: Vi elsker deg
Faroese: Vit elska tykkum
Greenlandic: Asavatsigit
Hungarian: Szeretünk
Tamas Szulman
But now it came tom mymind..maybe I will copy all of the comments - you know, as I have seen/read, not just the endresult is lovely (call it "what"..) but the way people have contributed to this simple but lovely idea (call it "how?")
I really appreciate the whole story all of the contributors.
The "what" and the "how" :)
Ciao, tamas
Juliette Zahn 50+
Hebrew : anahnou ohavim ot-hem
anahnou (we) , ohavim (love,) ot-hem (you)
Persian: Maa Doostetoon Daarim
Japanese: Watashi Tatshi Wa Anata O Ai Shite Mas
French: Nous vous aimons
Spanish: los amamos
Filipino : Mahal namin kayo
Korean: Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
Turkish: Sizi Seviyoruz
Bosnian: Mi vas volimo
Croatian: Mi vas volimo
Serbian: Mi vas volimo
Hawaiian: Aloha kākou
Chinese: Wo Men Ai Nin
Arabic : Nouhiboukouma
Makedonian: Ve sakame
Afrikaans: Ons je lief vir jou
German: Wir lieben Sie
Dutch: Wij houden van je
English: We love you
Yoruba: A nife yin.
Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda
Polish: Kochamy was
Russian: My vas lyubim
Bulgarian: Obichame vi
Danish: vi elsker jer
Swedish: Vi älskar er
Norwegian: Vi elsker deg
Faroese: Vit elska tykkum
Greenlandic: Asavatsigit
Hungarian: Szeretünk
Etsuko Sai
私たちはあなたを愛しています。
I wish all people from Israel or Iran get happiness.
Juliette Zahn 50+
Welcome and so wonderful to see you !!
Thank your for your entry.
Would you confirm that this is good or please make corrections
私たちはあなたを愛しています
' Watashi Tatshi Wa Anata O Ai Shite Mas'
WE........LOVE........YOU
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you accept the Zahn Peace Prize for your participation in this idea, for co-authoring this small pathway with me and for your contributions in 'building peace on time'.
Thank you .
(To know about the prize, see my comment to Ronny )
(To see CREDITS - scroll through)
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
~ Wade Davis
Juliette Zahn 50+
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game.html
Juliette Zahn 50+
~ Tim Ferriss
Juliette Zahn 50+
~ Wade Davis
Juliette Zahn 50+
"You know, I grew up in Southwestern Virginia, in the coal mines and the farmlands of rural Virginia, and this table was in my grandfather's kitchen. And we'd come in from playing, he'd come in from plowing and working, and we'd sit around that table every night. And as I grew up, I heard so much knowledge and so many insights and so much wisdom come out around this table, I began to call it the wisdom table. And when he passed on, I took this table with me and brought it to my office, and it reminds me of him. It reminds me of what goes on around an empty space sometimes."
~ Pam Moran
Juliette Zahn 50+
I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.
~ Shel Silverstein
Juliette Zahn 50+
~ Wade Davis
Juliette Zahn 50+
..what we're doing is a series of journeys to the ethnosphere where we're going to take our audience to places of such cultural wonder that they cannot help but come away dazzled by what they have seen, and hopefully, therefore, embrace gradually, one by one, the central revelation of anthropology: that this world deserves to exist in a diverse way, that we can find a way to live in a truly multicultural, pluralistic world where all of the wisdom of all peoples can contribute to our collective well-being."
http://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
Juliette Zahn 50+
He suffered through his language classes in school, and came to the conclusion that he was terrible at languages and will never learn. Later that set him on a “panic driven search for the perfect language method.
“.... Nothing worked until I found this. This is the Joyo Kanji. This is a Tablet rather, or a poster of the 1,945 common-use characters as determined by the Ministry of Education in 1981. Many of the publications in Japan limit themselves to these characters, to facilitate literacy -- some are required to. And this became my Holy Grail.”
He mastered Japanese (speaking writing and reading) in six months. And he went on to learn 11 other languages.
It's oftentimes what you do, not how you do it, that is the determining factor.
His attitude is “smash fear, learn anything.”
He also overcame his other fears. He became terrified of swimming because he was bullied and hurt as a child at the pool. He overcame his fear completely, and went on to become a master swimmer after two weeks of studying and learning swimming at age 31.
His suggestion: especially with fears you gained when you were a child. take the analytical frameworks, the capabilities you have, apply them to old fears. Apply them to very big dreams.
He does all this by focussing on commonalities.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html
Juliette Zahn 50+
There is a wondrous openness, utter and complete openness, in the mind of a child.
" Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven.....babies master the sounds of the environment they are born into within their first year of life.
Babies all over the world are "citizens of the world." They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages. As adults we have become culture-bound listeners.
The first six months are the critical period in development, in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language -- a model for the rest of language, and critical periods in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development.
In studying the child's brain, we uncover deep truths about what it means to be human, and in the process, we may be able to help keep our own minds open to learning for our entire lives."
http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html
Juliette Zahn 50+
~ Patricia Kuhl
Juliette Zahn 50+
Today, the happiest species on the planet is the Bonobo.
The Bonobo (live in the jungle encircled by the Congo river in central Africa) are similar to an australopithecine like Lucy.
“We have a lot to learn from Bonobo, because they're a very egalitarian society and they're a very empathetic society."
Scientists have discovered that Bonobos acquire language, when it’s simply used around them.The driving force in language acquisition is to understand what others, that are important to you, are saying to you. " It's not biology; it's culture.”
Today we're sharing tools and technology and language with another species peacefully, we could do it, and live in peace and harmony with our own species. None of us, can possibly even imagine what a beautiful life we can experience when we build a peaceful world community culture.
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write.html
Juliette Zahn 50+
According to the Out of Africa hypothesis, around 50,000 years ago a group of humans left Africa and proceeded to inhabit the rest of the world, including Australia and the Americas, which had never been populated by archaic hominids. Some scientists believe that Homo sapiens did not leave Africa before that, because they had not yet attained modern cognition and language, and consequently lacked the skills or the numbers required to migrate.
Homo erectus managed to leave the continent much earlier (without extensive use of language, sophisticated tools, nor anatomical modernity) while anatomically modern humans remained in Africa for such a long period.
(from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language)
Juliette Zahn 50+
The human language center is a modification of neural circuits common to all primates. This modification and its skill for linguistic communication seem to be unique to humans, which implies that the language organ derived after the human lineage split from the primate (chimps and bonobos) lineage.
(from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language)
Ronny Edry
i m sorry i just read your letter now.. so busy + the kids are sick :)
see u
ronny
Juliette Zahn 50+
Busy is good :) especially at your job :)
Please take good care of all your children (your students and family's) :) They may save us all !!
Children are our only connection to the source of spontaneous compassion....They trust in us, and we owe them a better world.
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
Hebrew : anahnou ohavim ot-hem
anahnou (we) , ohavim (love,) ot-hem (you)
Persian: Maa Doostetoon Daarim
French: Nous vous aimons
Spanish: los amamos
Filipino : Mahal namin kayo
Korean: Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
Turkish: Sizi Seviyoruz
Bosnian: Mi vas volimo
Croatian: Mi vas volimo
Serbian: Mi vas volimo
Hawaiian: Aloha kākou
Chinese: Wo Men Ai Nin
Arabic : Nouhiboukouma
Makedonian: Ve sakame
Afrikaans: Ons je lief vir jou
German: Wir lieben Sie
Dutch: Wij houden van je
English: We love you
Yoruba: A nife yin.
Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda
Polish: Kochamy was
Russian: My vas lyubim
Bulgarian: Obichame vi
Danish: vi elsker jer
Swedish: Vi älskar er
Norwegian: Vi elsker deg
Faroese: Vit elska tykkum
Greenlandic: Asavatsigit
Hungarian: Szeretünk
Elizabeth Gu 30+
It's an honor. I mean it :)
I wish you and the people who share your idea all the best.
God bless you ..!
Juliette Zahn 50+
Every day this world is a better place because you are in it.
I now leave you with this animation that I love;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mM11v_16-o
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you will have a chance to read through all the entries to our thread and find them helpful in your general approach. Also see CREDITS. Soon this session will be closed. Thank you. Be well :)
Atalay Ata
Simple !
"Sizi Seviyoruz"
("Siz" as "You" but in formal form, "Seviyoruz" as a progressive verb form which means "to love", "-i" as an accusative case, indicates object of the verb)
Juliette Zahn 50+
Welcome and I am glad you came to TED for joining our effort, and from a city that CONNECTS two continents!!
I will add your contribution to the list for everyone to learn to say 'we love you' in Turkish as:
"Sizi Seviyoruz"
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you accept the Zahn Peace Prize for your participation in this idea, for co-authoring this small pathway with me and for your contributions in 'building peace on time'.
Thank you .
(To know about the prize, see my comment to Ronny )
Atalay Ata
I'm glad to have it and I have already accepted, this is such a great idea.
I'll keep supporting you...
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you will have a chance to read through all the entries to our thread and find them helpful in your general approach. Also see CREDITS. Soon this session will be closed. Thank you again for your collaboration. Be well :)
Tamas Szulman
Thank you, was an honour to give a hand in such a topic - especially after this really tough day of mine;)
A did a quick search for your comment to Ronny - i am really sorry, for this silly question, but where is it..?
Anyway, thank you for your kindness,
Wish U Happiness,
Ciao, tamas
Juliette Zahn 50+
See it in this thread after his comment entry on date Dec 28, 2012.
Tamas Szulman
yepp, I found it - till now just because of some mobile device I couldn't.
Thank you Juliette for the topic, and thanks to everybody for the really lovely contribution.
ciao,tamas
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you will have a chance to read through all the entries to our thread and find them helpful in your general approach. Also see CREDITS. Soon this session will be closed. Thank you again for your collaboration. Be well :)
Juliette Zahn 50+
Hebrew : anahnou ohavim ot-hem
anahnou (we) , ohavim (love,) ot-hem (you)
Persian: Maa Doostetoon Daarim
French:Nous vous aimons
Spanish: los amamos
Filipino : Mahal namin kayo
Korean: Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
Bosnian: Mi vas volimo
Croatian: Mi vas volimo
Serbian: Mi vas volimo
Hawaiian: Aloha kākou
Chinese: Wo Men Ai Nin
Arabic : Nouhiboukouma
Makedonian: Ve sakame
Afrikaans: Ons je lief vir jou
German: Wir lieben Sie
Dutch: Wij houden van je
English: We love you
Yoruba: A nife yin.
Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda
Polish: Kochamy was
Russian: My vas lyubim
Bulgarian: Obichame vi
Danish: vi elsker jer
Swedish: Vi älskar er
Norwegian: Vi elsker deg
Faroese: Vit elska tykkum
Greenlandic: Asavatsigit
Hungarian: Szeretünk
Juliette Zahn 50+
........... one of many things I learned from my parents in this process.........
Kate Blake 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
Hebrew : anahnou ohavim ot-hem
anahnou (we) , ohavim (love,) ot-hem (you)
Persian: Maa Doostetoon Daarim
Spanish: los amamos
Filipino : Mahal namin kayo
Korean: Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
Bosnian: Mi vas volimo
Croatian: Mi vas volimo
Serbian: Mi vas volimo
Hawaiian: Aloha kākou
Chinese: Wo Men Ai Nin
Arabic : Nouhiboukouma
Makedonian: Ve sakame
Afrikaans: Ons je lief vir jou
German: Wir lieben Sie
Dutch: Wij houden van je
English: We love you
Yoruba: A nife yin.
Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda
Polish: Kochamy was
Russian: My vas lyubim
Bulgarian: Obichame vi
Danish: vi elsker jer
Swedish: Vi älskar er
Norwegian: Vi elsker deg
Faroese: Vit elska tykkum
Greenlandic: Asavatsigit
Hungarian: Szeretünk
Matthew Kwong
The last thread got too long (I cannot reply anymore) so I'll just make a new topic here.
Well Chinese is probably the same as English in a sense. Just as there are many English words the average person will not use, there are also many Chinese characters that people do not use. Even native speakers do not know all the words; they just learn the common ones that will be used in everyday conversation/writing. That said, it is not uncommon for native Chinese to occasionally forget how to write a particular character (especially the obscure ones) because each character is learned individually and there is no alphabet (as in English) of which to relate to.
The phonetics we have been using, for instance, would be unheard of to a native speaker because they simply learn how to say the words individually. I know what the phonetics are because I had to learn Mandarin in school, but if you ask me what the phonetics are for Cantonese (a separate dialect of Chinese of which I am a native speaker) I would not be able to tell you because I simply learned from birth what the words sound like. The written language however is all the same regardless of dialect.
So in regards to your question of how long it takes to learn all the characters, many do not. In fact, bilingual Chinese will often substitute English words in place of their Chinese counterparts merely because it easier to say and less complicated. So it is not uncommon to see Chinese conversations interspersed with the occasional English word to replace a difficult Chinese term.
Juliette Zahn 50+
What a relief to hear that not every character is to be memorized. They seems very complicated and hard to learn. It is like having to carry a gallery of images in ones head :-)
I am learning that: Chinese is the most used language in the world. The development of Chinese characters can be dated back to about 4,500 years.
Thank you so much for your patience in explaining a hard concept !! I think it certainly is one of the most beautiful languages:). Beyond the beauty of the written letters and words, I think that pictorial languages might have to come back because of their universal representation.
Matthew Kwong
When I saw your topic it somehow struck a chord with me and I just had to reply to it (hence I made this account). Why? In part it is because there were no Chinese representatives here, but it is also because you represent a different kind of world view that is, honestly, shocking to me. Currently I study Criminology, which revolves around a simple question: why do people commit crime? What drives generally good people to commit atrocities? And how do we stop it?
No one really knows the answers to these questions. But the trend for stopping crime seems to be more enforcement and more punishment - ie. more police, harsher sentences. There is a reason why few people would willingly open their doors to strangers the way you do. In my view, we have unfortunately become a society where people are increasingly isolated from one another. We lock our doors, tell children not to talk to strangers - in short, we have learned to fear the people we do not know.
Matthew Kwong
I myself had a hard time grasping it when I came across Restorative Justice for the first time (which focuses on rehabilitation for criminals, not punishment). The idea of not punishing a criminal was utterly shocking to me. But it also made me think about why we naturally gravitate towards a punitive system - is it really to deter criminals, or it is just to make the average law-abiding citizen feel better about themselves?
That's my take on the matter. It is my belief you and Ronny have demonstrated what can happen when people will simply take the first step to reach out to others. Israeli and Palestinians do not have to hate each other; we do not have to be wary of every stranger we meet. I would also like to ask whether you would allow me to include your story in my papers for Restorative Justice; surely many others would want to know about this as well.
-Matthew
Juliette Zahn 50+
It is most touching to know that you joined TED to participate in this effort. It is especially meaningful to know the depth where yours comes from.
I hope you will read the rest of the comments also in this thread. Every new year's eve, I silently prayed for world peace. But this year I chose to do it out loud. There is enough goodness in this world for all to share. I am inspired by all peace workers. My motto is ' shed light not blood'. The reason I put my story out here at the dawn of 2013 was to share this idea, so I am hoping that you can use it to shed light on everyone's life you touch.
As you move on on the road to peace, I send you the following, as parting gift :) and I hope you will hear;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mM11v_16-o
http://www.ted.com/talks/israel_and_iran_a_love_story.html
http://www.ted.com/playlists/22/the_road_to_peace.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html
and use all these in your life and work.
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you will have a chance to read through all the entries to our thread and find them helpful in your general approach. Also see CREDITS. Soon this session will be closed. Thank you again for your collaboration. Be well :)
Elizabeth Gu 30+
Korean: 사랑합니다.
But in that case, this word would be more appropriate, I guess--> 환영합니다.
What a beautiful childhood you have...!
I wish I could do the same thing to strangers who wander on the street, but I have to say, at least for me, it's almost not really possible.
Needless to say, so many crimes and dreadful stories leave me no choice but to keep my eyes open to keep my house safe from strangers...
But by no means, this kind of protectiveness should be the main obstacle that prevents us from welcoming people with all our hearts.
I was told that my grandparents had used to welcome strangers and provide them with food and shelter just like your parents.
Actually, in their time, people were quite naïve and very kind compared to us, who live in this more modernized world.
This trace of people’s warm-hearted behavior is now some kind of nostalgia to us.
Although the way people used to treat other people would be different now, the spirit of it is still alive as you plainly show us ‘the list’.
Juliette, 사랑합니다 :)
Juliette Zahn 50+
Thank you so much!! It is nice to see you here!! I think I am missing many languages still :-)I read somewhere that there are more than 4500 languages in the world...I am guessing that more than half are dialects of the same languages.
I agree with what you said about the relative naïveté and kindness of the past generations. And I agree that it would be great to bring back that kind of trust to our world again. Thieves existed since the beginning of time and they are still the lowest form of humans. They are very few. Maybe in today's world, hosting, like for exchange students, would help improve our understanding.
I love the Korean alphabet. The writing looks like pictures!! Would you be able to write the Korean for us in English letters so we could read it and try to learn that way?
Elizabeth Gu 30+
사랑합니다 --> Sa Lang Hab Ni Da
환영합니다 --> Hoan Yeong Hab Ni Da
Korean alphabets were created to make people understand the way they pronounce letters.
It might sound weird to foreigners lol, but once you understand the principle, you'd realize
they are quite easy to pronounce.
But however different it may be, each different language has its unique meaning,
and when you notice they have many things in common, such as "we love you", you'd feel this
fundamental connection that human beings are able to sense.
It's incredible that we have "languages" to express our delicate thoughts and feelings.
We should be grateful, right?
Juliette Zahn 50+
Thankfully, today we have so many tools that can be used to build understanding, so I hope we must use every one.
I have posted your entry is on list 27. Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments.
Thank you!! 감사합니다:)
After pasting this from Google, I just noticed that the last three characters (합니다) look similar to the two words you gave me!!
Elizabeth Gu 30+
Btw, you said, "Hoan Yeong Sa Lang Hab Ni Da"
Actually, it's "Hoan Yeong Hago Sa Lang Hab Ni Da"
"환영(합니다)Hoan Yeong " means, "(I or We) welcome (you)."
And "사랑(합니다)Sa Lang" means, "(I or We) love (you)." –Subject and object are omitted.
Both of them are verbs, so they cannot be put together.
For instance, we can't say, "I welcome love you." in English, right?
'Cause when we want to use two verbs together at the same time, we need to use conjunctions like "and".
That's why I added "하고Hago" above.
Thank you for your list. It makes me smile :)
Hoan Yeong Hago Sa Lang Hab Ni Da, Juliette :D
Juliette Zahn 50+
Juliette Zahn 50+
I hope you accept the Zahn Peace Prize for your participation in this idea, for co-authoring this pathway with me and for your contributions in 'building peace on time'.
Thank you.
( To know about the prize see my comment to Ronny )