h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Greetings, one and all.

JJ, I try to find out a whole lot of things about different religions and beliefs before I make up my mind of what I am, Theologically speaking. The article of Agnosticism pretty much describes me.
Zen is one of the ways to follow, as is Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism..
But that's not why we're here, is it?

Miriam, My computer didn't feel like getting into that home page to vote for your friend. It froze up on me every time I tried to get in there. Don't really know why.

AGCB, it is true that it would be preferable if you do learn some Swedish if you're supposed to work in Stockholm for 8 months. However, if you're going there on an 8 month contract and you are sure that it will not be any longer than that, anyone you come in contact with in Sweden will be fairly open minded and will not look funny at you for not being able to speak the language.
As Jonas said, I would suggest a Linguaphone tape course to learn some of the basic Swedish phrases.
As a Swede myself, I have never really needed to think about whether there are any good schools or tutors that can teach you Swedish in Sweden, but I am pretty sure that there are Swedish courses "for immigrants" during evenings that your company probably can help direct you to in the area.
I am of the belief that if I'm in the company of someone that cannot understand Swedish, I tend to speak English, just to not seem rude to the person not understanding the language. Unfortunately, not all Swedes are as considerate. Personally, I think it's rude to assume that someone that's not a native Swede, although he/she is working in Sweden, should know Swedish. After all, it takes time to learn a language!!
My advice is: Be patient, have a word with your co-workers, tell them that until you feel more sure about your Swedish, you would appreciate it if they could speak English. Also, ask questions about the language, to show them that you are willing to learn. That will make them, hopefully, more tolerant with your language.

Damn, this became a real ranting here.. I think I'll let you go..
Most importantly in Sweden, though... HAVE FUN!!

I wish you all a happy weekend.

Ta ra...

Generally people like it when a foreigner is trying to speak their language, so they'll probably be impressed by any Swedish words you can mutter, and I also think they'll be glad to help you learn something...

Oh yeah, another bit of advice, if you go in to #sweden or #sverige on irc to practice, don't say you live in the Caribbean and have never been to Sweden (well, don't say it in Swedish anyway) 'cause people tend to not believe it and might even get angry at you...

JJ: Yup, that's him, thanks for voting There's really no purpose to the contest, but who cares?!

LIS: Thanks for trying

Good weekend to you guys!
(I had this week off from school, so I'm not impressed by the beginning of the weekend..)
Greetings,
Miriam

Hello everyone, and thanks for the advice.

I will be part of an English-speaking team in an English-speaking company, so I am not too worried about my working environment. It just seems very arrogant and rude to waltz into another country and expect the people to speak to me in my own language. The first word I learned to use in German was "Entschuldigung" (even if I still cannot spell it!) Also I beleive that I can only be enriched if I speak another language.

I have started looking at some Swedish websites, and I am encouraged by how readable the language is for me. But I heard some people talking in London the other day in a language I couldn't even begin to hear, and they asked me if I understood Swedish, so I assumed it was Swedish that they were speaking, which I found very discouraging. Of course they may not have been speaking Swedish, at all.

I'll check out language schools when I get there, and a friend has recommended some tapes; though I don't know if Swedish is one of the languages available.

Anyway, I am excited by it all. I'll let you know how I get on.

AGCB, SOmething that I just remembered and probably forgot to say on friday is that you can find a lot of pretty useful phrases in Swedish at http://www.travlang.com/languages . There, they've also got most of those phrases as Wav-files, so you can listen to the pronounciation of the phrases as well as see the spelling of it. Quite handy, actually.

I hope you all had a good weekend (even you, Miriam, since you weren't too thrilled of it beginning because of your week off from school).

Thank you LiS; I'll check that out.

No bother at all. I am happy to be of assistance.

Very true: written Swedish is much more easy to understand than spoken Swedish, why? Yes I'm working on it, and I figured out some points:

- konsonants sound different in different words, e.g. a "k" can sound like the "c" in can (kolla), or like a "sh" (kök). rs is drawn together to a "rsh", even if one word ends with an r and the next starts with an s.

- The melodie is very different from all languages that i know.

- Regional differences in the pronounciation doesn't make it easier, too. In Stockholm they seem to like making u,i and y sound Kermit-like, which is in rural parts of Sweden considered to be pretentious (as far as I know).

...
Allright, to day I have my first examination here, so i will be back later the week, entschuldigung

jj

True, Jonas..
No one I know really likes people from Stockholm, cause we think they're just full of it. Well, most of the time, anyways.

Regional differences are much fun to listen to. Mostly because people from the far north and people from the far south (divided by more than 1.000 miles mind you) sometimes have trouble understanding each other.

Yes, same thing in Germany...

800km (80 mil) from Flensburg to Munchen. It's worst in Rural areas in the South. Worst are the "Schwaben" and the "Oberbayern"... And in northern parts, nobody likes people from Munchen, and the Bavarians dislike the Prussians (Preussen: that's everyone from north of the Main i think).

And it is also said, that Austrians don't like the Germans, and the other way round. But, everytime that I meat people from the south, it is nice and we get along well... So, you see, it is "egentligen" only rubbish, good fuel for a lot of jokes, but without real substance on private base. Perhaps it matters in Business tough...

Well, a Stockholmkille who doesn't behave like a ashole will be accepted in otherparts of Sweden, won't he?

Ah, and regional kultural differences are always good topics, when you talk to someone...

hejej jj

Is it worth saying that the same is true in Britain?

There is what is called the "North South divide", the Cornish hate everyone; the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish hate the English; no-one understands Geordies (from Newcastle upon Tyne); people from the Midlands fear the Welsh; people from Yorkshire mistrust people from Lancashire who come from the other side of the Pennines (the hills which form the spine of northern England); and everyone hates Londoners, as smug flash buggers.

Such a happy and peaceful little island.

And I really like to live here as well.

Just arrived from Umeå this morning, perhaps i go to Skåne for the rest of the week untill thursday (the KTH pays).

Jawoll meine Herrn...

sometimes it's more serious to be unserious (thought about it this morning)

Hälsningar jj

You went to Umeå?!
I have a friend living there..
How was it? Cold?

Hey, JJ.
You went to Ume in late October? Had it started snowing there yet? It usually starts at about this time of year up there. You're lucky to have KTH pay for the trip. I guess they're pretty good that way.

Yes, my dear friends,

Umeå was cold, and it did start to snow. By the way it was fine and we had a good time alltogether. Unfortunatly I didn't meat a friend of yours, Miriam, I tend to say...

The Skåne trip went out to be Småland trip and was really nice. We visited a few companies, and had fika all the time and breakfest and lunch and middag, allright. It was also good to improve contact to the natives.

Småland?? That's where I'm from!! Where in Småland did you go? Jönköping, Växjö, Oskarshamn, Kalmar?? What kinds of companies did you visit? Did they speak english or Swedish when you got there? And if they spoke Swedish, did you hear the difference in accents from Stockholm and Umeå?

This weekend has been totally freezing over here. And I guess it doesn't really help, living in a flat with no radiators, either...
Yesterday was fire works night around here. I think it was Guy Faulke's day (or however he spelled his name) yesterday, so there was a lot of celebrating a person that tried to blow up the parliament building.

You're from Småland (like Emil)? Why didn't you tell earlier! I liked these stories so much when i was small.

We were based in Torsås (spelling correct?) in a place called Möre Hotell

What kind of Companies:
1. Motoman Robotics, Assembly faktory and Nordic HQ
2. Faurecia exhausting Systems (for car engines), manufactoring and design
3. Spinova, all kind of springs, small factory
4. Söder wood factory, bar manufacturing, very impressive

Since I was the only foreigner, they were speaking as they are used to, so i didn't get it all.

About the language, well, in Umeå i hardly talked to the lokals, the conversations were only about special information (at the Airport, Touristoffice), but I think I can now tell, when a person talks, wether he is from the North, from Stockholm, from Skån, perhaps also Göteborg.
But there are also differences in Stockholm i heard...

So far, vi hörs

You were in Torsås???? That's the village I come from! I grew up there, spent my first 23 or so year there, went to school there!!
My brother works at Motoman Robotics, assembling control units for the robots, and I would bet that that Faurecia place is actually called Torsmaskiner in common tongue.
Were you out on the floors to walk around the factories when you were there, or did you get one of thse where they just walk you through really hastily and then bring you into a conference room where they give you a whole lot of information about the company?

On the way from the Hotel, did you go through Torsås or via the E22 to Bergkvara and then towards Torsås and the industrial sites? Did you get any time wandering around in Torsås or Söderåkra at all during your stay, or was it strictly business?
What was the weather like?? I'm going back there in about 2 weeks. Pity you were there this week..

Well, well, my dear friend, let's thank the great force of this universe, that lets us sometimes feel, that we small, small humanbeings are all connected by its overwhelming power: coincidence.

(the correct version of this small text is written on the backside of the Ben Folds Five Album: The Unauthorized History of Reinhold Messner, because they didn't recognized, that a living and famous Reinhold Messner does realy exists)

I am impressed, but sorry, there was no time to look at the city, the schedule kept us quite busy all the time. But looking out of the windows, I recognized, that the landscape looks pretty much of how my picture of Sweden was, and I think I like it very much (as the other 2 million Germans, who spend their summerholiday there)

The weather was fine (even sunny sometimes) but we were indoor must of the time.

I know we arrived via the E22, but then, I did't see so many buildings, how big is Torsås anyway?

Huray for us and skåll!

By the way, I have annother story of that kind, i tell you the next time!

Vi hörs

Hahahaha!! That is quite ridiculous... next time JJ tell us beforeheand where you're going so we can tell you who to say hi, I mean hej, to )