#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!

[horse-breed-a-day]

Hello, as someone who’s Horse Autistic its wonderful to see your blog pop up on my feed with all the pretty horsies, and see so many other people who are Horse Autistic. Love your blog, keep it up.

Especially seeing you talk about Breyers, got quite a few model horses but believe all of mine are Schleich (but I prefer how textured some of them are - especially the heavier breeds with feathering).

What’s the most memorable lesson or other horse you’ve ridden or been into contact with? (If you have any).

Mine was a generic warmblood fleabitten grey gelding called Little Lord. Best lesson horse ever, quite slow but trusty and calm as can be (never spooked or anything beyond getting a bit startled, real seasoned one, perfect for beginner me). Rode him for years until he got some illness and had to be put down (he was quite old already I think), been riding a lot of great horses but he’s my number one ❤️ Still have a Build-A-Bear horse named after him that I treasure deeply.

hello and thank u for the ask friend :D! yippee horsie autism ♾️ 🐎! i used to have a handful of schleichs but i never really got into them as much as i did with breyers 😅 some of them r so gorgeous tho!

thats a great question i think my most memorable lesson was the first time i cantered! it was always so daunting to me because 1. my disability makes my bones suck so i was afraid i wasnt strong enough and 2. i was gonna just wobble and slide off lol! but i stayed on despite being terrified! i think the second most memorable was the first time i tried jumping but i never got too into it! i did get into competing for basic groundwork but the environment was too stressful for me to want to go back lol (i did get 3rd place tho!)

as for most memorable horses ive ridden its def these two:

- Steele (16/17 hh seal brown swedish warmblood gelding)

- Muse (14 hh bay arabian gelding)

these guys were my go-to rides! they were both so gentle (not without their faults of course, Steele was incredibly spooky and would jump at anything he thought was scary) and great buddies in general! Muse was the first horse i ever rode when we moved from PR to the US so hes got a special place in my heart (he fell and broke his hip in the summer of 2016 and had to be put down sadly, but Steele is most likely still around although he was sold back to his previous owners bc they could upkeep his health problems much better than we could)

but yeah sorry for rambling! im so sorry ur lesson horse had to be put down too it doesnt really ever get easy losing a horsie 🫂❤️

[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.

[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

[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.

[aaltjelng]

so the lovely @languagessi sent me an ask with the numbers for the ask game but i managed to accidentally delete the ask:)) well, i decided to try to answer anyway, hopefully i remembered the numbers right haha... so here are the answers!

12. Vocab or grammar?

It’s a tough question! I guess it kind of depends on the language... I am utterly in love with Korean grammar! It might sound strange but I just find studying it so fascinating and rewarding. It also feels really nice to finally be learning a language that shares some traits with Finnish (no articles, a lot of suffixes...) I find studying Korean grammar a lot nicer than for example French grammar (although I do like that too!), mostly because I struggle a lot with remembering the genders of nouns and that makes me frustrated, and articles and genders feel kind of unnecessary to me as a Finnish speaker whereas the nuances that can be expressed through Korean grammar are really interesting.

I don’t have such strong opinions on vocab. In the beginning I did find it hard to remember Korean vocab and I still struggle with that a bit, but it’s getting better and better all the time. I think I like learning vocab the most when studying Swedish! I don’t know why, but I guess it just feels like it sticks more easily. I do love some Korean, especially native Korean words with all my heart... And learning vocab can feel super rewarding: that feeling when you spot a word you just learned in a random text and realize you can actually understand what it is saying is really the best feeling.

23. How did you get into languages?

Honestly I have loved languages for as long as I can remember. When my brother started learning English at school at the age of 9 (I was 7), I secretly listened to him and our mom studying. I also stole his English books and secretly read them by myself and tried to study.

After that I did have some time that I was just studying at school, I was always good at it but not as enthusiastic as I am now. It clicked in 2017 when I was 13 years old and I just started studying Swedish on my own. We had it in school too, but I was frustrated with how slow we were going. Somehow I just thought about the idea of studying and speaking this language and languages in general and it just made me really excited and happy. It is really difficult to explain but languages really bring out this certain feeling in me and that feeling has stayed with me since that year.

24. Why are you studying your target language?

So I actually have four target languages right now: French, Swedish, Italian and Korean. English is also a foreign language for me but I am not really interested in improving my English level as of now. 

Out of these four languages, I am now actively trying to improve my Korean, while the other three are more or less on “maintenance mode”. I study those three at school as well so I am still using and studying them, just not with the same intensity as Korean.

Anyway, here’s a little bit about each of these languages and why I am studying them!

French: I started it at school at the age of 9. It was quite a clear decision for me back then, I was really interested in the language, I had been to France many times and the Dutch side of my family actually originates from France (like hundreds of years ago my ancestors fled persecution from France to the Netherlands). I really loved studying French and my interest has only grown over the years. I love speaking French, I love reading French, I love listening to French and writing in French, and I really want to get my French to an advanced level. I will probably work on my French more actively next year and really try to bring it to C1 level before my matriculation exam. Now my French is somewhere between B1 and B2.

Swedish: I started it at school when I was 12 years old. In Finland Swedish is an obligatory subject so I didn’t actually choose starting it haha but I have always loved Swedish so I was motivated from the start. My aunt lives in Stockholm and I have been there for about 20 times. My mom also loves Swedish and I think she has also been a factor in my love for Swedish. As I said earlier, Swedish is actually the language that inspired me to start actively self studying languages. I just felt so frustrated with the pace we were moving at at school and I just thought to myself: “I learned English more or less fluently mostly with my own effort. Why couldn’t I do that with Swedish too?”. English I had learned because of other factors, not really my enthusiasm about the language or language learning but more because I needed to understand English in order to understand fandom things and books and bands I loved. So I thoguht that, well, books were really the thing that brought my English to a new level, so I should probably do that with Swedish. And so I did that and studied hard and got my Swedish to an intermediate level. I studied actively for about 5 months, after that I’ve just been mostly relying on school. This spring & summer I am planning on taking the next step and bringing my Swedish to an advanced level before my matriculation exam.

Italian: I started studying Italian at school last year with my best friend. She is part Italian and I thought that because I love learning languages and I love her and there is a possibility take Italian, why not take Italian? I also love Italian history and art and Italian is a very significant language in classical music (I am studying to become a classical violinist/violist). So I have been taking Italian for a bit more than a year now and I am around an A2 level. Next year, before the matriculation exam, I’d love to get my Italian to a B2 level or at least a B1 level.

Korean: In the summer 2019 I stumbled across some videos and heard my first songs by BTS. One of them: Paldogangsan or so-called “Satoori rap”. I heard it and just instantly fell in love. It’s a song about Korean dialects, and the way the rap showcased the different sounds of the Korean language... It really inspired me. Well, other things happened in my life, I got depressed, my other psychiatric and neurological issues got worse and so on. Through that time I discovered some truly amazing and touching songs that had lyrics that really moved me to my core, some by BTS but most by Agust D, and I knew I had to learn that language, at least a little bit. At first I just learned hangul to make sure that the lyrics I was scribbling to my diary weren’t complete nonsense. During the following six months I didn’t actively study Korean, I just played with Duolingo here and there, listened to a few beginner TTMIK lessons, acquired some vocabulary I was hearing in songs... 

But in May 2020 something just struck me and I just got this sudden burst of inspiration. I realized that if I really wanted to learn this language, what better time to start than now? I guess I had been feeling kind of intimidated, because I knew that learning a language, any language and especially one like Korean would take a long time. But I still remember this one post that I saw on tumblr. It said something about how usually when we think about how long learning a language will take, we feel weirded out about thinking ourselves being that much older. But the thing is, we will get older anyway. Might as well be older and know this language that you deeply love. That idea has stayed with me since. Let’s take one estimate: getting fluent in Korean will take about 4 years. In 4 years I’ll be 21. So? In 4 years I’ll be 21 anyway, why not be a 21 year old who knows Korean. And I also realized that I am still so young. I have so much time to learn so many languages. Might as well use it.

So I have been actively studying by myself for about 6 months and would place myself somewhere around the A2 level. This October I made this challenge for myself: for 100 days, study as hard as you can. Learn as much as you can and do not give up. I really want to see how far I can come if I give this my all! I’m wishing on getting to a B1 level at the end of this challenge but we’ll see. WIth Korean, and I guess with any language, it’s quite easy to get discouraged by thinking how much you still don’t know, so it’s important to also realize how much you already know. I have come so far already during these past 6 months, and I am really proud of myself. That motivates me to keep going: I learned all that, so I can learn these other things too!

Okay hahaha sorry for my very very long post and making you listen to my ramblings in my incoherent English.  I just love languages so much and I could talk about them for forever!

Thank you if you read this far, I hope you have a wonderful day. <3

Aleijd