Citizen of the World

17 april, 2010

My parents were farmers and had just had six years in school. Before my mother died she learned a little English, just enough to write letters to her relatives in USA. Three brothers and one sister of her father had emigrated there.
Myself I have got schools and educations and have travelled in Europe and once to USA, but I am not as used to speak and write English as young people are today. I think it is fascinating that I have two sons who are living abroad, in Spain and China, and use the languages of those countries as their own. They both have blogs in English.
From my parent’s point of view this is an amazing development. I guess that after a few more decades English will be an official language in Sweden beside Swedish and that the whole population is bilingual.
The picture shows my parents, brother, sister and me and my mother’s aunt, brother and father. The cottage was the home for the four emigrants.