The Language of International Women's Day

What is International Women's Day?

Around the globe, people celebrate international Women's Day every March 8th. It's supposed to be a day in which we celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women globally. According to the International Women's Day website, the first official #IWD gathering was in 1911 and was supported by over a million attendees. However, the very first instance of what led up to a Women's Day was more of a grand protest in 1857, on March 8th, by a group of working women in New York that had had enough of their less than ideal work conditions such as 12-hour work shifts on top of low pay. Not only was a protest organized but a women's coalition wasalsoestablished.

In many nations, this is a day for women and all of their allies to support equality, peace and positive progress for the fairer sex. If not for these protests, we might not have our current standard eight hour workday in addition to somewhat of a pay raise, depending on which country you live in. We also have very little child labor exploitation, although there is much to be done in certain areas of the world on that note as well.

You might wonder why we chose to use various types of "bread and roses" in our social media posts. This is due to the fact that the protesting women of 1908, had decided to use bread to symbolize guaranteed economic success and the roses to symbolize a certain quality of life.

Bring Opportunity to Women Worldwide

For international Women's Day there are a few different ways that you, personally, could take action and ensure that the women of the future will have economic success and a certain quality of life. #EmbraceEquity~

You can start by showcasing women creatives on your platform, regardless of size, if you know any woman artists or performers that deserve to be seen/heard. If you are a business owner, you can work with your team to create "woman conscious workplace policies". If you go to the UN website, you will see that in 2050 it is expected that over 70% of all jobs will touch on the science, technology, engineering and data industries. However, at the moment, it seems that women only make up 22% of the AI jobs out there.

If you know any women who happen to be good in the 'smart', techy industry, you could introduce them to opportunities at companies that the international Women's Day we bsite calls prime employers. We have a link that you can follow to do so. These companies are known to have suitable conditions for women to work, be paid and share their expertise.

If you know of a woman who has gone through many hardships and found great success, or was a pillar in the community in a time of need, you could also nominate them for an award for women. Click here to nominate a woman for woman of the year!

A Multilingual American First Lady

Lou Hoover and Her Use of Six Languages

Speaking of woman of the year, we found a woman that spoke six, yes 6, languages that we would like to highlight this year. While she is no longer living, first lady Lou Hoover really met that Proverbs 31 woman standard, showing just what women can do and how helpful they can be in society, beside her husband, former president Herbert Hoover. President Hoover was not even aware of many of the contributions his wife ended up making to society.

Mrs. Hoover had an exciting upbringing in the late 1800s. Her parents were not afraid to allow her to be more sporty, understand nature and generally experience a sense of freedom that we know many women were discouraged from. She enjoyed going camping, hunting, playing sports and other such socially unacceptable for girls and women's activities.

At a teacher training institution called Los Angeles Normal School, now UCLA, Lou Hoover had the opportunity to join many active school social clubs where she could explore the natural world including rock formations. In 1983, she decided to go for her degree in geology and she is one of the first women to earn that particular degree. As she started the geology degree, she met her future husband, Herbert Hoover, who was also just so happened to be studying geology at Leland Stanford University. While at Stanford, she took Latin and ended up being quite fluent in it. Upon graduation they were married in 1899. It was then that they left for Tianjin China 中国天津.

While in China, Mrs. Hoover took her studies of the Chinese Mandarin language quite seriously. She hired a tutor to come daily to give her lessons. While her husband was there for his role in the mining industry, she too played a very active role by making sure things went smoothly. She did more than just learn to survive in Chinese, she would sometimes even interpret conversations for her husband and the locals. She did not shy away from helping others even through the war, the boxer rebellion, which broke out while they were there. She was so serious about her Chinese skills, she even decided on a signature in Chinese characters.

Since Herbert Hoover was a great mining engineer, his work took him to various countries and Lou Hoover accompanied him everywhere, bearing their children and raising the family regardless of their location and world events. After the Hoovers moved to London, and due to her interest in history and the sciences, Mrs. Hoover stumbled upon "a 1565 guide to mining and meteorology called De Re Metallica by the German mineralogist George Agricola." (First Lady Biography)

This famous book of the time had even been translated into Chinese back in 1640, but it did not have an English translation. English was not really an international language in science the way that it is today until the 20th century, so this was a great opportunity for the Hoovers because they were able to create an English translation. We believe it's important to note that lady Hoover is the one that had amazing skills in the Latin language; she also is the one who pursued Mandarin Chinese with such vigor. It is no secret that Herbert Hoover was not very good in Latin and only knew Chinese to get by. However, this translation can still be accredited to the both of them since it took many science experiments to understand exactly how to express what was going on in the English language. The English translation was "published in 1912 and earned the couple the Mining & Metallurgical Society of America's gold medal." (First Lady Biography)

After Herbert Hoover became president, it was Lady Hoover that kept him speaking Chinese Mandarin from 1929 to 1933. They did this in the presence of others when they wanted to keep something that they were discussing confidential. Our founder, initially started to learn languages with something like this as a goal. Sometimes there are things that need to be said in the company of others, but if everyone speaks the same language, all secrets are immediately revealed. While Chinese Mandarin may not be a "secret language" in Chinese-speaking nations, it is definitely still a secret language in most of the USA.

This year we chose Lou Hoover so that we could honor her for all of her scientific contributions to the world. In addition, being a language school and all, we also want to honor her for her knowledge of Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese Mandarin, and Latin on top of her native tongue, English. She became what we like to call a #MultilingualAmerican, and she used her language skills to further bring knowledge and understanding.

In Honor of IWD

Preparing Girls for Womanhood

The mature opposite of minor is major, the mature opposite of girl is woman. Lou Hoover made so many contributions to the Girl Scouts in her time, promoting the opportunity for girls to engage in sports and outdoorsy activities. She also has two STEM badges named after her. Why not support a girl and her love of nature, sports and the sciences by signing her up for the Girl Scouts? It would also be great if the Girl Scouts had a multilingual badge, but it wouldn't necessarily need to be named after former first lady Lou Hoover.

March just so happens to be national women's history month, so stay tuned for more women that are bringing success through their multilingual skills.

References

Black, A. (2021, January 15). Lou Henry Hoover. The White House. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/first-families/lou-henry-hoover/
First Lady Biography: Lou Hoover. Lou Hoover Biography :: National First Ladies' Library. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=32
Mrs. President: Lou Hoover. History. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.history.com/topics/first-ladies/mrs-president-lou-hoover-video
National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). First lady Lou Henry Hoover. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved from https://hoover.archives.gov/hoovers/first-lady-lou-henry-hoover
Sabel , C. C. (2021, April 20). Lou Henry Hoover, Lost in Translation. Science History Institute. Retrieved from https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/lou-henry-hoover-lost-in-translation

涨知识！"三八妇女节"的由来. 腾讯新闻. (2022, March 3). Retrieved from https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20220308A08VE900

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