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The International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI) promotes intercultural understanding and diverse communities by providing high-quality language instruction and teacher training.

You are here: Home / News / The Terrific Trio

April 13, 2022

The Terrific Trio

Three concepts for happy living – and better language learning

In my previous article “The Rejection of Perfection” I wrote about two of my favorite new words/expressions:  hygge and wabi sabi.  

First, let’s review and expand on these two concepts. Then we’ll add a third concept to round out a terrific trio of cool concepts from Denmark, Japan, and Sweden.

More about the cozy and imperfect process of learning a language

I discovered hygge (pronounced hooga) in Helen Russell’s The Year of Living Danishly, and I continued to read about it in The Little Book of HYGGE (Danish Secrets to Happy Living) by Meik Wiking.  

Wiking is the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen!

He says “Hygge has been called everything from ‘the art of creating intimacy’, ‘coziness of the soul’ to ‘taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things.’” He goes on to say that “hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things. It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home.”

A feeling of home may connect to learning Spanish or French thanks to connections with multilingual friends and family, memories of taking French or Spanish classes in school, or simply the long-felt desire to learn this language.  

Most importantly, the teacher should create a homey atmosphere in the classroom where students feel comfortable and happy.

The Japanese expression wabi sabi means the discovery of beauty within theA monochrome eggshell colored image of a table with coffee mugs and table linens. imperfections of life and art. Wabi-Sabi Welcome by Julie Pointer Adams talks about “Learning to embrace the imperfect and entertain with thoughtfulness and ease.”

I remember last year walking by a wall in my dining room where a chair in the corner had scraped against it.  I thought, “Damn, I’ve got to paint the wall.”. Then I said “wabi sabi” and kept on walking!

The same thing goes for learning French or Spanish because we realize that it is highly unlikely that we will speak a new language perfectly.  And that is “perfectly” okay.  As we mature we “get over ourselves” and relax and do the best we can.  Our efforts will be appreciated even when we make mistakes.

Purging the Clutter in Your House (and Your Mind)

My third new favorite word is dödsstädning.  It translates as “death cleaning.”  

For many reasons, I’ve started to purge my belongings. That’s why this Swedish word caught my eye.  It appeared on the same page as the headline “I used to bungee jump. Now I worry about driving in the rain.”

A list of 7 tips for Swedish death cleaning.Oh boy!  I’m Swedish on my father’s side and “Decluttering, Swedish Style” was sure to catch my attention.

With my health history, I have no idea how long the rest of my journey is, and I need to get rid of the flotsam and jetsam and steer a clearer path.  

Partly it’s so my family doesn’t have to go through all of my crap if I walk through the door that my father is guarding.  Partly it’s to rediscover what I have.  

If I still love it, I keep it.  

If not, it goes. 

If I’m not using it, can I repurpose it?  When family and friends visit, I encourage them to take things they might want. (There’s a similarity to Marie Condo’s “If it sparks joy” concept, but then she is also really into organizing and I refuse to fold most of the clothes in my drawers.)

Our neighborhood has been having tag sales.  They’re actually fun, and they make me focus on filling up the garage with things that I no longer use.  I can make money and then take everything left over to Cancer Connection and Good Will.

I don’t feel morbid about this. I still buy things now and then, and I receive lovely gifts so I have to make room for them, right?

As I purge old stuff and welcome new treasures, I find the room, the mental space, for things that matter most: friendship, family, community. That includes speaking different languages with old friends and new acquaintances. 

It gives me the bandwidth to brush up on a language I may have studied orKeep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta book cover spoken in the past and practice my ability to discover new things.  As Sanjay Gupta says, discovery is one of the five pillars to “Keeping Sharp.” 

Personally, I have put together all of my materials in Catalan and aim to go from my high beginner level back to the high intermediate level I was at when I lived in Barcelona.  I also intend to practice writing in Arabic as I was once able to write everything I heard (even if I didn’t know what it meant).  

Clearing out the clutter in my life will allow me to focus on things I really care about.  

So now I have the Terrific Trio. 

Dödsstädning joins hygge and wabi sabi as another concept that helps me keep my balance and enjoy this latest chapter.

By Alexis Johnson with Chris Elliott

Adapted from an excerpt from the forthcoming book Dancing with Words by Alexis Johnson

Related articles about learning Spanish, studying French, taking Portuguese classes, and more:

  • The Rejection of Perfection in Learning a Language
  • Great ways to learn Spanish online and why it’s important.
  • Top 7 reasons to speak and learn Spanish fluently in the USA.
  • World of jazz: Interview with Andy Jaffe, a Portuguese and Chinese language student living in the USA.
  • Spanish is Darlene’s Superpower: Interview with Darlene, a Spanish language student living in the USA.
  • Kathy Learning Spanish (again): Interview with a Spanish language student living in the USA.
  • How Alice Flexes her Brain Through French film: Interview with a French and Spanish language student living in the USA.
  • Charles the language person: Interview with an Italian and German language student living in the USA.
  • Takehiro Rises: Interview with an ILI English student from Japan who built a career in the USA.

Article by ILI Staff / News

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Celebrating the last day of September’s program Celebrating the last day of September’s program with an amazing potluck. Congratulations to Frank for a very successful program. He will be starting a new job at the @uconn on Monday. And happy moon festival, everyone! 🌕
It's a new school year! Here are some highlights o It's a new school year! Here are some highlights of some of the exciting things happening at ILI! ⭐️

•We doubled the number of sections—from 5 to 10—in the free English program for immigrants and refugees. 

•144 students from 29 countries now study online and in-person in standard evening classes and in a new, intensive morning course—all to help them reach their education and career goals! 

•French, German, Italian and Spanish classes are underway with 120 students from across New England learning mostly in person and also online.

•27 International students from 18 countries are spending one to three months or more in our intensive English course. Many stay with host families in the area and are mutually sharing cultural traditions.

•21 employees at Baystate Health, one of ILI’s business partners, are improving their English through our workplace language training program. We tailor the curricula to suit each business, in this case the needs of healthcare workers.

•Students from New Hampshire, Northampton, Pennsylvania and Vermont are enrolled in our online teacher training program, gaining skills that will enable them to teach English to speakers of other languages right here at home or around the world!

•ILI is getting a makeover, thanks in part to a grant from the City of Northampton’s American Rescue Plan Act funds and in collaboration with our landlord, Emerald City Partners. Looking forward to larger classrooms, improved airflow and other renovations, all in compliance with post-COVID recommendations, to better serve students and western Massachusetts communities.

The support from our community helps to make these things possible through donations + investments in ILI’s IMPACT Fund. Visit ili.edu to learn more.
Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s te Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s teacher corps! Meet Greg Kerstetter, another new teacher on the Free English Program Team! 

Greg started teaching elementary school in 2001, switching to teaching from a 10-year stint writing for local newspapers. After nearly 20 years of teaching fourth and fifth grade, he left elementary school teaching to write full-time, both poetry and essays. Greg graduated from ILI’s intensive TESOL program in the fall of 2022.

Learn more about our Free English Program at ili.edu ⭐️

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #englishprogram #staffspotlight
Unlock your potential! 🔓 With a TESOL Certifica Unlock your potential! 🔓 With a TESOL Certificate, you are qualified to teach English language learners anywhere in the world. 🌏 The International Language Institute of Massachusetts's next Intensive TESOL Certificate Online Course is coming up October 16th-November 10th!

Whether you’re a new or experienced ESL/EFL/ESOL instructor, our World Learning SIT Graduate Institute TESOL intensive course provides practical skills to become a more successful teacher and make a greater impact on the lives of your students.

The SIT TESOL Certificate course is a 180-hour English teacher training program in which you will experiment with and reflect on key teaching frameworks, core TESOL concepts, and multiple language acquisition tools. 

SIT-certified TESOL trainers guide you through a comprehensive curriculum with the following modules: learning, teaching, speaking, pronunciation, structure, listening, reading, writing, and culture.

Learn more and sign up today ili.edu/programs/tesol-certificate ✨ For more information email macey@ili.edu
ILI is looking for local families, living within w ILI is looking for local families, living within walking distance of ILI in downtown Northampton or on a bus route, to host adult international students enrolled in the school's intensive English courses. Currently we have students from 17 different countries studying at the school. It’s a wonderful way to welcome very interested and interesting people as they work on their English skills. And it’s a terrific opportunity for you to broaden your cultural experiences, sharing your family’s traditions with the students as they share theirs with you. 

Hosts receive a weekly stipend to cover their costs ($150 a week for a private room without meals; $250 a week for a private room with meals). The length of stay can vary with the minimum stay of one month. Students attend intensive English classes at ILI Mondays-Thursdays 9-2:30 and Fridays 9-noon.  Visit ili.edu for more information.

And for a first-hand experience about hosting, read Greg Kerstetter's article, Hosting international students is rewarding. Greg teaches in our free English program- read his article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette here: https://www.gazettenet.com/Guest-Columnist-Kerstetter-51945600

Photo by @vagabundodeltiempo 
#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #internationalstudents #hostfamily #northampton
Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s te Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s teacher corps! 

And speaking of the 2023-2024 school year, we have expanded the number of “seats” in the free English program by 72% over the past few years, starting this month! How did this come about? Last December, we received news from our partner, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, that they accepted our proposal to expand the program, including the addition of a new intensive morning class.

 And that brought about a need to grow our teaching corps. Over the next few days we'll spotlight some of the new teachers in the free English program team.

Meet Calebb Louis
Calebb holds a B.A. in literature and political science from Rutgers University, an M.A. in applied linguistics and a TESOL graduate certificate from Texas A&M University. He is working on an MFA in creative writing at Drexel University.

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