Well THAT Explains it Then ..

So the whole time I've been here, no one's been able to articulate WHY swedes switch to english at the first possible chance. I just assumed it was because my swedish was SO horrible that they had trouble understanding. In fact it's nothing to do with the quality of the swedish, but the accent.

C got in yesterday, YEAH! We went to see Hitch. Okay, I know it's a chick flick, but I'd heard great things. Plus, who can discount a movie will Will Smith. The website's pretty tight btw. I love that flash finally caught on. Anyways, we went to see movieage, to hang out, but also to keep C to thwart the evil and ever impending JET LAG. I don't even bother with the swedish at the ticket counter because they ask like 23957884570857 2857028457 2387 questions. We've assigned seating here, so they tend to ask where you want to sit, what aisle, what seat number, what house venus is in and the complimentary alignment of mars to get a seat. Thus I don't even try.

The Snack bar, completely different story. YOu can just order a combination menu and drink, "Kan jag fa en stor meny med cola light." eller "Kan jag fa varmeny/mellan meny med cola light." you say it (phonetic), Caun ya fo'a en stoor men-ee me'ed coo'la la'eet" Then they respond, "eh de bro so." (which is really, ar det bra sa) meaning is that good(all)? The great thing about being in stockholm is you can just go 'ah' or 'yup' for a yeah that's good thanks. You exchange food stuffs and monies with a tack (thanks). and head on in.

Well, yesterday the jetlag got the best of C. She forgot the word for lemon, citron. She ordered a Vichy, and they are ALL flavored with lemon. So she got passed the lemon part, but then the nice sales person was all, well lemon with what, listing all the variations. C hesitation for one second and order a lemon with lingon i think. Anyways, we were laughing about it as she served us our food, teasing each other in english.

The sales person said that it was good we try to practice our swedish. She said this in swedish. I caught the gist, but I didn't know if she wanted a response. Then she switched to english to say we'd done well. I piped up saying how it was great to practice, but that most people just switch to english b/c my swedish sucks.

She said that's not the case, actually. Apparently the heavy american accent makes it sound like we speak english, or they associate the words with english, so they respond accordingly. She said that americans usually take it as the swedes being rude, but that it's not intentional. She said for SOME swedes, though, it's much easier to just take it in english, so they do that.

It was a good experience though, to know the swedes don't spite me and attempt to undermine my swedish learning skillage.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

~B