While my dad was off in the South Pacific, operating radios on fragile little boats during WW2, my mom and I lived with my grandmother. She was widowed very young, for her husband died at the age of 30 of TB, exacerbated by working underground in a deep shaft iron mine.
They were both immigrants from Sweden, which leads me to the subject of this post. My grandmother came to this country with her sister, Maria, who married and lived up the hill a ways. They would talk on the phone a couple times a week, and when I was young I couldn't understand any of Lisa's side of the conversation. It was all in Swedish.
But as I grew older, I was proud that I could understand more and more of what they said! Of course I could! Half of it was in English now. They never used Swedish unless they were talking to each other. My grandmother never lost her Swedish accent, and I still love to hear someone speaking English with a Scandanavian accent. It was my first language.
Is that why my favorite character on Sesame Street was the Swedish cook, even if they were gently making fun of his accent? He's my cooking guru, too.
i loved that cook too1
ReplyDeleteI had a great uncle that would say something in Norwegian all the time, never knew what it was. He walked with a cane from polio as a child. Memories....
I like to listen to people's accents too. Sometimes I find them very hard to follow -India and pakistan for example. In fact even the Geordie accent from the north east of England, my own country, really defeats me. They could be speaking a foreign language.
ReplyDeleteThose Swedish names! I had a Swedish student last year, and because of my childhood in the northwoods, I could pronounce his last name, none of the other teachers could.
ReplyDeleteI was proud! I can pronounce the "kvist" last syllable.
My husband is part Swedish - he doesn't have the accent, but he is so funny- my very best friend! That Swedish cook you wrote about - I enjoyed watching him way back when, too!
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