Dreaming in a new Language!! Antligen, Finally!!

Quintessential Swedish View, from my window, A winter ago

You know something has shifted when you start dreaming in a new language.  

Yes, it finally happened.  

I was chatting in fluent Swedish in my dream when someone said, 'Please speak in english there are three others in the meeting who do not understand Swedish.'

Hours after I woke up, I was still in that trance.  That feeling that I could talk to myself only in Swedish. It was really strange. 

I got about 100 hrs (Sweden works on hours) the first semester I was here to learn the language.  But you know the first semester is so hard.  Learning the culture, learning your way around town, learning a new system at the university  teaching new courses and always dealing with life choices when you are a single person.

So that first semester even though I thought i was making progress, since I love languages, nothing much happened.

I had to move into a new place the next semester and we got a private teacher.  About four of us.  Eight classes a semester.  Definitely not enough.  

But I would do the home work as much as I could. From those days I remember two things.  1. Memorising swedish rules for grammar, much of which still helps me today.  2. Trying to forget Spanish, since that was the last 'foreign language' I pursued'.   I came to the level of elementary conversation in Spanish, but lost it when I left the US.

The year after that, I was still not sure if I will stay in Sweden, but I continued to work and learn as much as I could.  At the time, I was supposed to move to Canada.  Btw, I have taught new courses every semester but one since my stay in Sweden.

It took me about two years to unpack, and create a home.  In fact, I had to ask students to help, even pay people to help me unpack.  

Around the time our departments merged and all the emails started to come in Swedish with a short english translation. 

Also that without learning Swedish I could not stay here long.  I understand that. I had wanted to leave anyway.  But for the love of Sweden and for the love of languages I continued.

For 2013 and 2014 I enrolled in SFI, Swedish for Invandare. Swedish for Immigrants a free program run by Swedish government.  I was not informed that i could attend the program only once a week.  I had thought it was an everyday program and it was not possible for me to attend it everyday.

After those two years, even though I got better, I could watch Swedish movies etc. here and there, I still found it difficult to speak.

Regardless, around 2015-2016 even when I had a private teacher, I started to work on duo lingo. For the last 2-3 years I have worked on Swedish anywhere from 10-30 minutes everyday, and sure can see the improvement.

I am still far -far-far from being fluent.  But I understand more and watch many Swedish programs.  Here if you are interested, watch this really old and classic movie.  Its interesting for me to see how different the culture was at the time. So rigid and restrictive but also with a focus on family and values.

Family is still quite important in Sweden, I would say --more so than the US.

Even today I get tired and slip back into english.  But I can hold phone conversations and face to face conversations with people who do not speak english at all and that to me is sort of commendable. Even though, I have to blend (combine--am using the english version of  Swedish 'bland')--to get through. 

So to dream two nights in a row in Swedish, I mean in fluent Swedish, now that's something!!

No matter where I go from here, Swedish and Sweden will always warm my heart, despite the harsh sounds in the language and despite its starkly dark and cold winters.

Why?

Because language reaches our hearts.  Language describes experience.  And because after experience and understanding, words are what link hearts.

And then there are certain words that can never be translated, e.g. Lagom!!

Lagom--go look it up!!