Managed without English for a hundred years - perhaps it’s time now!

They must think school is fun,’ she said firmly. ‘Learning new things should be fun. That child I talked with who was so charming told me she hadn’t been having an easy time,’ she said with empathy in her voice. ‘She said she was bored in school. Why do they bore the children so? Can’t they make it more fun instead?’

‘You mean the girl you met at the municipal event,’ Disa said.

‘Yes, the precious child. What was the name of the event again? It was some word I can never remember. It is impossible to learn new things with such an old head as mine,’ she said and tapped her forehead. As she lowered her hand, a grey lock of hair stuck out tousled. She looked like an absentminded professor, Disa thought and smiled fondly. ‘Old and young united,’ Grandma said with hint of annoyance in her voice as she pronounced the English word with Swedish pronunciation. ‘was it uni-ted?’ She looked expectantly at Disa.

‘United,’ Disa clarified with English pronunciation. ‘It’s in English. Old and young united.’

‘What’s that? Joniii-ted?’

’United’

’Joniii-ted,’ Grandma mimicked. ‘But then why don’t they write it in Swedish then, so people can understand. Uni-ted,’ she repeated, going back to her original Swedish pronunciation of the word. ‘No one understands what it means, do they?’

‘No, not any older people anyway. If you don’t speak English it must be impossible to understand,’ Disa said.

‘English,’ Grandma said a bit sarcastically. ‘Do you think I should learn that?’

Grandma looked at Disa with such a frank expression in her eyes that she couldn’t keep from laughing. You could never be sure with Grandma whether she really meant what she said, it was hard to tell just by looking at her.

‘No, I suppose not,’ Disa said with a smile.

‘Well, I’ve managed without it for a hundred years, but perhaps it’s time now then?’ Grandma said. She studied Disa closely. ‘Do you think I should learn English?’ she asked again in a faintly glum voice.

‘No, of course not,’ Disa said and laughed. ‘Unless you really want to that is, but if you haven’t needed it for a hundred years, I think you can manage in the future as well.’

‘You think so do you. Well,...’ grandma said and looked pleased.

‘We can just call it the meeting for old and young people instead. We don’t have to use the official project name.’

‘Meeting for old and young people,’ Grandma said doubtfully. ’Well that’s much easier of course. So you feel we can keep speaking Swedish then?’ she continued with an elusive smile.

‘Of course,’ Disa repeated.

‘Then I’ll stick with it I suppose, to avoid any articulatory misunderstandings,’ Grandma said, clearly articulating each word and with a satisfied smile. ‘But one English word I’ll know at least. Joniii-ted,’ she said contentedly and screwed up her eyes so her entire face became a maze of laughing wrinkles.