#Beginner Swedish lessons

[swedika]

Swedika - Svenska och Arabiska

Welcome to “Swedika Svenska och Arabiska” – your new journey to discover the world of the Swedish language in a simple and fun way!

In a world full of challenges and opportunities, language is a fundamental tool for opening doors to new and unique experiences. Whether you want to advance your career, communicate with a new community, or deepen your understanding of another culture, learning Swedish is the first step towards achieving these goals.

Through the “Swedika Svenska och Arabiska” project, we strive to offer innovative and simplified lessons, specially designed for Arabic-speaking beginners. Our goal is to make learning Swedish easy and accessible for everyone, through clear and interactive explanations and a method that encourages continuity and self-study.

Whether you are at the beginning of your journey or want to improve your language skills, we are here to provide you with the support you need to succeed and reach your goals with confidence. Let’s start this journey together, step by step, towards mastering the Swedish language!

Welcome to “Swedika” – where the passion for learning meets simplicity and efficiency!

[withasinglesound]

langblr intro!

Hello! My name is Atlas Sofie (pronounced Sofia). I'm 15 years old and from Denmark. I've decided to digitize my language journey, and hopefully use this as motivation.

About me

Conversational in Danish by 6, and in English by 10

Planning on either studying filmmaking or history in college

Disabled (in every way possible) and mentally ill

My name is based on a poem I wrote about how often a single sound is enough to convey a huge amount of information.

My Languages

German

Where I live it's required to learn this if you want to get a job.

Been learning it in school since 2nd grade.

Currently at A2, since most school lessons focus on grammar

Norwegian

Thinking of going to film school in Norway, so planning to learn it before I'm done with High School

Currently at beginner level, but understand it slightly since I know Danish

Swedish

Same as Norwegian

Would like to learn it because it's cool, and easy to learn

Irish

Learning for fun

Not taking it as seriously as the others, but it's still a cool language

Would like to make my history Ph.D thesis on Ancient Celtic Traditions, but due to an illness I can't do a trilled r

Would also like to do a semester in Northern Ireland in College

Think the grammar is fascinating

French

Also not taking this seriously

I'm choosing French as my elective language in High School, so I thought I'd get a head start.

No timeline on this as I don't actually need this

Just thought it'd be nice to know a romance language

Sønderjysk

This is a 'what-if' language

Sønderjysk is a dialect of Danish, with it's own unique grammar, syntax, pronunciation, and vocabulary

Learning this to connect with Sønderjysk family

Living in Sønderjylland, so easy access to resources for learning

[comrade-heather]

April 2023 Language Learning Reflection

Time Logged (Toggl)

Progress towards my 2023 goals

Swedish

Finish Duolingo Swedish Foundations 1

midway through unit 14

progress: 73%

(was at 60.1% last month)

Keep up with Anki

days I did reviews: 5/30

Finish season 2 of Bonusfamiljen

just finished ep 5

progress: 50%

Master the "100 most common" level on Clozemaster

played: 398/493 (80.7%)

mastered: 0/493 (0%)

Ojibwe

Work through ‘Survival Ojibwe,’ lessons 1-8

haven't progressed in the book

Anki: 3/30 days.

Find some audio media for imersion

found a counting song I like

Reflection

This month was much better than February and March, and more on par with January. I focused in on my goal to make progress in the Duolingo tree, and I splurged for Clozemaster Pro, which is an awesome resource. Next month I want to work on being more consistent with Anki. I wish I was spending more time on Ojibwe, but because I'm still such a beginner it's harder to study in long chunks. (For Swedish I can just watch Bonusfamiljen and boom, that's 45 minutes of study for the day.)

[hopefulpenguincreator]

2024.04.05 Hour 12 🇸🇪 - Coffee Break Swedish

Good to do some basic listening. Reading/watching etc works but its better to spring forward in ability with beginner content FIRST if I want to make faster speaking/interpersonal usage progress.

🇰🇷 this practice is making me rethink my korean practice. decided i should instead finish all my korean textbooks FIRST (black set, purple book, dankook book, tiger korean)

Swedish +1.5hr

Coffee Break Swedish is great beginner-level audio content. its easily accessible both bc its a podcast and because there's english to guide you and speaking practice built in.

I would like to chat more with my boyfriend rather than just learning to understand Kalle Anka.

Bonus stuff:

Låt oss börja! / Ska vi börjar?

Jag lovar - i promise 🤞

1.01 end of episode says "fika" multiple times - good pronunciation practice

Ja mår dåligt - i feel rubbish 🤒

Det är rät 👍 - thats right

1.02 at 6:40, their mycket pronunciation makes great practice

Varsågod - also for holding the door open for someone (here you go, please take a seat, after you, youre welcome)

tack för senaste - thanks for last time 🩷

tack för matten

tack för idag

tack för igår - thanks for yesterday 🩷

God natt! 💖🌙

krammas - hug eachother ❤️

ha trevligt kväll / tack så mycket / varsågod

no "z" pronunciations, all "z"s are pronounced like "s"

vad lär vi oss idag? - what are we learning today?

det låter bra - that sounds good ‼️✴️

inte så svårt - thats not so hard

nästan - almost ✨

jag är amerikansk vs. jag är amerika(n) = i am american vs. i am an american

norsk vs. "norshk" - both right

det här fantastiska språket - this fantastic language

fikarast = fika + rast

did not make and will not make any (temporary) flashcards for this content because the audio lesson comes with both listening and speaking/memory practice. flashcards not needed.

[mandolinsecrets]

Fisher's Hornpipe // Bluegrass Mandolin Lesson // Melody

Welcome to a fun and engaging mandolin lesson where we dive into the classic tune 'Fisher's Hornpipe'! 

In this tutorial, we'll break down the melody, explore essential techniques, and learn the nuances that bring this timeless piece to life on the mandolin.

This tune is present in the traditions of Irish-, bluegrass, and even classical chamber music.

We are adding some extra attention to the triplets in the pickup line of Fisher's Hornpipe', focusing on: 

• finger placements 

• and picking patterns. 

The triplet technique is essential to bring out the charm of traditional melodies like this on the mandolin.

This tune is part of one of my favorite albums, "Into the Cauldron," with Chris Thile and Mike Marshall. 

Whether you're a beginner looking to expand your repertoire or an intermediate player seeking a new challenge, this step-by-step guide will help you master 'Fisher's Hornpipe' and add a delightful tune to your mandolin repertoire.

You'll find sheet music, tabs, audio tracks, and instructions for this tune in Mandolin Secrets Academy.

On my right side, I have the excellent Swedish bluegrass guitarist Mikael Grund

[assignlance]

For individuals interested in Swedish classes online

For individuals interested in learning Swedish classes online offer a convenient and flexible way to acquire language skills. Several platforms provide comprehensive Swedish courses that cater to various proficiency levels, from beginners to advanced learners. These online classes typically incorporate interactive lessons, multimedia resources, and opportunities for real-time communication with instructors and fellow learners. Enrolling in online Swedish classes allows students to tailor their learning experience to fit their schedules, making it accessible for those with busy lifestyles or diverse time zones. Many programs focus on practical language skills, including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, to ensure a well-rounded proficiency in Swedish. 

[japanese-cryptic-beauty]

Post 2: Correcting Post 1

Or: The journey of Japanese is a journey of folly.

So, I wrote that Japanese has pitch but it's usually not important for meaning, you just sound unnatural.

... Which is something you could say ... Kinda ... sorta ...

Only the Universe has been bombarding me with the importance and prevalence of pitch ever since. So I want to qualify the statement, at least.

Check out this interesting post I found here. Now, if I read this slightly cryptic answer right (it talks about "word-accent" which I assume can mean both "pitch" - Japanese, Chinese - and "stress" - English), pitch is significant to distinguish words with same sounds (homonyms) as follows: Chinese - 71%, Japanese - 13%, English - 0.47%.

Unsurprisingly, in a language (Chinese) using (in its standard pronunciation/main dialect) 5 pitches to differentiate words, pitches are "damn important" (71%). But 13% is actually also quite significant. Your mileage may differ.

Personal bias in skimming information

Now, for me, myself, this is not so surprising. I may have come across the information that pitch exists in Japanese probably twice but my brain may have chosen to willfully ignoring it.

(Textbooks may mention it but then omit it to not overload beginners, I guess.)

Thing is, I have a horrible history with learning how to stress words in other languages. These little accent-y things and squiggles on top of words? They're my nemesis. So I guess I wanted there to be no equivalent of that in Japanese.

I had three years of Ancient Greek in school, an investment of my time that taught me a valuable lesson: Don't learn Ancient Greek. I'm kidding - or am I? - the valuable lesson was to do my choices in a less knee-jerk way. In hindsight, nothing of value would have come of learning Ancient Greek even if I did well. Your opinion may differ. Fine. I really think it's a colossal waste of time unless you make a job choice requiring it. The best it could have done for me was get better at the learning itself or the learning of languages in general. But it failed in the most important thing that language does: connecting people. If it fails at that, it barely has any right to remotely exist as a subject. Nobody likes you Ancient Greek, go away.

Besides the letters, Greek gave me major problems with the stress accents. Put it on a syllable and I would never manage to pronounce the word. I always put the stress wrong. My brain hasn't unlocked how that works. I notice the same in Spanish. I may emulate a speaker (not that I speak Spanish, but when I repeat after someone), but even then I might not even hear the difference.

I know I've aggravated my Swedish teacher for not hearing the difference between his "ooh" and "uh" sounds he was making for the letter "u." (Ironically a song based entirely on the sound "U" is now playing on shuffle.) Hopefully continued exposure and awareness of the problem might help...

There's some good news, though

While my chosen learning method of WaniKani doesn't display stress, it features two speakers, Kyoko and Kenichi that say the readings. I wondered on occasion if they were real, but they do use pitch when pronouncing words. (And they might slightly vary between each other.)

So there's a neat little feature:

You pick your speaker and chose to let pronunciation play out every time the reading is featured - in case of reviews after you transcribed it yourself first.

I have to admit I was in the habit of not playing it when I could do multi-kanji word readings well, but this exposes me to pitch and pronunciation peculiarities I might otherwise ignore.

More exposure!

[EDIT:] Probably more good news, depending where you come from

So, in researching this I came across this article. It provides two pieces of context that I want to quote .

A reply to a letter to the editor of a manga magazine printed in Romaji (without accent marked) quoted in point 5: "When two or three words sound exactly alike except for pitch accent, context is going to resolve the ambiguity virtually 100 percent of the time. In practical terms, accent is probably the least important aspect of Japanese pronunciation no matter what your level of language skill."

In other words, even bad pitch accent will be understood almost always. This is where I first will employ the most horrible, stereotypical example that's ALWAYS trotted out to justify anything: the chopsticks/bridge example.

Chopsticks and bridge both transcribe to "hashi" (and to the same Hiragana). They only vary in rising and falling pitch. Now you could argue that makes pitch important. But as the above quote states - context usually resolves that quite reliably.

I mean, having browsed reddit and Quora for a while, you will inevitably see this being trotted out, and people ask the rhetorical question: Don't you think it's important to know if the bridge is burning or a set of chopsticks?

Rhetorical questions are, of course, only questions in the most technical sense. They're usually just people being smug or actually making biased or even bad faith arguments.

As mentioned above, people are not dumb. Japanese is already incredibly context-sensitive. You constantly have to keep track of things said before - because omission is common. You can leave out the subject because you mentioned it before as "the topic." Good luck with translating that, AI...

You usually can infer what is being said. But propagators of the burning chopstick dilemma are trying hard to make you think their way. Or are they even trying? It's so tired an example. If there were lots of these, surely people would quote them, too? Who cares what's going on with the damn bridge, anyway?!?

Okay, moving on.

I found this from point 6 a very useful and probably true assessment: "People without hearing impairments can mimic the melody of language, but they can hardly interpret visual accent markers into the oral/aural domain without special training because visual and auditory stimuli are processed very differently in the human brain. In all likelihood, the author of the above-mentioned letter simply feels more comfortable visually with accent markers. But using such markers to speak Japanese creates pronunciations that are worse than a crude synthesizer."

Well, I was notoriously bad at it in one language already. I guess I will hold my horses on trying to make that my method. Thankfully, audio material is available in enormous quantities, so we can learn from the melody of native speakers. And that is good news.

[devinkarlson]

Google Word Coach: The Fun Way To Learn English

Introduction

If you've ever found yourself stumped by a tricky word in English, Google Word Coach is the app for you. It's not just a way to learn English—it's also an enjoyable game that can be played on your phone or tablet. In this article, we'll show you how to use Google Word Coach and how it works. We'll also tell you about some of its best features so that when your next trip comes up and there's nothing but trouble ahead (or if you just want to score points with friends), you'll be ready!

It is a game

Word Coach is a fun way to learn English. It's not just an educational tool, but it's also fun! In Word Coach, you will be able to play the game and earn points by correctly guessing words in the puzzle. These points can be used for prizes when you reach certain milestones in your quest for knowledge about English vocabulary.

If you love word games, then this app is definitely for you!

It is available on both Android and iOS

You can access Word Coach on both iOS and Android. The app is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. If you're not sure which language to use for your language learning purposes (or if you have a specific need in mind), it's worth noting that the app itself is multilingual—it supports multiple languages at once! In fact, there are currently over twenty different languages supported by Word Coach:

Arabic

Chinese (Traditional)

Chinese (Simplified)

Dutch (Netherlands) and the rest of Europe.* Danish/Norwegian/Swedish

It has a slight competitive edge

Word Coach is a game. It's also a language learning tool, but it’s also fun, and it has a slight competitive edge.

There are two ways you can play Google word coach: you can use the free version or pay for an upgrade that gives you more options and content (more on this later). Either way, if you want to make sure your score keeps up with the best players in your area or around the world—and maybe even beat them—you'll need to buy some time at the top of the leaderboard!

You can challenge friends by sending them messages via Facebook Messenger or email; they'll get back with their own scores as well as tips on how they got them (if they want). You can see how well everyone else is doing against their previous scores; this helps both beginners and veterans alike who might be still trying out new words without feeling too discouraged by low numbers here and there because they're still getting used-up before moving onto something more challenging yet rewarding once again after several attempts at mastering those tricky ones first thing upon opening each new tab when using Google Docs instead of just typing whatever comes into mind first thing each day without thinking about what sounds good enough yet still satisfying enough so long as there isn't any typos making things harder than necessary either way!

You can choose different languages and difficulty levels

You can choose between English, Spanish, French and Italian. The language you select will determine the difficulty level of your lessons:

Easy: For beginners who want to learn basic words and phrases that are easy to understand.

Normal: For those who have some knowledge of the language but want more practice with common expressions or specific vocabulary items.

Hard: For those who already know how to speak some English but want a challenging lesson set in which they'll be tested on their comprehension skills as well as grammar rules and pronunciation patterns.

It's not just an educational tool, but it's fun too!

This game is not only a learning tool, but it can be fun as well. You can play this game with your friends and family members to improve your English language skills in a fun way.

Also Read Blog: AllSMO Social Media Optimization Tool – Does It Worth Using?

You don't have to worry about anything because we will teach you everything about how to play this game step by step so that you won't get confused at any point during your journey of learning how to speak English efficiently and fluently.

Learn English with Google Word Coach

Google Word Coach is a fun way to learn English. You can play it while you are waiting for the bus, or while you are waiting for your lunch break, or even while you are just goofing off on your phone. It's also good if you're bored and want something new to do!

You can practice with words that are specific or more difficult than what they teach in school, which is especially helpful if learning grammar isn't really your thing (like me). I like using this app when my friends and I go out together because we all have different levels of English fluency so there's no pressure from anyone else if one person messes up their turn too much!

Conclusion

In summary, Google Word Coach is a fun way to learn English. It is available on both Android and iOS and has a slight competitive edge that will keep you coming back for more practice. You can choose different languages and difficulty levels to suit your needs and preferences.

[balloons-and-shadows]

Swedish Introductory courses

FSI Languages | basic swedish lessons with audio lessons and a textbook

Ikindalikelanguages.com | 45 short Swedish lessons

Ielanguages | basic phrases, vocabulary and grammar in 3 levels with 58 tutorials

Internetpolyglot | word vocabulary lists with audio pronunciations and English translations, with 44 categories

Swedish language course | 4 small lessons on the basics

OnlineSwedish | 7 lessons with a small exam at the end

Speaklanguages | basic vocab and phrases

Memrise | 1025 Basic swedish words to learn

Goethe-verlag | phrases, vocab and audio lessons

Learnalanguage | phrases, verbs, vocab, dictionary and culture

Loecsen | small lessons with quizzes

Mylanguages | literally so many different things

SayitinSwedish | 30 beginners lessons

SwedishPod101 | many, many different things

Wikiversity | 12 short lessons

Babbel | kinda like Duolingo I guess?

P.S. Many of these sites also offer beginners courses in other languages!

[doitinanotherlanguage]

My Language Learning Goals for the Rest of 2022

Swedish: Sort of my priority for 2022. I want to brush up on my speaking and writing skills, and to broaden my vocabulary. So, my plan is to read more in Swedish, and to read aloud and to practice speaking. Measurable goals for 2022:

Review with Abi ruotsi

Read at least three books in Swedish

Watch a movie in Swedish at least once a month

Spanish: With Spanish, I’m mostly focusing on upkeep. So, my plan is to add Spanish-language things to my everyday life: music, movies, shows, literature, news, social media, etc. Measurable goals for 2022:

Read at least three books in Spanish

Watch a movie in Spanish at least once a month

Chinese: The language that I’ll probably devote the most actual study time to. I’m only a beginner, so I’m going to be following a textbook. Measurable goals for 2022:

Finish New Practical Chinese Reader 2

Watch a movie in Chinese at least once a month

Korean: I’m not sure I will have time to focus much on Korean this year, but if I do find the time, I’ll be continuing my studies with a textbook. Measurable goals for 2022:

Finish five lessons from Continuing Korean

French: I took French classes up to Intermediate-Low level, and I have a pretty good understanding of it, since I already know Spanish and English. If I have the time, I’d like to read in French and broaden my vocabulary. Measurable goals for 2022:

Read at least one book in French

Watch a movie in French once a month

[learnlanguageswithani]

an estimation of my skill level in each of the languages i'm interested in

english—native (american, currently in england)

spanish—i'd say mid to upper intermediate? + rusty because i haven't used it in two years. i studied spanish in school for six to seven years. i've reached the point where i can talk, write, and think pretty well in spanish (though it takes effort and sometimes a dictionary), but if anyone tries speaking to me or i try reading something, i get confused and i struggle to understand.

mandarin chinese—beginner + rusty. i studied it for two years in high school, but it's very different from english and i always felt like i had no idea what i was doing. i haven't picked it up since (so it's been about two years), but i want to.

french—beginner + rusty. i studied it for a year in high school (that was two years ago). i haven't picked it up since, but i want to.

italian—beginner + rusty. i tried to teach myself italian during an independent study for a semester in high school. i haven't picked it up since, but i definitely want to, since it's a big part of my family identity.

swedish—literally just picked up, so super beginner. i'm still not quite sure what compelled me to start learning it, but i'm just going to keep rolling with it because it gets me to actually engage with a new language. also duolingo says i've done the "form basic sentences" part of their first unit but i have absolutely no memory of that.

latin—interested, and i've gotten as far as learning the pronunciation several years back. i hoard latin textbooks, but it hasn't been a learning priority.

greek—interested/beginner. i did a few lessons on duolingo wayyyy back covering the alphabet, pronunciation, and the articles i guess.

korean—interested/beginner. i finished the duolingo alphabet sections, but the last time i remember studying it was four or five years ago.

german—interested/beginner. as with the two above, i started the duolingo course a few years ago and dropped it after a while.

asl—beginner. i was in an asl club my first half of freshman year, but the club fell apart, so i haven't studied it in five years. overall, i think sign language is very useful and should be a mandatory subject in school, and i'd really like to get back into it.

other (a.k.a. languages i'm interested in, but haven't started and don't know if/when i will study)—japanese, portuguese, arabic, hawaiian, ukrainian, norwegian, irish, hebrew, dutch, russian, scottish gaelic, old norse, ancient greek, old english, icelandic

[innovativelanguagelearning]

34 Languages You Can Now Learn for Free at Home

Absolute Beginner Course FREE for 3 months + Language Learning Tips & Tricks

Afrikaans       Arabics       Bulgarian       Cantonese

Chinese       Czech       Danish       Dutch

English       Filipino       Finnish       French

German       Greek       Hebrew       Hindi

Hungarian       Indonesian       Italian       Japanese

Korean       Norwegian       Persian       Polish

Portuguese       Romanian       Russian       Spanish

Swahili       Swedish       Thai       Turkish

Urdu       Vietnamese

In this uncertain time, it is important to stay positive & productive while we are at home. Learning a language is a great way to keep our mind sharp and with a free course and learning guide there is no excuse to put off our dream to be fluent in another language any longer!

Here is the list of languages you can now learn for free at home, at your pace:

Is it possible to stay focused at home?

You certainly need a good amount of discipline and motivation to create and follow your schedule. Not only that you should be aware of your goals and how to measure and split them into attainable results.

That’s why this course comes with the “Ultimate Guide to Learning a language at Home, at Your Pace”.

Even if you don’t know exactly what your goal should be and how you can effectively create a routine, this e-Book will actually do it for you, leading you from 0 to Hero in a few pages.

Tips & Tricks to Learning a Language at Home

Set up Successful Goals:

What are Successful Goals? They are Small. Measurable. Realistic.

- Small: so as not to overwhelm yourself

- Measurable: so that you know when you can reach it and set a timeline

- Realistic: Easy enough to fit into your daily schedule

The number one reason why most language learners fail is because they set huge, vague goals like “I want to be fluent” or “I want to speak.” Oh, yeah? By when? Let’s see an examples of “good” goals:

• Learn 100 new words by the end of this month. Deadline: April 30th.

Now that you have a Goal and a Deadline you can adjust your routine by splitting 100 words in 5 words a day for 5 days of the week or 3-4 words a day every day for example.

•What if you fail? Don’t beat yourself up. Aim Lower. Start Again!

More things inside the “Ultimate Guide to Learning a Language at Home, at your Pace” that will make your study session easier:

How to Create a Successful Routine

How to Make your Daily Planner (with a Printable Sample)

30 Actionable ways to Learning a Language

7 Tested Study Techniques

..& More!

What’s Inside an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE?

- Audio & Video Lessons, with sections for Dialogue, Grammar and Vocabulary 

- Multiple choice Assignments

- Hand-written Assignments

- The “Ultimate Guide to Learning a Language at Home, at your Pace” (scroll down to know more)

How can you sign up for FREE?

Sign up for a Free account via the Green Button on the page of your language of choice. (see list below)

Activate your account via our confirmation email.

Come back to the same page.

[languagefluent01]

Learn German by listening to these five free podcasts.

German has the most native speakers in the European Union (far more than English, Spanish, or French).

German is one of the world's ten most widely spoken languages. It is also a common language in Central and Eastern Europe. And what about the claim that "all Germans speak English anyway"? That is a myth.

There have been 92 Nobel Prizes awarded, yet more to come! Scientists from the three major German-speaking nations have gained 22 Nobel Prizes in Physics, 30 in Chemistry, and 25 in Medicine. 

At the same time, many laureates from other countries acquired their education in German universities. 11 Nobel Prizes in Literature were granted to German-language writers, while 7 Germans and Austrians have earned the Nobel Peace Prize. The best way to learn the German Language is to join the Best German language classes in Nagpur if you are from Nagpur city.

German engineers are world leaders in their fields. German and English have a lot in common. Because the two languages share the same "grandparent," many German terms sound or look similar to English ones. Consider the following phrases:

Buch = book, Haus = house schwimmen = to swim, singen = to song, kommen = to come, blau = blue, alt = old, windig = windy

From Fritz Lang through Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, and a generation of transnational directors like Tom Tykwer and Fatih Akin, the German-speaking world has produced some of the most respected filmmakers of the twentieth century. German and Austrian directors such as Lang, Billy Wilder, and Ernst Lubitsch affected Hollywood's history.

There is always time to put on some headphones. Here are five excellent German language study podcasts to help you improve your abilities. Begin learning German with free podcasts today.

1. German for Coffee Break

This podcast is a ready-made treat for listeners of all skill levels, and it's as convenient as a cup of coffee.

For those in a hurry, Coffee Break German provides a leisurely, coffee break length language course (though, as you progress through the series, I believe that bean grinding, brewing time, and slow sugar stirring are included as part of your break time).

The unique aspect of this podcast is that you will never feel alone in your language learning journey. In each episode, you study with Mark's Scottish presenter as he collaborates with his German tutor. 

There will be mistakes, and you'll learn lessons - but it's a team effort, from the simple words Guten Tag to the subtle grammatical nuances and cultural nuances.

If you want to immerse yourself in German culture completely, you should embrace the "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake) custom. 

Then you'll have time to consume a wonderful dessert and perhaps check out their other projects in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, and English, depending on how large you prefer your cake to be.

2. The Simple German Podcast

The premise of this channel is based on learning from actual people and having genuine conversations. Janusz, the channel's creator, started it in 2005 with a video in which he welcomed people on the streets of Münster. 

The movie was made as a present for two Vietnamese students learning German. When he posted it to YouTube a year later, he had no idea the channel would become so successful. Many spin-off ventures currently support Easy German, such as Seedling, an app for learning languages, and Super Easy German, a channel for beginners.

Our hosts Janusz and Cari break into meaningful conversations with strangers on the streets of German towns, all so that you might learn from native speakers. They ask the general people everything from banal inquiries like "What did you eat for breakfast?" to existentially challenging topics like "What is the point of life?" 

With the same intention to provide thought-provoking yet understandable content for language learners, their weekly podcast answers fan questions and covers a wide range of topics concerning culture, life, and whatever else they feel like talking about — all indigestible German. The ideal approach to learn on the go.

3. Why isn't it?

This audio series, brought to us by Deutsche Welle and the Goethe-Institut, is mainly designed to assist you in progressing through the standardized language learning stages of the Common European Framework for Languages.

4. Slow German News

Its name may contain the term "slow," but this selection provides a nice, bite-sized chunk of language learning throughout your day. With a length as brief as an afternoon-coffee biscuit dip, there's no excuse not to listen to this daily.

Slow German news delivers everything you need to know about the world at a manageable pace. Build your vocabulary with the short episodes, then once a month, watch the news at its natural speed to discover how far you've come.

5. Annik Rubens' Slow German

Slow German, another "slow" one, has a startling fast-paced technique of supercharging your learning. Annik Rubens, a German social media expert who works for the national radio station service Bayerischen Rundfunk, launched her podcast in 2005. 

She does not profess to be a German instructor, but her approachable approach to assisting language learners has resulted in massive podcast popularity.

The podcast, which divides her episodes into categories such as "Food & Drink," "Art & Culture," and "Sustainability and Climate Change," gives a straightforward approach to expand your vocabulary in key must-know areas.

[the-trans-otter33]

Which Would You Prefer?

TW: Swearing, gay kiss kiss mwah,

~~~~~~

Virgil just about had enough, even though they had just started. He had one of Logan’s ties draped across his neck with Logan sitting there in front of him. If he was being honest, Virgil was more focused on the fact that Logan didn’t even have his tie on for this.

It wasn’t a big deal, just a little bit strange. According to Logan, this would be Virgil’s only time learning how to tie a tie because “I am positive that no one else can teach this as well as I can, objectively of course.” Virgil had little hope that this would be the only lesson he needed. Not to call Logan a bad teacher, Virgil definitely saw Logan as a fantastic one, it was his own faith in himself that made him hopeless. Virgil even voiced his concerns to Logan, which didn’t end with Virgil winning.

Oh a flashback? I didnt expect it to get this involved

“Logan that’s incredibly counter-productive.” Virgil grumbled, carelessly placing his legs up on a table.

“I don’t see how that is, Virgil, learning how to tie a tie is an important and easy skill to obtain.” Logan took a sip of his coffee, his eyebrows perked up as he gazed at Virgil.

“Well yeah but not for me.”

“Once again, I don’t see how that is. You are incredibly smart and have taught yourself a copious amount of skills over the previous years.”

Virgil groaned, leaning his chair back on the back two legs.

“Besides, it will have to be your only time,” Logan cleared his throat, “I am positive that no one else could teach this as well as I can, objectively of course.”

“How does that matter?”

Logan sighed, “how does it not?”

“You seem to forget that with other people teaching me things, I’m a dumbass, no offense at all to your teaching methods Logan, but I’m not too well equipped in the learning from others department.”

“We’ll see about that, Virgil, we’ll meet for the lesson next week Tuesday after dinner.” Logan stood, taking his coffee into a different room, leaving Virgil no space to argue.

End of the flashback already? Hey author, did you mean to do that?

“Okay, Virgil, good to know you have step one done, having the tie lay loosely around the neck.” Logan did so with his tie. “Now what you’re going to want to do is something called the Christianson knot, it’s my personal favorite and easy for beginners-”

“Whoa woad wait, there’s different kinds of knots?” Virgil was already dumbfounded, how could there be so much complexity to ties?!

“Of course, there’s many ways such as the Four-In-Hand Knot, Half Windsor Knot, Full Windsor Knot, Nicky Knot, Oriental Knot, Pratt Knot, St. Andrew Knot, Balthus Knot, Hanover Kn-”

“Logan,” Virgil shifted anxiously in his chair, “too much at once man.”

“Oh. My apologies Virgil. Anyway, It was first used by a Swedish mail-order catalog for pre-tied and clip-on ties, where the knot was stitched into place and never untied. Tied properly, the knot makes a stylized X-shape across the collar. It tends to pull tight and narrow at the center, but spread out at the top and bottom, resulting in an hourglass type of figure.”

Virgil shifted in his chair, “Logan, what did I just say about too much at once?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Virgil, do you want to learn how to tie a tie or not?” Logan grumbled. He reached over, caressing the tie draped around Virgil’s pale neck. Well, it isn’t actually that pale, Logan noticed. Observing his smooth Adams apple, he cocked his head. Seemingly enough, there was smudged eye shadow streaked across Virgil’s neck. Logan opened his mouth to ask what that was about before he felt Virgil’s eyes on him.

“Everything okay, Lo?” Virgil’s eyes pondered over the distracted look in Logan’s deep hazel eyes.

Logan cleared his throat, firmly grasping Virgil’s which was actually Logan's tie. “Follow these steps now Virgil.” He began to manipulate the silky piece of fabric, until...

“Logan. Aren’t you supposed to be showing me on your tie?” Virgil couldn’t help but blush at the closeness between him and Logan.

“Well. I do suppose that is how this was meant to work but...perhaps I may have wanted a closer look at you, Virgil.”

“Oh. At me?” Virgil fiddled his hands together, unable to help a small smirk shining through his anxiousness.

Logan nodded, “Quite. I have a question for you Virgil.” He eyed Virgil’s jawline and lips beyond the border of his glasses, slowly looking up at the hunched gay man.

“Uh. Shoot, I guess.”

“Which would you prefer: A kiss or a tying lesson?”

~~~~~~

[nordic-language-love]

Language Learning Log 2021 Week 11 (08.03 - 14.03)

Norwegian

45-minute online lesson

Read 2x articles

Watched 1x Distriktsnyheter broadcast (Nordnytt)

Watched 11x Exit episodes

Mysteriet om Nils ch 38 grammar (read aloud)

Chatted with Amanda

Japanese

Read 1 story from Japanese Short Stories for Beginners

Duolingo: Vacation 1 + refreshed various skills

Norwegian

My teacher recommended the show Exit to me, so I’ve been watching that this week. At first I was like wow these guys really are all cunts not sure I’m gonna get on with this but actually? I got pretty hooked on it (even if they are all cunts). And there’s a fair bit of Swedish in it too, so I get to practice my Swedish comprehension (it’s so shit I had to turn on subtitles a few times). I’m almost tempted to dabble in a little Swedish on Duolingo just to get the basics down.

What I have realised though is that I really need to practise listening to natural conversation more. There were times when the characters were talking quite fast and I could only really get the gist of the conversation or I felt like I’d missed something key and had to rewind and watch with subtitles on. Watching the news is useful but the presenters tend to speak slowly and clearly and not in a natural way, so I’m gonna make more of an effort to watch TV series. It’s not like there aren’t several I enjoy!

I’ve been slacking on writing practice this week, so I’m going to try and do more of that this coming week. I need to do more reading too... maybe I should start that Harry Potter book. I’ve been struggling to get back into reading in general lately, so maybe shaking it up with a Norwegian book will help.

Last week’s goals

Mysteriet om Nils ch 38 grammar ✅

Watch 4x TV shows/news broadcasts [12/4] ✅

Read 3x articles [2/3] ❌

Write 150+ words fiction [0/150] ❌

This week’s goals

Finish watching Exit season 2

Mysteriet om Nils ch 38 exercises

1x written task

Read a chapter of Harry Potter og Føniksordenen

Japanese

I’ve spent most of this week reading the first short story from one of my books. I’m pretty sure these books are aimed at people who are already at least N5/N4 but I’m still learning lots! And it’s also given me ideas for vocabulary I need to look up. For example, I learned the word for always, so now I need to learn never and sometimes. I also learned summer and morning, so now I should learn autumn, winter and spring, as well as evening and night. So that’s my plan for this week!

I didn’t really get much else done, but that’s okay. I think this week’s going to be all about revising vocab. Hopefully by learning some more key vocabulary I’ll reduce the amount of time it takes me to read a single 3-page short story, which will mean I won’t have to spend an entire week on it. I also need to get some listening in, as I didn’t do much of that last week. I’ve reached the point in Final Fantasy where the story’s almost done and I’m mostly doing side quests, which means fewer cutscenes and therefore less listening practice. So maybe I’ll mute the game and put on NHK while I play instead haha.

Last week’s goals

Read 1 short story [1/1] ✅

Duolingo: start Hobby 1 skill ❌

Kanji drills on at least 3 days [0/3] ❌

Continue playing Final Fantasy ✅

Review JFZ ch 8 ❌

This week’s goals

Learn seasons, times of day and adverbs of frequency

Recap other vocabulary from story + make a vocab list

Duolingo: start Hobby 1 skill

Listening practice on at least 3 days

Kanji drills on at least 2 days

Other

Exercise has been better this week, although I would’ve liked to have done more yoga. I really need to get out of the habit of putting it off until it’s too late. I’m not sure why I do it - I really enjoy it! And I feel so good after I’ve done it and don’t regret doing it for a moment! So why do I put it off?? I’m definitely gonna talk to my therapist about my executive dysfunction when he gets back from holiday.

I’m not sure how much I’ll actually get done this week as my bf has the week off and we’re planning to use it to sort out the spare bedroom. Plus obviously I’ll want to spend time just being with him, playing Mario Party and watching Buffy. So I may not reach all my goals this week, but I don’t mind. Relationship time is important!

Last week’s goals

Do a little reading on at least 2 days [1/2] ❌

Stretch on at least 3 days [3/3] ✅

Train pole/hoop on at least 2 days [2/2] ✅

Do something creative ✅

This week’s goals

Stretch on at least 3 days

Train pole/hoop on at least 2 days

Train at home on at least 2 days

Practice with fans

[ana-actually]

How I’m approaching Swedish as a beginner and a linguist

Duolingo: Like many people right now, if I’m thinking about starting a new language, I start by checking it out on Duolingo if possible. 

I spent a few weeks doing lessons and getting a feel for the grammar, morphology, and prosody of the language. 

Slow Swedish with Katrin Berndt: To work on listening comprehension, I watch these videos. 

The first time, I watch without subtitles and see how much I can understand from knowing the title and from the context of the words that I already know. 

On subsequent views, I will put on the subtitles in Swedish if necessary. 

Academia Cervena: Since I find it helpful and interesting to know the technical aspects of a language, I like watching these videos. There are videos about tricky sounds for Swedish learners, Swedish pitch accent, and more.

Alexander Skarsgård Teaches You Swedish Slang: Apparently Vanity Fair has done a series of celebrities teaching slang from different places, and if you look up enough YouTube videos about a language, it starts suggesting this sort of thing to you.

This one was actually really well done and fun. Not only do you correctly learn how to pronounce “Skarsgård”, you learn other useful Swedish slang, idioms, and bits of culture.

If Alexander ever decides to give up acting, I think he could be a stellar language teacher.

Fakta i Frågan: These short videos are definitely a challenge for my beginning-level Swedish skills, but I like them for a couple of reasons.

They are subtitled, and the presenter speaks very clearly. I’ll usually watch the first time to look/listen for spelling-pronunciation-pitch connections. 

On subsequent views, I will pause while viewing to look up words. This is easy because, as I said, the videos are subtitled. 

Even better, at the end of each video, the speaker reiterates the main points of the video which also appear written on the screen. So even if I don’t understand the whole video, I can grasp the main ideas.