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EESTI ELU reedel, 15. jaanuaril 2021 — Friday, January 15, 2021
Global Estonian Insights: Liisa Orav of Little Miss Squirrel Vincent Teetsov In the pursuit of learning Estonian as an Englishspeaker, it’s possible that you’ll come across a series of videos on YouTube, from the channel “Little Miss Squir rel,” created by Liisa Orav, whose last name means “squirrel” in Estonian. She’s made a series of introductory videos on YouTube covering language fundamentals from the alphabet all the way to conjugating the verb olema (“to be”). Since their first appearance in 2012, the videos have become something of a fixture on YouTube. Behind the videos is an avid teacher and student of lan guages, many hours of video production, and a journey to South Korea. How did she end up there, and what might it mean for relations between the people of South Korea and Estonia in the years to come? It all started when Orav graduated high school and de cided to move to England. Arriving with just a few pounds in her pocket, she immediately began looking for work. With new employment at a coffee shop, she ended up meeting people from around the world and hearing different languages. This prompted an interest in how the meaning of words changed across languages. “One of the girls I met was from
The Eastern… (Continued from page 8)
– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Although Russia sees these countries as belonging to the so-called post-Soviet space and its sphere of influence, an orien tation toward Europe has been a central part of these countries’ political agenda. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic, the national awakening move ment in Belarus, and hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh have crea ted new pressures that are testing the resilience of the EaP initiative. These events raise important questions of what the future holds for the EaP. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has of fered the above listed six coun tries nothing but political and economic pressure. Russia has projected its assertive power, which reflects its poor demo cratic record. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s report on the State of Democracy 2019 lists Russia as an authoritarian re gime. Russia’s unfortunate list of accomplishments in recent years involves the incursion into Georgia, where the Rose Revo lution set the country on the path of democracy and away from Russia’s sphere. In 2008, Georgia paid a high price for this when Russia launched its
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Korea... She said ‘learn Korean, it’s so easy!’ She took out a receipt and wrote the Korean alphabet on it. That was the first kick... I was in a place where probably anyone could have told me ‘learn this lan guage’, and if I had decided that it sounded good enough, I could have done it.” Prior to this interaction, she declares that she didn’t know anything about Korea. The two friends enjoyed each other’s company, which opened up a new community for Orav. “When I was learning Korean, she said ‘let me introduce you to people from a local Korean church I know about, because you go to church.’ I really clicked with them. I really tried hard to learn Korean from that point on. That’s when I realized that if I was going to learn Korean, I wasn’t just going to learn a language and do nothing with it. I decided that I was going to go to university.” Seeing the potential of work ing at an Estonian consulate in Korea, she asked a friend who was a professor what the best course would be to study. This friend recommended interna tional relations. Orav moved back to Estonia for a year, and based on her already established interest in making YouTube videos for music, this was the time when she began making her “Let’s Learn Estonian” videos. “I was heavily in
fluenced by my first attempts to learn Korean, to make videos like that. I wanted to help people learn Estonian like these amazing people had helped me with Korean.” Editing videos, achieving the best lighting and audio capture possible, preparing content for lessons – these are all time-con suming tasks, especially when there is no compensation for small-scale YouTubers. How ever, she had noticed there was a lack of approachable video explanations of basic Estonian language concepts. She took joy in teaching to a vast online audience, who would send her messages of encouragement, about how they would share the videos with their children. When 2013 rolled around, she began to study for a double major in Asia Pacific Studies and International Relations at the University of Leeds, with an exchange year in Korea that made her even more enthusias tic about the possibilities. Through the Korean Govern ment Scholarship Program, she started a Master’s degree at Seoul National University, in Korean Language and Literature in 2018. Above all, seeing a gap in available educational resources was a strong motivation. “I wanted to write a level one Korean textbook in Estonian, because at the time, the cheap est and most common option for Estonians to learn Korean was through English.” Orav contends that the topics of emphasis for learning Korean
are different for an Estonianspeaker, compared to an Eng lish-speaker. For example, ex plaining how to pronounce the “õ” sound could be replaced with topics that are unfamiliar to Estonian-speakers. Since landing in Seoul, it be came clear to her, however, that her interests were more attuned to education rather than linguis tics specifically. Periods of isolation during the pandemic have allowed her to explore other applications of her in terests. Working with the local tour ism industry was one of these possibilities. “In Korea, most people say I’m the first Esto nian they have ever met. So for these people I was a kind of ambassador, and I hope I repre sented Estonia well.” This position was advanta geous for working in the world
of Instagram promotion. Seeing an opening in the supporter pro gram of X Crew, a sports and outdoor recreation company in Seoul, Orav became an in fluencer, to help them generate interest with tourists, including for stand-up paddleboarding activities. Chances to go out on the water and take photographs were in between some of the worst typhoons in many years, where the Han River that runs through the city was wild and turbulent. She has also been working frequently with Visit Seoul as a “Global Seoul Mate”, which has made many fellow Esto nians interested in coming to Korea, and vice-versa. “I actually had a friend whose husband’s cousin wanted to go to Estonia to study, so I met up with him and had a great time discussing life and opportunities in Estonia. He reminded me of myself because he has this pas sion for the Estonian language and languages in general.” The desire to make videos hasn’t gone away, though. Ideas are brewing, and the steady increase in the number of views for even the oldest videos proves that there is a demand. To some, learning languages may seem like an ordinary intellectual hobby, but truly, languages are like streams that lead to a wide ocean of under standing about our fellow global citizens. You can find Liisa’s latest videos here (www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8-ydlbHltSgj4Vi9 HTop1A).
first war in 21st century Europe against it. The Euromaidan protest, which supported Ukraine’s closer cooperation with the EU, led to the Ukrainian Revolution. In response, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and initiated war in the Donbass. This led to a protracted conflict in Eastern Ukraine in which Russia vehe mently denies its participation. Pro-democracy protests in Belarus called for authoritarian President Lukashenka’s dis missal. Belarussian people want democratic changes, honest elections, and a working eco nomy. Instead, they face police brutality that has become the symbol of the dictatorship’s ruthlessness and turned the country into a massive prison. People in Moldova want changes too, as they elected the reform-minded Maia Sandu to become their next President. Though the narrow vote signals deep political divisions, it expresses peoples’ choice for democracy and justice, a country free from corruption and poverty. The situation in Moldova’s secessionist province of Transdniestria, however, remains frozen but far from stable. Anti-government protests in Armenia, known as the Velvet Revolution, led to a change of government in 2018. The hos tilities in Nagorno-Karabakh
have revived the protracted anger between neighboring Ar menia and Azerbaijan. Russia’s military superiority supports its brokering ability, but empha sizes its malign influence in the region. Russia’s power politics re duce its relationship with these countries to a zero-sum game. The democratic successes of others mean a loss to Russia. The Russian political scientist Gleb Pavlovski contends that Russia has wrecked its interna tional relations base with both close allies and distant countries alike. Ten years of EU cooperation have featured its different facets. Some EaP countries have chosen to take a less ac tive stand in their relationships with the EU. Yet overall, the EaP has been a positive effort. The EU has become a lead ing trade partner of the Eastern partners, signed visa-free and comprehensive free trade agree ments with three of them, and offered education, research and youth exchange programs. The initiative has triggered statebuilding measures and reform processes, including ones con cerning public administration, the rule of law and digital markets. At the heart of the European project is the economy and its single market strategy helping maximize the potential of the
economies of the partner coun tries. For example, Belarus pro duces 7.5 times less than Austria, a country similar in population. The Georgian and Ukrainian economies’ output is 3 and 4 times less than those of Croatia and Poland. Europe’s long-term policy objectives aim to strengthen resilience and improve the abi lity to counter internal compli cations, external pressures and interference. As one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multi cultural nation, it is in Canada’s DNA to support those who want to follow the path of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. Canada’s efforts complement those of the EU and its Member States. A good example of this commitment was the Ukraine Reform Conference hosted by the Canadian government last year in Toronto, in support of Ukraine’s European and EuroAtlantic future where reforms and growth benefit all its people. The OSCE Group of Friends of Georgia, among others Estonia and Canada, reaffirmed its continued support to the ter ritorial integrity of Georgia and expressed growing concern over the situation in occupied ter ri tories, Russian military exer cises, and arbitrary detentions. Despite the repressions,
Belarusians stand tirelessly for their rights. Maintaining an in ternational focus on what is happening in Belarus sends a message of support to people of Belarus. The European Par liament has recognized this struggle by awarding its top hu man rights award, the Sakharov Prize, to the Belarussian oppo sition movement. Lately, the EU agreed to set up a global human rights sanctions regime, its Magnitsky Act that enables to impose sanctions on officials and organizations responsible for human rights violations worldwide. Sanctions imposed on Bela rusian officials by both the EU and Canada to change the be haviour of the regime, also have to be applied to the companies that support the regime. The welcomed cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh must lead to the efforts to es tablish negotiated, comprehen sive and sustainable settlement of the conflict. Meeting these challenges re quires international cooperation and consolidation of democra cies to do better, not just dif ferently. As a strategic priority, the Eastern Partnership must remain an inclusive initiative, a reliable source of motivation able to keep up with change. Working together the EU, Canada and other like-minded countries can be this source.
Photo used with permission from Liisa Orav
