As my trip to Sweden is now only three weeks away, I’ve started to become “very serious” about my Swedish language lessons.

I’ve recently begun doing “Swedish Sundays” where I try to consume only Swedish language material, and try only to speak in Swedish. It was a little impractical last weekend when I caught up with friends John and James, but it’s generally been quite good fun, as I’ve listened to Swedish music, watched Swedish films, and read Swedish newspapers.

Nonetheless, Swedish class was a little difficult tonight, as we’ve begun to listen to more complex things. We’re no longer listening and speaking “like five year olds”, as I sometimes say. Both the complexity and the speed of the material we’re dealing with has increased significantly over the last few weeks. Best of all? We’re doing less grammar, and listening and speaking more which, ultimately, is what I’m interested in.

After class tonight I was feeling a little tired, so didn’t head off to the pub, as is my usual routine. I came home, tried to watch some television, and then nodded off for a few minutes. I woke up in time for Embarassing Bodies or Illnesses, or whatever it is at the moment, which tonight was totally gross.

So I went online and hunted around for some new Swedish pop.

My favourite right now is Juvelen, a singer with a style reminiscent of some of the earlier funk material by Prince.

I absolutely LOVE his song, Hanna from a couple of years ago.

I bought the mp3 download of his latest EP a couple of weeks ago. As part of the deal, I’m also receiving the EP on vinyl. Yes, seriously vinyl. I know it’s all very cool and fashionable these days amongst the young folk, but I personally haven’t bought anything on vinyl since the late 1980s.

The other song I discovered tonight which I also like very much is called “Om sanningen ska fram” (if the truth by told) by by Eric Amarillo. It’s currently the #1 song in Sweden and it’s awfully catchy.

The lyrics are about someone being totally honest with someone else, and yet also kinda saying the honesty is really all about just wanting to sleep with them.

The chorus is…

Vill du ligga med mig då om sanningen ska fram?
Vill du ligga med mig då, vill du ligga med mig?
Vill du ligga med mig då, om sanningen ska fram?

…which roughly translates as “do you want to sleep with me if the truth be told” (and variations on that).

Even though the video has a slight “old man hanging out with young people vibe”, I quite like the song.

It’s also given me a new Swedish phrase which might come in handy in the next few weeks… “Vill du ligga med mig då?”