#swedish langblr

[birchshutter]

A Swedish lessons

Inspired by the French flowchart over when to use tu or vous, I made one for the Swedish language:

[balloons-and-shadows]

The Economist, "Which languages take the longest to learn?" (Sept. 18, 2023)

[babooshkaa]

ways to make duolingo useful

1. jump units

in the new "tree" all the new vocabulary is in the first lesson, then duolingo makes you study it for like a week if you're lucky, so if you're confident you've learnt all the new words just jump to the next unit (I also find myself remembering my mistakes better if I make them while trying to jump than when I make them in regular lessons)

❗after jumping always come back to the stories you missed, they're like the most useful thing there is in the app

2. use other resources

I know this is a post about duolingo, but people, mostly beginners, seem to think that they only need duolingo to become fluent. my mom has a 700 days strike and she still can't keep a simple conversation in english or understand an episode of fucking teletubbies, that should tell you everything. read content for beginners, watch youtube videos, tv-shows, use other apps, I promise the owl won't kill you for it

3. stop when it starts slowing you down

trust me you don't need to use duolingo when you're intermediate, it's just not worth it. leave it for the days you can't study properly and want to do at least something

[dagenssvenska]

Bad Weather Swedish Vocab

Ett oväder - A storm Ett dåligt väder - A bad weather

Regn - Rain Hagel - Hail Snö - Snow Vind - Wind

En regnstorm - A rainstorm En snöstorm - A snowstorm En stormvind - A storm wind

Varför måste det snöa idag? - Why does it have to snow today? Det haglar ute! - It’s hailing outside!

[ett-hus-i-skogen]

Verbs I really should study (part 6)

tröttna: get tired, (+på) get fed up (with) tända: light, ignite tåla: endure, tolerate upprepa: repeat uttala: pronounce vattna: water verka: work/act, seem/appear vila: rest vispa: whisk, whip vissla: whistle väva: weave växa: grow växla: exchange, vary våga: dare vårda: take care of, cherish

[doitinanotherlanguage]

Updates on Learning Swedish 1/∞: Kampen fortsätter

I've been trying to reactivate my Swedish skills a bit during this year but it's been hard going. I've never been particularly enthusiastic about learning Swedish (it was a compulsory subject at school), but the truth remains that it's actually a really useful language to me in real life, so… I've been trying to brush up on my Swedish.

To get into the mood, I read some Swedish cookbooks and comics earlier this year. And most thrillingly, I've enrolled on a Swedish conversation course for the rest of the year! I'm quite excited but also really nervous. It starts in a couple of weeks and I'm not exactly sure what to expect.

🎵 Vatten - Laleh

[moonshadow-study]

📖 Studying and listening to music 🎧

[dsm-wannabe-linguist]

first threads screenshot, let’s gooooo

[er-cryptid]

Patreon

[birchshutter]

Another Swedish expression that I like is "Fan och hans moster", which translates to "the Devil and his maternal aunt".

wiktionary describes it as a term that "Indicates items left out at the end of an enumeration (of unpleasant or tiring things)."

Not only was the experience awful, it was so awful that not only was the Devil involved, but so was his aunt!

[balloons-and-shadows]

Masterlist Langblr challenges

Following from my previous posts, if you do feel like working on your languages, but don't know where to start; here are some langblr challenge you might like!

Language Blog Challenge: 20 weeks of challenges | by @lily-learns-finnish

Langblr Reactivation challenge | by @prepolyglot

14 Day langblr challenge | by @lass-uns-studieren

Langblr News challenge | by @tealingual

90-day vocab challenge | by @jibunstudies

100 Happy Days Langblr Challenge | by @nordic-language-love

Mini speaking challenge | by @nordic-language-love

16 words challenge | by @neblina-a-blin

30 day langblr challenge | @moltre-s

Brick-by-brick language learning challenge | by @linguistness

Langblr word of the day challenge | by @nordic-language-love

Target Language Reading challenge | by @onigiriforears

P.S. Please let me know if you know some more fun langblr challenges!

[blood-bla-bla]

Selfmade pumpkin spice latte and Swedish for everyday life.

[solkatts-svenska]

Hej! Hur mår du? I'm trying to learn swedish for my partner, would you happen to have any tips? Babbel is very useful, but I loved your blog so much I scrolled all the way to the bottom last night so I wanted to ask you. Tack (so? Sa?) Tack sa mycke!

Hej, tack så jättemycket för dina snälla ord! :) I’m really glad if you liked my blog.

I’m not sure I can give much useful advice, but I’ll do my best to describe what worked for me. So, here’s how I’ve been teaching myself Swedish:

I used several grammar reference books at the same time, to get a fuller overview of the language + get to do as many exercises as possible haha. The ones I used were the Routledge essential grammar and comprehensive grammar (as well as one in my own native language but well, that probably won’t be useful to you…). They’re all available as pdfs online. I would pick a grammar topic, scan all my books and do an additional internet search if necessary to compile and condense the information in my notes, then do some exercises. Initially I tried to do one or more topics every day but then found it more productive to alternate “grammar days” with “vocabulary days”

Speaking of which, I approached vocab in a similar way in the beginning: pick a topic, like colours or numerals or body parts, make a list and cram it. For adjectives, I found it an efficient strategy to learn them in pairs of antonyms

I kept a diary in Swedish for some time, which was helpful because that way I learnt and used specific vocabulary relevant to me and my life

I started reading, watching and listening stuff in Swedish quite early on, which I highly recommend to get comfortable with the language. To translate new words, I tried to refer to a monolingual Swedish dictionary as much as possible. Note: I could post a list of particular podcasts/YouTube channels/news resources etc that I liked if you guys want me too! But obviously it largely boils down to what you’re interested in.

Related to the previous point, I follow both teachers of Swedish and Swedish natives on social media to increase immersion

Good old Duolingo was rather nice, especially early on, to get the basic vocab and some grammar down

Quizlet and thematic Tumblr vocab lists proved rather useful too, especially when I wasn’t too lazy to review them

+ Some cool resources I use for Swedish as well as other languages:

Omniglot (a great place to start with any language: basic info + resources)

Glosbe (Reverso context but make it better)

obviously, Wiktionary (useful to look up declensions)

Last but not least, I encourage my followers to add their tips too!

Jag hoppas att det hjälper dig :)

[ett-hus-i-skogen]

Partikelverb NER(E)

lägga ner: put (down), close down, stop lägga ner på: expend ligga nere: stop working temporarily (of a website/internet) bryta ner: divide something in smaller parts bränna ner: burn down dimpa ner: fall heavily, appear (surprisingly) flotta ner: get grease stains on gräva ner: bury gå ner: set (heavenly body), descend, lose weight, (+sig) crash through kladda ner: make dirty korta ner: shorten ladda ner: download lugna ner: calm down meja ner: mow down (kill/slaughter, brutally) packa ner: stuff (in e.g. a suitcase) slå ner: knock down, strike/hit (something below) slå sig ner: sit down, settle supa ner: drink alcohol to become drunk ösa ner: pour down (rain) skräpa ner: litter, spread trash/debris stänga ner: shut down, take down vika ner sig: give up fälla ner: fold, close grisa ner: make a dirty mess (less angry sounding than svina ner) svina ner: make a dirty, disgusting mess (angrily said) gå ner sig: get bogged down and stuck, become shabby/unkempt kavla ner: roll down (sleeves, socks and the like) kämpa ner: destroy lägga ner på: expend nörda ner sig: geek out, nerd out racka ner på: belittle, sharply criticize

[doitinanotherlanguage]

2024 Mid-Year Language Learning Recap

中文 / Mandarin Chinese

🎉 Goals reached so far: I got back to studying Chinese! I reviewed New Practical Chinese Reader 1 and 2. Now, I'm starting on the third book in the series. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: My primary goal is to reach A2(/B1) level in Chinese (~HSK3). To do that, I'm planning to finish New Practical Chinese Reader 3, and start on New Practical Chinese Reader 4 (hopefully, I'll be able to complete that one entirely too this year).

Español / Spanish

🎉 Goals reached so far: I did a lot of revision for Spanish in 2023, so for the first half of this year I've basically just been chilling when it comes to Spanish, not doing much active studying (just watching youtube and movies). 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Continue to keep up my Spanish level (~B1) with Spanish readers (Better Reading Spanish and Read & Think Spanish).

Français / French

🎉 Goals reached so far: I basically spent the entire spring in revising my French, because I had a short trip to Paris (!!!) in May. I revised all my study materials from A1 to A2/B1 in preparation. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Right now, I feel like I'm somewhere around the A2 level maybe - my speaking is only so-so, but my reading is very good (probably my English and Spanish help a lot!). For the rest of the year, I just want to concentrate on upkeep because the spring revision was quite intense. So, I'm predicting a lot of French movies and youtube in my near future lol.

ภาษาไทย / Thai

🎉 Goals reached so far: I just started learning Thai in late spring this year! So far, I've learned to read and write, and I'm now starting on the basics. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Attain the A1 level by completing Easy Thai. Although, honestly, I'm learning Thai just for fun right now, so I'm mostly studying it this year when/if I have the time.

한국어 / Korean

🎉 Goals reached so far: I revised my A1(/A2) materials. I haven't really touched Korean in a while, so I'm really looking forward to getting back to it! 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: I want to finally finish Continuing Korean so badly! I've been picking it up and putting it down for several years now, and I really need to just stick with it for once and just get it done. So, if I have the time this year, that's my goal for Korean.

English

🎉 Goals reached so far: I haven't really been actively studying English for years now, so I didn't have any goals for English this year. Although, I do now have a job where I get to use English from time to time and that's fun. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Basically, just keep getting better at using English at my job (e.g. there's a lot of specific vocab related to the field, and sometimes calls with English-speaking clients are a bit of a mess because neither of us knows the right words in English lmao). I also really want to get better at "Simple English/Plain English". Because a lot of my clients are immigrants and our only common language is English (which is a second language to both of us), I'd like to be able to speak more clearly and understandably.

Svenska / Swedish

🎉 Goals reached so far: I did a bit of Swedish revision in the beginning of this year (for job purposes) but I'm really lacking in motivation for Swedish... I need to use Swedish a little bit in my job so I'm trying to let that push me a bit to try to do at least something related to Swedish sometimes, but it really is hard when I just don't feel like it at all. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: I guess my biggest goal is to find motivation for learning Swedish. It's never been a language I've been interested to learn for it's own sake (it was an obligatory subject at school), but it's useful for job prospects so... I'd really like to be able to use it more fluently because I've learnt it for so many years. I just need to get myself more hyped to be learning Swedish.

[moonshadow-study]

🪻 Today the weather is nice, so I'm studying outside. 🪻