28/07/2026
What if someone tells you a story in a language you don't understand a single word of, yet you still understand it?
This is exactly what participants experience in one of the activities of our educational program Stories Under the Magnifying Glass (Príbehy pod lupou). The trainer presents a whole story in a completely invented, incomprehensible language, but with full emotional engagement, gestures, facial expressions, and changes in
tempo and tone of voice. And people understand. They feel sadness, tension, joy. They grasp the plot.
Why does this work? Because communication is not just about words. Our brain reads body language, intonation, and facial expressions, and this easily transcends language barriers. This activity shows that empathy and understanding do not require a common
language. Attention and a willingness to perceive are enough. For teachers or youth workers, it is also a powerful tool: in groups where there are children with a different mother tongue, from different cultural backgrounds, or with communication difficulties, this exact sensitivity to non-verbal signals can open the door to genuine understanding.
And you? What do you perceive in communication with others before words? Let us know in the comments.
You can use all the methodological materials of Stories Under the Magnifying Glass starting this summer — at camps, during leisure activities, and throughout the entire school year.
The materials will be available on our website. If you want to go a step further and be among the first to get them, click the link in the comments, and after filling out a short form, we will send them straight to your email.
Just a few minutes and you have a tool in your hands that you can immediately use in your work with children and youth.
The Stories Under the Magnifying Glass project is implemented in international cooperation with the Czech organization GLAFKA and the National Leprechaun Museum, Ireland. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the National Institute of Education and Youth (NIVAM). Neither the European Union nor NIVAM can be held
responsible for them.
