Posts in December 2008

Julmarknad and “skriva ihop”

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
16
2008

This year, because I was away, I missed our local julmarknad. No big deal, really, because it’s tiny and not all that interesting (went last year, and the year before, and the year before-before, and so on) and held only during one weekend at our local skansen-type attraction – Gammlia. Yet, the official city hall statistics say that this year over 32 000 people visited the julmarknad. Which means either it was super-fabulous, or simply shows you just how little else is there to do in December.


Taken at least year’s mini-julmarknad downtown.

Anyway, what’s “julmarknad”? A Christmas market, of course.

  • jul (def. julen, pl. jular, def. pl. jularna) – en högtid som firar Kristi födelse kring 25 december - Christmas
  • marknad (def. marknaden, pl. marknader, def. pl. marknaderna) - ställe där folk samlas för att köpa och sälja saker – market

You add these two words together and end up with “julmarknad.” Easy, isn’t it?
And do you notice how this “double” word is written together, without a space between the compound nouns? Most of those “new” words made by putting together other words are written “together.” Of course, there are exceptions, after all we wouldn’t need to learn any grammar whatsoever if there were no exceptions the rules, right?

So, this rule in Swedish is drilled into kids as “skriva ihop” meaning simply “write together.” Luckily, Swedish is a lot more sensible than German and rarely will you see those massive words than can go on for a whole line of text.

Here are other “written together” words appropriate for the season:

  • julafton – Christmas eve, Dec 24.
  • julbock – traditional Christmas goat (made out of straw)
  • julbord – Christmas buffet
  • juldag – Christmas day
  • julgran – Christmas tree
  • julgransbelysning – Christmas tree lights (this word consists of not two, but three separate nouns: jul+gran+belysning)
  • julklapp – Christmas present
  • julkort – Christmas card
  • jullov – Christmas (school) break
  • julmust – traditional Swedish soft drink that people drink during Christmas time, personally can’t stand the thing, tastes a bit like root beer.
  • jultomte – Santa Claus
  • jultid – Christmas time

And how do you figure out if these nouns are “en” or “ett”? Quite simple. The last word in the compound noun rules. So, “julafton” is an “en” noun, but “julbord” is an “ett” noun.

Oh, and one more thing. Notice that “jul” in Swedish doesn’t have to be capitalized. In English we write “Christmas.” In Swedish, it’s simply “jul.”

 
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Sankta Lucia!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
12
2008

Tomorrow’s the celebration of St. Lucia (no, I am NOT talking about that happy island in the Caribbean) but unfortunately, I am not in Sweden and will have to miss it this year. Bummer.

So what’s the big deal with Saint Lucy’s celebration? You know the stuff you hear about Swedes parading with candles (lit candles, no less!) stuck to their heads? Well, St. Lucy’s is the day to do that.

The lady is one of the very few Catholic saints that are celebrated by the Lutheran church. Back in the olden days, her feast coincided with the longest, darkest day of the year, but then when the calendar changed from the unreformed Julian to what we have now, her day ended up on December 13th. The story of St. Lucy is rather gory and I’m not going to tell it here, but if you’re into that sort of stuff – check it out. What you do need to know is that in Latin, her name shares the root with “lux” meaning “light” and that’s the excuse for the candles in the hair that are being sported on St. Lucy’s day in Scandinavia.

Ok, so how does it work really? In English, I think you could say this would be a musical pageant of sorts. In Swedish it is know as “luciatåg” (Lucia train) and it’s taken very seriously. It’s done all over the place – from kindergartens to churches to shopping malls. And of course, the star of the show is the girl (or a young woman) with the candles on her head.

Just watch the clip below, you’ll see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi2J0ihhhsw

And here’s a recap in Swedish:

Luciatågets viktigaste person är lucian. Lucian är en en flicka eller ung kvinna. Under intåget går lucian främst. I sitt följe har hon vanligen 4-20 tärnor som också är flickor eller unga kvinnor och som vanligen följer lucian parvis. Ibland förekommer även stjärngossar som är pojkar eller unga män.

If I remember correctly, there are three different version of the Lucia song, but the version that I am most familiar with is this:

Natten går tunga fjät
runt gård och stuga.
Kring jord som sol´n förgät
skuggorna ruva.
Då i vårt mörka hus
stiger med tända ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Natten är stor och stum
nu hör det svingar
i alla tysta rum
sus som av vingar.
Se, på vår tröskel står
vitklädd, med ljus i hår.
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Mörkret skall flykta snart
ur jordens dalar.
Så hon ett underbart
ord till oss talar.
Dagen skall åter ny
stiga ur rosig sky.
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Have a safe St. Lucy’s celebration! Remember – the lady brings light with her. Soon the days will start getting longer again!

 
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It’s Banquet Time!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
10
2008

When you read it I will be in Stockholm. Many other people will be in Stockholm, too. In fact, Stockholm will be pretty crowded on December 10th. Why? It’s the Nobel Prize official Award ceremony. Sadly, I won’t be attending. Instead, I will be on my way to Skavsta Airport. Oh well, that two hour bus ride from Stockholm City is as much fun as attending a posh event, right?

All kidding aside, last weekend was a busy one in Stockholm. According to the Nobel Foundation statutes, the Nobel Laureates are required to “give a public lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded”. And that’s exactly what they were doing on Sunday and Monday. Sadly, once again, I wasn’t attending.

But lectures are generally boring, even if given by Nobel Prize winners. The event that everyone is waiting for is the big bash on the 10th. First, there’s the official Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature as well as the Economics Prize award presenting ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The Peace Prize is done in Oslo, because we wouldn’t want them Norwegians to forget they used to be part of the Swedish Kingdom once upon a time, too.

After everyone gets their royal handshake and a golden statuette (oh, wait, that’s a whole different award ceremony! My bad!), ok, after they get whatever it is they are given out (apart from their checks for hefty sums of money), it’s major chow time. The banquet that follows the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony is held in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall. Here, 1,300 guests in their formal best dine in a splendid setting. From the flower arrangements to the food, wine, dessert and divertissement - everything is meticulously planned to make the Nobel Banquet a memorable experience.

And guess what? One of the people involved in this major event is a northern girl from a town not very far from where I live. Her name is Kristina Stenbro and she will be one of the head waiters (hovmästare) at the banquet.

Kristina is a teacher at a restaurant school in a tiny town of Arvidsjaur (basically, a back-of-northern-beyond kind of town) and she will be joined by six of her students. There were supposed to be seven, but one freaked out due to the pressure.

Here’s the article about the lady that appeared in our local newspaper yesterday. It’s written in fairly easy and uncomplicated Swedish, which just proves that even with limited Swedish skills you can try reading regular newspapers.

And to Kristina – lycka till!

Here she is at work.

But what’s up with those ugly, ugly chairs? Huh?

PS. You can watch both the ceremony and the banquet on TV (if you’re in Sweden) or live on the internet at Nobelprize.org.

image: VK

 
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Swedish Verbs part 3

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
5
2008

Luke from Sydney had a question about verbs. He wanted to know if all Swedish verbs end in “a” – that is something I briefly touched upon in the Swedish verbs part 2 post a while back.

So let’s review:

No, not all Swedish verbs end in “a.” Some end in other vowels. And some end in “s.” But it does indeed seem like almost all Swedish verbs have the “a” ending, simply because the great majority of them ends in “a.”

So, what are the verbs that end in other vowels? Those are those short, irregular verbs that I mentioned in the post referenced above.

Some of those verbs end in “e” – for example:

  • se – to see
  • ge – to give
  • be – to beg/request
  • le – to smile

A few end in “å” – for example:

  • gå – to go
  • må – to feel (when talking about health)
  • stå – to stand
  • få – to get/receive
  • slå – to hit/ to strike

And a few end in other vowels:

  • sy – to sew
  • bo – to live/reside
  • dö – to die
  • tro – to believe/ to think
  • bli – to become
  • klä – to dress
  • fly – to flee

But then there are also other verbs that don’t end in a vowel. Instead, they end in “s.”
These are funky little verbs that normally bring quite a lot of grief to Swedish learners. Why? Some verbs get “s” at the end to express a passive voice. But some have that “s” ending and are not passive in meaning. Such verbs that are passive in form, but active in meaning are called deponent verbs, and unfortunately Swedish is full of them.

Below are some of the most common ones:

  • hoppas – to hope
  • minnas – to remember, recall
  • andas – to breathe
  • finnas – to be (exist) – probably the most common of the bunch, You will see it in plenty of expressions, such as for example: Det finns + noun – There is + noun.
  • trivas – to feel at home, to get along

And there are many more.

So as you can see, not all Swedish verbs end in “a” even though it may seem so at first.

 
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You Will Be Assimilated

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
3
2008

Resistance is futile.

Oh, wait! That’s a different movie!

I was going to write about something else, but then I started to read The Local, (because someone sent me a link to one of their articles – an opinion poll on the Swedish language) and now today’s topic has changed.

I don’t normally read The Local, because I have very little need for it at this point, but once in a while when I have to, it proves to be a very edifying read. So, what is The Local? In short, it’s an internet newspaper about Sweden in English. Put out by expats for expats. And it’s that expat perspective that sooner or later gets to you.

True, The Local might be the only way that fresh arrivals to Sweden can access any sort of news in English. But that’s not really true, SR (Swedish Radio) also has English language news, and they are not as biased as what The Local presents.

After a while you will notice the pattern – it’s always about how hard Swedish is, what a strange foreign country Sweden is, what odd creatures the natives are. And though I can almost agree with the last bit – they do seem odd until you get to know them, a steady diet of such info can really affect a person’s perspective – in a very wrong way.

I strongly believe that the sooner new immigrants can break the grip of The Local, start reading Swedish newspapers and forming their own unbiased opinions about the country, the sooner they will feel at home in Sweden.

It’s not as if Sweden was some wild, undeveloped country (with sincere apologies to all wild and undeveloped countries out there) – it’s a mainstream, western, European nation not that different from other mainstream, western nations. It might have a few quirks here and there, but all countries have them. That’s what makes them special.

You’re stuck in The Local rut but want to learn Swedish? Then make friends with the natives. How? Talk to them! It’s not as hard as it sounds. They may seem shy and skittish at first, but get a six-pack (though even half a pack will do, really) into any Swede and his/her cold, icy exterior melts to reveal a funny and engaging personality underneath. This is the ideal season to meet people. There are parties going on practically everywhere. And despite their tough appearances, Swedes are very curious people – chances are they WANT to meet you and talk to you, they’re just painfully shy and don’t know how to begin.

If you’ve come to Sweden to be with your Swedish partner, you already have a built-in support network at home. Use it! There are many of us who didn’t have that luxury and had to assimilate the hard way. But then again, how hard is it to make a new life in a modern, developed western nation when you yourself come from a modern, developed western nation? Or even from a modern, developed eastern nation, for that matter.

So, when you read The Local, take its opinion on expat life with a grain of salt. And then go out and form your own opinions on Sweden, Swedes and Swedish.

The Local does serve a purpose, it helps to make the initial transition from an English speaking environment to a Swedish one a little bit easier. Heck, our own regional newspapers could use a weekly section in English to cater to the rather larger foreign population in Västerbotten. But once you become proficient in Swedish, it is essential that you embrace the new language, and make every effort to use it on a daily basis. Even if it means getting your news in Swedish. Even if when you speak Swedish with a thick foreign accent, people automatically answer you in English. Don’t give up. The sooner you take that plunge, the sooner you will begin to feel at home in Sweden. Tough love baby, tough love…

PS. And I feel like a total hypocrite giving this pep talk, because I have one of those whiny and complaining expats at home. And he stubbornly refuses to take my advice.

 
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