Taking a bilingual approach

I live in Finland – one of the Nordic European countries. I have decided to make this blog bilingual. The posts are translated and language can be changed from the top of the right side column. I will write in English and Finnish. Finnish is my native language and English I have studied since 3rd grade in elementary school and use daily for work to write, research and teach.

Sometimes the texts are almost direct translations, and other times I make a summary of the original text depending on which language I start with. (If you are curious, this one I wrote English first.)

Sometimes my text is more directed towards the global journalling community and it makes sense to me to start writing in English and make a summary in Finnish. Sometimes I might be talking about something oriented towards my local fellows and it makes sense to start with Finnish. Also, sometimes with culturally specific content it will make sense to add an explanatory note in the English version. So, basically I am writing about a chosen topic and slightly adjusting the text content to serve the purpose for the international and the local audience. I have not found a blog that attempts to operate this way, so fingers crossed this will be successful.

However, although my language skills are fluent I will certainly make small mistakes here and there with grammar or write some funny ways to say things. I hope you will not mind these and will appreciate my effort to write in a language that you understand although the results might not be always perfect. Please do not get offended or create drama if something I write or comment sounds blunt – I probably just lack the language skill to understand slight nuances or just could not find a better way to express my thought. Also, I probably will not get all jokes and need to refer to Urban Dictionary sometimes, but I think we will be fine together!