#one of the secrets to speaking Norwegian as an English speaker is to talk like you're from 1600 i swear

[puddingvalkyrie]

I just learned there's a book from like 1580something written about common English for French speakers and I NEED TO READ IT RIGHT THIS SECOND but the Gutenberg Project website is having technical issues also I have school in like an hour

Hey. Future me. Hey. You check when you get home. Look at me. LOOK AT ME. Jacques Bellot.

[the-real-vera-jo-blog]

Don’t you just wish that you could support and trust yourself in everything you do? What if you were the biggest support for yourself? What if you encouraged every good idea you had and made it happen? That’s the biggest aim and the ultimate goal in my life right now. I know many of my friends are their own best friends and love themselves unconditionally however I’m not there yet and know many others who aren’t. It doesn’t mean we cannot get there, it just means we need to work harder.

Most of my childhood and teenage years I was shy – some people even called me timid. When I first heard the word, I didn’t know how to translate it into Finnish however I knew it didn’t mean anything good. At least not for the job I was applying for at the time. I was always the one at the background, the one following everyone else, the one not sure what they want but willing to support friends in their dreams. It gets tiring at times but then you kind of settle into your role. The role that you created for yourself. No one ever forced me into staying at the background, no one told me not to stand out, no one blocked me in anyway. I’ve come to realise it was me all along – I was my own worst enemy! That’s awful when you think of it. You could even somehow justify it to yourself IF there was someone who stamped on you and made you feel down. That’s never the case. Give me a scenario, I bet I can turn it around for you to realise there was no one who could have set the ultimate barrier for you chasing and achieving your dreams. You were the one setting that particular barrier for yourself.

I left Finland thirteen and a half years ago. I have moved from a country to another between 5 locations since then and although my main working language has always been English, I have also had to cope with German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Dutch at work. It might sound like I’m bragging about my language skills whereas I keep comparing myself to other Nordic speakers or multi-lingual candidates. There are plenty of people who fluently speak several languages and compared to them I feel like I’m nothing. I feel happy for them yet “not good enough” about myself. It does make me feel good to hear my English friends telling me “You’re a genius, you’re so good at languages!” or “Did you know she speaks and understands like 6 languages…?” when they introduce me to their friends – only for the moment. Then I crawl back home and think to myself “Only if they knew there are so many more talented people out there!” That’s toxic, that attitude right there is what we should all step away from – far away. Why an earth would you push yourself down? Not everyone can be the best in what they’re good at nor should they be. We should only try to be as good as we can be, but not aim to be better than everyone else. Only that way we can appreciate ourselves and get the satisfaction needed for our minds to continue being creative.

I have never felt different from the locals when living abroad. In fact, nowadays I consider being in Finland more like “being abroad” rather than being in England. When I moved to England for the first time, it only took three weeks for me to start dreaming in English. Since then I can count dreams in Finnish language by one hand. I also naturally started thinking in English. Anything I write, I write in English whether it’s a shopping list or a diary. My family and friends would never expect to receive a birthday card or a postcard from around the world written in Finnish. They all know I’ve only written in English since 2004. It’s not something I think of, it’s just easier and natural for me. Accent however is something that cannot be faked – more often not. I know some people who aren’t English yet only few could tell the difference. I wish I had an English accent and some people think I do but I’m so full of self-criticism I could never give myself the opportunity to enjoy that thought. Most often it doesn’t bother me because I do know the vocabulary and I can keep up with any conversation but there are situations when I get insecure speaking with a group of people who have a posh English accent and I think to myself “How could I compete with that?” I cannot and I don’t have to compete with that because what makes me me is the fact that I’m multi-lingual. Most often the people with a posh English accent aren’t. I certainly don’t want to come across overconfident but at times thinking “Well, I can speak many languages whereas they cannot.” helps me to keep up with my self-confidence. Or if someone looks at me like “Well, you have an accent that I don’t recognise” or “You’re not from here” or “You’re not English” by thinking “I can say this in 6 different languages, I could easily ask them if they could do the same.” I know they couldn’t and it makes me more confident. I can then carry on focusing on the subject and forget about my own insecurities. There is no right and wrong in this subject. All I’m trying to say is that one shouldn’t underestimate themselves. If one wants to learn more languages, they can easily do so. If one cannot pick up a native accent, they surely have other competencies beneficial to them.

I might come across quite loud and confident to people who meet me for the first time – even to some who know me already. Mostly people who are close to me know me as someone who loves to have fun and appreciates a good laugh but also is sensitive and considers others. However the truth is I’m quite insecure and careful with how I represent myself to others. I’m very self-critical and often end up not doing all the things I want or wish to due to lack of self-confidence. Actually I have come to realise I care far too much of what others think of me. That thought even limited me from writing a blog years ago when my father first suggested me to do so. I used to write loooong emails to my family and friends of what it is like to live abroad. My father then said I should write to the Finnish magazines yet I wasn’t ready. Deep down I thought it would be a dream coming true but I was too scared. Later on I started thinking what I was scared of… I couldn’t think of a concrete situation that would have scared me. It was my own insecurity telling me not to. I simply didn’t believe in myself and my skills. When I finally started writing a blog in 2015, it felt good. I felt like “Why haven’t I done this for the past 10 years?” I started writing a blog about travelling as I found it an easy topic. The more I write, the more I want to write. Since then I have written multiple articles regarding motivation, feelings, life in general and the latest inspiration I’ve been working on is scriptwriting. I yet have lots of material to be published.

Dealing with lack of believing in yourself is devastating. I wish that for no one. I truly wish that everyone takes the time to find themselves and to fall in love with themselves. That’s my ultimate goal in life. Talking to friends, attending therapy or support groups can help you get there. I have my secret ways and started working on becoming the person I wish to be. I’m only in the beginning of the journey but I already feel relieved, content and more positive. The future is bright, the future is what YOU want it to be. Of course there will be times that test us, times that push us to our limits, but we can always choose our attitude towards the situation. Let’s remember to let go of the things we cannot control and to change the things we can!

Best regards,

Vera Jo

Xxx

PS.

Whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities. If you write, write as if you’re the best author. If you act, act like you’re the most famous actor. If you sing, sing like you’re the best singer out there. If you’re a translator, translate like there’s no one who can replace you. You might not be the best but you will certainly make yourself feel worth it and that’s what gets you forward! That’s what makes you want to do better and to succeed further. Remember that everything you do has a chain reaction. Everything you do is meaningful.

Insecurities – Turn them into Strengths! Don't you just wish that you could support and trust yourself in everything you do? What if you were the biggest support for yourself?

[onewithoutcontext-blog]

Let’s loqui code-switching

“Excuse me Mr Blogger person but . . . What?”

You there! my Dearest Reader.  Welcome to our little discussion about Code-Switching. Now you might be a little confused with the title of this post. If not, I want to congratulate you on being a smart cookie. But if you didn’t understand you might be asking yourself questions like:

What does the phrase “Code-switching” mean?

Loqui? Is that even a word?!

Your perspective huh? So you’re basically going to be telling me how you feel about something and how you experience it compared to the perspective of others?

And the answers to those questions would be:

Code-switching is when a speaker switches between two or more languages within the same conversation or sentence. Inserting sentences or words into proper context and making sure that what they say still makes sense.

Loqui means “talk about” in Latin and yes. That was me trying to be clever, but it’s also a good way to explain what code-switching (or code-mixing) is.

Correct! Couldn’t have explained it better myself.

“Oh, now I get it!”

Good to hear it! let’s movere(move on) shall we? – I promise I’m done.

We’ll be talking about code-switching from the perspective of an up and coming blogging youthster(Me) who lives in a country(Iceland) where most people, including me, are very proud of the native language(Icelandic) and where the matters of its future in the global age(Now) have been in local discussion a fair bit in the recent years.

Let me tell you a little bit about code-switching Dearest Reader

Code-switching is probably something you’ve experienced or participated in doing before in your life. It’s more common in countries that don’t have one of those widespread global mega languages such as English or Russian. This is especially common nowadays where things like:

The world-wide broadcasting of media.

Immigration & international commuting.

Improved quality of education resulting in more language study.

And especially The Internet

Have never been more apparent. It’s hard to talk about things relevant to current, modern day life without using English words you know. This message goes directly to all you English as a first language whipper snappers out there who don’t know what convenience you’re living in. But then again it’s much more of a rarity for you to get to exercise code-switching.

It’s a beautiful thing really, and people think it can be quite tasteful to insert the occasional French or Latin word etc. into their dialogue like avant-garde or Hola!

SIDE NOTE: Hi! It’s me the Side Note man here, wanting to tell you that code-switching is not the same thing as using something like the words kindergarten or homo-sapiens in an English sentence because although the word kindergarten is German, it is also in a cultural sense, and a practical sense, in the English language and will be found in most English dictionaries. And in the case of the word Homo-sapiens. Latin yes, but just as English in the sense that it’s derived from Latin. The same goes for using singular terms. Not code-switching. Have a nice read!

“How do people feel about code-switching?”

Well, something I’ve come across is that if you do this excessively. Code-switch “too much” that is. Some people won’t appreciate it.

Another big thing people fret about when it comes to this subject is that it might make people worse at traditional and “standard” speech and grammar. They’ll forget the classic terms and idioms of yore and they’ll be lost to the coming generations. And yes. Ok, fine! that might be an actual possible problem but do you know what I think? That’s perfectly acceptable. It’s OK. It’s good actually. A little spring cleaning for languages to make them a bit more connected. But that might be just pro-world government side of me talking.

“So what’s your take on it?”

Like I said, it’s fine. Words and grammar rules dying out because of irrelevance and inefficiency, being replaced by new ones is nothing new. The words we use the most are a reflection of the world we live in. That’s why we’ve got to record and preserve records of our languages as they change. It’s a big part of human history that would be a shame losing. Keep in mind that I don’t want people going around forcing themselves into code-switching. But people shouldn’t go superimposing their subjective opinions about the beauty of language on other people either.

I’m fascinated by the variety and diversity of languages but keeping that alive and in use is more of a nation-wide hobby really. Like how poetry is a cool & amazing way to utilise words but not a mandatory thing. To me, the practical use of code-switching is reason enough to do it.

I personally code-switch quite a bit in my daily talk. Between my native language Icelandic, and English. I do this mostly whenever I can’t find the right words in either language or when a phrase just works better in one or the other. There are also a lot of things that do not have a relatively accurate corresponding word or phrase in Icelandic in a lot of the subjects I like to talk about.

I’ve been flat-out asked “why are you speaking so weirdly” and “can you stop doing that” on several occasions. And what has stood out to me about these comments and what I find quite interesting is that they’ve never come from the people I’m speaking directly to. It’s always a third-party.  And I think that’s because the people I choose to speak with by code-switching are very particular people. People I know will understand what I’m talking about. Understand the phrases and the words I swap out and therefore benefit from the larger sample pool of terms and idioms, and will return the favour by doing the same speaking back to me.

I wouldn’t code-switch when speaking to my grandmother for example. I know that when she was growing up, she didn’t have the same English media and education I was blessed with so I don’t do it.The same goes for using a language that the recipient of the message doesn’t speak like talking in Norwegian to a native Egyptian. It would be both difficult and inappropriate. Remember Dearest Reader, that the proper well-mannered gentleman or lady only code-switches when it is appropriate.

I have a bone to pick with people opposed to heavy code-switching

Now you might be someone who doesn’t appreciate code-switching. If so I want to persuade you to change your opinion. Here’s how I see it. Let’s start with an example:

So one day I was playing the card game Yu-Gi-Oh! with a friend. There are many elements to this game and it’s very very complicated so we need to be active in telling each other what we’re doing. Here is something we might typically say whilst playing out our turn.

SIDE NOTE: What you’ve got to understand here is that all of the cards and rules are in English so we are almost obligated to code-switch a lot. To highlight this: (English is bolded)

“Ok, ég dreg. Main phase eitt, ég setta eitt spil og summona Nova summoner í attack position og læt Herald í defence. Battle phase. Attacka þig directly með Nova. Og ég enda turnið mitt.”

This probably is just gibberish to someone who doesn’t meet all the criteria of understanding Icelandic, Understanding English, knowing how to play the game and being aware of the context in when it is said. Something both I and my friend fulfilled. Unlike his mother who was also in the room and told us we should stop speaking like that and instead communicate completely in Icelandic. I asked why and the answer I got was: “because it is easier to understand.” But that’s not what I think. We’re were doing the opposite of being unclear.

SIDE NOTE: The opposite of unclear would really – probably – most definitely be the word clear but in this particular case what the author is trying to say is that he and his friend were being more clear. This is something me, the Side Note Person thought you should know. Now, are we clear? Positively crystal! Then by all means on to the next paragraph.

I think you shouldn’t abstain from it. Embrace it instead

From my perspective, if both parties are in fact comfortable with it, it is both a waste of time and just counter-productive not to allow yourself the luxury of code-switching. Language’s most basic function is, at its core, a tool to relay information between two or more individuals. We are doing just that. And in the quickest – most efficient way possible when we allow ourselves to code-switch.

Only the intended recipients of the message actually need to understand the message and, as you should only code-switch appropriately, they always do.

You’re getting your message across, to one another, in disregard to other people. And isn’t that all that matters? Like speaking a secret made-up language except you’re only cryptic as a side effect. We can be such klutzes like that can’t we Dear Reader? It’s not intentional. Nor is it a problem as long as both parties are benefiting from it.

Sometimes words, even though they technically mean the same thing can have vastly different meaning and context between languages to the point that they hardly mean the same thing anymore. People aren’t going to swear at you by calling you a flaming pile of faeces anytime soon. (We all know what they’d say instead.) What you say only gets more accurate as you allow yourself an expanded vocabulary from multiple languages.

In conclusion

Now Dearest Reader, after reading this post. Don’t go speaking French to your Spanish teacher just because you can. Code-switching is something to be done in appropriate situations when it’s beneficial to both the one trying to get his message across and the one receiving it.

However when possible, I fully encourage that you to do so. If you are fully comfortable with it and find that it benefits you. I think that it adds a lot more flavour to your communication and makes it more accurate & concise, it can also be a lot quicker and more efficient.