Grabben I Graven Bredvid

One of the things any language class aims to do is to be able to someday understand a conversation between swedes among themselves, and be able to converse with any of them properly.

In this session, I remember being able to write a summary of a swedish movie we watched in class. I submitted this last year, and decided to correct it. Still had a hard time correcting some other stuff so I asked for help.

I think writing an essay at least once a week will help boost your learning, as well as enjoying how to learn the language by watching movies. So, here you go...the summary of "Grabben i Graven Bredvid":

Den här filmen är om två människor, en kille och en kvinna, som träffats vid en grav när de besökte deras kärlekar. Killen heter Benny, medan kvinnan heter Desirée. 

Filmen började när kvinnan har glömt sin hatt på en bänk och Benny försökte att lämna tillbaka den. Desirée har åkt med bussen och Benny följde efter med sin bil. Han blev blyg när han såg henne i biblioket som hon arbetar i.

Benny kom tillbaka en annan tid och pratade med henne, frågade om de kan träffas igen. Det gick bra, men de har olika personligheter. Benny är jätteklok men vill ha ett enkelt liv. Han vill alltid arbeta på sin gård  med kor. Desirée däremot, vill göra karriär.

Sedan fick Desirée ett jobb men hon hinner inte säga det till Benny. Han hörde om det från hennes kompisar så de hade en tvist. De pratade senare och Desirée valde att inte ses något mer.

Benny blev ledsen men han träffade en annan kvinna, en sjuksköterska som han började att tycka om. Desirée ångrade sitt val så  hon kom tillbaka till Bennys gård för att be om ursäkt men sjuksköterskan var med honom redan. 

Desirée grät och bestämde sig för att packa sina saker till Stockholm och börjar arbeta där istället. Benny ångrade sig också och försökte att prata med henne men en lastbil med Desirée och hennes saker hade åkt redan.

Benny blev ledsen igen och började köra tillbaka hem när han såg Desirée i lastbilen. Han körde efter henne och där slutade filmen. Kanske bestämde de sig för att bo tillsammans.

Random Basic Introduction and Verb Placement

Start: I was clearing my table when I realized that I still have a lot of books that I have not fully answered. So, I browsed through them and saw one of those basic introductory paragraphs one writes about at the beginning of school, and decided to write about it.

Jag heter Citron och kommer från Asien.

My name (or I am called) Citron, and I come from Asia.

Jag är 29 år. 

I am 29 years old.

I Asien var jag webbutformare, men i Sverige arbetar jag som köksassistent på ett cafe, så länge. 

In Asia, I used to work as a web designer, but in Sweden, I am working (or work) as a kitchen assistant in a cafe, for the meantime.

_______________________________________

If you have noticed, the verb var came right after the place, "I Asia". The verb always gets interchanged with the noun right after a place or a time.

PLACE + VERB + NOUN

TIME + VERB + NOUN

In effect, the following sentences would be placed as:

1. Imorgon ska jag gå till skolan.
2. Nu går jag hem.
3. Igår åt vi bär. 

_______________________________________ 

Now, the continuation...

Jag har varit här i ett år. 

I have been here for a year.

Jag bor i Stockholm.

I live in Stockholm.

Jag talar tre språk: mitt modersmål, engelska och svenska. 

I speak three languages: my mother tongue, english, and swedish.

So, there. You may write your own basic introduction if you want :)

Givetvis

As I have mentioned I did not go to school everyday because I used to work. Now, I am on self-study for programming as well just so I could get a better chance in a better job while learning how to be fluent in Swedish.

However, I do try to always bring home handouts and read them as much as my mind is able to understand. Swedish has a "third-word rule" that I still can't quite place sometimes. The list includes ju, väl, and SO MUCH MORE.

For this entry, I want to share the translation of the word "givetvis" which translates to "Of course, dot dot dot"...and we all know you should not take that literally, yes? YES!

Example given: Jag tar givetvis med mig mina hundar senare.

English translation: Of course, I will take my dogs with me later.

That was one of the simple examples I came across this morning. There will be more difficult uses of this word, but we can stick to the basics for now.

Words like ju, väl, and givetvis fall under the "third-word" rule or category. Ju and väl, I will explain in other entries, but for givetvis...I hope you get the drift already.

This is how I understood it. I read and try to piece together rules I have learned with words or sentences every time I discover new ones. Self-study is always how I survive and learn faster. Feel free to let me know of any corrections, though. 

See you on the next entry!

The Inevitable Intro

I started this blog to help myself and others to just hit the ground running. Well, at least try to. No harm in that, right?

So, a bit of a background story: I come from SouthEast Asia in a country that has groups of people who are pretty much fluent in English. 

Second part of the history: I had a profession which enabled me to work from home and accept calls from clients whenever they needed a change in artistic output. Mostly web, or as a host and production director for social and corporate events. In other words, I did not need to leave my country to go to Europe for a job. Not that doing just that is a bad thing to begin with. I did, however, fall in love with a Swede, and I did not know what I was thinking (haha!) why I moved to Sweden...but hey, I did!

Last part of the history, and trying hard to explain it without prejudice: I thought I could get away with not learning how to speak Swedish, but every day that passed made me realize that this will never be a country whose citizens' conversations with you would be in English, even if they can see that one is a foreigner. They usually assume you should be able to speak Swedish! SHOULD. Addition to this was a visit to a job fair wherein people said I had an impressive CV, and then the killer question came: are you very comfortable with Swedish now? I wanted to say that I was getting there, but I needed a job. NOW. Besides, there will only be one language that the computer will recognize: the computer language depending on what software you use!

Background done, moving forward with the intro: Luckily, I really was almost fluent in Basic Swedish. Thank God!

All immigrants in Sweden have to enroll themselves (funded by the government so it is technically free) to a class called SFI (Swedish for Immigrants). Whether you have a job or lounging around at home, they will find the perfect schedule for you. That is how efficient they are at mandating immigrants to learn Swedish.

I arrived last year, and hitched a job within a month of starting school. I had a boss who just COULD NOT speak English. It was...well, words are inadequate to describe my helplessness. The understandable part was, she was not Swedish. She even walked up to me once and said something like, "You can never speak Swedish". Although, that might be because she thought I have been there awhile and I still could not speak the language. Well, duh.

Anyway, I ended up on the last level of SFI within a year without actually going to school every day like what some did. Some students took half a decade to complete that course, if my sources were correct. Some also completed the entire course in a year by spending half the day in school, and half at work. I just went to work the entire day and two hours a week in school, one night a week. I would really rather earn money, truth be told.

So, with this blog, I would want to share how to learn Swedish fast. At least, I hope so. Share some tricks I picked up along the way. This blog was essentially created to help whiners like me help a fellow student out here online, and to train with at the same time.

I did not create this blog to be better than others. Neither did I start this to show off whatsoever, but to be better for myself alone. If some of the entries will help you, drop me a line. It always feels good to be of help. It would probably make another SFI student make it through another grueling day of mastering the language :)