Talking about money in Swedish, Part 1 Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 15, 2017
Money is a standard topic of conversation in any language. After all, wherever you are, you have to be able to buy groceries, fika, and that bottle of wine from Systembolaget for dinner at your friends’. (If you don’t know, Systembolaget is the (only) liquor store in Sweden.) The basic Swedish word for money is…
The thriving international restaurant life of Gothenburg Posted by Tibor on Mar 6, 2017
Let’s say that if you had moved 10 years ago to Gothenburg you would have found a totally different city. It isn’t surprising. All cities change. But you wouldn’t have found the more fun, continental/international but still Nordic Gothenburg. Good food ten years ago? Forget it. The Nordic cuisine became famous and interesting only in…
Southern Swedish vocabulary Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 1, 2017
Sweden has lots of dialekter, dialects, that all have their own unique pronunciation. Many even have their own share of particular vocabulary. There are various reasons for the existence of dialects in Sweden; for example, a spread-out and originally highly agriculture-based society, as well as external influence from other languages. When we talk about svenska…
Three Posts About Fat Tuesday in Sweden Posted by Marcus Cederström on Feb 28, 2017
I started writing for the Transparent Swedish blog back in November of 2009. Since then, I’ve written over 220 posts in 83 months (there were four months that I didn’t post anything… I hope you can forgive me!). That comes out to about 90,000 words. Some of you have been reading for years and I…
Talking about movies in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 24, 2017
While Sweden does have a fantastic film industry, most of the popular films are blockbusters from Hollywood or equivalent. Since most Swedes speak more-or-less perfect English, it is relatively easy for them to understand films in English. As a result, almost no films are dubbed in Swedish. Instead, Swedes prefer subtitles and often mock the…
Study techniques for advanced learners I. Posted by Tibor on Feb 22, 2017
You have surely felt sometimes that a language course was boring and you aren’t that motivated every day and or the progress in learning doesn’t come that fast. Well, from my experience it is essential that you don’t compare yourself to others. For teachers it is crucial that you create a learning environment where students…
Argumentation templates in Swedish Posted by Tibor on Feb 20, 2017
You don’t need to ditch someone’s opinion in a rude manner just because you disagree with them. You can be objective and diplomatic in the same time, not raising your voice against or cutting off someone. In Swedish society you won’t gain much with an aggressive attitude. It is rather the opposite. You won’t be able…