Simple Swedish Podcast - #247 - Från studerande till användare av språket

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

Nivå: A2-B1 I det här avsnittet pratar vi om den viktiga övergången från studerande till användare av språket. Är du intresserad av att bli medlem på Language Gym där du kan träna din svenska varje dag? Kolla här! Om du är nyfiken på artikeln som inspirerade mig till det här avsnittet, läs den här. För att stödja podden och få transkript till avsnitten - bli patron för bara 5€ per månad – klicka här! ------------------- Instagram: swedish.linguist YouTube: Swedish Linguist Website: www.swedishlinguist.com Language Lock-in: https://www.languagelockin.com/ ------------------- Ett smakprov (sample) på transkriptet: Hallå där! Välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast. Jag är tillbaka här i Spanien, i Valencia, efter två månader i Sverige faktiskt. Det har varit väldigt varmt här de senaste dagarna, men nu har det regnat och det har svalkat ner sig lite grann. Så nu är det faktiskt väldigt skönt här i Valencia. Jag kollade på vädret i Sverige också. Det verkar som att det är ganska varmt i Sverige också.   Så ja, grattis till er som är i Sverige, att ni har fortfarande bra väder också i september. Jag ber om ursäkt lite grann att det inte har kommit ut så många avsnitt den senaste tiden. Det är för att jag har varit ganska upptagen med både resor och jobb. Jag har ju gjort det här Language Lock In Boot Camp i Dalarna. Jag kom tillbaka därifrån för ungefär en vecka sedan. Så det var jättekul men också väldigt mycket jobb. Men ja, nu är jag tillbaka i vardagen kan man säga. Och i det här avsnittet ska jag prata om resan från att lära sig till att tala flytande. Eller kanske snarare resan från att vara en studerande i språket till att vara en användare.   Så det behöver inte vara att tala flytande. Men att man börjar bli en användare av språket, och inte bara en studerande av språket. Väldigt viktigt, och väldigt viktigt om man vill bli flytande en dag. Jag blev lite inspirerad av en artikel av Luca Lampariello. Han är en av mina språk-gurus som jag har följt jättelänge. Så om man är intresserad av att lära sig språk så är han en väldigt bra person att följa. Luca Lampariello.   Och så har vi nya patrons. Ganska många för att jag har inte gjort ett nytt avsnitt på länge. Så det är Vic, Aleksandra, Andrew, Alan, Maharaghni, Kristina, Szilvia, Viktoriya, Max, Li, Roberto, Bernice, Russell, Bahareh, Gary M och Jonathan.   Tack till er för att ni stödjer den här podden!   Och ja, om man vill bli patron och stödja den här podden, kostar bara 5 euro per månad, gå till www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist. Så hur går man från en studerande av språket till en användare av språket?   ....för att läsa hela transkriptet till detta och alla andra avsnitt, klicka här!

Hello there, welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. I'm back here in Spain, in Valencia, after two months in Sweden actually. It's been very hot here the last few days, but now it's raining and it's been slowing down a bit. So now it's actually very, very nice here in Valencia. And I looked at the weather in Sweden as well. It seems that it's pretty warm in Sweden as well. So yes, congratulations to you who are in Sweden.

You still have good weather in September. I apologize for not being able to on so many episodes lately. It's because I've been quite busy with both travel and work. I have done this language lock-in bootcamp in the Dalarna. I came back from there about a week ago. So that was really fun, but also a lot of work. But yes, now I'm back in everyday life, you could say. And in this episode I will talk about the journey from learning to speaking fluently. Or maybe rather the journey from being a student to being a user. So you don't have to speak fluently, but to start becoming a user of the language

and not just a student of the language. Very important, and very important if you want to become fluent one day. I was a little inspired by an article by Luca Lampariello. He is one of my language gurus, who I have followed for a very long time. If you are interested in learning languages, he is a very good person to follow. Luca Lampariello. So, and we have new patrons, quite a few, because I haven't made a new episode in a long time. new episode on Länge. So it's Vic, Alexandra, Andrew, Alan, Maharagni, Kristina, Sylvia, Victoria, Max, Lee, Roberto, Bernice, Russell, Bahare, Gary M and Jonathan. Thank you for supporting this podcast. If you want to become a patron and support this podcast, it costs only 5 euros per month, go to patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist. So, how do you go from a student of the language to a user of the language. So when you start with a language, you start with studies. You start by learning new words, studying vocabulary, studying grammar, studying or improve your listening skills. It's like studying.

But the big challenge is to go from the theoretical to something more practical. So to go from practicing and studying to practice, to do it. To practice in Swedish is not the same as to practice. To practice is to do something you have learned. So you practice, you train and study and then you need to put it into practice, so you practice it. So it's a bit like learning to drive learning how to drive a car. So you study, you learn how to do it, and then you actually have to drive, practice what you have learned. And that's a bit like language as well. You learn and study a lot in the beginning, but the important thing is to actually start practicing it too. And one of the biggest obstacles is fear. You are afraid of making mistakes, you are afraid of sounding stupid, You are afraid to be misunderstood.

And there are other psychological factors. For example, that you feel that you don't have any personality. You don't feel like yourself. And things like that. yourself and such things. These things often make you stuck in this learning phase. You feel like you can't move on. You can't get to the next phase, so you get stuck in this learning phase. But to move on, you need to get over these things. And one thing that is important is to see mistakes as something positive. Look here, if you make a mistake, it means that you actually set your limits, to set your limits, that you kind of push yourself out, outside your limits. That you do something that is more difficult than what you usually do.

That you develop, simply, that you get better. That you... So... If you make mistakes, it means that you do something that you're not as good at, but that you actually get better and better at. And also, making mistakes makes the brain more concentrated, so that you can learn easier. So it is actually very important to make mistakes in order to learn. It's important to make mistakes in order to learn.

And a key to this is interaction. Interaction with other people. Because language is not just a bunch of rules and stuff like that, it's a tool for communication. So that's why it's important to actually participate in conversations. And it can be very, very small conversations, it can be very very simple conversations in the beginning. But in any case, it is important that you have conversations, that you are looking for the opportunity to talk. It can be with anyone, a friend, a teacher, a partner, a language partner. Or it could be that you practice with yourself, or that you practice with your pet, with your dog or with your cat. So, the more you use the language in real situations, the more comfortable you will become.

Comfortable, that you don't feel scared and worried. And that's how you structure and studies, to sit alone and study. That you go from that to spontaneous use. That you can use the language spontaneously. And that's what speaking fluently is. spontanet. Det är ju lite det som är att tala flytande, att det går enkelt och spontanet, att man helt enkelt bara kan tala språket utan att det är ett stort problem. Och då måste man också faktiskt praktisera väldigt mycket att man gör det så. to practice a lot, to do it, to be out in the world and to use it. This doesn't mean that you should your studies with practice.

So, and that is, it's like, if you learn a job, then maybe you need to study it first, but then the most important thing is to practice, to perform it, to do it. Because that's when you actually learn and that's when you get comfortable with it. You can't get comfortable with it without doing it a lot. So to be uncomfortable with it, not to feel safe, that is of course how you will feel before you have practiced it a lot. And I also want to say that speaking fluently is not about knowing a lot of rules. No, speaking fluently is about being able to navigate self-confidently in different conversations. That it goes easily. It doesn't mean that you have to speak correctly all the time. If you can have a conversation with another person, if you understand each other easily, if you can speak to each other easily and fluently, then you can speak fluently.

And then you can always improve your grammar and pronunciation and so on. So this is a bit about going from a student to a user. It's a bit about a shift in your way of thinking. A shift in your way of thinking, that is to go from isolated studies to use, that is to interaction, real situations. So by doing that transition, when you do that transition from studies to real interactions. That's when you can really start to master the language. To master it.

It means that you manage to use it at a high level. So. And I felt that I did it in English when I moved to Australia. And I felt that I did it in Spanish when I moved to

Spain. With Spanish I also needed to study a lot more. But when I moved to Spain, I started using the language directly. And that is of course a lot because in Spain people can't speak English very well. And I know that the situation with Swedish is not the same. So, but I have also done it with language where I may not have lived that much and maybe haven't had as many chances. I've done it with French.

French was the first language that I learned on my own. So I started with French when I was in Australia. Actually, when I was, I think, 20 or 21 years old. And I started learning French when I lived in a hostel. Because there were a lot of French people living there. And I borrowed a textbook from the library in Melbourne. I started learning French there and I tried to practice what I had learned and also of course learn a lot of new things with the French who lived at the hostel. And when I came back to Sweden, I was very engaged in this and I liked to learn French.

And if I heard someone speak French in the city, on the street, on a tram, I could start talking to them. And say, ah, ah, you speak French? Ah, I study French, I would like to speak with you. So I practiced it, when I could, all the opportunities I got. And I did it with Turkish, when I lived in Turkey. Unfortunately, I was only there for six months. Turkish is a very difficult language. But I really tried to practice the language with them, especially with my Turkish colleagues at the hotel where I worked. And I got better and better of course, but after I left Turkey, I stopped with Turkish, so I never reached a very high level.

And now my Turkish is very, very basic. Turk-Tsek-Kunduzhormuzun. Okay, so... And then, yes, Czech, Hungarian... I practiced them a lot too. I tried to go from student to user. And with Czech I succeeded quite well. But then of course I stopped doing that because my ex broke up, and that's why I didn't use Czech much anymore, because my practice was mostly with her parents.

But... But the problem is that I don't practice the language in the real world, and that's why I don't develop that much anymore. So with Russian I'm a little stuck. But then I also want to end this with that I've seen that people have certain specific challenges. And it's partly that if you don't live in Sweden, it can be difficult. Absolutely not impossible. And you can also do it completely free of charge. I've seen people who have used, for example, tandem to find language partners. And if you practice with your language partners every week with video calls, for example, then you get a lot of practice and you can reach a pretty good level.

to reach a pretty good level. But what we have done with Language Gym was that we wanted to create an online platform where you can go every day and practice and train just like a gym. That you go there and practice. So it's not that you still need to do your studies, but this is the gym where you go, where you go and practice, where you like, train on what you've learned and talk.

You can talk every day, different things. So that's what makes it so much practical and that's often the most difficult. And not just because it's hard to find the time, but Something that is also important is that it should be a situation that doesn't have too much pressure. Because if you feel too much pressure, you get stressed and then it can be very difficult to actually find words and things like that. You feel too stressed. And in Language Gym we practice together with other people in exactly the same situation. So everyone is in the same boat. So that's what's cool about Language Gym.

And I would absolutely like to have a Language Gym for the Russians right now. I need that. So, if you're interested in Language Gym or our Language Lock-in Bootcamp, go to languagelockin.com. go to languagelockin.com. Thanks for listening to this episode. I hope you get some extra motivation to practice Swedish, not just sitting and studying. It's important, but it's also important to actually use the language,

communicate, interact with people. Okay? Or with your pets, if you prefer that. So, have a good one, and I'll see you again in a week, hopefully. Bye bye.