Code Switchers

“Hei! Jeg skriver denne søknaden på norsk, men hjernen min hopper mellom fire språk…”

Should I be direct and use short sentences like Norwegians? Follow my old American style of writing motivational letters? Think in Albanian, juggling standard phrases, dialects, and words I’ve creatively combined? Or maybe add a touch of Balkan humor, or even romanticize it like Spanish?

…Så I try to balance fjellene of grammar, vokabular, and tone. Sometimes I think: “Do I write këtë sentence in English, ose më mirë në Norwegian?” I catch myself adding a little Serbian šala here, a dash of Albanian idiom there, and maybe even a hint of Spanish romanticizing: “la vida es llena de oportunidades…”

The struggle is real.

And whoever stays with multilinguals knows how we play with code-switching, mixing words, tones, and cultures in ways that are chaotic, creative, and uniquely ours.

LB 2025