Swedish

[ReluctantReaper]

I was wondering if anyone here knew of a way I could try to learn this online or something of some sort...The cheaper the better.

[KuReshtin]

Learn it as in conversational levels, or just a few choce useful phrases?

Learning Swedish online would be pretty difficult because of pronounciations and stuff. You'd need a good library of sound bytes with explanations on what each word means and what it sounds like.

[Quincunx]

The dictionary (http://lexin.nada.kth.se/swe-eng.html)! It has gaps in slang usage and jargon--suffices for forum posts but tends to fail me when I input odd words from chats. The main site, so far as I can tell, is geared towards Swedish speakers and/or smoking something ("morotsakvitism"???). (Also, the section on "minority languages" was much funnier when I was misreading "sydsamiska" as 'sysadmin'.)

The common introductory course is "Svenska för invandrare" or SFI, Swedish for immigrants which, from the photocopies I managed to get, immerses you immediately with simple sentences from the first lesson. There's various insular communities of immigrants to Sweden floating around, and you can try joining one for practice with someone on your conversational level.

[Atelm]

Learning a language, such as Swedish, to fluency online might be next to impossible. You'd probably be better off getting some book series on learning Swedish, I'm sure there are plenty of those available in English. Sadly the only examples of such series that I know of are in Finnish. (Same goes for online grammar excersises that I know of)

Best of luck in your endeavour.

[Innis Cabal]

Roseta Stone. Its not cheap, but it works. So they say.

[Xyk]

Rosetta Stone. Its not cheap, but it works. So they say.

Fixed. Ordinarily, I'd let that slide, but it may have made it more difficult to find.

Depending on how many levels of rogue you take, that becomes a more and more viable option, and I recommend it.

Edit: Hey, I made bugbear in the playground!

[Adumbration]

You probably can't become fluent through internet only, but depending on your learning capabilities and patience, you might be able to get the basics through online dictionaries and such. After that I would recommend buying/borrowing a book or two in swedish, and read them. That will be insanely difficult, but if you keep at it, you will get better at understanding Swedish.

Getting spoken fluency is a whole another game though. Videos/DVDs/youtube films in Swedish will go some way.

You could also see if there are any adult schools at your area that might teach Swedish.

[GrlumpTheElder]

Get a Swedish friend, that will help you, even if you only talk to them on Skype or something. It all helps/

No, seriously, my German increased tremendously just with me hanging around with a German girl... :smallbiggrin:

[ReluctantReaper]

lol ya I do have a Swedish friend, yet sadly she lives in..yup you guessed it Sweden. Though we do talk on MSN often im hoping she will be of some assistence in at least being able to write in Swedish...after I know what the words look like and can write them out Ill try the whole speaking it..though i will probably try to speak it while learning to read/write it.

[Zaggab]

Why on earth would you want to learn Swedish? It's like the least useful language out there, and it's not as cool as many other languages.

[ReluctantReaper]

Well I just find that..German is what everyone seems to want to learn and I wanted something else so. Why not Swedish?

[GrlumpTheElder]

Well good luck with the learning.

At least if you know Swedish you can get a job in Sweden... :smallbiggrin:

[Teddy]

At least if you know Swedish you can get a job in Sweden... :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, good luck with that. :smallwink: But you could always use your Swedish to get a job in Norway, where there seems to be an overabundant supply of them.

Swedish is a pretty good language - it's not as complicated as German or unpronounciable as French, and the options for creating new words are totally endless - but since the general English knowledge is pretty high in Sweden, there aren't any more but trivial reasons for learning Swedish.

Until we manage to conquer the world, that is.

[ReluctantReaper]

haha....wait....seriously taking over the world:smalleek:

[The Succubus]

I also have an interest in learning a Scandinavian language, although it's Danish for me.

[Trog]

Just learn mock Swedish like the Swedish Chef did. Worked for him for years.

[KuReshtin]

Until we manage to conquer the world, that is.
Dammit, Teddy. We're not supposed to talk about that. Don't let them know what we're planning.
{Swedish text telling Swedes that i'm not saying anything important}


haha....wait....seriously taking over the world:smalleek:

Please disregard that comment. He didn't mean it. There is no Swedish plot to take over the world. Please go back to your fun.

[Andraste]

Sen skriver jag lite så här för att få dem att tro att jag säger något viktigt.
You're not supposed to say things in other languages that aren't translated, so the mods don't have to take the time to translate it and make sure that you're not saying something you shouldn't.

Then I write a bit so here to make them believe me saying something important.

As for learning Swedish, I have no clue how you would go about doing that, though I have considered learning it myself (which doesn't say much, as I've done that with most languages). Good luck though.

[rakkoon]

Get a Swedish girlfriend, really. Works perfectly.
Other option: find a Swedish person to talk to once a week in a pub.
Trying to talk in language is a perfect way to get comfortable with it, some basic lessons are of course necessary :smallsmile:

[GrlumpTheElder]

Get a Swedish girlfriend, really. Works perfectly.


Helps them learn English, too! A Win-Win situation :smallwink:

[Teddy]

I also have an interest in learning a Scandinavian language, although it's Danish for me.

Oh no, don't do it! Just learn Swedish instead, and just clog your mouth with a mouthful of porridge instead whenever you're about to talk - everyone will understand you just as well, and it might save a bit of your sanity. (I mean, the numbers! They don't make sense! They don't make any sense at all! :smalleek:)


Just learn mock Swedish like the Swedish Chef did. Worked for him for years.

My dad has an English friend who says that Swedish sounds exactly like how the Swedish chef is saying it. :smallamused:

[Killer Angel]

Roseta Stone. Its not cheap, but it works. So they say.

...or he can try a Babel Fish. :smalltongue:

[Teddy]

...or he can try a Babel Fish. :smalltongue:

I believe wild uneducated guessing would prove to be more successful than that. :smallwink:

[KuReshtin]

...or he can try a Babel Fish. :smalltongue:

The babel fish online tool only translates the words, and not the general meaning if I'm not mistaken. Won't help you learn a language.

[Prime32]

Unless he meant the fish you put in your ear which digests speech and excretes a translation.

[Teddy]

Unless he meant the fish you put in your ear which digests speech and excretes a translation.

That's not possible. Babel Fish killed the Babel Fish, mutiliated it and burned the remnants with its terrible horrible translations.

[Miklus]

Oh no, don't do it! Just learn Swedish instead, and just clog your mouth with a mouthful of porridge instead whenever you're about to talk - everyone will understand you just as well, and it might save a bit of your sanity. (I mean, the numbers! They don't make sense! They don't make any sense at all! :smalleek:)

What? 92 is tooghalvfems...two-and-half-five-scores...makes perfect sense. A score is 20. five scores is 100. halfway there (from four scores) is ninety. And two. Simple.

But if you learn swedish instead you can order the infamous shrip-salad-hotdog. One guy from my work swears that you can get that in Sweden. He even ordered one last time he was there just to see if it was really true. And there it was: A hotdog with shrip salad on it. Personally, though, I suspect that he was hallucinating. Maybe someone from Sweden can confirm this?

[Teddy]

What? 92 is tooghalvfems...two-and-half-five-scores...makes perfect sense. A score is 20. five scores is 100. halfway there (from four scores) is ninety. And two. Simple.

Ugh, my brain hurts.

But how do you do with the hundreds, then? I bet it's not consistent at all... :smalltongue:


But if you learn swedish instead you can order the infamous shrip-salad-hotdog. One guy from my work swears that you can get that in Sweden. He even ordered one last time he was there just to see if it was really true. And there it was: A hotdog with shrip salad on it. Personally, though, I suspect that he was hallucinating. Maybe someone from Sweden can confirm this?

Shrip? Do you perhaps mean shrimp, or is this some foodstuff I'm not aware of (which is perfectly reasonable, me not being all that interrested in foreign foodstuff). Whatever it is, I don't think I know anything about it. Could be some Scanian "speciality".

Anyway, if you want strange Swedish food, just stick to "surströmming" ("sour herring", roughly). Fermented Baltic herring - it's pretty infamous for both its taste and smell, even here. Haven't tasted it myself though.

[Quincunx]

No. No no nooooo no. . .just no. Stick to good strange Swedish food, like grillchips.

[KuReshtin]

But if you learn swedish instead you can order the infamous shrip-salad-hotdog. One guy from my work swears that you can get that in Sweden. He even ordered one last time he was there just to see if it was really true. And there it was: A hotdog with shrip salad on it. Personally, though, I suspect that he was hallucinating. Maybe someone from Sweden can confirm this?

Yes! Grilled hotdog with shrimp-salad (räksallad) is AWESOME!
Shrimp salad is basically mayo (and possibly some cream) with shrimps mixed in alongside some additional spices, like salt and pepper.

I will have one at about 1:15PM on Wednesday June 23rd. that's when i get to Gothenburg city centre on my way to visit my folks, and I always have a shrimp salad topped hotdog while I wait for the train.

[Miklus]

Ugh, my brain hurts.

But how do you do with the hundreds, then? I bet it's not consistent at all... :smalltongue:

The hundreds go in front. 192 is ethundredetooghalfems. One-hundred-two-and-half-five (scores). No, it is not really consistent...



Shrip? Do you perhaps mean shrimp, or is this some foodstuff I'm not aware of (which is perfectly reasonable, me not being all that interrested in foreign foodstuff). Whatever it is, I don't think I know anything about it. Could be some Scanian "speciality".

Anyway, if you want strange Swedish food, just stick to "surströmming" ("sour herring", roughly). Fermented Baltic herring - it's pretty infamous for both its taste and smell, even here. Haven't tasted it myself though.

Yes, I ment shrimp. And I don't think the shrimp salad hot dog will become popular in Denmark. At least, I hope not. Stay away from the "surströmming" if you know what is good for you. It is just rotten fish. Fun fact: You have to open the tin underwater because of the pressure that has build up inside, otherwise the tin spews out rotten fish juice everywhere.

[The Succubus]

I think the problem is that if I learned Swedish, my Danish girlfriend would hurt me in a number of different ways, none of them good.

I've only learned a few basic phrases so far and haven't progressed onto numbers yet, although I can see it being fun.

[Quincunx]

Tell me, does the Danish language truly contain that many compound words built using f-bombs, or is that just my raidleader's quirk?

[ThunderCat]

Tell me, does the Danish language truly contain that many compound words built using f-bombs, or is that just my raidleader's quirk?Danish contains a lot of compound words already, but more importantly, there's a tradition for putting words together, so things that might be spelled separately in English are spelled together in Danish. Even if a compound word doesn't exist (yet), it's not unusual, or even incorrect, to slap two or three words together to form one. The f-bombs are probably a quirk though.