"Traveling Polyglot: How Knowing Languages Transforms Your Journeys"

Are you multilingual or a Polyglot or interested in other cultures?

Author

Sandra Cheng
March 15, 2025

According to this duolingo article, some of the universal words include:

  • Mama šŸ¤°

  • Chocolate šŸ«

  • Okay šŸ‘Œ

    And these cultural words are also widely acceptable.

  • Karaoke šŸŽ¤

  • kiwi šŸ„

  • sauna šŸ§–šŸ½

  • tattoo

  • tofu

  • yoga

  • yogurt

I love mushrooms, and would love to learn their 50 words on DuoLingo, too. Instead, Iā€™ll have to keep learning unless I want to see the mushrooms feast on Duoā€™s corpse.

Iā€™ll share with you one of my boyfriendā€™s favorite stories that happened to us while we were in Paris last time. I had a flossing emergency, so we went to a local pharmacy, and I needed an emergency mirror. I found myself in front of a larger mirror like surface in front of the building next door. I was able to clean the meat out of my teeth and felt better about myself up until the moment I saw something move behind the mirror, which I realized was actually a two way mirror. There was some kind of a copy machine and an office full of people had probably just witnessed me flossing my teeth there. I looked over to my boyfriend and let him know we should probably walk briskly. We began to giggle as we walked away in haste.

All this to say, we must empower each other with language, positive affirmations, and provide a safe space where a spectrum of diversity might be welcomed and included no matter what sexuality, phylum, or class you find yourself to be from.

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Dear Creative šŸ‹ Reader,


I apologize if this newsletter is a repeat of anything youā€™ve already read before. Iā€™m experimenting with the opportunity to make some commissions on this Beehiiv newsletter subscription to be able to gain income from new subscribers at no additional cost to you. Because Iā€™m new to this process, I apologize if I make mistakes along the way.



1. Welcome to this šŸŒˆCreative HumpšŸŒ¤ļøNewsletteršŸ¦MarchšŸ‘ 2025 


Thank you for subscribing, and I hope you are having a great month. Iā€™ll be sneaking in some random alternate choice language translations in here for your enjoyment. Iā€™m learning a lot about my camera on the iphone and just in time for my annual international vacation. Woot!

  • Did you know you can actually pause your video with any iphone on iOS18+? Hereā€™s a link about it. 

  • That makes me wonder how long I can hold a scene.

  • For instance, what if I were able to keep my phone open and charged after clicking for a time lapse style video? I could try shooting fifteen seconds at a time, 8 hours apart, until I had two minutes of video. That might be 8 sessions in 3 days from start to finish.

2. Business Updates (Websites, Animation, Peer Support)


č¬č¬ä½ ę”¾å± (XiĆØxiĆØ nĒ fĆ ngpƬ)
ĪŗĪ±Ī¹ ĪµĪ»Ļ€ĪÆĪ¶Ļ‰ Ī½Ī± Ļ„ĻĻŽĻ„Īµ ĪŗĪ±Ī»ĻŒ Ļ„Ļ…ĻĪÆ (kai elpĆ­zo na trĆ³te kalĆ³ tyrĆ­).

  • Website Projects: Iā€™m on wordpress, and just learned that itā€™s possible to keep your website even safer for those tricky maneuvers with a sandbox or staging area. 

  • Animation Updates: Anyone heard of ā€œHeyGenā€ before? Itā€™s an ai tool that can do some incredible things (albeit with the uncanny valley look.) And I have an example of it here; this one is just a photograph and some words I typed in. I never said a word, and it probably took about two to five minutes for the video to process from the online server after sending this 1 minute video to the queue.

  • Peer Support Initiatives: Wildflowersā€™ Movement meets every 2nd Tuesday of the month from noon Pacific to 1pm. Anyone want to meet up? Find out more here; Iā€™m one of the two group leaders.

3. Special Feature of the Month


Next much needed invention: Time Travel Microwave Portal! Somewhere exactly a certain number of miles away a meal is snatched at the same time another door of the same make an model has theirs open. I donā€™t know. Iā€™m not the genius here. You are. Please, get on this one. We need our cronuts and other pastries in the cities that just donā€™t have them.

Are you a sci-fi fan? Each month, the LAPL has a book club on the last Thursday of the month at 6pm Pacific. 

Next stop Paris, Florence, & Paris (in that order)! Hopefully weā€™ll be making a short film about the adventure with the many camera tools within iOS18. And if it comes out well enough it will either be a holiday card or a short film for entry in a local film festival.

4. Event Announcements & Community Engagement

Are you constantly in need of new greeting cards? I am preparing for the Creative Hump Holiday Paper Cards Extravaganza which happens in September. Please consider signing up for the event.

How to Get Involved:

5. Creative Tip of the Month

Want to get yourself motivated but find yourself overwhelmed, too busy, or just scattered?

  • Schedule twenty minute breaks every two hours with a stretch or a walk, something to clear your mind and renew your resolve to get your stuff done more efficiently. 

  • Be mindful by saving your work before you leave the desk in at least two places especially if itā€™s not already somewhere on the cloud.

If you are crafting something by hand, could youā€¦

  • Document it with a photograph?

  • Write in your journal what is happening in this project?

  • Give it a new home by assigning a space somewhere that youā€™ll remember where to find it? (Is it best to sort it with similar color or shape things?)

Would you like to read about how to re-inspire creative flow when youā€™re blocked?
It includes meditation created from a very easy to use ā€œno recordingā€ program.

  • This meditation article will be posted and made available to read on 3/21 at 9am but the recording is available now.

  • Contact someone that inspires you. Have you ever wanted to connect with a favorite author or artist? This can be the hardest thing to do when youā€™re used to working alone as an artist or if you find others intimidating. However, if you want to grow as an artist, it certainly couldnā€™t hurt to try once in a while. Keep in mind that collaboration can take on many forms from webinars, to texting, to chatting, to emails, to in person coffee talksā€¦ do what feels right to you.

  • Donā€™t forget to turn on a 20 minute timer to get you back into the flow again after the break.

6. Recommended Resources & Tools

Do you need help looking for all the possible creative resources, both physical and digital there are for art making these days available to the layperson for making whatever practical everyday magical object you can have in laying around your house? If only we had a guidebook for all the things weā€™d love using our favorite things that we keep on hand. Hereā€™s a few of my favorite tools, some that I always use, and some that Iā€™m only just learning about.

  • NounProject for icons

  • Carrd free websites

  • TimeStripe Free Goal Manager App

  • Lenticular prints are available at Walgreens! What?!? So you can have a fancy animated image for the holidays if you like for less than $5 a print. 

  • Lifeprint Printer for that Harry Potter Style printā€¦ Why not? Each photo has Video embed Augmented Reality code and prints with zero ink all for about 125$. If you saw a QR code on a holiday card would you actually use it, or would you be suspicious? Iā€™m wondering if the Lifeprint augmented reality is a safer purchase than using a QR code for that reason. 

7. Closing notes & Calls to Action

Who here is also on TikTok? Lately my posts are created with TikTok filters but downloaded onto Youtube because so many people are afraid of using it - what with all the paranoia. I can relate all too well, but Iā€™m a risk taker because I have nothing left to lose there.

Feel free to contact me with your name, and a good joke.

Thank you for reading this edition of ā€œThe Creative Humpā€ Newsletter 2025. I hope this finds you well and safe in the next decade to come.