When you have släktingar/relatives living in the US and Australia, as a kid I was always fascinated by språk/languages. Add to the fact that we had cable TV which meant we were able to see fler/more shows in English, than just the two state channels we had genom/throughout most of the eighties.
When I started seventh grade, it was naturligt/natural for me to want to study a new language, but unlike ALL the boys in the class, I chose franska/French over tyska/German. I can’t really remember if it was because someone said that German grammatik/grammar was a mardröm/nightmare or if I just liked the sound of French better. I should also erkänna/confess that I was not exactly a school nerd. I never fully understood what the knowledge I was gaining was good for, other than you know, getting a job. This insikt/insight came much later.
In high school I decided on the humanities branch of social sciences which meant three languages beside svenska/Swedish and engelska/English. I continued with French, took up spanska/Spanish as well as Latin which was mandatory. Not for the sake of speaking Latin, but for language förståelse/comprehension. If you didn’t know it, a lot of words come from Latin in one way or another.
My French lärare/teacher, to be honest, was a hard-ass. Teaching the same way year after year with a balance between somewhat aggressive and self-indulgent. I actually failed the second course there. More on that later. Spanish was so much lättare/easier for me. I loved my teacher and you should never underestimate what a good teacher can do for certain students. I got the högsta/highest grade, but there was a reason for that. I studied more, beyond just my hemläxa/home work. During the summer break, while working as a paper boy, I had a structure. Each morning (night actually) I would focus on a certain grammatical thing, like böja/bend a certain verb group, or reiterate certain adjectives over and over again. When school started igen/again in the fall, I could bend every irregular verb in every tempus possible. I had a bone structure for my continued learning.
Since I failed the French course and didn’t want that on my grade sheet, I set out to make up for the course after graduation. I sat in the källare/basement of my cold storage work every lunch and studied verbs, adjectives and nouns. I believe I knew well bortom/beyond what the course required for the highest grade, and yet I only got a pass for some reason. But either way, my envishet/stubbornness had once again gotten me through.
The more time I spent on the Internet, getting to know people from olika/different countries, the more my curiosity for languages grew. When I asked my followers to translate a few meningar/sentences into their language for a video, I realized after getting 30-50 different languages in, that you could clearly see patterns. It was almost like a Swedish word travelled down through Europe and ibland/sometimes beyond, changing little by little on the way. Kind of like how dialects work. And this is how I see languages.
They are broar/bridges into other cultures, the path into our neighbor’s doorstep. And when you start to lära/learn a language and you have that wow moment when you suddenly realize that you understood what that South-American ledare/leader just said on the news, then you have the nycklar/keys into another culture.
For as much as we can grow within ourselves with knowledge and erfarenhet/experience, it is by giving parts of your culture to another and receiving parts of their in return, that you truly transcend beyond all you thought you knew about yourself.
When people frågar/ask me if I speak many languages, I often say that Swedish and English are no-brainers, and I would probably survive if I were to be dropped somewhere in Norway, Denmark, France and Spain. But of course, there are still so much for me to explore on this linguistic resa/journey. But I do hope that this place can be a piece of your puzzle in understanding and emerging yourself into Swedish.
Gott snack/good talk
Bonus info
All the images are from different language challenges on my youtube channel TheSwedishLad.
16 October, 2022 at 13:48
To learn Swedish was a wish for years!
Thank you for making the YT and Instagram pages.
Tack,tack tack!!!
16 October, 2022 at 14:32
I am not the first yo comment am I.
I am Dutch. When I was a teenager we are talking the 1970s) I was (and still am) a fan of Abba. I found a penpal in Sweden (Norrbotten) and I visited her several times. Last time in 2017. I did a Swedish course at some point, but was too shy to use it. I do understand Swedish if people don’t talk fast.
In Dutch highschool I started with English. German and French. After the first year you had to drop one, which was French. Why French, because it was taught by a bitter old woman who didn’t get along with teenagers. Like you said, a teacher attitude is a big influence on our choice.
That is my (language)story in a nutshell. I started following you recently on IG and enjoying it.
Hej då.
16 October, 2022 at 14:57
Hej Marianne
My first friend son Youtube back in 2008 were from the Netherlands and I attempted to learn a little back then, but languages are like muscles, as in they need constant exercise. I never had a penpal but my first Internet friend was from Australia and we used to send VHS tapes of ourselves back and forth. Pretty cool when you think about it now.
16 October, 2022 at 16:32
I loved reading about your experiences with learning languages and what worked for you. I was inspired by my Dad who taught himself Spanish by listening to the World Service radio and buying lots of grammar books. This was, of course before the Internet had even been imagined! He read lots of Spanish books out loud, too. I learned French at school and can happily get by in France but during the covid lockdowns I decided to learn another language. Having a love of Scandi-noir, I decided on Swedish. Can’t wait to visit Sweden soon, but I’m told it’s difficult to practice as you Swedes always want to talk to us in English! So glad I found you!
16 October, 2022 at 17:52
Yeah, Swedes are problematic like that. We are taught English very early and as soon as we get a chance to use it, we’re there. I try to be focused when I meet my foreign friends who are learning. Sometimes I even impose a five minute Swedish-only no matter what rule, ha ha.
17 October, 2022 at 03:21
Now that’s an interesting experience, I hear your voice and see your face while I read your words! 🙂
It is still today here in Brazil and I was out with the scouts all weekend, but it was so nice to arrive home and find this text. I think it shows how important diversity is, especially when we are young and the world is this new thing full of possibilities. A different sound, a different culture, so mysterious, so exciting!
We didn’t have cable TV when I was a kid, but my father used to sing Italian songs to make me sleep and my mother was a big fan of ABBA. That was enough to make me curious.
I wish I could have studied more. First time I met Swedes I couldn’t even speak English and that was like 15 years ago…
I like the way you see languages because bridges and paths are there for a reason, it is really about movement and connection 🙂