Use it or lose it!

I have been practicing my Swedish somewhat sporadically through much of my adult life, but over the past 15 years or so have worked fairly consistently at it. I've been using Duolingo for absolutely years (my current streak is 870 days!), but also listen to Swedish radio podcasts regularly nowadays, as well as watching some TV progammes in Swedish (generally via svt.se or tv4play.se, sometimes on Netflix) - although much of the content is restricted and can't be viewed outside Sweden, sadly. In Sweden last week I finally

got to start watching the latest series of a programme I like - but only got through one episode before my ipad got hijacked by a daughter, not to be returned to me until we were back in the UK… I've got a rather good collection of Swedish novels which I've built up gradually - and with my new bedtime routine ensuring I have reading time (almost) every evening, I had nearly caught up on my stash of unread books just in time for my trip there! I may have gotten slightly carried away (at least, I’m sure that’s what my husband thinks!) but I have enough new books to keep me going for a bit longer now… (In my defence, I’ve already finished two of the new pile, so they won’t last too long really.)

One of my favourite authors, Fredrick Backman, has had a number of his books adapted for film or TV. I first watched the Swedich film of A Man Called Ove but was rather disappointed with it and felt it really didn't do justice to the main character. I'm looking forward to seeing the Tom Hanks version, retitled to A Man Called Otto, as the trailers that I've seen so far completely support my view that Hanks is the ideal person to play the role, and will be able to bring Ove/Otto to life as the curmudgeon with a heart of gold.

The adaptation of Britt-Marie was here (previously available on BBC iPlayer) was a much better experience; I still prefer the book, but Britt-Marie was portrayed sympathetically, and the viewers were able to understand her and the difficult situtation she found herself in. Beartown has also been made into a TV series, but is sadly not available in the UK. And then a couple of months ago, I discovered there was a TV adaptation of Folk med ångest (Anxious People), so I settled down to watch it. It's a fun story of a bank robbery gone wrong which leads to an accidental hostage situation at an open house viewing. Once the apartment is emptied, the police are left trying to work out who the bank robber turned hostage taker was. My beloved hadn't particularly intended to watch it with me but found himself being drawn in to the story and had several attempts at working out whodunnit and how! For anyone who's read the book, this is definitely still very worth watching for a few hours of fun entertainment.

By far the most scary bit of learning a language for me is having a conversation with native speakers. Nowadays I'm fairly confident dealing with strangers - I can check and out of hotels, order food, and go to a supermarket without any problems. I can even talk to book shop staff and ask for recommendations (thanks to my Beloved's encouragement last time we were in Gothenburg, as I wouldn't have dared otherwise!). But what I've always been very nervous of is speaking to my own relatives in Swedish. It's daft - they of all people would be delighted, and would be utterly supportive and unfussed about any mistakes. But somehow that's just the scariest thing. Last time I saw them, I was sitting with one of my cousins for the meal after my uncle's wedding; we very quickly settled into a bilingual conversation in which we each spoke our own language, as we could understand one another fine but weren't brave enough to speak the other language. This time, however, I was determined not to chicken out - and I didn’t! I had some level of conversation with more than ten of my relatives, and not one of them laughed at my attempts :D So I think it’s safe to say I’ve got over my nervous block now!

Now I’m planning on continuing my Duolingo streak, continuing to read and listen to Swedish things, and hoping I can continue speaking to my mum in Swedish where possible… (Om du läser det här mamma, snälla…?)