derek said on June 9, 2003 19:08:

any good book store or a library that has up to date books on langueges sorry cant be more helpfull

roxtexanet said on June 9, 2003 22:02:

Thanks guys! I’ve heard a few good things about the newer “Teach Yourself” series, so I’ll definitely give that some serious consideration.

Santi said on June 9, 2003 22:38:

I just read that Svenska Utifrån is not intended for self-instruction :(

Santi said on June 10, 2003 10:24:

You don’t need oral French for anything, since in the cd’s / tapes you won’t hear anything but Swedish :D It’s just for the translations and explanations, all of them written. You can have a look at http://www.assimil.com/
I can tell you that I’m using this method for learning Dutch and... I think I’m learning fast, it’s kind of easy and very funny. However it requires quite a lot of commitment, since the method works if you study every day a little bit (some 30 minutes that you need for 1 lesson).

ally77 said on June 10, 2003 16:48:

@ Santi (and she quotes....)

“Teach Yourself Swedish” has a new edition from 1994 or 1995 by Vera Croghan (or something like that). It includes a tape with it and it’s updated

****agrees!!****

Excellent book...

Also I like using CD roms... and have just today aquired “Learn Swedish Now” from an seller in the states via eBay... it only took 3 days to get here and cost about £11 with postage compared to prices in the UK!

Also recently bought EUROTALK learn Swedish on CD rom

And last week picked up a really old I would say 70’s Swedish Liguaphone set for £9 again from eBay - bargain and it works!

roxtexanet said on June 17, 2003 16:59:

Thanks for all of the suggestions, guys! I ended up buying the new “Teach Yourself Swedish” by Vera Croghan, but without the tapes because I actually found the book in a bookstore in a city I was visiting and decided I’d rather have it now than wait for the tapes. It looks like it will be a LOT easier and a LOT less boring than my ancient “Teach Yourself” book!

Santi said on June 17, 2003 19:35:

If you’re not gonna buy the tape I recommend you to listen to Sveriges Radio thru internet to get used to the sound of the language when talking :D
t has nothing to do with how it sounds in songs. Here’s a link: http://www.sr.se/

“Ljudfiler” means “sound files”

tevensso (moderator) said on June 18, 2003 08:40:

We have 9 vowels (aouå, eiyäö) in Swedish, not 24. :)

sparroweye said on June 18, 2003 11:41:

santi, you’re pretty much right (as always!!)
but I’m not sure if ä,å and ö sounds diffrent before diffrent consonants. I mean for example ä sounds the same in “är” and in älg. it morely depends on if it’s a short or long vowel...

Santi said on June 19, 2003 10:50:

@sparroweye: Well, but I don’t think that you should take the sound of ä ir “är” as rule for anything :D It’s a so overused word that it has “developed” it’s own pronunciation, in my opinion. Just like “Jag” or “det”, where you drop the last consonant. It doesn’t mean that last consonants are always dropped by rule. (The only people I’ve listened they pronounce [Jag är] and [Det är] like they are supposed to be pronounced according to how they’re written are Jocke Berg and my teacher of Swedish in Södertörns Högskola :D)
I was referring to, for example, you don’t pronounce the same ä in “äcklig” and “färlig” :D

About the ö before r... I don’t know. I can’t really make a difference either. But I think in every Germanic language (English, German, Dutch, Swedish...) the vowels before “r” are more open. At least the “e” is always more open. But this happens even in Spanish in some words (like “Perro” -Dog), where the e is pronounced more open. Anyway, neither in Spanish nor in the other germanic languages I think it constitutes a different phoneme... dunno why Swedes are so special :D

About the method of Swedish by Svenska Institutet, I thought their method was called “Svenska Utifrån”.
If you want to get books in Swedish and Swedish textbooks different from that one you have, you can always check http://www.akademibokhandeln.se , that ships internationally ;)

sparroweye said on June 19, 2003 17:36:

precis vad jag oxå undrar!!

Santi said on June 19, 2003 19:41:

euh... yeah, “farlig” :s I was wrong :D I’ve always had problems pronouncing this word and I actually thought it as written with ä :s *blushes*

Ok, I wanna change the example word. Now it’s lära. You don’t pronounce it the same :P as “äcklig” :D

PS. Santi!! Lär dig att skriva på svenska! :D

Santi said on June 19, 2003 19:43:

Jag vet inte vad han vill göra med svenska, men jag hoppas jag kan göra forksning vid nåt svenskt universitet :D

sparroweye said on June 21, 2003 12:20:

santi, I think you’re very good at swedish!! (tänk om ja va lika duktig på spanska...) :)
in my opinion the ä in ärlig and lära is pronounced the same way... hmm..

Santi said on June 22, 2003 08:08:

Ok, if you pronounce äcklig the same as värld I give up :D
Do you study Spanish? I think you’re pretty good in German, I saw you wrote in that language to Aschrum :D

ixtlaner said on June 29, 2003 00:54:

@ Santi: yeah, Jocke Berg has a funny way of pronouncing things, it took me quite some time to start understanding him (esp. turning voiced consonants into voiceless, like “pror” in stead of “bror” :)

It’s strange, but the system we’re using is also used by first year students in Scandinavian Studies at the Sofia University. Seems the teacher can’t find anything else, or just likes it very much. It has the whole grammar very condensed, and that’s what I actually need.
Thanks for the link, I’ll give it to her, maybe she could find anything interesting there too.

@ sundance_kid: Tack!! Först: förstå Maries, Pers, GT’s & Kent’s sånger bättre, och sen... kanske flytta till Sverige ;p... nej, jag vet inte ännu faktiskt!

...

Well, I thought the thing with “ä” was clear, but here are the words used as examples in my textbook:
- väg [long] - äpple [short]
- lärare [long] - färja [short]

In “färja” it’s something like the “a” in “arrow”, at least the transcripton symbol is the same. While in “äpple” it’s like the transcripton symbol of the first sound in the word “area”.

But if you ask me, there’s one more vowel sound: the “e” at the end of the words, like “vinden” – not clear “e”... if you get my meaning. It has the transcription symbol of the “e” in “tower”.