[Leica] Re: Language confusion

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Aug 28, 2006, at 8:12 AM, Daniel wrote:

> When my first child was born I was already proficient in Swedish, to
> put it mildly (I have been the expert representative for the Swedish
> language in EU research projects contexts).
>
> But I decided that I would never be able to get mad at them in Swedish
> and we all know, you have to be able to get mad at your children. So I
> decided to speak English and nothing else to them from day one.
>
> I did this with all three children. They grew up not realizing that
> there were two languages, English and Swedish. When my wife and I
> would take Simon on an even stroll and pass under street lights that
> would cast each of our shadows in front of him, he would say: Mammas
> skugga, pappa's shadow. (skugga is the Swedish equivalent of shadow).
>
> But they would not speak to me in English. They figured that I
> understood Swedish (they heard Ewa and I interact and heard others
> interact in Swedish with me) so why bother?
>
> At times I'd try and get them to speak English. They'd look at me
> totally confused: What _is_ it that this guy wants? They simply didn't
> fathom that there were two languages.
>
> "You know, mamma says "soffa" and pappa says "coach", now that's what
> I mean by "English", now say something in English."


Interesting story.

My first real job after I got my graduate degree was to teach an  
advanced course at the University of Lund, near Malmo, Sweden. The  
course was taught in English, a language that most of the students  
understood fairly well. The reason for the use of English was  
twofold. I didn't speak Swedish and few textbooks beyond  
undergraduate level were published in Swedish. By the end of the  
semester, things had even out a bit. I spoke enough Pidgen Swedish to  
be understood at the local cafe and the student's English had  
improved markedly. Malmo, the town I lived in, is in the flat  
southern region of Sweden called Scone. It was under Danish  
domination for years and the Swedish spoken there has a strong  
accent, grating to Stockholm attuned ears. Swedish colleges feature a  
gala Spring celebration at the end of the year, punctuated by dances,  
beer fests, and an eventual rise in the birth rate. At one of these  
dances, I found myself in the arms of a beautiful blond goddess from  
the rival university in Stockholm. Seeking to impress her with my new  
language facility, I whispered a few suggestive nothings in her ear.  
She pulled back in surprise. "Oh," she said, "I didn't know you spoke  
Danish."

Well, it was funny at the time.

My wife is Norwegian so I hear all sorts of Ole and Lena jokes.

To keep this on topic, I was able to buy one of the first M3s  
(#702xxx) with a collapsible Summicron for the price of three tanks  
of gas for my small car.

Larry Z