Another huge thank-you to Shane who wrote today's blog. Please be sure and visit our friend Shane's blog at www.letmetellyouaboutsweden.com . We are back now from all of our travels and we'll be posting again tomorrow. Take Care!
Each of us as individuals have different ways of learning. I have tried different ways of learning Swedish with varying success.
Of course its much easier to learn Swedish when you are living in Sweden, though my office is English speaking as my colleagues are from all over the Nordics. Also many Swedes answer you in English when you ask for something in Swedish, its not them being rude, they like the chance to speak English or they feel they are helping you.
So I have to come up with inventive ways to expose myself to Swedish.
When I first moved here I used to strike up conversations with anyone, even with folks on the checkout at the supermarket! Seriously. They always say 'hej' as they start scanning your shop but its not a heartfelt 'hej' its very robotic. So I always say 'Hej, hur mår du?' This always brings out a look of surprise and usually a laugh and they answer and say 'själv', its nice in a way as most of the staff in my local Hemköp know I am not fluent but they think its fun to speak along now.
I had wrongly assumed that just by living here I would suddenly wake up fluent. Well this may happen in 10 years or so but without some application its not going to happen in the short term. So I set up myself up with a 1-3-5 Goal. Its something I use professionally to manage my goals and I thought it would be fun to apply it to Swedish. This works for most things in life, whether it be career goals, sports goals etc. Why not give it a try?
1 Goal - Fluent Swedish
3 reasons why: Integrate Better in Swedish life
More Commercial opportunities
More social opportunities.
5 actions - One hour of Swedish study each weeknight
Translate two newspaper/magazine/web articles each week and publish them on my blog
Watch one Swedish language DVD each week
Watch or listen to Swedish News each day
Read a Swedish newspaper each day
DVDs is an interesting one. Unfortunately the Swedes dont bother to dub English language films so I have been buying Swedish made ones and put the Swedish subtitles on.
I have watched some Swedish classics like Lasse Åberg's 'Sällskapsresa' which was very very funny, I also watched 'Göta Kanal' - these are both comedy classics that the Swedes themselves love!
I recently bought a Bamse DVD, Bamse is the worlds strongest bear and is known by nearly every Swede who all read it as kids. I read the comics as well as another good way of learning but not in public! The funny thing with Bamse is that each story ends on a moral for the kids and its a very egalitarian family in the true Swedish way! The enemy was Vargen (The Wolf) but even he eventually becomes Bamse's friend after being treated kindly by Bamse, the only villain who couldnt be turned was Krösus Sork a crude Capitalist who will do anything for money...told you this was espousing Swedish values ;-)
I watched 'Beck' for the first time this week. Its a cop show based in Stockholm. I bought four of the Beck films to be getting on with and I really enjoyed the first one I watched this week. Only snag is there is a lot of slang which isnt in my dictionary. For instance they kept talking about a 'torsk'. Now my dictionary translates that as 'cod. So I couldnt work out why they were calling someone a cod. I asked a Swedish friend who explained that its slang for someone who picks up prostitutes, told you it was educational!
Last but not least, as a single guy in my thirties I of course love my Xbox, but even that can help. I now play the soccer game FIFA 09 with the Swedish commentary, this is a really good way of getting my ear into it and of course these are important words to know when talking football down the pub!
My Swedish needs a lot of work but I am hoping with the 1-3-5 goal and bags of enthusiasm I will crack the language soon!
