Everyone has a story inside them. It doesn’t matter what race, religion, economic, military, social or educational background you come from, everyone has a story inside them that is interesting.
The task of learning about people and their stories has been compounded when trying to learn to speak the native language root of German in a country that speaks primarily Swiss German, that has enough dialects via regions to give even native Swiss speakers a challenge in understanding each other.
One element that has intrigued me has been the mix of people in the class, as it represented interesting microcosm of the world itself. A few people came from developed nations, a few others from conflict nations, and a few from nations that were absorbed by other nations.
What I will propose to my classmates is a crude project where I will take iphone portraits and have them tell me a bit of their journey, and how they got to the German class from Eretria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Italy, Cuba, Sri Lanka & Tibet. I will try my best to bring it to life in a few paragraphs to encapsulate some snippets of their lives through the eyes of a man who grew up in a country where freedoms were a way of life in a country built by people who came from all nations. i think in the usa we take a lot for granted. perhaps these stories in some way will give a message to my home country at how fortunate we are, and not to take it for granted.
each country has a culture or way of life that is unique to that spot on the planet. hopefully 9 or 10 stories might be shared in the coming weeks. i will call it the "i came from. my name is." project.