Recently, I decided to start learning Swedish. Why I decided on Swedish was I was interested in Nordic culture and did some research on which languages have the greatest number of speakers. I found that Swedish had more speakers than Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian. Additionally, I would love to travel to Sweden one day so I chose Swedish.
Swedish is a language that is fairly similar to English. Swedish uses the Latin alphabet and has a lot of similar sounding words to English. Thus, it was very easy to get started and the learning curve was not as steep.
Below I outline my simple routine for learning Swedish. I hope you can gain some insights and apply these skills to achieve your language learning goals.
Flashcards (Daily)
I do Swedish flashcards every morning for around 15 minutes. I have been using an online deck of flashcards from flashcardo.com. I like these flashcards as they have an audio function so I can learn how to read the words as well as practice my pronunciation. When doing flashcards, I like to use English –> Swedish. I also say the words aloud.
Duolingo (Daily)
I use Duolingo as a fun way to learn grammar and sentence structure. I spend 15-30 minutes practising Swedish on Duolingo everyday. It is also very easy to squeeze in some extra practice when I’m on the go. For instance, during a lunch break or when sitting in the waiting room
Making Notes (Weekly)
At the end of every week I spend 10-20 minutes writing short notes on what I learned the past week. I usually structure my notes by listing some notable phrases or sentence structures that I learned.
Listening practice (Weekly)
This is my most passive exercise. I spend 15 minutes each week doing this. I turn on a Swedish YouTube video or podcast and listen to it and try to make out certain words. The goal of this exercise is to get a feel of how the language sounds.
This routine has made learning Swedish approachable and applicable, and I hope my approach inspires you to have fun with a new language! Don’t be too worried about making the perfect routine. Just try something everyday and find what works best for you.
Happy learning.