Languid Language Learning

[Elenia]

Så. Mycket. Svenska.

I finally know about hennes/hans/hens vs. the sin/sitt/sina triumvirate! Finally, after five years of throwing myself headfirst into Swedish! I definitely had a 'shoot first ask questions later' approach, which has, on the whole, worked for me. Nonetheless, this detail of the language has evaded me for a very long time. I have, on several separate occasions tried to get native speakers to explain it to me and it has almost, very nearly gone well until the moment they say 'oh wait, but maybe not when it's like this?'.

So this is the true power of a trained teacher! Can explain the exceptions, in such a way that they don't hurt the brain! It also helps that I have finally learnt to understand when a bisats is.

(The whole thing with sin/sitt/sina was sorting itself out, slowly and after lots of input and trial and error. I imagine it will still go that way. When doing the exercises, I was mostly going off instinct, but now I'm second guessing myself less and, in the cases when I'm not sure, I now have a mental checklist that I can use to try to figure it out. I'll still get it wrong, sure, but it will no longer feel hopeless).

ETA: I also now know about 'dess'. Yay! I mean, I kind of knew about dess before, but now I know about it better. I have yet to get to grips with dessa, but all in due time, one can only hope.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Congratulations! It feels great, doesn't it!

[Elenia]

Congratulations! It feels great, doesn't it!

Underbart!

Hey, maybe one day I'll feel satisfied with my knowledge of Swedish... but that day is NOT today. Onwards and upwards!

[Skynet]

Call me extremely late to the wedding party, but allow me to congratulate you on your wedding! Your Swedish has grown in leaps and bounds and I am impressed that you were able to keep up with your husband as he defended his thesis!! I would be delighted to reach a level of German and French fluency where I can follow a detailed academic discussion.

[Elenia]

Call me extremely late to the wedding party, but allow me to congratulate you on your wedding! Your Swedish has grown in leaps and bounds and I am impressed that you were able to keep up with your husband as he defended his thesis!! I would be delighted to reach a level of German and French fluency where I can follow a detailed academic discussion.

Thank you! Your comment on my Swedish improving prompted me to go back to the start of my log and have a look. And WOW, a time when French was easier for me than Swedish! I'm not sure if I mentioned it here already, but a month or so ago, I was on the phone to my roommate from France when I came across a Swede and talked with her a bit. My friend and I came to the consensus that I had never spoken French with as much fluidity and confidence. And I understand pretty much everything I hear (exceptions made for my father-in-law, who makes a lot of jokes in a thick Scanian accent). I'm at a strange place, where I'm content with my Swedish but also so very frustrated. The frustration is easing up as the course helps me eradicate some of the stickier issues I've had, and it's also stoking my desire to be better. Unfortunately, it takes so much time and mental energy that I have very little spare to do things that I'd actually like to do with the language, more's the pity.

[Elenia]

More tests this week, and so I have sensibly and productively been listening to knitting podcasts in Norwegian.

...

Yeah.

Anyway, it's fun. Norwegian is such a fun language! The woman I'm listening to say 'kaempe' a lot. Things are 'kaempe' fun, her knitting goes 'kaempe' fast, patterns are 'kaempe' pretty, and overall life is 'kaempartig'. I think. Anyway, I am on episode twelve or thirteen of her podcast and I am understanding an Amount. I am telling myself this will become useful when I go to Norway in the Future.

(Oh, yeah. I've done some Swedish, too. Tests and that.)

[Expugnator]

Kjempebra!

[Elenia]

We have finally gotten to the section of the course that has literature! I am really enjoying the book I chose, which is a pleasant surprise. It's called Månen vet inte, written by Niklas Rådström. It's a really poetic book, with very fancy language. I came across the subjunctive the other day, which really threw me for a loop.

...ett par mattor letade sig fram under möblerna som försökte de söka sig en gnutta ljus

...was one such sentence.

Jag tänkte att det var som gick hon klädd i sitt cigarrettemunstycke

...was another. A really gorgeous book, I can recommend it.

Other than that, I've been knitting lots and listening to lots of Norwegian while doing so. I've added another knitting podcaster to my repertoire and she is far easier to understand than the two I began with. I've been mixing and matching between the two since.

Finally, we went to my husband's cousin's birthday party on Saturday. His grandfather told me that my Swedish is a lot better now than it was when he first met me. This is always good to hear. I know I'm improving. I know also I have quite a way to go before I'm content.

[Elenia]

I finished the book and loved it. Didn't realise that it was autobiographical, which makes the five deaths the book contains much more... well. More.

Continued listening to Norwegian knitters. One of them said: 'det er extremt mye drama i det norske strikkeverlden' which I thought was hilarious. Apologies for the fact that I can't spell in Norwegian at all.

Today, we had a sök och finn exercise in class and the subject was Gotland. I learnt a lot that I didn't know about Gotland. I follow a Gotländsk knitter on Instagram, because I have Instagram now, and the pictures she posts are absolutely gorgeous. One fine day, I'll make it there myself.

I'm very tired. Didn't sleep very well and got some unexpected information. Not bad unexpected, just unexpected. I have a lot of feelings about it all. It may involve French.

Speaking of French, weekend in Paris in less than two weeks!

[StringerBell]

Didn't sleep very well and got some unexpected information. Not bad unexpected, just unexpected. I have a lot of feelings about it all. It may involve French.

This is one of the most cryptic things I've ever read.