Swedish in chapel. Swedish in staff meeting. Swedish in a theological presentation. How much did I comprehend? Perhaps 5 to 25 percent. The rate of speech and some special vocabulary makes it difficult.
I did arrange to take the listening comprehension exam (that I missed) next Tuesday. I know that the rate of speech will be difficult for me, based on our practice in class. While the listening to all the Swedish at work may help a bit, I sense that my daily listening to Radio på lätt svenska ׁ(Radio in easy Swedish) is better for training my ear. I can listen on a pod cast while I prepare the evening meal, and then later, I go to the website and read the text. I can pop the text into Google translate to work on building my vocabulary with the words that I don’t know. It would be good to do this more.
After I’ve mastered this pace and the simplified vocabulary, I can move up to the next level, Klartext, which is a faster—but not quite normal—rate of speech and a little broader vocabulary. Sweden really has some good resources for language learning. One of my students just also got a part-time job teaching Swedish to the immigrants.
There is a lot of English spoken, and many musicians realize that if they want a broader audience, they produce their music in Swedish. Here’s a creative new YouTube video that is quickly going around about Swedish fika.
The pastries shown are classic Swedish pastries!
I do think that there is something about sitting down and having fika together. I feel more connected to the community here after just a few months than in my 7 years at Trinity. I think fika has a lot to do with it!
So, enjoy more fika today!
With blessings,
Beth
But only the young can eat like that!!! I’d be a blimp!
I loved it!