I was born in Sweden to a Finnish mother and a Swedish father. This makes my mothertounge Finnish and my first words were in Finnish. But having grown up in Sweden, my strongest launguage is Swedish. What language I’ll speak when I’m old and overridden with dementia, I don’t know, but either way, English is only my third language. Why I chose to start a blog in English then might look like a really stupid idea – but it’s part of the concept. Or at least I think it is.
In order to get real perspective, I need to get out of my comfort zone. Away from Stockholm, away from the intellectual business of university studies, away from my own language.
And this is something huge for me. You should know that. My Swedish is excellent, I’m better than most, though I say it myself. When other teenagers spent the summer on the beach or maybe football camp, I went on creative writing courses. I was 11 when I started writing my first novel. I didn’t finish it, but still, by the age of 13 I had decided that I would become a writer of fiction. Now I’m not so sure. But still, you could say that Swedish has been my hobby.
But now I’m writing in English and as a person with the skill to express myself well in one language, I kind of automatically expect to do well in my third language too. This is not, and will probably not be, the case.
Expect spelling mistakes, grammatical hicchups, sentences that wind themselves into knots. Hopefully I will get better with time, especially after I’ve landed in Edmonton, but I can’t promise anything.
It is exciting, challenging and scary, writing in a foreign tounge, all at the same time. It’s an adventure with words and I can only hope that I am ready for it.
Here we go…
Katja Malmborg 