We encourage everyone to celebrate the Day of Restoration of Independence by sharing photos and videos, what makes you truly cherish Estonia. In this way, we will wish Estonia well together.

Let’s celebrate Estonian restoration of independence by capturing memories of everyone and everything that makes Estonian dear to us. To this end, we ask everyone to post pictures or videos on their social media accounts of people or places that are important to them, sunrises or seashores, singalongs or jam-making – everything and anything that makes Estonia dear to our hearts. We welcome photos and videos from everyone who loves Estonia – from Estonian residents and Estonian people from all over the world, their relatives and friends, groups and communities.

Please post the content no later than August 20, using the hashtags #eesti, #meiekodu and #kultuuririkkus. On August 21, an overview of the posts will be published on the social media accounts of the Cultural Diversity Year, grouped by hashtags.

The Cultural Diversity Year is a theme year organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Integration Foundation with the aim of celebrating the diversity of cultures in Estonian communities and among the peoples living in Estonia. All information can be found at: www.kultuuririkkus.ee.

Just a few years ago, while researching his family history, Ivan Slepnjov discovered that his ancestral roots lead him to the first Republic of Estonia. Born and raised in St. Petersburg, an Estonian citizen by birth tells us his story about returning to his roots and studying the Estonian language. 

1. Tell us a bit about yourself, please. Who are you and how did you end up in Estonia? 

My name is Ivan, I am 35 years old and I ended up in Estonia in a very unusual way, in my opinion - a long search for my ancestors led me to post-revolutionary Estonia, the first Estonian Republic. I only found out a few years ago - there were no documents or necessary information. According to Estonian laws, I am an Estonian citizen by birth. So I found a second homeland that I had never known. In the summer of 2022, I visited Estonia for the first time, in Tallinn - it was a familiarization trip that left a lot of impressions and which greatly influenced my decision to move. A few months later, the development of events accelerated and I made the final decision, I am not afraid of this word, about a new life. 

2. What do you like about Estonia? 

In my opinion, Estonia has a calm, moderate pace of life. It is a very small, compact country - a big plus for someone who likes to take a walk sometimes. Lots of nature. In fact, all these are forests, fields, meadows, lakes. Reminds me of the village from my childhood. I liked the capital, Tallinn, right away and it reminded me of the city where I was born and lived - St. Petersburg. Similar weather, similar old cozy neighborhoods, greenery and modern buildings. Only elusively different, interesting in its own way. For me, the question of what I like about Estonia is more a question of feelings and sensations. 

3. Why did you decide to learn Estonian? 

The decision to learn the language came to me as self-evident. Firstly, it is respect for the society in which you live. Maybe you will not be able to learn it well or it will be very difficult. But you make an effort, which means you take a step towards Estonian-speaking people - people always appreciate it and in return also become closer to you. Secondly, learning Estonian is good for my and opportunities. The key to life is language. In Estonia, it is the Estonian language. Through it you will find everything else. Thirdly, for me it is as a sports interest and challenge. I meet a lot of Estonian-speaking people who speak Russian. If they can learn Russian, why can't I learn Estonian? Fourthly, it's just natural curiosity. 

4. What difficulties did you encounter in learning the language? Were there moments when you wanted to give up and abandon learning the language? How did you overcome the difficulties? 

There were and still are many difficulties. The Estonian language is very different from Russian, there are difficult sounds and "strange" constructions for a Russian-speaking person. At the beginning, the lack of masculine/feminine gender can also be confusing. A large number of cases, peculiarities in the use of verbs, an almost complete lack of prepositions in the classical sense. In addition, of course, you need time, good teachers, an Estonian-speaking environment. Time is probably the most difficult question for everyone. But if you dig hard enough, everyone can find it. It was probably a little easier for me - after solving the initial everyday problems, finding housing and work - there was time to learn the language. I chose Narva as my initial place of residence - the Narva House of Estonian Language is located here and housing prices are low, which was important - after all, you never know how things will go. The key thing in my studies was of course the Estonian Language House, I took my first steps there. I would like to highlight the Estonian language teachers I met. A teacher is half the success. There are people working there who are real teachers with a capital "T" - I would like to name them separately - Julia, Pille, Inga, Martin - those whom I met personally. After the initial courses (levels A1, A2), finding the Estonian-speaking environment became a difficult task and a necessity. But even in Narva there are certain opportunities if you look for them. Of course, there were moments when you feel that the language is not so easy, that it may never work out. But then I immediately think - if not now, then when? Life goes fast and there is only one life. Why miss the moment? And no matter how difficult it is, focus and consistency always give results. Thinking this way, I overcome difficult moments and study further. So far, I am only at the beginning of the journey. 

5. How was the adaptation in Estonia? Did the locals accept you? 

I think that the initial adaptation went well. It was difficult mentally - a new country, new people, uncertainty, the need to act. I encountered only friendly relations, both among Russian-speaking and Estonian-speaking people. The difficult moment was when I found myself in Tallinn with the decision to move. At that moment, I stayed with my sister (she arrived with her husband and child a little earlier than me). And then I realized what it means to come not to visit, but to live. You don’t yet know how and where you will live, how and where you will work, who will need you here and how happy you will be here. At that moment, it’s scary, you want to give up everything and go back to comfort. But that would mean not believing in yourself. That’s much scarier. Later, I was convinced of the correctness of my choice - I met many great people - at school, at work. People, finding out that I had just arrived in Estonia, immediately tried to help, to tell me how things are arranged here. I can make a very long list of how local people helped me, I am very grateful to them.  

6. Have you done anything to communicate more in Estonian? 

I am looking for various opportunities to listen to Estonian speech and communicate. There are many opportunities to listen without leaving home - music, films, TV shows. 

I took part in the "Language Friend" program - a great program where you are matched with a native Estonian speaker with whom you constantly communicate for several months on free topics. I did not quite meet the program requirements at the time it began - the requirements there were from B1. However, I understood that I could not miss such an opportunity. It was a little scary, but I wrote my application, where I honestly said that I had A2, but I really wanted to study. And they matched me with a volunteer - his name is Maris, he lives near Pärnu. Thank you very much - he told me a lot about Estonia, patiently helped with questions and mistakes. Two months flew by unnoticed and now we sometimes continue to keep in touch. The European Football Championship is currently underway - a great opportunity to watch it in Estonian. Also, on the integration website and the Estonian Language House Facebook pages, you can find a lot of information about one-time learning events. Language trips, meetings, live board games, Zoom meetings. There are a lot of projects for live communication when you start to get into it. I went to Haapsalu from the Estonian Language House, I really liked it - the history, the place, the people. Zoom - I participated, I liked it. But unfortunately, the chat roulette in Zoom falls on my classes, so I am not participating yet. There were also theater visits, also from the Estonian Language House. To be honest, I haven't been to the theater for a million years - and here there is both a theater and an opportunity to study. Great! 

7. What would you recommend to other people coming to live or study and stay for a longer time in Estonia? 

For those who come to live in Estonia, regardless of the reasons, I recommend one thing - learn the language, this is the key. This is a priority. If you see opportunities - use them, even if you are scared. The very first thing is that you need to find out where and how you can learn the language - the Estonian Language House, courses from the Unemployment Fund, adaptation programm Settle in Estonia. I would like to separately recommend the Keeleklikk e-courses - this is an excellent free training platform. 

Dalisa Cisneros from Mexico fell in love with Estonia from the moment she first arrived here nine years ago. She says her soul is vibrating in the same rhythm as Estonian forests and song celebrations.

Who are you and how did you end up in Estonia?

My name is Dalisa Cisneros and I am from Mexico. I will be 30 years old soon and I am running an NGO called International Women’s Network in Estonia (https://iwne.ee/). We started operating two years ago and our main pillars are women empowerment, gender equality, and diversity and integration. We are supporting and raising the voices of migrant women through our activities and events, bringing people together. This speaks a little bit about myself – I am an activist and since I arrived in Estonia, I have been involved in volunteering and organising events, bringing locals to meet up with foreigners and the other way around. As I really love Estonia, it is very important for me to also share that with other foreign people who are living here.

I ended up in Estonia as I met an Estonian man when I was 18 years old. We were both exchange students. I came to visit him in 2015, two years later, and we went backpacking and on a trip around Europe. I was going to stay in Estonia for less than a month, but then I missed my flight home. No, it was not intentional – I just read the time on my ticket wrong.

As a Mexican, I have the opportunity to stay in Estonia for three months in total without needing a visa, so I had time to find another ticket home. In the meantime, there was the question of ‘Do you really need to go back home? Why don’t we try living together?’ Well, long-distance relationships are complicated and we were so in love at the time that I decided I was going to stay. We got married and I was granted a visa extension to do so.

I just told my family that I was not coming back home. My grandmother and my mom were worried about where and how I was going to live, of course. My partner had already been in Mexico for a vacation, so my family knew him but they had no idea about the country, what my lifestyle was going to be, or how I was going to be able to work. It was an impulsive decision, but it just felt right to me.

And now we have a beautiful daughter – our Mexican-Estonian daughter was born in Tartu this year.

What do you like about Estonia?

I always say that I did not pick Estonia, Estonia picked me. It happened that I fell in love with Estonia since the moment I arrived here.

I felt very welcomed by the people – they were very warm to me. I loved the forest adventures. Of course, even though I was in love at that moment, it was just the quality of everything. I live in Tartu. I also tried living in Tallinn for a year and a half and I loved it, but when finding out we were going to have a daughter, Tartu seemed like a better city to raise children.

I arrived in Estonia when I turned 21 years old, so I can say I became an adult in this country – I was able to figure out who I was, to shape who I wanted to be, what my area of activity should be, and what kind of lifestyle I wanted to have. That is one of the main reasons why I am so in love with the country.

Estonia has a small population so it has this very familiar feeling – like you will meet the same people over and over again. Everybody is related to someone or knows somebody who knows you. That makes it very easy to build networks, to support each other, and to bring new things to the country.

For me, the closeness to nature is very important. When I first arrived, I spent some weeks on Saaremaa and was surprised by seeing forest everywhere. This was also my therapy and introduction to the feeling of safety. At first, I wondered why people left their cars or houses unlocked – I thought, ‘You actually trust each other?’ Walking in the middle of the forest at night for me was terrifying. In Mexico, sadly, we live with the fear that something bad might happen to us, like getting kidnapped or robbed. But in Estonia, the only surprise in the forest would be a deer walking by. And little by little, this feeling of being safe became one of the main reasons why I was able to feel at home. I felt as if I could use my life energy to create something instead of worrying about keeping myself alive. Peace versus being in survival mode.

So far, I have met beautiful people who are very welcoming and caring. I also learned to give more sincere hugs in Estonia. From heart to heart. Estonians hug you when they really want to hug you. Hugs are not given as a polite gesture here. I really like the culture of respecting personal space.

I also love the sauna in Estonia! I have tried winter swimming on Saaremaa and in Tartu. We made a hole in the ice and went there after the sauna and without it as well. About being naked in a sauna… that has been a beautiful process for me. I can say I am comfortable with it, but it took me some time to get there.

The culture I have experienced here allowed me to find peace with seeing naked bodies and to love my own. In Mexico and in a lot of countries, bodies are very objectified and oversexualised, especially women’s bodies. In some places, being fully naked outside the privacy of a home is not even allowed. Here, I learned that people can be polite, careful, and respectful about other people’s bodies. You can go to the sauna and talk to someone without being scanned or scanning their body. I appreciate this a lot.

Why did you decide to learn Estonian?

I understood that if I wanted to be more involved in conversations and understand what the family of my partner was saying, I needed to learn Estonian. I went to the Settle in Estonia integration course first and met some very cool people there. One of my best friends who arrived in Estonia at the same time as me is from France and we met at the Estonian language course.

Another great benefit of learning Estonian is that you can participate in cultural events such as the Song Celebration. I joined the Tartu Students’ Choir. It was all in Estonian, of course – the rehearsals and most of the songs. I met very lovely people there. I made two other very close friends there.

Even though I always had someone who could translate something, it was necessary to learn Estonian to be able to experience culture on a deeper level and be welcomed into it. I felt my soul vibrating when singing next to thousands of people at the Song Celebration – interacting with the audience and feeling everyone in such high spirits was a very powerful experience. I cried for half of the concert so I was not even able to sing. I was so excited. Singing became a very important part of my cultural process here and it resonated with my essence. Estonia and I are a very good match and that is why I feel very comfortable here.

I understand that it is not the same for everyone and that the process of integration of each person is very different. I could communicate in English with people around me; I was very privileged to arrive in a welcoming Estonian family and lucky to have my migration status sorted out swiftly. I also did not have to worry about paying rent for an apartment at first, so I could focus on new hobbies and getting to know my environment without financial concerns. Those elements definitely made a big difference in my experience. I am grateful to have met a lot of beautiful people around me who were supportive and caring.

Learning the language has still opened more doors for me, both on an emotional and practical level. You can get a better job and make more connections if you speak the local language. One time, an old lady sat next to me in the bus and started talking to me in Estonian about her life and about her daughter, then she looked at me and said, ‘You do not look Estonian, do you understand what I am saying?’ I was able to respond to her in Estonian and we had a lovely spontaneous conversation. Also at the hospital, when I was giving birth to my daughter, I was able to interact with the midwife and it made the process much smoother.

You can always survive here without knowing Estonian, but you cannot participate in the full extent of the culture and you might not see certain opportunities to interact and to be part of society if you do not understand the language.

What were the difficulties in language learning? Were there moments when you wanted to give up Estonian language studies? How did you overcome these difficulties?

It takes a lot of commitment to learn a new language and I guess that is something that most people are afraid of, especially if you have to work or study at the same time. It is like an extra activity that you need to invest your time and energy in.

I took courses from the Settle in Estonia programme, but I also took a course from the University of Tartu. I think it no longer exists, but it was an intensive course of, like, one semester in university from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was proper training!

There were some moments when I was so mad at the Estonian language. I remember coming back home several times and thinking, ‘Oh, I hate it! I do not want to have to learn the grammar!’ I allowed myself to cry, I allowed myself to be mad, and then continued my class the next day. I can be mad about a lot of things, but I do not necessarily need to stop because of that.

Sometimes I just pour myself out and rant on Facebook about difficulties with Estonian language and then a lot of my Estonian friends and foreigners cheer me up in the comments, ‘I get you. I also had my difficulties and was mad.’ I feel a lot of support from my community in the process.

If I do not practise the language, I feel like a toddler speaking it again. You always need to keep on practising and then putting yourself in the spotlight just to have conversations with people. The mother of my partner does not speak much English. Now that we have a daughter, we communicate more often, so I need to keep up and practise more and more Estonian.

What are your recommendations for other newcomers arriving in Estonia?

First of all, I recommend seeing the Estonian environment with curious eyes.

Another recommendation is to take initiative because most of the opportunities do not just come on their own. We need to actively allow those opportunities to come to us. For example, if we are talking about making friends, then it means taking the initiative to put yourself into places where the kind of people that you want near you are going to be. No matter if it is singing, dancing, poetry or whatever it is that speaks to you.

Also, I recommend asking for support whenever it is needed. There are several groups on Facebook for expats, and other groups based on nationality, gender, or specific needs. These groups can help you navigate cultural differences, get guidance, and build your network. If you voice your needs or say, for example, ‘I feel lonely’, then somebody will jump in and probably propose to meet up for a coffee.

I recommend language learning, of course, as it does create many more opportunities for making friends. But it is also very helpful in certain situations such as when facing discrimination. Learning the language could allow you to defend yourself and speak up. People in Estonia respect people who speak Estonian, that is a fact.

The Settle in Estonia Programme is a free educational programme provided by the Estonian state which is intended to help the foreigners who have arrived in Estonia to adapt and become accustomed to local life more easily. We offer courses for people who have come to live or study in Estonia and have lived here for less than 5 years. For example, war refugees to whom Estonia offers international or temporary protection, as well as people who have come to Estonia to work or do business here or relocate with their family member. The adaptation program The Settle in Estonia Programme is free for participants. We offer language training and other courses to help you cope with everyday life in Estonia. Read more and register: https://integratsioon.ee/en/kohanemine. The adaptation programme is co-funded by the European