About the atlas of Love

What do you think about when you think about romantic languages? I asked my friend Candy once.

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We came up with the usual suspects. Italian. German. French. Then Candy suggested, Russian, and my first thought was, What does love sound like in Russian?

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We didn't know Russian. Or any of the other languages we'd mentioned. So, on a whim, I said, What if we created an atlas where people could teach you how to say the words 'love' and 'i love you'?

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It took her a minute to respond. Then, in all caps: THAT'S SO COOL.

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And thus, the atlas was born.

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The idea of love is not something new. But in a world where life moves fast and hard and the headlines are often grim, I wanted to re-explore the idea of 'love'. It gets filtered through a cultural lens and comes out in so many different ways, but in the end, all these cultures are talking about this one great, abstract unifying theme. We recognise love, even if we all approach it differently. I wanted to see love in all its different forms.

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So I asked my friends and my social media network for help. People from all walks of life and from different friend groups stepped up, volunteered their experience, or dragged their friends into this.

I expected myself to get at best 5 languages. In the end, we ended with 21.

So many people wanted to help, whether it was filming on camera, sending translations, or filming in places I couldn't go. It says a lot about the goodness of people, and I think it says quite a bit about humanity's inherent fascination with the concept of love, in all its different cultural forms.

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21 languages, of course, is not a representative of the world. It's not a comprehensive list, and it would be foolish to say that these 21 languages sum up the nuanced tricks every culture has. Some of us are not entirely fluent, but picked it up as a second language. Some of us had to rely on Google Translate to subtitle (ahem, me).

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The 21 languages listed here were kindly provided by friends and friends of friends, but there will always be gaps in our knowledge - which is fine, because it means there is space for you (yes, you!) to continue building this atlas of love. Do you know of a phrase that can be added to the atlas? Or are you well-versed in the languages not represented here? Know a friend? Leave a comment below. Maybe together we can get this to span the entire globe. #teamwork

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Tl;dr, it is my hope that this project teaches you a little something about our world, and the different cultures that live in it. If you've seen the above interactive video (and if not what are you waiting for? Get back up there!), I hope something said will have at least made you think differently about the world.

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At the end of the day, I'm a hopeless romantic. I love love. I wanted a way to understand love through the eyes of someone so different from me - and I'm so glad that I got 20 ways to understand it. I think it's incredibly important to find those cultural bridges and see the world differently every so often.

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So go forth. Declare your love. Share your favourite phrase with a friend. Go on then. You know you want to.