Swedish: I moved to Sweden a little over two years ago for my husband's work. My current level is around a B2, with reading and listening better than speaking and writing. If I didn't live here I would be very happy with my current skill level: I can watch native content (with subtitles), read fiction and non fiction books for adults, and I can express myself fairly well in conversation (well, when I am not suffering from acute shyness and social anxiety...) But since I live here I don't really have the luxury of stepping my foot off the breaks and allowing myself to slowly improve in the language.
My goal is to hit a solid C1 this year in each skill, and to add a little incentive/external validation I am planning on taking the SWEDEX B2/C1 exam. I noticed that I was progressing slower than I would have liked the past six months so I am hoping that signing up for an exam will light a fire under me--as well as give me a better idea of my actual proficiency in the language. I haven't picked a date yet--probably some time this summer.
One of my biggest issues is that I have a strong American accent which prompts people to switch to English immediately as soon as I begin to speak. I would love to hear any advice on how to reduce my accent. Another thing I am working on actively is the transition to consuming media without subtitles... It was a humbling experience re-watching an episode of a TV show were I understood 95% of the dialogue (with subtitles) 6 months ago--and now (without subtitles) I could only understand maybe 50%.
Other Languages Since this is an introductory post I thought I would briefly touch on the languages I have studied in the past as well as ones I hope to study in the future. This year I would like to start/return to learning other languages aside from just improving my Swedish. However, I am mindful of spreading myself too thin so anything aside from Swedish will have to be approached very casually (30 minutes a day max).
- German: This is the main contender for my non-Swedish language learning this year. We visited Germany for the first time in December and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. I spent two weeks going through the beginner audiobook Complete German by Paul Noble beforehand and found it both useful and fun, if a little slow. Since we have plans to go to Austria this summer (and possibly return to Germany as part of the same trip) I would like to work on learning a little more German.
Danish: I live in Southern Sweden and visit Denmark a few times a year. I can read some Danish thanks to my knowledge of Swedish but listening is a completely different beast. I'm not sure when I will tackle this--it would be very useful to be able to understand spoken Danish but it isn't as exciting as learning a completely new language so I'm not very motivated to put in the effort right now. But someday!
Japanese: I took a semester of Japanese during college but I have forgotten almost all of it. Last year I started getting the itch to revisit it. I would love to visit Japan someday and to learn at least a little Japanese before I go, but any such trip is a few years off. My current plan is to try and pick it back up again in 2025.
Romance languages: I have a strong desire to learn Romance languages but I cannot decide between the big 4 (sorry Romanian, I just haven't had any contact with you). Every time I think about studying one I feel pulled in the direction of another so I end up studying none of them. I studied French for 3 years in high school and there is a part of me that would like to revisit it to see how quickly I could relearn it. Even though the American school system is notoriously bad at teaching foreign languages, I'd like to think I did learn something during that time so I wouldn't be starting completely from scratch. I was studying Spanish (A1-A2) when my husband got the job here in Sweden, and if I was still living in the US I would be studying Spanish no question--but for some reason I don't feel as much of a draw to Spanish now that I am in Europe... even though I have visited Spain twice and would happily return. I fell in love with Portugal and Italy and would love to learn their languages too. Too much overthinking instead of actually progressing on one of them! At this point I am leaning towards trying a comparative approach with a focus on passive skills (reading, listening) at some in determinant point in the future.