[Music]
[Applause]
everything begins for the conversation
whether it’s the chatter inside your
head or those external everyday
conversations that we all have for me it
could be a Hello with the postman an
exchange with my fellow swimmers before
we dive into the freezing sea it could
be a chinwag
over a coffee in my local cafe where
they really do know my name all of these
encounters matter because they give me a
sense of belonging a sense of place and
the reason why all of these
conversations these exchanges matter
it’s because they fulfill our
fundamental needs to connect our words
matter language matters we only have to
look across to America or to the UK with
brexit and you can see how easily words
can unite and they can divide whether
you’ve had to move countries or you’ve
chosen to move countries out of choices
or necessity it can be a very alienating
very disconcerting experience I’m sure
there people in the audience tonight who
have made that transition so you imagine
for a moment when everything that is
familiar is gone all of those landmarks
that make you feel at home your
community is completely vanished and you
have to start again
learning a language then can be a
lifeline a new language neatly be a
barrier but I see it more as a carrier a
carrier into a new life of possibilities
and it’s a little bit like a dance you
have to learn the steps because if you
imagine inside your head you already
have a data bank of knowledge of images
of words in your own language so
learning anew
which gives you extra steps you just
have to get them in the right sequence
obviously it’s not as easy as that but
it’s a process many years ago I spent
some time in France and I won’t tell you
about all of the cultural blunders the
linguistic blunders what I remember most
about that time 30-plus he hid this
later
it’s astonishing how time flies at the
moments of connection not the mistakes
at all in later years when I came back
to Dublin
that was another transition and getting
used to a different society a different
way of doing things I did make one
fundamental error I assumes coming from
the teeming metropolis my city London
that the cultures would be the same
never assume that they are totally
totally different
I had many conversations with people in
companies individuals and what I came to
read on this was there’s a big gap
disconnect if you like and what I wanted
to do is an extension of my work I
wanted to do something that would be
useful would be value Winston Churchill
said we make a living by what we get we
make a life by what we give
last year I set up something called the
multi cultural exchange essentially it
brings non native language speakers
together and we follow if you like it’s
an informal program of personal
development combined with creative
thinking really looking at different
needs within the group and I have
learned so much from them in fact it’s
probably the reason that I’m able to
stand here now and I’ll share some of
those insights with you they’re like
courageous explorers because quite often
the mountains that they have to climb
are really high and there’s so many
obstacles in the way and we have people
evolved
nationalities and a few of them I’d like
to talk to you about now Alexandra for
her connection is everything
relationships when she came to island
from Poland she saw it as shedding an
old skin and creating if you like a new
one but she knew how tough that outer
skin was would determine how well she
would do she said the best form of self
development is to go learn a new
language and a new culture Livia Livia
said living through another language
made her reexamine her own culture how
things were done in Spain different
traditions but also helped to integrate
here and the work that we’re doing has
helped her reshape her thinking given a
different focus Adrian who describes
himself as an introvert but in actual
fact we’ve learned differently because
he’s really if you like transformed into
into another type of person what he is
found with what we’re doing is that it’s
created what I would call a parallel
community or not I would call he called
it that because it sits outside his
family absolute his friends outside the
Moravian community what it does is give
him soar elsewhere he can express
himself freely develop different ideas
and the other person I’d like to tell
you about is Santiago Santiago is a
writer and as you might imagine a writer
is very particular with their words he’s
a perfectionist he loves to get
everything exactly right one day we had
had fairly lively discussion a lot of
free thinking pretty high-level stuff
everyone was really chatting and really
engaged at the end of it we turned and
looked at me and he said
I know what you’re doing here my heart
began to pound and I was quite worried
because sometimes sometimes things get
quite emotional I said all mine I take
thee listen to what’s been going on I’ve
contributed to the conversations here
I’ve understood everything and then
there was a deadly silence and his face
transformed biggest smile and he said we
might be doing it in English when you
get those moments for me it makes my
heart sing you know that somebody has
moved over and they’ve got that they’re
engaged in what they’re doing they’re
not thinking that they’re thinking in
another language they’re just talking
they’ve got the steps of the dance
really flowing the multicultural
exchange has three guiding principles
connection collaboration and confidence
because that’s the ultimate destination
connection I think is so important
because no matter how much technology
advances there is always going to be a
need for that connection but human
warmth the kindness the face-to-face
interaction that we pray for and it is
funny because in this world where more
and more connected to technology but
where ever more disconnected and what
people want is engagement firstly I
don’t get it the second guiding
principle is the sharing of intellect
and skills I don’t mention attitude
because courageous explorers have it in
them in abundance and obviously then we
come on to confidence the final story
I’d like to tell you is the story of
indian-born a shop he came from India in
1970 when his son
was born in 1979 just 1% of the births
registered were of ethnic origin that
figure rose to 17% the same year that
his son who was openly gay or is openly
gay son of an immigrant became tisha
Island is changing but I believe it’s
down to us we have a collective
responsibility to facilitate inclusion
to have those conversations and this is
why conversation matters and we can do
it one conversation at a time somebody
put this very succinctly and I ever
heard it the other day so I can’t claim
it as my own line but they said don’t
just invite me to the party invite me to
dance
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
everything begins for the conversation
whether it’s the chatter inside your
head or those external everyday
conversations that we all have for me it
could be a Hello with the postman an
exchange with my fellow swimmers before
we dive into the freezing sea it could
be a chinwag
over a coffee in my local cafe where
they really do know my name all of these
encounters matter because they give me a
sense of belonging a sense of place and
the reason why all of these
conversations these exchanges matter
it’s because they fulfill our
fundamental needs to connect our words
matter language matters we only have to
look across to America or to the UK with
brexit and you can see how easily words
can unite and they can divide whether
you’ve had to move countries or you’ve
chosen to move countries out of choices
or necessity it can be a very alienating
very disconcerting experience I’m sure
there people in the audience tonight who
have made that transition so you imagine
for a moment when everything that is
familiar is gone all of those landmarks
that make you feel at home your
community is completely vanished and you
have to start again
learning a language then can be a
lifeline a new language neatly be a
barrier but I see it more as a carrier a
carrier into a new life of possibilities
and it’s a little bit like a dance you
have to learn the steps because if you
imagine inside your head you already
have a data bank of knowledge of images
of words in your own language so
learning anew
which gives you extra steps you just
have to get them in the right sequence
obviously it’s not as easy as that but
it’s a process many years ago I spent
some time in France and I won’t tell you
about all of the cultural blunders the
linguistic blunders what I remember most
about that time 30-plus he hid this
later
it’s astonishing how time flies at the
moments of connection not the mistakes
at all in later years when I came back
to Dublin
that was another transition and getting
used to a different society a different
way of doing things I did make one
fundamental error I assumes coming from
the teeming metropolis my city London
that the cultures would be the same
never assume that they are totally
totally different
I had many conversations with people in
companies individuals and what I came to
read on this was there’s a big gap
disconnect if you like and what I wanted
to do is an extension of my work I
wanted to do something that would be
useful would be value Winston Churchill
said we make a living by what we get we
make a life by what we give
last year I set up something called the
multi cultural exchange essentially it
brings non native language speakers
together and we follow if you like it’s
an informal program of personal
development combined with creative
thinking really looking at different
needs within the group and I have
learned so much from them in fact it’s
probably the reason that I’m able to
stand here now and I’ll share some of
those insights with you they’re like
courageous explorers because quite often
the mountains that they have to climb
are really high and there’s so many
obstacles in the way and we have people
evolved
nationalities and a few of them I’d like
to talk to you about now Alexandra for
her connection is everything
relationships when she came to island
from Poland she saw it as shedding an
old skin and creating if you like a new
one but she knew how tough that outer
skin was would determine how well she
would do she said the best form of self
development is to go learn a new
language and a new culture Livia Livia
said living through another language
made her reexamine her own culture how
things were done in Spain different
traditions but also helped to integrate
here and the work that we’re doing has
helped her reshape her thinking given a
different focus Adrian who describes
himself as an introvert but in actual
fact we’ve learned differently because
he’s really if you like transformed into
into another type of person what he is
found with what we’re doing is that it’s
created what I would call a parallel
community or not I would call he called
it that because it sits outside his
family absolute his friends outside the
Moravian community what it does is give
him soar elsewhere he can express
himself freely develop different ideas
and the other person I’d like to tell
you about is Santiago Santiago is a
writer and as you might imagine a writer
is very particular with their words he’s
a perfectionist he loves to get
everything exactly right one day we had
had fairly lively discussion a lot of
free thinking pretty high-level stuff
everyone was really chatting and really
engaged at the end of it we turned and
looked at me and he said
I know what you’re doing here my heart
began to pound and I was quite worried
because sometimes sometimes things get
quite emotional I said all mine I take
thee listen to what’s been going on I’ve
contributed to the conversations here
I’ve understood everything and then
there was a deadly silence and his face
transformed biggest smile and he said we
might be doing it in English when you
get those moments for me it makes my
heart sing you know that somebody has
moved over and they’ve got that they’re
engaged in what they’re doing they’re
not thinking that they’re thinking in
another language they’re just talking
they’ve got the steps of the dance
really flowing the multicultural
exchange has three guiding principles
connection collaboration and confidence
because that’s the ultimate destination
connection I think is so important
because no matter how much technology
advances there is always going to be a
need for that connection but human
warmth the kindness the face-to-face
interaction that we pray for and it is
funny because in this world where more
and more connected to technology but
where ever more disconnected and what
people want is engagement firstly I
don’t get it the second guiding
principle is the sharing of intellect
and skills I don’t mention attitude
because courageous explorers have it in
them in abundance and obviously then we
come on to confidence the final story
I’d like to tell you is the story of
indian-born a shop he came from India in
1970 when his son
was born in 1979 just 1% of the births
registered were of ethnic origin that
figure rose to 17% the same year that
his son who was openly gay or is openly
gay son of an immigrant became tisha
Island is changing but I believe it’s
down to us we have a collective
responsibility to facilitate inclusion
to have those conversations and this is
why conversation matters and we can do
it one conversation at a time somebody
put this very succinctly and I ever
heard it the other day so I can’t claim
it as my own line but they said don’t
just invite me to the party invite me to
dance
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: