#and I've always been better at doing in in english than swedish so that's another thing

[girlitfeelsgood]

I'm so nervous about writing an essay for the first time in two years. What if I do horribly 💀

[mediocrelanguagelearner]

hello fellow bored at work human <3

can you talk about your language learning journey? why did you start learning each of your target languages?

Thank you so much for distracting me from my boredom!

But uff, what a difficult question :D This could get really long... I'll try to shorten it as much as I can :D I'm listing the languages in a chronological order.

English: (I used to not count English as my target language because it felt like a second nature, but after 3 years of almost not using it, I'm starting to feel like I should dedicate some time to improving it) I had to learn English at school, of course, but it wasn't until I was 12/13 that I started loving it. I discovered a youtuber I loved, watched all of his videos in one summer and on top of this I found a blog of a (Czech) girl I idolised. This girl was very stylish, was interested in japanese fashion, learned Japanese and loved English. She said she constantly thinks in English and so I started trying to do that too. After this one summer I basically became fluent and in love with English. Since that I've been the best and always bored in my English classes, up until uni. But I've barely spoken English in the past 3 years and I feel the command of the language slipping away. I still listen to some videos and podcasts in English, but I don't use the language activelly and I've been trying to give a lot of time to my other languages, so my skills just deteriorate.

German: My relationship with German was complicated. I was forced to learn it since I was 13 and I hated it. I didn't want to learn it, I didn't like the sound of it and I had these weird perjudices about German. It changed only when I found Timothy Doner's video where he speaks a ton of languages. I fell in love with the idea of speaking multiple languages (by that point I'd tried to learn Spanish and maybe Dutch? unsuccessfully). And I thought "well if I have to learn German for another 2,5 years, I could try to like it". I started listening to German music and fell in love with Cro and AnnenMayKantereit (still love them to death!) and I decided to sign up for extra German class (where everyone was way better than me) and to do my high school state exam in German. At uni had a bit of a break with German but eventually took some classes to try to maintain the language. I've learned German for so many years and I still feel very inadequate about my skills (I am especially very embarrassed to speak), but I'm glad I never gave up. German is the language of my country's neighbours and it's such a big part of my country's history, I feel like it's important to know.

Spanish: I've always liked Spanish, the way it sounds. I tried to learn it as a kid for a while but I wasn't really motivated or disciplined enough. Then in 2016 I had the chance to go on help exchange to Spain for a couple of weeks (I picked the country myself, probably because I wanted to learn Spanish anyway) and I started learning Spanish about 3 weeks before going. It was a really nice experience and I loved Spain. I think Spanish is such a pretty and useful language, I really want to know it well, but the grammar is killing me sometimes. I continued learning on my own and then later took 2 or 3 classes in Spanish at uni, mostly to get a better foundation in the grammar and to have someone to talk to, at least for a couple of minutes every week. In my Spanish learning journey I spent a lot of time talking to random hispanohablantes on tandem, which probably wasn't the smartest move because it made me not like the language that much anymore – or at least not be motivated to learn it. When you talk to a lot of people who don't interest you and with whom you have nothing in common, you don't feel like wanting to learn that language anymore. But my relationship with Spanish is better now? I'm trying to work with a textbook and just generally do things that seem fun.

Swedish: When I was young I liked the series "Vikings". They spoke Old Norse there and it sounded like the coolest thing ever so I wanted to learn it. Then I thought it would be smarter to learn a language that is spoken today – so Icelandic, the closest thing to it. But I heard Icelandic has pretty difficult grammar so I thought maybe it would be best to first learn a scandinavian language. I couldn't decide between Norwegian and Swedish, but eventually nice people on tumblr/discord, Jonna Jinton and the fact there was a Swedish teacher at my uni convinced me to try Swedish. That's what I thought going to the first class in 2017 – I'm just going to see if I like it. Well, I fell in love. My teacher was so funny and just a generally good teacher, I had to continue taking the class. I did 3 semesters of Swedish (now, don't think it's a lot – it's still 90 minutes a week with bunch of other people) and did a lot of work at home. I loved the melody, the feeling of the language in my mouth, the teacher, the different but similar culture, the nature... I was so sad I couldn't take another class (too few students signed up and we weren't allowed to continue). Since then I've been learning on my own. I fell so hard for this language and right now I just want to be good at it.

That's the end of my very long post! I bet you didn't expect this when you asked :D Other than these languages I tried to learn (unsuccessfully) Dutch, Croatian and Arabic, but for various reasons had to pause learning them. I still want to learn them.

What is your language learning journey?

[hot-for-rock]

Passion Play

Jack Blades X OC

Chapter One

Summary: Ren is the bassist of rock Swedish band Savage Seduction. While on tour with Night Ranger, she catches the eye of Jack Blades and her life changes.

Reblog’s, likes and comments are really appreciated!

Summer 85’

Sometimes life feels like a blur. Like it's moving at a pace, I can't keep up with. Like it's rushing by me. Like I can't even process what just happened and something new happens. It's been especially like that recently. I went from a nobody to rocking some of the biggest stages in Europe as the bassist and co-founder of my band Savage Seduction.

The other founding member is our guitarist and vocalist Gunnar. Gunnar and I have been friends since we met as kids. We grew up next door to one another and both ended up having dreams of being rock stars. Everyone always called us crazy but that fueled us.

Now here we are on our second tour of the States with another gold album and a hit song and video that's on constant rotation. It feels pretty fucking great to be back.

This time we’re touring with Night Ranger. I've never met any of the guys before but I do really love their music. I own all their albums and the last time we played the States I actually went to see them live and it was a great show. So I'm looking forward to playing with them.

That's the most important thing really knowing the band you’re playing with is good and can hold up your standards. It makes it run a lot smoother and from what I've seen Night Ranger can do that. Even if we are the opening at. We aren't as big here as in Europe, but we are making ground. Especially since it was out the second time out.

Currently, we’re backstage before the show starts getting ready. I've got my bass in my lap and I'm warming up on it. Kelly our lead guitarist is sitting across from me doing the same thing on his guitar. Jan our keyboardist and Gunnar are chatting away as they finish up their hair. Mick our drummer is hitting his sticks on the edge of the table while also drinking a beer.

You think it would be weird to be the only girl in an all-male band but it's really not. They just see me as one of the guys. It probably helps I’m not traditionally feminine either. Sure I have my femininity, but most of my interests aren't “girly”. I'm into fast cars and motorcycles. I fix an engine better than any of them. I'm a champion Archer and I did a lot of motocross. It's actually how I met Kelly and got him in the band. So you could say I fit in well with these guys.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door.

“Come in” Kelly calls over in Swedish forgetting we’re in America not our homeland and most people unless on crew probably don't understand it.

“Come in,” I call after him in English playfully hitting my stupid ass guitarist.

“Oh yeah we’re in America.” he laughs.

Then the door opens and on pours the five members of Night Ranger. Who I recognize from being a fan.

“We just came to meet you wish you good.” Jack Blades my bassist counterpart and the frontman, tell us. I must say he's very cute in person and quite tiny. He's kind of like a little mouse but in a cute way.

“Thank you, I’m Ren.” I say first before anyone else in the band speaks up. We all speak English but I happen to be the best. My father is Swedish and I was born and raised in Sweden and very much view myself as Swedish, my mother was an American. So I grew up speaking both English and Swedish. She died a few ago. Unfortunately without ever coming back to her homeland, a choice she made for a reason I'll never know or understand, but I'm here now.

“I'm Jack,” he replies, then points to my bass. It's a signature I make with Hamer. Much like himself. It's a different body shape than him and mine is a deep dark purple shade. “Nice bass.”

“Thanks, it's my signature,” I informed him to play a little riff from one of our songs to show off I guess. She's a beauty and I know it.

“I figured.” he laughs, “it's nice meeting you.”

“It's nice meeting you too,” I tell him with a smile. “We’ll be seeing more of each other I'm sure.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he says with a charming smile.

Just as our tour manager comes back to tell us we've got 5 minutes till show time and Night Ranger all clear out to let us do our final preparations.

I hand my bass off to my tech and go and check myself one final time. All is looking good. I'm ready to rock these mother fuckers!