Sep 29, 2021 • 2 min read
Learn language with a Coffee...
Updated: Oct 6, 2021
This perfectly absurd idea came to me... While drinking a coffee.
I'll tell you right now, I came to the coffee very late. Very, very late. My passion for energy drinks came long before that, when the Austrian brand started to associate soda with the spirit of competition
“How long does it take to drink a coffee? In Italy, the country where coffee is the shortest in the world, it probably takes the longest to drink it.”
Well, perfect! Since we are told, first and foremost by Duolingo, that 15 minutes a day is enough to learn a language, why not do it over coffee? Which becomes the pretext and the subject of the session.
Coffee Elevator Pitch
As KERBS was born in Dubai, it was only natural that one of the first languages offered would be Arabic. Which Arabic? We won't get into the debate here! But the Bedouin culture is very present in the KERBS episodes in Arabic. In fact, the art and the way of making coffee, of drinking it,
and its social role was a first trigger of the theme.
Then we realize that coffee, whether for American, Latino, French, Italian or Arabic people, has a key role.
One night while I was wandering around the Dubai Marina, I had a totally useless idea: to find the year when the Muslim and Gregorian calendars would show the same year... I warned you, the search was useless! But I found it...
On the 1st Mouharram (Muslim New Year) of the year 20875 (You read well), the Gregorian calendar will display... December 24, 20874.
Ok, so far, I just have to hope that my Elevator Pitch happens at the Burj Khalifa Tower, because I've used up most of the 163 floors to ride!
“What if I gathered around a round table 5 representatives of the KERBS languages: an American, a Latino, an Emirati, a French and an Italian guy, each sharing a coffee (theirs, with their culture)?”
As each person interacts in his own language, but understands all the others, the dialogue thus created (if it is well done...) allows anyone who understands at least one, if not several of the languages, to deduct from them, and thus to learn the others!
Fine, but what's the Plot?
Does it matter? Ok, let's get started! The proposal of our Emirati character is to consider that from the year 20875, Arabic will become the universal language on earth, and proposes to his counterparts to exchange on the practical terms.
Each episode presents new words and sentences often repeated in several languages, in order to learn languages, while following a mini-series with absurd consistencies.