Cultivating your English #19(of 20): The positive side of problems
❤️“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”❤️― Howard Thurman
(“No preguntes lo que el mundo necesita. Pregunta qué es lo que te hace sentir vivo, y ve a hacerlo. Por que el mundo necesita gente que esté viva”) Approximate translation
I love this quote from Howard- I read today that he was many things in life and one of those things was one of Martin Luther King’s mentors. He was strongly influenced by his grandmother who had been a slave in Florida.
I find this quote to be very relevant to this newsletter and my life’s work. If you are competent in English then I think it’s much more probable that you will be able to earn a living from something that makes you come alive.
It’s tragic but also incredibly motivating that there are millions of slaves in the world today. (According to this website about 40 million https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/highlights/ ) The reason it is so motivating for me is that there are so many things we can improve on as a species. Knowing that we can all do things every day to have a positive impact in this world is energising! Doing things to minimise the negative impact is just as important of course- nobody is perfect!
The one good thing about there being so many problems in the world is that if you like trying to improve people’s lives then you have an enormous number of issues to choose from! Especially if you include future generations and the potential problems we are causing for them.
There are a few eyeopening and shocking TED talks about slavery: https://www.ted.com/search?cat=videos&q=slavery
One enormous part of our lives is our work. It has an impact on ourselves, our families, our friends etc. It also has a huge impact on the world. Recycling, donating money to charity, using an ethical bank or using renewable energy is great. However, if you are working for an organisation which is not dedicated to solving humanity’s current and future problems then the organisation is part of the problem. Therefore you working in this type of organisation means that you too are part of the problem.
Do you really want to be spending 8 hours a day “colonising the future”? What will you say when your grandchildren or great-grandchildren ask what you did to try to avoid the climate apocalypse?
Here’s a great talk where Roman Krznaric explains a bit more about this concept of thinking about future generations: https://www.ted.com/talks/roman_krznaric_how_to_be_a_good_ancestor/transcript
The stronger your level of English is, the more chance there is of you being able to work in a company (or run your own one!) that is part of the solution and not part of the problem. There is no planet B!
Thanks for your feedback Rosa, she said “Jodie, the only course I did on a website was TandemMooc. You recommended us to enrol and It was an amazing experience where I could practice my English, teach Spanish to my peers and meet nice people who I’m still in contact with.”
I’m so pleased that you enjoyed doing the tandem course! Anyone can download the tandem app for free and find language partners like Rosa did. https://www.tandem.net/
She also explained that she watched a documentary called “The guardians”, it sounds quite shocking and scary- you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOh2h9OPeJg
Thanks again for reading and see you tomorrow in the last newsletter, #20 of 20!! 😊