symptomatic
I was listening (I AM listening) to Swedish radio online, and the entertainment news just informed me that the Swedish kids' show "Lilla Sportspegeln" (which is sports news for kids) is getting a new theme song. This doesn't seem like the kind of thing I would care about. But I do. Let me explain why.
When I was little we used to get records (!) and tapes from the public library. One such album was a compilation of songs about Disney characters. I became immediately obsessed with one of the songs, "You Can Always Be Number One." It is all about how Goofy really sucks at sports but still gives it his all (nice idea, but despite my love for the song, it never really helped me that much in gym class. That's another story.). Anyway, it was also a cartoon segment on Captain Kangaroo.
I mostly forgot about this song, and then somehow I found out that a Swedish version of it was recorded for "Lilla Sportspegeln." I've never actually heard the Swedish version (despite much Googling), but I do know that it was Swedish pop-star Robyn's first gig, when she was 11. Anyway, now that they're replacing the song I can't hope to catch the original when they show "Lilla Sportspegeln" online. I will have to settle for the English version, which is on my iPod.
In other news, I have been teaching Swedish for two weeks now. It's really a lot of fun: I have a great group, I can be pretty goofy and still accomplish stuff...I still spend a little too much time worrying about what to do, but I think I'll be used to it soon. The classes I'm actually taking are good, too...Scandinavian linguistics is hard to wrap my head around, but taking German and teaching Swedish while taking linguistics is good, because I have plenty of opportunities to see how everything fits (or used to fit) together. Ah, ablaut series. :P
For my independent study about color terminology, my current assignment is to read Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (the "official" list of all the words that exist in Swedish). I have two weeks. It is 1066 pages long with 3 columns on each page. I keep getting distracted by OTHER words in the thing, so it's slow going...
...and finally, my evil August asthma episode has apparently been tamed by the steroid-and-antibiotic cocktail that I was on last week...but now that I'm off the prednisone I am hurting all over. Ow. So life is weird as usual, but it's all good.
When I was little we used to get records (!) and tapes from the public library. One such album was a compilation of songs about Disney characters. I became immediately obsessed with one of the songs, "You Can Always Be Number One." It is all about how Goofy really sucks at sports but still gives it his all (nice idea, but despite my love for the song, it never really helped me that much in gym class. That's another story.). Anyway, it was also a cartoon segment on Captain Kangaroo.
I mostly forgot about this song, and then somehow I found out that a Swedish version of it was recorded for "Lilla Sportspegeln." I've never actually heard the Swedish version (despite much Googling), but I do know that it was Swedish pop-star Robyn's first gig, when she was 11. Anyway, now that they're replacing the song I can't hope to catch the original when they show "Lilla Sportspegeln" online. I will have to settle for the English version, which is on my iPod.
In other news, I have been teaching Swedish for two weeks now. It's really a lot of fun: I have a great group, I can be pretty goofy and still accomplish stuff...I still spend a little too much time worrying about what to do, but I think I'll be used to it soon. The classes I'm actually taking are good, too...Scandinavian linguistics is hard to wrap my head around, but taking German and teaching Swedish while taking linguistics is good, because I have plenty of opportunities to see how everything fits (or used to fit) together. Ah, ablaut series. :P
For my independent study about color terminology, my current assignment is to read Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (the "official" list of all the words that exist in Swedish). I have two weeks. It is 1066 pages long with 3 columns on each page. I keep getting distracted by OTHER words in the thing, so it's slow going...
...and finally, my evil August asthma episode has apparently been tamed by the steroid-and-antibiotic cocktail that I was on last week...but now that I'm off the prednisone I am hurting all over. Ow. So life is weird as usual, but it's all good.