long time, no see, and other cliché titles

Sorry that I haven't been posting. So I haven't managed to use my camera and haven't had much inspiration to write anything. But today I was (actually still am) answering my organisation's email about my Christmas and New Year. I've been doing it for about half an hour and it's seven sentences...

That made me think about being an exchange student and speaking another language. I've lived here in Scotland for some 4 months and I already notice a big difference in my speaking.

Bagpipes

 I'm bilingual, well actually I could say trilingual. Finland is a bilingual country so everyone should be able to speak both Finnish and Swedish. Yet I wouldn't say my Swedish is fluent. Also my dad was English, and that makes my English a bit better than an average Finn's. I never talked much English at home and if I did it was more like English and Finnish together. I never really thought it'd be difficult to be hearing and talking only English, and I was right. It's sometimes harder to understand Scottish words and accents but otherwise it's ok.

Portobello

Now when writing the email in Finnish I realised that I found it hard to write sensible sentences in proper Finnish. I knew this might happen as my sister was an exchange student in France and came back talking all funny. I just never thought I'd start forgetting how to speak my own language. I'm really struggling with conjugating the words and even I know I'm saying things right they sound strange. I actually think people will laugh at me when I go back home.

St. Giles

Before coming to Scotland I heard that you've adapted to the exchange country when you start thinking in the other language. I've had mixed-language thoughts always but mostly thought in Finnish, I suppose. That has changed too and my thoughts are now mainly in English. I'll have to start remembering in which language my dreams are.

View from my window

 While my Finnish gets funnier, my English must be improving. At least that's what I'd expect if I think in English and use Finnish only when talking with mama on the phone. Improving English is one of the things people want to do when thinking about being an exchange student. It's more about the experience for me tho.

Scottish mining museum

Buuut, like I said I've noticed a big difference in my speaking, both Finnish and English. My Finnish sounds much more formal and standard language nowadays. On the other hand I use more slang and Scottish words in my English. I can sound really weird sometimes:D ! Hopefully I'll be able to speak both English and Finnish in July when I go back to Finland.