So we started this Swedish language learning journey about 18 months ago, with DuoLingo (the computer app that helps you learn a language). It's an interactive program, so wow, you can easily get excited when the bells and whistles go off and you think "cool, I'm already 10% fluent" (or at least that's what the computer tells you!) Then we started a real live Swedish class at a community college in Minneapolis: 5 evening classes that focused on Swedish language, culture, and history. Big plus from that class: meeting our teacher, who at age 89 had a fascinating life story to share that included her own journey through Europe, Sweden and the US. We learned such great tools that can be found on the internet from our teacher! Add to that a program called "Learning Swedish", which we were told about when we visited the Swedish consulate in Chicago to turn in our paperwork in order to obtain our visas to move to Sweden. Add Tiny Cards, the flash cards app that is directly linked to DuoLingo so it allows you to do flash cards on the vocabulary that you're learning on DuoLingo. We were off to a good start.
Yet arriving in the motherland, good old Sverige (Sweden in Swedish), things have accelerated just a bit. We moved in with a Swedish friend from our church, who had us reading children's Bible story books in Swedish from day one. Then she coached us through the first level of Swedish that helped us qualify for a second level intensive course (our summer program). In November, we started the next level intensive course, and at the same time we received our papers to get enrolled in the government's program. We are now well on our way!
For all the languages that we have worked on learning over the years, we have a strong appreciation that language learning happens thru more than just sentence structure and vocabulary lists in the classroom. This has certainly proven true in our Swedish for Immigrants classes in recent weeks. Take a peak at some of the activities that we participated in as we are learning this new language...
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| Steve checking out the program for the day ~ |
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| Loved the diversity represented in the room |
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| Happy camper ~ maybe because we didn't have to sit in class! |
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| Swedish class today included traditional folk dances from other lands ~ |
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| So totally loved watching all of us learn (and play) together! |
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| "I miss my mom" ~ written on a post-it note on the "love" display |
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| Theme of the day: Kärlek (love for us English speakers) |
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