31 Oli D: neurolanguage igniter

Oli is a NeuroLanguage igniter, guiding you to language learning and elevation through the brain, the heart and the body. As a result, you will learn French and any other language with efficiency, joy and autonomy.

Connect with Oli!

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/odierickx/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@OliFrencHoly

BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/olifrencholy.bsky.social

Oli contributed written pieces to two anthologies in 2024:

Rebel With a Cause: Voices of Transformation and Empowerment

Beyond Boundaries: Thriving in Life’s Grey Zones

Kathie's note: Did I meet Oli through Caveday or at a CreativeMornings FieldTrip? Or both around the same time? It was probably 2021 or '22. He has the brightest smile and personality, and makes good use of the chat feature. We all love him. He was Olivier then, pronounced with four syllables, o-liv-ee-ay. It's easy to gloss over that second i unless you really look for it. An online session with Oli in attendance is a happy Zoom, lemme tell ya!

Writers Rotation intro/outro recorded at Dynamix Productions in Lexington, Kentucky.

Transcript

Oli [00:00:00]:
My name is Oli. I am a neurolanguage igniter, and words are energy.

INTRO [00:00:07]:
Hi. Welcome to the Writers Rotation podcast. I'm your host, Kathie Stamps. I love words and writing and people and talking. So I'm talking to people who write all kinds of things in different professions. It's a Writers Rotation.

Kathie [00:00:28]:
Oli! (speaking French)

Oli [00:00:29]:
I hear you in French from you. You are embodying the fact that when you are speaking the language of, the native language of the person, you are activating the heart. So thank you so much. It's a blessing to hear you. I love to merge in the muchness of languages.

Kathie [00:00:59]:
How many languages do you speak?

Oli [00:01:02]:
Four pretty good, like French, English, Italian, Dutch, and also 2 to 20 words in 40 plus languages, at least hello and thank you.

Kathie [00:01:13]:
Wow. That's very cool. That's very impressive. Also, you can speak Pig Latin in any language. Did you know that?

Oli [00:01:20]:
I can speak what?

Kathie [00:01:21]:
Pig Latin. I hope that's not problematic. So my name is Kathie. It would be Athie-kay. You twist it around. Hello would be ello-hay.

Oli [00:01:37]:
Oh, that's even more amazing.

Kathie [00:01:45]:
Anyway, so you are in Belgium? Does that make you a Belgian?

Oli [00:01:54]:
Yes.

Kathie [00:01:55]:
You have Belgian chocolate. 74%.

Oli [00:01:59]:
Yes. I don't accept any percentage that is less than 74.

Kathie [00:02:09]:
When people ask you what you do for a living, what do you say?

Oli [00:02:14]:
Oh, I help you to ignite your heart and your brain while learning French and other languages.

Kathie [00:02:23]:
So you do more than just teach someone how to speak in French?

Oli [00:02:29]:
That's the easiest way. Like, oh, I'm a French teacher or I'm a French coach. But there is even something way better than that. And it's not like the Instagram thing, you know, oh, I am a language teacher. I ignite your heart and your brain. You know the before and the after on LinkedIn profile. You know? Job seeker, and, oh, I explore the jobs, goal. You know? But I feel like it's a way to say that, it's not in terms of ego, it's a term about, explaining that it goes deeper than language teaching.

Kathie [00:03:15]:
Oh, what would be an example?

Oli [00:03:17]:
Applying the listening skills of the coaching. The autonomy and also the neuroscience, because there is neurolanguage, n e u r o, like, neuroscience, and language. So neurolanguage.

Kathie [00:03:36]:
Now is that similar to NLP, neurolinguistic programming?

Oli [00:03:40]:
That's a question that I hear a lot. And it might be a bit similar, but it's not that because NLP is about, is not so much about language, NLP. It's, more about the brain and how do we perceive and communicate. But it's really about the language efficiency, autonomy, and it's merging a lot of concepts. There is the nervous system concept. There is also the fact that, how to efficiently gather information for language.

Oli [00:04:20]:
And it's, it's something that I would like to approach is that for many years, decades, the system was focusing on this: the brain. Yeah. And I truly believe that we have to integrate also this organ: the heart. And the whole body, in fact, the whole body.

Kathie [00:04:41]:
Okay.

Oli [00:04:42]:
Because, if we are only relying on the neuroscience based, we are probably integrating 60%, 70%, or less, neurons, but there are neurons all around the body. And what is efficient, I truly believe that what is efficient is not only this (head), but the communication between this and this. Heart and the mind. That's it. Because the heart is constantly communicating to the brain. And, of course, the brain is the seat of ego, and the brain is saying to the heart: I have the information. I know, but the heart is, okay, but do you feel? And feeling is in the body.

Kathie [00:05:34]:
Very cool. Are there different French accents the same way there are millions and millions of American English accents?

Oli [00:05:42]:
Exactly. There is the accents and the other languages. Because there are multiple English, multiple French, multiple Spanish, multiple Portuguese. So it's, by instance, I can mimic and exaggerate some accent. Like, French. Then there is a Belgian accent.

Kathie [00:06:11]:
So you can listen to someone and tell if they're in France or in Belgium?

Oli [00:06:17]:
Yeah. Most of the time, and especially when you are hearing the Canadian accent.

Kathie [00:06:38]:
Canadian French. Okay.

Oli [00:06:43]:
And then Switzerland. That that's a different accent.

Kathie [00:06:53]:
What about writing versus speaking? Is one easier or more difficult, do you think, in various languages? Reading and speaking?

Oli [00:07:02]:
I truly believe that they are different. And in French, it's more tricky than in English. I think that the best language that is really translating, the writing and the speaking is Italian. Because in Italian all the words are pronounced as they are written. An example, paure, how do you pronounce that in English?

Kathie [00:07:36]:
Power?

Oli [00:07:37]:
Okay. In French, it would be paura. 

Oli [00:07:48]:
Paura. Because au, it's o. And in Italian it means fear.

Oli [00:07:59]:
That's why I'm really happy about the names because a name could be pronounced differently through the languages. And so, there is an example. How would you pronounce l a u r a? Laura. And in Italian, we will pronounce La-u-ra.

Kathie [00:08:35]:
All of the letters are pronounced in Italian.

Oli [00:08:39]:
Yeah. Also, like, usually in French, I will say in pizza, zzz. But in Italian, it's t. Peet-za. Voila.

Oli [00:08:57]:
As I said, Italian is the best language when it comes to expressing what is written. And English could be a language between Italian and French in terms of pronouncing because there are some words that are not pronounced as they are written.

Kathie [00:09:17]:
Right.

Oli [00:09:17]:
And in French, it's even more tricky. So that's why I truly believe it depends on the language when it comes to, answering your question about the language and the writing and the pronouncing. It depends on the language.

Kathie [00:09:35]:
Yes.

Oli [00:09:36]:
And when it comes to French, I have to admit that it is not easy for English speaking people to, really pronounce well the French because, how do you pronounce a v a n t? Avant. And in French, you have to know that sometimes you don't pronounce, most of the time, you don't pronounce the last letter.

Kathie [00:10:02]:
So it's avan?

Oli [00:10:08]:
And avant means before. 

Kathie [00:10:15]:
What does voila mean?

Oli [00:10:15]:
Voila. That means here it is. Yeah. I present you something like, I show you something Because it's to see. V o i l a and with the accent.

Kathie [00:10:34]:
And the typo is viola. How much writing in different languages do you do with your work?

Oli [00:10:42]:
That's interesting. Practically, only two languages. I barely write Italian or Dutch. I'm more comfortable, by instance, to write in Italian than in Dutch.

Kathie [00:10:53]:
And if you're just writing for yourself, by yourself, is it always in French or mostly in French?

Oli [00:10:58]:
That's very interesting. Most of the time, it's in French, but sometimes I write exclusively in English.

Kathie [00:11:08]:
As a practice?

Oli [00:11:09]:
It could be that. I don't know. I don't know. I would have to dig deep. My native language is in French. Because in Belgium, you have such amazing community that you can have, you can walk 1,000 meters and be able to talk Italian. If I would like, I can speak Turkish, in a neighbor in Brussels.

Oli [00:11:33]:
There is a neighbor that is called the Little Anatoli, Little Anatolia, which is, really 2 or 3 kilometers from my place right now. So that's amazing.

Kathie [00:11:44]:
That's very cool.

Oli [00:11:45]:
So you know my passion. It's rooted from my childhood and my early adulthood. I had also a French teacher, that really fostered me more than language, but also the critical thinking, reflection about some societal topics, and also the gymnastics of the mouth.

Kathie [00:12:12]:
That's hilarious. We sometimes call them puns, but I love gymnastics better.

Oli [00:12:17]:
Yeah. But it was not really about puns. It was about the diction.

Kathie [00:12:22]:
Oh, okay.

Oli [00:12:22]:
I don't know if you have this kind of things to help you, but I can model an example in French. (speaks French)

Kathie [00:12:33]:
Tongue twister.

Oli [00:12:34]:
That's an example. Tongue twister. That's it.

Kathie [00:12:36]:
She sells seashells down by the seashore.

Oli [00:12:38]:
Okay.

Kathie [00:12:38]:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pints of pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Oli [00:12:45]:
I love it.

Kathie [00:12:46]:
Something like that.

Oli [00:12:47]:
I love it.

Kathie [00:12:48]:
Tongue twisters.

Oli [00:12:49]:
Yes. That's it. Yeah.

Kathie [00:12:53]:
What are you writing these days? Do you write? What do you write?

Oli [00:12:57]:
That's a good question. I love to joke also, to say that there is nothing right on my left brain because there is nothing left on my right brain. But I would say, actually, I don't write so much. I would like to have this habit of writing. The only way that I was having the writing habits were when I was partaking to two different anthologies.

Kathie [00:13:28]:
And what did you contribute to the anthologies?

Oli [00:13:30]:
So the first anthology was Beyond Boundaries, and we were an astonishing number of 27 co-authors. That was amazing. It was about my youth and my story. And then, bit by bit, explaining my life into 3,000 words.

Kathie [00:13:52]:
Explaining your life in 3,000 words. That would be hard for me.

Oli [00:13:57]:
That's it. And I was loving it because I was doing it in 10 small chapters. Ten because boundaries contains 10 letters. So I was, making B, O, U, N, etc.

Kathie [00:14:17]:
Boundaries. Okay.

Oli [00:14:19]:
Yeah. And then with, the second anthology, Rebel With a Cause, I was just using the five letters of rebel.

Kathie [00:14:30]:
You were rebelling because you're a rebel.

Oli [00:14:33]:
Yeah, a rebel. In that anthology, it was more diving into my life, but in the education field, like my youth in the school system. I feel like the first anthology, it was setting who is Oli. I was Olivier, and then I decided I still have my name, you know, Olivier, but in the online platform I decided to have three letters, Oli, not only because it was difficult for some people to say my name because some people were saying Oliver and not Olivier. 

Oli [00:15:22]:
Yeah. I was having the intention to break my past and to say, okay, this is my new self. This is Oli, a new identity, Oli.

Kathie [00:15:34]:
That's very cool.

Oli [00:15:35]:
And also playing with words, like, I was broke Oli, and, no, I am RaviOli. That's it. You know? And so the second anthology was about my education journey at school, then the illness of my mom that I was talking also on the first.

Oli [00:16:03]:
My journey was two years in the boarding school and two years in the professional school. I was 13 to 15 years old. My mom was ill, even way before I was perceiving it. Because my dad told me it was not 4 years, it was more than 8 years that she was ill, and that was turning to brain cancer. But she had pancreatitis, and then spreading her wings. And I was at six weeks to be 13.

Oli [00:16:41]:
It was the two most difficult years of my life. But then after my mom was not there anymore, I had to retake my first year, to retake my second year, to retake my third year, to retake my fourth year. And at 19, I was not succeeding my fourth year. And when I was not succeeding in my fourth year, I said, enough. I leave school.

Kathie [00:17:09]:
Wow. And then you became self-educated.

Oli [00:17:13]:
That's it. Going from jobs to unemployment to jobs to unemployment.

Kathie [00:17:19]:
And do you think of yourself as an entrepreneur now or self-employed?

Oli [00:17:25]:
That's a huge question. Because I was never told about, what does it mean to be an entrepreneur. I now realize what it does take to be entrepreneur, and that's not easy because it means that I have to be in charge of myself, of my job, of the job that I put on me. When it comes to growing my own business, that's the most difficult part. Because there is my monkey mind that says, oh, it's okay. Let's do it tomorrow. It's okay. And tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Kathie [00:18:05]:
I can do it tomorrow. Yeah. That's what I say tomorrow: I can do it tomorrow.

Oli [00:18:10]:
But I think I'm going to take some time to begin writing to a book, to talk about my life and especially my life during these last four to six years. In four to six years, there were a lot of things that were transforming. And, of course, I can say the Olivier of the last week is not the Olivier of today, but I can certainly say that the Oli of two to four to six years ago is absolutely, absolutely not the Oli of today because I am different. And it came through pain because I had a lot of pain. By doing things that were not aligned with my desire, or because I was lost and I had to repent, to follow a path that was not aligned with my mission. There are now two layers of mission. My first ever layer of mission is to bring the light.

Kathie [00:19:15]:
Bring the light. Love it.

Oli [00:19:17]:
And because my learning in that, is I have to bring the light within me first.

Kathie [00:19:25]:
Mhmm.

Oli [00:19:26]:
Then outburst the light that is within me. I say that because my mom’s name is Lucie. 

Kathie [00:19:38]:
La luce del sol.

Oli [00:19:40]:
That's it. The name of my mom was my mission, in fact, to bring the light. And Oli stands for Olivier, which is the tree of the peace.

Kathie [00:19:51]:
Wow. Light and peace. I mean, it doesn't get much better than that.

Oli [00:19:56]:
I'm happy to help each other to elevate and to bring the light into this world.

Kathie [00:20:03]:
Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has been fun.

Oli [00:20:07]:
Anytime, feel free to connect. I'm happy to serve. Keep shining. Mwah! Bye.

OUTRO [00:20:14]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of Writers Rotation. Like and subscribe for more. And remember, writing is a marketable skill. Smiling is a remarkable skill.