Words to live by

Last year, I went to study abroad for a semester in Lahti, Finland. I wanted to experience life in a different country. Personally, to discover and see different perspectives. For example, I learned not to say hello to strangers the hard way. I still managed to make friends from all over the world during the semester. We were having a wonderful time going on hikes or simply having a coffee at a café. In Dutch we would simply say: “Klinkt gezellig.” but how would you translate that in English? Or in any other language for that matter? Communicating becomes difficult when you have words that cannot be translated that easily.

Communicating with people from different countries and cultures is very important. It creates international connections that can grow into an organization that advocates for worldwide equality and a better climate. One organization is called Global Citizen. They put their own nationality second and work for the greater cause of the globe’s well-being. Global citizens are open minded and eager to learn about other cultures but do lack the opportunities to delve into these unique words. A certain level of intercultural competence is needed as well. This means that we need to learn from each other’s culture and language.

By being in an international environment I started interviewing fellow global citizens to make a list of these culturally specific words:

It is hard for non-native speakers to know about these words, as they have no direct equivalent in other languages. By working with cultural studies like Hofstede [1] I found out that these words are so unique because of their strong connection to the culture it originates from. If you learn about these culturally specific words, it is possible to improve your intercultural competence.

These words contain values that we are familiar with but could not connect with our native vocabulary. When I asked questions related to the definition of an untranslatable word, they had to think about it, but could answer by remembering past experiences. If you cannot translate it, then experience does the job.

That makes the question:

By experimenting with several types of design, embodied experience design became the one closest with experiencing these unique words. The goal of embodied experience design is to have the user be part of it. The experience uses your senses to interact and achieve the goal of the design.

Tea culture is the medium I choose for its global presence, and user-friendly interactions that can be altered with embodied experience design. The core elements for a tea ceremony are preparation, consummation, interaction and aesthetics. These elements can be used as design criteria for the untranslatable words to be implemented. For the first experience of the series, I have chosen the word 生き甲斐 ikigai. By the amount of research, interviews with Japanese contacts and affinity with the culture I felt most comfortable to start designing around this word.

To make the tea ceremony accessible to global citizens, it needs to be at a location that is known among the international citizens, while being appropriate for the theme of the word. For example, 生き甲斐 ikigai would fit in the Japanese garden in The Hague [2]. There is a pavilion which has enough space to fit the experience and has fitting scenery being in the garden.

生き甲斐 Ikigai translates to ‘A reason for being’. Having a goal in your life that makes you motivated to start a new day. Core elements of the word are determination and passion. In Japanese, these words can be correlated to 火 fire and 地 earth. In the tea ceremony, these two elements are implemented into an important part of the experience.By beating the drums to heat the water there needs to be a level of passion and determination to prepare the tea.

After the guest is done heating the water. The making of tea can continue. This will be done in a series of transitions that make the guest focus on what is going on in the teapot. The boiling water will make the tea leaves grow, which shows a transformation of your passion and determination becoming one with the tea.

During this last part, the guest pours the tea in the teacup. By lifting the teacup, the mood will change, and the question will be available: “What is your motivation in life?” The guest can take their time to drink their tea, which is objectification of your spirit. This is the time to have a mindful moment and think about the questions and/or the experience. After the tea is finished by the user, they are free to leave. They continue their way through the Japanese garden with new knowledge and wisdom.

Words to live by is a series of tea ceremonies each dedicated to make an embodied experience out culture specific words and their culture. It will give global citizens the opportunity to experience the words, and in turn, improve their intercultural competence. Reducing inequalities and growing partnerships for the goals we want to reach.

Words to live by, and a world to live in.