The Global Natives Blog

What we want. And what we definitely don't want.

1/7/2020

Why the crisis called for some urgent straight talk.

For 11 years we've been just fine without advertising. Just word of mouth and slow, solid growth. No press, no social media. Then: Corona and the lockdown. No school, no freedom, no playing with friends any more for kids everywhere. And all of a sudden word got around:
These young Global Natives don't feel isolated at home! They talk to their friends abroad every day just like they always did. And they don‘t panic for fear of their language holidays or student exchange plans being ruined. Because they know they don't have to organise and book months ahead, they can "play it by ear". They have the connections.

That's how we experienced an avalanche of requests to join us - for all the wrong reasons!
There were applicants who wanted us to speed up our diligent verification process, who didn't care much for what we stand for and who merely wanted a cheap and quick way to solve their problem: Their long-planned, expensive plans were very likely going to be cancelled. They simply wanted to take advantage of a system that works by fair give-and-take, by genuine mutuality.
On came the emergency brakes! Advantage-takers are not welcome here.
Never before did we turn away so many applicants.

Until the lockdown, it had been good enough to rely on informal rules. But now we've laid down the rules in writing as part of the application process, making it clearer than ever before what membership means and what it doesn't. With the beginning of June we've declared our goals, values and due diligence process in plain language and set them where they belong: Right where an application to join can be filed.

The result: A second wave of applications.
This time for all the right reasons!
Because now it is perfectly clear what give-and-take means to us.

It takes a village to raise a child.
And a famillage to raise a global citizen.

We're in love with the concept of living and learning in the global village, raising a new generation of global citizens together. That's something you just can't do on your own.

This is what the community stands for:

1. A global mindset. And the insight required to make it an educated global mindset.

2. Responsibility for each other, our children and our planet.

3. Wider horizons. Geographically, culturally, intellectually.

4. Better language skills. We want to understand.

5. Opportunities to live fulfilling lives through fair give-and-take.

6. A commitment to humanitarian and democratic values.

7. Closed ranks against populism and nationalism.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. In the neighbourhood.

12/5/2020

We talk to folks hundreds and even thousands of miles away. They are our famillage: They're kindred spirits, bringing new perspectives and fresh ideas into our lives. Their kids and our kids teach each other languages. During lockdown many of us have reached out for new connections in the vicinity and found kindred spirits within our neighbourhoods.

How about Global Native families in your town, your county? Want to talk, meet, share specific ideas and plans? The wish to get together with fellow Global Natives locally has grown exponentially during lockdown. And who are the champions of local Global Native talks? The German-speaking world, the Dutch and the Scandinavians!

Why now and why with such intensity? Because there is a tremendous longing for a new start and for new thinking after the crisis. So we seek out kindred spirits with our own language, culture and environment to hear their perspective. Teaming up offers a strategy to draw a new road map together. Around the corner and around the world!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part six.

4/5/2020

Teenage hostility. Listening really helps.

Seven long and pretty tough weeks lie behind us by now.
The Liberating Lockdown Talks have created a new and powerful understanding for many families. However, they didn't work out equally well for everyone. Some may not have given it their best try, others may have found the circumstances weren't right. We've looked at the feedback and found one of the toughest challenges parents face is: Teenage hostility.
Our blog post from late March resonated strongly with tens of thousands of parents!

troubled angry hostile aggressive irritable moody defiant ...

How can mums and dads cope with irritable and angry teens when they're hard pushed to deal with daily life themselves? Feedback shows that the majority did manage, here's how:

Tit for tat. I listen to you, you listen to me.

1.) Parents listened to their kids first.
2.) They stuck to the rules:

No interruptions, no criticism, no derogatory remarks,
no well-meant advice, no jokes, no negative consequences.

See the blog post here:
www.globalnatives.org/the-global-natives-blog/the-liberating-lockdown-talks-an-experiment-part-three

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part five.

14/4/2020

Communication culture is soooooo underrated!

This is the theory:
You can eliminate 9 out of ten communication problems by hearing people out. By listening.

Based on this, we invited families to give it go. A crisis is a good time to try new ideas!
We knew, in lockdown mode with their children, they would have a hard time.

Adrian Tomine, New Yorker

Four weeks later, there's been overwhelming feedback. We hit a nerve.

And this is the real clue to success: Listening makes communication much more efficient.
Because people are impatient. Almost everyone is.
So we all tend to interrupt when we either don't like what we hear or when we think we know what's coming. The results are misunderstandings and misinterpretations, tensions and discontent, unhappy kids and unhappy parents, disconnected relations.
And, true enough, listening attentively does take a fair bit of training and good will.
But it actually saves a lot of time.
The feeling of being heard and understood creates a completely new atmosphere.

Please browse through the following blog posts and see the story of the Belgian triplet girls. No other age group needs being listened to more than the 12- to 16-year-olds. It's like medicine for the pains of growing up.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part four.

9/4/2020

"I hear you. And I get you."

"Why do dementia patients repeat the same sentences over and over again?"

That was a key question in a seminar on caring for the elderly. When Michael Wu, our think-tank boss, heard this question a few years ago, he paid very close attention. Because the answer was "People with Alzheimer's disease will repeat a statement for as long as they feel they haven't been heard and understood."

"What an eye-opener!"

Of course! Michael thought about the many times he had witnessed such patients. We hear them (hopfully!), but we don't show it, certainly not enough for them to register that we did. But isn't our own daily life exactly the same? Do we listen and do we show it?

"I hear you and I get you" - that doesn't work particularly well in most family lives either. This seminar planted the seed for the Lockdown Talks. We need to cultivate our communication! We have to train - our children and ourselves! - how to listen, how to focus, how to show that we've heard and understood.
In addition to the social and the psychological aspects, there is a pragmatic side to it too: Taking the step from parallel monologues to genuine dialogues actually saves a tremendous amount of time and energy. It prevents misunderstandings and "friction loss" from the start.

From parallel monologues to genuine dialogues!

So: Listening is not merely the waiting time until it is my turn.
How can we expect executives in boardrooms to know something they never learned in their childhood? How can we hope to feel understood if we are not ready to hear others out? Meanwhile, over 30.000 Global Native families have told us they are actively participating in our lockdown experiment. The tenor of their feedback: There's no looking back!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part three.

27/3/2020

"And I thought I knew my kids well ..."

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

They used to be really cute ...

"Apparently, there are some 14 year old girls out there who are nice, cooperative and quite sensible. So I'm told. Well, ours are not. Puberty has turned them into part-time monsters!"

Stephan and his wife run a farm in Flanders, Belgium. When they married 22 years ago they didn't know it would take them a lot of patience and a fair bit of medical assistance to become parents. So when Petronella finally gave birth to healthy triplet girls in early 2006, they were the happiest couple on earth.

Nowadays they comfort each other every evening before going to bed with a reassuring "They'll grow out of it!"
Hopefully they will. The three girls are giving their parents a really hard time.
Stephan's family has been part of the Global Natives community since the girls turned twelve. Both their partner families in Florida and in the Camargue have triplets too. But these girls - although quite typically adolescent too - certainly aren't as hostile towards their parents and their siblings.

"I just don't know how to cope anymore! We are desperate."

Or at least, that was the situation until mid March.

"Every time Petronella and I sought to discuss a conflict peacefully we failed miserably over these last 18 months. If an idea came from us it was bound to be rejected. Then we read the proposal for The Liberating Lockdown Talks. We read it a couple of days after the announcement came that schools in Belgium were going to be closed for some time. This had filled us with absolute terror! So Petronella rang the girls' class teacher and asked for his help. And he saved us."

The class teacher decided that this was a fantastic exercise for the entire class during the impending lockdown and that he would ask all students' families to take part in the experiment. He wrote to all parents and students, laid down the rules and requested that students should keep an online diary of the conversations they held. So Stephan and Petronella "had to do" what they had wanted to do and the girls were quite happy with it.

With the talks, the tide started to turn.

"As of today, we've held eight talks, each lasting considerably longer than an hour. With three teenagers having a lot to say for themselves and the rest of the family being forced to listen attentively, they might as well have lasted all day!

The girls got into the swing of it straight away whereas Nell and I had to come to terms with being targeted so heavily at first. It wasn't until the fourth day that it dawned on us that probably none of us had been able to conclude an opinion or a statement. Not for many years, you know! There were always interruptions, criticism, comments etc. and it was impossible to come to a conclusion with an argument. Either a sibling or a parent would always butt in and that clearly caused an ever growing amount of frustration to build up.

The rules of the game created an outlet for that.
Professionals would surely call it mental hygiene, I'm sure. Since we have all acknowledged it, life in the family has changed drastically! Nell and I have learned the most astounding things from and about our girls over the last few days, it has moved us to tears. Now, and only now, are they starting to ask us what we think in return. The week running up to Easter is something we really look forward to now."

The Liberating Lockdown Talks

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part two.

23/3/2020

"New influencers"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

Saturday, March 21.
Maria is a mother in an SOS Children's Village in
the south of Spain. It's more than a full time job.

In 2005, 5.500 Children's Village mothers worldwide were awarded the Women's World Award.

Maria abhors online influencers, she hates the impression they make on her adolescent foster children, the superficiality of their talk and their self-marketing strategies. Maria has seen too much of life, she says, not to be appalled by people who try their hardest to make teenagers want to have stuff they can't afford in order to pursue a beauty model they will never meet. She believes that nobody should ever value impeccable make-up higher than sincerity, helpfulness, determination, grit and character.
But Maria knows there is no point in preaching. Kids need role models.

So she decided to let her entire family - six teenagers from difficult family backgrounds - take part in The Liberating Lockdown Talks experiment. Her idea: She would present the kids with amazing personalities they had never heard of before who were miles away from standard beauty ideals and truly astounding in what they did or achieved. Maria knew lots of people like that.
Then the kids could take turns in presenting people they considered cool. They would discuss their merits and keep a journal, recording what they thought about each other's choices and the arguments for or against them.

Maria started with Big Mama Thornton. Now that's six new fans added to her list.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part one.

18/3/2020

"Leverage"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

It's 3 pm and time for Facetime. Felix talks to his mate Benjy in Nottingham. Over the last two years the two lads have held daily chats about what they currently learn at school.

On today's agenda: Leverage physics. In German: Hebelwirkung.
By the end of the talk Felix knows he can now explain it in German and in English. He tells his dad Robert about it, it is their much beloved daily tradition.

Credit: click on image. Wikimedia Commons.

Around 7.30 in the evening, they're all set for their very first 30 minute family-to-family talk - a video conference between two living rooms. They've decided to make leverage the topic of their conversation. Robert thinks it's a great idea to explain and discuss leverage in numerous other contexts. In politics, in business, in negotiations, in finance - leverage matters. Robert and his wife Sabine both work in financial management, both are news-junkies and follow international affairs with avid interest. They can think of many examples of leverage, and they can tell some amazing stories to illustrate them. It turns out that Benjy's parents, a teacher and a nurse, also have quite a lot to say about it. Leverage has its place in medicine and in education too!

Liberating Lockdown Talks

Was your childhood really black-and-white?

5/3/2020

When he was little, Max was convinced that his all grandparents had lived
their younger days in black and white. After all, he'd seen the photographs.
And, until last summer, he also thought that in England the weather was
always bad and the food really "lame". Now Max knows better.

Max went to England last summer. With his granddad. It turned out that the weather
was great and the food a revelation. Plus: His granddad was colourful company!

The "Kalterer See" where Max and his brothers love to go for a swim.

Max (12) lives in South Tyrol, near Bolzano in the beautiful northernmost region of Italy. His dad Joseph is a farmer, his mum Antonia a secretary. Max has two younger brothers. Their mother tongue is German and - as all kids in South Tyrol - they grow up learning Italian. The school system there is bilingual by default, of course English is part of the curriculum too.
Antonia allows her kids to watch Netflix series on a condition: Once they've seen one episode in German they have to watch it in English a second time before they get on with the next one. The result is not all too surprising: The kids speak English without a German accent.

A granddad in black and white.

Antonia grew up in Munich, Germany. When her mother died five years ago Antonia realized that her dad was getting very lonely, his wife Luisa really had been the pivot of his social life. But Martin did not want to leave Munich and live with Antonia's family for fear of being a burden on them. So she decided to enlist him as her kids' travel companion instead.
Martin, a civil engineer and a specialist for hydroelectric power plants, had travelled extensively before he retired. His employers had sent him to all continents over the years. He'd been looking forward to travel with Luisa, but she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just two years after his retirement.
Antonia's boys spend many weeks in and around Munich every summer and when Martin spends Christmas and New Year with them he takes them skiing in the Dolomites. But last summer the time had come for the first trip further abroad: Max and Martin went to London! By train.
Antonia and the Hayes family had connected via the Global Natives Club in 2018, there had been plenty of dialogue by email, face time and text. They knew they would get on well.
Now this was the deal: Martin should take Max to the Hayes' Battersea home and stay for two or three nights. Then he was free to pay two long-planned visits to old friends in Bournemouth and in Penzance. After three weeks he would return to London, perhaps spend another couple of days there and then take Max and his new pal Kenneth back to the Alps. All worked out as planned and by mid August Kenneth saw the mountains for the first time in his life.

But this story is mainly about two prejudices and how they crumbled:

1.) What about the food in England?
True enough, legions of European teenagers had been sent off for decades to spend a few weeks in language camps in the UK, coming back with tales of bland sandwiches filled with nothing but a couple of slices of cucumber or a few leaves of lettuce. That wasn't enticing.
But what Max had not anticipated was the wealth of simply wonderful ethnic food in London. Now, that was something he could not have experienced back home! During these three weeks in London he turned into an enthusiast for Indian, Thai and Vietnamese food; he tried and loved Russian cuisine and even dug into Cajun and Creole food with great gusto. What's more, Max developed a passion for seafood and even learned to sing "cockles and mussels"!

2.) And what about the black-and-white past of grandparents?
When Max and Martin started their journey together it dawned on them that they had never had time for each other before. Not on their own, undisturbed and uninterrupted. Not for a real one-to-one talk. Their train ride took them from Bolzano to Innsbruck, then on to Zurich and Paris. There they spent a whole day before they continued their journey to London. Now they had plenty of time to talk.
Martin realized what an excellent sense of humour Max had and that he was ever so alert and mindful. He was good in technical things too, a real digital native. Martin used his smartphone and other gadgets every day and didn't really require help (as many of his peers certainly would) but Max could still show him a number of hacks and apps he found extremely useful.
For the first time it dawned on Max that Martin wasn't just a man with silver hair and black-and-white photographs of his childhood. He was a man full of wisdom, life and laughter. Martin told Max many stories and anecdotes. He told him how he met Luisa, the love of his life, how their firstborn child died within a week, how Antonia was almost untamable as a kid. He told him about the many - and sometimes quite dangerous - projects he worked on in Africa and in South America, how he once was hit by a falling crane in Saudi Arabia and had to be flown back home with a broken spine.
Martin and his past became more colourful by the hour.

When they eventually arrived in London the sun was shining brightly.
They felt they could have done with a bit more time to talk.

The Twenties: The decade of new global citizenship!

31/12/2019

How international family partnerships change the way kids learn.
Three sound reasons for global family cooperation.

1.) Global skills:
Think open-minded and speak more than one language!
Climate and environment, economy and science, the web and the media - none of these care much about national borders. Challenges and chances are equally global these days. And yet, when kids talk to their language partners about school and play, music and sports, eating and drinking they understand intuitively that global thinking is just as important as the wonders of regional diversity.

2.) The family:
International exchange is exciting und fun. And it comes hand in hand with expenses and risks. Fair and friendly cooperation from family to family minimizes these and makes global citizenship feasible and affordable.
Intelligent combination of the interests and ambitions of two, maybe three generations, makes life richer and partnerships more rewarding for all family members. What's more: They improve family bonds. Kids and parents have more common ground and there's always plenty to talk about.

3.) Motivation:
International partnerships make sure that your kid will no longer ask "Why would I need to learn this?" Languages, geography, history, natural sciences - knowledge that can be used daily needs not be questioned.
Lots of kids also initiate class- and school partnerships, thus exercising their organizational and leadership qualities and getting full credit for the domino effect: All of a sudden the entire class shows a much better performance!
Pass the word to parents you know: There are so many cool families out there. Connect!

<<Previous

What we want. And what we definitely don't want.

Why the crisis called for some urgent straight talk.

It takes a village to raise a child.
And a famillage to raise a global citizen.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. In the neighbourhood.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part six.

Teenage hostility. Listening really helps.

troubled angry hostile aggressive irritable moody defiant ...

Tit for tat. I listen to you, you listen to me.

No interruptions, no criticism, no derogatory remarks,
no well-meant advice, no jokes, no negative consequences.

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part five.

Communication culture is soooooo underrated!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part four.

"I hear you. And I get you."

"What an eye-opener!"

From parallel monologues to genuine dialogues!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part three.

"And I thought I knew my kids well ..."

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part two.

"New influencers"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

The Liberating Lockdown Talks. An experiment, part one.

"Leverage"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

Was your childhood really black-and-white?

The Twenties: The decade of new global citizenship!

How international family partnerships change the way kids learn.
Three sound reasons for global family cooperation.

Visit The Old Blog:

Years of cool stuff
in our archive!

If you want to go far you need wider horizons.

Why the crisis called for some urgent straight talk.

It takes a village to raise a child.​And a famillage to raise a global citizen.

Teenage hostility. Listening really helps.

troubled angry hostile aggressive irritable moody defiant ...

Tit for tat. I listen to you, you listen to me.

No interruptions, no criticism, ​no derogatory remarks, ​no well-meant advice, no jokes, no negative consequences.

Communication culture is soooooo underrated!

"I hear you. And I get you."

"What an eye-opener!"

From parallel monologues to genuine dialogues!

"And I thought I knew my kids well ..."

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together. Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation! ​

"New influencers"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together. Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation! ​​

"Leverage"

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation! ​

How international family partnerships change the way kids learn. ​Three sound reasons for global family cooperation.

​Visit The Old Blog:Years of cool stuff​in our archive!

If you want to go far you need wider horizons.

It takes a village to raise a child.
And a famillage to raise a global citizen.

No interruptions, no criticism, no derogatory remarks,
no well-meant advice, no jokes, no negative consequences.

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

Listen to your children. Invite your children to listen to you. Talk to a partner family online, together.
Lockdown saves 90 minutes daily commuting time. Let's use this time to cultivate good conversation!

How international family partnerships change the way kids learn.
Three sound reasons for global family cooperation.

Visit The Old Blog:

Years of cool stuff
in our archive!