Tumlare's Log (Mostly but not entirely Swedish)

[jeff_lindqvist]

The booksellers in Sweden have a big book sale this time of year and I picked up a few titles. Glassmannen is a sequel to a book I read a couple months ago that I've been dying to read but didn't want to pay hardcover prices for.

Would that be Glasmannen (single s) by Anders de la Motte? I liked that one a lot (even more than the first volume in the series, Bortbytaren).

[Tumlare]

The booksellers in Sweden have a big book sale this time of year and I picked up a few titles. Glassmannen is a sequel to a book I read a couple months ago that I've been dying to read but didn't want to pay hardcover prices for.

Would that be Glasmannen (single s) by Anders de la Motte? I liked that one a lot (even more than the first volume in the series, Bortbytaren).

It is indeed! I've read Bortbytaren and both of the Modern på Österlen books but not his older works. Unfortunately I started reading a different book before I picked up Glasmannen so I probably won't get to it before April.

And for anyone who is reading along who isn't familiar with Swedish, the correct title as Jeff pointed out is Glasmannen (single s= The Glass Man) and what I accidentally wrote was Glassmannen (with a double s = The Ice Cream Man).

[jeff_lindqvist]

It is indeed! I've read Bortbytaren and both of the Modern på Österlen books but not his older works. Unfortunately I started reading a different book before I picked up Glasmannen so I probably won't get to it before April.

I think I've read his works in chronological order.
The Geim trilogy (thriller/suspense, IT security theme):
Geim
Buzz
Bubble

MemoRandom (secret intelligence):
MemoRandom
UltiMatum

Årstidskvartetten:
Slutet på sommaren
Höstdåd
Vintereld
Våroffer

↑ Each book in this series is standalone. Each has a dual-timeline. Something happened decades ago. Fast forward to [now] ...

Morden på Österlen (with Måns Nilsson) (I'd almost call this series feelgood/crime):
Döden går på visning
Ett fynd att dö för

Asker series (thrillers, à la Lars Kepler):
Bortbytaren
Glasmannen

[Tumlare]

Swedish update week 8:

A bit of a late update here but better late than never!

Listening - I doubled the number of podcast episodes I listened to, from 5 episodes of P3 Historia last week to 10 this week! Each episode is around 50-55 minutes long. I also watched week 4 of Melodifestivalen.

Conversation - I received some encouraging feedback from one of my Swedish teachers about my speaking capabilities, so that was a nice boost. I need to look for opportunities to speak Swedish with people outside of my two weekly classes and brief transactions at cafes/stores.

Reading - I decided to change my 2024 Swedish reading goal from 12 books to 5000 pages. I made this change for two reasons: first, books differ in length and I didn't want to feel encouraged to only stick to smaller books. Secondly, I wanted to be able to stop reading a book I wasn't enjoying without the pressure to finish solely for this yearly reading goal. I'm lucky enough to live in Sweden and have access to tons of Swedish books-- I don't need to stick with something I am not enjoying! For the page goal I am only counting pages read in adult fiction and non-fiction books, not text excerpts in textbooks or newspaper articles, etc. for consistency's sake. Next week I will tally up the pages I've read for the year and work on keeping that updated. Maybe add a fancy progress bar to my signature or something.

Writing - Zip zero. Unless writing my grocery list in Swedish counts, which I don't think it does at my level.

Vocabulary - I have completely failed at Tastyonions 1000 words challenge. Not finding the 20 new words a day-- that part is easy peasy lemon squeezy. But actually adding words to Anki? Ugh. I only added words on 4 days this week, and two of those days were less than the desired 20/day. I have a growing backlog of words that I want to add. I have kept up with reviews on my premade 8000+ word deck and my small deck.

German update week 8:

Since I am going to Austria this summer (and possibly back to Germany as well) I decided to resume learning some super basic beginner German. Before going to Germany over Christmas I had worked my way through the Learn German with Paul Noble audio course. He employs a similar method to Michel Thomas / Language Transfer but with a native speaker saying the answers instead of a student. I enjoyed it and it did help a little bit when I was traveling. And I have free access to the audio course so why not? I did the 25 minute review track and then started in on the next course, Next Steps in German with Paul Noble. tracks 1-7 (there are 79 tracks, each 2-10 minutes long for a total of 8 hours and 27 minutes). Not sure what I will do when I finish this course.

[Tumlare]

Swedish Week 9 update:

An earlier update than I normally do but I have a friend visiting for the next few days so I doubt too much studying will happen during that time.

Reading: The big thing this week is that I finished another book, Den smarta kvinnans handbok i mord. (The smart woman's guide to murder by Victoria Dowd). Two books down in February! Both about 300 pages. This book ended up being okay, but it was pretty slow to get going. It's the first book in a series but I doubt I will continue with it either in Swedish or the original English. I started reading Glasmannen by Anders de la Motte and I am already sucked in.

I totaled up the pages that I have read in Swedish in adult fiction / non fiction books (not counting easy readers or excerpts from novels in textbooks). In 2022 I read my first book, 369 pages. In 2023 I read 3062 pages. So far this year we are up to 968 pages, for a total of 4399 pages read.

Yesterday I went to a local history museum and spent a couple hours reading through the signs in Swedish. This is pretty painless for me now and my reading speed in Swedish is almost as quick as in English... at least in this subject area.

Listening: 7 P3 Historia podcast episodes this week, plus one episode of Språktidningens podd. The latter is all about the Swedish language, by and for native Swedish speakers. I went through the archive of the podcast last year but they have released a few new episodes since I moved on to P3 Historia. Tonight is the 5th week of Melodifestivalen and I will watch that tonight.

I never think to log my gym time here, even though I take 4-5 group training classes in Swedish every week. (3-4 hours of listening, albeit within a fairly restricted subject area). Listening comprehension in these classes varies depending on who the instructor is, how clear/distorted the mic is, and how loud the instructor has turned up the music. I generally can understand 90% of what is said even under poor conditions, but I have found that my brain prefers to focus on the English song lyrics over the Swedish speech (although my brain will preferentially focus on song lyrics over most English speech, so that may be more of a me thing and less of a language thing) Every once in awhile an instructor will teach a class in English and it is shocking how much easier it is to understand what they are saying even with loud music and a distorted microphone.

Speaking: I only had 1 class this week (1.5 hours of speaking practice).

Writing: I only add this here in the vain hope that I will shame myself into writing in Swedish some week.

German week 9 update:

I continued with Next Steps in German with Paul Nobel, lessons 8-22.

[Tumlare]

Swedish Week 10 update:

This week I did almost no language studying whatsoever. I knew the first few days of the week would be light due to my friend's visit but I wasn't expecting to get hit with a pretty nasty bout of the stomach flu right after. On the plus side, I did learn the delightful Swedish word vinterkräksjuka (= winter vomiting sickness). Fortunately the worst was over after a couple of days but it did take me another two to get enough energy to open Anki and work through my backlog. I'm now all caught up and feeling great so here's to next week!

[Tumlare]

I am happy to say that I was able to get back into the swing of things this week after last week's illness.

Swedish week 11 update:

The biggest update is that I believe I have reached a C1 reading level in Swedish! On Wednesday I went to the library to browse language learning books (as one does) and had picked out an academic book on Swedish pronunciation intended for teachers of Swedish as a second language. It occurred to me as I was reading it that it was very easy to read. Perhaps all my hours spent reading Swedish had paid off? Of course, the text was in a subject area I am interested in which helped with comprehension and specialized vocabulary knowledge, but I was still curious. So when I went home I looked at the CEFR self-assessment grid and C1 seemed to fit my abilities. On Thursday I took an online placement exam with Folkuniversitet (a school that has language classes and administers one of the big Swedish language tests, SWEDEX). The placement exam had three C1 reading passages followed by several comprehension questions and I ended up passing with a C1 level in reading! (In the two other sections that were not based on self-reporting, listening and grammar, I scored a B2, which is in line with my self-assessment.)

Obviously I know this isn't as rigorous as taking the actual SWEDEX exam but it did feel good to get at least a little confirmation that my reading skills have improved so I am taking the opportunity to celebrate the win.

Reading: I read 62 pages of Glasmannen. I am really enjoying it so far. Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to how many pages I read during my library trip so this is an underestimate of my reading this week.

Listening: I continued to listen to P3 Historia (8 episodes) and reached another milestone: I finished the 2020 episodes which means I am about halfway through the backlog of this podcast. Although I am enjoying the podcast I think my listening skills could benefit from adding in another podcast with a more chatty, conversational style. I guess my assignment for next week is to try and find one in that style that I can actually stand. As someone who doesn't like podcasts in general this is a tough assignment!

Speaking: 2 hours and 15 minutes of conversational courses this week.

Writing: Nothing this week but I have a writing assignment due next week (I have to write a letter to the editor about a subject of my choosing) so there will be progress in this area soon!

German week 11 update:

I listened to Next Steps with Paul Noble tracks 24-38 this week. My intention is to reach an A1 level of German before my trip to Austria this summer so once Next Steps is complete I will start on the Nicos Weg A1 course.

[jeff_lindqvist]

The placement exam had three C1 reading passages followed by several comprehension questions and I ended up passing with a C1 level in reading! (In the two other sections that were not based on self-reporting, listening and grammar, I scored a B2, which is in line with my self-assessment.)

Congratulations! Well done!

[kundalini]

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.

It seems like you're already actively working on your accent, and I don't think I can give you expert advice. But I can share what I've found helpful with French: focusing on one sound at a time. For example, I would consult something like this, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/ph-table-swedish.html, learn roughly where a sound is articulated, and just practice that for a couple of days. Over time, I built an internal map of the approximate locations of the tongue and other details. That was the first step. The rest, which is ongoing and has been by far the longer part, has been experimenting with other aspects of pronunciation, including direction of airflow, curvature of the tongue, where and how much force to exert with the tongue, etc. The process has been slow going and undoubtedly would have been much faster if I took a more systematic approach. But I've found it more helpful to regard pronunciation as a long term project than a quick crash course.

[Tumlare]

Congratulations! Well done!

Thank you!!

It seems like you're already actively working on your accent, and I don't think I can give you expert advice. But I can share what I've found helpful with French: focusing on one sound at a time. For example, I would consult something like this, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/ph-table-swedish.html, learn roughly where a sound is articulated, and just practice that for a couple of days. Over time, I built an internal map of the approximate locations of the tongue and other details. That was the first step. The rest, which is ongoing and has been by far the longer part, has been experimenting with other aspects of pronunciation, including direction of airflow, curvature of the tongue, where and how much force to exert with the tongue, etc. The process has been slow going and undoubtedly would have been much faster if I took a more systematic approach. But I've found it more helpful to regard pronunciation as a long term project than a quick crash course.

Thanks for the tips! I have done some work with the IPA chart (mostly for vowels) but it's always good to review it since I haven't nailed down the sounds yet.

A big issue I have as a native English speaker is pronouncing words that exist in both English and Swedish with the English pronunciation (example: perfect /ˈpɝ.fɪkt/ in US English and perfekt /²p'ɛːrfɛkt/, /pärf'ɛkːt/ in Swedish). I do this unintentionally when I am focusing on communication instead of pronunciation (e.g. when having a conversation with a cashier) even though if someone asked me how the Swedish perfekt was pronounced I could easily pronounce it. I just don't think about pronunciation of these shared words as much as I should when my attention is elsewhere. According to the Swedish pronunciation book I was reading last week this is a common issue with native English speakers learning Swedish. At least it's not just me?