Language
The catchphrase hashtag that’s sweeping the kingdom!
Step aside “Know what I mean, Vern?” and “Where’s the beef?” There’s a new catchphrase in Sweden, and you’re starting it! Continue reading
Joe Biden’s middle name is Robinette
Correcting the New York Times is like getting a gold medal in the Nerd Olympics. I got my trophy on Thursday. Continue reading
American magazine seeking people to interview in Sweden
K Composite is a magazine of engaging, colorful interviews with regular people. Continue reading
The Word on the Street (and why it isn’t “sorry”)
The Korean language has seven different levels of familiarity that can be used when a speaker is addressing someone. These “honorifics” indicate the distinct relationship the two people have with … Continue reading
Grocery Store Items
I’ve received a few requests from readers in America to show some images of simple, regular, everyday stuff in Sweden that looks different. So here’s the first of a few … Continue reading
Secret Code: Are Swedes trying to keep Swedish to themselves?
As I’ve mentioned many times, most Swedish people speak perfect English and they love doing it. It’s the opposite of French people. The French can speak English with you but … Continue reading
Halloween in Sweden
Grab a warm sweater or safe blanket and sit thee down fore thine flickering computer screens, dear friends, for I am about to weave a bone-chilling tale, the likes of … Continue reading
Hervé Villechaize Language School
I heard a story a long time ago about Hervé Villechaize. He was the actor who played the character Tattoo on the television series Fantasy Island and was famous for … Continue reading
Swedish pants
I don’t know how to say this delicately, so I’ll just come right out and say it: Swedish girls think that tights are pants. If this were happening in America, … Continue reading
But I just learned the old one
You may remember a story from back in June when I had just attended the music festival in Stockholm called Where the Action Is. A portion of that yarn included … Continue reading
Wait! It’s not what you think!
A word of warning to our more impressionable readers: Today’s story may include some risqué language, namely English. No coverage of Swedish culture would be complete without an article about … Continue reading
Excuse me, do you speak American?
One of the challenging things about learning to speak Swedish – and there are a few – is the process of becoming familiar with the sequence that words should appear … Continue reading
City on Water (with a dirty mouth)
Saturday afternoon I went for a long walk and relaxed in the park to recover from Midsommar festivities. During my sunshiny day, I enjoyed some Reese’s peanut butter cups my … Continue reading
The American Dream – På Svenska
Back in March, my friend Johanna interviewed me about my move. She is a student at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (The Swedish Royal Institute of Technolgy) where she is studying, well, … Continue reading
Allt om mig
Enough about Sweden already. Let’s talk about me. Today’s story has been in the works for more than a few weeks. It has a lot of personal information about my … Continue reading
Still, more new English words!
In an earlier story, I mentioned that the Swedish-English dictionary I got for my iPhone has a penchant for displaying English words I have never seen before. Well, the phenomenon … Continue reading
För Svankvinna i tiden
As I mentioned before, most of Sweden’s coins carry a picture of King Carl XVI Gustaf, a man who is still alive and just 62 years old. Every time he … Continue reading
Daily Show visits Sweden
Life in this socialist hellhole is just awful. Finally, the American news media has sent an investigative journalist to uncover the real story of what the radical leftist Obama regime … Continue reading
What the…
Language, temperature, currency, distances, weight, geography. I thought my list of things I have to re-learn was complete. Then it came time to do the laundry. This control panel greeted … Continue reading
Swedish language trivia, Part 1
Because only about 10 million people speak Swedish, the language has considerably fewer words than English, a language that there are easily over a billion people using. English is a … Continue reading
Back to School with Old Timey Tower
This morning I attended the first of ten 2.5-hour Swedish language classes at Stockholm’s Medborgarskolan. I’m not a fan of school, but I have dedicated myself to becoming proficient in … Continue reading
Påsk Afton and Nynäshamn
This weekend, Iida, Erik, and I spent some quality time with Erik’s parents. We visited their house on Saturday for a delicious Easter feast which I would compare to Thanksgiving … Continue reading
Påsk ägg party
Here are some scenes from Friday night’s Påsk ägg (Easter egg) party in Haninge. What would the chickens think if they saw us painting their eggs? Camilla and Cookie. A … Continue reading
More new English words!
Here is a screenshot from the English/Svenska dictionary application on my iPhone. It allows you to search for a word in English or Svenska, or to scroll through the alphabetical … Continue reading
Påsk and Aprilskämt
I recently noticed that the Tunnelbana trains have names. A nice touch, I think, although I don’t care for the font. Here are Ted and Maria. You would expect a … Continue reading
Billy Mitchell is a winner
This is a photo of the television playing the amazing movie “King of Kong” which is a documentary from 2007 about the fight for the world record Donkey Kong score. … Continue reading
Stockholm
A mail train passing through Stockholm Central Station – quite pretty compared to US freight trains.