Home

Home is a multi-layered experience that is both individual and collective.

In the first months of life, home is the deep physical bond between mother and child. When stability, nurturing, closeness and warmth are present, they instill trust and calm; when they are missing, they lead to calamity. As the years go by, our understanding of our family grows. We observe how the people close to us interact, and we monitor their successes and failures. Our home lets us experience a range of emotions, from love and hope to frustration and hate, and we learn to weigh up our chances.

As children, we don't care whether our home is a small, two-room apartment or a huge castle, as long as the people we share it with are approachable and honest. Children have lots of questions about life, and they learn best when they see the people around them trying to experience life to the fullest. When we are young, we view personal success and failure with equal curiosity. It is only later in life that we try to avoid failure in order to achieve stability.

During our teenage years, we venture out into the world and our sense of home broadens to encompass not just our house, but also our neighbourhood, city, state or even country. We feel at home when we recognise the local accent, walk down a familiar street or smell our favourite meals cooking. It is the feeling of safety that comes from knowing what will happen next. They say: 'Home is where the heart is.'

In an ideal world, home would be a place where love is shared and stability is provided. However, the abundance of everything has led to the impression that anything goes everywhere, seemingly without consequence. This has made home a far more isolated and unstable experience. As people work longer hours in search of self-fulfillment and prioritise immediate gratification over long-term planning, households have become smaller, more often than not allowing loneliness and hopelessness to creep in. This is as true of Germany as it is of most other developed nations.

Taking part in the tradition of giving to others at Christmas reveals one of humanity’s best-kept secrets, namely, that we are strongest when we stand together and support each other. As a society, we can bring each other great joy through acts of kindness and by following the old adage that what goes around comes around. Just as a smile gets you a smile in return. In our language lessons we nurture this positive energy on a daily basis. We focus on the soft skills that promote human cooperation, and we demonstrate that no one alone has all the answers. Success comes when we invest the time together.

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