Blog 2 Jeg Forklarer Min Rare Lindenskap (I Explain My Wierd Passion) PB

My passion you ask? Well in a way that’s simple but also it’s rather complicated. Some will say food, video games, music and such but I? Nine letters, countries. Yes you read that right, countries. Yes I love music, food, books and anime but countries are special for me. Languages, flags, cultures, myths, history and food, I love learning interesting facts about these languages. How languages of different countries are so alike yet different, adapted for each place where the country is. There are 7 continents and 196 countries (which may or may not include Sealand but that’s a whole different subject). Russia, Cananda, America, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, those are just a few off the top of my head.  My reasons may be weird but they still led me up to the way I am now.

I am a mix of different cultures, from different places and whole different languages. I’m Japanese, Swedish, German, Welsh, Scottish and depending on who you ask I may be Austrian! I love learning about these places, I end up doodling flags all over my school work and often spout random words in other languages beside English. What I find funny is even though in English, which I believe the most known language in this world, some words like jeg elskar deg would look like it has weird letters in silly places; this phrase means I love you in Norwegian. Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are very similar languages I mean I love you is jeg elskar deg for Norwegian, jag älskar dig for Swedish, and jeg elskar dig for Danish. I know little things in Japanese, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Russian and I say these things often on a normal day basis. Also countries have an official language but other languages are spoken there often as well. Sweden for example, its main official language is Swedish but  Finnish, Yiddish, Sami and Romani are also spoken there!

Over the summer I discovered this show called Hetalia, which is this amazing anime in my opinion. All the countries are personified as people who often act with those countries stereotypes. Ex: America loves hamburgers, Italy loves pasta and runs away from fighting, Switzerland is neutral and will barely talk to anyone except for Lichtenstein. The characters are immortal except for when the country breaks up such as The Holy Roman Empire. Although the country refuses to fade away and that is Prussia, he is Germany’s brother and even though Prussia broke up in 1947 February 25. The episodes for this show are only about 5 minutes on average and often have simple plots and whenever a historical reference is made the show will pause and the narrator will explain what it’s about. My favorite quote from it is “

Those who call themselves ’Ugly’ don’t realize that someone out there thinks they’re the most beautiful person in the world” – Francis Bonnefoy

Mostly my country obsession is based in Europe when so many things happened in the past and have such interesting cultures. One event that goes on every year is called Eurovison. Eurovision is a big contest where all the European countries select and artist or band who will represent their country in a competition. This year Austria won with a song called Rise Like a Phoenix. One of my favorite songs that won was 2009 Norway. Alexander Rybak performed a song called Fairytale which he accompanied with the violin. I am always breaking out into some Eurovision such as No Prejudice which has a beautiful message about how everyone is equal to one another. I support this idea totally and the song is on my top 10 list. I love the history of such places which includes wars, alliances and such things. There are so many differences between the U.S and Europe I cant even... but whatever I love them.

So yeah my passion may be weird and others may think I need to get a life outside of my odd orbital habits around music, books and countries but I am proud of the fact that I am interested in countries, not many people are and if I'm going to have a hobby why not have one that's unique?