One month in

Learning a language from scratch #5 | Monthly recap

Hello and welcome to this week’s update on my attempt at learning a new language from scratch. For those new here, the language is Swedish, and here are my updates from Week_1, Week_2, and Week_3, Week_4. If my math’s correct, this is the first full-month update post. I’ll talk about the methods and practices I tried out, highlighting what stuck with me. Every learner is different and as auto-didacts (fancy word for person who likes making their own mistakes) we have to figure out what really works for us.

Was I inspired to learn svenska by a game about three Vikings lost in space I played as a kid?

Some things just don’t work…

Let’s start with the thing that didn’t really work for me. Memrise. While it’s definitely a better tool than Duolingo (and it’s less gimmicky, too), ultimately it’s great for people who enjoy learning vocabulary in a streamlined fashion. It’s not as cumbersome as LingQ (and not as preachy), and it genuinely provides a great user experience. Even though I ultimately gave up on it (too late to get my EUR 34 back, though), I would wholeheartedly recommend it as an auxiliary tool. My current plan for vocab is just to stare at lists of words (written by hand or downloaded in fancy PDF format from SwedishPod101) from time to time. And to try and absorb vocab through re-listening to the same bits of content time and time again.

Cherishing the tradition of posting a Duolingo meme whenever the app is mentioned

And some do

Speaking of listening to the same content, it really doesn’t get boring! As long as with each new “run” you feel that you understand more. Also, with time you start memorising (without any effort) entire passages, which also works for building your language muscle. In my opinion, it’s even better than learning words in isolation. Next month, I might even try taking it up a notch and experimenting with Luca Lampariello’s Bidirectional Translation method, which he explains the following way:

1. On day 1, I read the content and listen to the audio, using the translation in my mother tongue to try to understand the text as deeply as possible.

2. On day 2, I analyze the phonetic patterns of the text—the pronunciation, intonation, and word stress.

3. On day 3, I review the content in a brand-new way—usually through just listening to the audio, just reading the text, or something else entirely!

4. On day 4, I take the target language version of the text and make a personalized translation of it, in my native language.

5. On day 5, I take my native language translation from the previous day, and try to verbally translate it back into my target language.

6. And on day 6, I complete the cycle, by taking my native-language translation and re-translating it IN WRITING back into the original language. Then, I make note of any errors, forgotten words, or mistranslations.

This looks like a lot of work, but hey — I actually worked as a professional translator for around 6 years, and I owe a lot of my relative fluency in Turkish to hours upon hours of actively engaging with the language.

This month, I went through 13 lessons on SwedishPod101, listened and analysed some 8 videos from Slow Swedish, and just recently started working through episodes of the Swedish Linguist podcast (which has free transcripts for the first dozen or so episodes, and I might consider buying a subscription later). This might seem like not a lot, but remember — I did listen to each piece of content many times, looked up vocab, translated bits, and so on.

I also went through 2 chapters of Teach Yourself Complete Swedish. It’s a very well-written, self-contained book (a real rarity), and I think I’ll aim for 4 chapters next month.

Most importantly, I've maintained a self-imposed streak of doing something every day. Even sick with Covid. Even with a lot of work on my plate. There are always 10 minutes you could find in a day, and it’s easier if the way you’re learning is fun and not forced. More on that point from the very insightful Shea here:

How to Not Suck 📝

So what have I achieved?

• When listening, I can more easily discern not only words I know but also different parts of the sentence, prepositions, and tenses.

• I can follow and understand content I’ve already analysed without relying on notes or translation.

• I can form very basic phrases using set constructions like “I have”, “I need”, “I must” — these are the easiest to learn in any language

• I know words used to talk about everyday life, family, plans

It’s not a lot, but it’s honest work. I’m definitely not going to “be fluent in 3 months”, but I don’t really need to.

Thanks for being a part of this journey!