This article will give you an understanding of the system I used to learn Swedish quickly.

I did not use this system from the beginning. It one that I refined and leant over a period of time using my own research.

Please note: Everyone is different, not everything I write here might work for you. I do though strongly believe that there are some things here that are vital to anyone who wants to learn Swedish quickly and effectively.

STEP 1: Aim

It’s very important to have a focused aim. Like most people I did not have this in the beginning. Overtime though I focused my aim so it can be described in 1 small, straight-forward sentence.

My aim: To be able to understand and communicate in Swedish at an amazing high level.

You might not have an aim yet, I suggest you make one. You can copy mine if you think it fits you. Just make sure that it’s 1 sentence, very specific and describes exactly what you want to achieve.

Step 2: Listen

Listening is more important than speaking.

You need to listen to ask much Swedish as possible. In the beginning you need to simulate the first years of a child when they are just listening. Listen to music, radio, dialogue, conversations, movies. Anything and everything that you can get your hands on. The more the merrier.

Getting bored of listening to your girlfriend speak to her friends? Watch a movie.

Gotta do some homework? Listen to Swedish radio/music.

From what I have seen listening is the part most people forget about. The have Swedish class 1 hour a week and then they go home and listen only to English.

You can not learn Swedish quickly by listening to Swedish 1 hour a week.

You can not learn Swedish quickly by listening to Swedish 5 hours a week.

When you start listening to Swedish 30+ hours a week your heading in the right direction.

By listening as much as possible you are training your ears. Eventually you will reach a point where you ears train you.

When you start to say things because they ‘sound right’. That’s key and it can only happen through hours and hours of listening.

Step 3: Imitate

Try to imitate what you hear. Try to imitate as best as possible.

This early imitation will help you to lose your accent.

If you want to learn Swedish quickly you need to sound as Swedish as possible and these are the first steps. You don’t have to always understand what you are saying or why you are saying something at this early stage.

Just imitate.

Step 4: Phonetics

Study the phonetics of Swedish.

You might already know that Swedish has 3 extra letters Å Ä Ö but did you know that the letter Y in Swedish is a vowel?

So that makes 9 vowels.

Did you know that these 9 vowels can make use 17 different sounds?

Did you know that a Swedish E is not the same as an English E?

Read up on this stuff. This is great for both your ears and your mouth as your ears will start to hear the differences and your mouth will learn how to form the sounds which will improve your Swedish accent.

Step 5: Read

You need to learn to read before you can read.

What the hell does that mean?

It means you need to learn how to read in Swedish before you can understand the words you are reading.

How do you do this?

Learn how Swedish words can be broken down into syllables and read like you did when you were 5 years old. Syllable by syllable.

Yes it will be hard in the beginning. I hated my first attempt but it got easier every time.

If you read 1 word today and increase it 1 word every day you could be reading a full page in Swedish by the end of the year.

What about if you read 10 words today and increase it by 10 words every day?

Step 6: Immerse

Whether you are in Sweden or not you need to immerse yourself in Swedish.

You must do this for two reason:

You need as much input as possible. Learning a language is personal, everyone is different and through immersion you will learn your the specifics you need to know.

Input is key. You need heaps of it. 24 hours a day if you can.

As far as the personal side of things go here is one example of how it helps.

Most people share about 85% of their vocabulary with the majority. So where is the other 15%? It’s in their interests, dialects and all that personal stuff.

15 year olds don’t speak like 40 year olds.

Car mechanics don’t speak the same as Librarians.

If your into baking, find recipes in Swedish. It’s more important for you to know foods and recipes than someone who never cooks. Get it?

Step 7: Write

Writing is vital. Writing improves your speaking as you can take your time and avoid mistakes.

Writing gives you a method to start outputting all that input your getting.

In the beginning you want to keep it super simple.

3 word sentences.

Slowly build up your writing as your hear more words. In the beginning don’t try to write a word your have not yet heard.

Step 8: Don’t Translate

Here’s a big one. This might be a hard one to comprehend but it was a major one for me.

Your job is not to translate Swedish. Remember your aim?

So what’s your job then?

To understand and be able to communicate in Swedish.

How do you do this without translating? Through context.

Context is everything. A words meaning is affected by the context it is in.

Never try to understand Swedish words, use sentences instead.

And when you are trying to understand them don’t try to translate it word for word, try to understand what the sentence means as a whole, the feelings and emotions, and then work out where the word in question fits in to those feelings and emotions.

Translation for most is unavoidable in the beginning but you want to avoid it or stop it as soon as possible. Translation will get you to ‘basic Swedish’ but never to ‘kick ass Swedish’.

Step 9: Improve Your Memory

Most people I have meet who try to learn Swedish, or any other language for that matter, forget entirely to work on improving their memory.

What’s the use is reading if you can’t remember what you read.

What’s the use in listening if you don’t recall what you heard.

There are a few major ways that help you improve your memory.

An SRS program is vital. There are heaps out there, try http://www.ankisrs.net/

Make sure everything you put into the program is interesting. Boring gets forgotten, interesting gets remembered.

Wanna remember the word tjock?

Put it in an interesting sentence that builds a picture in your head, makes you laugh or provokes some emotion. Pictures and emotions get remembered not words.

Step 10: Constant Error Correction

You are going to make 100,000 mistakes at least when trying to improve your Swedish. The key is to always be improving and reducing the mistakes.

If your in Sweden, listen to how others are talking. If you notice that they say a phrase differently put their version (the correct one) in your SRS program.

Got a Swedish friend, get them to correct you.

Yes in the beginning they will be correctly you a lot but as long as you work on correcting your mistakes your life will get easier.

Step 11: Stop Speaking English

You need to stop speaking English.

It’s a daunting task but definitely worth it.

This will help with your immersion and getting your listening hours up. Your mouth will get the practise it needs to start to sound Swedish. You will start to make heaps of mistakes and then have a chance to correct them.

What’s more your task will be made easier.

Do you remember your aim?

If it was similar to mine then it was to be understand and communicate in Swedish at an amazing high level.

It was not to be good at speaking both Swedish and English at the same time. That’s a different skill altogether.

It’s actually quite hard to jump from English to Swedish and back again for Swedish learners.

Remember your aim and be focused on it, don’t get caught up in trying to learn too many things at once.

That’s it!

Just keep listening, keep reading, keep writing and improving, improving, improving.

All the steps are important and you will definitely forget 1 or 2 of them every now and again but just make sure you get back on the horse and start doing them again.

What about courses/books etc?

Course and books can be great.

If you search amazon for Swedish books I can promise you that I have read almost all of them many times over.

Many books are great, avoid grammar books until you can already speak though.

I think Rosetta Stone is BS so I would avoid that too.

The big problem with courses and books are that often don’t teach you how to learn Swedish. They just try to explain Swedish. I have actually only seen one course which discusses how to learn Swedish as part of it’s course. It can be found here.

But the important thing is that you remember that a course is a complement to learning Swedish not a replacement.

Like I said in the beginning I didn’t start with this system it’s something I learn after reading a thousand books/websites and seeing how others have learn languages quickly.

It worked for me and I hope it works for you. Or at least helps!