Episodes

  • Beyond Germanisms

    Beyond Germanisms
    Nov 24 2024
    …When I came back first, I never had a bank account, I never had an insurance, it’s so important in Germany to have so many insurances; and I came back … and I came back and, I was trying to do some things and people sort of look at me, and they had the feeling that … I was German, but I didn’t understand things. And to me, that made me feel really foreign. … I felt so misunderstood.

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    48 mins
  • I Love My Roots

    I Love My Roots
    Jun 22 2024
    I love the way this distance made me love my roots again and they really kept me connected. I want to take this rich history, this ancient culture in order to move forward.

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    29 mins
  • The Moment You Participate in Something, You Belong

    The Moment You Participate in Something, You Belong
    Apr 8 2024
    ... I recorded myself sometimes when ... speaking different languages in different settings. And I was surprised to see that you can really tell when the switch happens because the intonation is different. My voice is different, my gesticulation changes - everything. ... After a while I can feel really that my whole kind of thinking also changes. It shifts and it focuses on other things.

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    29 mins
  • Everything is About Learning

    Everything is About Learning
    Feb 20 2024
    We use so many words that are so specific to our work ... This is something we [at UNHCR] work very hard in doing so .... We not only give workshops, but we are also trying to approach so we simplify our language, but we also try to explain many of our terms. It's a matter of working on it, acknowledging it and building bridges.

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    27 mins
  • A Very Brave Child

    A Very Brave Child
    Nov 30 2023
    "One of my first memories was ... I was wrapped up in a giant snow suit for the first time in my life feeling really uncomfortable, this little child enveloped in layers of snow pants and giant boots and coming from Italy I was like 'What is this?' ... It was a shock ... and the switch from speaking Italian to speaking English happened within a few days".

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    39 mins
  • I am Swedish, German and Italian

    I am Swedish, German and Italian
    Oct 26 2023
    I think the last thing you learn on a very high level, is to do humor and to joke. ... I found that very hard when I moved to Sweden when I was 19, that people would think that I'm stupid. When I was joking, but also when it was about emotional things, when you wanted to be very very precise with something and couldn't really be so precise, that was very frustrating to me.

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    44 mins
  • Empathy through Multilinguism

    Empathy through Multilinguism
    Aug 18 2023
    There are always these external forces ... that send a message to you that you are not Armenian enough, or you're not American. I think you don't truly feel like you belong because there is always others who send you these very strong messages that you don't belong.

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    32 mins
  • A Swiss Perspective

    A Swiss Perspective
    Jun 20 2023

    "Switzerland has four official languages … the reward of learning a language was so clear fro the beginning… you learn that you can communicate with people if you learn to speak their language. It is more fun if you speak other people’s languages."


    Support the show

    If you want to tell your story email me at elisabethajtay.at.gmail.com!
    Sound by Hernán Giorcelli
    Thank you for listening, sharing and supporting Bi/Multilingual Stories

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    38 mins