"Cost" of switching languages for a month

[Serpent]

It depends. I've actually found that sometimes a short break actually seems to improve my language ability. It's like it gives it time to sink in or something. In any case, I doubt you'll forget much in such a short time. So the real cost would be in the amount of studying and progress you would have made in that month had you stuck to studying Spanish.

See bow wave theory
I recently noticed some vast improvement in my Spanish and Croatian after about a month or more of lessened contact. I think this just made the improvement more noticeable.

[Random Review]

This is going to be the really difficult bit for me. The only other language I've been learning is Spanish, which, once you get over the English-speaker's tendency to turn all vowels into dipthongs, is relatively easy to pronounce, because almost all of its phonemes are part of English. (Not that my pronunciation is perfect - Spanish speakers can still tell I'm English). I've got no idea of how to approach a language like Swedish with many unfamiliar vowels!

I am currently nearing the end of a 4-month break from Spanish to concentrate on German. Initially I intended to do a little bit of Spanish every day as maintenance but quickly found that I really didn't want to and that my brain just wanted a total break.

Eventually, and with a bit of advice from the old forum, I found my brain didn't mind listening to Spanish music (you could do that by putting some songs on your MP3 player and using them during the "hidden moments" that Serpent suggests). So I started doing that and using lyrics training as maintenance. Doing 2 songs on lyrics training might equate to maybe 15 minutes a day of "study", depending on the difficulty level you choose.

If I can just disagree with one thing you say, your description of Spanish pronunciation is incorrect. It's exactly what I believed when I was lower intermediate snd so I'm currently finding it very hard to rectify my pronunciation errors. In reality many (most) Spanish sounds are very different from English. It might be worth studying that a bit before your pronunciation sets (as mine unfortunately largely has).

[samfrances]

If I can just disagree with one thing you say, your description of Spanish pronunciation is incorrect. It's exactly what I believed when I was lower intermediate snd so I'm currently finding it very hard to rectify my pronunciation errors. In reality many (most) Spanish sounds are very different from English. It might be worth studying that a bit before your pronunciation sets (as mine unfortunately largely has).

It may be a little late for me too, but I will certainly try not to be complacent about pronunciation. I would be really interested to hear what were the elements of pronunciation that you realised were more of a problem than you first thought.

[Random Review]

If I can just disagree with one thing you say, your description of Spanish pronunciation is incorrect. It's exactly what I believed when I was lower intermediate snd so I'm currently finding it very hard to rectify my pronunciation errors. In reality many (most) Spanish sounds are very different from English. It might be worth studying that a bit before your pronunciation sets (as mine unfortunately largely has).

It may be a little late for me too, but I will certainly try not to be complacent about pronunciation. I would be really interested to hear what were the elements of pronunciation that you realised were more of a problem than you first thought.

Ufff, where to start? The "e" sound doesn't exist in most English dialects (ironically one of the few places out does is Yorkshire, which is where I'm living at the moment), similar with the "o" (I'm not talking here just about the fact that they are pure vowels rather than diphthongs I know you are aware of that). The letters "b/v" have two different sounds (depending on position) one of which doesn't exist in English, "p/t/k" are pronounced unaspirated (in English they are pronounced aspirated, except after "s"), the " l" is always clear, never dark... etc, etc, etc.

There's a lot, mate. You're best just to work through a decent introduction to Spanish sounds online IMO.

[garyb]

I'm going to lose any language nerd credentials I may have with this post, but...

I went to Stockholm for a long weekend last year and to be honest I didn't bother learning anything beyond extremely basic phrases like hello and thanks, and just continued to study my other languages as normal. I simply didn't think anything more was worth the effort for a short amount of time in a place where most speak English. I did quite the same for other places I only spent a few days in, like Budapest and Prague.

If it had been a longer time, or a place where English is less common, or a place where the language is close enough to my other ones that a small amount of work would give a large benefit (I was just discussing this regarding Portuguese on old-HTLAL: with a few hours of work I could probably learn enough to understand relatively well) I might have made more effort. But for Swedish it seemed like a big investment, especially considering the lost time on my "serious" languages, with very little return.

It depends on what you want out of your trip though. If you're keen to interact with locals and experience the culture more, then a little Swedish would probably go a long way. Personally I was just there to visit a (non-Swedish) friend and do a bit of sightseeing. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just giving my own experience and perspective.

Anyway I agree with other posters that a month off shouldn't do much harm, and that there's no need to take a complete break. I've found that even a few minutes of listening or reading per day can be enough for maintenance.

[kanewai]

I'm mostly concurring with what others have said: a month off can actually be beneficial at times, and probably won't hurt you if you are B1 or above.

But I also find that, when I travel, I have about three days of linguistic awkwardness before I become comfortable speaking. If it were only a short trip then I wouldn't invest much time in a new language, and wouldn't hit 'pause' on an active one.

As an aside, does everyone really speak English in Sweden? I haven't been, but in every other place I've been where "everyone speaks English" I've found that, really, most don't outside the tourist center.

[Brun Ugle]

You might find some older people who don't speak it, and you will probably find quite a few that don't speak well or are afraid to try, but most people can manage in English if they have to.

[Elenia]

I second the idea that you don't need to stop Spanish. I'd recommend a phrasebook, preferably one with audio. I quite like duolingo for Swedish, but I'm not sure that it will useful for the kind of vocabulary you'll need to learn for a short trip. Get a grounding in pronunciation first (FSI might help for this), and definitely try to fit in a lot of audio. Music would be a good place to start, as it's easy to find and study lyrics. Maybe try to listen to a few short documentaries with subtitles, too, just to get used to the sound and rhythm of the language.

I'm going to confess to my sins (and certainly make garyb feel better) because I have never once spoken Swedish while in Sweden. I feel bad about this purely because I've been studying Swedish for over a year and know I can use it. Only once was it a problem, when it was clear that the waitress I was talking to was uncomfortable using English.

[Serpent]

Maybe try to listen to a few short documentaries with subtitles, too,

Any recs?

[Elenia]

Maybe try to listen to a few short documentaries with subtitles, too,

Any recs?

Not really, although for anyone interested and able to use a VPN, 'naturfilm' is the series I had in mind when making my suggestion. Right now, it is only freely available in Sweden. I said something short in order to avoid boredom or burnout. Documentaries are usually clearer in speech, apart from interviews and conversations. I also like 'Mitt i naturen', but it is longer and not currently available at all on SVT Play.