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• Juliette Zahn
• Boston, MA
• United States

TEDCRED 50+

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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~~