My Swedish revision so far.

Well, I have been revising Swedish alot over the weekend and Friday, and have learnt quite a few things, including Ordinal numbers, and plural forms of Nouns, and a basic idea of how Verbs work in present, past, perfect, and pluperfect tenses.

I have a few Swedish arbeta textbooks, most of which i still can't read, but i did look through one and found that i can understand quite a bit of a passage in the beginning of the book. My girlfriend tells me that the book is for 14 year olds who are on their second year of Swedish in school in Finland.

So, here is what i can read and understand out of the book, just to show how far ive got in my 3 weeks of learning Swedish:

"Åland är trevligt. Mickes anteckningar:

Andra juni, klockan elva på kvällen.

Ja, nu sitter jag här i mitt rum på Notvikens camping. Rresan gick bra. Kom med dagfärjan från Nådendal till Mariehamn. Morfar hämtade mig med bilen. Det är ungefär 30 kilometer till Mariehamn. Är trött. Ska upp tidligt!

Fjärde juni, på lunchrasten:

Lugnt! Hyr ut båtar till gästerna. Många hyr en båt och åker ut och fiskar. Vi hyr ut fiskegrejer också. Det kommer folk med egna segelbåtar och motorbåtar. Dom stannar en natt och tankar, tvättar och duschar.

Nionde juni, på minigolfbanan:

Hjälper till på minigolfbanan. Det är många barnfamiljer här. Vädret är inti så bra, mulet, så ingen badar. Dom spelar minigolf, i stället. Oj, nu kommer en massa bilar och två camping bilar. En 20 fransk bil! Det kommer inte så många fransmän hit. Hoppas dom kan engelska. Jag kan inte franska."

Jag förstår inte just tre ord. 'hit', 'hyr', och 'dagfärjan'. Så, jag seger jag kan förstår svenska mycket bra, för just tre veckar av lär svenska, eller hur?

I know i still obviously make mistakes, but i hope that i can type Swedish well enough that it is understandable, which i think i do :P

I have also watched "Hitta nemo", as i wrote that, i just realized what 'hit' means from the passage :P lol. It is fun to watch animation movies in Swedish, as i tend to be much more interested in it, and my ears are more concentrated on hearing the words. And the voices that the characters have in Swedish sound so great, and some of the phrases they say are so funny.

Am i at a normal progressive level in Swedish, or am i not where i'm supposed to be after 3 weeks? I was just thinking, if i learnt that much in three weeks, compared to how much Finnish i knew after three weeks of learning it, i thought i was much better at Swedish, but now i think, what if i am behind on Swedish, as maybe many people have learnt much more in 3 weeks of learning it? So, i have no idea if i am good at Swedish or if iam bad at Swedish. Can you please tell me if i have learnt swedish quicker than usual, slower than usual, or at an average speed?

Hejdå, och vi ses imorgon.

Jag kan tala svenska.

Jag kan tala litet svenska, och jag förstår bra. Jag kommer frå England, och Jag bodde i Skotland. Jag bodde i England 9 år, och 8 år i Skotland. Jag bor nu i Finland, för min flickvän bor här. Hon är Finsk, men vi pratar inte finska i vårt hus. Vi pratar engelska för hon tycker engelska. Jag kan prata engelska, finska, och litet svenska och danska. Jag vill lära svenska och Jag vill bo i Sverige.

Jag tycker svenska och Sveriges histori och kultur. Jag hopper(?) det jag talar svenska o.k.

That was my rough attempt at speaking swedish lol, please can people comment on it, and tell me for any mistakes i have made. It is best that i know what i did wrong, so i can learn from it :D

Learning Languages

I have came to realize as i have grown up that i have a huge interest in languages, which i did not have in Highschool, as i failed misserably in both French and German. I did not take the languages seriously, and just thought it was rather silly, because my mind just thought that "well everyone speaks English".

But as i have grown, i have had many interests in many languages, and constantly have urges to learn other languages. Unfortunately, i only speak fluent English, as i have not really been able to practice other languages that well, because of money issues and so on, but i have been self teaching myself Finnish for just over a year now.

I got into the Finnish language through one of Nightwish's songs, which made me do some research on Finnish. And i found that i was fascinated by the langauge, and thought it was unique. But as i have learnt it, i have came to the realization that it is an Extremely difficult language... and that it has lost its uniqueness in my eyes.

I find the grammar structure to be obscure and irregular, and the way sentences are made are just confusing. And also i have found that, in my experience, it is very difficult to live in Finland without good Finnish speaking skills, which i still do not posess. I have given up on learning Finnish, and living in Finland, and have returned to languages which i always knew i liked.

And those languages are the Germanic branch of languages. For years i have had interests in mainly German, through many Metal bands i listened to. But i never got down to actually really learning the language.

Recently i have been doing research on Swedish, and the more i read about it, and look into the grammar and things like that, the more appealing it seems to me. Its a much nicer sounding language than any other language have heard, and the grammar makes sense to me, and some of the words are recognizable to English and German words, (for instance english:bok, hus, finger, arm, hand, barn, skriva. German: arbeta, höra, etc) These words, with enough common sense and knowledge of Germanic languages, can see relations between the words.

For instance, i knew before even looking up the world 'barn' that it meant child/children, as i lived in Scotland for 9 years, and heard people calling their children "wee barn", which somehow made me automatically think that it has came from the vikings when they invaded the shores of scotland and england.

Anyway, what i'm saying is that, Swedish, to me, is a language which feels comfortable. If that makes sense. And it makes me feel more confident when i learn something each day.

The only problem i am having is that i live in Finland, and not everyone is too kind towards people who are pro-swedish, as the whole conflict between the Swedes and Finns. Kinda feels like home between the English and Scots... dont really understand why people are like this... but anyway, it is hard to find people to try and speak swedish with. Swedish is not compulsary in finnish education any more, even though it is the 2nd Official language of Finland. I live in Kuopio, where there really isnt Swedish speakers. For that i would have to move either South or West, or (where i want to be) to Sweden.

How can i learn Swedish in a country/city where swedish is more or less frowned upon? where my Girlfriend, (who is Finnish) won't help me learn Swedish because she hates it, and hates when i talk about anything to do with Sweden?

For the first time in my life i have felt a connection with a language, and i have the strength, confidence and determination to learn it. Yet i live in a place which is anti swedish, where there are not many places i can learn swedish, without knowing Finnish.

How do i learn Swedish? What do i do? Where do i go? Do i just give up and continue on the long journey learning Finnish?

(btw, this is my first blog ever, so please take in mind, that i dont really know what to say here, and just said things that i have needed to get off my chest. But i really do need help, or hints into how i can learn Swedish successfully without any delay.)