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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: AGmurdercore on Sun, 26 January 2014, 11:32:17
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I am using google translate for the topic name so excuse me if i swear or something but i did my best! :D
Sooo i know that there are some ppl from Sweden here and i really want to try and learn the language but i don't have the time and the money to start going to some local courses so i want to try and learn as much as i can free on the internet. If anybody of you know some ok-ish swedish course out there please give me a link, or if any of you awesome Swedish guys out there want to help me personally, just PM me, thanks :D
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Sounds like a Swedish girl caught your eye ;)
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Sounds like a Swedish girl caught your eye ;)
Not really, i love my GF and i plan to marry her some day, but i wish to move to Sweden as soon as i can, because living in Bulgaria obviously is not something good.
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You say that, but a friend of mine who lives in the US and is from Bulgaria loves going back any chance he gets. And always says good things about the country. He's been here for quite a few years now, through grad school and now post doc. Seems like an opposite pespective from one who has left and now misses his country. (I went through something of the sort with my country long ago, but was never tempted to go back other than to visit).
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You say that, but a friend of mine who lives in the US and is from Bulgaria loves going back any chance he gets. And always says good things about the country. He's been here for quite a few years now, through grad school and now post doc. Seems like an opposite pespective from one who has left and now misses his country. (I went through something of the sort with my country long ago, but was never tempted to go back other than to visit).
I LOVE my country but i HATE my government! Our country is so beautiful that even if i leave it to go to a place where i will live better i will always long for it. So don't get me wrong i really don't want to move but with every other government that takes to power i see less and less reasons to stay. Yesterday i saw some article that said that we have more Bulgarians working outside of Bulgaria, then inside the country (something like 2.5 millions outside and 2.3 millions inside). And i am sure that most of them would return of the living was not that ****ed up. I have friend of mine that was working here for 800 leva (400 euro) like a system administrator and moved to Australia where he is now working for just a bit over 5k$/month doing the same job. So it is not out of hate for my country, it is out of desperation ;(
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I lol'd at the title I'm not really familiar with any courses or the like. I could however help you with some basics if you would like.
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You say that, but a friend of mine who lives in the US and is from Bulgaria loves going back any chance he gets. And always says good things about the country. He's been here for quite a few years now, through grad school and now post doc. Seems like an opposite pespective from one who has left and now misses his country. (I went through something of the sort with my country long ago, but was never tempted to go back other than to visit).
I LOVE my country but i HATE my government! Our country is so beautiful that even if i leave it to go to a place where i will live better i will always long for it. So don't get me wrong i really don't want to move but with every other government that takes to power i see less and less reasons to stay. Yesterday i saw some article that said that we have more Bulgarians working outside of Bulgaria, then inside the country (something like 2.5 millions outside and 2.3 millions inside). And i am sure that most of them would return of the living was not that ****ed up. I have friend of mine that was working here for 800 leva (400 euro) like a system administrator and moved to Australia where he is now working for just a bit over 5k$/month doing the same job. So it is not out of hate for my country, it is out of desperation ;(
don't listen to anyone else. it's your own decision and it will be your own move. i suggest you move to sweden as fast as possible and learn swedish in the country. it'll be much easier.
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tja
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I lol'd at the title I'm not really familiar with any courses or the like. I could however help you with some basics if you would like.
Thanks man, i will PM you :P
don't listen to anyone else. it's your own decision and it will be your own move. i suggest you move to sweden as fast as possible and learn swedish in the country. it'll be much easier.
Yeah that is exactly what i am thinking but i need to wait for my GF to graduate first and i decided that in the mean time i can try and learn some of the basics of the language so it will be somehow easier for me when i get there.
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I don't speak Swedish, but I have learned French and am still working on learning Russian at an adult level. What I have done is start with childrens books, and get a hold of as much tv shows/movies that have subtitles as possible for spoken and association to words in known languages. Listening to music in the language you are working on learning helps a lot as well, especially hip hop when you can find it because slang and vocabulary builder. It's about as close as you can get to natural language learning without jumping into the deep end in country.
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I don't speak Swedish, but I have learned French and am still working on learning Russian at an adult level. What I have done is start with childrens books, and get a hold of as much tv shows/movies that have subtitles as possible for spoken and association to words in known languages. Listening to music in the language you are working on learning helps a lot as well, especially hip hop when you can find it because slang and vocabulary builder. It's about as close as you can get to natural language learning without jumping into the deep end in country.
Lol that is actually a really nice advice, thanks!
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This is an awesome thread!
I've always wanted to pick up some more languages, and swedish is an "A-list" one for me. I looked into it a while ago and apparantly the cheapest / best way is to find people in sweden that won to work on their english (or other language, bulgarian, etc.) and you teach eachother. There are a few services that will help match you up with someone (as well as provide some lessons / tips), and you can VoIP or whatever.
That said, I'd love to learn swedish as well, but I barely have enough time for sleep! Perhaps in a few months when I clear out some projects out of the backlog. :P
You can get basic tips and suchlike from the wikipedia page on the language, as well as reading and fully understanding the IPA pronunciations and vowel diagram. Learning the phonology of a language can help LOTS to learn it.
Other than that, some basic phrases and information can be had rom travel websites. This one looks pretty good:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Swedish_phrasebook
The only Swedish I know now is "Jag kan inte tala Svenska" [I can not speak Swedish], and "tack" [Thanks]. The first is a useful phrase, and the second is good to know in any language.
Best of luck!
Edit: like Ivan above, I took some French (2 yrs in highschool). I've also had some ASL (doesnt count as a foreign language). I would like to round those languages out a bit more so I can be a bit more conversant (I can read children's literature in French, and I basically forgot all my ASL, but that's another story)
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.. But why do you want to learn Swedish? I figure that at the current rate, Swedish will be extinct in maybe 100 years from now. Lots of English words are used in everyday speech. I think that we are the country in Europe that has adopted the most customs from English-speaking countries. Everyone speaks English, children start learning it at the age of nine or ten. If you come here, you will notice that people upon noticing that you are from abroad, will start to speak English with you automatically.
On the other hand, if you know Swedish, then speaking Norwegian or Danish will be easier. Because Sweden is a neighbour to Denmark and Norway and the borders between these countries have varied throughout the ages, the languages are pretty close. Swedish is closest to Norwegian in pronunciation. Danish and Norwegian are closer together in vocabulary. Swedish is pronounced pretty sharply, while Danish is a language with soft consonants ('d' used instead of 't' in many words) and then with the consonants further pronounced very subtle. To a Swede, Danish often sounds like a Norwegian drunkard with a swollen tongue. For instance, a Dane may say the placename "Hvidøvre", but a Swede will only hear that as "iö".
I think a large factor in swedes learning English is that foreign-language films are subtitled, with the original speech intact. People learn a lot of English words and expressions from hearing them whilst reading the translation at the same time. Unfortunately, I don't think that would work as well in the other direction - I personally find Swedish films to be terrible...
I may be home-blind, but I find Swedish pronunciation to be more regular than in other languages.
Each vowel letter has a distinct "short" and a distinct "long" sound, not a myriad of different sounds .. but then there are also more distinct vowels than in English.
Swedish nouns have genus, but there are no articles. Instead of definite article, there is a suffix. -n or -tt.
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I don't speak Swedish, but I have learned French and am still working on learning Russian at an adult level. What I have done is start with childrens books, and get a hold of as much tv shows/movies that have subtitles as possible for spoken and association to words in known languages. Listening to music in the language you are working on learning helps a lot as well, especially hip hop when you can find it because slang and vocabulary builder. It's about as close as you can get to natural language learning without jumping into the deep end in country.
Are you saying watch TV/movies in the language you are trying to learn that also have subtitles in that language?
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Jävla terran
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This thread was not quite what I was expecting.
You'll manage just fine with English. The majority of the Swedish population will understand you but as far as courses in Swedish go, there is always SFI.
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Thanks for the replies and the awesome suggestions guys!
dorkvader - nice bro, this is some awesome advice i will definitely check around and see if there is someone from Sweden that wants to learn my language and the other websites too!
Findecanor - I really had now idea that speaking English is this common out there, the only place apart from Bulgaria that i have been is Romania and there was like nobody that was speaking English. Thanks for the clarifications!
Edit: I love switch man! I have never seen other swedish movie but switch is awesome!
damorgue - sorry but what is SFI?
Jävla terran
Ahahaha, nice one :D I love Naniwa btw, he is my favorite player of them all :D
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damorgue - sorry but what is SFI?
Swedish For Immigrants. It is the name of some courses offered in all larger Swedish cities in one form or another.
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damorgue - sorry but what is SFI?
Swedish For Immigrants. It is the name of some courses offered in all larger Swedish cities in one form or another.
Ahaaa nice, thanks!
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the only place apart from Bulgaria that i have been is Romania
why do you want to move to sweden then? maybe you won't like when you're there.
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I suggest finding shows that are in the Swedish language and watch them with subtitles. Ivan's suggestion about music and especially hip hop is a great idea as well.
I've also heard that the US Government's FSI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Service_Institute) courses are good; at least for an introduction. A link to those courses can be found here (http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php).
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I suggest finding shows that are in the Swedish language and watch them with subtitles. Ivan's suggestion about music and especially hip hop is a great idea as well.
There aren't that many good Swedish series imo. "Solsidan" was sort of fun.
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What about movies? Cartoons? Really anything you find on TV that's engaging for you and has the native language.
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I don't speak Swedish, but I have learned French and am still working on learning Russian at an adult level. What I have done is start with childrens books, and get a hold of as much tv shows/movies that have subtitles as possible for spoken and association to words in known languages. Listening to music in the language you are working on learning helps a lot as well, especially hip hop when you can find it because slang and vocabulary builder. It's about as close as you can get to natural language learning without jumping into the deep end in country.
Yeah I'm doing the same to learn Italian
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the only place apart from Bulgaria that i have been is Romania
why do you want to move to sweden then? maybe you won't like when you're there.
Well Romania is not really different then Bulgaria to be honest, and i know for sure that i will like Sweden because i have friends that have been there and i have watched and read a lot of stuff for the country.
What about movies? Cartoons? Really anything you find on TV that's engaging for you and has the native language.
Yeah i am really going to rewatch Switch a few times :D
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Jävla terran
It's to bad they suck right now, can't stand SC2 anymore T_T