Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

In Swedish!</p><p id="e50c">I was teaching German grammar whilst trying to get my head around the Swedish grammar via my knowledge of English grammar. I learned German in English and Swedish in English — so kind of had to teach it via English too. It was kind of slow at times. And funny!</p><figure id="e04e"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*VXZMuxs1RijZkGmGlYWv_A.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Ingo Joseph on Canva</figcaption></figure><p id="dd8c">Luckily, my students just rolled with it!</p><p id="97f7">Somehow, my brain has managed to cope with the three languages at once. Without imploding.</p><p id="7ac7">But it’s been close!</p><p id="f0fd">I have been stringing sentences together with a mix of all three languages, forgetting words in Swedish but remembering the German, only remembering the Swedish for English words, thinking in all three languages at once, and probably the most confusing, waking up having been dreaming in all three languages!</p><p id="f6c1">Thankfully, my few months of teaching German in Swedish are over. My brain can relax a bit. I can go back to being surprised I’m in another country with another language. Instead of spread out over several countries.</p><p id="8326">Except now we’ve started watching a German series. Who knows what tomorrow’s dreams might bring?!</p><p id="62e2"><b><i>Lisa is an Aussie who now calls Finland home. She writes poetry and other musings in her spare time. If you’d like to keep in touch, subscribe to <a href="https://lisanbolin.substack.com/">Northern Notes</a>.</i></b></p><div id="81fd" class="link-block

Options

"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/two-years-of-firsts-88527412437d"> <div> <div> <h2>Two Years of Firsts</h2> <div><h3>A Journal Of Firsts Inspiration</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*CAR-5395sdpi6vgJ)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="e7b4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/clouds-caress-the-sky-32bee2c1b9e7"> <div> <div> <h2>Clouds Caress The Sky</h2> <div><h3>A Cloudy Photostory</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*5aNMMNBKDo3Vy3EZ5Vckkg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="85a5" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-build-a-sauna-e5860c572919"> <div> <div> <h2>How to Build a Sauna</h2> <div><h3>A Survivors Guide</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*AolJa0_tk9XmfkE-PFspFQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

What Language Should I Speak?

Forgetting the country you live in speaks another language

As a writer here on Medium, I spend many hours reading and writing.

In English.

English is my native language and for most of my life, I’ve lived and worked in an English speaking country.

Now that I am living in Finland, I sometimes have to remind myself what language to speak.

I can sometimes spend hours in front of my computer reading and writing in English. I spend hours in my own head without speaking to anyone else or thinking about where I actually am.

When I leave my apartment and pass someone on the street I am sometimes surprised to hear them speaking Swedish!

Then I remind myself, “Oh yeah! That’s right! I live in Finland!”

It sort of sounds weird. But I get so immersed in English that it takes a minute to register that the world I now call my home is in another language.

It’s probably quite a common phenomenon for those of us who live in other countries and communicate in our ‘other’ languages that are not our own, languages we have acquired during life. Perhaps this will decrease the longer I live here?

This was recently made even more complex for my poor brain when I started teaching German. In Swedish!

I was teaching German grammar whilst trying to get my head around the Swedish grammar via my knowledge of English grammar. I learned German in English and Swedish in English — so kind of had to teach it via English too. It was kind of slow at times. And funny!

Luckily, my students just rolled with it!

Somehow, my brain has managed to cope with the three languages at once. Without imploding.

But it’s been close!

I have been stringing sentences together with a mix of all three languages, forgetting words in Swedish but remembering the German, only remembering the Swedish for English words, thinking in all three languages at once, and probably the most confusing, waking up having been dreaming in all three languages!

Thankfully, my few months of teaching German in Swedish are over. My brain can relax a bit. I can go back to being surprised I’m in another country with another language. Instead of spread out over several countries.

Except now we’ve started watching a German series. Who knows what tomorrow’s dreams might bring?!

Lisa is an Aussie who now calls Finland home. She writes poetry and other musings in her spare time. If you’d like to keep in touch, subscribe to Northern Notes.