December 04, 2005

Old friends

I've ended up having the strangest relationship to the Swedish language, after nearly seven years living in this chilly country.

It's as if I am in the fourth grade again, and English is my oldest and best friend, who knows all my darkest secrets but likes me all the same, and Swedish is one of the scary popular kids who can sometimes be quite nice to me, but not so nice as to invite me to his house, and sometimes, on a whim, can be so very heartless and cruel.

The problem is that the only way I can really be friends with such a cool guy as Swedish is if I give up spending so much time with my beloved English.

Worse, I can't help feeling jealous and full of self pity when Swedish seems to be much better friends with some of my other friends than he is with me. Like my buddy Devin, who hasn't lived here in more than three years, and only lived here for four years in total but when he visited last week, was still so much more at ease with Swedish than I am, all full of slang and jokes and perfect pronunciation.

I feel so inadequate.

Then, I buck up and remember how Swedish won't have anything to do with the American woman who sits across from me at the office, even though she's known him for more than twice as long as I have.

Oh, the price one pays for being such good friends with English.

We really need to stop hanging around together so much. People will get ideas.

Posted by Francis at December 4, 2005 04:19 PM
Comments

you have to tell swedish, "look, i like you, and i like english, too, and i'd like to play with both of you together, but if you can't get along, or if you think the three of us playing together might freak people out, then i'll just hang out with you separately, and understand that i like you both for different reasons and in different ways."

i know that in sweden, swedish seems pretty cool, but you know perfectly well that when you hit the road, you're totally going with english. swedish is popular and all, but the guy doesn't travel well. betray english and what he'll do is, you'll be traveling and have a few drinks one night and need to pay the bill and english will totally abandon you, leaving you stammering about your good buddy swedish to the irritated waitress who just wants you to pay up and go.

Posted by: anne at December 4, 2005 08:34 PM