Video corrections

So it's been just over a week since my first Swedish video went up. I have to say, I did not anticipate the amount of feedback that I received. Shortly after uploading, I submitted the link to /r/svenska. Within minutes I was getting tips on how to sound more natural, corrections on pronunciation, and all sorts of ego boosting compliments.

The compliments were nice, but the feedback was why I was there.

After I posted the video, I showed it to my Swedish friend. He approved but commented on my accent. He told me that I sounded American, but it's ok because an American "can't break from the American accent".

Some of the feedback from reddit was pretty similar. My pronunciation isn't the best. I could use the excuse Well I'm just a beginner, but that wouldn't be accurate. The truth is, I glossed over much of the early stuff like pronunciation. The result is, I don't sound as good as I want. Sure, I'm understandable, but why settle for just understandable when I know I could do better?

So where are my issues? 

Vowels. Specifically  o, a, u, y.
So I went to forvo and listened to the words where I was pronouncing these letter incorrectly. 

Tala(r). I used it quite a bit. It's the word I know to convey the idea of speaking. But it was pointed out to me that 'talar' sounds too formal, and to sound more natural I should use 'prata'.

Det är slutet. I used it to signify the end of the video. In my mind it was correct, and it was understood to mean the end of my video. However, it just doesn't sound natural. 'Det var allt' would have been a better choice for 'that's it'.

The rest of my issues were mostly grammar, and I'm not surprised by that at all. Swedish has a lot of patterns and rules, and I just don't know them all yet. I'll get the hang of it eventually though.

New Resources Page

It's taken a few days to go through all of my saved links, and I'm still not done. I do, however, have enough content compiled that I feel comfortable publishing the new Resources page a bit early. Keep in mind that this list of Swedish learning resources will never be complete. As I find more things that seem helpful, or just entertaining, I'll update the list.

As always, I'm open to comments and suggestions. So if you have something to say, don't hold back.
I hope this is as helpful to you as it is to me. Tack så mycket and have fun.

Click here for the resources page.

Duolingo has a Swedish course now.

So I'm back after my (too long) NaNoWriMo break, and I'm ready to get back into the Swedish saddle. To be honest, I think the break did some good. I was slowing down and beginning to lose focus. That's something that I have to be especially aware of, because, as I've mentioned before, I'll drop subjects in favor of something new and shiny. I'm like some sort of educational magpie.

I wasn't slacking while I was away, not too much anyway. I've still been listening to Swedish music and talk radio every chance I get. I've also taken to setting my ipod to shuffle the Pimsleur course while I'm at work. I think I have that thing pretty close to memorized. I also have a list of irregular Swedish verbs sitting in front of me that I've been looking over and we'll get to those soon on this blog.

Here's what I have coming up...

 Videos. I'll be setting up a youtube page pretty soon and linking videos from there. They'll probably be me, trying to speak Swedish and asking for feedback. I'll also be making videos to show off any random sort of Swedish awesomeness I happen to come across. I don't want to reveal too much, but this should give you an idea.


Resources. I've been collecting all sorts of free tools and links that should be helpful to anyone learning Swedish, or anyone interested in Swedish and Sweden in general. So look forward to a page dedicated to that.


Here's what I'm doing now...

Duolingo. Before I started my break, I knew that Duolingo had a Swedish course in the works, but it hadn't been released yet. As I was catching up on /r/svenska, I was pleased to learn that it was finally available. You can find the course here, and if you want to be my Duolingo friend, you can find me right here. I've only made it past the first three levels so far, but I like what I'm seeing.





That's all I've got to update this time, but I'll be back soon with more.
 Until then, tack så mycket och hej då.

And here is some Swedish humor, because why not?

Helpful Finds

Hej everyone. Before I get into this post, I'd like to address where I've been. You may have noticed that the month of October has been a bit lacking in (more like devoid of) Swedish posts. That's because I've been prepping for NaNoWriMo.
For anyone who doesn't know what that is; NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 (or more) word novel during the month of November. For me, that means plotting all October. That also means that November will be a bit slim on blog posts as well.

I've been a writer for a while, and sometimes everything else has to take a back seat for a bit. After all, I can't get paid for it if I don't do it.

I haven't been neglecting my studies completely, however. I've been turning up the passive learning, which I'm pretty sure is important too. And in this post I want to pass along some of the things I've been using to keep my Swedish fresh.

*Also, I'm planning on creating a resources page in the near future. If you have any free resources you think should be included, send an email to me at tillswedish[at]gmail[dot]com. (hint: [at] = @ and [dot] = . ) I've had some questions about that recently.*


Now on to the good stuff.

Aftonbladet is an online tv channel, or better yet, a tv channel's website (probably). It has a live stream, news clips, sports, etc. My favorite part of the site is the show Viral TV. It's interesting or funny internet clips from around the world, hosted by two Swedes who speak Swedish (which is the point). I've been tuning in when the storytelling part of my brain needs a break and the rest of me needs a laugh.

Dar.fm is an online radio recorder. You can sign up for free (some features cost money but you don't need those). Once you're logged in, pick your radio station, set it to record (up to five hours), then come back later and download the mp3 files. This is actually good for just recording radio in general, but I've found a enough Swedish stations make it worth mentioning here. I'm sure you could use it for learning any language, but I haven't looked into countries other than Sweden and U.S. yet.


That's all I got for this post. I hope these are as helpful to you as they are to me.

Just a reminder, group 4 verbs are still on their way, I just have to figure out the best way to post them. Group 4 is a tricky group, at least it is to me.

Tack så mycket for stopping by.
Hej då.

Verbs: Group 1

Ok guys, it's time to get down to it. This is the post about Group 1 verbs. Please keep in mind that we're learning this together. Unless, you already know this stuff. Then you're just watching me learn.
The information I'm putting here is what I believe to be correct as I have learned it. There is a chance for error. If I find an error, I will edit it with the correct information. If you find an error, please let me know so I can fix it as soon as possible.

Alright, enough of that. Let's learn how to work with Group 1 verbs.

Group 1 is probably the easiest group to work with. About 80% of Swedish verbs are in the first group, and conjugation follows a very easy to learn pattern.

The first thing we need to do is find the stem of a verb. Let's start with öppnar (open).

Here it's in the present form, which is how you'll probably encounter most verbs.
Example: Jag öppnar dörren. - I open the door.

If you remove the -r from öppnar, you get öppna. Öppna is the stem.

With Group 1, the stems will all end in -a. This means that all present tenses will end in -ar.

Easy enough, right?

The infinitive form will be the same as the stem. Öppna

The Past Imperfect will end in -de. Öppnade

The Supine form, which makes Past Perfect, will end in -t. Öppnat


Examples: att öppna - to open

                   Jag öppnar dörren. - I open the door.
                 
                  Jag öppnade dörren. - I opened the door.

                  Jag har öppnat dörren. - I have opened the door.


That's it! All group 1 verbs conjugate this way.

Do you want to give it a try? Below are some group 1 verbs in the present form (with translation). See if you can conjugate them. Also, you can use this site to practice conjugating.

öppnar - open
stoppar - stop
betalar - pay
börjar - begin
kollar - check. look at/ watch
visar - show
hittar - find
älska - love
talar - speak
arbetar - work
hoppar - jump
slutar - stop, cease, end
smakar - taste
svarar - answer
gillar - like
jobbar - work
dansar - dance
frågar - ask
lyssnar - listen

How did you do? I'm willing to bet you did pretty well.

That's it for Group 1. I'll be back in a few days for Group 2.

Thanks for stopping by.

Are you Swedish or just familiar with Swedish grammar? Let me know how I did. Leave a comment, question, or correction in the comments below or email me at tillswedish[at]gmail[dot]com.

Reality TV in Sweden

I want to preface this post with a couple of points.

1. This is more of a cultural exploration. If you're not into that, come back for the next post in a few days. The next one should be about verbs.

2. No matter how far off track I seem to go, I will come back to something (probably) useful.


Now on to the good stuff.

I'm an American, (calm down, there's more) and as such, I like to brag. I think we all do, to some degree. We like to boast about the things we've accomplished. We got the first flight. We made it to the moon first, though, not the first to space. One thing we didn't do first, was reality tv. No, ladies and gentleman, we have the Dutch to thank for that. At least, that's what wikipedia says.

However, a year after the Dutch show Nummer 28 aired, Americans took the idea, and we made it our own. This has in no way improved any part of American culture.

I was 8 years old when I had my first encounter with reality tv. It was 1992, and I was watching MTV. You know, back when they played music videos. I was waiting for that song by Ugly Kid Joe that I liked, when instead I was treated to this. The Real World. I didn't know it then, but we would soon be treated to Road Rules, Joe Millionaire, The Bachelor, Survivor, and a whole bunch of stuff we got from the U.K.

My 8 year old brain couldn't comprehend it. Why would anyone want to watch complete strangers make fools of themselves on national tv? 22 years later, I still don't get it.

So jump ahead to a few years ago, to the first time I wanted to learn Swedish. I was working the night shift at a hotel, so there was plenty of down time to watch youtube, and I came across something that caught my interest right away. Sweden, it seemed, had its own reality show. It was like Survivor had gone to Sweden. And the kicker: The contestants were Americans.





Allt för Sverige takes a group of Americans with ties to Sweden, and makes them compete against each other for the chance to meet their long lost relatives. Of course, I watched all eight episodes, cheering for the guy from Kentucky the whole time. I like to think of it as local pride.

I finished the show with the feeling that I had caught some special glimpse into Swedish culture. And then, in true starter fashion, I started something else.

Jump ahead again, to just recently. I was searching youtube for more videos in Swedish, when I came across three more seasons of Allt för Sverige. I wasted no time in getting into season 2, but as I watched I noticed one strange thing. Everyone was crying. Everyone. For no real reason.

*Dramatization* The group is walking along when one person stops and points. "Look, a house. My morfar lived in a house." And everyone starts crying.

It took a little time to figure it out, but it came to me. The reason everyone was crying, was because they were all Americans. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Americans sit around crying all the time. But we've been doing this reality tv thing for over twenty years. Put us in front of a camera and we can make it dramatic, or at least pretty uncomfortable.

Again, it's not one of those things we want to brag about, but turn on any reality show and you'll see it. Our reality stars will break down in tears for any reason. Friendships (none of them real) are made and broken in the span of a single episode. And if you add alcohol, sex and fist fights will follow.

So I have to wonder, do the Swedes go nuts for this stuff like Americans do? Did the producers of the show know what they were in for when they chose Americans? Was it on purpose? By season two, they must have known. Did they intentionally pick people who were capable of crying any time the camera turned on?

I think the answer to some of these questions is 'yes'. I think it was on purpose, and I think they knew exactly what they were getting. Why? Because Norway did it first.

Of course, none of this will stop me from watching. I love this show. I love the footage of the Swedish country side. I love getting little bits of culture I was previously unaware of. I don't love the Americans, though. I can see them any time I turn on my tv.


Now here is your chance to chime in. Are you familiar with Allt för Sverige? Do you want to voice your opinion about it? Do you think I've got it completely wrong? Let me know in the comments, or email me at tillswedish[at]gmail[dot]com.