Let Me Tell You About Sweden » Berlitz Total Immersion

Berlitz Total Immersion Day 5

Shane — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:52:31 +0000

Day 5 thankfully was pretty much a recap of the week and a chance to iron out some of my mistakes. Its easier to write without mistakes then speak especially when you are talking about something close to your heart.

A lot of speaking practice as well as the written exam. I am happy to say that I passed Level 3 Berlitz with flying colours.

The question is asked was it worth the 50,000 SEK.

The answer without a doubt is yes. OK I am not fluent of course, no one week course is going to give you that but I am a lot more confident in Swedish now than ever before. I have rebuked several people for SMSing me in English, jag mäste förtsätta pa svenksa!

Already I am seeing an improvement. I forgot Bajen were playing on Thursday night, away to Häcken. Lets not talk about the game but I met the Bajare boys and spoke in Swedish all night. They made a point of telling me how impressed they all were. I was impressed that I was able to hold the conversation all night in Swedish. I was even cracking jokes at one point.

Last night I met one of my Seniors for a bevvie and again we spoke a lot of Swedish!

I have been listening to Radio P1 all day and you know what I am getting it! Its almost as if someone has slowed down the audio so I can hear it but of course Berlitz Total Immersion Swedish has accelerated my abilited to listen and understand.

Today I did a bit of shopping, a new fishing shop I found and at OnOff. I was able to ask about things in Swedish and not drop into English as I am prone to do. I was able to ask about two different subjects..’fishing spinners for perch’ and ‘portable radios’.

Yes I want to get myself a small portable radio so I can listen to Swedish radio when I am out and about.

These are major milestones for me but I realise I now need to push on a lot more but the mists are clearing. My written Swedish needs work but I am babbling away in Swedish like a kid now which is a big improvement.

Going forward, I need to finish my Linguaphone course off, cds please JW! I need to build up my vocab, so continue with reading DN daily and need to pick up a few books Berlitz recommended to increase word power. Maybe I will do another stint at Folkuniversitet this winter. Hopefully at a higher level with people who actually want to learn and arent forced there by their company and not really motivated.

I need to read more books, I have Reinfeldts ‘ensamvarg’ book to start. I might even give those ljudbocker a go, I nearly bought one today but could decide between Anthony Beevers ‘D Day’ or Goran Perssons autobiography they were 300 SEk though so will give it awhile. I would rather listen to the radio for now.

Also I need to read more kids books, more Broderna Lejonhjärta than tre små grisarna

And next year I would love to go on Level 4 Berlitz Total Immersion Swedish! I know glutton for punishment as right now I do feel like I have done ten rounds with Tyson. My brain hasnt had this amount of exertion since my A Levels.

If you can get the funding and time off I would really recommend Berlitz, in fact if you have a few quid tucked away and you need to speak Swedish quickly then I would recommend the investment.

Berlitz Total Immersion Day 4

Shane — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:00:04 +0000

Just taken a nurofen, I think that sums up the day. Again more grammar and back onto word order and past tense…I am getting myself into knots over when to use for example jag drack and jag har druckit. I am the type of student who likes to read, absorb and get it into my head but thats not the Berlitz way.

Neither is having it explained in English, ‘Engelska är inte min vän’ and they are of course right. Berlitz is about absorption and repeating what the teacher says but not me I need to know how the rule works.

Today it was the turn of the pluperfect, and future pluperfect heavy stuff and they worked me over on this one. The double lesson focussed on the past vad har du gjort t.ex…no wonder my head is banging.

We also looked at the future and when you say..jag ska..jag kommer att as well as a lot of new vocab.

I need a drink! But no, one day left!!! Last night I watched most of Ebbe the movie, a recommendation from Eskilstoona, its a post for another day but I refuse now to use the subtitle Swedish option. This course has shown me I can listen and understand I just need more practice so I will be doing a lot more of this.

Berlitz Total Immersion Day 3

Shane — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:21:58 +0000

I woke up this morning determined not to think of it as the hardest day as the teachers had said. I was determined to get my backside into the class and soak up as much as I could.

Today we covered a lot, prepositions again as well as when to use ‘hem’ and not ‘hemma, ‘hit’ and ‘dit’. I had to sit an exercise on the past tense which is a tricky one especially the irregular verbs. I came out of it ok though, in fact I got a lot of the naughty ones right, must be down to the increased reading effort I have been putting in of late. Good old DN and Bamse!

I do relish the way the Berlitz Total Immersion course challenges the pupil all the way. Their main goal was to increase my confidence in speaking Swedish and I have to say I think its starting to work. Started having some heavy conversations today all around my favourite topic..no not Morrissey..but politics!

Nuclear power, animal rights, unemployment, all good stuff!

The ‘dubbel’ lesson is a battle. Thats when you are in a three way conversation with two teachers. Today we looked at cinema listings and I had to find out what Teacher A liked and come to an agreement on what to watch. Then we had to come up with a suitable time for both of us…no easy feat with such a busy teacher. Then I had to pretend to call Teacher B and ask her if she wanted to come with us. She did but didn’t like the genres Teacher A and I liked so more conversations, questions, then what to do before and after.

After the exercise I like the way the teacher then goes through my spoken faults…and points out the errors. Teaching at its best. I have made the mistakes so its good to know what they are and get to work on them.

The session after lunch was about word order and I think I overcomplicated this and was pretty close to throwing a hissy fit. Luckily I just asked the teacher to go through it from the top which she did. There was some tension in the air, I am surprised its taken this long to be honest but she did well and I think it clicked. A bad workman blames his tools, I know, but one of the books is a good exercise book but it doesnt really förklara the grammar! Luckily the resourceful teacher brought in another book which was much better. Mind you I still dont get why these academics cant write grammatical expressions in simple language. Come on, own up how many of you had heard of Preteritum before?

I studied Latin so know a lot of the grammatical terms but come on boys have a day off and churn out a grammar book that we can all understand!

Once I got that it was on to over 4 hours of conversation and debate on different topics.

The teachers all said they were impressed with my development, the cynic in me thinks this is motivational… I said it was hard for me to really judge if I moved on from Monday morning. She explained that its harder for me to see progress as opposed to a new starter which is fair comment.

I am starting to ‘tune in’ to spoken Swedish now. I have been ‘talked to’ in Swedish for 24 hours now this week and I think thats paying off.

I dont think my written Swedish will improve significantly but there are books and self study for that but if I come out on Friday night, order a nice large Scotch and the barman doesnt know I am a Brit then I will consider it a success, incidentally if I can chat up the good looking barmaid with a combination of British charm and a Swedish accent then I may well book myself in for the next level of the intensive course in 6 months time

I am shattered again though, hardly any energy to cook tonight…it certainly feels as if something is squeezing my skull!

Berlitz Total Immersion Day 2

Shane — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:05:14 +0000

Oh my head hurts!

Day 2 of the Berlitz Total Immersion was a battle today, well it was ok in the morning. I slept well, got up early was there nice and keen but after lunch it was as if my brain said ok enough language learning! To make matters worse it was a double lesson, i.e a three way conversation eek! Having two attractive Swedish women giving you attention for 45 mins may seem fun to most of you male readers but when you are having to fight mental fatigue and sound enthusiastic well it aint so pretty.

Again a bastard of a subject to start us off today…Swedish prepositions.

This is an important element of perfecting Swedish, mainly because some of the rules are flaky. When do you use ‘på’ and not ‘i’ for example.

Swedish has seventy different prepositions and fifteen are amongst the most common words in the language!

Even the Swedes find it difficult why you say på instead of i or vice versa!

Then it was on to comparatives, this can be a tricky customer as well! lite, mindre, minst,,,den minsta pojken..as a student of Latin all be it a long time ago now I like rules and there are rules with comparatives but its also got a few naughty irregulars throw in…

gammal, äldre, äldst..den äldsta pojken….and a lot more

We did do a lot of conversational stuff today as well. I had to come up with 15 nyckelord..keywords about my job and give a presentation around that and take questions. Also we played a trivial pursuit type game which was interesting as you have to listen intently to the questions.

I like the way they break up the day with themes. We discussed food and meals and they brought in some actual foodstuffs and we went through the ingredients etc

They seem to be pleased with my progress but its hard for me to judge but there were too good signs today….I rang the office and spoke to a colleague all in Swedish,rather subconsciously…he was rather surprised…I had to meet someone for a quick fika and left them a voicemail på svenska again without really realising.

One of the teachers said Wednesday is the day the Berlitz Total Immersion students find the hardest. Not what I need to hear and not what I want to think about when the big hand strikes six tomorrow morning…I will tell myself that Wednesday is the best day.

Jag är jättetrött så måste jag säger natt natt!

Berlitz Total Immersion Swedish Day One

Shane — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:59:43 +0000

It wont let me post my Berlitz clips…

In short as I am nackered, Berltiz Total Immersion Swedish does what it says on the tin. No English all day!

Great teachers, I have three who come in at different sessions, for some sessions there are two teachers at once. I have to pretend there is a wall between and then sum up for one what the other teacher has said.

I particularly like the way they worked to increase my speaking confidence. Asking me to describe Edinburgh having lived there and subjects like that.

When I rocked up, the first teached opened the conversation and she was assessing me. She scored me a Level 3 intermediate which is described as:

Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Lunch was nice, no escaping speaking Swedish here either as you go out with the teacher to a local restaurant. It is though more casual.

The day surprisingly went faster than I expected but by the time 4pm came I was feeling it. Drained and struggling to be enthusiastic. Not the teachers fault, we discovered we both had a fear of snakes and heights…told you it was intensive.

I was surprised to move on to the bastard is it hans hund or sin hund…still not sure I totally grasp but a much better understanding than when I left the flat this morning.

I have actually learnt a lot of new words, nothing complicated just words that you need in a normal conversation..annorlunda is a useful one, I had no idea I used the word different so much in a chat…der stämmer

Lets hope tomorrow is just as good..nu måste jag sova eftersom jag vill vara pigg imorgon