20. Oktober 2012

Swedish in Sweden - Gathering New Input

When learning a foreign language, full immersion probably guarantees a nearly unlimited supply of new words, new grammar, and new expressions, which never comes to a halt. When immersion is not possible, how to react?

  • Conversations: That is an obvious one.
  • Movies: A comfortable way to learn new words and phrases. The context is always provided by the pictures and sometimes the subtitles help with spelling. Here are a few movies which are completely in Swedish, and which I can recommend:
    • Män som hatar kvinnor
    • Flickan som lekte med elden
    • Luftslottet som sprängdes
    • Vi hade i alla fall tur med vädret – igen
    • Det svider i hjärtat
  • Books: While Swedish novels require a very good command of the language, there are easy-read books available, for example in the library in_Kulturhuset_, at Sergelstorg, Stockholm. A nice read for beginners: Jag, Gustav Vasa.
  • Overhearing: Listening to conversations on the subway instead of idling. Is this immoral? Everything said on the subway is overheard by natives anyway, so there is no privacy that can be disturbed.
  • Newspapers: A convenient means to fill gaps in daily life; while commuting with public transport, letting time pass between courses, and so on.
  • Exercise sheets: Lots of practical vocabulary for problem-solving.
  • Hairdresser: Convenient and natural way of learning Swedish.
  • Pub: Fun.
  • Internet: There are easy-read news with reduced vocabulary and simpler grammar available at 8sidor. A good place for finding more information about easy-read resources is lättläst.se. Also, writing e-mails (partially) in Swedish to buddies usually triggers a response in Swedish.
  • Lectures: Hard (at least for me) to concentrate on both lecture content and language structure.
  • Advertisements: Phrases and words waiting for being picked up during idle time.
  • Television: Too much advertisement.

All articles in this series:

  1. Swedish in Sweden
  2. Swedish in Sweden – Translation Tools
  3. Swedish in Sweden – Gathering New Input
  4. Swedish in Sweden – Learning to Listen
  5. Swedish in Sweden – Practice and Rehearsal
  6. Swedish in Sweden – Musings about Motivation