#Speak White is in french only but all the others have english and subtitles options

[jetlagadventure]

accented life – july 28

“Ooooh, what a cute acceeeeent! Where are you from?” Proboha, už zas! I heard it for the hundredth time, this time when I pointed out to someone that there was no toilet paper in the washroom (this word makes me a proper Canadian, doesn’t it?) stall they were heading to. It’s not racist, since I am passable as a White Canadian (that group of immigrants that have the privilege to be called simply “Canadian” without any additional adjective) but only after having lived in Edmonton for a few years did I realize how annoying that seemingly innocent question “Where are you from?” can be.

V češtině se ani neptáme, odkud člověk pochází. Neexistuje skoro nikdo, kdo by mluvil funkční češtinou a nebyl z Česka. Samozřejmě, zrovna já jsem jednoho takového člověka znala. Ale nikdo se ho neptal – jen v jiných jazycích, kterých uměl několik.

I am not singled out as soon as I enter the room, in which I am lucky. But I am as soon as I open my mouth. Europe is different. It is not true that everyone in Europe speaks more than one language, not even at universities. At my French university, many people only speak French and for foreigners, French plays the same role as English in Western Canada: another language is out of the question. The difference however is that in France, it is a meticulously maintained choice. Everyone knows that there is the language “That Must Not Be Named” out there which no-one is allowed to use.

« Est-ce qu'il serait possible que j'écrive mon essai en anglais ? » « Non. On est en France, on écrit en français ! »

That's why in France, even German I used more than English. All foreign guest speakers are expected to either speak broken French or be interpreted from their native language (and English speakers are not invited that often). No-one uses English, it’s not an option. But it is a cultural-political decision, not (only) ignorance.

In Germany, on the other hand, everyone uses English and most scholars are able to transform their speech or lecture from German to English at very short notice, when they learn that there may be someone – be it only one person – who is not fluent in German.

„Ich werde auf Englisch sprechen, damit es alle verstehen. Alle. Wenn es Englisch ist, verstehen es „alle“. Das heißt, in Deutschland.

The Czech academia is somewhere in between. In the humanities in general and in philosophy in particular, there is a certain prejudice against English. English is not a philosophical language, English is a tool. And there are many people who are not entirely comfortable using it.

„Proč tu máte na seznamu četby Marxe v angličtině?“ „Protože jsem o něm psala závěrečnou práci anglicky.“ „Na doktorátu se ovšem očekává, že budete číst v originále.“ „Jistě, já čtu německy.“

(Špatně, a rozhodně ne filosofii. Ale že se nikdo neptal, proč mám na seznamu Heideggera česky …)

But what all these three countries – and by extrapolation all of Europe – have in common is that multiple languages are always there as an option. They are there actually or virtually. Even if many people don’t know a language other than their own, everyone knows someone who can speak at least two. There are foreign movies everywhere – either subtitled or dubbed –, there are books that are debated whether they have been translated yet, there are relatives living abroad, studying at foreign universities, refugees from Ukraine, and exploited seasonal workers from Eastern Europe in Germany who need to learn at least a few words in German.

In Canada, it is different. I have never seen such a concentration of highly educated people who only speak English. The French they are supposed to learn is a joke – I speak my tenth language, which I waste my time with at Duolingo, better than many people who had French in school. 本当ですか？ As a (recent) immigrant, you become a source of admiration but also some kind of rare animal, that people want to see, hear, and touch. “Oh, Prague! I always wanted to visit!” What I find most interesting however, is not that so few people can speak another language (I know many in Europe as well) but the lack of what I call “linguistic imagination.” For example, after a lecture I gave at a philosophy club for seniors, a woman told me that she found it fascinating to watch me mentally translate. Or someone (a second-generation immigrant, btw) once asked me whether I translate in my head or if I form my thoughts in English right away. Well. As anyone who is at least partially fluent in a second language knows, “translating in one’s head” is a very specific and challenging skill that people study for years: it is called live interpreting. And as anyone who has ever tried to translate for their relatives or friends in a restaurant also knows, switching between languages is actually the hardest part of being bilingual. Typically, you don’t live in two (or three or four) languages at once. When you switch between languages, you switch between codes, worlds, lives, people, sometimes even emotions – and you don’t do it lightly or easily.

Immigrants often tend to group together, and not (only) because we may feel that we are not fully accepted in local communities. It is rather because we have a special wisdom, a special skill. When I told my Brazilian friend that my language doesn’t differentiate between the words “foot” and “leg” (nor between “hand” and “arm”), she found it amusing but fully acceptable. But when she later told her Canadian and American friends, they actually checked it on Google and then contacted me again to ask if it was true for real. English speaking people don’t know that the language grid that we put on the world is different. I, on the contrary, can estimate grammatical and lexical peculiarities of languages I don’t even know myself, just by the way their speakers speak English: Persian doesn’t have genders, which is why Iranians mix “she” and “he” so much; people can easily figure out that Czech doesn’t have articles because that’s my most common mistake; a very fluent English speaker originally from Austria confuses “borrow” and “lend,” so I know that the words are the same in German, just like in Czech; I can use “refuse,” “deny,” and “reject” correctly but I always have to think which odmítnout it is, the same with “apparently” and “obviously” which are the same in Czech and a couple of times I managed to offend some people when I meant the former but said the latter.

Yes, we do have a skill but also a handicap because even though we do not translate, we put the grid on our native language (if we only have one which is my case), not on the world itself, at least for many years. Like when I cook Czech meals and I cannot find all the ingredients in a grocery store, I simply leave them out, and instead of enriching the recipe with something local, it becomes poorer. As a bilingual friend of mine once told me, the bird always sits in the tree, not in the oak or birch, in both Czech and French, the languages she knows fluently.

English is a hard language to play with, it’s only after three years of living fully in English (while learning it for thirty), that I can occasionally come up with wordplays that are not just mistakes. I miss Czech diminutives: kůň, koník, koníček – a horse, a small horse, an even smaller horse; spát, spinkat – to sleep, to sleep in a small way; lehce, lehounce – lightly, lightly in a more gentle way. I cry for these homey words and I try to forget them. To lock myself away from them. I feel saudade. (Did you know that Czech has a perfect equivalent for this famously untranslatable Portuguese word? Stesk. Online translators will not give it to you though, because they translate through English.) The cute acceeeeent reminds me painfully that I can never blend in, nor can I ever use any language in all its magnificence. In English, I can express anything I want but I cannot tone it up properly and Czech is mute here – no-one speaks Czech and if I very rarely spot a Czech person, I try to run away. Czech has become very intimate, almost nude, and I don’t want to be nude in front of strangers. Besides, I am starting to forget my language: can you believe that I used a translator for my Czech sentences?

#jetlagadventure #toffeemaky #edmonton #traveling #borders #foreign languages #multilinguism #multilingual

[loveinstreams]

Here are a few classic movies available online for free on the Canadian National Film Board website:

Neighbours (1952) Norman McLaren

Speak White (1960) Pierre Falardeau & Julien Poulain 

The Steak (1993) Pierre Falardeau & Manon Leriche 

Kanasetake, 270 years of Resistance (1991) Alanis Obomsawin

Incident at Restigouche (1984) Alanis Obomsawin

Acadia Acadia?!? (1971) Pierre Perreault & Michel Brault 

Comfort and Indifference (1991) Denis Arcand 

The Sand Castle (1977) Co Hoedman 

The Railrodder [staring Buster Keaton] (1965) Gerald Potterton 

#Speak White is in french only but all the others have english and subtitles options #anyway these are all amazing get into it!!!! #i would also say go watch everything Brault and Perreault did #Without michel brault there is no New Wave and there is no Éclair shoulder camera #so basically no Faces 1968 by john cassavetes. you see where im going here #canadian cinema #quebec cinema #norman mclaren #pierre falardeau #julien poulain #manon leriche #alanis obomsawin #pierre perrault #michel brault #denis arcand #co hoedman #gerald potterton #buster keaton

[ashtonsunshine]

Carmo's Paris Adventures - Day 1

The Birthday

I woke up at three in the morning to catch the flight at 6h15. That was a journey in on itself, let me tell you. Seeing the city dark and asleep being shun by the sparkling moonlight was worth it.

We arrived to the airport, went through security in five minutes but ended up waiting for the flight for 45. When we got on the airplane, I sat on my seat and next to me sat a French man. He said Bonjour, I said Bonjour, he went to sleep. On the seat in front of me, though, sat a hot blond guy who was not-French. Universe, why didn't you sit the not-French hot blond guy next to me?

An hour went by with me watching the sun rise in the horizon between the massive white clouds (and also bored as fuck because my phone was off). Heaven, I tell you. I was kind of uncomfortable so I push my backpack, which was under the seat in front of me, aside a bit so I could strech my legs. Not five minutes went by when I hear a clunk and feel something fall on my feet. It was the not-French hot blond guy's phone. I picked it up, poked him in the arm and handed it to him. He looked back at me and said Thank you. in the most sleepy and seat voice. Again, universe, what the hell were you thinking, mate?

The flight ended 25 minutes earlier, thank god! I was so fucking bored. My imagination was too sleepy to go any further than the Eiffel Tower at night. Guess what was the first thing I saw when I entered the airport building? Yep, a informative notice on how to act in case of a terror attack. Guess what was the second thing I saw? Yep, two solders armed to the teeth. Machine guns and all. I never saw a gun so close to me in my life. Fucking terrifying.

Then I saw my dad. The first thing he said was happy birthday and hugged me. I love him! We all went for a walk in the local city Beauvais and the first thing we went to visit was... Drum roll, please! A fucking church. Here's a picture.

It is a cathedral that is on the brink of falling on itself. They had to put wood and steel beams to hold the pillars and walls in place. It didn't have much to see other than a masterpiece of a clock and two wall pieces in memory of the dead in The Great War. After that, we went to the local market and bought lettuce and a cucumber. A guy selling chorizo looked at me twice in.... wonder is too much a strong word... curiosity, I might say.

After a long car drive through three-lane municipal roads (I've never seen three-lane municipal roads. We only have one-lane ones where I live.), and seeing a Tesla, two Porsches and two Ferraris, we went to the supermarket. Huge supermarket. The isles were never-ending and so wide. So many cheeses, but none was Flamengo... I had to go with Edam... This was when the fighting started, and it got worse once we arrived to my dad's place.

My dad opened the door, we stepped in and my mother started being herself and putting defects on everything: the curtains, the sink, the table, the windows, the stove, you name it. I was feeling sick from the allergies and seeing all this fighting and seeing my dad's place.... It was too much. All I wanted was to cry, and I did. I went to the bathroom and let it out for like five minutes. My dad works so hard and he finally has his own place to live in and finds stuff for free for his flat, HIS flat, HIS FLAT, and my mother just... does that and tries to control the situation... I told them to shut up and that I was tired of hearing them but guess what? They didn't.

I don't know, man, like, when I was in the bathroom I had this sudden realization that I'm poor; that being poor is working your whole life to find yourself living in a studio with furniture and electronics you find in the bin; that being poor is working your whole life and not being able to decorate your space properly and in peace; that being poor is paying 530€ a month for this small space and sleeping on a foldable bed; that being poor is not living, it's, as we say here, ir-se indo; and that I'm trapped in it. What's a birthday without a depressive existential crises, eh?

The worst thing is that I forgot how the French television worked, so I couldn't even distract myself by watching something because every. single. thing. is dubbed. Why, y'all? Why? Don't you know that subtitles are an option? I just wanted a distraction and since the internet was not an option, TV was all that was left, but that was also not working for me.

My dad then tells me I have to work. I have to find a job and work, that if I and my sister were to move here, we could live in a studio like this together so that we could start making money. It only made me feel worse. I'm terrified of the job world but that's a whole different story that I'm not getting into right now because I'm already sad enough. I know his intentions are good because he actually tries to talk to me instead of yelling but... yeah... I didn't need that topic brought up then and there.

We then went on a walk around a lake. This lake.

My mother kept shoving her phone my way to take a picture. I kept telling her I didn't want her her take my picture and she kept on insisting and I kept on saying no, so then she started getting mad at me. My dad defended me, bless him! We walked for a bit, passed by those houses you see in the distance. Those, my friends, are floating houses. In one of them there was this beautiful black dog that made me smile. Bless its puppy soul! I was just waking mindlessly, trying to focus my efforts on trying to breathe and to not think. I just walked, with my body and spirit functioning at half speed, saying yes to whatever words my parents spoke my way. We kept walking through the paths, between the wild vegetation with the lake by our right and the river by our left.

After a while we started seeing these huge houses on the other side of the river bank. Summer houses. Look at this one. It's so pretty.

And we kept on walking until we finished circling the lake.

I was ready to just throw myself onto the yet unfolded bed but we forgot to buy rice, butter and other things, and my mother insisted on me going to the pharmacy to buy something for my nose so we went to the supermarket, again.

I walked into the pharmacy with a speech in mind to say to the pharmacist because, ya know, French, but I totally choked when I got there. I managed to say my My nose is closed and my eyes... but then I forgot the word for itchy, like a fucking moron. Irritação = irritation = irritation! I'm a fucking idiot 🤦‍♀️. Then, she was explaining the three types of meds she had for different kinds of allergies and you guys will never know frustration until you understand what someone's telling you in a foreign language perfectly but you cannot, for the love of god, utter a simple sentence back. I told the pharmacist The [itchyness] of the eyes is a consequence of the clogged nose. and, thank the universe, she understood what I was trying to say and gave me a spray for the nose. I even tried to speak in English with her but all I got back was dead silence. How are you a pharmacist and not know basic English...? *sigh*

Now, I'm home, just had dinner and am about to be sang Happy Birthday to. I chose an eclair birthday cake and you guys know damn well why.

If you read all of this, first of all, I'm so sorry for the emotional rollercoaster, and second of all, thank you, I love you. 😚💛

#carmo says things #Carmo's Paris Adventures #personal #text

[learnarabiconline]

Is Arabic Useful Outside of Reading the Quran?

As one of the most spoken languages in the world, Arabic boasts a total of 422 million speakers. About 112 of the world's current Arabic speakers learned it as a second language. The vast majority of people who learn Arabic as a second language do so after converting to Islam. This is because Muslims believe the Quran is the unchanged word of God, recorded exactly as it was delivered to Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. Therefore, to fully understand the Quran, one must read it in its original Classical Arabic.

Many people hold the erroneous belief that learning Arabic has no benefit outside of reading the Quran. In reality, however, there are some serious advantages to mastering the language, whether you're a Muslim or not. In this article, we'll be looking at some of the additional areas in which proficiency in Arabic will come in handy.

How You Can Use Arabic Outside Of Reading The Quran

Further Islamic Practices

​In Islam, the speaking of Arabic is not restricted to the Quran. There are a great many additional Islamic practices which require a knowledge of the language in order to be fully experienced. Take the Shahada, for example.

The Shahada is the first pillar of Islam and must be completed before one can consider themselves a Muslim. It requires the convert to state their unwavering belief in one god and Muhammad as His messenger. The only caveat is that it cannot be recited in any language other than Arabic.

Admittedly, you don't necessarily have to speak Arabic to perform the Shahada. Many non-Arabic speakers recite it phonetically, usually with the guidance of an imam. Of course, this only prolongs the inevitable, as any Muslim needs to understand Arabic in order to fully immerse themselves in their faith. Arabic features heavily in most Friday prayer sessions. The imam will speak in Arabic for most of the gathering, speaking only in English or another language for brief periods.

Travel

​Arabic is the official language of 28 countries. Tourist hotspots such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Morocco speak Arabic as their primary language. As do budding vacation destinations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. While many people in these countries also have some level of English proficiency, your vacation will be made all the more enjoyable if you can speak the native language. We say this because Arabs are infinitely more welcoming to those who share their tongue than those who don't. We're not saying they'll be hostile towards travelers who only speak English, but they will show an obvious preference towards Arabic speakers.

This may make Arabs sound a little intimidating, but you have nothing to fear. They are actually very easy to impress and will embrace anybody who displays even the most basic knowledge of Arabic. So if you want to experience that famous Arab hospitality during your next vacation, you only need to learn a few common phrases.

A more rounded knowledge of Arabic is good from a practical standpoint. Certain countries in the Middle East are still developing and can be quite difficult for a tourist to navigate. Finding bus stops, train stations, and taxi services will be significantly easier if you can speak Arabic, as street signs won't always be written in English.

Employment

If you learn to speak Arabic fluently, your employment opportunities will increase exponentially. More and more Western businesses are looking to expand into the Middle East. This, of course, requires each business to hire staff who can speak both Arabic and English to represent it.

Saudi Arabia is making a conscious effort to attract businesses from non-Arabic speaking countries. This is in line with the country's National Transformation Program 2020. By creating 450,000 new jobs in the non-government sector, Saudi Arabia hopes to reduce its economic dependence on oil. Learn Arabic and one of those jobs could be yours!

There is also the option of seeking employment in the United Arab Emirates, one of the most popular work and vacation spots among non-native Arabic speakers. The UAE is a nation built on immigrants. In fact, there are more than 200 nationalities living and working in the country at the time of this writing. Many of the UAE's foreign workers are professionals who were headhunted by UAE companies. Others, however, came to the country as job seekers with minimal skills and quickly secured employment thanks to their knowledge of Arabic.

Because the UAE is home to so many non-Arabic speakers, it is possible to live and work in the country without proficiency in the language. That being said, if you really want to climb the ladder in a UAE company and work your way up to a high-paying position, you're going to need to learn Arabic.

Entertainment

​Arab movies are often ignored when people talk about foreign cinema. Even the world's most devoted movie buffs rarely have anything beyond a passing knowledge of Arab cinema. While they may not be as famous as their Italian and French counterparts, Arab movies are nothing to scoff at. In fact, Arab filmmakers have been responsible for some of the most critically-acclaimed movies of all time. For example, Cairo Station by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine has been described as a "great overlooked masterpiece". That film was released in 1958, but Arab filmmakers continue to churn out hit after hit. The 2017 war documentary Last Men in Aleppo, which follows members of the Syrian volunteer group White Helmets, was hailed as "viscerally immediate" by Variety, while Vulture branded it as a must see.

Right now, Saudi Arabia is making an energized effort to grow the world of Arab cinema. In March of 2019, the country announced the first Red Sea International Film Festival. The launch of the festival was accompanied by the news that the country would be opening a government-funded film school.

While most Arab films are available with English subtitles, ardent fans of the genre insist they must be viewed in their original language to be fully appreciated. As Arab film buffs ourselves, we share that belief.

Academics

​Proficiency in Arabic has some serious advantages in the world of academics. Many non-Arabic speaking countries allow students to study it as a second language. Even if it is not offered by your specific school, you can pursue it after hours and still have it included in your final exams. If you already speak Arabic and live in a country where it is not the national language, we absolutely suggest doing this. Even though you probably won't learn anything new, you can be certain of an easy A in your final exam, which will provide a significant boost to your total grade. It also means you won't have to study French or another commonly-taught second language during school hours, which will leave you with more time to focus on other subjects.

Even if you don't already speak Arabic, we suggest studying it in school. Second-level Arabic lessons are pretty basic as students are taught from the ground up (the Arabic alphabet, common words and phrases, etc.). Most of the exams are pretty straightforward as well, so you won't have to work too hard to get a good grade.

A Final Word

Many non-Muslims who consider pursuing Arabic as a second language quickly abandon the idea. They are too quick to assume that proficiency in the language doesn't have any real advantages outside of reading the Quran. As exhibited in this article, however, Arabic is one of the most versatile languages in the world. Religion aside, even a basic understanding of Arabic can have a positive impact on multiple aspects of your life. It can help you get higher grades in school, rise to the top of your industry, and enjoy Arab movies, books, and TV shows in your free time.

#Learn Arabic

[just-a-catcher-in-the-rye]

Brazilian Independence Day

Things are going well here. I miss my animals a lot though! 😕 I’m heading to Florinopolis with my class tomorrow so I’ll make a post about that when I get back. 😁

Soooo… Crazy thing! My mom and I both went to the same Japanese celebration on the same day but on different continents. We even both wore Rotary shirts without planning it. It was pretty cool. There was an awesome drum performance, fighting performances, and dancing performances. I went with the new French exchange student. He dosen’t speak English or much Portuguese, but he does speak a lot of Spanish. I honestly thought he was speaking Portuguese because I understood what he was saying, but then I relized he was saying “but” in Spanish and not Portuguese. Then I noticed more words haha. So I aparently can understand Spanish now because we were walking around and chatting for an hour and we talked most of the time. I’m pretty proud of that because that means I have a good enough grasp on Portuguese to be able to understand Spanish. Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish speakers, but Spanish speakers have a hard time understanding people who speak Portuguese. I found it super crazy that I couldn’t tell which language it was because I understood haha. Pretty cool! 😸

So the relationship between the exchange students in my town is kind of humorous. There is a 15 year old from Taiwan (so brave!), a 16 year old from France, and a 19 year old from France. The relationship between us is humorous because the boy from Taiwan and the 19 year old from France don’t understand how the world works yet so they still need a lot of help and direction, and they look for the help and direction from me. Not their smartest option. They treat me like their mother! 🤦 I’m the one that brings the backpack with sunscreen, snacks, and water. They both blow up my phone (text/call a bunch of times until I answer) when they have the slightest inconvenience that they don’t know what to do about. Last weekend one of them called me at 3 am because he didn’t know what was happening the next day, where it was happening, and what to wear. 😅 The other one (15 year old) had texted me about his “crisis” of whether he should walk in the parade with the other exchange students or his basketball team the night before the parade haha. I helped him decide and the “crisis” was fixed. Another example is when we were at the inbound orientacion and it had been raining and he was going to go play football (soccer) and I notice he’s wearing his nice white Gucci shoes. I tell him that he should consider changing his shoes and he does the whole teenager “but (insert thing that will definitely happen here) won’t happen.” Then I do the “okay, but remember what I told you when your favorite pair of shoes are ruined” thing. He ended up changing his shoes haha. I kinda thought that I would be the most clueless one here. 

Brazilian Independence day was last weekend and It wasn’t treated like Independence day in the US. I was in a short parade with the other exchange students in my town and then I went to watch a basketball game with my family and the other exchange students.

I started going to a local gym. I was really proud of myself because my sister helped me start my membership, but I gave the desk lady my information. Then my sister left and I was on my own with an employee that spoke no English (we used an app for some of our communication). He showed me around and I worked out for an hour and then walked back to my host fathers restaurant without getting lost! 💪 That experience may not seem like a big deal, but it was because that would be something that I would be nervous to do in the US and I did it in another language without knowing anybody there. I also definitely feel like more of a local with a long term gym membership lol.

Side notes

I tried wine from Chile. It just tasted like wine lol. When my host mom first offered it to me I thought that it might be a test so I refused, but then my host sister told me that it wasn’t and that our Rotary was okay with taste testing alcohol with your host family. Not enough to get drunk or buzzed of course.

Two guys from my class really want to throw me a party. Not for any reason in particular though lol. I love the Brazillian way 😂

I didn’t think about this being something suprising until I was talking to my mom and she was surprised, but people in Brazil listen to mostly music from the US. Nobody I know in Brazil well watch any shows from Brazil. They watch shows from the US in English with Portuguese subtitles because they say that the emotion of the acting is lost when the voice over is in Portuguese. When I first got here I asked them to change it to Portuguese audio because I thought they were just watching it in English to make me comfortable, but I soon found out that people always watched shows/movies in English.

Do any of you think that the US owns the rain forest? If so, I encourage you to do some research. 😊 A lot of people in Brazil think that people in the US think they own the rain forest. I'm not sure if a lot of people think this or not.

Just a reminder to be kind to foreigners because it’s people like me that have to apologize for all of the US and hear all the awful stories about the things that people from my country have said/done to hurt the people around me 💔

I had my first Portuguese class and I already looked through the workbook to find that I already knew everything they are planning to teach. I was disappointed, but the class is a good excuse to spend time with the other exchange students in my town 👍

One of the biggest culture shocks that I have had since I’ve been here is how taboo it is to talk about sex and periods. Two very natural things. Brazil is such an open culture in so many ways that I didn’t expect this. The government won’t even let schools put period products in school bathrooms because they (men in government) think it aludes to sexual behavior 🙄

There’s this thing called an English Festival and all the classes choreograph and dance to different music. It is up to each class how they want to do things. My class has several songs and choreography with different people. I am dancing in three of the songs. I’m only super embarrassed lol 🙈

Japanese festival

Japanese drum performance

Japanese festival

Japanese festival with French exchange student (16 years) and his host family

Independence day parade

Evening meal with both French exchange students and my host family after the basketball game. Pizza in Brazil is awesome!

Walking in the park with my host sister and three of our friends. This is a popular passtime in Brazil. Also, I'm wearing my school uniform in this photo. The pants are like fancy sweatpants lol

Something that's important to understand. I encourage you to look at this image and really take time to think about it