How good is my Swedish after one year?

I had a question from Jim about learning Swedish that I thought I would post for others as well as myself.

Jim asks

So Shane,

You talk of learning swedish in a lot of your blogs. I would like to know what your overall level is after a year of learning. Assuming you didnt know a word before you arrived?

I have been with my lovely wonderful lady for 2 years now so have picked up a few things. Since Christmas I have been using Rosetta Stone, which has helped me a million times more than the bird!

But do you feel confident enough to have a conversation in a shop (nothing detailed but just about the weather or where is the öl etc)?
if you overhear people can you understand their conversation?

Do you think you could go a whole day without speaking English?

I’m getting pretty scared, only 11 months to go till I am chucked in the deep end!

My reply.

I could be a lot better if I really wanted it. I have a lot of excuses the two main ones being that a) my work is too busy for me to really dedicate more time to learning Swedish and b) We speak English in our office as we have Danes, Norwegians, Finns as well as Swedes. So I am not subjected to it each day as other exiles may be.

Some people say my Swedish is very good but being an ex language student I know that after 12 months being here I should have cracked it. Unfortunately (excuse coming up…) having had a very senior promotion I have had to learn a lot of other job related skills quickly.

Some people are surprised by my vocab and I think my Swedish colleagues are pleasantly surprised on occasion. My reading Swedish skills are far better than my spoken, written and listening.  I guess I learn quicker by visuals.

In answer to your other question could I go a whole day without speaking English? I think I could but not in my work setting. I manage 60 people and cant afford to fuck that up. But maybe a Saturday or Sunday I will put this to the test.

I think I could manage it but it would be basic Swedish for sure.

I can manage in most situations. You know, the supermarket, the bank, restaurant, pub, taxi etc  You tend to pick up on what you know you will need. I am now starting to understand other peoples conversations on the bus or tube or in the office. I am much better with the radio, My advice to you is to listen to it every day, you can listen online so I would give it a go. You have eleven months to prepare, you can do a lot now.

I would try and listen to klartext every day its Swedish news for Swedish learners. Will be really hard at first but you will soon starting picking out most of the words. Can you get your hands on a Swedish linguaphone set? Its a bit pricey new but you can pick them up cheaply on Ebay. Rosetta Stone is ok for getting the sounds and some words but Linguaphone is more comprehensive. Do that for 4 hours a week for the next 11 months and you will be flying when you get here.

I can also recommend Swedish Transparent its much cheaper, about 50 dollars and interactive so quite good fun. It has a video immersion element to it as well and I think you will get most of the basic words you need.

In every language course you get the chapter ‘Asking for Directions’. I love the fact that I can GIVE directions to people who are lost in Stockholm. It happened the other day, its the kind of question you wouldnt normally bat an eyelid at but I was delighted to get the directions right and in Swedish!

Like everything else Jim, you get out what you put in.

Not sure if you have any work lined up but being able to communicate well in Swedish will really help you here as the unemployment is quite bad at the moment. I will start posting more tips on learning Swedish on here, just been bloody busy since the new year with work.

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