Language learning tips

This is actually a place where you should start. I call it “learning tips” and I know that people tend to dislike the term “learning” because it is long, hurtful and boring process. No worries though, I will show you how to do it in a better way.

Mindset

Mindset is all you need. What I mean by that is that you need to start thinking about learning and studying the language (or anything else) the right way. There is a whole bunch of things consisting of the assets below.

Keep your goals SMART

People usually tend to underestimate this part of the whole process of learning or they do it in a wrong way (or they skip this part completely). I guess that you know that goals should be SMART. That means that they should be Specific, Measurable, Accesible, Realistic and Time oriented. The reality is that people usually do not adopt these rules for their personal goals and dreams.

Set your goal

I would highly recommend you to take your time and think a bit about your goals. Take a piece of paper and write it down. First of all, set your goal. I can help you here a little bit by telling you my goal. It is to master the Swedish language, to become fluent and to achieve a proper language proficiency.

Make it Specific

The goal is set. Now you should make it more specific. The specification helps you control and evaluate your process of learning. The specification supports the main goal and gives it a real dimension. If you still do not know how to specify your goal I can help you by telling you my specification.

My specification is as follows: get a C1 certificate, understand the daily spoken language and main dialects, become familiar with Swedish traditions, history, geography and culture (literature, politics, current situation …).

Make it Measurable

This is a very important part of the whole process of setting your goals. Without this you cannot say if you have reached your goal or not. When it comes to languages it is not that easy to keep it measurable. Fortunately there is a great way how to measure your language competence. It is called Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Your goal could be to complete the whole Duolingo Swedish tree and this goal is totally measurable too. It is up to you.

Make it accessible

For the sake of making this list complete, accessibility (in terms of SMART goals) means that you can assign the goal to someone. The assignee is you.

Keep it Real

This one is crucial. If you do not keep your goal realistic you may get frustrated and make the whole effort worthless. Do not set a goal that is not real. No, it is not real to get fluent in one year. No, it is not real to learn and retain 10 000 words within 12 months. And yes it is possible to finish Duolingo lessons within months. Making your goal real should keep you motivated. It also helps you to evaluate yourself.

Time is all that matters

Last but not least, set a final date when you want to reach your goal. Firstly, this helps you to divide the whole scope of work into smaller phases. Secondly, it helps you to see the end of the whole process. However, learning is a lifelong process. I can help you here again with my goal. It is to get C1 certificate within 3 years.

Love it

Mindset, do you remember? Study with pleasure and joy, let it make your days happier. Everything you love is something you want to have and that you care a lot about. Take care of your learning and love it and have fun with it!

Set your daily goal

This keeps you on the right track. It is said that only 21 days is enough to turn an activity into a habit. Give it a try then.

I know, you do not have time. Oh, and you do not have time every day. Actually this is not true. The sad fact is that you do not want to learn and you are only finding excuses.

30 minutes per day equals 3,5 hour per week equals 24 hours per month. And it really counts! Even five minutes a day may do a big difference in the long run.

Find a friend

What I mean by that is to find someone who you can share knowledge with and compete with. It is very easy task to do nowadays in a modern world of technology. One can connect literally with everybody and everywhere.

Write it down

First of all write down your goals. And the best thing is to make it publicly. Let everybody know (like me, here on this page) what your goal is. I promise, this is the best way that keeps you motivated and goal-oriented. You don’t want to look like a fool, right?

Secondly, take a pen and a piece of paper and start writing down everything – new words, phrases, write a letter to your friend.

Watch, listen, read and live the language

Start right know. Change the language settings on your phone to Swedish, start reading articles on Wikipedia in Swedish, start listening to some Swedish radio – Din Gata, search for your new favourite series online on SVTplay.se, search for Swedish songs with lyrics on YouTube. All these tips are not easy to follow and are demanding but I promise that it works.

. . .

And if you have made it all the way down to these lines, congratulations! You are a determined person and you will achieve your goal and you will master Swedish sooner or later.

Good luck with your Swedish journey!
-MySwedish-