This post will be in Dutch, look at the bottom for an English translation of the introduction. Swedes can read parts of the Dutch text also.

Gisteren is het Nederlandse woordenboek binnengekomen, voor Zweden wel te verstaan; Nederländska fickordbok. Zodat Frida de Nederlandse grammatica achterin in het Zweeds kan leren, wel zo makkelijk.

En achterin hebben ze ook heel handig een lijst voor in een restaurant of voor de ingrediëntenlijst geplaatst. Van Nederlands naar Zweeds, zodat je op een pak de ingrediënten in het Nederlands kunt lezen en dan weet wat dat eigenlijk betekent. Het leuke.. al die typische Nederlandse recepten die geen directe vertaling hebben, worden hier netjes uitgelegt :)

• Haagse hopjes: hårda karameller med kaffesmak
• hagelslag: (choklad)strössel som äts på smörgås som pålägg
• Hollandse nieuwe: holländsk matjessill (jämför maatjesharing nedan)
• hutspot: maträtt bestående av kokt potatis, morötter, lök och kött
• krentenbol: litet runt matbröd med korinter i
• kroepoek: indonesiska chipsliknande tilltugg av fisk, kött eller frukt
• maatjesharing (vervolg van Hollandse nieuwe): matjessill (med skarpare fisksmak och mindre kryddsmak än den svenska motsvarigheten); köps ofta i stånd utomhus
• moorkop: chokladtäckt petit-chou med gräddfyllning
• oliebol: friterar bakverk i form av en boll, pudrat med florsocker, som främst äts vid nyår
• pepernoot: kryddad sötsak som främst äts i början av december i samband med S:t Nikolausfesten
• stroopwafel: dubbel, hård våffla med sirapsfyllning
• taaitaai: mjuk, seg pepparkaka
• vla: kräm som äts till efterrätt

Gelukkig is het andersom nog veel ‘erger’. De lijst van Zweedse recepten met de Nederlandse uitleg is veel langer, omdat bijna elk product een flinke uitleg nodig heeft om in het Nederlands begrijpelijk te zijn. Heeft Zweden een rijkere culinaire cultuur?

En dan de standaardzinnetjes natuurlijk. Hoe zeg ik x in het Nederlands (iks). Wat de mensen van dit woordenboek die arme Zweden allemaal aandoen..

• Uit eten; Wat wilt u drinken? “Een pils, alstublieft.”
• Op reis; “Wilt u me bij de volgende halte laten uitstappen?”
• Apoteek/Ziekenhuis; “Kunt u mij iets tegen hoesten/keelpijn/zonnebrand aanbevelen?”

Dat wordt nog wat..

—–

Yesterday, the Dutch dictionary came in. The one for Swedes. So Frida can learn the Dutch grammar in Swedish. The dictionary included a list of typical Dutch food and recipies, with their explanation in Swedish. Quite funny to see how some of those typical Dutch things are translated :) And also the default sentences that these kind of books give you, like “Can you tell me where the trainstation is?”. Only some of them are a bit strange/old, or just wrong. Lets hope that all goes well..

One research was investigating the (Hofstede’s) culture dimensions (like individualism – collectivism, femininity – masculinity, long-term – short-term orientation) and how they applied to exchange students. Otherwise said, is it so that people from the ‘travellers country’ have another scale on the culture dimensions? :) And, although the research has some limitations, it showed that for example people from this travellers country were more individualistic – not surprisingly of course.

A lot of the other research also showed a difficulty in research and culture and language. When research about stress and burnout for example, might it be the case that American people experience something else than Swedes. And thus that when it turns out that American people are more stressed and have more burnouts than Swedes (according to this research), that that is because they see more situations as stressing and/or have a different understanding of the ‘same’ word.

In the train back to Eskilstuna a guy was offering his newspaper back to some elder couple opposite to him; he probably borrowed it earlier. After they said that that wasn’t neseccary he said “tack så mycket” (“thanks you very much”, in Dutch you would probably say “heel erg bedankt” or “dank u zeer”). To me, that sounded a bit too much for just getting a newspaper in general, but it might be influenced by the fact that the people were older, more ‘respect’ for elder people? Or a different understanding of the same language? Maybe in Swedish it is more common to speak like that..

Eldflugor och Odågor (picture from eldflugor.se)

There was a concert last Sunday were I went with Frida. It was from 6 girls, Google Translate said they called themselves Firefox and Waster (Eldflugor och Odågor), singing songs, mostly a cappella, some with addition of drums.

Most of the songs were in Swedish so I didn’t understand the words, but I could understand the feeling sometimes. A bit like Evelyn Glennie showed on TED.

It also was a great place there, good atmosphere. I think it was a living and working community (is that a correct term in English?). And there was a ecological shop in this building, finally with really good goods. Too bad it is in Uppsala which costs about €30,- to travel to..

It was great to travel this whole day. Although not as far as Nikki is traveling, I finally see some other places then only Eskilstuna and Västerås. And also that the good day is more than the goal your going to (the concert), it is also the travel, the things you see, the talks you have, what you think about..

On the way back there was this flyer on the streets of Uppsala. Some flyer from the International Womans Day. On the front it had a quote:

“Det är tur att vi finns, men det är en skam att vi behövs!”

I, apparently with my cultural background, read something like ‘man are scum and we behave’. Ohoh, don’t read that! Too late :) Not, it was more something like ‘it is good that we exist, but a shame that we are needed!’, about the womans organization behind this flyer.

It was good for me to list again what it was that I came to do here. Which in the end turned out to be 1) rest, 2) the intercultural leadership courses, 3) some unfinished assignments for the HKU. So all the rest, all the projects and nice activities, is not part of that. Learning the Swedish language came from the affection with Sweden I think, and it is absolutely nice to learn, but again, not priority. So I should stop it. So I did :)

And that same day, when I received a SMS (hm, in English that is called ‘text’ I think) in Swedish, I could completely read it, just taking all the time to understand every part of it. It felt like when I took the pressure off, it suddenly goes way easier. Not that surprisingly, but very nice to notice.

The last weeks I’ve started to more and more direct act on my feelings which feels very good to do. A lot of stress gets off, things don’t pile up in my head anymore. Write down that thing what I have to do, speak out what I feel, go outside when I feel like, eat when I’m hungry. And now that I do it my feelings help me even more. I’ve noticed a pretty uneasy feeling when I don’t act on a feeling.

Act! Just do it!

Hej, jag heter Lode

The result of my first Swedish class. It is a bit strange to sit in a classroom and repeat the alphabet after the teacher.. :) Useful though, not all letters are that easy.

I think you can understand most of the preceding message. I had to ask what the following were:

• bor = live
• på = on
• tyska = german

The y remains hard, you start it as an i but end speaking an u. And now I know when the k is pronounced in different ways. Normal usage is like ‘kå’, like ko(a). But when preceding the e, i, y, ä, or ö you pronounce it more as ‘sj’, like hemsjöp (the supermarkt I usally go to).

I’m following the level 2 courses at the same time as the level 1 goes a bit too slow and level 2 is simple enough to follow, at the moment anyway :)

This has the same reason as the dark video I made of the apartment; I haven’t been home a lot during daytime.

I live in a very multicultural neighborhood as you can see, good for my study :)

Today I went to people from Sri Lanka. A mother and two (två) boys. The older boy translated a lot for us, he could speak English very well, he learned that in India. But he is better in Swedish he said, he’s following classes since they came here 8 months ago.

I got good noodles, chai tea and biscuits from them :) With the mother I spend some time looking at her Swedish lesson books. Very interesting to learn a few more words this way. Some basic things like jag, du, han, hon, det, de, vi, oss (I, you, he, she, it, they, we, us). And I always fall in love with the Tamil script :)

And I’ve been on the phone with friends from the Netherlands for over an hour, haha. It is hard to leave those friends in the Netherlands who I also only know for a few months or even weeks but who are so close. Homesickness? No, I don’t think it is in a sad way, but just thinking about them.

• ä is pronounced as e
• å is pronounced as ó (oo)
• ö is pronounced as eu

And some more less important for reading:

• y is pronounced as uu
• v is pronounced as w
• g is pronounced as the g in ‘good’
• the e and the end of words is pronounced as an ‘e’ instead of a ‘u’ in most Dutch cases

Try it:

• föreningar
• borgmästare
• karriär
• invånare
• contrasterna
• trådlösa

Answers after the beep.

Did you do well?

• vereniging
• burgemeester
• carrière
• inwoners
• contrast
• draadloze

Then I only stumble upon those little words. Commonly used but pretty unknown to me. And I need to learn to speak it :)