As a person who lived in the Armenian society for 6 months and tried to find a place between them and work with them, I totally agree with Gregory. I'm so happy and grateful that people like Gregory are trying their best to make a change here. I hope Armenians who are looking forward to seeing their country and their society develop and become more progressive find Gregory and cooperate with him through this process that he has already started in his own house in Kalavan.
I would guess that that language safe space is in part a semi-deliberate defense mechanism developed as a response to being invaded, taken over, genocided, etc, through history. From having scary neighbors. For one, if the scary neighbors don't know your language, rarely even hear it, it means you can speak privately. For another, when cultural identity is always being ground down, it's something to hold onto psychologically, but also practically, to tell friend from foe. And it is a somewhat passive form of resistance to forced assimilation, one that the scary neighbor who just moved in might find harder to complain about. After generations of it, it is going to be very hard to let go of. And from what I understand, there is reason to believe it might be needed again. The guy you were talking to might have said something along those lines, but he was very hard to understand, between his accent and how his voice was muffled in the audio.
I'm also ethnically Armenian, raised in America, and interested in visiting/getting citizenship in Hayastan (which is how I came across your center). In listening to you speak, I keep wondering what you hoped to gain in yourself from immigrating? In your website and this interview, you talk a lot about what you hope to offer/teach to Armenians - English language, entrepreneurial mindset, "hippies," etc. - but I can't help but wonder if you've allowed yourself to change as well during this move? Personally, when I think about moving to the motherland, I get extremely excited at the idea of learning traditional crafts, songs, cooking, etc. To me, a big reason why I travel is to deprogram my own culture and learn from the locals rather than trying to spread my own values and ideology. To be honest, our individualist American culture has made me feel extremely lonely for most of my life, and if/when I move to Hayastan I want to build relationships with my neighbors and seek advice from my elders and have the feeling of the big Armenian family that the genocide took from me. And in order to do that, I know I'm going to have to get uncomfortable, question my own values and upbringing, make myself vulnerable, and change some things about myself. I'm going to have to confront the fact that, even though I passively "am" Armenian, I still have so much to learn in order to actively BE part of Armenia. So I guess my question is: are you trying to explore and connect with your Armenian heritage, or are you trying to create a little America within Armenia? If the first, what do you think Armenia can offer to you, and are you accepting it? If the second, why bother going to Armenia at all?
All excellent questions, some of which are covered in the video about why I moved to Kalavan village: ua-cam.com/video/FONsi-NSywY/v-deo.htmlsi=wW0M7J846ySPWRsq The short version is that I was initially looking for a community I could play a valuable role in with my unique perspective and skills. I wanted to integrate as much as possible. The people promoting Kalavan welcomed me here and helped me buy the last house for sale on the premise that I would be welcome as part of this purportedly "entrepreneurial" community. I spent the first few years of living here trying to act on that premise, but I found instead that everyone who welcomed me here just seemed very uncomfortable with my presence here. Some seemed to go out of their way to take advantage of me and make things as difficult as possible for me. To date, I still cannot get the vast majority of Armenians to even speak the Armenian language with me, for instance, which has made learning it a chore. I even tried to marry an Armenian girl and integrate with her family, to no avail. I changed my approach when I realized that this culture, in general, would never be truly welcoming of a foreign presence. They are highly threatened by anything new. They are also judgmental and violent toward many types of minorities and alternative ways of thinking and living. So, if I couldn't find a community among the Armenians, I'd rather build one from scratch among those the Armenians reject. I'm happy to share the details of my repatriation with you more and help set your expectations for coming here if you'd like. contact@gregorydiehl.net
@@gregoryvdiehl I wonder if that also might be partially due to the fact that you're in a rural village? I mean, small towns in America also tend to be more conservative and not as welcoming to those who didn't grow up within their community, but that might not necessarily reflect on the entire country? I spent 6 weeks in Yerevan some years ago volunteering at a Women's Resource Center, and I found it to be incredibly welcoming. There was even a non-Armenian woman there who had moved to Armenia completely randomly after literally pointing to a random country on a globe, and she had managed to find community and learn the language with other feminists/progressives in Yerevan. Obviously both of our experiences are anecdotal, but I'm wondering if there might be other factors at play that have caused you to have a less-than-ideal experience.
@@loaleen My experience from five years here is that all the same biases and limitations are present in Yerevan too, though to a lesser or better hidden extent. They seem to want to explicitly distance themselves from the mentality of the rural Armenians, but they are still subject to many of the same fears, such as going against expectations of family and peers. I know modern young Yerevanian women who are afraid to be seen smoking in public or walking with men in case someone starts judging and gossiping about them for it.
As a person who lived in the Armenian society for 6 months and tried to find a place between them and work with them, I totally agree with Gregory.
I'm so happy and grateful that people like Gregory are trying their best to make a change here.
I hope Armenians who are looking forward to seeing their country and their society develop and become more progressive find Gregory and cooperate with him through this process that he has already started in his own house in Kalavan.
I would guess that that language safe space is in part a semi-deliberate defense mechanism developed as a response to being invaded, taken over, genocided, etc, through history. From having scary neighbors. For one, if the scary neighbors don't know your language, rarely even hear it, it means you can speak privately. For another, when cultural identity is always being ground down, it's something to hold onto psychologically, but also practically, to tell friend from foe. And it is a somewhat passive form of resistance to forced assimilation, one that the scary neighbor who just moved in might find harder to complain about.
After generations of it, it is going to be very hard to let go of. And from what I understand, there is reason to believe it might be needed again.
The guy you were talking to might have said something along those lines, but he was very hard to understand, between his accent and how his voice was muffled in the audio.
I'm also ethnically Armenian, raised in America, and interested in visiting/getting citizenship in Hayastan (which is how I came across your center). In listening to you speak, I keep wondering what you hoped to gain in yourself from immigrating? In your website and this interview, you talk a lot about what you hope to offer/teach to Armenians - English language, entrepreneurial mindset, "hippies," etc. - but I can't help but wonder if you've allowed yourself to change as well during this move?
Personally, when I think about moving to the motherland, I get extremely excited at the idea of learning traditional crafts, songs, cooking, etc. To me, a big reason why I travel is to deprogram my own culture and learn from the locals rather than trying to spread my own values and ideology. To be honest, our individualist American culture has made me feel extremely lonely for most of my life, and if/when I move to Hayastan I want to build relationships with my neighbors and seek advice from my elders and have the feeling of the big Armenian family that the genocide took from me. And in order to do that, I know I'm going to have to get uncomfortable, question my own values and upbringing, make myself vulnerable, and change some things about myself. I'm going to have to confront the fact that, even though I passively "am" Armenian, I still have so much to learn in order to actively BE part of Armenia.
So I guess my question is: are you trying to explore and connect with your Armenian heritage, or are you trying to create a little America within Armenia? If the first, what do you think Armenia can offer to you, and are you accepting it? If the second, why bother going to Armenia at all?
All excellent questions, some of which are covered in the video about why I moved to Kalavan village: ua-cam.com/video/FONsi-NSywY/v-deo.htmlsi=wW0M7J846ySPWRsq
The short version is that I was initially looking for a community I could play a valuable role in with my unique perspective and skills. I wanted to integrate as much as possible. The people promoting Kalavan welcomed me here and helped me buy the last house for sale on the premise that I would be welcome as part of this purportedly "entrepreneurial" community. I spent the first few years of living here trying to act on that premise, but I found instead that everyone who welcomed me here just seemed very uncomfortable with my presence here. Some seemed to go out of their way to take advantage of me and make things as difficult as possible for me. To date, I still cannot get the vast majority of Armenians to even speak the Armenian language with me, for instance, which has made learning it a chore. I even tried to marry an Armenian girl and integrate with her family, to no avail.
I changed my approach when I realized that this culture, in general, would never be truly welcoming of a foreign presence. They are highly threatened by anything new. They are also judgmental and violent toward many types of minorities and alternative ways of thinking and living. So, if I couldn't find a community among the Armenians, I'd rather build one from scratch among those the Armenians reject. I'm happy to share the details of my repatriation with you more and help set your expectations for coming here if you'd like.
contact@gregorydiehl.net
@@gregoryvdiehl I wonder if that also might be partially due to the fact that you're in a rural village? I mean, small towns in America also tend to be more conservative and not as welcoming to those who didn't grow up within their community, but that might not necessarily reflect on the entire country? I spent 6 weeks in Yerevan some years ago volunteering at a Women's Resource Center, and I found it to be incredibly welcoming. There was even a non-Armenian woman there who had moved to Armenia completely randomly after literally pointing to a random country on a globe, and she had managed to find community and learn the language with other feminists/progressives in Yerevan. Obviously both of our experiences are anecdotal, but I'm wondering if there might be other factors at play that have caused you to have a less-than-ideal experience.
@@loaleen My experience from five years here is that all the same biases and limitations are present in Yerevan too, though to a lesser or better hidden extent. They seem to want to explicitly distance themselves from the mentality of the rural Armenians, but they are still subject to many of the same fears, such as going against expectations of family and peers. I know modern young Yerevanian women who are afraid to be seen smoking in public or walking with men in case someone starts judging and gossiping about them for it.