My very sweet husband found this video for me.
And…of all the languages spoken at our school district, we discovered in our classes that not a single one of you speaks Finnish.
The concept: to watch the video, and jot down what you inferred, the gist, what you thought the mood, ideas, or story line is–you all wrote basically the same things – that they were kids using their imaginations, being happy, going on a trip–some went a little deeper–when the scary monster tree looks at them threateningly, but then waves and grimaces a smile, you thought, well, maybe things that seem mean aren’t always what they appear to be.
Many of you couldn’t get over the fact that they were singing words you didn’t understand, and couldn’t grasp that was the point – what is communicated is sometimes in a universal language- those are the themes that connect to everyone. Your focus is a bit too narrow sometimes, my students. Now, as technology babies, you found it challenging, albeit distracting, to search for the English translation of the song. That’s okay, but again–not the point.
If they had been singing Vietnamese, Tagalog, Swahili, Portuguese or Ukrainian, some of you would have understood the words, but perhaps would have overlooked or dismissed its tiny, sweet message: families and friends are where we find them on our journeys, and being together is the most important thing. We take our homes in our hearts. We don’t need big families, or a lot of friends; just ones that love us.
