The Global Natives Blog

The Tipping Point

26/7/2023

"How can anyone raise confident global citizens surrounded by xenophobic MAGA-minds? "

Right-wing nationalism drives ever more families
to identify as Global Natives. Over 50% of all new applications say so. We've reached the tipping point.

It's been a long time coming (as outlined below in the Verbal Shit Statistics story).
And now it has finally happened:

As per yesterday, more than half of all new applicants say, among their top three reasons for deciding to become Global Natives, that their regional/national politics have swung too far to the right. It frightens and frustrates them. This is not how they want their kids to grow up.

Make no mistake, conservative thinking is not what worries them.
It's the overwhelming pessimism, the depressing doomsday scenarios, the xenophobic search for scape goats, the suspicion towards everyone who doesn't conform to supposed norms, the denial of scientific facts and the constant lookout for potential enemies ... all of this creates a toxic environment for global minded parents and eager-to-explore-the-world kids.

It used to be: global citizenship, languages and opportunities.

And these still are the heart and core of the community.
But back in our early days - from 2009 to 2016 - we never focused on politics.
We do now.

Global Native parents don't want their kids to grow up in an environment of phobias.
The longing for educated optimism and open-minded company is their driving force.

Parents say: "Our kids want to think in solutions, not threats.
Nationalists will not solve one of the challenges the world is facing."
Right-wing nationalism damages individuals, communities and nations alike.

Just take Brexit as a demonstration of how the destructive dynamics
of patriotism have gone wrong:

As Michelle Goldberg wrote in the New York Times only recently, this "decisive moment
in the international rise of reactionary populism was a grave error".

Right-wing nationalists don't hold one possible reality against another for fair comparison.
No, it's their grim version of the future against a false, nostalgic memory of "better days".
It can't work. It is a lie. We know that, and so do the parents in our community.

Michelle Goldberg's article ends as follows, quoting London's mayor Sadiq Khan:
"... but there’s a larger lesson, one most Western countries seemingly have to continually relearn.
Right-wing nationalist projects begin with loud, flamboyant swagger. They tend to end unspeakably."

Trump and Brexit, climate crisis, pandemic and war have changed our world.
But we are ready to cope. Because we take a stand.

"Fuck!"

19/4/2023

How nasty language helps us to predict election outcomes. Or, to be more precise, to predict outcomes for the right.

An experiment from the Free-from-MAGA-minds front.

The climate and our future, economy and politics, science and health - they're global issues.
Society, democracy, equal rights, education. Truly, everything that matters today is global.

It stands to reason: We better cooperate. Within and across borders.
But for nationalists, there's "them and us".
They feel threatened by diversity. We feel threatened without it.
So clearly, we have reason to care how much power they have.

Alas, we have some tools to predict the strength of the right!

Back to 2016: The Brexit referendum in June was an eye-opener, and so was Donald Trump getting elected into office in November. Two historic events with truly global ramifications.

What we observed then: Too much nationalism changes search patterns.
Global Natives started looking for kindred spirits in their own neighbourhood.
We asked them why.

They said: "There's too much xenophobia and narrow-mindedness, it's stifling,
and it's depressing!" They longed for open-minded company to raise their kids.
With better conversations, more empathy, more hope, wider horizons.

This story from Italy shows you how!

We realized that search patterns are a great indicator.
In fact, they help to predict the outcome of elections.

And then one of our families had an idea
for a highly unorthodox experiment:

The Verbal Shit Statistics

When Michael Moore, back in October 2016, predicted that Hillary Clinton would lose the election, he had done something incredibly smart.
He didn't just ask folks who they were going to vote for.
He asked them who they thought their neighbours would vote for.

Richard is a maths professor in Manchester, he is the father of two sons and two daughters.
Pushed by his kids (it was their idea) and assisted by his brother, a behavioural scientist,
he started a new Global Natives tribe just before Xmas 2018: The Verbal Shit Statistics.
Richard's kids (13, 16, 17 and 19 years old at the time) were fascinated by Moore's
indirect approach. It clearly had an advantage over established opinion poll strategies.
Their idea was: Forget asking the parents. Let's listen to their kids.

Now, every Monday, well over 17,000 teenagers worldwide count swear words.

"Fucking" is the term most frequently used to describe an unwanted human being.
So, in English, that term might be used for fucking foreigners, fucking unemployed,
fucking bitches, fucking homeless, fucking poof, fucking retard, etc.
In German, for instance, it is the prefix "Scheiss-", as in Scheiss Ausländer etc.
Sounds nasty, of course. It is. But it is part of daily life.

Every language has its equivalent. There is no point in not spelling it out
or using lots of *** instead, if the purpose is to look reality in the eye.

To be clear: The focus isn't on dirty language, it's on dehumanizing language.

Which is in daily use everywhere, including schools, school yards and school buses
- all the places where kids repeat and pass on what they hear from others, in particular
from their parents.

However, the frequency of the use of "verbal shit" has distinct ups and downs:

It rises considerably in the weeks before an election, in keeping with political propaganda.
More than anything else, it mirrors the language of the far right.

For over four years by now, a rising number of teens have counted just how often they hear "fucking" (or their own country's equivalent) within a set timeframe every Monday, and they have entered the count into the tribe's verbal shit statistics.
They do this on Mondays, because after the weekend, use of this kind of language tends to be strongest. And, lo and behold, Richard makes precise predictions based on these numbers!

The power of language - for better or worse

Just as Michael Moore listened to the neighbours, Richard's experiment focuses on the kids.
Kids repeat what they hear when the family sits around the dinner table. Or the telly.
It shapes their attitude. It shapes their language.

When they hear racist and misogynistic remarks, when xenophobic and homophobic opinions prevail, when dad feels that the unemployed need a stronger hand and mum believes that vaccines are devil's work, when both are sure that parliament is a bunch of incompetent dimwits, that there is no such thing as man made climate change and Brussels is to blame for absolutely everything - then their kids want to tell others about it. In the same language.

This means: Measuring such language in countable terms lets us measure exclusion.
Want some examples?

A "fucking foreigner" isn't just someone from abroad. He's unwanted here.
Does a seven-year-old, calling his neighbour a "fucking poofter", really know what he's saying?
What about the teenager who calls his teacher a "fucking bitch"?
There are refugees at the railway station. To some kids, they are "dirty fucking parasites".
And what about this 11-year-old girl demanding that fucking climate activists ought to be kneecapped?

So this is powerful. How do we use it?

Our findings stay within the community. They will never be made public.
Nor do they come with any scientific claims. Their purpose is this:

We aim to empower the next generation to become better politicians.
They need to be able to understand and interpret wisely, to analyse with insight.
For this, predictions for elections are a helpful tool, and their accuracy proves a point.
Moreover, the stats help to comprehend how divisive language changes a society.

1.) This teaches young people first-hand what language does to the mindset.
In the family, amongst peers. And how words translate into action.

2.) Young Global Natives understand that many voters want strong language to express
their emotions. And they see how populists use language to kindle their fear and anger.

3.) Anticipating political swings allows us to address issues in time.
We, as a community, want to have our ear on society's heartbeat.
It helps to create better conversations, and to act more than to react.

10,000 by 2030

2/2/2023

There will be ten thousand Young Global Natives
in global politics by 2030.
By 2040, we think there will be a hundred thousand.

Within the next seven years, more than 10,000 young Global Natives will be active
in national and international politics worldwide. Ten years on, there will be 100,000.
They will represent a wide range of political parties and social backgrounds.

Find out where they come from and how they learn now everything they need to know

Here is what these young people have in common:

They are global citizens

They speak at least three languages

They were raised as Global Natives

They adhere to the same set of values

They can count and rely on each other

Teens who are 17 today will be in their mid-thirties in the year 2040.
By then, they too will have arrived in strong positions.
And they will know what they want and how to get there.

A new generation of personalities is rising.
These youngsters will, one by one and with each other's backing and counsel,
ensure that capitalism learns to respect man and planet.

All the smart talking, philosophizing, future planning, laughing, swearing and cooking we can do - in Russian!

8/1/2023

These kids are getting ready for post-Putin Russia, in ever-growing numbers

For years, we have made good use of expat language partners:
Chinese, Japanese and Russian families living in Europe, North America and Australia
have partnered with teenagers who are keen to learn and practice their language.

The Russian invasion in Ukraine and the way military operations have developed have had an astonishing effect on young Global Natives. They're more keen to learn Russian than ever. Why? Here's what they say:

"I have always had this thing for Russian food and literature.
And of course I've always hoped to see a free and democratic Russia
- but I thought, to be realistic, this would be in the distant future.
But now? It is within reach!
Putin can't win now. And I can see a new Russia without him!"

The demand for Russian native speakers in Western countries has grown tenfold.
These kids and young adults see tremendous potential in Russia and in Ukraine as the end
of the war will call for dialogue on all levels: there will be need for political and economical, for educational and scientific, and for cultural and humanitarian conversations.

Young Global Natives want to be able to hold these conversations, to play their part in thinking a new balance of powers and in planning carefully and wisely for a stable future.

"When this is over, there is so much to rebuild.
There will be so much demand for fair and intelligent exchange.
I want to be ready, and I'm looking forward to it."

See two case studies of expat language partnerships here:

I learn Russian in Toronto

Sandbox Chinese

Just as fascinating: The demand for Chinese-speaking partner families has grown, too.
The current factor is 4,2 (as compared to 2019).

Want to find out more on how our kids learn languages? Come this way!

Post scriptum: There has been some criticism, stating that not all young people share this optimistic point of view. That, of course, is true. However, the Young Global Natives in question are not only exceptionally interested in global politics, they all are in constant dialogue with people and media on both sides. We believe, it is exactly their inquisitive and careful consideration of all available information that will eventually prove them right.

Your teenager is doing really bad in school?

19/5/2022

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.
Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

This is the time of the year, right between Mother's Day and International Children's Day
on June 1st, when panic truly sets in. Will my kid pass? Do we need a rescue operation?
Until late April there was this idea "We still have time." But now we don't.

Here's what parents often get wrong:
They end up thinking their child just can't do any better.
In fact, most kids can do much better.
For some, it is a perfectly normal motivation crisis. Puberty's a bitch.
Others are under-challenged or on the wrong track.

So, if things aren't working out for your kids, don't narrow your choices!
Consider peer mentoring. Gary's story below shows how this can work out.

Consider a new start, giving your kid the chance to find its own strengths.
Statistically, the chance to earn a grant for one of the most prestigious universities is five times higher for a young individual who had to find his/her calling first than for any of the youngsters who always had a smooth ride.

Here's more on that!

Peer mentoring. Never hopeless!

10/5/2022

So you're a 15-year-old, clever young lad who hates school. You think your parents are alright but clearly from the last century, your teachers can't relate to your sense of humour, and nobody understands that you're just not interested.

Your little sisters get on your nerves.
Fact is, you'd rather be on the football pitch anyway. Learning is dull. Life is dull.

Now, your dad tells you that if you don't pass class, you'll be in real trouble.
Apart from that you have no idea what you really want to do or be. Life sucks.

The offer of an Eye-Opener? Very weird. Not interested.

But then there is Gary. You haven't met him yet and probably won't soon either, he lives in Alaska. He's just turned 20 and knows how you feel. At 16, he ran away from home to work on a fishing boat. His folks had no idea where he was until he broke his leg three months later and was sent home. But he didn't want to go back to school. Ever.

However, Gary also has two younger sisters. They really do want to go to school.
In fact, they're dedicated students and keen to see the world.
Which is why the family joined Global Natives.

Gary's sisters - annoying little busybodies in his opinion at the time - came up with what they considered just the thing for him: They had befriended another girl on the coast whose dad, Brandon, ran a cattle farm and worked as a certified sports coach.
Brandon had just read about the Eye-Opener concept and found it thrilling, he decided straight away to see what he could do for Gary. So Gary's family went on a weekend trip and ended up at Brandon's place where Gary was offered a job on the farm.

Soon Gary was hooked.
Work on the farm was hard but enjoyable and being allowed to assist Brandon in his work as a coach was great. He loved the way Brandon interacted with kids from all age groups. Within a year, he had developed a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life, and Brandon encouraged him. He wanted to be a sports teacher too and a coach. He had found a goal and developed a passion.
At 19, he thanked his sisters for giving so much thought to his future and appreciated that they had done him a great service. The girls felt he could best show his appreciation by becoming an "ex-hopeless peer", which at first he found hilariously funny and then brilliant.

Now Gary has dropped you a couple of lines, you've spoken via FaceTime for a few hours.
He convinced you that trying to play it cool is not always the best way to handle things. Sometimes it makes sense to accept the hand that's offered.
So, after giving it quite a bit of thought, you've just told your parents that you will give the Eye-Opener a serious go. Because Gary is probably right: It can only get better.

More options, new faces and perhaps even a new start ... the idea seems more and more appealing. In fact, you might even consider going abroad and see what schools are like elsewhere; after all - your French lessons were about the only classes you actually liked.
Possibly because of Madame Lucienne. Anyway: Let fate take its course!

The Eye-Opener programme has helped teenagers to see wider horizons for over a decade.

Teenagers who struggle - in school, in the family, with themselves - can now run through the Eye-Opener process together with one of our ex-hopeless peers as mentor. The programme has been tested and evaluated over the last three years, and there are thousands of young people willing to give a youngster a hand.
That usually means advice that can be accepted without losing face.

Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.
All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.
Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.

Here's to the never hopeless!

Find out all about it here!

Our talented failures are off to university!

22/4/2022

It is a milestone!
For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.

This autumn, 102 former bad students - once real academic failures in their own right! - will start student life in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford. Even their budgets are secured: All of them have been awarded grants.

Every year, thousands of teenagers find their element in the Bad Students Society. Not all of them head for university. Quite a few decide in favour of a non-academic career, a fair percentage doesn't opt for the direction their parents had intended for them.
But all are on their way to be their personal best.
And some decide that they want to aim high, very high.
Year after year we've had a growing number of youngsters who aimed for the best universities; we support their goals and encourage them - together with practical help and advice - to apply for grants to support them there.
This year, we've cracked the 100 benchmark!

37 young ladies, 65 young men. All set to compete with the best. They would have never guessed, a few years back, that this would be their destination. We're awfully proud of them!

"I know someone who can"

16/4/2022

Easter 2022: How we multiply opportunities
and what we learned from it

We're constantly experimenting: How can the community multiply opportunities better?
So, from April 01 to April 15, 2022, we tried something new. Here's how it turned out:

We set up a list for special wishes for the entire community, from schoolkid to granny.
Very personal wishes, some that may have been harboured for years, and others that occurred at the spur of the moment. They didn't have to meet any criteria, and they didn't need a deeper meaning or an impact on others - no need to justify or explain. They merely needed to make someone really happy.

Everyone in the community was invited to express a wish.
Everyone was invited to browse through the wishes on the list.
Everyone was welcome to react.

If you react, what can happen? One of two things:

1.) "Our wishes match or complement each other. Maybe we should talk."

2.) "I can help". or: "I know someone who can help."

The idea was to multiply the community's options by the individual members' networks.
The timeframe was tight, just a fortnight. The results were mind-blowing.

Thousands of wishes, thousands of new contacts, thousands of solutions!

Here are just a few:

One of the most immediate needs was this: A small regional hospital in Greenland had run out of blood type O- for an urgently needed transfusion. So the patient's daughter tried her luck. Within 90 minutes (!) a donor was found, because a grandma in Copenhagen, who browsed the list just as it came in, knew that her neighbour had this particular blood type and was currently on a visit there. Since she always minds his cats, she knew where he was!

Francois, a construction worker in the Pyrenees, had been searching for a spare part for his beloved vintage Mercedes from the late 50ies for the last two years. Reading about the wish list, he placed his search there. Aysun, a hairdresser in Istanbul, noticed the wish and passed it on to her uncle in Stuttgart. He had the part.

Giovanni, an Italian producer of Mozzarella cheese, was heartbroken: His second son, Antonio, had emigrated to Australia. Giovanni was told by a friend that Antonio lived somewhere in Queensland, but he had not heard from him in fifteen years. So he placed his grief as a wish on the list, and by chance Tim, Antonio's physiotherapist, noticed it.
Antonio decided to call his dad and found out that a terrible misunderstanding had left him in the belief that Giovanni had disowned him. That's what can happen when someone tells someone what she's heard from the next door neighbour's milkman's cousin ...
Now he's truly grateful to Tim for his help to reconnect.

Sharon had left her abusive husband many years ago, she raised her four kids on her own.
A trained and talented chef, she always found work, but life never gave her the chance to do what had been her secret ambition all her life. Now that her youngest had left home, she spontaneously decided to place her wish on the list.
Even as a little girl, she wanted to be a car mechanic. Her parents wouldn't hear of it.
But the dream stayed with her all these years. Now Sven, an engineer with one of the world's leading Formula 3 teams, has persuaded his boss to offer Sharon a job. She'll be in the cafeteria - already famous for its excellent food! - for three days a week, and can try her hand as an assistant in the mechanics' team on the other two. They'll take it from there.

The Wish List Experiment was a genuine eye-opener for everyone.
It will certainly be repeated. The potential of extended networks is unbelievable!

Care to know what people wish for most? Soulmates.

The most ardent wish of all is for human connection. We all need soulmates.
Regardless of age, gender, faith, profession etc. - human connection is needed.
Without it, we stand little chance to be happy.

It is secondary - the pandemic has trained our perception and given us opportunities galore to put this to the test - whether the connection is on- or offline. What goes for kids and teenagers is just as valid as it is for adults: We want to understand and to be understood.

As it stands, we have had this on our agenda since 2018. Given the wealth of new insights we gained during the pandemic, this will be our guiding theme for the next years - how to balance these two ...

The wish to understand and the longing to feel understood.

They wanted to invest their money.

7/2/2022

Now they invest their expertise.

The Bad Students Society holds a powerful fascination for people
who once were bad students themselves. Including investors.

The number of investors who want to get involved ever since we started The Bad
Students Society has amazed and surprised us. Twenty-seven so far and as it turns
out, they all were bad students themselves!

Against the odds, they prevailed, built successful lives and now have the funds
to support ideas that make sense to them. So far, they never found a venture
tackling the dilemma that was once theirs too.

That's why the Bad Studenty Society project had their attention straight away!
But: Our community has always been independent and is not looking for investors. 😉

However, three of these would-be financial backers have now come on board -
they accepted our invitation to work on the advisory panel and joined as members.

Gerd from Basel, Edith from the Isle of Man and Jonathan from Toronto now invest their
money in other innovative education start-ups. With us, they invest their experience.

All three of them failed in school, had their Eureka! moments with the help of
mentors and eventually managed to catch up with the education they realized
they wanted. Now they are parents (Edith is a grandma of six) and dedicated
to our vision.

We all agree: Complaining about the school system isn't getting us anywhere.
Instead, we believe in chances, perspectives and eye-openers from family to family.

Being a failure can leave scars on a soul for life.
And it is by no means a minority issue.

The Bad Students Society is a milestone project.
It touches people all over the world.

100,000 school reports

19/1/2022

The report port

We're building the world's largest collection of school reports. Every report and certificate, coming from all continents and many decades, has its individual story.

Here's why we do it.

But before we start, have a look at Josef's record:
This is the oldest school report we have received so far, it is one of almost 30,000 by now.
It was handed over to a young man in 1897 when he left school for good at the age of thirteen. His name was Josef, he was quite an athlete and in academic terms a total failure.

This leaving certificate travelled quite a distance over the years.
Josef, having had not much interest in what school was trying to teach him, fell out of favour with his family. They were disappointed. Josef didn't seem to show any talent to manage the family joinery one day, nor did he want to work there. He had other ideas and was fascinated by the inventions of one man in Mannheim, Germany, a Mr. Benz.

In the summer of 1906, Josef decided to emigrate to Canada. In Ontario, he got married and started a family. At the age of 23, he started working for Canada's first car company, Gordon McGregor & Wallace Campbell (April 1907). When he eventually retired in the mid-fifties, Josef had a house, four healthy sons and a presentable amount of money in the bank.

His grand-grandson Timothy, then a teenager of 15, wanted to earn some extra cash in the summer of 2000. His parents suggested he could take care of the attic. And that is how Josef's school report was discovered. The entire family was stunned.

Josef had always maintained that he was an excellent scholar to motivate his sons to try harder and show more ambition. The certificate was framed and given a place of honour above the mantelpiece.

Of course, the intention was not to diminish the memory of a grandfather who had been a smart, cheerful and industrious man with a head full of original ideas. Quite the opposite, the family understood his intentions and there was unanimous consent that in future, nobody should ever have to feel ashamed of their grades and reports.

Timothy had also found something else: A journal. Reading Josef's notes, he realized that he must have suffered from homesickness a great deal. But he never let on. Clearly, had he been a better student in his time, he would never have left Europe.

Josef's legacy.
Today, over three dozen of descendants live in all parts of the world. Eight of them are Global Natives, identify as global citizens and feel strongly connected to their European roots.
Timothy, now 37 and father of three little girls, is a dyslexic and remembers only too well how he struggled in school because of it. When he heard of the Bad Students Society, he went to take a photograph of the school certificate on the wall and mailed it to London.

He wrote:
"I am so thrilled with the idea of solidarity with and amongst bad students! Grades are needed, no doubt, and so are specified goals and benchmarks. But they must judge the performance and never the person. Our extended family has its fair share of troublesome teenagers too, and I don't want to think for a moment that a crisis should lead any one of them to leave home forever!"

An invitation to everyone who cares about the future
of learning and the all too often wasted potential of
underachievers and other presumptive failures:

Please send in your school reports
and leaving certificates!

Visit The Collection to upload your reports to the report port and invite family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

We're building this collection to create
a comprehensive anonymized databank.

It will give us meaningful and insightful information so that we, in collaboration with an international group of scientists, including some of our own members, can work on solutions on how to change learning in the 21st century.
The collection will give us knowledge and sound arguments. What we learn from it will initially be offered to member families as part of the community's opportunities. Workable and tried solutions will then be made public as best practice models for all.

Reports from family and ancestors (as you saw above!) are very welcome too 😊
Please do take the time to provide details to help us put it in context. We appreciate all background on what became of you or of the family member. Did you succeed because of or despite your grades? Did you achieve your goals? Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
.

If you want to dig into the subject further, please check
out the ideas of the young Global Superpowers here:

Young thinking!

<<Previous

​"How can anyone raise confident global citizens surrounded by xenophobic MAGA-minds? "

​Right-wing nationalism drives ever more familiesto identify as Global Natives. Over 50% of all new applications say so. We've reached the tipping point.

It used to be: global citizenship, languages and opportunities.

Just take Brexit as a demonstration of how the destructive dynamics of patriotism have gone wrong:

Alas, we have some tools to predict the strength of the right!

​The Verbal Shit Statistics

When Michael Moore, back in October 2016, predicted that Hillary Clinton would lose the election, he had done something incredibly smart.He didn't just ask folks who they were going to vote for.​He asked them who they thought their neighbours would vote for.

Every language has its equivalent. There is no point in not spelling it outor using lots of *** instead, if the purpose is to look reality in the eye.

The power of language - for better or worse

So this is powerful. How do we use it?

There will be ten thousand Young Global Nativesin ​global politics by 2030.By 2040, we think there will be a hundred thousand.

These kids are getting ready for post-Putin Russia, in ever-growing numbers

"I have always had this thing for Russian food and literature.And of course I've always hoped to see a free and democratic Russia- but I thought, to be realistic, this would be in the distant future.​But now? It is within reach!Putin can't win now. And I can see a new Russia without him!"

"When this is over, there is so much to rebuild.There will be so much demand for fair and intelligent exchange.I want to be ready, and I'm looking forward to it."

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

​Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.​

It is a milestone!For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.