i’ve already been learning Swedish on and off for about 20 years, and still can only manage a very simple conversation. what i need is to spend some total immersion time in Sweden, and i’m looking into that after my time in Denmark, since it’s now right across the bridge! my most recent Swedish teacher here in NYC recommends going to Göteborg!
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How I did it: Since I have spent a semester as an exchange student in Sweden, I applied for a beginner's course in Swedish. It was nice. The bad part is that it was quite difficult to practice it: whenever I spoke to people in Swedish, I got answered in English... Read how I did it…
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I bought Rosetta Stone and am now in Unit 2! Hurrah!
I just finised reading Stieg Larsons Flickan som lekte med elden (the girl who played with the fire) in Swedish. The book is roughly 630 pages and I surprisingly didn’t have any major difficulties understanding it (although i didn’t get every word).
Now I just need to focus on speaking and understanding spoken Swedish. I’m thinking about registering for some discussion courses to practice!
Rachael wants to get more goals ticked off, sooner!
Class starts on the 14th of September, and I’m actually looking forward to it. Having classes on Swedish really helps me focus on it. I’ve been trying to talk an hour of Swedish at home with Erik, and I also have another Swedish book to study with, but the talking doesn’t always happen. I should really stick with it, though.
i have always had a strong desire to learn swedish partly because my grandpa is from sweden and i know it would mean a lot to him if i learned to speak it. i also just love how the language sounds, so pretty! (:
I went to the movies yesterday to see Männ som hatar kvinnor. (Swedish for “Men who hate women,” renamed in the English translation as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The movie is based on the award-winning novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his “Millennium Trilogy”.
Anyway, while watching the film I was surprised to learn how much I really understood of the spoken Swedish! :)
...and by the way it’s a great movie :)
I will move to Stockholm in aprox. 7 weeks so i’ve decided it’s time to spend more time working towards this goal. From now on I will devote 20 minutes every day studying Swedish. I’m using a program that is called “Svenska utifrån”, which is a beginners textbook as well as a lot of grammar exercises.
The textbook has 150 short lessons so if I’ll manage to complete 3 lessons every day, I should be able to finish the “course” before I move to Sweden. That would be a great headstart before I will be “thrown into the deep end”! :)






