Mattia Compagnucci Mattia Compagnucci

Now more than ever European Union must get together, starting from the language

It happened again, yesterday while I was trying to solve some bureaucracy stuff the nice girl at the phone replied me “wir sind in Deutschland und wir sprechen nur Deutsch” that means “we are in Germany and we speak only German”.

Every time I’m getting this reply I have a mix of feeling, from the need to improve my very basic German to the rejection of the idea that in a public office of an amazing metropolis and capital like Berlin you can’t find someone that can help an english speaker on the phone.

I totally agree that if someone live in a country should learn the language (and I’m working on it), on the other hand I’m not living only in Germany but in the European Union as well. Those thoughts open to a recurrent question:

why the hell we cannot have a common second language as a Union?!

A common language could help people really feel as a single community with the advantage to improve people vision/experience through the single countries’ cultural diversity.

The official working languages are English, French and German but do that really makes sense? Or is positioning Germany and France over the other EU countries

Reading the data

According to this survey published in 2012 by European Commission:

In terms of the most common foreign languages spoken, the linguistic map of Europe is similar to that presented in 2005, with the five most widely spoken foreign languages remaining English (38%), French (12%), German (11%), Spanish (7%) and Russian (5%).

That means that the most spoken second language in Europe is English with a 38%. It’s not a huge percentage but is a good starting point.

We should start to build on what we already have looking at the future instead of be afraid of the difficulties and nostalgic look back to the past.

We all knew that wasn’t going to be easy but we should continue to build it up.

Why after Brexit?

Someone could argue: why do we have to use English as EU official language after Brexit?

Now more than ever embrace English the official EU language makes sense because there will be no country in the EU that has this official language as first language.

That means that every country will be at the same level and continue to have its own language. In addition will start to translate every documents and government paper in English together with teaching officially English in schools since young age.

The most exciting and delicate part will be help every country maintain his own culture and at the same time starting a process of evolution to a more inclusive and unified EU.

I really believe in the future of EU and I think it will be more bright when we will start to act as one single country with respect of the single differences. We must evolve and we have to start from the bottom of our heart.

#MakeEUaRealUnion

 

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Mattia Compagnucci Mattia Compagnucci

My framework for everyday problems

Often people remember me as the one who always wears a smile. They say that I look like Buddha and they ask me how can that be possible.

Smile is fundamental for me, it brings positive vibes to you and to everyone around you, even if they don’t notice it they are influenced by it.

Why you always smile? — is one of the question often people that I spend more than one meeting with ask me.

If the time is generous I spend some words answering this question by explaining my life framework. It’s a simple set of questions I ask myself when I’m facing a problem.

The main question is: are there any solution to this problem?

This is the most important one. I know that is not hard to answer but at the end the possibilities are only two: YES or NO.

You can argue as long as you want, try all the possible paths but at the end of the day these are the only possible answers to this question.

The first I want to analize is NO, because it let you close the framework.

If there are no solutions to the problem we shouldn’t be sad or angry, just keep on smile and go on!

Why you should smile instead of being angry is simple: being angry is only going to make you feel bad and consume your energies without actually solving any problem. Smile, celebrate, and being positive will instead help you to move on with your life and allow you to spread good vibes to the people around you at the same time.

The other answer, YES, brings us to the next question:

If there is one or more solution, do we really want to take action and do something about it?

Knowing that there is a solution and having one are two different things.

There are many factor to take into account that can influence our actions: our current life, ourselves, our mind. Every action have it’s own price.

Are we really ready to take action and solve this problem?

Find an answer to this question requires effort, maybe more than the first question. But at the end the possible answers are the same: YES or NO. And both bring at the same results.

If you don’t want to take action and solve the problem, why should you be sad or angry? Smile, celebrate and go on.

On the other side,

if you are taking action to solve the problem then smile, celebrate and go on.

It can sound a bit weird but I am always open to celebrate each event, bad or good, it is always an event and that deserves to be celebrated.

Smile and have fun!

 

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