Hollywood isn't all about big penises

On the 14th November I left Värmland in search for some higher end in Los Angeles. My new home, Neoganda, is a twelve-man army and as they're located in West Hollywood they do a lot of websites for the movie industry. It's a great bunch of people, everyone's nice and dedicated to their work and they do it very well. I was immediately thrown into sharp projects and I've done some basic Flash and Photoshop work. I'm pretty eager to show them what I can do!

If you just wanted to see if I was alive and you don't really have time for humor, you should probably stop reading here.

A quick 101 that the tourist guide book don't tell you

• Everyone is into movies
• Don't think you're the only Scandinavian here
  
• Don't forget to tip
• Don't buy pizza... really. Go for burgers instead.

Language disabilities á la Johannes Andersson

So how does someone who can't even barely speak normal Swedish communicate in L.A?
Either you go for it or you don't. You can't just mumble your words and hope you'll be fine (tried that one). You have to speak cleary and loud so they hear you. It's a good exercise for me, trust me! And if you're real fancy you try to put on a Californian accent to it. With my limited speaking capabilities I tend to talk English with a Värmlandish feel (you know, like in a swingin' tone) like I know what I'm doing and hope I don't reveal myself. But I usually get discovered like in 2-3 second into the conversation, and then I switch to Phase #1. It's seems like a good idea in those situations.

• Phase #1: The "I'M FROM SWEDEN I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!" approach.
  You just play dumb and that you don't really know anything. You could probably curl you down on the ground and they would still figure out what you mean. Additionally, you use a lot of body-language in order to get your message across.
  
  

• Phase #2: "Yeah, dude"
  You test your wings and get your own style. Escpecially in L.A you use words like: "dude". You can get pretty far if you can say "Yeah, dude" in a neat way. When you've got some momentum you move forward and try harder words.

It was funny because I didn't have a Caffe Latté like in three weeks because I didn't know how to pronounce the word in English. It's OK now though! In case you're wondering it goes something like this: "kaffehi lattheiyj".



Yours Sincerely,

/jompa