At the young age of 44 I have found myself back in school. No, I am not going to college. Been there done that. I am not taking a self improvement class to learn about floral arrangement. I am learning my A B C's - in Svenska! For 2.5 days a week, I join people which represent 16 other countries to learn Swedish language. Trust me, it is as difficult as you can imagine. In America we pronounce our alphabet Ayyy Beee Ceee. Here is Sweden, they pronounce it Ahh, Baya, Seya, etc. And if that wasn't enough to confuse me, they have 3 additional vowels Ä, Å and Ö. I can hear some people thinking "Come on, it is just the alphabet, how hard can it be?" Well, in the U.S. the consonants "SK" are pronounced "SK"! Here in Sweden, depending on what vowel follows can be pronounced "SK" OR "HW". It can be truly mind boggling.
I am lucky to have a wonderful teacher at skola (school). Her name is Anna-Stina. She has a gift for languages and often speaks in Swedish, English, Spanish and tries hard to speak in Arabic at the same time so everyone in the class understands. Still, I think the best teacher is time. I have met other Americans that have been here for 5 years or longer and speak (what I think is outstanding) Swedish and even have a Scandanavian accent when they speak English. So hopefully one day I will be able to have a conversation that doesn't start with "Talar Ni Engelska?" translated "Do you speak English?"
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