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#but hey my cousin from dad's side doesn't speak any swedish!
purple-is-great · 3 years
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i'm reading a really good fic with a four-year-old and there's a lot of music involved, and i just realised that despite using way more finnish growing up, the songs that bring back the most nostalgia are in swedish
a part of it is explained by the fact that my dad used to sing me and my sister to sleep (we shared a room until i was nine) and i always insisted that he finish with these two swedish songs about going to sea and really missing someone. i remember when i was maybe five he had to go on a work trip and i insisted my mum sing it to me
however, there is also a swedish kids' band whose song arne alligator is the number one thing i associate with the place i lived in at age six. it's a silly and fun song about an alligator, but despite the place being the upstairs of my grandparents' house (meaning i'm there a lot on holidays), it's still that song that plays in my head every time i go there. hell, the only thing i remember is the chorus, but it's this song where i always have to think in order to understand the lyrics that's stuck with me!
maybe it's the fact that i hear less swedish around me, so hearing it is always a bit special, and it's also a language i so strongly associate with my dad and his parents, but those songs are really powerful to me
in conclusion, if i ever have a kid i won't be able to speak swedish with them but i will sing them to sleep with a song i can't spell the lyrics to
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