Sweden Two - Text
Subject is a white male student, born 1984 and raised in Molndal, Gothenburg. He speaks about the various dialects of Sweden, and concludes with the Swedish proverb, "När man talar om trollen så står de i farstun och lyssnar." Loosely translated this means, "Speak of the devil and he appears." Recorded by Joseph Papke July 24, 2006. Running time 00:06:11.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
Yeah, we start learning, uh, English in school about the fourth grade, but it’s very integrated into the Swedish, uh, society as well, uh, because, uh, a lot of movies come from, uh, the U.S. and England, and, uh…. If you’re interested in something usually when you go online, search online, you need to know, know English. So, I think the kids today have, uh, more bi-langua-, bi-language. Uh, we have, uh, one dialect that’s kind of the same for the whole country, like the newsmen and the reporters, but, uh, people in the south usually have, uh, influenced, uh, from, uh, Denmark, our, the neighbor down there, uh…. Kind of sounds, uh, you know when you’re really drunk, you know, and try to speak (MUMBLES)…kind of like that. And, uh, we can have a fairly hard, actually, trying to, um, understand what, uh, what – people from south have a real thick accent. I would probably have a problem hearing what they’re saying. And I think there’s, actually, I think, uh, fairly big differences, uh, in the accents on, uh, alot, uh, er, you don’t have to travel that far to experience a new dialect. So you can travel fairly short distance, like a two hour drive, and would exp-, you would experience a fairly good, uh, difference. I’ve been to a, uh, language trip and to, uh, England about, uh, six, five or six years ago – something like that. But I really didn’t feel that I, I get speaking in English, because, you know, although everyone from the class was, uh, Swedish and, um, and I never got to use it in everyday life like I do here. All the people I’ve met have been really, really good people, cool people, nice people, and I get along with them very well. So, I don’t know if it’s…that, if that would be a common thing, you know? That everyone’s just super nice and, uh, having a good time all the time…or that, you know, I have met people that have good friends, kind of way. So I’ve got it really good with all the people here. And, uh, I’ve actually only been to North America for a month now, and, uh, I think my English has improved very much in this time. (RECITES SWEDISH PROVERB) Uh, “Speaking of the devil, they’re standing and listening.” Yeah, yeah, exactly, uh, this one is speaking about the person and, uh, suddenly they, they, uh…(AUDIO FADES OUT)
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY PETE CROSS, 15 JULY, 2008