Who says there is nothing useful on the Web? Cursing in Swedish is a multi-media Web site that offers what Nybörjarsvenska will never teach you: how to say what you really mean to the Lapp-Lisa who is giving you a parking ticket for the fourth time this month.
Lets face it. Most of us who have taken the time to learn a bit of Swedish start out with truly mind-numbing phrases out of insipid textbooks. We don't have the advantage that our Swedish counterparts enjoy - listening to the language they are studying come out of the tv every night of the week. We tend to learn a rather unimaginative collection of phrases. We know how to ask our way to the järnvägstation; we can describe our gröna bilar; and we might learn the #1 most useful phrase in Swedish: Va sa du?
But are we prepared for the first time someone cuts in front of us in the bus queue, or when someone grabs a nummerlapp right out from under our nose at Systembolaget? Of course not. We have been taught only about the polite Swedes. Nyborjarsvenska does nothing to prepare one for the thousands of actual rude Swedes lurking out there, waiting to offend and irritate you.
Always looking for new ways to provide a public service, kulturCHOCK! is happy to present this link to one of the truly practical and imaginative sites out there, Cursing in Swedish. The Santesson family has put together a thorough and lovingly annotated list of common swear words and phrases in Swedish, with full explanations throughout. Not content to stop there, they have recorded each example in Mrs. Santessons charming voice, in a .WAV format. The devoted student of Swedish curses can download each example and säg efter until just the right tone is found.
For those who are ready for överkursen, this trilingual family has also provided a thorough, classified list of some of the language's most colorful invectives. Some of our favorites: hutlare, scrull, drit, dyngorm, gluhund, knagge-bagge, nästryne and plunter. Read all about it at Svenska Invektiv.
How does kulturCHOCK! find these pearls of the Web? Det ska du skita i, din förbannade skitstövel!