Does national identity really matter when you blog ? Danish, Norwegian or American or… ?
Yesterday, I showed a photo from 2001 in Bernal Heights in “new” thrifted Big Ben overalls and today, a photo from 2009, the same overalls, now more used and patched standing in Tromsø in Norway and I’m Danish and writing all my blogging in English, confused ? well, when I see who are most visiting and also commenting my blog, I can that US folks count for a very clear majority of the visitors of my blog ! For me personally it is not a big issue, actually I feel very much at home in US, especially in California, but I’m really confused and actually getting sad when I almost daily read news about warfare and a lot of people talking about saving their national identity and culture etc. no matter whether it is in Scandinavia, in US, in the Balkan region, in Africa, in Asia etc. Sometime I also read that you have to care about your mother tongue ! well if I have kept this blog in Danish, I would not have met Laury, Maya, Kelly etc. When I use English as good as I can here on the blog, it is a kind of Esperanto in practice ! Of course when I get a comment from a Dane or a Norwegian in Danish or Norwegian, I answer in Danish, but I don’t feel it more natural than when I respond in English. I hope we can contribute a little bit to promoting a culture of world citizenship, more tomorrow.
bibfessor 
It’s one world after all. Perhaps, because I lived in UK for eight years and worked in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Singapore and Australia the boundaries blurred.
Many years ago I commented to a friend that with so many hungry children in the US why did he go to Africa to volunteer? His answer stuck with me and changed my way of thinking and my life. As he put it, a hungry child in Africa is just as hungry as a hungry child in any other country and a child is a child wherever he lives. So true.
Blogging is one way that many of us have made contact with our friends from all countries and have created new friendships. Friendships transcend language. I have a dear friend Ja Jing who speaks Mandarin and very little English. I know a few words in her language — very few, but we have traveled together and always understood one another. Talking on the phone is difficult, but we usually bring in a translator for those conversations. When we are together we just seem to understand one another through tone, intonation, and expressions. Makes life interesting and well….. we have never had an argument, at least not one that I know about.
Happy blogging and any language.
Maya
yes, you are so right and I agree that friendship transcend language and national identity does not matter, at least not for us, but then I’m also still trying to figure out why you still have nationalism popping up all over ? I know it is a big question, but anyway something which matters in our world today. Perhaps our individual friendship across nations at least reduce nationalism a bit. have a nice Sunday.Niels
Hi Niels-enjoyed both yesterday and today’s posts…especially the evolution of that one pair of overalls! It’s funny, I see your posts on FB from time to time when they are in either Norwegian or Danish-I don’t think I would know the difference. Take it from someone who struggles daily in another language-I do appreciate your English. I recently read a book by Clare Francis called Wolf Winter-set in Norway and of all places-Tromso-I thought of you and Bodil. Happy Sunday and nice to know you are back here more regularly-Love, Laury
Laury, thanks, yes, one can perhaps even talk about improvement over the years for this Big Ben pair 🙂 my posts on fb are usually in Danish. Actually I’m using Danish in Norway when I write and when I speak, I adjust so it is understandable for Norwegians, but there are not much difference between the two languages ! In many ways Norwegians and Danes are close to each other ! and now a new post about Winter-time today ! 🙂
and congratulations with the 50th comment on my blog 🙂 thanks a lot, it keeps me encouraged to continue the blogging !
How fun, 50! I don’t comment very often so it’s nice to hit a milestone with someone. On to your new post, then homework for language class! Happy Monday-Laury