Hej hej, so now that I've had my first ever Swedish lesson, not quite fluent yet....give it a little time and I'll get there. I'm in a class with a myriad of nationalities (all from my Masters course), all totally inept and have no linguistical skills...ok harsh I know, but when you sit in a big circle, all say the same thing, then it gets to that one person after the 13th time, then they say 'what?'....lets just say I learnt more patience then Swedish. Ok, I'm not bad mouthing the lesson- I mean the teacher seems very good, was fun and now I have 'homework' or 'läxa' so it's like being back in school...oh nostalgia here I come. I can take solace in that my lovely Johanna has taught me a thing or two...proving men can actually listen....and store the information somewhere. Sitting there reminded me of an AA meeting, 'Hi I'm Mike and no I'm not an alcoholic, I'm an ignorant Englishman, brought up in the ways of modern English society- no not tea parties and crumpets, more 'everyone else can speak English so why bother''... I'll tell you why.....when that nosey bastard sitting next to you on the train/bus wherever decides to start giving you some jip....ok probably not nosey, lets say chav, about 15, big old belly hanging out (pregnant or obese- you pick), smoking a fag decides he/she is going to give you some lip, you tell him/her to go f**k themselves in another language, proving 2 things.....you are far more superior to whatever they will ever amount to and secondly, that we Brits can feel smug about something...I mean we invented the Chav, teenage pregnancy, drug dependency, crap cars and crap lifestyle, all of which we shouldn't be too proud of, so for just once in our lives, we can smirk just a little, knowing that we know something less than 99% of the population could ever know
....no not necessarily how to tell some little punk to 'f**k off' (as I would never condone swearing...that often) in Swedish but the fact....the idea that we can embrace a new culture without the fear that it's going to blow us up.P.S. Speaking another language is great for pleading ignorance....it has to be worth learning for this reason alone!!
