I guess I'm gonna learn Swedish

[cain]

It sucks everytime I fall in love with a Kent song then have to search the English translation of the lyric. And everytime I listen to their songs I'm just trying to recall the English meanning... And I guess there's slight difference between the translation and the original idea of a song.

So guys, I decided to learn the language, but there's no Swedish class in my school. Does anyone of you have tips or advices on self-learning? Any helpful website about Sweden and Swedish? You know I'd be grateful =]

[Marishka]

Where are you from? Isn't there any adult class in the evenings to learn a language?
My advice: search the web for books and read the comments of other buyers if they are helpul. That's how I started once.

[Reina]

I agree with Marishka.

Personally never found the internet too helpful, but that might just be me. There are some sites, but you're through them in half an hour and they don't really help you much.

If you want any book tips, I can give you some. There are some great books that start from zip, including cd-roms that give extra help. But I think it's best to learn the language while interacting with a teacher and other students.

[stjärnor]

I agree with koelkast, that nothing beats proper lessons, you will simply not get the pronounciation correct, or some of the more complicated grammar points. You have someone to ask if you don't understand anything.

There's not that many resources out there that deal with Swedish (compared to French, German, Spanish, etc), but here are a few I use...

This book- Swedish in 3 Months, started me off learning Swedish before I took lessons. It's a good book, but it's been out of stock for a long time now. Occasional copies pop up on ebay, but are expensive. I never did finish the book in 3 months...!

I have this grammar book 'Essentials of Swedish Grammar' which is quite in depth.

And this comes in handy all the time: 201 Swedish verbs

A good beginners dictionary

Some online links that I use:

Online dictionary

another online dictionary

News in easy Swedish you can listen to the news in simple Swedish whilst reading what they are saying.

And good old google translate will help you get around web pages in Swedish. Don't expect 100% correct translations, though!

Yes, kent songs help me learn swedish words , but songs (in general) will not often have 100% correct grammar. I credit kent with at least 1 new word that I learn with every song they release!

[Reina]

Then I can add Rivstart to that. Completely in Swedish which is suprisingly easy to follow, starts from the very beginning, includes a helpful cd-rom. It's the book they use at Amsterdam university for first year students to get a good basic knowledge of the language. And you can just use an online dictionary if you don't understand a certain word.

Another tip that you can do next to lectures or self study: just buy some childrens books and start reading. You'll be suprised at how much you understand without even needing a dictionary. Start with some very easy ones like Pettson och Findus and continue with Astrid Lindgren, for example.

[stjärnor]

That's a good tip on the children's books. I've read 2 of the 3 Lars & Urban books by Eva Dahlgren. Good fun, about the adventures of 2 dogs.

My local Oxfam bookshop has a good foreign language section, and the occasional Swedish book will appear on the shelf. It takes me a while to read them, but it's a good way to keep the brain 'tuned' in Swedish.

Another tip- look and see if any of the dvd's you own have Swedish subtitles. Watch a film with the subtitles on and you'll get an idea of the words that are similar to english.

[cain]

Where are you from? Isn't there any adult class in the evenings to learn a language?
My advice: search the web for books and read the comments of other buyers if they are helpul. That's how I started once.

I live in an Asian country and Swedish is not as popular as languages like German and French here so there's few class to learn it. Since you guys all suggust I get a book, I think I'm gonna do it =] Thanx.

[cain]

I agree with Marishka.

Personally never found the internet too helpful, but that might just be me. There are some sites, but you're through them in half an hour and they don't really help you much.

If you want any book tips, I can give you some. There are some great books that start from zip, including cd-roms that give extra help. But I think it's best to learn the language while interacting with a teacher and other students.

Yeh I agree alot that it's better to interact with people when learning a language and that's the way I learn English. And I really think that pronounciation is very important so I guess before I get to talk in Swedish, cds are gonna be of great use.

The children book idea is brilliant! I actually am a big fan of Lindgren...

[cain]

I agree with koelkast, that nothing beats proper lessons, you will simply not get the pronounciation correct, or some of the more complicated grammar points. You have someone to ask if you don't understand anything.

There's not that many resources out there that deal with Swedish (compared to French, German, Spanish, etc), but here are a few I use...

This book- Swedish in 3 Months, started me off learning Swedish before I took lessons. It's a good book, but it's been out of stock for a long time now. Occasional copies pop up on ebay, but are expensive. I never did finish the book in 3 months...!

I have this grammar book 'Essentials of Swedish Grammar' which is quite in depth.

And this comes in handy all the time: 201 Swedish verbs

A good beginners dictionary

Some online links that I use:

Online dictionary

another online dictionary

News in easy Swedish you can listen to the news in simple Swedish whilst reading what they are saying.

And good old google translate will help you get around web pages in Swedish. Don't expect 100% correct translations, though!

Yes, kent songs help me learn swedish words , but songs (in general) will not often have 100% correct grammar. I credit kent with at least 1 new word that I learn with every song they release!

Thank you so much for all these! I'm sure they are gonna make up much of my spare time ;] I hope one day they will publish a book on Swedish that uses Kent(and/or any other great Swedish musicians)' lyrics as texts. Lyrics helped alot when I started learning English.

[stjärnor]

I remembered something from years ago....I had a penpal from Sweden and he was the one that taught me my very first words in Swedish! You know, hello, how are you? all that kind of stuff.

There seem to be a few sites out there where you can register for penpals - Polyglot is one that I remember, and I found this one - my language exchange . There might even be a Swede on this board who would want to be a penpal!

[cain]

I remembered something from years ago....I had a penpal from Sweden and he was the one that taught me my very first words in Swedish! You know, hello, how are you? all that kind of stuff.

There seem to be a few sites out there where you can register for penpals - Polyglot is one that I remember, and I found this one - my language exchange . There might even be a Swede on this board who would want to be a penpal!

These are cool. Penal, yeah. Especially when it's hard for me to find Swedish-speaking people around me. Thanks again! =]

[jolindbe]

It sucks everytime I fall in love with a Kent song then have to search the English translation of the lyric. And everytime I listen to their songs I'm just trying to recall the English meanning... And I guess there's slight difference between the translation and the original idea of a song.

So guys, I decided to learn the language, but there's no Swedish class in my school. Does anyone of you have tips or advices on self-learning? Any helpful website about Sweden and Swedish? You know I'd be grateful =]

As everyone else has already said, interacting with others is important. The best way of learning a new language is of course to move where it is spoken, but I understand if that is not an alternative.

However, I found a nice web tutorial, something to start with. Maybe you already know some or all of it, but you can always have a look.
http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish1.html

It is not made by a native speaker, but I have gone through it looking for errors (I am a native speaker), and e-mailed those I could find to the creator, who has now updated it.
It contains both important basic words as well as the most basic grammar.

[acpf00]

Hey there, first time here lol

I think you should learn Swedish, it's a great language. I'm studying it since last year (not because of Kent), I'm totally in love about it. So, this year after like 3 or 4 month of class, my swedish teacher showed us "Kärleken Väntar" and told us about kent's history, they lyrics, everything. Wow, I guess that was the best thing she did in years lol. I'm not really good at swedish yet but it's good understanding some lyrics and stuffs like that.