Hej!
I'm an American of Swedish descent, and I am going to go to Sweden for the second time in August 2008. However, this time I will be staying with my relatives in Sweden, and (while I am glad that Swedes speak impeccable English) I would like be able to get around Sweden with more ease than I did last time.
I was wondering if any of the Swedish speakers on this board could point to any good resources for me to learn Swedish in a comprehensive way over the next 8 months, and what are some tips/things to look out for when learning Swedish?
Tack sa mycket!
I'm not of Scandinavian descent, but I live in Norway and speak Norwegian, and both languages are very similar (knowing one, you can understand and kind of imitate the other). Knowing a couple of other languages that I can use as reference (German, Russian, Arabic, and most importantly Norwegian), I can tell you that picking up on a bit of Swedish won't be hard. The Scandinavian languages are very close to English, with Danish perhaps being the exception based on its very odd pronunciation.
Some pointers: Even though Swedish has simple grammar, I think you should focus on the pronunciation, as its eccentricity can be a bit of a challenge to master. Also note that if Swedish urban slang and/or rural dialects are as bad as in Norway, you could be having a hard time understanding anything.
More so with Swedish than a lot of other languages, I think your choice of means for theoretical learning is less important than actually having a Swede to communicate with, especially verbally.
>>2
OP here
Anti 'arif al-Arabi?
Alhammudlillah =D
Ana takalam al-Arabi ('adii)... Ahoob Misr wa Filistiin, wa habibi Filistiniiya.
But yeah, I take it that Swedish is easier than Arabic?
Behki shway 'Arabi :(
Well, saying that I 'know' Arabic is quite a stretch. I know the 'framework' behind it, some theoretical stuff and bits about grammar, phonology and a little sentence structure. In my previous post, it was irrelevant whether I knew it fluently or knew about the lingual system behind it, so I just brushed it under the category of 'knowing' it.
I'm learning it, though. :3
I do know the other three languages, however.
If you learn some basic line maybe you can get by:
Hello - Hejsan
Hi - Hej
How are you - Hur mår du?
What is your name - Vad heter du?
I´m fine - Jag mår bra
My name is - Jag heter
See you later - Vi ses (senare)
Have a nice day - Ha en bra dag
Nice to meet you - Kul att träffas / Roligt att träffas
And so on.....
Find someone to speak with obviously. Or maybe go to library and find some simple books. Read aloud. Go on to more complicated books. Good luck finding the books.
We have lots "slang" words in Sweden, atleast in Stockholm. One thing thou.. 2nd or older generation born swedish folks really suck their english, even most of my friends does.
So if your talking about something like IT stuff then their bound to keep their mouth shut since most of them are using an OS that in most cases are Swedish translated (take Win XP for example)
If you really wanna learn our language try one of the daily newspapers; Expressen, Dagensnyheter (DN) or SvD (Svenska Dagbladet), just google em for their appropriated site.
Watching the tellie would also help alot, try watching a movie (when your their I suppose) cuz 90% of that usually have subtitles, so even if their not 100% correct to that which is spoken, just take US movies with their subs for example, since of it made for deaf folks. Jokes can vever be TLd complelty and that the jist of it.
Try some books perhaps? Or even try having some "daily" conversation while your their.
I do find folks from other countries to be extraordinary in english compared to those I went to school with (3rd gen or older). Even if mine may not be 100% correct in both grammar nor spelling (I do typo alot)
Anyways, my best bet would be the TV or the newspapers(the daily ones thatis!)
BTW what >>2 is so true, the slang like i noted earlier is really tough since you might catch any of it. Different "slang" are found through the cities (I assume this goes for dialect and what part you live for other countries as well)
For example (this may have been a joke, never been in Skåne but)... A very famous Swedish comedian noted that they used the word Coka "(Coke)" (Co-ka, or kå-ka "pronounced" in swedish) Instaed of "Kola" "(Kå-la)" like we say in Stockholm. and Kola/Koka are "really" different. You may note this, so you might not get any funny ideas that their talking about drugs or something.
Just keep that in mind that slang will be used "very" often.
Good Luck!
Förlåt men jag förstår inte svenska. Tala ni finska eller engelska?
This is how I've managed it.