It *is* possible to spend an entire day not speaking English!
I don't know why it occurred to me, but sometime late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning I suddenly wondered if it would be possible to spend a day not speaking English. So I mentioned the thought to lord_kjar (in Swedish, of course), and after we chatted about it for a bit, I decided to go for it for all of Sunday, since it was only just after midnight, and we had been talking in Swedish for long enough that I hadn't used English yet that day. To further increase the odds of doing this, I mentioned the plan (in the form of "wondering if" on FB.
I was slightly concerned about the danger time--first thing in the morning: would I remember that I wasn't supposed to speak English? Yes! I did. The "rule" I came up with was just "no English". I didn't have to limit myself to Swedish--if I had wanted to say something that I didn't happen to know the Swedish word, but I did in some other language I could have used the other language. (Not that it came up, this time).
Sunday morning he was home with me, and I spoke to him only in Swedish. He used a mix of Swedish and English, depending on what he was saying and how important it was to him that I understand on the first attempt, but I always replied in Swedish. Then he went back to Spelmansstämman to play some music with the other musicians, while I caught up on some basic housework (I do NOT want to confess just how long it had been since last we washed the sheets and pillowcases, luckily, I can't, since I don't know). Then I took my trike out to the event, where I spoke with other humans, too.
All of them were very supportive and encouraging when I told them that it was my first attempt at going a full day without speaking English. It was fun to actually communicate with others, without falling back on my native language when it got tough.
Now I need to decide if this should be something I do every week, once a month, at random,unpredictable intervals, or...
In other news--dancing at the event was WAY FUN, as it always is.
Today's adventure will have to get a write up on another day, as it is past my bedtime.
I was slightly concerned about the danger time--first thing in the morning: would I remember that I wasn't supposed to speak English? Yes! I did. The "rule" I came up with was just "no English". I didn't have to limit myself to Swedish--if I had wanted to say something that I didn't happen to know the Swedish word, but I did in some other language I could have used the other language. (Not that it came up, this time).
Sunday morning he was home with me, and I spoke to him only in Swedish. He used a mix of Swedish and English, depending on what he was saying and how important it was to him that I understand on the first attempt, but I always replied in Swedish. Then he went back to Spelmansstämman to play some music with the other musicians, while I caught up on some basic housework (I do NOT want to confess just how long it had been since last we washed the sheets and pillowcases, luckily, I can't, since I don't know). Then I took my trike out to the event, where I spoke with other humans, too.
All of them were very supportive and encouraging when I told them that it was my first attempt at going a full day without speaking English. It was fun to actually communicate with others, without falling back on my native language when it got tough.
Now I need to decide if this should be something I do every week, once a month, at random,unpredictable intervals, or...
In other news--dancing at the event was WAY FUN, as it always is.
Today's adventure will have to get a write up on another day, as it is past my bedtime.