deyvion

I'm half Swedish too, and grew up bilingual. I left Sweden after high school but I've managed to keep my Swedish fluent although I don't speak it every day any more. I find that reading in Swedish (or any other language that I'm not getting much practice in) really helps me to keep it active.

I am half Swedish too, but unfortunatelly, my parents did NOT raise me to be bilingual. They were worried that if my mother spoke Spanish to me and my brother while my father was away on long business trips, we would start speaking Swedish with a Spansih accent. This happened to my uncle's children, so I guess their worries were justified, but in my cousin's case both the parents spoke Spanish and neither of them were very good at Swedish.

So, I am jealous of your bilingualism =)

Foreign-language TV shows in Sweden are usually subtitled in Swedish, and standards of accuracy are pretty high (I know because I used to write some of them). If you're in Sweden and trying to learn the language, or simply perfect it, you can pick up a lot of words and phrases simply by reading the subtitles as you watch the show in English or whatever the original language is.

I am happy that Sweden subtitles everything, it really helped me when I was little. But, as my English got better, I also noticed how many bad subtitles are out there. Sometimes I wonder if Google Translate is used for the translations because the translations I see sometimes are just stupid and are many times not even relevant.

However, I do agree that the subtitles can help, as long as you are a little careful with it. It can be good to practice, but maybe not to LEARN.

It is great to have you back on linguaholic.com deyvion!  :grin: hope your exams were/are a success!

Thank you, I'm glad I'm back too =) Especially seeing as there are many more in the Swedish section now! Wow

I have been learning Swedish for more than a year now, and one of the first things I immediately noticed are similar words that can also be found in English. They do not mean the same thing, but the spellings are definitely identical. Here are some examples:

Sex, which means six in Swedish.

Semester, which means vacation in Swedish.

Plan, which means floor level or plane in Swedish.

Salt, which means the same thing, but pronounced differently.

How about you, which Swedish words do you know that are identical with some English words?

Good start of a list. Just remember that sex means both 6 and sex (as in English).

There is also a word that English has borrowed from Swedish, which I always laugh at when I hear because it sounds so funny pronounced in English: [en] smorgasbord - [sw] smörgåsbord

Sorry, guys, I've been MIA for a while due to exams and work.

You can download the .pdf book here:

LEARN SWEDISH

If you have a problem with the link, send me a PM and I will send it to you by e-mail.

I have, yes. French. However, I do not know if you can really say I gave it up, since I did not really want to learn it to begin with. I could only choose German or French in school. I wanted Spanish, but there was no teacher (they even asked my mother to come in and teach it). So, French it was. I do not really have any interest in French, so I will probably not go back to learning it.

I do have a book in .PDF-format of Swedish grammar (in English), if you are interested. =) I am using another edition to learn Turkish, but realized that my knowledge of grammar terms were awful, so I got the Swedish edition as well.

If you want, I can send it to you.

A while back, I was recommended VIKI.COM for watching foreign TV-shows with subtitles. I used to watch a Turkish show, and now, after spending almost 3 months in Turkey,  I actually noticed how I started to understand what they were saying without watching the subtitles.

I think it is a great resource when learning a language, and there are many different countries to choose TV-shows from.

So, check it out and see if it can help you. =)

Hej!

I'm also Swedish! But I'm cursed with half of my genes coming from the USA and we were rudely uprooted from Malmö when I was 7 years old and had to grow up in the frozen wasteland of northern MN!

I would have to say that Sweden is getting frozen now also as we are getting into the winterseason, haha.

Are you still speaking Swedish at home?

This is an interesting one. I asked my Swedish house-mate what language she thinks in. So when she is running through things in her mind, is it in Swedish or English?

She said that it's both and it's becoming more and more English, obviously because she lives here now.

So my question is, do you think in your mother tongue or in a different language?

I'm not talking about when you are learning, because when you're learning it is obviously in that language. I'm talking about day-to-day situations.

I am happy to see that you are currently learning Swedish! I thought I was the only one here (not learning, but speaking) =).

To answer your question - my situation is like your Swedish friend's. Normally, when I am home in Sweden, and mostly engaging in Swedish conversations, my thoughts are in Swedish. When I am in school, which is in English, my thoughts are mostly in English.

I am in Turkey now, and most of my conversations are in English. I still tend to think in Swedish when I am alone, but when I am with others, English is more the language running through my head.

I am studying English at university, online, however. In fact, I am just now waiting for my home-exam to be sent to me within an hour, hehe. The linguistics course this year and also last year taught me a lot about how to think about language. I am a person who wants to go to the roots when learning something - I want to know HOW and WHY something is said like it is. Linguistics therefore has been a very interesting subject.

In my case, the languages I learn are learned due to having connections to the language's country. Except for English, which was a contemporary subject in school. I did, however, go to California for 1 month as a language exchange student.

When it comes to my learning of Spanish and Turkish, moving to the countries is not because I simply want to learn the languages, but I need to learn the language because I am moving there.

I only learned about Esperanto in linguistics class about a year ago. However, besides from what all you have said, an article I read was about how some want Esperanto to become the official language for the EU countries - making the EU more of a nation with all citizens speaking the same language. Why it would have to be a completely new language, I don't know, since using English instead would be more workable.

Well, then the old relations between Scandinavia and Germany may not be as tight anymore. You can choose Mandarin in 6th grade?

Mandarin is usually a subject you can choose in 'High School' (years 10-12), but I cannot say that there are NO schools that offer it from an earlier grade. The most common languages from grade 6 are German, French and Spanish, and from my own experience and from what my friends have told me, French and especially Spanish, are mostly chosen over German.

I am not saying that no one is choosing German, however, it is not so common anymore as it was before when German was an obligatory subject (many, many years ago).

Well, lol, it has been some time and I don't think I can do it just now. Isn't it that a lot of Swedish people speak German or at least know so much that they can communicate?

Maybe from the older generation, but I would not say that it is a general thing among the younger ones. German is a subject you can choose in 6th-7th grade, however, since many new modern languages (like Mandarin) have been added, most people tend to choose those ones. I don't think I know anyone in my age (22) that can speak German more than just a few phrases.

Within 2 years I will live outside of Sweden. I will move to Turkey, and right now I sit and think about how I will learn the language - if I should learn it beforev(go to school, etc), or when I move (exposure). Once you figure out the basic rules of the grammar, I believe Turkish will not be so difficult - however, since I still haven't figured them out it seems like for every verb, etc, I learn, there are 10 different changes to it. Also the accents can be quite difficult, I have noticed.

But, we will see how it goes. =)

For me it was English, mostly because we are so exposed to the English language in Sweden. Movies and television shows are translated, not dubbed, and video games and such are mostly in English. Since we start learning English in school from such an early age, continuous English learning is not so difficult.

I just wanted to post a topic to see if I am the only one here that is Swedish, or Scandinavian, for that matter.

I am a native Swedish speaker and I must say that I do NOT understand German at all, hehe. I actually had three German customers (in my boyfriend's market) today, and for some reason they insisted on speaking German.

That was a little off topic, I know. If you want to write in Swedish, or learn something new, just let me know. =)

About half a year ago I was suggested a Turkish TV show which had English subtitles. I started watching it (it is available online) and I actually turned out to like it. I learned a few words, however, they are speaking so fast that it is hard for me as a beginner to really understand. But like I said, at least I like it, and I guess that the more Turkish I learn, the more I will understand from the show and be able to learn from context.

I am going to add a poll for this. So you can all give your vote and let the others know what you think is the most romantic language!!!

Sounds great -it will be fun to see what the result will be =) But you should also have the option of 'Other', especially since there was at least one other language discussed which is not on the list =)

I think Turkish has a very smooth-flowing sound, very different from Greek and Arabic, its next door neighbours. I think Turkish music is far more elegant-sounding than even Persian, but that's jsut my personal opinion.

With a Turkish boyfriend, I can say you are right when it comes to the sweet-talking. However, when the mood is reveresed, Turkish can sound very hard. What I have come to realize as I listen to Turkish conversations, both in a light and heavy mood, is that when they are angry, the words tend to be harder with more K-sounds or long vowels, using the ğ.

I see that you are studying Turkish, may I ask what resources you use for your learning?

Now when I am thinking about it, I've had some difficulties with this one sometimes. Really great and simple way to show how it is to be used. Thank you! =)

Okey, so this is something that has always been troubling for me - COMMAS.

There are different ones, and I just cannot figure out exactly where to place them. Not even the most common comma.

So, where and when in a sentence should you put a comma (,)? I know it has to do with clauses, but that is just something that never gets into my head.

When do you use ( and (?

I have seen listings that are of the type [ : , , ,] and [; ; ;] I just never understood the difference.

Maybe someone here can simplify and clearify it? =)

Welcome to Linguaholic! =) I love that members with such a variety of native tongues are joining =) I believe you will be of great contribution to the forum and that you can find many resources for your own language learning=) See you out there!