Reading books in Swedish

Hmm, so reading a children's book in Swedish is harder than I thought. I've occasionally been reading items off Swedish news sites, but modern language from news items is actually much easier - most of the words are from English or Latin, and they're almost the same in any language. But the language in "Ronia, the Robbers Daughter" is more basic, and the words are more quintessential Swedish, and therefore not necessarily the same - even in Danish, a language that's historically quite connected to Swedish.

So I gave up and went to my local book store and bought Ronia in Danish. It was World Book Day today, and all titles were 20% off. So now I'm parallel-reading the book in two languages, which makes it much easier. Hopefully I'll be able to reread it in Swedish later and understand it.

Anyway, the book truly is a classic. It reads like a primal mythic tale about growing up and discovering the world. It also has a timeless 'Romeo and Juliet with kids' storyline. Truly a must read.

I ordered the British edition of "Moominvalley in November", so I'll be able to parallel-read that book too.

Shopping for books in Sweden

A few days ago I was reading the reader questions on Richard Thompson's homepage, and he was asked - because he's from the UK and tours Europe and currently resides in the US - about the difference between the US and European education system.

Part of his reply:

"I would say that European kids know more, generally speaking, than US kids. One reason is that they spend more time per year in school – by age 18, they’ve had a year’s extra schooling. They seem a year or two years ahead by university level. Background culture, I believe, plays a big part. Most European kids speak 2 or 3 languages, which is just the reality of having all those countries jammed up next to each other, and learning languages is very good for the neural pathways. French, Italian, German families all eat together, and discuss things like politics and culture. TV in Europe doesn’t talk down to you as it tends to in the US, and advertising doesn’t assume you are an idiot. " (source)

Anyway, his answer made me want to act more like a proper European and read more stuff in European languages. That basically means Swedish and German, which are the two languages where I understand about... I dunno, 60-80% if I concentrate. I should get into a habit of reading more in those languages so I can get that percentage even higher.

So yesterday I went shopping in Sweden. The town Malmö is just on the other side of the water near Copenhagen, and now that the new bridge across the water was opened a few years ago, the city of Copenhagen and the town of Malmö are slowly growing into one big multi-lingual metropolitan area, with people moving freely across the bridge to shop and work.

These are some of the books I bought in Swedish in Sweden:

"Ronja Röverdotter" / "Ronia, the Robber's Daughter" by Astrid Lindgren is one of the all time great fantasy books for kids. In Europe this (and her other childrens fantasy novel "The Brothers Lionheart") are even more popular than her Pippi Longstocking books. In The US they're relatively unknown, though. But at least they're both in print at the moment, so US readers of this blog with kids should check them out.


I look forward to reading "Sent i November" ("Moominvalley in November"), the last book, and apparently the most existential and melancholic, in the moomin series. The Swedish cover art is beautiful. Tove Jansson was a great graphic artist too. The current US edition of her Moomin newspaper strips is an absolutely must-buy: