Wat is’n?

I have had the distinctive pleasure of calling Berlin my home once. The language there is particular: German’s use of certain verb forms, and its odd structural capabilities represent a kind of expressive dexterity that I reveled in as a non-native speaker. We are spoiled in the English language with such precision, having a large vocabulary at our disposal to describe what we want. German, like many other languages, has a much more limited bank of words, but the ones they have, they use with intent and recombine to cover the area otherwise untouched.

The regional dialect of Berlin and the surrounding Brandenburg state pushes that dexterity to its limits. I hadn’t a clue what half of the words coming out of a friend’s mouth were when I was having coffee one afternoon near my apartment, but somehow the meaning was conveyed. Over time, I became acutely tuned to the Berlin accent, which offered a unique expressive form unlike any other German dialect I’d ever heard.

Then, in March 2017, after arriving at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership to begin my graduate studies, I again found myself immersed into a world of a different kind of language. It was as jarring as my first exposure to ‘Berlinisch’ and I was equally intrigued. And like that initial immersion, the use of this new dialect has already changed the way I think about what I see and how I see it.

So now as I conclude my time actively studying within the EMBA program, I’d like to use this vehicle to gather my thoughts and give them some form.

The verb ‘berlinern’—that is, to converse in the German dialect form used in the city Berlin and surroundings—seemed an appropriate way to frame the reflection on this experience. While the intent here is merely to give my own thoughts shape as I prepare to write a thesis, I welcome your engagement, too. The world has long needed a new way of framing, making and capturing value, so as I write this in May 2020, acutely aware of the way life has fundamentally shifted for all of us, I feel as though the time has come to begin this new dialogue. Insomuch as that is as useful to you as it is to me, I look forward to the conversation together.

Berlinste ooch?