a major breakthrough
Since moving to Sweden in January I have been trying to learn Swedish. I am taking classes (we are up to chapter 14 in the text book), reading children's books, learning songs, and sometimes listening to conversations in Swedish and trying to catch words I know. Sometimes archinonlive and I speak a little Swedish at home, but rarely more than a minute or two, before we decide that my vocabulary is too limited to actually communicate and we switch to English.
Last night, however, we actually had a conversation in Swedish! We spoke for more than 30 minutes, discussing the many things that we need to accomplish before departing for Double War on the 27th, I told him the story behind a song that happened to be playing on the stereo, I described the steps to an SCA dance, and several other topics before we picked up the children's book I have been reading aloud to him. This is one of those books that was written in the 1920's and starts out with very easy reading--only one sentence on the first page, and then gradually progresses to more and more text. We are up to the section where there are several paragraphs per page, and it takes more than one page for a section. I am finding it ever so much easier to read and understand these days, and my pronunciation is much better than it has been (though I still have problems with ö, y, ä, sk, sj, and a few of the other odd things that happen when s is involved). I am also about 3/4 of the way through reading the Swedish version of Anne of Green Gables, and I am finding that to be much easier going, too. In this case I am not stopping to translate the words I don't know, but as simply reading the text as is, and using my memory of the English book combined with the words I do know to keep track of the story plot and the overall meaning.
Yesterday was also a good day on several other counts:
Had a nice time visiting with SCA folk at fighter practice in the morning (though I didn't armour up, having stayed up till 03:00 on Saturday night working on projects I wasn't able to wake up early enough to get to practice on time to fight, so we didn't even bring armour, but just went to discuss details on the road trip to Double War).
At the afternoon folk music session I managed to get the underdress in progress finally assembled--all pieces are now attached to one another, and most seams have been finished--I just need to finish the side seams and the dress will, at long last, be done.
The evening Folk dance session went well-- I now know all of the dances that we will be performing the Monday after we return from Double War, and am starting to get down the details that transform them from "sort of right" to "pretty".
This morning has been spent sending emails. I learned on Friday that I will need to return to Australia to apply for a permanent resident visa, so I am starting to work out details of when and how to accomplish that. My deadline to leave is 30 June, which, sadly, is before the local Medieval Days. I had been looking forward to helping out with that event and running dancing there, but now I can't. However, I will hope that it is possible to get my visa application processed on time to return here before the beginning class in Swedish Folk Dancing that I had agreed to teach (it starts in August). Please keep your fingers crossed for that one.
Last night, however, we actually had a conversation in Swedish! We spoke for more than 30 minutes, discussing the many things that we need to accomplish before departing for Double War on the 27th, I told him the story behind a song that happened to be playing on the stereo, I described the steps to an SCA dance, and several other topics before we picked up the children's book I have been reading aloud to him. This is one of those books that was written in the 1920's and starts out with very easy reading--only one sentence on the first page, and then gradually progresses to more and more text. We are up to the section where there are several paragraphs per page, and it takes more than one page for a section. I am finding it ever so much easier to read and understand these days, and my pronunciation is much better than it has been (though I still have problems with ö, y, ä, sk, sj, and a few of the other odd things that happen when s is involved). I am also about 3/4 of the way through reading the Swedish version of Anne of Green Gables, and I am finding that to be much easier going, too. In this case I am not stopping to translate the words I don't know, but as simply reading the text as is, and using my memory of the English book combined with the words I do know to keep track of the story plot and the overall meaning.
Yesterday was also a good day on several other counts:
Had a nice time visiting with SCA folk at fighter practice in the morning (though I didn't armour up, having stayed up till 03:00 on Saturday night working on projects I wasn't able to wake up early enough to get to practice on time to fight, so we didn't even bring armour, but just went to discuss details on the road trip to Double War).
At the afternoon folk music session I managed to get the underdress in progress finally assembled--all pieces are now attached to one another, and most seams have been finished--I just need to finish the side seams and the dress will, at long last, be done.
The evening Folk dance session went well-- I now know all of the dances that we will be performing the Monday after we return from Double War, and am starting to get down the details that transform them from "sort of right" to "pretty".
This morning has been spent sending emails. I learned on Friday that I will need to return to Australia to apply for a permanent resident visa, so I am starting to work out details of when and how to accomplish that. My deadline to leave is 30 June, which, sadly, is before the local Medieval Days. I had been looking forward to helping out with that event and running dancing there, but now I can't. However, I will hope that it is possible to get my visa application processed on time to return here before the beginning class in Swedish Folk Dancing that I had agreed to teach (it starts in August). Please keep your fingers crossed for that one.