"Den gamla ankan badade i pengar."
Translation:The old duck was swimming in money.
73 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere, but this sentence reminds me of Sweden's tradition of watching an old Disney cartoon every Christmas Eve. It's bizarre to outsiders, but very serious to Swedes.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2009/12/nordic_quack.html
1149
It's not actually ALWAYS the same things--they have gradually switched out some of the shorts and tried to edit out the more racist bits. And, they reserve some space to put in clips of their up-and-coming movies. Some free advertising for Disney...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_All_of_Us_to_All_of_You#Sweden
And, this bit from the Wikipedia article: "In the 1970s, when SVT's head of children's programming disclosed plans to discontinue the special due to growing anti-commercial sentiment in the country, public outcry resulted in the special being maintained."
Now I finally understand! Recently I was hiking in Sweden around Christmas time, and I slept in unmanned huts (stugar). One of these huts had a guestbook in which a previous visitor had left a message: he had stayed in the hut on Christmas and missed Kalle Anka. I didn't get what Donald Duck had to do with it, but apparently it is quite a thing to miss at Christmas ;-).
533
Did you try call STF in Sweden and ask them. It is the youth hostel org up there. I only slept in manned stugor until know, but I bet they know how to arrange a trip like that. good luck !
1081
My Son's Swedish partner introduced us to this custom last year. As a lifelong Disney fan, I highly approve!
722
Swedes are very close to nature, spiritually if not always physically. Though often both.
263
That is actually a very good point. No infinitives in sight. However, badar is a new word, introduced in this lesson... so maybe that's why? But yeah, sort of misleading.
1805
Donald Duck (Kalle Anka) and his family are a huge part of Swedish culture. During Christmas, as others have mentioned, families watch together the same old cartoon where he photographs birds, but also his comics are read by everyone and sold everywhere.