by Adriana Disano

Created on: August 30, 2010

The task of learning the Swedish language can seem daunting at first, but it can be easily completed with a little grace and diligence. The Swedish language is Scandinavian, making it similar to Danish and Finnish. However, it also has many similarities to the English language, and is one of the easier languages for native English speakers to learn.

Swedish on the surface doesn't seem like a very popular language to learn, only being spoken primarily in Swedish and secondarily in a few other countries, however online it is gaining increased popularity. This makes the internet one of your best weapons in conquering Swedish as a new student of the language.

One of the best ways to learn a new language is through immersion, or surrounding yourself in the language without any translation. While it can be difficult to learn a language this way in a non-immersive environment-in other words, unless you're currently living in Sweden-by using degrees of immersion we can learn the language more naturally than we would if we were to use a textbook.

Some of the best ways to immerse yourself in the Swedish language is by becoming part of an online language-learning community such as Lang-8, where members post journals in the language they are studying and native speakers correct their mistakes. As you will come to know many other students of the Swedish language, you will be exposed to a lot of Swedish text. Provided their journal entries are corrected, you can use them as accurate reference texts. You will also be encouraged to write your own Swedish journal entries in what little Swedish you know. This way you can learn to communicate in a way that is natural for you, not dictated out of a book or CD series.

Another way to immerse yourself in the Swedish language is through watching Swedish television programs. While something like the news is more accurate as reference material, cartoons and television shows can also provide you with a broad vocabulary or reinforce what you already know. Some of the best places to watch Swedish tv are TV4's official website and Beeline TV.

Yet another way to immerse yourself in the Swedish language is through reading in-context material online. You can read beginner's Swedish news material at www.8sidor.se, a Swedish newspaper which caters to beginners in the language.

While immersion will expand your vocabulary and understanding of the written and spoken word, textbooks are equally helpful in establishing good Swedish grammar. Unfortunately, Swedish is not a very popular language, so very few textbooks on the language are available at common bookstores. However, a couple good books you can get to give you a solid understanding of the language's grammatical structure are the Swedish installments of the "Teach Yourself" series of books, and "Essentials of Swedish Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Swedish."

Another great way to increase your Swedish vocabulary is to use websites like Smart.fm which provide an application that tracks your progress through vocabulary lists. If Smart.fm isn't to your liking, you can try a website like www.LingQ.com for lists of vocabulary words.

And don't forget: stay in touch! The best way to learn Swedish is by trying to apply it in the real world, so get yourself a Swedish penpal or email buddy. Be sure to use dictionaries for reference and get a penpal who will actually correct your mistakes-many are too shy to. Better yet, get an account at Lang-8 and have hundreds of penpals who are all excited to help you out.

Learning Swedish is ultimately a commitment, but if it's a commitment you are willing to make, it also becomes quite rewarding. Good luck and gratis on becoming a student of Swedish!

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