Posts in January 2009

Proper Swedish Pronunciation?

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
31
2009

A couple of weeks ago, I think it was Daniel, who mentioned that he would like to know how Swedish should be pronounced. I have not responded right away, simply because I was thinking about what the proper answer should be.

You see, there are as many ways to properly pronounce Swedish as there are regions in Sweden. People in Skåne say things their way, people in Jämtland say things their way and people on the border with Finland say things in a way that… oh well, I’m not even going there :)

My hairdresser is from Jämtland and her accent is so thick you could slice bread with it. I have seen and heard her switching between Swedish and English when other Swedish customers can’t understand her.

There is such an animal as rikssvenska (rikssvenska eller standardsvenska är det svenska standardspråket som talas i Sverige), and people do learn it in school, but what they learn and how they actually speak in daily life are two different things.
You see it even on TV. There is no one standard accent – different presenters and newscasters say things their way.

But compared to other languages (like English, for example) Swedish is pronounced pretty much the way it’s written.

There are certain rules and if you follow them, chances are people will understand you.
A good start to becoming familiar with how Swedish is pronounced is right to the right of this post. See that BYKI box with Swedish word lists? Give it a try, most of them have audio files so you can both read and hear the word or phrase listed.

Normally, the letter combinations that give Swedish learners the most trouble are:

  • sj – pronounced in as many ways as there are regions in Sweden (good examples are: sju, or sjuk, or the superhard - sjuksköterska)
  • kj, ke, ki, kö – these combinations can be tricky as well.
  • rs – this one can be confusing, because it not only applies when there is “rs” in the middle of a word, but also when one word ends in “r” and the next one begins with “s”

Try to find words with these letter combinations in the BYKI word lists to the right and listen carefully to how they should be pronounced in rikssvenska.

 
Posted under Geography, Vocabulary
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Yes, Sweden Is a Neutral Country

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
28
2009

I am very behind when it comes to entertainment news in the US, and only today finally managed to catch up on the whole Jessica Alba hullabaloo. And even then, it was only thanks to a very astute reader who sent me the story. Thanks! You know who you are.

What surprised me was just how many Americans think that Switzerland is the only neutral country in Europe. But what didn’t surprise me was how many of those Americans then went on to confuse Switzerland with Sweden.

But to set the record straight – yes, Sweden is indeed a neutral country, regardless of what some under-educated American talk show host thinks. Ms. Alba was right, and good for her.

But what desperately needs pointing out I think, are the differences between Switzerland and Sweden. Both countries are neutral, but that’s about all they have in common.
So, here we go:
Switzerland – only recently (December 12, 2008) finally joined the Schengen zone, not an EU member
Sweden – EU member, part of Schengen.

Switzerland – white cross on a red background
Sweden – yellow cross on a blue background

Switzerland – banking
Sweden – Vikings

Switzerland – Swiss watches and Swiss Army Knives
Sweden – Volvo, Saab and Draken fighter planes

Switzerland – yodeling
Sweden – ABBA

Switzerland – Swiss cheese
Sweden – surströmming

Switzerland –Swiss chocolate
Sweden – Marabou (Mmmm, mmmm…)

Switzerland – Roger Federer
Sweden – Björn Borg

Switzerland – Ursula Andress
Sweden – Izabella Scorupco

Switzerland – not so keen on immigrants applying for Swiss citizenship
Sweden – welcomes immigrants and happily allows them to become Swedish (after residency requirements have been fulfilled)

Switzerland – not really sure who’s in charge over there
Sweden – the royal family (they’re not in charge, but at least they look good on postcards)

Switzerland – the Alps
Sweden –mountains and everything else

Switzerland – Heidi
Sweden – Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump)

Switzerland – German, French, Italian and one other language that nobody ever heard of
Sweden – Swedish in all its many varieties

And now you should be able to easily distinguish between things Swiss and Swedish. And I don’t think I need to tell you which ones I personally prefer.

 
Posted under Culture
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When Daddies Take Care of Kids - Gender Equality

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
24
2009

I am back from my Caribbean adventure and it was indeed lovely. We didn’t meet any Swedes along the way. Instead, we ran into two Norwegians while driving to Half Moon Bay in Antigua. So that was our Scandinavian connection for the week.

It was an interesting trip, but the most interesting bit happened in Europe – at Heathrow in London.

We were somewhere in Terminal 3 deciding what should we get to eat when a couple with a baby appeared. Or rather, a woman holding a baby followed at a safe distance by a man. In addition to holding the baby, which was screaming quite loudly, the woman was also carrying a blanket, a bag, and a bigger bag with all the baby paraphernalia. The man was just fiddling with his cellphone.

The woman sat down next to us, and while rocking the baby in one arm, she reached with her free hand into the big bag, pulled out a small box of ready-made formula, opened it using her teeth, then fished out a baby bottle, unscrewed the top, poured the formula in, and screwed the top back on. Mind, you she was doing all this with only one free hand.

The baby was still screaming and the husband was suddenly very interested in his newspaper.

The woman fished out a thermos out of the baby bag. She opened it, poured some hot water into the cup and put the bottle into the cup to warm up the milk. She did all this while cradling a screaming infant. She eventually ran out of hands and since I was sitting right next to her I offered to hold the baby so she could look for a clean diaper. Her husband was busy reading the sports section.

The woman handed me her baby, put the cup in which the bottle was warming up on the floor and having finally the use of both her hands back, expertly located a pack of diapers in the giant baby bag.

The husband turned to the comics page, totally ignoring his wife.

That was at Heathrow in London.

At Arlanda in Stockholm we witnessed this:

A young dad with an infant strapped to his chest and a backpack strapped to his back is walking back and forth, amusing the baby while the wife is sitting down reading a book.

He unstraps the baby and the backpack, locates a jar of baby food and with precision suggesting he’s done it many times before begins to feed the infant. The mother gets up and goes to buy a candy bar, for herself. The dad seems quite content to take care of the little one.

This is one part of the Swedish culture that I love and whole-heartedly embrace. The men pitch in and share the work with the women. They cook, clean and take care of the kids. They can take “paternity” leave and stay home with a kid, if the mother chooses to return to work early after the birth of the child.

The term for the maternity leave for daddies is pappaledig, and for mommies – mammaledig.

I Sverige har mamman eller pappan rätt att vara helt ledig (från jobbet) från barnets födelse fram till det är 18 månader.

And just so you can see for yourself how common and normal it is for daddies to be on baby duty, compare these signs:


Restrooms at Arlanda airport, terminal 4, between gates 38 and 40.

 
Posted under Culture
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How to Make Questions

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
20
2009

All this talk about how bad the economy is and how we are struggling in the midst of a serious recession, and guess who went on vacation?
Anna did!

When you read this post, I will be frolicking on the beaches of Antigua. Or maybe Barbuda. This year I decided not to use a Swedish tour operator, I’ve tried them all and they all offer the same vacation packages to the same destinations. More or less. This winter we thought to try something new and went with a British company. But no matter the vacation packager or charter provider, it was definitely time to escape the weather – the temperature dropped to minus 16C the morning we left.

But it’s not the weather I want to talk about today. Let’s talk about questions, instead.
Vad? What?
Exactly!

You can form questions in Swedish just as you do it in English.
Hur? How?

Easy!

The easiest type of a question is the yes/no type. Ja/nej-frågar. You ask a question and you can answer it with a simple “yes” or “no.”
You do it in Swedish by putting the verb at the very beginning of the sentence. And voila! There’s a question! No silly auxiliary verbs here like “do.” Just flip the word order.
For example:

  • Regnar det? – Is it raining?
  • Är du på jobbet? - Are you at work?
  • Gillar du musik? – Do you like music?

Easy peasy.

The more complicated type of question is a question-word question - frågeordsfråga.
This type of question can’t be answered with just “yes” or “no.” And to make this sort of question you use “question words.” Yes, those are those pesky little guys that ask for:
what, who, when, where, how and so on.

Let’s see how it works in practice. We need a sufficiently goofy example with lots of details. How about this:

  • Min syster äter en banan i köket på morgonen. – My sister eats a banana in the kitchen in the morning.

You can ask:

  • Vad gör hon? – What does she do? - Hon äter. – She eats.
  • Vem äter? – Who eats? - Min syster. – My sister.
  • Vad äter hon? – What does she eat? - En banan. – A banana.
  • När äter hon? – When does she eat? - På morgonen. – In the morning.
  • Var äter hon? – Where does she eat? - I köket. – In the kitchen.

See? Just like in English. The question word always comes first. Then comes the verb. And what does come after the verb? Always the subject. No other words are needed.

So, the order is like that:

  • Q Word + Verb + Subject + (object) + ?

The only exception to this order is when a question word is a subject in itself:

  • Vem jobbar nu? – Who’s working now?
  • Vad hände? – What happened?

See? Again, just like in English. Next time we will examine those question words in detail.

But first you need to ask:
Who is on vacation?
Anna is!

 
Posted under Grammar
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Sveriges ekonomi i kris

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
16
2009

Recently people have been asking me how the global economic crisis is affecting Sweden. It seems to me that many foreigners are under the impression that a state with a cradle-to-grave welfare scheme should be immune from the worldwide tumble.
Well, that impression is very mistaken. Welfare benefits don’t grow on trees, as some people seem to think. They come from our tax money that has made a trip through the system and now is coming out at the other end.

The economic crisis is hitting Sweden just as it’s hitting all other countries. Every day you read in the papers about new layoffs and job reductions.
Volvo plans 1 200 layoffs, 900 jobs to be cut at Karolinska, Telia-Sonera announces job cuts, OKB on the verge of bankruptcy, 18 000 layoffs in December, Swedish jobs moving abroad… And so on. The outlook for 2009 is grimmer than grim.

Yet many people don’t seem to be worried at all. They believe that having a permanent contract and belonging to a union will protect them from being laid off. I certainly hope that things will not get to the point that this belief will be put to the test.

At least in my neck of the wood, people go about spending money as usual. Shops are full of customers (but I’m not sure if they’re just looking or actually buying). Everyone I asked today was still going on their annual winter vacation. Many people actually waited till the very last minute to take advantage of, yes, you guessed it, last-minute deals.

“It may be the last holiday we can afford for quite some time,” one lady purchasing a vacation package at the Ticket.se office said out loud to no one in particular. I was waiting right behind her and we started to talk. Her husband works at the local Volvo factory and there’s trouble brewing. People will be let go.

Are worried about your personal finances and would like to get some tips on how to manage in this economy?

På konsumentverket.se kan du ladda ner en broschyr kallad “Koll på pengarna”, om du på allvar vill gå igenom din ekonomi.

 
Posted under Culture
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