The Words on the Waves festival has kicked off with a multitude of events held across the region. On the fringe of the festival, two new books by female Central Coast authors will be launched from 10.30-11.30am on Saturday, June 10, at Jasmine Greens Park Kiosk, Umina Beach, as part of the Words on the Waves Writers Festival.
Judith Krieger’s Your Native Language is Your Superpower (Reinventing Yourself With Joy in a New Country) is a powerful, uplifting guide to living in a new country with confidence, style and joy.
Living in a new country with a new language can be an emotional rollercoaster.
It’s no small feat to leave behind everything you’ve known and dare to imagine a different life for yourself.
It’s a journey that asks you to develop a brand of courage, soul-searching and personal growth that staying in your birth country would never ask of you.
From culture shock to homesickness to the language barrier, from work environments to mixed-nationality relationships and more, following the powerful guided exercises weaved throughout the book will leave the reader feeling proud of herself and excited about the fascinating woman she is becoming.
Krieger said the book had its birth while she was encouraging workshop participants to love their accents.
“They were all trying so hard to ‘fit in’ with the Aussie culture and to sound like an Aussie so they didn’t feel so different, that they had lost a part of themselves,” she said.
“And that part was the confidence to step out as the fascinating women they are, an enticing mix of their heritage and their adopted country and culture, delighting and charming with their accents, and celebrating all the aspects of their evolving identity.
“Throughout my 20 years of running French sessions in childcare centres on the Northern Beaches and North Shore and the past eight years where I’ve been coaching bilingual women to delight children in their own languages, I’ve heard so many stories about the emotional challenges that these brave women experienced as they made their new lives in their adopted countries.
“It’s not always easy to confidently find your place in a new culture.
“Culture shock is a real thing.
“And as for finding your way around the language barrier – that sure takes some courage.
“It’s so easy to lose your confidence and sense of self in an environment that feels so different to what you’re used to.
“I’m an Aussie with French influence from my husband and his family.
“Born and raised on the Northern Beaches, I spent two years in London in my mid-20s, where I met my French Swiss husband.
“Having lived on the Central Coast for the past 12 years with our two (now-adult) sons and my mother-in-law who followed her son to Australia, we have each navigated the blend of French and Australian customs, perspectives, habits and ways of seeing the world in our own individual ways.
“Just like the women in my workshops, there are times when it’s been challenging for us all.
“But there’s also something magical about living with new cultures.
“It can be a fantastic opportunity to decide who you want to be and how you want to show up for yourself in an exciting new way.
“That thought is what inspired my book.
“Seeing the ladies I was coaching sit taller and smile wider as they began to accept their accent as a charm sparked the idea of giving all the challenges of adapting to a new culture a chic makeover.
“My desire is that readers will feel uplifted and proud, celebrating their journey so far and leaving with techniques and processes for navigating new experiences with a sense of fascination, and stepping out in their adopted country with confidence, style and joy.”
The second book to be launched on the day is Thriving and Surviving Raising Thirteen by Anne Perrottet, who takes the reader on a very personal journey through motherhood, it’s joys and heartbreaks, its many stretching moments, its sometimes near despair, and ultimately its rewards.
She writes not as an expert, but as a woman who like many, is simply trying to do her best and sometimes, but not always, succeeding.
Perrottet is a wife and mother with more than 40 years of experience raising and educating her 13 children in Australia and the USA.
She has degrees in Education, Psychology, Community Welfare and Counselling and is currently completing a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and runs her own private counselling practice.
She is a highly regarded and entertaining speaker, commentator and writer and her hobbies include playing the piano, guitar, art and doting over her 28 grandchildren.
“During labour with my first child Madeleine, my husband was sitting next to me reading the newspaper as I was gently introduced into the pains of labour,” she said.
“As this was rather boring for him, he came up with an idea.
“He began to document every moment of the labour, how I was feeling, how far apart the contractions were and what the nurses and doctors were doing.
“Once he was home and recovered from the labour (men find childbirth rather difficult), he wrote up his report into a little notebook.
“As our family grew so did the notebooks.
“These little notebooks became known affectionately as the Red and Black Books, simply because they are red and black.
“As the years rolled on and the pregnancies rolled out, these red and black books evolved into manuscripts documenting milestones in each of our children’s lives.
“Most of the books begin from the time I was pregnant, others from their first moments on earth and one, the moment he entered Heaven.
“Over the years people have asked me to write a book about how we raised our family.
“This request was not because we had the perfect family – we don’t have a perfect family.
“However, we have a successful family with children who try their best, push their boundaries and never, never give up.
“Eventually all those red and black books became one book – my book – Thriving and Surviving Raising Thirteen.
Terry Collins