Due to the finishing of my thesis and some work-related issues too many weeks happened to pass by too quickly, after which I realized that I had way too many unanswered letters here at home. I do not like the idea of writing dozens of letters in a row because I think they would start to repeat themselves pretty soon.
Last week I had a couple of day-offs which I then used by writing. I am glad I was in that mood, too!!
So I wrote approximately 2-3 letters a day and think that I was able to concentrate on every letter properly; take my time to think about that what I wanted to write.
As I am writing letters in three different languages (Finnish, English, German) at the moment, it gives a little bit variety to what I write - or actually how I write about certain things. Have you noticed that in your correspondence (in case you use various languages)? What I mean is that you think different when you write in different languages; the idea of what you (or in this case: I) want to say may be the same despite of the language, but the way you express yourself, the layers you reveal about the issue you are talking about... these vary from language to language.
Finnish is my mother tongue, so it has its very own, special position, no need to argue about that. But even though I think my German is far more fluent and flawless than my English, there are certain things I feel more familiar writing about in English. I wish my Spanish was someday that fluent, too...
Anyway, here are the letters that hit the road last week - enjoy!
to Agnieszka, Poland
to Aino, Finland
to Eva, Germany
to Carolina, Brazil
to Anastasia, Russia
to Nika, Slovenia
... this is how Nika's letter turned out to be.
to Shalina, Malaysia
to Stephanie, the USA
to Thomas, Hong Kong
swap-bot fat snail swap #2 to the USA
I hope it was "fat enough"! I included postcards, tea, bookmarks, stickers, priority labels, sticky notes, facial cream, letter papers, envelopes and rubber bands... I hope I am not forgetting anything. Hope the receiver will like this! I am very curious to see what I will receive.
I think you're absolutely right about languages. My own language is Catalan, but I use five more languages to write letters. It's challenging, but at the same time, it's the most interesting way I found in order to practise my writing skills. My penpals are patient with my mistakes... :D
ReplyDeleteAnd I have also realised that express different things in the different languages. Not just how I say, but even what I say... More than once I've got struck in the middle of a paragraph trying to express ideas that I could easily write in other language. Depending on the mood, depending on the subject... I really don't know, but I find that interesting.
Five, wow! That sounds very, very great! :) And I agree about what you wrote penpalling being the most interesting way to practice different languages. I bet this hobby is the main reason for why I did pretty well in English at school. Patient pen pals are the best kind on pen pals. ;)
DeleteI can not link any here, but I've read about several studies showing that the language used changes one's personality... I think it's the same phenomenon we've both noticed here! It's a very interesting thing, this large field of languages... :)
Let me know if you remember any of that studies. I'm very interested in this subject!
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