Even though the weather lately doesn’t really seem like it, we’re in the middle of winter! These days, the thermometer shows up to 13 degrees but the nights are still long, dark and cold. So what would be better during this season than enjoying the warmth of some nice company. Maybe some good friend(s)? The VOICES team is here to hook you up with our new February edition!

Since valentine’s day is close, it is time to look out for some new friends! But how to find one? Read our lovely and poetic wanted-poster, calling for a new fellow or loved one. But maybe this someone might speak another language or dialect as you. Read about the question – What is a language even? – and hopefully you can build up a new friendship over language barriers and have nice talks. For example over a glass of wine, as the 14th of February, in the Balkans, is a day of vinery, proving that winter is going to end soon. And when the warm season finally starts, what is nicer than walking together in a forest, when spring is kicking in and the air is full of different scents from the blooming plants? Forests, indeed, are a fascinating and stunning symbiotic system. Read about its language and its oddest “inhabitants” – the mushrooms – which play an important role in this biosphere! While we will be able to enjoy our local woodlands soon again, sadly, on the other side of the earth, a tragedy has occurred and devastated vast lands. Read also about Australia’s 2019 bushfires.

But let’s not give up and stay positive! It’s up to everyone, to make the world a bit better – step by step. Fortunately, 2020 offers us one extra day: so why not use this and get started? Getting started for example to share a smile every day, to think wider or to open up for new faces and adventures.

PDF for phone: VOICES February 2020