Tack

Since I decided I was going to stay here for a while (things might not have worked out like I thought, but no running home in defeat for OhioGirl!), I figured I should start to learn the language.  I mean, everyone speaks English (or at least think they do, they make more mistakes than they think but I guess I do in Swedish so its even!), but still there are times it is annoying not to know if people are talking about me, for example.

So I started taking lessons, and it's going okay.  Except, it's a REALLY frustrating language!  There are all these weird rules and strange pronounciations for things that it makes you understand why they all speak English!  I'm sticking it out because I'm not a quitter, but sometimes I really wonder why I bother.

For example, there is no word for "please".  How weird is that?  It is basic everyday courtesy and they don't even have a word for it - they say thank you.  So you would say "a coffee, thank you" instead of "a coffee, please", which doesn't sound as polite in my opinion.  And how to you teach kids their "please's and thank you's"?  You would have to teach them their "thank you's" and "thank you's"!!

And sometimes they say sentences backwards for no good reason I can see, its like the whole nation has that disease where you get words mixed up and curse for no reason.  Like, you say "now live I in Stockholm", which just sounds like you're trying to speak in Shakespeare or something (even though Shakespeare spoke English!) and should have a bugle and be like "hear ye hear ye, in the year of our lord 2012, now live I in Stockholm"!

I'm not disrespecting or anything, so please don't go crazy at me in the comments, I'm just sharing some observations as I take on this new challenge in my life.  Be I happy to live in this fair town, thank you!!