I celebrated my 9 year Sveriversary with dread. I hate being asked the question, “How long have you lived here?” when someone realizes that I am not fluent in Svenska. Both Svenskar and other immigrants respond with slightly judgemental encouragement.
I know the only way to defend my excuses, some legit and some not, is to suck less at this. It’s hard to stay motivated to learn something that has no daily usefulness and is an obligation imposed on me by others’ expectations.
What if instead of speaking Svenska, the arbitrary expectation was learning to hunt deer for food?
Them: Why haven’t you learned to hunt, clean, and cook deer yet? It’s our culture’s primary food.
Me: I don’t like eating deer.
Them: But how do you survive?
Me: I live better than you eating only plants.
Them: But you’ll never know what it’s like to be Not Immigrant.
Me: You proactively tell Immigrants who now expertly eat deer that they still will never be Not Immigrant.
Things can be true at the same time:
1. I have struggled to learn any subject that I did not intrinsically value. Secondary languages are not unique. I barely passed classes that forced me to study English literature and theory.
2. I have 0 expectation of English accommodation in Svenska-settings. My linguistic exclusion is my problem to deal with, not others’.
3. Accessibility accommodation like live captioning help native- and non-native speakers. They should be used more.
Jeremiah Lee