Fantasy is an invention of language. Stories can describe real events that actually happened or imaginary events that could and could not happen (taken from 'Language and Thinking').

At TalkShop, we count on our members' fantasy. We regularly invite them to contribute to our language learning program and come up with ideas and inputs. This is what we call the "mutual leverage effect" - learning by doing and doing while learning. What differentiates TalkShop.cc from traditional language learning institutions is our flexibility and ability to come up to learners wishes and needs. And the courage to move in new directions.

"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed... It feels an impulsion... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons."

(Richard Bach, American writer)

by Mae Cayir

‘Tis that time of year again in Vienna: the Christmas markets are in full swing, filling the air with scents of mulled wine, cinnamon, spices, honey, oranges, berries, fir trees, roasted chestnuts, potatoes, and all kinds of foods. For me, however, the one ornament that tops all this is the Christmas cookies. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without this annual tradition that has never ceased to amaze me with its variety and creativity in all the 22 years of my residence here in Vienna.

Now, I'm no historian, nor have I done an extensive literature review on the subject. But my observation over the years has been confirmed by my Austrian neighbor who comes from a small village, about two hours south of Vienna. "In the old days, when we had nothing, we used to start baking around a week before Christmas”, she told me. “And, because we had nothing, we used to bake these cookies as a token of gift-giving." This sentence brought me into her world, visualizing how it must have been.

Christmas cookies: it’s all about the ingredients

They took the freshest ingredients that they had at hand: dried nuts gathered from the previous season. Apples and oranges that were harvested a few months before. Flour freshly ground from wheat that had soaked in the sun and swayed with cool alpine air all summer long. Eggs from chickens running around free in their farm grounds, pecking on whole grains, not genetically modified. Milk collected from cows that had eaten grass grown from earth untouched by chemical fertilizers, taking all their time in the world to move about expansive meadows in the fresh country air. The ripest fruits harvested that summer would make the marmalade to decorate those cookies. And the honey would come from bees cared for by farmers. 

 
I was totally floored. I simply took it for granted that the Christmas cookies are an annual part of the Christmas season in this country, packed in small parcels covered with cellophane. But, in fact, it is more than that. It is a deep-rooted tradition. I have come to be grateful for my discovery of this old custom that I look forward to experiencing more of in the coming years.

What kind of trainings and education seminars have you attended lately? A project management course, a personal development seminar or even a 'productive ageing training'? (yeah, I have come across that one lately..) More importantly, what did you learn? What's different now? What's better?

If we are lucky we undergo a lot of trainings to develop our skills, become better qualified, improve our happiness factor and standard of living. But let's be honest -- do we really look forward to all this (life-long) learning and training? Or is this something we "have to" or "should" do, because our employer wants it or the market demands it?

I have met a big variety of students in the past 13 years -- ambitious ones, forced ones, interested ones, interesting ones, sporadic ones, keepers ... . And they have gone through all the above. Many disappeared once they got their educational shot. Some, however, stayed and created learning communities, a movement that seems to oppose the educational fast-food trend of the past 5-7 years. These students have met in their learning communities for years and years and it seems they are not getting tired of debating, learning, and exchanging. 

This evening, I was listening to the philosopher and author Peter Bieri who explains the attitude of learning community members very well. Bieri thinks that educated, responsible and empowered citizens have one big strength, ie, their "inner voice". Our inner voice, he says, is the result of constant dialogue, exchange and reflection.

And I think it makes perfect sense -- what we need to do in class is ask and think about some of the following questions:

What does it mean?
How do we know?
What do we want to achieve?
What do we regret?
What's the basis for our decision-making?

Indeed, these are questions that can support us on our journey towards becoming "educated" citizens. Also, we must not forget that learning to listen and reflect takes time. It takes curiosity, openness, tolerance, and sometimes a change of perspective. Once we become aware that our point of view shapes the stories we tell, Bieri says, our relationship with our environment will improve, which in the end will allow for more self-determination and participation in a sustainable society.

Building a learning community sounds less complex than it may be. Typically, you face a variety of different personalities with different interests and (learning) needs. And these people do have expectations: they offer their time and so they want to take something home. Mostly, they see community gatherings as a source of relevant content and inspiration, and also as a possibility to catch up in person. Fruitful community meetings thus are a mix of information sharing, socialising, networking, learning and - no less important - fun.

To keep the spirit of our learning communities high we regularly ask members for feedback. The other day Karin, a reflective member of our community for advanced English learners, who is known for her inspiring inputs and comments, reported back that she was occasionally missing momentum. "I observed that when a topic was not particularly interesting to most of us, the group was somehow reluctant to actively contribute. What had triggered our lively discussions before was mostly the 'warm-up' in the first half hour where people came up with their own stories and issues." Rudi, another community member who has given constructive feedback throughout all those years, mentioned something similar: "I like our debates and discussions. Having to think about characters in role plays distracts me from the real thing."

Apparently, too much role play, activity and simulation prevents members of this language learning community from discussing topics of their interest, from engaging in their practice (learning English). What differentiates them from traditional English classes is that members meet to practise their English but also to exchange relevant information about work. Which brings me back to Karin's momentum. She writes, "At work, in class, in meetings there are moments when you move and feel "in sync" with everybody else. This is when silent members start to share their thoughts and ideas." And she continues, "It's the result of engagement and mutual alignment and helps to keep things going, moving, and developing. It's an attitude - towards life, work, and learning; it's pure energy and joy."

From a facilitator's perspective, what Karin describes here are the magic moments within a community of practice, where members can identify themselves with the topic, the domain, the community; these are the moments when they feel connected and committed and are ready to share their practical experiences -- it's when they talk about the "real thing". I think you cannot really plan such magic moments. All you can do is give space, provide food for thought, listen and appreciate what members think and feel, and be aware that their learning needs may be changing over time.

I have been inspired by Alan M. Webber's 'Rules of Thumb'. According to rule #32 "Content isn't king. Context is king."

Today's global work environment and social media culture provide plenty of opportunity to "do the wrong thing". Given different contexts (different cultural concepts, different expectations, local manners and mores) and sometimes a lack of language skills, everything from greeting to negotiating to eating, email writing and simple conversations can be a behavioural minefield, even when we have the best intentions. Sadly, this may result in embarrassing ourselves, in offending our communication partners, and finally in business and/or personal failures.

Those who have experienced misunderstandings in (cross-cultural) communication may agree that theory and good intentions are one thing, practice and real life are another. Let's face it: key requirements for creating a positive communicative environment and outcome do not come readily packaged. Much like in a relationship, it's a constant learning process and involves mostly learning by doing, patience, and perseverance. And even if they may sound like platitudes I strongly believe that trust, mutual respect, patience, willingness and commitment to communicate in a way that fosters open exchanges, seeing different context as a resource rather than a threat as well as sharing the learning experience are the hallmarks of fruitful and enriching (cross-cultural) communication processes.

There is no doubt that (cross-cultural) communication may be painful in many ways. We should bear in mind though that a lot of (cross-cultural) misunderstandings are context-dependent and that the final outcome will always be as good as our true motivation and willingness to really listen to and learn from each other.

Do you suffer from occasional spelling disorder, too? I admit there are some English and German words I tend to mix up a lot: is it "address" or "adress", "ressources" or "resources", and do we spell "embarrassed" with double "r" and double "s"? Especially less advanced learners look at me sceptically when this kind of thing happens to me...

I had an interesting insight the other day when I misspelled the word "jealousy" several times. My friend, who usually talks to me over a distance of 10,000 miles and with whom I have seen the good and the bad times of online communication over the past three years (spelling mistakes included), gently pointed me to my incorrect spelling by referring to the Gin Blossoms song, which made my learning somehow more "real".

I realised that what my long-distance friend does a lot is point me to songs, books, newspaper articles, sports events, cartoons, anything that fits the context of our conversation and helps me to visualise what we are talking about. I bet you get the significance of that! Exactly, it shows how "online conversations" and "online learning environments" can be a real benefit to audio-visual learning types as we can literally see and listen to what we have just learned, which makes the learning experience both enjoyable and effective. This makes me all the happier as I am just testing the beta version of our brand new TalkShop online learning environment that will be released soon.

What comes to mind when you think of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir? Their extraordinary relationship? Well, that is not a surprise -- actually they are among the 10 percent of all couples who, according to Uli, our psychologist and TalkShop Royal participant, reached the amazing "flow feeling" many of us long for.

On the occasion of the royal wedding last month, this week's TalkShop Royal dealt with the topic of love and romanticism. And it was very insightful. Read below some of last night's highlights:

"Kate & William's marriage is going to be one of the 10 percent marriages."
"A relationship means flow feeling, synergies, space."
"Marriage means daily work."
"There is something calculating around her mouth."
"Maxima's eyes tell us she is an open-minded woman."
Charlene's chin stands for energy."
"You could not not ignore it."
"My Irish friend was confused by the excessive media coverage in Austria."
"Why don't we write down what is special about our partner and read it out once a year.."
"I recently heard a joke that said that a woman who marries swaps the attention of many men for the unattention of one man."
"Marriage can make sense."

I am learning so much from my student Paul. Paul is very structured and we did an interesting translation experiment the other day. To cut a long story short: We both realized that being able to communicate your tacit knowledge in a foreign language well enough is prerequisite to having a long-term impact on your audience and business partners. If you ask me, this is when learning -- and teaching -- can get really exciting and make you happy!

A friend of mine shared a beautiful learning experience with me. He said, "This student of mine had no idea why she didn't get a good grade -- and I became convinced that emotionally, she couldn't accept the theories we discuss in class because they essentially imply that for the past 20 years of her career, she has done work that hasn't been helpful. It's tough to get over that..."

Learning paths are like loops -- they reflect real life paths. Like this student, we do what we've always done, what people expect from us, what we think is right, and are certain of our success. And then, a bad grade or negative feedback hits. We no longer seem on track but miles and miles away from what we've aimed to achieve. Que faire?

These are the moments when we are running the risk to get stuck in our own thinking, attitudes, habits, surroundings, work or learning. But these are also the moments when we can learn truly fast, both in class and in real life. Provided we are able to open up, avoid killer phrases, leave our own "drama" and try to take a different perspective. Most importantly, however, we need to be courageous enough and get beyond the stage of (classroom) reflection. Leave our old path and try a new one. Find out how we could meet our (learning) challenge and thus finally reach higher. Or probably just realise and accept that we already are driven by a brand new dynamics and need to be patient. It's all about our own willingness to learn and overcome the (emotional) state of resistance within. Sometimes we need to accept that we were wrong, get over it and be ready to take the next step, ie, put into practice what we've just learned.

At TalkShop, we prefer the real thing. We put you into practice and help you to survive in the (communications) jungle. What's more, we make learning fun! Our next get-together: 29th March, House of the European Union. (Photo courtesy of Bernhard Schramm)