Classy Behavior

A horse-drawn cart surprises a shopper on the narrow streets of Stockholm's Old Town, Gamla Stan.

Who can resist the pun title? Not me. I've spent too many years working in publishing not to have developed an inflated sense of the pun's worthiness. I quote Kingsley Amis quoting HW Fowler in Amis' book The King's English:

The assumption that puns are per se contemptible, betrayed by the habit of describing every pun not as a pun but as a bad pun or a feeble pun, is a sign at once of sheepish docility and a desire to seem superior. Puns are good, bad, and indifferent, and only those who lack the wit to make them are unaware of that fact.

(Amis does go on to say puns are clustered probably too thick in newspaper headlines, and he's probably right, but I write for magazines.)

MISSING A SESSION

So I'm taking Swedish classes at the American Swedish Institute and having a blast. Sadly, the class meets only once per week for 90 minutes a session, and I'll have to miss a session next week while working in Florida; but even these short sessions, however few, are a far more affordable avenue than seeking a spot in a university class and occupy a considerably smaller portion of my already-busy week.

We're covering a great deal, our little class of ten plus the instructor. Each meeting is a funny mix of rote recitation, practicing sentences covered in previous weeks, grammar rules, and passage translation.

We use a Swedish language book that does not include a lick of English. It's a curious book from Sweden used there to teach immigrants, so in portions that ask you to translate, it requests you do so in your own language.

Some of the exercises I've pursued this way by translating into German; and I'm finding I recall much more German than I expected too, but it does threaten to confuse the languages so maybe I'll stick to English only until I'm far enough along.

One more note about the book. It allows us one of my favorite language study moments: following the fictional family. We follow the Åberg (pronounced like "O-berry") family--Jonas, Ellen, Emil and Klara--as they drink coffee and beer, drive cars, laugh, play guitar, etc.

Hey: I like the continuing education gig. I especially like it now that I'm taking a class that isn't for my professional well-being but simply for my own knowledge and enjoyment. Who knows? Maybe now that the Muse has me doing yoga, perhaps I'll take a yoga class...in a year or two. For now it's Swedish, and I dig it.


Advice for those taking a less-formal language course (and languages are something we should study more in the US--we'd understand English better if we did):

• While the peculiarities of a language new to you are worth thinking and talking about, it is best not to use class time to question why particular pronunciations are the way they are.
• The same applies for the sharing of personal experiences. Genealogical and travel notes may be very relevant to your interest in the class, but they should not occupy the class time. We have only these 90 minutes, friends; and only 9 sessions. To lose 15 minutes to personal stories that don't add to the learning (or enjoyment) of a class is agonizing.

INTERESTING READS

* Night Editor's story of coxswain leadership, falling ice and championship rowing squads

* The Birdchick is feeding bees and digiscoping

* And Al Gore is a co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Congrats, dude!