Svenska - Making it work

You may recall a while ago me mentioning email correspondance with a student called Natalie about language software, programs etc. Well, I told her in an email that I'd ''soon be doing a post about learning Swedish''. I then started college again, and then my laptop broke on me. So AGES later, here we are. Tonight's post is fuelled by RIX FM and boredom. Du ar valkommen.

OK. So, here's my approach to teaching myself Swedish. Firstly, I should begin by admitting that I haven't done anything on it since August, except listen to RIX FM which, if nothing else, contributes to listening skills a little. Half term is approaching, though, and I WILL pick it back up again.

Step one to self-teaching Swedish, for me, was to establish how I wanted to be taught the language. Software, textbooks, apps? Well, none of them. Not on their own, anyway. The only way I've ever successfully learnt another language has been through the conventional school-taught method. So that's what I'm doing - pens, paper, worksheets, dates and objectives.

With this in mind, I went out and bought myself a folder - blue, to match the Swedish flag. I also used letter stickers to spell out Swedish words all over the front, but they don't show up well in the picture. In here, I place my work at the front, and any additional sheets I have in the back. When I finally start building it all up properly, I'll probably purchase some file dividers and organise it a little like my Spanish folder (which may be a post in itself, actually).

Another big thing for me is that the date, lesson title, any other titles and all instructions are all written in the language I'm studying - so in this case, in Swedish. I make a point of always writing the date in Swedish - this means that, hopefully, I won't need to spend much time learning days or months - the more you use them, the more naturally they come to you. Plus, it's always useful to know the date. I may actually start writing out the numbers too, just so I memorise those quicker as well.

This is typically how I set out the page. If it's a totally new subject, the ordforrad (vocabulary) goes under the title, followed by 3 or 4 activites on the vocab given.

When writing out the vocab, I always write the Swedish in blue, and the English in black. As with the folder colour, the blue helps to associate the word with the language, plus it creates a visual difference between the two languages. I don't do this throughout the whole lesson, but it's not uncommon for it to spread into the activities I set myself.

This is typically the sort of activity I would set myself to begin with. Again, all of the instructions are written in Swedish (and English, until I have the translation covered and memorised), and I also make the language I'm translating from/to clear by either writing SV till EN (short for Svenska till Engelska) or EN till SV (Engelska till Svenska). I mark all of the work simply by referring back to the vocab.

I also think it is really important to take note of the resources used during the lesson, so I always write a lesson reference box on the bottom of the paper once the lesson is over. This includes software, websites, translators, apps, phrasebooks, dictionaries etc. I typically use the BYKI Deluxe Swedish software I have, and each lesson is centered around one vocabulary list from there. In the example to the right, I was using the first vocabulary list on Meeting and Greeting - there are usually a few on the same subject, so they make up several lessons. I occasionally add to the vocabulary by looking up other words or phrases that aren't listed, but I think tie in with what I'm learning that day.

A few other pictures of the resources I use etc...

I hope all of that made sense. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions :)


Kyssar,
Rachel

Summer Favourites

So, I've been a bit of a naughty blogger this summer and seriously lacked in enthusiasm to post anything on here. I've gone from 27 posts in July to 8 (9 if we include this one) in August. I can hear the internet yelling ''shame on you!"... Anyway, I'm back to college on Monday and summer will, in my head, officially be over. Booo :( I thought I'd compile a 'summer favourites' post to give you a glimpse of why I've not been posting :)

Television If I told you that my entire summer has been spent watching Not Going Out repeats, I wouldn't really be lying. Equally, I wouldn't be lying if I substituted Not Going Out for Pushing Daisies. I pretty much never watch TV during ''the academic year'' so summer has very much been spent lazing around and watching TV. When we were in France, my brother and I spent every single evening watching the DVDs in the picture :)

Personalising Somewhere, once, I saw that someone had created a 'washing line' of cards, photos etc, and hung it in what I think was their kitchen. I'm not even sure why, but I decided I wanted to do the same in my bedroom. From left to right: The CHS World Challenge Team 2010; Fern and I at prom; Croatian countryside; Rachel 1 and Rachel 2 at Magna (v. old); My handprint; Sarah, Beth M, Fern and I on prom night; two thank you cards from extended family; a Valentines card from Talor (my Psychology friend). The pegs are a mix of craft pegs and pegs I bought in Poland ''because they looked pretty'' :)

Jewellery I've been incredibly good about buying jewellery this year and barely bought anything, with the exceptions of the three (technically four...) rings pictured and a bracelet in Poland that matched Jade's. The first three rings you can see are all from Bijou Brigitte, which is a German brand that has recently opened a store in Wakefield, and the fourth is from Asda. The necklaces pictured were all made by me, and if you scroll back a bit you'll find tutorials and other posts about making jewellery yourself.

Nails The only thing I can justify wasting money on is nail polish, and that's because I know I'll use it. From left to right: Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom; Boots 17 Chaperone; Boots 17 Baked Cherry; Accessorize Khaki Folly; Models Own Utopia; George at Asda Deceit; George at Asda Indigo Dazzle; George at Asda Troll; George at Asda Starry Eyed. The George range has absolutely been my favourite - only £1.75 and the polishes seem to last for quite a long time considering how cheap they are. The bottles are a little small but for the price it's reasonable. My most recent purchase was the Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom one, which I LOVE, and despite the name, it really isn't wintery.


Being a Geek The two notebooks pictured were customised to say 'Notebook' and 'Thoughts' in lots of different languages. Geeky? Yes. My drawer isn't usually that messy, by the way. I've also been teaching myself Swedish, hence the whiteboard...which actually is completely out of date now as that was the first lesson I gave myself and I know everything on there now. A post on that will be coming soon, language geeks :-)

Beauty While I can justify spending money on nail polish, I really can't when it comes to make up. I don't know why, I just can't. This summer I've mainly been wearing the lighter shades of the eyeshadow, the Rimmel Flash Eyeliner or the brown eyeliner, and a lipstick that's not actually pictured (yay for good photography). The lipstick pictured is actually a replacement for one that I bought twice, which broke both times I purchased one. The one pictured, Beauty UK's In the Buff, replaced Collection 2000's Crystal Gloss Coral Crystal - the colour is fairly different, but it's does its job and, most importantly, doesn't literally fall apart when being used. 

Hola Magazine This really shouldn't count as a 'summer' favourite, as I only purchased it recently. However, I have discovered that WH Smiths sells copies of Hola magazine in some of its branches. So far, I've spotted it in Barnsley (random, I know) and York. Obviously, I've purchased both times :) This one I bought in York and I was pretty impressed with myself for actually knowing of one of the celebrities it did an article on (Paulina Rubio). Stress free Spanish revision is the best ;) I've had the other issue I purchased for well over a year, so it was nice to find something up to date, haha.


Party Planning Finally, the big one - party planning. My 18th birthday is on the 18th of September, and I'm having a party on the 10th to celebrate :) There are no prizes for guessing why the picture is related, but I'll be impressed if you can guess why (Fern, you know why, so you can't take part :P). My mum is a bit of a nightmare when planning something - I keep mentally comparing her to the nightmare mother of the bride situation you always see in films, haha. I'm VERY excited for my friend Rachel (yes, same name) to come up from Melton Mowbray on the train as we haven't seen each other in about 4 years. I'm also excited to see some of the extended family again because it's been a while. I'm also hoping that after a long first week back at college it'll be something nice to look forward to :)

So that's been my summer. I'm back to college on Monday (nooooooo) and dreading it. That place is seriously depressing. I'm also going to look into the ridiculous spacing problem going on with Blogger at the moment, because I know the paragraphs are all messed up and it's been winding me up for ages.

Besos ♥ 
Rachel