Tag: language

  • Conversations in Italian

    I like to travel with my family to Italy twice a year, so I study at least two lessons a day on my Italian Rosetta Stone program. It’s a great […]

  • What’s your problem with “Z?”

    I work as a freelance translator from Swedish to English and sometimes companies want me to translate to British English, which brings me to the question asked by many: “What’s […]

  • Monsieur T

    Ever wonder what the A-Team theme sounds like in French? Wonder no more! https://youtu.be/oGO-33Fmhw8

  • Will the language mistakes never end?

    Once again this weekend I told a kid he was going to die. Actually, the last time, I told a kid that his friend died, so this time it was […]

  • Sure, I’ll join your club!

    A letter came yesterday from the pharmacy. There was a letter congratulating me on joining the pharmacy club plus 2 coupons. My husband asked, “When and why did you join […]

  • Italian for crazies

    I’m trying to learn Italian at home with the Rosetta Stone program. Rosetta Stone is a great program for learning languages because it covers listening, writing, reading and speaking, though […]

  • Great parenting

    Get out there and roll on the grass! That’s what we did when we were kids and we liked it! No, I’m not charging your gameboy. Now git!

  • More language mistakes

    Why do Swedes have to make the word “to hear” (höra) and “whore” (hora) so similar? This is really bad when I’m writing about something that happened. “You should hear […]

  • Idiots on a plane

    A very loud and annoying Swedish woman was sitting in my aisle on the AIR FRANCE plane back to Stockholm. (Safety announcements given in Swedish, English and then a recording in […]

  • A magical word

    “förnämliga” That is the word I had to translate the other day (I work part-time translating documents from Swedish to English). As you see, it can have vastly different meanings.  […]

  • image shows a cartoon mole

    Please remove this creature

    I wrote the doctor here in Sweden to make an appointment to have a mole removed. I may have mis-translated.

  • image shows an angel

    Your friend died. Go play some Xbox.

    I may be getting better at Swedish, but I still make mistakes. Our kids each had a friend over this week.  One of the friends went home early and the […]

  • Scottish Italians

    I decided to start listening to an Italian language podcast called “My Daily Phrase.” Why Italian you ask? Because we need a third language when we want to talk about […]

  • Let’s make party

    We are soon staying in an apartment on vacation through AirBnB – a website where people can rent out their apartments.  I was just checking the one we chose to […]

  • I’m gonna have to slap her

    I’ve been studying important Italian phrases on the Rosetta Stone language program.  Today’s lesson irritated me a bit.  Let me translate: “I need a new umbrella. WHY do you need […]

  • How to speak Italian

    My 6 yr old says, “Okey-dokey is Italian for ‘o.k.’ because that’s how Luigi says it.”

  • Language barriers

    I had a woman over to my house the other day who neither spoke good English or Swedish.  She got a small cut on her hand and indicated by pointing […]

  • Fill in the blank

    I’ve realized that speaking a second language (not very well) is often like playing a fill-in-the-blank game.  I was talking to my husband last week when he tried to tell […]

  • Feet, conditioner and wolves

    The reason I’ve never gotten a pedicure is because the one time I tried to book one here, I accidently booked a “fotvård,” which is like foot care for people […]

  • This animal does not talk

    I’m currently studying Italian on a computer program.  Today’s lesson was about animals and people.  The examples they use are: This woman is Chinese.  She speaks Chinese. This panda is […]