Answers

[big_bubba]

Procrastinating for two weeks isn't too bad, is it? same_sky will be happy (or not) to finally see the answers to the questions she asked my a while back. Yes, it's the popular Interview Meme. Since I got involved I better stick to the rules, so if anyway is foolish enough to want to be interviewed, let me know and I'll put together an interrogation that

Comments

[rpmiller]

Only one comment to make. Teach your son Swedish! That way you can continue to use the language and he will be bilingual. Many of the people I know that have English as a second language use their native language at home and English outside the domicile. I think this is the best idea I've heard. I actually worked with a Japanese woman who never taught her sons Japanese. She regrets that a lot.

[big_bubba]

I do! I forgot to mention that, but I speak Swedish exclusively to E. However, the conversation isn't exactly advanced yet, so I'm not sure how much it helps me keeping the Swedish alive.

[rpmiller]

Ah, I was hoping that was the case. :) I'm sure once he starts talking more and starts using Swedish it will start coming back to you. ;)

Interestingly in a somewhat related note, our receptionist at work is Ukrainian and I was eavesdropping on her telephone conversation. She was speaking mostly Russian, but kept interjecting English words or phrases here and there. I asked her later how in the world she does that and how do her friends keep up and she said that it was actually very natural. I'm curious if that sort of thing will happen between you and E. I am always impressed my multi-lingual people having tried to learn German for many years I just can't figure out how the brain is able to do it. I suppose if I actually went to Germany and immersed myself in German it would become second nature.

[big_bubba]

That actually sounds very awkward to me. I like to speak either Swedish or English, at least in the same sentence. The only time I'm tempted to insert English in my Swedish is when I discuss something technical related to my job, but that only happens when I talk to my old colleague from Sweden who also moved over here.

Having studied German myself, I have to say that would be a rather difficult language to select as your first foreign one to learn. The grammar is rather hideous.

[totte]

I have the exact same issues with swedish. I read DN online, partly just to keep up. Last time we flew over I noticed several times that I did just what you said. Perfectly valid words, perfectly valid sentence. That is, if you're using english word order, grammar and idioms. I've done it once or twice without even being able to tell that there was something wrong with what I was saying. It's Britt Ekland and me, I guess.

[big_bubba]

Still much better than Dolph, eh?

[same_sky]

Good job! See, that didn't hurt too much, did it? :)

As M said above, he does the same thing with his Swedish, which is why I asked. We have an elderly friend from our Scandinavian heritage society who moved to the US when he was 20 or so, and his Swedish is now almost completely gone even though his accent is as strong as ever. He's said that he is actually quite uncomfortable speaking Swedish now.. it was pretty awkward because you could tell that he was very unhappy about it. I think that's when M started thinking about how it would be to end up there, and thus began making a conscious effort to keep it up. Of course, things are very, very different for you guys now, since you have the internet and it doesn't cost a fortune to call long-distance, so I don't think that's something you have to worry about either, thankfully.

I'm with you about the rescue of Moiraine. That one is just stupid by now since it's been so long.

[big_bubba]

You're right. It only hurt a little bit.