La Dolce Lingua Sven Tallo is an English teacher at Studio Lingua, he is known for cute sarcastic humour. He is gorgeous, colourful and handsome. As the universe he wants his students to discover. So that they would see more generally – not just single stars but the whole (language) universe. Some of the photos of this La Dolce Lingua have been taken by Sven’s friend Mikk Mats.
sven tallo
Loves Ununderstandably cute I wouldn’t say that the city has inspired me. Thoughts inspire. Tartu is a very pleasant small wooden town. Tartu is very compact. It is my alma mater. I cannot get by without Tartu. I need to visit it from time to time. I don’t know why it is so. It’s somehow different. Of course, I have friends in Tartu. Tallinn is somehow speedy and vague but at the same time paradoxically concrete too. Tartu feeds, fills with mental power. Mentor My thinking stems from my family and boyhood in Kilingi-Nõmme. Elmar Salumaa was living there. A professor of theology who was uncomfortable for the authorities and he had to live in internal proscription. In 1969 he was proscribed to Kilingi-Nõmme. I was born the same year. There’s still no connection between these two things. (: When I was about 14 years old, I started to visit the Veski Street pastorate where the Professor lived. It was the mecca of the Estonian intellectual elite. Being silly youngsters, we could see the genuine masters. I and my friend were in a delicate age and I can say that the atmosphere there has formed me a lot.
Anonymity I have felt myself best in Asian countries. Largeness gives anonymity, being without name. I don’t like when everyone knows everyone. This annoys me a bit. In a city you can see and feel how many gifted people there are in the world. You don’t have to explain your life story. You can start communicating at once. In Bangkok, for example, we were sitting with a friend in a café and a Swede came to our table and started talking without any ceremonies. In Estonia Swedes would not come to communicate in such a way. In big cities one doesn’t need much personal room because a person(al) disappears and is replaced by a delicious designation. Trout fishing I go alone to the forest. You cannot see people in the forest. Forest is another anonymity. Designation. I have occurred in the middle of a sounder and met a bear. I usually go fishing trout. It is not essential to get fish, I usually don’t. Best places. Each person has his own certain place. Why is it not shown to other people? People would go and fish predatorily. And the loneliness of the place, its designation would disappear.
“The only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.” Sword When I had just graduated from secondary school, I went to archaeological excavations with my friends in Lehmja. We were digging. Layer by layer. It was essential to me that I met new people who were differently interesting than my former acquaintances. People opened up. Layer by layer, and disclosed what was really interesting in them. Their thoughts. I remember that we found a two-edged sword. The archaeologists said about the sword that it shouldn’t have been there at all. Because it was a village, not a battle field.
11
This is vow! When teaching adults, it’s great that very different people come together. Interesting people. Like in a café of a city. My aim is not necessarily to give many skills. It is sufficient when a student realizes how languages are connected: how words are very old, very precise ideas. Ideas saved during thousands of years. Inspiring ideas which fill us with spirit. I like etymology. When you start seeing more generally – not just single stars but the whole universe. This is vow! So gorgeous, colourful, beautiful. Then the desire to learn arouses – not that I must learn but I want to! The courage to communicate is also important as well as not fearing mistakes. We speak our mother tongue also with mistakes, not to mention foreign languages that we don’t have to speak faultlessly. The language is for communication, for living. Speaking a foreign language is like living: you have to start living (speaking), not to wait when you are ready. Fairy-tales and Wilde I love the creation of Oscar Wilde. His fairy-tales are luminously beautiful, his plays are brilliantly witty and his letters are deeply gloomy. In present-day books there is no teaching, they arouse (emotional) intoxication but don’t teach as his fairy-tales or, for example, the fables by Krõlov. And Wilde's language is superb. You can learn English from Wilde, you don’t need any other teachers.
La Dolce Lingua sven tallo
Musik Man Till now I sometimes play the guitar. My dream is to be totally free to play music. I’d like to learn well the classical guitar. I’d study it thoroughly for a couple of years. However, I can learn music only when my (still lasting) working day is over. Work Work ethics is deeply ingrained in us. *Ora et labora*. I have a different viewpoint. Prayer is a precisely worded thought. Work is a form of escapism. Work enables to escape from thinking. As human beings we should year by year think more about what? and why? and whyfor? and work less. *Ora*, not *labora*.
Dreaming I rest while dreaming, probably lots of people do. After all, the Estonian words uni (dream, sleep) and unistus (dream, fantasy) have the same stem. The same thing. While sleeping, your body and brain are resting. Dreaming is the same but then your mind and soul are resting. Your rest from reality. From everyday routine. Totally alone. By the way, in my dreams I still see how I’m giving the math exam, and of course I fail. In reality, you know, I can pass it. Easy. (:
“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” Classical .. When I’m in a melancholic mood, I like listening to the nocturnes by Chopin. Bach. I even don’t have to mention him. His music is perfection. His music gives strength and makes people bright, clean. Music helps me to rest i.e. to dream. From musical instruments I also like the organ. Overwhelming. Classical music is the music I listen to. To my mind car radios could have only one channel – Klassikaraadio. ..and not classical Sometimes I enjoy jazz too, for example Ella Fitzgerald. I willingly listen to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra. I don’t like present-day music. It’ mostly empty for me. From Estonian pop music I like Sõpruse Puiestee. First of all because of the lyrics by Mait Vaik. He is like a serious and Lutheran Oscar Wilde: simple and precise, with an unbelievable ability to notice and express the noticed things precisely. When Wilde thought and expressed himself super-wittily (seemingly) because of witticism, Mait Vaik sees, understands and expresses himself, being melancholically warm in his expression.
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Humour.. .. has aroused problems. Continuously. At the same time this is me and I will continue in the same way. I wouldn’t say that my humour is sarcastic – maybe cutely sarcastic. I like to think that my death will come when I am sarcastic at a wrong time and wrong place. I hope that Death is also friendly sarcastic. By time I have learned to control myself a bit though it’s still just friendly humour, also when making fun of myself, and still in a friendly way.
2