Doing the dual lingo.

When I was a child us siblings used to speak Swedish at home. It was only when we realised that things were said by our parents beyond our understanding that we each in turn learned how to speak English. Then, out of laziness we developed our own form of Swenglish/svengelska, basically a basa basa mix of Swedish and English, picking a word from either of the two languages, whatever came first. Somehow we even got our parents to speak this Swenglish with us. It's been hard for people outside our family, whether English speaking, Swedish or bilingual, to follow our personalised blend of these languages.

After years of living in England, my Swenglish has tilted more towards English, it's now an 80%/20% mix instead of the former 50/50. English is the language I consider my home language, I think of family, relatives and relaxation when I speak it. Swedish, although that is the language I am more confident in and have a better grasp of, to me is the language I use with friends and associate with life outside the home.

At the beginning of my pregnancy I decided I'd have to speak Swedish with my children in order to carry on the heritage. In real life though, I have put this off further and further as I just can't seem to speak this at home. First I said I'd wait til we got home from hospital, then I said after she turned two months, then three months. In the end, I'd speak Swedish to her when around people I'd speak Swedish with. I finally decided I'd have to start speaking it fully with her once I left Sweden, after all then she'd never hear it from anyone else.

However, yesterday when we left Swedish soil, it just wouldn't come naturally so I told myself that being the end of the month, I could have another day off (logic?) and set my final deadline as Aug 1st, today. Well, so far so good. I guess I made it easier for myself by getting inspiration from IKEA in Purley Way (don't ask me what I was doing there on my first full day in London) and every now and then I'd stop myself from saying something in Englsih and rather say it in Swedish. The poor child will end up completely confused, but hopefully she'll benefit from it later.

Little by little we'll get there and in a few years time I hope to have a daughter who's fluent in English, Swedish, Ga and Twi. Poor kid.

Thieving illegal immigrant

I wonder if paying your yearly dues should be the only measure of a lawyer in good standing. Apart from being reminded of my illegal immigrant status today, I also realised I am a thief. A petty one perhaps, but a thief none the same.

I've been trying to arrange so that a friend who's coming to visit can get a visa on arrival. Up until last year this was very easy, you just arrive and stand in the right queue with $100 ready and you're through. Since January though, Immigration has tightened the rules and now the person inviting you needs to get approval of the Director of Immigration before they'll let you through. Anyway, a few minutes after calling my contact at immigration for information, he calls me back to remind me that since I am not even a Ghanaian and on top of it don't hold a valid residence permit, I'm the worst person to invite a foreigner into the country! You'd think I could've worked that one out myself. I guess it's time I work on my own permit before visitors start pouring in for Christmas (I returned to Ghana after the wedding on a visa on arrival, then forgot all about my permit).

This evening as I was reading through my favourite interior design porn, I realised writing I had never noticed on the front of the IKEA catalogue.


See for yourselves: "...THIS CATALOGUE...PLEASE RETURN IT TO THE CHECKOUT AS YOU LEAVE"

I must have looked like the cheekiest little thief as I actually picked my catalogue up from the checkout, directly put it in my bag and walked out!

This evening, sushi at Monsoon was cancelled and I never made it to the textile exhibition at Goethe Institute, instead I'm going to continue browsing my way through my pile of interior design porn.


Enjoy your evening!