Day-1: Swedish Lesson
(I writing this story for myself, in order to give a better background to my understanding in Swedish. Also, I am an Urdu Writer, so please excuse my English mistakes. Corrections are welcomed!)
Once upon a time, a lone English wolf was traveling on the Norwegian hills. After traveling days and night, and no sign of life, one day he entered into a strange land, where he saw a pack of whitish blue wolves. He was familiar with their kind, they were known to be friendliest Swedish wolves.
The pack of wolf spotted him as well, and all of them stopped in a semi circle facing towards him.
The English wolf seek permission to join the pack, but no one understand his language. They looked on each other in a way that they don’t understand. After few minutes of awkward silence, a very wise she-wolf walked forward from the centre.
She had graceful hair, and a small glasses on her nose without handles on the ear. She walked toward the English wolf, and while slowly walking she whispered in her wise and calm voice.
“Välkommen! Welcome.
Jag heter Nara! I am Nara”.
The English wolf was pleased to see an English speaking wolf, however he was surprised as well to hear the mix of languages. She repeated the same sentence with a question
“Jag heter Nara! I am Nara.
Vad heter du? What is your name?”
The wolf was smart. He quickly picked up the drift from she-wolf. Nara was trying to communicate with him and rest of the pack at the same time. He replied
“I am vän, Ja…”
He stuttered to copy the Nara’s introduction in other strange language. Nara picked up the hesitation and quickly added the words.
“Jag heter vän”.
English wolf picked up the aid and while looking at other members of the pack, he said “Jag heter vän”.
Everyone welcomed his introduction and Vän started to hear “Välkommen! … Välkommen! …” from different wolves.
“Var kommer du? Where are you from?” Nara asked with her gentle stare on the Vän.
“Jag kommer England” Vän replied with confusing eyes, he was uncomfortable in replying Nara using an unknown language.
“Jäg kommer från Storbritannien.” Nara corrected the new wolf, and then looked at the pack.
“Han kommer från Storbritannien”. She introduced Vän’s country to the pack.
“Jaha,… Vad kul,… Bra,… ok” wolves nodded and acknowledged the Vän’s country Vän.
“Vi ska gretta. We are going to cave.
Hem, Home.
Kom och följ, come and follow” Nara invited Vän to their home. Vän nodded with thankful eyes, and in reply Nara howl to the pack. Everyone started moving north towards the hill.
On the way to home, Nara was walking with Vän and different wolves were coming to him one by one and speaking something in their language.
“Hur mår du?”, Nara explained that they are asking how are you, and Vän should reply
“Bra, Vad du? Good, and what about you?”.
There were some other questions as well, Nara was translating those questions to Vän.
Talar du Svenska? Do you speak Swedish?
Jag talar arabiska. I speak arabic.
Jag talar kinesiska. I speak ChineeseTrevligt att träffas! Pleased to meet you
God afton! Good Evening!
After few phrases Vän’s brain was overwhelmed with new information. However, he kept smiling and nodding his head on each new encounter. He did hoped to speak the language when one or two nice looking she-wolves came to him. They were talking about him, and giggling.
“Han är söt, är han gift? …. hehehe,… eller har han en flickvän?”
Their giggling was making Vän curious and embarassing at the same time for not understanding them. Nara was smiling looking at his discomfort with the she-wolves and while looking at both of them, she translated everything.
“Han är söt, He is cute,
är han gift? Is he married?
eller,… or
har han en flickvän? does he have a girlfriend?”
Nara didn’t stopped there. She also introduced both girls to Vän.
“De är Iva och Linda. They are Iva and Linda.
and Linda is the one who is speculating about you.”
Both girls said Välkommen and Vän replied “Tack” as thank you. Linda felt embarrassed and slowed down her pace, but Iva kept on walking with them on the same speed.
They reached home.
On the entrance of cave, two small wolf were playing with each other. They saw the packed and ran towards the Nara. Nara touched the wolves with her head and introduced them to me.
“De är Sam och Alex.
Sam och Alex, Han heter Vän”.
“Jag heter inte Alex, Jag är stålmannen” Alex quickly corrected Nara. She laughed.
“Vad bra! du heter stålman.
Vän! Han heter inte alex, han är stålman. He is not Alex, he is superman”
She needs to make sure that everyone was there. She asked the little Sam to count all the wolves. During the count she was translating the numbers in English to Vän as well.
1 ett
2 två
3 tre
4 fyra
5 fem
6 sex
Vän giggled, and Nara gave her the straight awkward look, the grow up look. Vän quickly made his face serious.
7 sju
8 åtta
9 nio
10 tio
“God! Vad God Sam!
Stålmannen! fortsätt … Stålmannen! Continue”
11 elva
12 tolv
13 tretton
14 fjorton
15 femton
16 sexton
17 sjutton
18 arton
After completing the counting of the pack, he count himself with Sam.
19 nitton
20 tjugo
Nara looked at me and said
“tjugoett… 21”
“Vi tar en paus, … We take a break
Jag vill ha kaffe och pizza, … I want coffee and pizza
Vi kommer att träffas i 30 minuter … We will meet in 30 minutes”.
After hearing this, everyone scattered.
“kom hem, … come in the home.” Nara asked Vän to come in.
They had a warm coffee waiting for them. Nara gave a cup of joe to Vän and sat just next to him on the soffa. Vän had so many questions in his mind.
“Vill du ha en kopp kaffe? … Would you like a cup of coffee?” She asked.
“Yes please!” he further added.
“Thank you for your help” he said, and Nara quickly translated
“Ja tack, gärna!
tack för din hjälp” She translated all of his words. Vän find it a bit agitated as he was the only one sitting with Nara in the cave.
“I know, it must be difficult for you to grasp my continuous translations”. Nara acknowledged his agitation.
“However, if you want to stay in this pack, you will need to speak the same language everyone else speaks.” She further added.
“These are peaceful times, but while facing danger, hunger, or other unforeseen circumstances, you will need to communicate. ”
I nodded with acceptance. Although, I didn’t understand why did she find the importance to do it from the very first sentence. However, I agreed that it was for the best of my interests.
“ursäkta! oroa dig inte!
(Excuse me!) don’t worry! ” she quickly interrupted my chain of thoughts, and quickly change the subject.
“var är pizza? where is the pizza?” she was trying to look for the pizza on kitchen counter.
I was glad to see a welcoming response from her, and more happy that she didn’t asked too many questions, why I was in those mountains looming around.
Swedish Lecture Notes:
Hej! Hello!
Hejsan! …… Hello!
Trevligt att träffas …… Pleased to meet you
Var jobbar du? … Where do you work?
Var arbetar du? …. Where do you work?
Jag bor i Helsingfors … I live in Helsinki
Victoria bor i Helsingfors …. Victoria lives in Helsinki
Hon har en häst och en apa. …. She has a horse and a monkey
Jag tycker om kaffe
Jag tycker om att dricka kaffe.
Du tycker om fotboll
Du tycker om att spela fotboll
Habib tycker om biografier
Vi tycker inte om stress
Ni tycker inte om kaos
Jag bor i Helsingfors — I live in Helsinki
Jag är från Tyskland — I am from Germany
Most commonly used:
och — and
med — with
i — in
också — also
alla! — everyone
Såklart — (So Clearly), off-course
det — place (“it)
How to ask the question
Vi har familj → har vi familj?
hur säger du på svenska? — How do you say in Swedish?
och du?
varifrån kommer du? — Where are you from?
Vocabulary:
språk → speak
Vad bra → sä bra → how nice
ligger → lies
Pyttelite → Very little
Hund → Dog
Helpful Links
- ♪ Podcast: This podcast link has audio files for three different level of listeners.
- Storlek-S is for beginner level - ♪ Poddradio
Hus och lägenhet
1. Go to http://www.digitalasparet.se/ and click “Lexicon” in left side menu to access “Lexikon och ordböcker” page.
2. Click on “Blider och filmer” tab, and select “bildteman” submanu
note: http://lexin.nada.kth.se link in (2) needs adobe flash player. Also, if it asks for key chain information, please open the link (1) in incognito mode.
- Nok Portal
https://portal.nok.se/extramaterial
