On the other hand, I really don't like Sunday evenings.

[thrpschr]

I find myself thinking of the mood icon above as a ta' rather than a smiley. That is some progress...

Of course, now that I feel that I'm almost getting somewhere with the Arabic script, they introduce ligatures. Le sigh. Lucky I have a grammatical mind - I think all this would feel completely insuperable otherwise

Comments

[neige_blanc]

oh blutengel:)
I've seen them last autumn I think...I don't know how "earnest" their show really is, but I think at least they seemed to have a lot of fun
Add to that that the crowd was a bit mixed as they were part of a festival and there were a lot of socked faces which was even more fun:)
I would go and watch them again just for the show...with earplugs*lol*

[thrpschr]

I'd go if I had a chance of seeing them again too, no question about that - I'd even be willing to pay a little bit of money for it. Although I'd have a hard time finding anyone willing to accompany me, I suspect, everybody else just hated it. They didn't see the fun in it at all, sadly... :)

Definitely earplugs, yup. :D

[halobat]

HA!

You totally deserve an award for using the phrase "teutonic pompousness" there. It sums it all up so perfectly :D

By the way - and a thousand pardons if this sounds really odd - I was wondering something about you. Did you learn English as well as your national language at the same time growing up? I am massively impressed by multi-lingual individuals, and must say that your English is far superior to most native English-speakers I have come across. You use words that are perfectly fitting to what you want to say, and that doesn't just come with knowing a language. You have to know how to use it, and most Americans can't seem to grapple this concept with their own language. Is it common in Sweden to speak more than one language - or are you an anomaly? I often find it embarassing that I only speak one language.

Just wondering :)

[thrpschr]

Thank you! :)

No, I started learing English in school - we all do, it's compulsory from the third grade and all the way up through high school, so we generally are pretty good at English in Sweden. I read a lot of books in English, and I've been posting to international messageboards for several years, so I get a lot of practice. I don't speak English nearly as well as I write, though.

French or German (I think Spanish and possibly some other language is available at some schools, too) is more or less compulsory from the seventh to ninth grade, and most people continue with it in high school as well.

I have rather a knack for languages, so I took Italian, Latin and a tiny bit of classical Greek in high school, in addition to the German and English, but I don't remember a lot of Italian, and my German is frankly embarrassing - five years of German in school, and visits to my father who has lived in Germany since I was eleven, really ought to have made it a lot better than it is.

[river_roane]

I've often been curious about that, too. I have a friend here who is from Sweden, and she speaks English perfectly and understands everything that I say to her. I usually forget that it's not her first language. I'm always surprised when she uses words that I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to say in French, which is the only other language I speak.

I wish America was better about the bilingual issue. I took French from 3rd grade until 9th, and I didn't even know how to use the past tense until I actually got to a school in France, my 10th grade year. It really was embarrassing.

[thrpschr]

I think the main reason we're generally good with other languages is that our own language is so small, to be honest. I'd guess that there are about ten million people in the entire world who speak Swedish, at most, so it just isn't possible, in these days, to live your whole life speaking and understanding only Swedish, the way it is if your native language is English