Today you will get to know voila- me I want you to get to know me more. Honestly, it is super hard to be heard in the huge buzzing noise of the world.
I am really new to this new carrier-path and I have never spent any sort of time in my past working life working for anything.
No networking, no connecting. No nothing.
It has never been on my radar, so I do know that I am kind of behind. Today we will get to know each other a bit more. I would love if you would tell me down below who you are!
How will we do this?
Actually, in an old traditional interview! (Yes, I am both the interviewer and the interviewee)
I had burnout and had a mental breakdown. I was really bad. I was so confused about my surrounding, I had worked so hard on myself. Learning how to communicate better really helped!
“Hi, welcome here, let’s start off with a small question first. Name and age”
The hard question you mean, it is not so straightforward! I am born Maria Magdalena Repa, but 3 years back I got my Czech papers, after my dad, and now I am Maria Řepová. I thought it was going to be strange with a new name, but I am liking it.
“ Do you know how to pronounce the hatchek R”
No, so I pronounce it Repova. I know, I know, I feel a bit ashamed sometimes, that I am Czech and I don’t know how to speak it very well.
So back to the age, not so easy either, I usually think I am older than what I am, so I had to think. 37, turning 38 this year though.
“How long have you been here?
Long enough to actually speak it fluently, but I would not say I don’t speak it, there is just space for improvement. I think we should stop the mindset that either you do it perfectly or you don’t. There is a range in between. I came here 2008, but I left for some 3.5 years for Bolivia.
My daughter and I came back 2018 and I don’t think I will move again, even though I spend quite a lot of time in Turkey now.
“ Bolivia, what did you do there”
I met a Bolivian man when I lived here for the first time, and one day he told me he wanted to move back. I worked as a language teacher and in a leadership position at a tech company. That's where I started thinking about communication actually. It was an outsourcing company that worked a lot with the US and Canada, and I was trying to bridge the gap between the difference in communication, so I had communication classes and courses apart from just regular language classes.
"Only you and your daughter came back?"
My then-husband and I got divorced after maybe a year and half. So 2 years as a single mom. We had some disagreements about how I could leave the country with our daughter. It was the toughest time of my life, I was so angry and it was hard to connect with people.
In a way, my transformation started there. I had kind of gotten used to the idea that I could not leave, therefore it would be better to adapt. I really got aware that cultures are different and once I switched my mindset in various ways I actually embraced the place I lived in and started liking it. I was happy to return though, let's not pretend something else!
You talk about a transformation, tell a bit more about this
So I think I was rather self-centered, and not really listening to others. I did not take the feelings of others into account. Once I was all alone, I did a lot of introspection and I realized that there was a lot of room for improvement. I started studying psychology, and communication, behavioral science, basically just for myself as I was obsessed with transforming and becoming a better version of myself. It is an ongoing task though, no one is ever finished!
Is that when you started to talk about communication?
Depends on how you see it, as a transformation is ongoing. I have studied the subjects for many years.
I came back to Prague 2018 and I continued on as a language teacher, I did a short stint as a scrum master as well, I got into that at the tech company I worked at. It frustrated me a lot. And guess why? People didn’t know how to communicate!
I have thought about that topic for many years and worked with that with my language students.
I had burnout and had a mental breakdown some 4 years ago. I was really bad.
I was so confused about my surrounding, I had worked so hard on myself. I wanted to share things about what I had done through, as I was finally back with people I knew. Somehow people around me did not react to it very well. And it felt like I was even more disconnected from people. So when I had my burnout, I had a lot of time to deal with it and I came to the conclusion that I had really changed, but my way of communicating had not. It was full of negativity, avoiding topics, rather competing at times and all over the place. It was hard to connect with people. Since then is when I started to take it seriously.
You speak a lot about your students in a work environment and communication in the workplace, Why are you only focused on the work environment?
We spend a lot of time at work, sometimes more time than at home, yet we don't think about really cultivating and connecting well with people. It is also such a different type of relationship. We might just email our colleagues, or meet them few times a week, and yet should we be very close to them. It is a flat and simple relationship, that does "only" involve this one subject; work, that should also be honest and we must feel trust and connection. I think that many of the things I train staff in, can be applicable to their personal life; it is much more complex structure, our private relationships that I don't feel I am the adequate person to do.
When you don't work, what do you like to do?
I work out quite a lot! 3 years ago I decided to make changes in my physical life. I never ever workout, ate whatever and drank a lot. I was some 30 kilos more and had problems with walking.
I spend a lot of time with this now, mainly for my mental state, it really helps me to stay grounded and keep my anxiety in check.
Actually I did a triathlon and a half-marathon last year! I study a lot as well. I feel like I am always studying something! I have a love of learning.
I think that we will stop there as part one! Otherwise, I think it will just be a tad too long :)
If you read it all, please comment down below and tell me who YOU are!
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