Posts from September 2010

Hej from a brand-new member!

Posted by Steve 22 Comments
Sep 29 2010

My name is Steve, and I’m happy to announce that I’ve just joined the Swedish Blog Team here at Transparent.com! From now on, I’ll be posting video entries to assist you in your studies of Sweden and its wonderful language and culture. I guess a better way to introduce myself might be to present to you my first video for the blog! Here it is; hope you like it!

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Notes:

Most common ‘hello’ phrases:

  • Hej!
  • Hejsan!
  • Tja!
  • Tjena!
  • Tjenare!
  • Hallå! (Slightly more formal)

Ways to announce your name:

  • Jag heter [name].
  • Mitt namn är [name].

To tell your birth date:

  • Jag är född den [date (ordinal form)] [month], [year]. (Literally: I was born on… / Verb ‘vara’ is in present tense as ‘är’, not past tense as ‘var’.)

To state your age:

  • Jag är [age].
  • Jag är [age] år.
  • Jag är [age] år gammal. (gammal = old)

To say where you live:

  • Jag bor i [name of city/country].

Nice to meet you!:

  • Trevligt att träffas!
  • Kul att ses!

Daniella’s full introduction (for reference):

  • Hejsan! – Hello!
  • Jag heter Daniella, och jag bor i Uppsala i Sverige. – My name is Daniella, and I live in Uppsala, Sweden.
  • Jag är född den 19:e (nittonde) oktober, 1990 (nittonhundranittio), – I was born on the 19th of October, 1990,
  • så jag är 19 (nitton) år gammal. – so I am 19 years old.

Extra words in this lesson:

  • Hejdå! – Goodbye!/Bye!
  • Detsamma – The same to you!

Thanks for watching, and I hope that you have enjoyed and learned from this first video! There should be more along the way soon, so check back within the next few weeks to learn more. And of course, pay the other bloggers a visit, too!

Leave a comment on this post if you have any questions and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Also, don’t be afraid to leave some of your thoughts about the video; some constructive criticism might come to be very helpful!

Hejdå!

The Right to Public Access – Allemansrätten

Posted by Marcus Cederström 5 Comments
Sep 27 2010

The natural wonders of Sweden seem to be never ending.  There are the gorgeous forests of southern Sweden, the archipelago of Stockholm, the mountains of northern Sweden.  Countless rivers and lakes and islands dot the landscape.  It’s beautiful.  And it’s open to everyone.

Allemansrätten is the right to public access.  It essentially gives people the right to camp just about anywhere in Sweden for a night or two as long as nature is not disturbed (or the land owner for that matter).  It’s the classic leave no trace philosophy extended and thus opening up an entire country to whoever wants to take advantage.  And it’s amazing.  If you’ve got yourself a tent, a sleeping bag, and enough provisions to last a night or two, there is no better get away.  It’s how I found myself waking up to the sun rise on a lake formed by a meteor millions of years ago.  One of those moments I will never forget.

I have never been to northern Sweden. I lived in Stockholm for three years and the farthest north I made it was Östersund.  Kind of north, but not Arctic Circle north.  I’ve explored islands, I’ve sailed the archipelago, I’ve camped on a lake in Dalarna, but I never made it to the Arctic Circle.  The Arctic summer is calling for me though.  One day, someday, but it will have to wait.  Luckily, I know that I will have Allemansrätten there waiting for me.

Where in Sweden do you want to visit?

Thanks

Posted by Katja 2 Comments
Sep 27 2010

Thanks Everybody for all your input! Comments and personal experiences always give a bigger and more interesting dimention to whatever article, post or discussion. Continue the good reading,                SBT

(Swedish Blog Team)

Why I Study Sweden

Posted by Marcus Cederström 28 Comments
Sep 24 2010

My mother is American, my father Swedish. For as long as I can remember, mamma speaks English with me, pappa speaks Swedish with me. It’s just the way of the world.

That world was turned upside down one day when I was about four. Being the oldest child, I also doubled as a guinea pig. So they decided to play a dirty trick on me. My mother, the American, spoke Swedish to me. My father, the Swede, spoke English to me. And I, the Swedish-American, was confused.

I refused to give in to their little games. I refused to respond in Swedish to my mother just as I refused to respond in English to my father. Pappa spoke Swedish to me, and I responded to him in Swedish. Mamma spoke English to me, and I responded to her in English. My four year old brain couldn’t handle responding to the wrong parent in the wrong language.

To suggest that this was some sort of watershed moment for me would be to exaggerate. I don’t remember this happening. Instead, I have heard the story more times than I can count from my parents, who always have a strange look of satisfaction and demonstrate just a hint of schadenfreude when they tell the story. My family ended up moving to the US and I fell into the habit of responding to my father in English, despite him always prattling on in Swedish. Apparently my 16 year old brain and my four year old brain were not quite the same. Strange, I know.

But the story sticks with me. Especially now, as I continue to study Scandinavia, Sweden, and the Swedish language. The household that I grew up in, with Swedish and English flowing freely from both parents, has followed me. It is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful reasons for my continued study. Why I moved to Sweden. Why I moved back to the US. Why I do what I do. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. But it leads me to a question… why are you here? What has drawn you to Sweden and the Swedish language? We all have our reasons, I’d love to hear yours!

Milkymee

Posted by Tibor 3 Comments
Sep 23 2010

In early 2008, I was sitting with one of my dear friends Emilie aka. Milkymee at work. She was telling me that she would record her second album in France and she was looking for new inspirations. I did not know back then that she had already released her first album in France. 

She asked me to try to write some lyrics for her. So I did it. She was an underground musician living and working in Sweden. She went off to Paris to launch her carrier as a singer later that year, but because of family reasons she was spending also periods in Gothenburg. A year later (I basically forgot our work togehter) she came home with an amazing news that she had met a director who wanted to listen to her demos at a party in Paris. And guess what! She handed over all her projects to him including our common song as well. And he liked it. The story is just as banal as it supposed to be. At least for me. As you see it on films.

So the song didn´t land on her second cd but in a French movie called Domaine, directed by the French-Austrian director Patrick Chiha and with the famous and controversial French actress Beatrice Dalle in the leading role. It was Dalle´s come back film in France after working many years in the U.S. If your are from Europe, you might have seen her breakthrough film or at least heard of Betty Blue 37,2 Le Matin. For my generation it was one of the cult movies.

The film was first presented in front of an international audience at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year and it went on touring in Belfort, San Fransisco, Budapest etc. Hopefully, we will see the film at Gothenburg Filmfestival in February 2011.

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Milkymee is now back in Sweden and I have asked her about how life is going in general with her;

-Milkymee: I stayed 5 months in Kyoto, Japan, at a place called Villa Kujoyama. It is an artistic residency where French artists are sent by the government in order to achieve a project linked to the japanese culture. I composed and wrote my third album there, together with a bunch of amazing japanese musicians. Coba, an accordion player who released 32 records and is well known in Japan. He is also known abroad for performing with Björk in the mid nineties. Nishi Hajime is a tsugaru shamisen player, Yamagushi Ryoji at the guitar and Maruta Miki with Jushichi-gen – 17 string Koto player, and Singer. With our extremely unique mix of pop, rock and traditional sounds we gleefully dynamite the rules of genre!

This record is gonna be released in 2011. Otherwise I also released my second record on the japanese territory, and toured in the whole country. It was simply crazy!

These days I continue my tour in France and I work together with different projects, amongst which the original soundtrack of a theater play by Théâtre témoin, a physical theater ensemble based in London.

Mostly, I spend my time playing and travelling, as I get most of my inspirations out of my travels.

Emi Hanak is Milkymee : http://www.milkymee.com
(Check the website! Soundz, videos, blog & more. New album: OUT NOW!)

If you want to win a CD signed by Milkymee just leave a message for us why you should be the one to win it. The deadline is 26 Sunday 2010, 12.00 C.E.T. Good Luck!

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