My first attempt: Swedish, (No French)*

[Skynet]

French: another sunk cost of time for the time being..Did 10 lessons of Assimil NFWE and TOIL and then deffered it till my language exam. I will hopefully follow @skynet's apprach, NFWE/TOIL/Linguaphone. Another language has taken its place and that is: Python. French I will comeback to you after mid of November. I promise.

When I did Assimil FWOT and NFWE, I was able to breeze through Linguaphone 1950 (50 lessons), Linguaphone 1971 (30 lessons) and Living Language Ultimate (20 lessons) much faster than the number of lessons would suggest. I would also recommend Cortina 1954 (20 lessons) because it is free and introduces a high level of conversational formality (spoiler: I always prefer formal speech in any language).

Meanwhile:
Linguaphone Swedish 70

What year was this edition of LP printed???

I would also like to see you getting back to German The fear of "language interference" is overblown as German and French are significantly different from each other to overlap. French is much, much easier for an English speaker than German. (Take that, "French-is-impossibly-difficult" naysayers!)

[naqvisson]

"@Morgana wrote:

What year was this edition of LP printed???"

1978.

@Morgna
I would also like to see you getting back to German The fear of "language interference" is overblown as German and French are significantly different from each other to overlap. French is much, much easier for an English speaker than German. (Take that, "French-is-impossibly-difficult" naysayers!)

I will of course. There are similarities between German and Swedish and not between German and French.

I think the Cortina link that you mentioned is not working here

[naqvisson]

I am sorry @Morgana...they were meant to be for @Skynet

Progress:
Assimil Swedish: 64
Assimil Swedish with ease: 35
Linguaphone: 90

[Skynet]

"@SKYNET wrote:

What year was this edition of LP printed???"

1978.

LP Swedish 1978 has all those lessons? I thought 2nd and 3rd gen LPs had 50 and 30 lessons respectively, unless you're counting the 3rd gen's 30 as 90 because each lesson has 3 parts?

I think the Cortina link that you mentioned is not working here

Oh dear! It looks like the entire site was taken down.

[naqvisson]

A happening day in Stockholm...

Today i was on a day trip to stockholm with only one intention: will be speaking only and only swedish ...and i am really content with the results. A local ferry service was offering 17 hrs cruuse to Stockholm in just 4€ and i seized the oppurtunity ...

Day started with a walk in the rain to the gamalastan...and i entered the first shop and it was selling traditional nordic clothing...two old ladies were so helpful and ecouraging at speaking swedish...i told them, i can read, i can understand but uttering words gets really crazy...i feel i know but i can't say...so the kind ladies instead of switching to english continued in swedish for a good 30-35 minutes...

Then i found many shops of fellow pakistani swedes there and became friends with a few..(coming back next week again )... A pakistani fellow suggested to go till kulturhuset and there i can find people in the relaxed way and hoping i followed the advice...

Again took information in swedish from the info desk..went to library and asked, do you hold any språkcafé here..and the gentleman gave me a good 5 min talk and whole details in swedish...there was one but at the other end of the city and unfortunatrly i had to run back....then i requested him not to switch in english and we had a good conversation in swedish...

Then I met two very kind old ladies who was so very sweet...i had a few topics with me on a paper to discuss...like:

1. Your friend has held a surprise birthday party for you. You open the door and get surprise. How will you react..what will you say..

2. You friend has got fired from job, sooth him/her..how?

3. A new baby arrived in your friends house, congratulate him/her..

4. You forget key chain. How will you call lost and found etc...

And these teo ladies were so kind to help and suggest some good dialogues...

Then i went to the tourist info..and held a good 20 min..headache causing conversation there and the lady at the counter was so polite and guiding..

Ordered food in swedish...sought directions in swedish and requested fellow tourists and natives to please take my pictures in swedish....

And then i intentionally or unintentionally forgot the way back to the port...asked for directiins and a swedish highschool student helped...and held a complete 15-20 min conversation in full speed swedish..i could understand abt 80-85% of it...made it to ferry just 30 minutes before departure and now writing to share the experience

Now ....on the way back to helsinki... Hopefully next week i am also coming back again..the 4€ offer is still around the corner and i think i will be availing it a couple of times...

Although many experienced polyglots suggest atleast 3 weeks of immersion but when you are student and can afforf only 2 days off...and the journey costs just 8 euros....i think 8 euros investment is awesome return wise....

@skynet: i have no idea abt the old 30-50 lessons lingua...but this had 96 lessons and i finally completed them...though the final few lessons became a drag for me as i had no energy to do them...

[Skynet]

I am delighted to see that locals are so eager to help you learn Swedish! Hours worth of immersion for just 4 euros? That is a ploygot's dream indeed! I am sure that your confidence has been boosted tremendously from this experience, and that you will see a noticeable difference when you return.

96 lessons in a Linguaphone??? May I kindly ask you to take pictures of the front cover of the course book, and also the inside page that displays the publishing information? I am very curious about this edition.

[naqvisson]

Confidence is what i really needed...today i felt like...yes i can do it ... I can do it...and i will do it...its my first European labguage and i hv already so much mistakes enroute. ....like wanderlust, like collecting tons of books from library..etc etc..

Net is getting pathetic but i will try to send you when i reavh back..its in pdf format..

[Skynet]

Cortina Language Courses: French, German, Greek, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Vietnamese. ENJOY!

[naqvisson]

Today I wrote my Swedish at intermediate level exam...it contained listening, reading, writing and speaking tasks...hopefully it was ok...result will be announced in the first week of january...so long wait......in the dark cold nights

The exam was kinda weired...in speaking we were given many a situations with 30 seconds to think and 1-2 minute to speak...if you had not prepared the exam pattern, you will just fumble in the reply....

In writing we had to write about smartfones, are they good or bad, an email about a travel and another task about imoroving some facilities feeback etc...

Although reading was hard but thanks to Assimil plus svt.se, i hope i was able to crack it..but
Listening was hard, i know not why .....but anyways the good thing is that its over...it was my first language that i learnt in isolation...following are my two cents:

1. Assimil Swedish with ease (san pieni) is an awesome resouce
2. Assimil Le Sudios (watered down but i prefered because of accent)
3. Linguaphone Swedish: good beginning if you dont know french or german.
4. Rivstart A1+A2....doable at your own..
5.FSI Basic Swedish: best course if coupled with Rivstart
6. Did Glossika Swedish 1&2 folders of fluency 123..

I did a mistake or may be i was inexperienced that i used so many resources...finished A1+A2, Linguaphone Swedish...did about 45 lessons of Assimil Swedish and from 50-90 of other Assimil (2013)...

If I have to redo it, i would reduce the number of courses ....

I realized that my stamina is mere 50 lessons, then I get bored.. then i .introduced svt and radio sveriege....and tried to read swedish newspapers daily...

I will continue with just 30 mins a day with swedish....(who knows how many MCQ's were right in the exam) ...

And will continue with reading Alkemisten....thanks to all veterans of HTLAL &LL Forum who gave me confidence that it doesnt matter if you can't learn in the classes, you can, all by yourself, in your home, by yourself..just do it!

Nästa: German and French!!!!

[naqvisson]

After hibernating for a long, cold (real feel -23c) day, went downstairs to check if my car was able to start ..and on the way back, checked my mail....and to my surprise, swedish result was there....two weeks earlier than expected...

With trembling hands, opened the envelop..and i couldn't believe it: i PASSED the National Language Exam at imtermediate level...just can't believe my eyes...and what more , i cleared all, reading, writing, speaking and listening...ALLLLLL!

I just cant believe it .....i was so down after the exam...listening part was wierd because my ears were trained at swedish accent of swedish, but i had to listen to Finnish accent and i had no time to adjust my ear...in speaking if i had to speak for 2 minutes, i spoke only 1 min and 20 second as i was speaking so fast... And this was in all the speaking questions and i was afraid how examiner will percieve it... my worst fear had been that my writing was so bad...joining writing...i was wondering can they understand my handwriting ...

The result means alot to me...a long story...I tried to take Swedish at School 4 times....first time, attended 2 classes and then due to clash with a major course, couldn't follow it...next time again registered for the course but could not fare beyond 5 classes...classes were early in the morning...at 8:30 and I hv never been a morning person...then I thought I should go to private adult education school...paid a dear 80 bucks but still could not attend more than 4 days ....and the last time I tried again at school, again 6 days was the max, I could attend....requested teacher to please let me write the exam which she graciously and kindly accepted so after 6 classes just wrote an exam at school.....almost the same thing happened with me in Finnish classes...and then I started questioning: "do i have the language gene?"...can i really learn any language? ...dishearted...then I thought, may be the book the teachers have been following are not the right ones FOR ME...lets google some Swedish resources.....and then appeared HTLAL forum Swedish resources....

HTLAL proved to be the "magical world" for me, which mesmerized me to the core. A place where people were learning without teachers...a place, where every post meant: "I CAN DO IT".....and i was amazed how these people are learning without teacher?... then for next fortnight, I kept reading and reading different forums, language logs and practical questions. I had never heard of Assimil, Linguaphone, Living Language, FSI, Glossika before visiting the site and then my self study journey started....HTLAL introduced me to Prof. Alexander Arguelles and then I followed almost all his videos on youtube.

Anyways, I also know some people who even took integration courses ( 9 months language course offered by government with daily classes from 8;00 am to 2:00 pm), but still couldn't clear the exam...one took it 10 times other 3 times and another one 6 times...whereas I just got motivation from HTLAL forum and this forum to just give it a try...


I thank you all, you people are awesome...you are a true source of motivation...my journey will continue, thank you very very much! Love you all !!!