The iron throne is in Sweden. It is known. Disregarding that Westeros isn’t a city but a continent, Sweden’s fifth largest city is Westra Aros, or Västerås in modern Swedish. It is pronounced exactly the same as Westeros, were you to say it in an English accent.
Västerås is located in the historic region of Västmanland, just like the Westerlands is located in Westeros, and has about 150,000 inhabitants. Much like Westeros, Sweden is a long "continent" with a mild European climate in the south and a harsh cold one in the north, however even during the summers, it can get quite warm up north. One thing to note though is that we do share a mountain chain with Norway, similar to that in the land beyond the wall.
With both the Westerosi and Swedish capital on the eastern coast, and being a long narrow land with mountains, wolves and royals, you can’t help but wonder if George R.R. Martin maybe took a little tiny bit of inspiration from Sweden when writing his books. We know that J.R.R. Tolkien, who fathered the universe in Lord of the Rings, got inspired by Norse culture.
Other "facts" that prove this theory is that the name Stark means strong in Swedish (let’s disregard that Iron Man is also named Stark for now), Lannisters are blonde just like many Swedes, and Harrenhal makes you think of a Swedish compound word, Herrehall, which would mean a Lord’s hall and Sweden has many ruin castles just like it. Just take a look at the ruins of Visingsborg’s castle, Mörby’s castle, Bohus’s fortress, Borgholm’s castle, and many more. Sweden also has had its own share of wars and bloodbaths. Luckily THAT is a thing of the past.
Whether or not anything from Game of Thrones has anything to do with Sweden, the few fragments of resemblence is something that amuses us Swedes and hopefully the upcoming prequel will have more of that.
It takes a lot of dedication and motivation to study a new language. Some languages seem hard in the beginning and gradually get easier along the way, whereas some actually seem super easy but get very overwhelming once you’ve gotten into it. If you feel that your motivation is decreasing and the risk of stop learning Swedish is high, then this article is for you. These tips and shortcuts might help you to see things differently and get that motivation back.
Ta det lugnt – Take it easy
A lot of people think that learning a language is a sprint and are trying to learn everything at the same time. It’s true that immersing yourself and getting a lot of practice is important to learn quickly, however people try to cram grammar and vocabulary that they might not need right away, thus exhausting their minds and getting demotivated. Start small, immerse yourself but go easy on the cramming. Try to learn small chunks methodically and a little every day, instead of a lot once a week. Understand a piece of grammar and learn how to use it before moving on to the next topic. Why is this listed as a shortcut for lazy learners? Overdoing it will in a way make you lazy and eventually you will stop because you will feel bad for not studying. In the end Swedish will give you nightmares and won’t make you happy. So take it easy!
Stop obsessing over grammatical genders
Two or more grammatical genders might seem daunting at first but in the case of Swedish it’s easier than you think. To use Swedish you don’t need to get these right. Sure, there are a few words that sound the same and use different genders but the context will probably tell us Swedes what you want to say. Of course it’s important to learn these right, when learning Swedish but in the case you don’t know, we won’t skin you for it.
Did you know that most Swedish words, as many as around 70-80%, are utrum words. Utrum is also called the en gender, from the article en that it takes in its indefinite form. There are additional rules of thumb that help you determine the gender but if you’re lazy, this is an awesome tip for you, since you’ll mostly get it right.
Make up your own Swedish words
Beginners and fluent speakers alike, you will have gaps in your vocabulary and instead of switching back to English completely as a beginner, let me suggest you make your own loan words. This is particularly useful for verbs that you don’t know, since you can easily create a Swedish verb by adding an -a to it and conjugate it like one from the first conjugation group. With this you don’t need to stop what you’re doing and check a dictionary. Particularly good is this for maintaining Swedish as your current language, however, you should make sure to fill in the gap.
To conjugate an English verb like a Swedish verb, you just add an -a in the infinite form, -ar in present tense, -ade in simple past, and -at in perfect/plusquamperfect. Let’s take the English verb to sleep. In theory we would then get: sleepa, sleepar, sleepade, sleepat. Easy, right?
Find words that are the same in your native language
This one is very straightforward and if you just search the internet a little bit, you will definitely quickly find lists of words that are the same in English (or, if not English, your native language) and Swedish. Contemporary Swedish is riddled with French, German and English loans, so why not give it a shot? You’ll see how much you can already say.
There are quite the few direct loans or derivations of English words in Swedish, many making use of the way of constructing your own verbs I talked about. But there are other words that are very similar, if not the same, like: polis (police), chilla (coll.) (to chill), sport (sport), turist (tourist), starta (to start), jobb (job), film (film).
Focus on complete Swedish phrases
Learning how to use the building blocks of a language is, of course, important but when starting out, maybe try to learn complete phrases for situations that matter to you. You will learn the words along with the correct way to express yourself, which makes you sound more fluent faster.
Learn to talk about things that make you happy
To actually start to say useful stuff, you need to know words and phrases about whatever it is you want to talk about. Now, instead of cramming general vocabulary, try to learn complete phrases that you can use in situations that are useful to you or that you can use to talk about your interests. I know I just told you this but I wanted to stress how important it is to learn how to talk about things that matter to you. Why should you learn a bunch of words related to, let’s say, emergencies, when you can focus your time on learning to talk about something you love. That will increase your motivation and get those epiphanies coming. In an actual emergency, you will probably automatically revert to the language you are most comfortable speaking in.
Hopefully these points will help you look at Swedish a bit differently, making you more motivated to learn more and take away that lazyness or dullness of learning, that might come from time to time. Learning a language is a marathon, not a sprint, and to master it might take time, but a few steps every day will be enough for your brain to handle and do more for your way to fluency than you think.
Photo: Alexander Hall/imagebank.sweden.se
Updated August 22 2024
Smartphones have dominated our lives for about 10 years now, making life easier in certain every day situations. Some uses are country specific and that’s why you find a bunch of apps that would significantly help you while staying in Sweden. You could, of course, live without them but they would make life a little bit easier for you.
1. Swish
The Swedish people have more or less stopped using cash and Sweden has been an almost cash-less society for a long time now. This app is a joint venture between the major Swedish banks and helps to push this development even further. Swedes use it to send money to friends, family and others to whom they owe money in (mostly) a non-commercial setting. Are you sharing that lunch? Let one pay the bill and the others in your party pay the debt by “Swish”-ing the money. Found a nice-looking vase at that Swedish fleamarket? Just swish the money. It has also started to be a popular way to donate money and even organizations and companies can now have a Swish number. You register Swish with your Swedish bank account and connect it to your phone number, which makes it easier for people with you in their contacts to just send you money instantly, as if it were cash.
2. BankID
Everyone living in Sweden needs to have a personummer which is kind of like a social security number. We Swedes basically use it everywhere, where we would need some kind of identification. To go along with it, we nowadays use the app BankID. This app connects you with an online service of some sort enabling two factor authentification. Just type in your number in that login form and your app will magically prompt you to enter your PIN. To get a digital certificate for the app, you will have to turn to your Swedish bank. We use this for all kinds of administrative work, like login on to our bank account or signing legal documents at e.g. skatteverket which is the Swedish agency not only for keeping track of people’s taxes, as its name states, but also registering people in general.
3. Blocket
The second hand market is huge in Sweden with all its summer fleamarkets and second hand boutiques. Blocket early established itself as the go-to place online to shop for and sell used things . The homepage, until recently, still looked like it was designed in the 90’s. It has even sparked a tradition of quirky and funny ads. If you’re new in Sweden and/or are just starting studying, you might need to find some cheap furniture fast. Go to blocket, select your area and search for what you need. If you’re new in Sweden, it’s great for getting dead cheap IKEA furniture.
4. Tradera
The Swedish eBay, Tradera, has also been around for a long time, being the reason that there is no actual eBay in Sweden – they bought the already established brand instead. You might have guessed it already, but in contrast to Blocket, Tradera is auction based. This means that you don’t send a message or call the seller, but you bid on the things you would like to buy. This platform has been used by charities several times to raise money, auctioning out a dinner with a celebrity or memoriabilia.
5. SVT Play
The streaming market is huge in Sweden with several apps for watching movies legally. An early adopter of this, and free, is the Swedish national broadcaster. They were basically the first to do streaming in Sweden and they do it very well. If you’re new in Sweden or even if you are abroad but want to watch Swedish TV, download this app. Not everything is available outside Sweden, but SVT is also very good at accessibility, which means that you will find Swedish subtitles for everything and if you are indeed living in Sweden now, the news coverage is a good think to follow daily. Pretty good for practicing, right? If you’re fine with no subtitles, the other Swedish TV networks also have a bunch of free content for you, like TV3, TV4 and Kanal 5.
6. Spotify
Not only streaming movies and shows is a huge deal in Sweden, where the watch time of linear TV is decreasing by the second. Ever since Spotify revolutionized the music industry, basically every Swede has got the app and it is pretty much assumed that, when sharing music, you would be able to handle a link to the service. Did you know that Spotify actually is a Swedish company?
7. SL
This only applies to you living in the Stockholm area, however, other companies will have apps as well. SL, Storstockholms lokaltrafik, is the company providing public transportation in Stockholm. If you want to plan your trips and buy tickets for the bus, subway, commuter trains, trams, and even boat then you will need this app. For at least 10 years, it has not been possible to get tickets on the bus directly. Like I said, Sweden is almost cash-less!
8. Svea Taxi Allians
Taking the cab might not be for every one, especially since it’s kind of pricey, but sometimes it can be a lifesaver when you’ve missed the last bus and can’t be bothered taking a crowded night bus full of noisy drunk people. Get the app of a taxi company you trust to be able to quickly get a ride home or download the one from Svea Taxi Allians which is an organization having a bunch of taxi companies attached to it. They ensure that you get a safe ride and fair prices because jumping into the wrong cab might get you scammed.
9. OnlinePizza
If you’ve been partying with Swedes all night and want a nice greasy “bakispizza” (hangover pizza) or if you’re just craving some food without getting dressed and leaving your house, this app would be a lifesaver. Despite its name, you can order a bunch of different kinds of foods. Of course there are alternatives to look into like Foodora and Volt. Just check for availability in your city.
10. Bank
This is not a particular app, since it depends on which bank you are using, but downloading the bank’s app is very convenient to be able to make payments, check your balance, and all that on the go or when you don’t have a computer. Actually, some people don’t even have computers nowadays because the phone or a tablet can do, what they need. Sweden is pretty digitalized, so you could count on finding a very well designed app from your Swedish bank.
Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se
A common question that I get is how fast can you learn Swedish or if you can learn Swedish in X amount of months. What people don’t seem to know is that this is highly individual and depends on a few things: motivation, time, and experience. However, there are things you can do that will definitely speed up your process if you are patient. So here are 5 tips for learning Swedish fast that will definitely help you to actually learn Swedish faster.
1. Watch Swedish TV and movies
Immersion is important when learning a language since something so basic like tuning your ears to a foreign language will do wonders for you if you want to learn it fast. In this modern era local TV is no longer limited to its target audience. Even if you aren’t living in Sweden there are several ways to watch Swedish TV for free. Streaming has made it possible and Swedish TV channels provide us with lots of free content that is not geoblocked, meaning it’s not restricted to those living in Sweden. Try these Swedish TV shows to stream for free and start your immersion right now.
You could also browse yourself among the vast catalog of these Swedish TV channels:
SVT
TV3, TV6, TV8, TV10, and MTV
Kanal 5, Kanal 9, Kanal 11
2. Listen to Swedish radio
Speaking of tuning your ears to a language, why not just turn on a radio station and let it play. You don’t need to understand the language to benefit from immersion. Radio stations are usually not geoblocked which means you can choose whatever station you want. For it to have any effect, try to find a channel that has a decent amount of talking but which also plays music so that you don’t get bored.
There are a number of apps to choose from when you want to listen to radio stations from abroad, but you can also tune into the actual radio stations online and see if they have a stream (which they most likely have).
SR – Sveriges Radio
RixFM
Bandit Rock
NRJ
Mix Megapol
3. Listen (and sing along) to Swedish music
The immersion continues and this time we want to tickle our ears with music in Swedish. There are some awesome artists from Sweden that you have never heard of because their main language of choice is Swedish.
Fire up our official Swedish Spotify playlists, find your favorites and sing your heart out because this step will not only tune your ears to Swedish but also tune your vocal chords. Everyone gets happy from singing their favorite songs, why not try to find one that is written in Swedish? Listen to the song, study the lyrics and try to sing along. This is how I got fluent in German. I basically learned Blümchen’s whole back catalog by heart and did not only learn words but even grammar. It also made me get used to speaking German.
4. Read children’s books
Children don’t magically just speak their native tongue, they aquire this skill over time, just like you, by immersing themselves. Now, you do have the advantage of already speaking a language and the skill of speaking, reading and writing which means that you will be able to learn faster than a child. So why not starting reading a children’s book? Start where children start and then work your way to the top. This will help you getting used to reading the language in reasonable chunks which won’t overwhelm you. The texts will be enough for you to translate and actually learn something without making you frustrated because you don’t know any of the words and translating takes too long.
5. Get some Swedish friends
I know how it sounds. It’s not easy to befriend Swedes and even harder if you don’t actually live in Sweden but hear me out: join a community of some sort online and try your wings with some actual Swedes.
The easiest thing you could do is to join the Say it in Swedish Discord community. You can chat with me and other Swedes over there and start improving your Swedish immediately.
Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se
Updated August 22 2024