Marlene Berkenhagen

    Swedish with Duolingo – Illustrated Zine

    September 2023

    After moving to Sweden I learned Swedish exclusively on Duolingo for a while. During that time I had to laugh out loud several times, when there was an absolutely wild sentence being thrown at me. My collection of strange Swedish phrases began!

    In this zine I illustrated 7 completely normal conversations that you can have, after learning Swedish on Duolingo. The words and sentences written in cursive are things I added to improve the flow, the rest is all Duolingo doing it’s magic!

    “I had the honour to meet the king! He said to me:” – “I am not as young anymore but just as stupid! And I do not care about my grandchildren’s opini”ons.”
    “That was not at all what the king said? I was also there.” – “I don’t like your attitude…”
    “I will never ever leave you” – “You wrote. But I believe that you have sent the wrong letter to the wrong boyfriend. Have you lost your mind?”
    “The signal is coming from the moon! This is only the beginning.” – “We will prepare ourselves. This is the new reality.”
    “We all have our flaws. We all commit crimes sometimes.” – “But look! This is the very smallest spoon.”
    “The tiger thinks that you look like a good person.” – “He knows: Personality is the most important.”
    “He has a piece of advice for you: Fear is only for children,” – “You must, however, have respect for wolves.”
    “Hey… Sorry, I hit the ball through the window.” – “Now there’s a lizard on the floor in the bathroom.”
    “That’s our little secret…” – “Otherwise I’ll call your parents!”
    “What do you do to keep yourself in shape?” – “I hate sports but I can manage to eat a whole pig by myself!”

    The illustrations were made with acrylic paint, which I stamped on paper with potatoes. Then I drew the details with a color pencil.

    My favorite conversation is definitely number 5! Such a wise tiger.

    Marlene Berkenhagen
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