A Norwegian Guy Living in Spain Writing in English

fictionspawn Aak,

A Norwegian Guy Living in Spain Writing in English

My first years in Spain were a blast. I hitchhiked down in a few days with my friend Odd and we split up when we came to Barcelona. It wasn’t the first time I went travelling, but it was the first time I wasn’t planning on going home. Menorca became the place where the real adventure began. The events on Menorca has been crucial for my life since then, especially people I met there and people I’ve gotten to know because of them.

From there it was a lot of roaming around, a lot of new people and experiences and a lot of plain old getting wasted. Sleeping under the stars I visited most of Spain, stopped by Portugal and travelled around France several times on my journeys up and down from Norway. Granada became my base, and still is. I was always writing and drawing, but not like now, it wasn’t really in the centre of attention. The adventure was more important.

When I first arrived I didn’t speak Spanish, but slowly you learn. In Spain Spanish is what takes you around, and some of my friends from the very beginning spoke no English at all. I had a good base for learning. People in other countries told me I had a Spanish accent on my English, I guess from adapting English for Spanish people to understand me better. Now I have the Spanish language under control, but there’s still lot to learn.

I think my Spanish helps my English a bit. Especially it’s given me more vocabulary, and a deeper understanding. English is quite a hybrid language, with a lot of words and influence both from Latin and Germanic, among other languages like Celtic and Greek. It’s one of the things I like the most about it. They say the Vikings and the British understood each other more or less. I guess Scotland was closer than England, and today as well I think I can hear a resemblance to Norwegian accent in Scottish. Maybe it’s just me, but hey, it’s not so far away after all.

In Norway we learn a lot of English in school, and we don’t translate movies, so most Norwegians have some level of English. I’ve learned a lot from travelling and reading books as well. I manage English more or less, but I know I make a lot of mistakes. Please feel free to correct any errors I make in my posts and stories in my comment fields, it will be appreciated.

So I’m still in Spain, though there’s a lot less action in my life these days. It’s probably a good thing if I want to live for a while. Now most of the adventures goes from my head to the screen and from the screen to my head. Not that I’m not doing other things, but creating and absorbing other peoples creations is what i do the most. Which is a lot fun as well.

http://englishhistory.weebly.com/english-roots.html

https://fauxcroft.com/2017/04/17/random-variables-called-life/

Hitchhiking (Fear of the unknown)

Published by fictionspawn Aak

Norwegian trilingual writer and illustrator. Contact information in my Gallery.

57 Comments

  1. Reading your perspective on the English language was really interesting! Also, I’m Scottish so it was cool to see that you think there are some accent similarities 🙂

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  2. It takes a lot of determination to go to another country without speaking the language, and even more to learn the language and adapt successfully. I’m sure you have quite a few stories to tell from your adventures.

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    1. Thank you for reading. I do, actually. Some can be seen every once in a while in my ‘blog’-category. I think adapting to another culture is one of the most valueable things you can do in life, you really learn a lot about yourself and about people in general. And it’s a whole lot of fun, too;)

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  5. Hey, I am Indian and I could totally relate to the new place, new adventure feel. I guess it is quite universal. Also, keep up the good work.

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  8. Language is so interesting, as is travel. I learned Spanish in Guatemala. Very different from Spanish in Spain. When I was in Spain I spoke Spanish with an American accent, which meant Central American Spanish accent. I learned as much about English as I did about Spanish when I was learning it. Now my English is better and I’m a native speaker with a better understanding. I like English and I love Spanish. I don’t like to travel anymore.

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    1. Thank you for an interesting comment. I prefer to speak Spanish and to write English, if that makes sense. It might have something to do with the way I learned them from the beginning, but I think there’s something more to it, that it has something to do with the nature of each language. Norwegian, on the other hand is quite interesting in many ways, but less practical in my point of view. I still like to travel, though;)

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  10. I admire both your adventuresome spirit and your command of multiple languages! Glad to meet you here and I’m looking forward to many visits and adventures in your blog-land.
    Adios, farewell, ha det bra & may all of your adventures be happy ones!
    Kathryn

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  11. Truly enjoyed this post. I will be headed to Panama at the end of next month, I know many of the people speak English but I know very little Spanish. I can write it better than I can speak it. Your post gave me hope that it isn’t too late to become a fluent speaker of the language! Also thank you for following my blog.

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    1. I’ve been around most parts, but I would like to go to Galicia some day, they say it’s beautiful. The verbs are without doubt the most complicated part of the Spanish language from my point of view. Thank you for stopping by!

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      1. I”m living in Vietnam. I have created a site to help people to study English. It would be nice if you visit my site and give me some feedbacks about my article. Then, I can improve to help people study English

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  19. Adventure! Oh, I love! And your flair for languages is very admirable. I don’t know about other African countries, but here in Nigeria, it is not common for people to travel around just for the pure fun of it. Travel is almost always connected to work, study, treatment, or less commonly, vacation. I guess we’re “firmly rooted” so to speak 🙂 . It’s lovely to read of your adventures. I hope I can do such someday. Lovely post! Again, thanks for following my blog.

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  20. You’re Spanish seems to take you into real conversations. I knew a couple who traveled South America and said their Spanish got to the point where they could shop and ask directions and then never got better. I’m American and English-only. We are terrible at teaching languages – no idea why we’re so stubborn about it.

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  22. Thank you for visiting/following my online writing studio. I’ve returned the favor, and will return to sample your work. I’m going to assume that you, as do I, appreciate commentary on the work and not just “likes.”

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  23. Reblogged this on Fictionspawn Monsters and commented:

    I can proudly let you all know that my story One Day Music Came was published on Wordpess Discover on Tuesday. I’ve been welcoming a lot of new readers since then, and find it fitting to reblog this post which is the closest to an about-page I have here on Fictionspawn Monsters. A big thank you to all of you, both old and new friends and followers.

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