Let's Talk Språk

I'm going to do a foolish thing, once again. I will attempt to talk about a subject that is far too expansive and far too complex to cover in one post.

I'm going to talk about the Swedish language.

Silly, yes. I can barely speak English on a good day. And now, I'm going to guide you through the Swedish language.

The whole thing.

From A to Ö.

Ready?

Ok, now you're all set. That is everything you need to know. It's true. Those 29 letters are all you need. The tricky part is putting them in the right place and in the right order.

Instead of instructing you on the Swedish language, which would be disastrous for both you and me, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my journey through the language. It will be a nice blend of humor and pain, so buckle up.

I always wanted to learn another language when I was very small. Although, I didn't want to learn a popular language I could actually use. No! What fun would that be? I wanted to learn a language few people understood. It would be like a secret code, a secret spy code.

When I was twelve, I started listening to Ace of Base and that's really where this tale begins. I didn't know a thing about Sweden back then and I recall asking my Dad what language people spoke in Sweden. If I had only known where that innocent, naive question would lead me...

My desire to learn another language sparked back to life when I started listening to Ace of Base. I would hear the band being interviewed on the radio and on tv and the host would always ask about Sweden. It piqued my interest. What is Sweden like? How many people live there? What does it look like? What does the language sound like? A few weeks into the Summer of 1994 and I had bought myself a guidebook and a brand new pocket dictionary just to find out.

I tried to learn Swedish but didn't stick with it long enough to get anywhere. I bought more books, thinking if I collected more, maybe I would use them eventually, but it never worked.



A few years passed and I signed up to spend an exchange year abroad. I was still crazy about Sweden and learned all I could, but the language didn't really stick. I enjoyed listening to music in Swedish though.

I signed up for my one year adventure and this came in the mail...



So I started learning the language -for real. I was going to live there, after all. I enjoyed learning the basics. It was easy at that point. I didn't have to actually use it.

My exchange year started in the Summer of '98 at a camp outside Uppsala. All sixty of us attended Swedish lessons every day. We learned even more of the basic vocabulary, along with some basic grammar. Learning the words was easy. Remembering them and using them was hard.

After the week was over, we left the camp to meet our host families and start school.

My classmates took English lessons on Tuesdays. While they learned English, I learned Swedish in my Swedish for Immigrants class, or SFI for short.




I liked my teacher and the other exchange students, but I thought the SFI course was cheesy. I quickly got tired of reading about Torbjörn's trip to the bank or the pharmacy or the grocery story or Systembolaget. I was sixteen. I didn't care about learning how to run errands in Swedish. So I skipped out on several classes. (Bad idea. Hemskt dålig idé. My grammar suffered immensely and will probably never recover.)

Goofing around instead of paying attention to the lesson.

There were fun moments and assignments in my SFI class. I savored the chance to talk and write about the subjects I was interested in. It made me want to learn more so I could describe more.

I once had an assignment to write what I did over the weekend. It happened to be the weekend I visited Gothenburg for the first time with my host mom and a friend...

The "finished" assignment from 1998. I had been in Sweden six weeks. "I met Jenny Berggren from Ace of Base... "We asked for an autograph and she said, 'of course'."... "We were nervous but it was exciting."

And from those fun moments and fun assignments, I learned a little lesson. Instead of trudging through a pretend conversation between two bus drivers during their break time (page 15 in Goda Grunder. Seriously, who writes this stuff?), I decided I would find material I was actually interested in. I needed to find something I wanted to understand.

I loved listening to music and wanted to work in the music industry when I was that age, so I started learning words related to music and the music industry. I also listened to Swedish music. A lot of Swedish music.

My first full fledged phrase in Swedish was.. "Mix Megapol med den bästa blandningen av gamla och nya låtar" I could say it like an expert - with a thick American accent. If the radio station was going to call me, I was ready blurt out their slogan and win that 1000 kronor!

Listening to Swedish music with Swedish lyric helped immensely. All that repetition was just what I needed. And I loved music! How could I go wrong?

I also learned new words by reading the newspapers. I made sure I read at least two a day. And I still read at least two a day. I also learned several new words by translating Ace of Base articles I found in the newspapers. I remember learning the words "syskon" (siblings), "pengar" (money), "skivbolag" (record company), and "försäljningssiffror" (sales figures) quite early.

Conversations were harder to pick up on. I didn't understand anything anyone said to me for a full three months, which led to several comical situations. Just imagine being thrown into a classroom with a teacher speaking in a language you know nothing about. I'm sure my teachers were sharing important lessons with the class, but their voices just gave me headaches. For a solid month.

After about three months of not understanding much of anything, the words started making sense. I could understand more and more every day. That's when learning became even more fun. People made sense when they spoke to me. Me making sense when I spoke to other people was another matter.

Eventually it all worked out. My Swedish vocabulary and comprehension grew until one day I went to class and realized, "Vänta nu! Jag förstår! I understand what this paper says! And I understand what the teacher is talking about!"

And that was a mighty nice feeling.

They gave me reading assignments like this from my first day in class! "What is a human being? A comparative analysis of three life philosophies."

Learning Swedish has given me the opportunity to understand the culture on a different level. It has allowed me to step into the everyday, to understand people on a deeper level. I have been interested in Sweden since I was small. Don't ask me why. I would tell you I chose the country, but sometimes it feels more like the country chose me.

Today, I am still learning - of course. I'll always be learning. I love the language, even if I'm not very good at it. I really enjoy being able to speak with people and read the newspapers and listen to Swedish music and watch movies and read books in Swedish.

I rarely have the chance to speak Swedish in Texas, which means I sound like a six year old when I do have the chance to speak it in person in Sweden, but I don't mind. As long as people understand my general point, I'm ok with that. And no one was more surprised than me when I was able to carry on lengthy conversations with several people when interviewing them before and after the lectures/concerts.

I have even been able to translate articles into English for fans and fan websites during the past decade and I've enjoyed the challenge.

I did switch to English several times during different conversations, more than I would have liked to, but I noticed it happend when I was either very tired or really trying to say something a bit more complex (like when I had the chance to sneak a listen to "My Story" and tried to express my thoughts afterwards).

When I speak Swedish, I do feel different somehow. I am still me but I'm a different me. I also feel like I'm more direct in Swedish. I don't have the finesse in Swedish like I do in English. Whether this is due to my limited speaking vocabulary or if it may be a feature of the language itself, I cannot say. Consequently, I sometimes feel awfully rude when speaking Swedish. I hope I didn't come across that way with anyone on the trip. If so, I did not mean to. I promise!

Now you know more about my language journey than you ever cared to hear.

It's your turn to share. If you've learned Swedish, what was the easiest and hardest parts for you? If you are learning it now, how do you keep the focus and where are you at along your journey? And for those of you who haven't learned it yet, what are you waiting for??