Previously I wrote a blogpost “The two faces of Estonians” about my experience with Estonian people. They tend to believe, that they are a very serious and more introvert type of people, especially when at work. In their private life and at weekend parties they dare to show their other, more playful side.
Recently I was invited by some Happy Estonians to help them make a Happy in Tallinn music video from Pharrell Williams’ hit song, after making a Happy in Eindhoven one in my own hometown. It was my role to invite the people to dance and act playful to the music while we were filming. Sometimes a bit shy at first but quickly loosening up to the music, we shot the video in two amazing days. The video was released 3 weeks ago and already got almost 20.000 views.
Some of the reactions of Estonians to the video were;
These are not real Estonian people, these are actors and it is fake. We don’t show our happiness this openly.
For me I see this as a big compliment. Apparently I was capable of bringing their playful side out in front of the camera. And I’m very proud of the result. I know for a fact that Estonians are Happy! They just need a little bit of encouragement to show it…But then again; don’t we all?
Enjoy the video:
With playful greetings,
Annemarie Steen
You’re more than welcome to get updates on my projects and resources about playfulness and playful learning by following my facebookpage.
Annemarie Steen 