Time to go outside!

Svamp

Languages are interesting. It shows how different interest areas are valued higher in some languages than others. Take "mushrooms", for example. Yes, of course there are different names of the mushrooms in the English language, but I find that it's only the gourmet lovers who actually use the different type of words. For most people, a mushroom is a mushroom! Ah ah. Not for a Swede. We would never go to a store and ask to buy "mushrooms". That's like going into a candy store asking for "candy". There are so many kinds to choose from!

Swedes are nature lovers, and one thing we love to do while out in the nature is to pick "mushrooms" (or blueberries, lingonberries etc). It's a big hobby. Many fanatics find their favourite spot in the woods to come back to year after year. And if you do find your gold mind (the chanterells are called "the gold of the forests") you don't tell anyone! Keep it a secret, so you can enjoy your variety of mushrooms to yourself!

Time to harvest the wild  delicacies is from later summer until frost. That's now! So here are some vocabulary for you:

• Plocka svamp - pick mushroom
• Lingon - lingonberry (Ikea sells this jam all over the world if you haven't tried it and if you don't live in Sweden)
• Vilse - lost
• Svampställe - favourite place for your mushroom picking
• Champinjon - champignon (or common mushroom)
• Kantarell - chanterell
• Karljohanssvamp - king bolete, or cepe
• Flugsvamp - death cap/fly agaric (non-edible)

If in Sweden: enjoy your time in the cool fresh fall air and make sure you look for the gold while in the woods!

Summer is over

A long summer has past and for Swedish2go it's been a summer filled with packing and moving. For the following year (until summer 2013), Swedish2go will have it's base out of Canada. That's the best part of new technology: it's totally global! You can learn just as much Swedish from Swedish2go no matter where in the world you or we are!

Why Canada? Swedish2go owner Åsa Bouck (me) is married to a Canadian and to get a portion of Canadian air, language (English) and culture into the family life, it's important with a real life experience. But Sweden is still our first choice home, and we'll be back!

So what's going on back in Sweden?

Kräftskiva! (=Crayfish party)

During August this is the most popular parties to get invited to. And if you are doing the very real thing, it's a full weekend event: putting out traps in the lake, collecting your crayfish in the night, cooking them alive the next day and enjoying it, off course together with white wine and snaps (special Scandinavian shooters) and singing while wearing funny paper hats (not just the kids). If living in Sweden or ever visiting Sweden in August, do your best to get invited to a Swede having kräftskiva!

Understand Swedish? Read this article about kräftskiva.

Surströmming! (= Rotten herring)

Well... the nice translation for it may not be rotten herring, but fermented Baltic herring. Agneta Lilja, Södertörns högskola is explaining that because of it's very special smell and flavour, it divides the population into two sides: for and against it. The author of the text can unfortunately not be proud and say that I've eaten or even smelled this delicacy. Here may be some of the reasons:

• It's rotten.
• It's not only fermenting before the conservation of it, but also inside the cans, making the cans round-shaped !
• It's such a pressure in the can when you open it that you're advised to open it outside and under water.
• You are after opening the can advised to eat the rotten herring inside, since it attracts too many flies.
• It stinks (says everyone, even the rotten fish-lovers).

I guess the reasons for why I should try it one day is:

• It's an old Swedish tradition.
• It tastes much better than it smells.
• You eat it with tasty sides like, flat bread, butter, onion and potatoes.
• It's cheap!

Therefore: don't miss out on neither kräftor (crayfish) nor surströmming if in Sweden during later August/September (that is the time of eating surströmming) if you want to be wild and crazy and experience true Swedish culture!

Read in Swedish about surströmming!

Swedish vocabulary for May happenings

Many people love this time of year in Sweden. The nature is exploding, the hockey interest is at its peak (world cup, this time in Stockholm!) and the music expectations are high (the Eurovision song contest is coming up). Here's therefor a list of useful and up to date Swedish terms to learn (not always litterally translated):

• Eurovision song contest = stora melodifestivalen (well mayby not formally, but gereally speaking)
• World cup of hockey = hockey VM
• Favorite to the gold = guldfavorit
• To win = att vinna
• To loose = att förlora
• To underestimate = att underskatta (exempelvis länder som Vitryssland)
• GO Sweden GO! = Heja Sverige!
• Blooming = blommar
• It's starting to get green = Det grönskar
• Bad weather = svenskt vårväder
• Barbeque = grilla
• Sit outside and eat, even though it's freezing = njuta av vårkvällen

So sit down and study this vocabulary and you'll be able to follow all the most important happenings in Sweden at the moment.

Hold the thumbs!

Sweden needs all the thumbs we can get - in a Europe cup of handball. This is a country full of handball fans - and we love our national team.

So the saying "Det viktigaste är inte att vinna utan att kämpa väl" (= The most important is not to win, but to try hard) does not apply here. That's just a sweet way of trying to teach the kids to be good losers - although once overheard a father saying in the gym by the 8-year old's soccer game: the most important is to win. Hmmm... the old saying was something like that, but not really.

By the way: Holding the thumbs is Swedes' way of showing hope and luck. Kind of like crossing your fingers in the English language (Swedes cross their fingers when telling a white lie, by the way!). So hold your thumbs hard, when Sweden needs all the wins they can get in a handball-crazy Europe. The importance is not to try hard - but to win!

Follow it on EHF Euro 2012

Happy New Year!

Gott nytt år!

New year's eve in Sweden: Party with friends, trerätters middag (= three course meal), filé of beef, lobster, champagne, fancy clothes, fire works, listening to the famous poem by Tennyson on TV from Skansen in Stockholm at midnight, read by the famous actor Jan Malmsjö, promising things that last till February (nyårslöfte)renovating the house (well, maybe not a wide spread tradition, but seems to happen quite a few years in our house) and skating.

Last year the kids could skate on the outside ice rink in the back yard, although this year with the mild weather, it's good that it's not too far to the indoor artificial ice.

Is the New Year tradition any different in your home country?

Julskinka, jansson, julmust, tomten och... Kalle Anka!

Celebrating Christmas in Sweden is not really like celebrating it somewhere else. I guess every culture has it's traditions and it's charm. Swedens maybe most different tradition on Christmas Eve (the big celebration day here) is watching Donald Duck on TV. Every Christmas Eve at 3 pm, half of Sweden's population sits down to seriously watch cartoons for one hour. Read more about this special habit, written by a non-Swede here.
Swedes don't eat turkey around Christmas. Not very many, anyway. Instead is the ham, julskinka, the main ingredient on the Christmas smorgasbord (which is one of few Swedish words exported to the English language). We drink julmust - don't miss to try that tasty soda, whenever you come to Sweden. It may be called påskmust (Easter must) or simply just must, if you're here at other times of the year.

As in many countries, Christmas has a lot of food-traditions. But it's so much more. It means family, sharing, giving, spending time together. It's time for happiness and to see the children laugh.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sol och glittrande snö!

Below the Swedish text is a short version in English.

Vissa vinterdagar är så underbara! Solen skiner från en blek himmel. Snön gnistrar. Det biter i kinderna och det är stilla i luften. Hela världen är vit. Nåja, i alla fall den värld som jag ser. Och det är faktiskt sådana här dagar som jag inte känner lika stark avundsjuka mot mina föräldrar, som just nu är på kryssning i Västindien. Alla årstider har sin tjusning, och vintern har ganska många, enligt mig.

Inte ens mörkret, som ju infinner sig ca 15.00, är så betungande när snön täcker marken. För det är ganska häftigt att vara ute i nattsvart kväll med sin 7-åring och åka pulka och slå världsrekord i längsta åk och snabbaste åk och bästa hopp och bästa vurpa.

Här är en dikt som beskriver snö och vinter på ett förträffligt sätt:

Snökristaller

Från Svenska Dikter

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Af snökristaller klara
står fältet prydt;
om några veckor endast
är allt förbytt.

I glittren emot solen
och fröjden er;
snart sjunken I som tårar
i jorden ner.

I, vinterns vackra blomster,
snart vissnen I,
men utaf edra tårar
skall blommor bli.

Om några veckor endast
är allt förbytt:
af vårens väna blomster
står fältet prydt.

Av Karl Alfred Melin (1849 - 1919)
Källa: Svenska dikter, hemsida
__________________________________________
Some winter days are amazing! When the sun shines from a pale sky, and the new snow glitters on the ground, I'm happy. I'm not even as jealous of my parents anymore, as a picture them on the beach somewhere in the Caribbean's.

Because the first toboganning of the season is priceless. Those days I don't even mind the darkness, which falls over my part of Sweden around 3 pm. To go out with a 7-year old and laugh, trying to beat the world record in longest and fastest runs, best jumps and craziest falls is a blast. All seasons have their appeal, is a Swedish saying - directly translated, and the winter has especially many of them. That's why I'll take a break from the computer and go out in the snow right now!