Goals for Svenska - unaccomplished

Can't believe that summer break is over.

Now I am back to school with a more exciting schedule. Starting from Wednesday afternoons, and two whole days on Thursday and Friday. At first I was a little disappointed because now this means that I would not be able to have long weekends (you know, the long weekend starts from every Thursday/Friday as most people say). But as we started class, I found out that most of the students in our school actually has to come to school every day, from Monday to Friday. And their classes are only from noon until 4pm. So then I was happy with my timetable.

We have a new teacher. Her name is *Eva, a woman in her sixties, still going on strong and very energetic. I belief that she is going to carry us forward. After two days in her classes, we already began to understand so much more Swedish than before (I'm also counting in the fact that we might have learned more Swedish during summer break). But she's really good, active and a little neurotic.

As a result; so many people were impressed with my ability to conversate in Swedish.

*name has been changed to protect individual's privacy.

One Sunday in the Summer

Well hello there!

After a continuous hot and (almost) humid days in Sweden, suddenly the temperature dropped to 18°C (I'm not sure what was the temperature before but it was definitely not as chilly as today) and I changed my outfits three times! First, it was cold in the morning so I thought the day will be rainy. And after a while I changed again because the sun was shining so it gets a bit hot under the sun (I was doing my homework out on the balcony, yo). Then after I changed, I went for ice cream with wafers and cherry and coffee. And then the temperature started to drop slowly. Quite some people came by to the house too. A neighbor lady from the left whom loves seafood and loves my olive oiled seaweed that I shared with her. And a neighbor man from the right who rents "the old white house" and I did not greet him hello even, as I was too engaged with updating my timetable for the upcoming months. And then M's second bro came home from a five days' party and he had with him a new tent, probably left behind by some youngsters who forget about it. Then I really had to put on a jacket and socks because it was really chilly outside as we tried to set up the tent.

It will be classes again and soon the business course will start too! I am quite excited and am already looking forward to both.

This being said, I need to resume on my Swedish homework ASAP! (ASAP means tomorrow or the day after) :-P

Ok, until next time. Good night everyone!

Goals for Svenska

My goals for Swedish.

1. To be able to converse more fluently with Swedes and people who is fluent in Swedish.
2. To be able to listen and understand the words being spoken by the Swedes and Swedish speaking people.
3. To be able to use Swedish in finding myself a job in Sweden.

How do I achieve my goals?

1. Spend more time reading materials such as newspapers, magazines or books.
2. Find some cassettes and/or CD in Swedish to listen to.
3. Converse with more Swedes and use different words to expand my vocabularies.
4. Sit down with Siv (farmor) at least an hour a day to teach her English, and in return I could improve my Swedish just by talking to her.

My Swedish class ended earlier than expected (which originally was on Thursday) and leaves me two extra days to make up with. I am beginning to feel really excited about summer and though I never really thought I'd get to feel the joy of summer (in Malaysia we have summer all year long), I am looking forward to spend more days outside to enjoy Sweden's beautiful nature.

It Will Begin..

I noticed that this would always be the pattern if I am writing on a blog. First there would be some excessive writings and posts. And then the posts frequency decreases week by week. This morning I took a peek into this page and I was quite surprised that it has actually been three weeks since I wrote last.

I have to admit that this is not the first blog I've started, there were few others but I don't think it's necessary to write the names of my previous blogs. They're actually not worth mentioning, apart from the fact that the contents in them are very personal.

So let me explain to you why I have disappeared for the past three weeks.

lycklig

Swedish entry word

lycklig [²l'yk:lig] lyckligt lyckliga adj.

full av lycka, glad (also "fortunate")

English translation

happy

 

Examples

• ett lyckligt beslut---a propitious decision
• ett lyckligt leende---a happy smile 

With an ordbok in my hand, and farmor Siv holding Ajja in her röd jacka by the leash, we took a walk around the neighborhood and I learned a new word that I am sure I will not forget easily after that day.

There were piles of snow, and the streets sometimes slippery from being icy and marks from car tyres having run on them countless times.

krydda

Swedish entry word

krydda [²kr'yd:a] kryddan kryddor

något som sätter (extra) smak (figuratively, "something that brightens up one's day")

 

English translation

spice

 

Compounds

• krydd|ört -en---herb 

In Southeast Asia, the usage of herbs and spices in cooking was first introduced during the time Indian soldiers and traders sailed into Melaka strait when the sultan back then ruled Melaka (also known as Melacca).

It is amazing that so many spices and food types have been integrated into our lives, the people who live in
Malaysia. I will not specifically mention only Malaysian here, simply because in my view, Malaysia is not only for Malaysians, we welcome so many people from other countries to live with us. And to support my statement here, our government has formed a new program for expatriates or foreigners who are interested to live in our country. You can read more information about it here.

Back to the topic today; spices really help you boost your cooking one notch up. Without any effort at all.

Trust me, I am no expert in cooking. Before I lived here, I have spent some time getting worried of how I am going to survive eating my own cooking.

The most important thing is; you have internet at home, and you have a nearby store that sells a variety of spices.

And from then on -- internet and experiment ;) It worked! Not wonders, but good enough for my simple taste buds :P

I am still at awe as to how great spices and herbs are. To me, they are the most wonderful discoveries ever in the history of mankind.

musik

Swedish entry word

musik [mus'i:k] musiken noun

uncountable toner arrangerade melodiskt, rytmiskt och harmoniskt (also used of pieces of such arrangements)

English translation

music

 

Examples

• gillar du musik?---do you like music?
• klassisk musik---classical music
• musik av J S Bach---music of J. S. Bach 

Idiomatic phrases

• det lät som musik i mina öron ("det jag hörde gjorde mig glad")---it was music to my ears ("what I heard made me happy") 

Compounds

• folkmusik---folk music
• popmusik---pop music
• musik|instrument -et---musical instrument
• musik|lärare -n---music teacher  

For now I could not believe that I have been living in Sweden for close to two months. On March 18th it will be exactly two months, if I really count the date.

visst

Swedish entry word

visst [vis:t] adv.

säkert, absolut

English translation

certainly    

Examples

• visst är det skönt med semester---it certainly is nice to have a holiday
• det har jag visst inte sagt!---I certainly didn't say that!
• ja visst!---yes, of course!

I must give credit to the website that I get all my Swedish words translated, and transfer some parts of the online dictionary to this blog as a reference to my readers; and of course; to myself. I always refer to Lexin - a dictionary for immigrant education. It's very precise and I can find so much Swedish words with complete translation and how to use a particular word. Which I like so much as I find it very convenient.

Lexin does not only have translation between Swedish and English. It also has so many other languages that you could refer to if you are learning Swedish; for example: Arabic, Bosnian, Persian, Finnish, Russian and Spanish, just to name a few.

Se sajten, I am sure you will be happy that I shared this with you! :)

To add a note to today's word; I've always read and heard this word -- visst, but never could remember it everytime I have a dictionary i min hand or to ask my boyfriend about it whenever we are together. But during martini night at Kristina och Håkan's; as we were talking and they sort of wanted to 'test' my Swedish fluency. I learned yet another new Svenska ord.

Se sajten
Check out the website

i min hand
in my hand

och
and

Svenska ord
Swedish word

gullig

 Tonight I will introduce to you to the word gullig; which brings the meaning of cute.

Swedish entry word

gullig [²g'ul:ig] gulligt gulliga adj.

rar, söt

 

English translation

sweet, cute

Last weekend I was invited to join Håkan and Kristina's martini night. And there I had the chance to meet Håkan's

little sister; Ingrid and Kristina's good friend since secondary school; Louis and her husband, Toni; among few

other people. And Louis brought with her a very cute dog and of the same breed of dog that my boyfriend's parents have at home. Louis' dog is named Anni; a very human name for a dog, don't you think? :)

Anni took an instant liking at me since the moment I stepped into the apartment! Of course I am flattered to think that the animal likes me so much. She was always lingering around the stool where I was sitting, trying to climb on my lap and crying for my attention :)

I said to myself -- if only this is my cat, Kechik; I would have squeezed his cheeks out of his face and carry him around the house in my arms, while shouting praising words of joy to the animal - how I would express my feelings. In Bahasa Malaysia, we call it 'geram' and when I google for it I found "the feeling of annoyance; annoyed" and that is not how I feel.

I wanted to express the feeling that I have to Louis and Kristina; and was recommended this word to go with -- Jag tycker Annie är väldigt söt!

solsken

Solsken plays a big role in everyday life in Sweden; because of it's rarity.

Swedish entry word

sol|sken [²s'o:lsje:n] -skenet noun

solljus utan skymmande moln

 

English translation

sunshine

After two months of dark, gloomy and cold days, Sweden has finally brought in some sunshine in the days.

A little bit of sunshine really make a lot of difference over here. Suddenly everything that you never thought possible before changed to be the opposite. You can feel that there is hope after all, despite how low you have felt over the past months. You don't feel depressed, but somehow because it was cloudy and dark in the days, you thought that the is not so much good things to look after except for the current weather.

Solsken plays a big role in a person's life. Trust me, I understand what He the Almighty says when he wrote in Al-Quran that He created the sun so that human could go to work in the day, and He created the moon so human could go home and rest after a hard day of work. Which indirectly means that sunshine gives you the energy and boosts you to your optimum level of performance. Either you are working, studying, traveling; everything just looks even better during the day. You have the opportunity to savour His creation and you will appreciate life more and gratitude is what you will feel for having been given such opportunity. And this makes a person happy.

Life seems to be more at peace, when you have this feeling that you belong somewhere, and when you know that you have made a contribution or are making contribution towards life, you become happy yourself.

I am glad to have overcome the days of winter. By far, it is the worst winter of Sweden's history. Snow has never been this thick (I will check the depth when I find out) since the last 25 years. And everyone has made a remark of how unfortunate I am to have arrived here when there is so much snow outside. To this, I have to disagree; for there would never be another chance when I am going to have another chance of experience the same 'bad' weather again in Sweden. If I am 'unfortunate' again, maybe after another 25 years, but will I make it that far in my age?

farmor

My Swedish word today is farmor.

Swedish entry word

far|mor el. farmoder [²f'ar:mor:] -modern -mödrar 

noun

pappas mamma 

English translation

grandmother

Which direct translation would mean mother of your father, so we know that it means grandmother from your father's side. This is really easy to remember when you are not sure whether you are introduced to a grandmother of someone, because you are able to tell straight away that it is the mother of somebody's father. I really, really find this useful and I like that the idea of the person who came up with this word.

From now on I will try to spend more time with farmor, as when I am with her, I could learn a lot of Swedish word and not resort to speaking in English as when you know the person you speak to knows how to speak English you tend to give up easily in using Swedish in your conversation.

kläder

Today's Swedish would would be kläder.

Swedish entry word

kläder [kl'ä:der]

plural plagg (t ex byxor, kjol) som man har på kroppen

English translation

clothes

Yesterday evening was quite a way to end my day exhaustively.

There is a weekly Swedish Language Meetup in Göteborg and since I arrived here I have made mental notes to myself that I should join the meeting to improvise my Svenska and to get to know new people; especially of those who are non-native Swedish speakers.

I came from Stenungsund especially to attend this meeting and yet when the closer the clock was ticking to 6pm, I felt more lazy to move and go out to socialize. And to think that I have to step out in the cold again. Oh, it is not the most comfortable way to be in. Lucklily (or should I say, unfortunately?) I have promised Arshad that we would meet somewhere before walking to the meeting together. And since Arshad has called me and I told him to wait for 20 minutes, I gathered all my strength to get ready as fast as I can and get my legs kicking (on the street, that is).

When we went to the bakery, we saw that nobody else from our group was there! The organizer arrived a short while later and followed by more people. By the end of the meeting we were about 10 of us and that was an achievement! If I am not wrong the meetings before this was not so successful. But I don't know for sure since I was not there? :-P

Everyone started talking i Svenska the moment we said hi to each other, and I was like -- Whoa! I don't speak fluently and everybody else has lived here for, like, six years maximum and five months minimum. It was a little overwhelming and even so, I think I have made my best effort to follow up :)

One of the things that we talked about was; vad var och en av oss gjorde för helgen? Mine was; doing the laundry, submitting my resumes to some companies, applying for a few jobs and planning of how to market a lingerie line in Sweden (or Europe as a whole). We could not find the word for lingerie and one man mentioned underkläder and I said that is underclothes and what I am selling is not "under"clothes, if translated directly would be things like underwear, bra, panties and the likes. I did not agree (I don't know why, I don't even speak Swedish much) :P But we settled on underkläder in the end and at the end of the night after I came back home I checked on the internet, and yes, it IS underkläder. Well,  tack så mycket Randall! :) 

i Svenska
in Swedish

vad var och en av oss gjorde för helgen?
what each of us did for the weekend?

underkläder
underwear; lingerie

tack så mycket
thank you very much

fint

My Swedish word for today is fint.

Swedish entry word

fin [fi:n] fint fina adj.

snygg, vacker

 

English translation

smart, fine, elegant

opp. ugly    

Examples

• en fin bil---a smart car
• en fin kostym---a smart suit

In this entry I will be referring to the first translation, which you use when you are referring to something nice. 

 

Today I went to a café in Järntorget with Arshad and met up with Olli and Christophe. The café's name is King's Head and we only paid SEK 32 för en kopp kaffe and then you can eat all you can from a small buffe.