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This article is based on a long-term ethnographic study (2001–2018) and adopts a sociolinguistic perspective to consider language acquisition in a context of migration. It aims to examine the metaphorical expressions that new speakers of Swedish use to describe the process of learning the language. The analysis aims to improve understanding of the phenomenon of linguistic mudes, that is, the decisive moments in individuals’ lives that lead them to change their language of habitual use. By examining a linguistic trajectory, I show that a language is appropriated over time, by means of a long relational and emotional process. I also observe that mudes take place over several stages and that they can have different qualities. It therefore seems useful to broaden the concept of mudes and to use the term “functional mudes” to refer to the practical aspect of language as a means of communication in different language domains, and “existential mudes” in relation to the perception and acceptance of oneself as a new speaker.