Language Update

Svenska!

Hej! Mitt namm är Claire! Jag har på en blå tröja. Svenska är inte min första språk. 

Well now that might not be completely perfect, but its a vast improvement from a few months ago when I had 0 Svenska knowledge! :)

I have officially completed the first of three sections of my Rosetta Stone Swedish Level 1. Its been quite fun and the rosetta stone process is pretty good for someone who has never learned any other language. The only thing that I feel myself wanting to understand more is the grammar. Its easy to fly through some of the lessons and feel confident, but I know there is a lot of intricacies that I am not fully grasping. 

Articles are something I struggle with. Swedish doesnt really have "the" in their language; it turns into an ending of the word similar to our "ing", "ed", and whatever else. It also depends on the gender of the noun (which there are 2 of in Swedish: Common and Neuter). I remember being so confused through some of the lessons when we were simply learning the names of random items for instance Ett äpple, ett bord, en kopp, en boll. Some have "ett" and some have "en" indicating which are common nouns and which are neuter. I didnt figure that out until later! But even knowing it now wont help me much because its really kind of obscure as to which nouns are common and which are neuter. People are pretty easy, they are common, but some of the other stuff just doesnt have any pattern to it and Ive been told I need to just memorize it. 

For instance, a cup (en kopp) is common but a table (ett bord) is neuter. Why? Who knows! Maybe someone reading this who has a much more vast knowledge of Swedish can explain it to me? Or is there a trick to remembering what is what? But right now that is about the crux of my learning experience. I realize that these common and neuter genders dictate a lot more in the grammar department but since Rosetta Stone doesnt really explain those things (maybe they will in later lessons) I have to do my own digging in the mean time! :)

One thing that is really nice though is a lot of the sentence structure is similar and in fact, there are quite a few words in swedish that while are not spelled the same way as english, tend to sound the same if that makes sense. All in all, its been quite fun and Im enjoying rosetta stone! I also have some fun apps on my phone and tablet that help me practice vocab while Im out and about. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and Ill  be flying out to New York to spend the holiday with my fiance's family. I always enjoy spending time over there for the holidays but I am thankful this year in particular that I dont have to worry about going to Buffalo. 8 feet of snow is just too much. Too much I say!

Hej! Learning the A, B, Cs and Å, Ä, and Ö's!

My journey to Sweden begins very far away and at my computer. I have been reading the blogs of various other expats and gaining a ton of insight into their personal experiences in making the move across the pond. Even while my own adventure is still a ways off, I thought that the process of learning the language was not something I had to wait for.

There are various options out there for learning languages from classes to computer software and even to apps you can download on your phone. When I searched places that offered Swedish classes, I specifically wanted to avoid universities or colleges just because of the price tag generally attached to them. However I discovered that here in Minnesota we have a one of the locations of the American Swedish Institute. Very cool place! Unfortunatley, their Swedish classes are only offered at the time of day that I am busy at work. I am also still in school myself so it simply wasnt going to work out.

Instead I decided to learn on my own and chose to try Rosetta Stone! I have done a couple lessons so far and they definitely start you off slowly. Its been fun! Im excited to continue but I will have to pace myself and balance everything with work and school.

But blah blah blah! Thats all dull and boring! The fun stuff is what I have learned about Swedish so far! The Swedish alphabet is almost identical to our own. Both English and Swedish are quite closely related as they are both Germanic languages.

However some of the key differences is that they have 3 additional vowels that the English alphabet does not have: Å, Ä, and Ö.

Most of the letters are also pronounced similarly although from what I can tell so far, there are two big rules that change certain letter sounds depending on combinations or associations: hard and soft vowels, and consonant combos.

For reference, soft vowels are  e, i, y, ä, ö.
Hard vowels are  a, o, u, å.

Consonant	Hard Vowel	Soft Vowel
C	c in café	c in city
G	g in go	g as the Y in yes
K	k in keep	ch in check

For the additional letters, here are their pronouciations:

å	1. long: rather like o in fore;2. short: like o in yonder	1. språk [language] 2. å´lder [age]
ä	1. long: like ai in fair;2. short: as e in best	1. bä´ra [(to) carry] 2. vän [friend]
ö	1. long A: as eu in the French deux;2. long B (before an r): like uin fur; 3. short: like e in her(unstressed: tell her!)	1. röd [red] 2. kö´ra [(to) drive]  3. sö´nder [broken, in pieces

(Taken from http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap9.htm) 

There are a number of combos that make similar sounds but I am not going to list them here. 

And just to throw it out there, its not unknown that Rosetta Stone is quite pricey, however I was informed of a FREE website called Duolingo that is nearly the same thing but FOR FREE! I havent officially tried the site yet as the Swedish chapter is not yet complete. I will try it out and let you know what I think later! Check it out on your own!!!