New moon of the end of January: Hi!
Future: new paths? 🌱
Story time: free diving 🌊
Geopolitics: mmm biopic ⚖️
History: 3D ancient Rome 🏛️
Languages: language learning tips 🗣️
Music: Ca7riel y Paco Amoroso 🎧
Future
I followed up the conversations from the 95 emails I sent to schools and companies in Norway, Italy, Spain and Portugal. I almost found a job in Italy as teacher; but nothing really came out of Norway. So I guess I will put Norway on hold for a while and try to find inspiration elsewhere. I came to two conclusions:
I consider going back to study
I would like to keep teaching in the future
I am considering a PhD
So, I'm thinking of getting some kind of degree in pedagogy, didactics and teacher training, maybe with a focus on visual arts education. These conclusions are very recent, and since nothing is confirmed yet, I don't want to build up false hopes. But I can say that if plan A goes well it will be about me moving to a new and different country AND it will involve a very unique kind of study, which makes it potentially very exciting!
First steps to redesigning myself a bit, opening new doors, networking in new environments, challenging myself, inspire myself and embrace life hoping to achieve one or two ideas I have in mind, which I hope will be clearer in the next newsletters:)
Plan B is enrolling in NIS course which is Norwegian language course for International Students. By knowing Norwegian I would get the opportunity to access Norwegian higher education. And eventually in 2026 start PPU, which is teacher training in Norway. Let’s see what happens.
Story time
I have tried free diving for the first time ever: it was great! I tried in one of the deepest pools in the World, Y40, I got to hold my breath for longer than I have ever imagined and I have reached 18 meters depth with calm and consciousness! I couldn’t believe it. I had a little bit of a cold so it wasn’t super easy to compensate, my left ear wouldn’t open up, while the right one was all good. I had to stop mid descent few times. This made me think: I’ve got live by the sea. I need to do more of this.
I have designed and printed some booklets for my own home use which was a great graphic design exercise. One is a yoga book (Illustrations by AI!) and one is the recipe book from my grandparent’s place. Well if you’d like a print, just let me know :)
Geopolitics
The most relevant Italian TV channels on 10th of January between 20:35 and 20:45 broadcasted this ad about a new on demand series on Mussolini. What “Mussolini” says on the ad is:
“Today, Fascism is born!”
“Fascism is an extremely beautiful creature.”
“It will conquer millions of hearts and I am sure it will conquer yours too.”
“Follow me; you will love me too.”
I was fortunate enough to not witness this dystopian advertising. Again, fortunately enough, Marinelli, the actor playing Mussolini, clearly stated his detachment from fascism and Mussolini. These words had a big backlash from public figures, with answers such as: “shut up and take your actor paycheck silently”. The debate is flaming in Italy.
I believe this on demand series is a double-edged blade. On the dark side, it wakes “nostalgics” up and foments their inner “black shirts” spirit. On the bright side, it speaks about history. Since I haven’t watched it yet, I have only watched some historic reviews about it. Reviews say it is not historically accurate, as every show about the past basically anyway.
But I do not care if a show about the past is historically accurate or not. If it is accurate I care, if it is not accurate I don’t mind. For me the important thing is that it ethically and morally correct towards history. History can be bent for storytelling purposes but stories shall not distort historical aspects to one’s vision: that’s unethical and immoral.
So my only hope left is that the series does not incites to fascism in any way. Unfortunately, fascist organizations in Italy are quite happy about this biopic and they express their enthusiasm quite clearly. By the way, this public “enthusiasm” is unconstitutional, by law; by the italian constitution, redacted after fascism was brought to an end with violence and blood.
Anyway, imagine if this TV series would have been created in Germany about mr. mustache. ◾️ Could this happen? Few years ago the answer would have been clear. But what about now?
Geopolitics? Well this series makes me think of all the countries, Italy included, which, again today, as hundred years ago, have voted to express democracy through undemocratic speeches; that have chosen to represent democracy through oligarchy; and that asked the rich to represent the poor. A tip: it didn’t work well, we’ve tried that before guys, remember?:)
History
Talking about historical figures! In the last newsletter I have mentioned how I have spent some of my time during the Christmas holidays: “rebuilding” ancient Rome. If you want to download the images here they are.
Languages
Here are the languages that I would like to learn next, in order of priority:
Norwegian: to understand our nordic scandinavian brothers.
German: to open Germany, Austria and Switzerland up.
Arab (a little bit): I have been in Morocco for a day and it captured me. Also I am curious to learn about their religion, culture and food as I believe there are many intersections with mediterranean cultures and religions in general.
For fun, eventually an asian common language.
So if you are into learning languages too we could call each other online and exchange languages (Italian for Norwegian for example).
Tips to learn languages?
Establish a talking partner with tandem learning exchange (me!) 😉😉
Have a goal. Goal driven practical learning is the most effective for me. Everything I know now comes from practical experience. My goal with learning Norwegian is finding a job so I am writing and reading applications in Norwegian. That’s my practical goal. And daily exercise. I even had an interview in Norwegian - it went disastrous; no exaggeration.
Speak rather than studying. On a ratio: 5 minutes of studying = 50 minutes of speaking. Speaking gibberish is fine. You do not need to make a speech at the high court of marshalls as a learner!
What you need; or rather what your brain needs is mining! I mean: you need to go through the process of extracting from your brain the words which mean what you want to say. That means establishing “words” extraction routes in your brain, new cablings where you know that if you will be going there you will find the gems (the words) that you need when you need them. So “exercise” that route.
Use Pimsleur. It’s an app with audios in any language.
Music
Who else have seen this Tiny Desk concert coming out some months ago?
I have literally consumed that video! They are very impressive, unique, direct, unconventional and true artists. Especially, I like their unique music videos too. Their PR videos. They appear in a whole lot of different environments online. These are the sort of artists that we need, those who do not settle for already existing pathways but who are synonym of frontier, creativity, who push limits and make new paths! Here:
… and btw another new artist recently discovered!! She is amazing too: elaborate guitar and impressive voice.
Any artist you have recently discovered?
Translation til norsk
Jeg er fortsatt i Nord-Italia, og har fulgt opp 95 e-poster jeg sendte til skoler og selskaper i Norge, Italia, Spania og Portugal. Jeg var nær å få en lærerjobb i Italia; men det ble ingenting fra Norge. Så jeg legger Norge på vent en stund og ser etter inspirasjon et annet sted. Jeg har kommet frem til to konklusjoner:
Jeg vurderer å begynne å studere igjen.
Jeg vil gjerne bli lærer i fremtiden.
Så jeg tenker på å ta en pedagogikk- og didaktikk utdanning, kanskje med fokus på visuell kunst. Dette er en helt ny beslutning, og siden ingenting er bekreftet ennå, vil jeg ikke bygge opp falske håp. Men hvis plan A går bra, vil det være i et annet land og innebære en spennende type utdanning!
Plan B er å melde meg på et norsk språkkurs for internasjonale studenter (NIS), så jeg endelig kan lære norsk. Å kunne norsk vil gi meg muligheten til å få tilgang til høyere utdanning i Norge. La oss se hva som skjer.