Tom Swede

[Ian]

Tom, I've been wondering for a while. Are you a native Swede? Your English is immaculate. Did you learn in Sweden, or did you live in an English speaking country? The reason I ask is that when I lived in Peru, every person I met from a Scandanavian country spoke perfect English. They must have great language programs in schools there.

[TomSwede]

Hi Ian!!

I was so surprised to see my name come up like this;-) but very proud and honoured to hear what you say, Thanks a bunch..sorry, I mean a lot!!!!

Yes, English classes in Sweden are or were VERY good but truth is I never really studied English or the Swedish lessons for that matter either. I have a built in ability to pick up easily on language, at least English. It may be hard to realize even for Swedes but we do have alot in common with the English language wich I realized when I looked back in history to the time when vikings migrated to Anglia, that is England today. There are so many common words in Swedish and English. Like the word window for example. In viking times there was a hatchet in the roof of their houses that was called vind-öj wich translates to wind-eye. Later on brought to England it was used to describe what we today see as a window. There are lots of words like this. Ship is another one. Ship today is skepp in Swedish, skib in Danish and I believe skip in Norway but they all mean boat or a type of boat.

I fooled an English couple a few years ago when I was at Tenerife islands of Spain. They were dead on sure I was British but wondered why my son could not speak with their son so they asked what you ask today and I just told 'em -I'm a viking! the man laughed and said - oh yeah, you ravaged our country, so I just had to fill in - and brought you a common language. Sumting like that anyways but it was a fun and interesting meeting.

I take a big pride in how I speak, Swedish or English and did correct my teachers from time to time. They told me to study to become an interpretor but I never felt like it.

In Sweden we have the funny-word languagepolice wich refers to a person who is a bit above the rest and like to give pointers when people is sloppy or otherwise handles the language inproperly (inproperly or improperly or inapropriate??). I am such a person but most for the fun of it;-) Sarcastic (spelling??) humour;-)

Today I see the Swedish lanuage being hollowed out by poor educational programs, internet and borrowing new words from English. I don't mind the last part to much and I do use internet terminology myself but I do think it'd be wise to tech it out to the youth the proper way and then they can choose how to speak it, like I do. There are just those moments in life when you really need a good solid uniform way of communicating with others.

The young of today seem to lack alot of just basic knowledge of how to speak properly.

I also know how to spell most words in Swedish without ever having really studied them hard in school and I find that easy with English words too, not as much as with Swedish words though.

So to sum it up: native Swede, never really studied language though excellent school programs, never lived outside Sweden (haven't been out of country much at all).

Hopefully I'm still young enough to pick up on the last pieces and wonders of English grammar and then I will keep my diligent eye at your keystrokes and just be that language police;-) Ha ha ...never!

Thank you for your fine words Ian!

Tom

[Ian]

Very interesting, Tom. I lived in South Africa for a few years as a kid and although it was required that we learn Afrikaans (kind of a Dutch dialect), I can remember nothing of it, though can read German and Dutch to a degree, as a result. Spanish was a different story. When I went to South America in 1979, I couldn't speak a word of Spanish, but after 6 months was fairly fluent. Though I haven't spoken it much in almost 30 years, It seems to have stuck, because I can still speak it when I have to.

Swedish would be another story though. I doesn't sound like any other language that I know of.

Isn't the Internet amazing, though. it seems like just a few years ago, you'd never speak to people from other countries unless you travelled, or happened to run into someone. In my little town, most people have never left the state, nevermind the country. Now, speaking to people across the world is an everyday thing. Great, isn't it?

Edited January 7, 2009 by Ian

[TomSwede]

Hi again Ian!

Those Afrikaans experiences will prolly do you good if you were having a go at it again, dont you think?

I'm sure Swedish sounds pretty different to an English speaking person. I'm thinking about the Swedish chef from The Muppet show who is an american person trying to mimic Swedish he he sounds really funny to me too and definetly not like Swedish.

Spanish is the worlds most outspread language, 18 countries I think so definetly valuable to know if you like to travel around a bit.

I mean if you learn French you're pretty much tied to visit France only.

Internet is really great considering what has been heppening for me the last year. This place has helped me alot in my work and gave quite a bit of a learning curve too. I would have had to figure all that I have done by myself otherwise, taking me..how many years??

Also having a bit of a troublesome time at the moment and still not very stable and my work is sporadic, I'm taking one day at the time and I have vented theese issues with some people here and what a great support I have gotten back!

Cheers and thank you all good people of the board, you know who you are!!!

Tom