if you get this, answer with three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs! anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog <3
First of all; thank you to both anons who send me this even though I'm barely active anymore!
My reasoning for learning a new language is always completely random. Originally I started learning Swedish in high school because I was bored. Right now, I'm studying Chinese because my friends speak it and I felt left out.
Idk if anyone has seen the tiktok about Swedish people in winter, where you continuously see people slip on the icy streets? But I'm proud to say that during the winter I was there, I managed to fall flat on my ass only once. I call that a win.
Since I've experienced -20 degrees (once), I've been a changed woman. Here in the Netherlands, it barely gets past -2 degrees. Which is quite warmer than -20 degrees. So since getting back to the Netherlands, I've honestly barely touched my winter coat.
Just thought I'd let you all know that in lieu of being burned, nature itself has this year turned upon Gävlebocken and it is currently being devoured by a flock of birds
Hi guys! Could you even imagine my initial plan was to post something everyday of December? I’m literally drowning in studying. I have to hand in a paper before tomorrow night and I still have to write about 3000 words. Anyway, Happy St. Lucia’s Day!
youtube
Today is Saint Lucy’s day in Scandinavia! The fest is also known as ‘Lucia Day’ or ‘the feast of Saint Lucy’ and in Swedish simply as ‘Lucia’. This day, the Swedes celebrate the light in the dark days of winter. Lucia was an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters.
The video and song are by youtuber Jonna Jinton, a swedish photographer and artist living in Grundtjärn. She makes videos about living in a remote part of Sweden, old Swedish songs and travel vlogs. Most of her videos are Swedish with English subtitles available. All credit goes to her.
In my L1-acquisition class two weeks ago, our professor talked about how only 9% of the speech a baby hears is single words. Everything else is phrases and sentences, onslaughts of words and meaning!
Thus, a baby not only has to learn words and their meanings but also learn to segment lots of sounds INTO words. Doyouwantalittlemoresoupyesyoudoyoucutie. Damn.
When she talked about HOW babies learn to segment words our professor said, and I love it, "babies are little statisticians" because when listening to all the sounds, they start understanding what sound is likely to come after another vs which is not.
After discussing lots of experiments done with babies, our professor added something that I already knew somewhere in my brain but didn't know I know: All this knowledge is helpful when learning an L2 as well:
Listen to natives speaking their language. Original speed. Whatever speaker. Whatever topic.
It is NOT about understanding meaning. It is about learning the rhythm of the language, getting a feeling for its sound, the combination of sounds, the melody and the pronunciation.
Just how babies have to learn to identify single words within waves of sounds, so do adults learning a language. It will help immensely with later (more intentional) listening because you're already used to the sound, can already get into the groove of the languge.
Be as brave as a baby.
You don't even have to pay special attention. Just bathe in the sound of your target language. You'll soak it up without even noticing.
Non-Anglo Movies You Should Watch 38/∞: UFO Sweden (2022), dir. Victor Danell
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
Genre: Sci-Fi Adventure
Summary: In 1996, a rebellious teen suspects her father - who disappeared eight years earlier - is not dead but has been abducted. She is determined to find out the truth with help from a UFO association.
Heyhey, my name is Jess! I've already been part of the langblr-community with my Swedish langblr (@balloons-and-shadows), but I decided I also want to post about my native language.
What to expect:
Peculiarities about Dutch language/culture
Similarities with other languages
Weird grammar concepts
I'm not really planning on posting vocab lists, but you can expect a whole bunch of other stuff from me. Also, my asks are always open :)
There is this really sweet Venezuelan lady at work and yesterday she told me all about mariachis... And now I kinda really want to start learning Spanish to understand all those songs