My Swede Calls Me Boo

In a perfect world, I would always be on the ball, writing a post every two to three days, but because Rosalind is oh so demanding, I have to rely on Anton for help to get my blog writing in. He gets antsy after hanging out with her for too long when he knows I'm working on my blog. I really do enjoy sharing my very normal life in Sweden. Is any life really normal though if you're truly outrageous? I think sometimes I tend to shock the hell out of people just by being myself, at times it can be quite entertaining and at other times quite boring. Anyway back to the task at hand, we begin our discussion on language. In another post I will spill on my lack of Swedish language knowledge and SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) classes, but this post is actually going to be about Anton and his English capability. This post is also a nice transition to my next post.

Anton & I in our most recent photo together, Dinner at Garlic & Shots in Stockholm.

My last dwarf, Scurry (RIP)

Yes, Anton calls me boo. He says the game Baldur's Gate has a hamster named boo. If you know me, you know I have a serious love of hamsters, especially dwarfs. However he does know that in our pop culture, hip hop world that boo is a slang term for loved one that started in the African American community as a term of endearment. So I'm boo, Anton is babe, and Rosalind is boo boo. Anton is not jaded by US racism and the idea that he shouldn't say something because it's popular in African American culture and he is "white". Obviously he knows not to use racist terms.  In the US some people would be highly offended or annoyed at him using slang words, others may find it very amusing. I mean he knows all the words to Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" (which he is), so for him to say things so nonchalantly is amusing to me at times. The words or terms I am referring to are: boo, true dat, fo sho, things like that. I'm sure there are many other examples that I cannot seem to think of right now. He did say fo shizzle my nizzle to me once, but had no idea what it meant, so I had to enlighten him. Even my sister is amazed by the vast slang and pop culture references Anton knows, so when he does  not know a word that I assume he would it sets me back a minute.

The thing is I have had a recent revelation about Anton. I believe he often does not tell me if I use a word he does not know unless it really puzzles him. I think he either doesn't care or uses context clues from whatever I'm discussing to understand what I have just said. This revelation happened when I used the word curdled and looked up at Anton to see his response. He was standing there with an expression I could have only assumed meant he did not fully catch my drift and so I asked him if he knew what curdled meant. He said no. It suddenly came to me that there may be more words that I use that he does not know, but unless I ask him if he understands, or what the word is in Swedish, he does not seem to tell me he doesn't know the word. Maybe it does not happen that often, maybe he will fess up to not asking when he does not know words I use. Heck I pretend to understand people sometimes when I have no clue what they just said in English and it's my first language (that really has more to do with being partially deaf though). I really don't think it happens often. Anton is a particularly advanced speaker. He used the word regurgitated yesterday. I was impressed. I am also very impressed that I spelled it correctly just now.

Occasionally Anton will use the wrong tense or preterite of what he is saying, but that seldom  happens.  When it does it is very noticeable because of how fluent he is; I forgot he is Swedish most of the time. It bothers me when he says things incorrectly because for him, we both know he knows better. That is how good his English is. I also don't hear much of an accent when Anton speaks. Maybe it's because I am used to his voice. I would have to ask our Michigan friends if they think he has an accent, I only hear it on certain words like parsley. However the accent is British, because you have to remember they learn British-English here in Europe. It is sort of weird because crisps are chips and chips are french fries, and so on and so on. At least I know a lot of the British words for things to understand what he says sometimes. Anton is fairly good at using the American English terms on a lot of things though.

When other foreigners speak English and mess up it doesn't bother me in the least because I am so grateful we can communicate and I can understand what he or she is trying to tell me. I have spoken with a lot of foreigners and no matter at what level there English is, it's nice for them to try even if they think they do not know enough. I appreciate the effort!

Well it's bedtime here. Hope you're enjoying you Valentine's day! Until next time...