WE ALL SMILE IN THE SAME LANGUAGE
I am bilingual, I have a dual citizenship and I have experience from different cultures.
I've never deeply comprehended how cool that really is. Both of my parents are Finnish, but I was born and raised in the U.S. My upbringing is from a totally different culture then the Finnish culture and my mother tongue is English. It literally took me years to settle in Finland. After meeting Roman I have been living in several different countries and that has finally created a connection between Finland and I. When I am away from Finland for a longer period, I actually start missing it.
Roman has a dual citizenship, he is multilingual (he speaks Russian, Finnish, Swedish, English and Italian), and he has even more experience from different cultures as a child. Both of his parents are Russian. He was born in Russia, but moved to Finland when he was three years old. He lived in Norway and Greece for some time of his childhood, after moving back to Finland again. He officially moved from Finland when he was eighteen years old.
Photo: Matti Raivio / AOP
I have been with Roman for nearly fourteen years now and he has made me feel connected to his culture and home country Russia. I feel like I belong to several countries and it is very overwhelming sometimes. After all I couldn't and wouldn't want it any other way though, because my soul feeds off of multiculturalism.
Our kids are half Finnish and Russian. currently they only carry one citizenship. Our kids are being raised with three home languages, English, Finnish and Russian. Naturally English and Finnish are languages they use the most, since they spend more time with me. I am so grateful our children have the opportunity of living in different countries and experiencing different cultures during their childhood. I am sure that will have a positive affect on their future. They are blessed to have two nationalities and I want them to understand their roots and to be proud of them, always.
We may be from different countries and cultures, but in the end we all smile in the same language.
Xoxo
Leave a comment below to share your thoughts and personal stories if you can relate to my post! :)
Hi Marika! So inspired by your blog! It is really great you took courage to move from your native country following Roman. The style of your blog is so self-ironic, humouristic and deep at once - can't help but commenting. By the way I am from Rostov and me and my family are great supporters of FC Rostov and we are very happy to see Roman in our football team! Thx and good luck!
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