Simple Swedish Podcast - #242 - Språkförälder

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Nivå: A2-B1 Att ha en språkförälder är något som kan vara väldigt viktigt när man vill nå en hög nivå i ett språk. Men vad är en språkförälder, och hur hittar man en? -------------------- For English, scroll down! -------------------- För att stödja podden och få transkript till avsnitten - bli patron för bara 5€ per månad – klicka här! Vill du lära dig att prata flytande svenska? Är du frustrerad att svenskar alltid byter till engelska? Kolla in den här GRATIS videon och du kommer förstå exakt vad du behöver göra! Följ den här länken och klicka på ”join the free training”. -------------------- Having a language parent is something that can be very important when you want to reach a high level in a language. But what is a language parent, and how do you find one? To support the podcast and get transcripts to the weekly episodes – become a patron for only 5€ per month - click here! Wanna become fluent in Swedish? Are you frustrated over Swedes always switching to English? Check out this FREE video, and you’ll understand exactly what you need to do! Follow this link, and click on ”join the free training”. ------------------- Instagram: swedish.linguist YouTube: Swedish Linguist Website: www.swedishlinguist.com Language Lock-in: https://www.languagelockin.com/ ------------------- Ett smakprov (sample) på transkriptet:   Hallå där! Välkommen till Simpa Swedish Podcast. Ja, jag sitter inte i mitt hem just nu för att jag har inget hem längre. Jag är officiellt hemlös. Ja, det är så att jag har flyttat ut från lägenheten där jag bodde, där jag har bott det senaste året, eftersom jag kommer vara bortrest. Alltså jag vara..jag kommer resa lite och jag kommer vara i Sverige resten av sommaren. Min plan är att komma tillbaka hit till Valencia i september. Därför har jag inte hittat en ny lägenhet, för att jag tänker att det är ju onödigt att betala för en lägenhet i två månader när jag inte är här. Så ja, jag kommer behöva leta efter ny lägenhet när jag kommer tillbaka hit till Valencia i september. Det är i alla fall planen. Så nu är jag hemlös i alla fall. Och ja, jag har varit det många gånger i mitt liv så det känns inte som en så stor grej, ärligt talat.   Idag ska vi prata om ett väldigt väldigt användbart koncept när man vill nå en hög nivå i ett språk. När man vill lära sig tala flytande. Det konceptet kallar vi för språkförälder. Så innan jag börjar förklara det så vill jag tacka Ben, Moritz, och Sylwia för att ni är nya patrons och ni stödjer den här podden.   Så tack till er för att ni stödjer podden och ni får transcript till alla avsnitt. En annan grej med Patreon är att jag kommer börja med uttalsövningar för alla patrons på 10-euronivån. Och jag kommer göra det istället för extraavsnitt. Jag tror att det är det..jag gjorde en omröstning på Patreon och det verkar som att folk..ja, ni vill hellre ha uttalsövningar än extra avsnitt.   Så det kommer jag att göra. Och det är ju faktiskt väldigt användbart med uttalsövningar. www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist för det. Så vi ska prata om konceptet språkförälder. Så först och främst vill jag tacka Fun Swedish för att de introducerade mig för det här konceptet. Så vad är då en språkförälder?   ....för att läsa hela transkriptet till detta och alla andra avsnitt, klicka här!

Hello there! Welcome to Simpa Swedish Podcast. I'm not at home right now because I don't have a home anymore. I'm officially homeless. Yes, I have moved out from the apartment where I lived the last year. And since I will be away traveling, I will travel a little and I will be in Sweden for the rest of the summer. My plan is to come back to Valencia in September. I haven't found a new apartment because I think it's unnecessary to pay for an apartment for two months when I'm not here. So yes, I will have to look for a new apartment when I come back to Valencia in September. That is the plan. Now I am homeless.

I have been homeless many times in my life. It doesn't feel like a big deal, to be honest. So today we're going to talk about a very, very useful concept when you want to reach a high level in a language, when you want to learn how to speak fluently, and that concept we call language parents. So before I start explaining that, I want to thank Ben Moritz and Sylvia for being new patrons and supporting this podcast.

So thank you for supporting the podcast and getting transcripts for all episodes. Another thing with Patreon is that I will start with the pronunciation exercises for all patrons on the 10 euro level. And I will do that instead for the extra episodes. and I will do that instead for extra episodes. I think I did a poll on Patreon and it seems like people... Well, you'd rather have pronunciation exercises than extra episodes. So I will do that. And that is actually very useful with pronunciation exercises.

Patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist for that. So, we're going to talk about the concept of language parents. So first and foremost, I want to thank Fun Swedish for introducing me to this concept. And so what is a language parent? Yes, so when we are children and we learn our mother's goal, then we learn it through our parents first and foremost. And why is it so good to learn a language through your parents? Well, many reasons. So partly, a parent is a person who is close to you, a person you feel safe with, hopefully. But we are talking in general here, so it's someone you have a close relationship with,

you can feel safe with that person, and this person, when you learn your first language, your mother tongue, your parents criticize you. Hopefully not. When you say something wrong, you don't get a lot of criticism. Instead, they help you, they guide you, and make sure and you get time to develop. It's okay if you do something wrong, but at the same time they guide you to do the right thing. And they introduce you to life in that language. So that's what a parent does when you learn your mother tongue. And this can also be done when you learn a new language. So,

for you in Swedish, what would a language parent be to you? So, partly a person who stays in the Swedish language. So, a person who likes to speak Swedish with you, who doesn't switch to another language. A person who guides you and helps you in a constructive way, and that makes you build your self-confidence. Because sometimes, or quite often,

you don't think about how important self-confidence is when you learn a language. You only think about how high-level, how advanced you are, but self-confidence is really, really important. So, a person who doesn't criticize you, doesn't judge you, shows you how to speak, what words to use and so on. a personal relationship. A person that you talk to each other because you like to talk to each other. Simply. Also very good if this person can... Oops, now I lost my phone. It held, it is intact, but there were some stripes on the display. That wasn't good.

Yeah, that's what happens. Okay, so... So... A person who can also introduce culture. Who can suggest, for example, books, or series, or, movies, events, stories, things that become a contact for you with the culture. Because a language is not just a language, but a language is people, culture, things like that. So, what are examples of language parents? I thought I could take some examples from my life.

So, I think the best language parents I've had was when I learned Czech because I learned Czech because I had a girlfriend from Czech and her parents didn't speak English. So in order to communicate with her parents, I had to speak Czech. I spent a few years learning Czech and I studied a lot. I mostly studied by watching series and reading books. But I also talked to her parents. So we spent sometimes a few weeks at home with them in Czech Republic. And yes, in the beginning it was of course very difficult. But they really liked to speak Czech with me even though my level was quite low.

So they knew no other language and they liked to speak Czech with me. Even though her dad, he spoke a lot all the time and I often didn't understand what he said. But he didn't care, he liked talking to me. So he was a perfect language parent because I have a personal relationship with him. And he likes to talk to me. He stays in the Czech language. He doesn't criticize me, I felt safe. So it was a very good language parent for me, and it was a parent to my girlfriend, my then girlfriend. So it was a very good situation. When I learned English, so when I lived in Budapest and learned English,

I had a language partner. So I met a girl there who learned Swedish and we came along well and we decided that we would meet sometimes and have language exchange. So we met, had a coffee or an beer, talked one hour in Hungarian and one hour in Swedish. And we had a rule that never spoke English. She spoke really good English, but our rule was to only speak Hungarian or Swedish. So, she was actually a very good language parent. She stayed in Hungarian when we didn't speak Swedish. She could guide me, help me in a constructive way.

I could build my self-confidence. She didn't criticize me. She had patience. We had a personal relationship. We were friends. And she could introduce culture. She could recommend, she sent me memes for example in English. So that was also a pretty good language parents. In Spanish I have a friend and she also speaks really good English, but she likes to speak Spanish if I actually speak fluent Spanish, I still want to develop and get better. And she knows that.

And she can help me practice to improve these small details in a constructive way, so that I still feel good about myself. So she doesn't correct me if it's not something she knows that I specifically want to be corrected. Because it's very important not to correct everything all the time. So, please, don't ask anyone to correct everything you say wrong. Never ask anyone to correct everything you say wrong, okay? Because you will say a lot of wrong, but many of these mistakes are either not important or there are things that you actually know. Often you say wrong things, even if you say...

What should we take as an example? Whatever. I know what the right way is, but I sometimes say wrong anyway. Just because, yeah, I don't think about it. But if someone corrects all these mistakes, it will be really hard for me to talk, and it will be really hard for that person to fix all the time. So either don't ask anyone to fix anything at all,

or if that person wants to, then ask that person to fix specific things. So if you do the same mistake over and over again, i.e. recurring mistakes, you can ask someone to correct recurring mistakes or if there is something specific you are working on, you can ask that person to say, if I say something wrong, you can correct me. Because it's pretty hard to correct someone, and it's very hard to be corrected often. and you lose your flow. And to get into a flow is quite important. So, yes. Don't ask people to correct you all the time. Then, yes, the last example is in Russian.

I don't have a good language teacher in Russian, but I have a teacher who is pretty good as a language teacher, because we always have interesting conversations. It feels very friendly, it feels like we are friends. And so I feel safe, I feel that I build both my skills in Russian and my self-confidence, so think about it, talk to people where you feel that you can build your self-confidence in with, because your self-confidence in the language is at least as important, but maybe even more important than your level in that language.

So that's why it's so good to have this, to have a language parent. So, who can become your language parent? So think about this. Think about which person in my life could become a language parent. Do I have friends who actually like to speak Swedish with me? Or maybe a friend's friend, someone I know, do I have a neighbor? Or do I have someone? If you have a Swedish partner, is there someone in my partner's family who is good as a language parent, maybe a teacher. I also think that older people are often very good at this. Because they like to speak their own language and they often like to talk. And in our language lock-in bootcamp,

which I have often talked about in the podcast, we always invite members from the bootcamp to join us for a day. We invite members in Moras P.R.O. P.R.O. is the pensioner association. We invite members from there and we have a drink together. We drink coffee, eat some cake. And that is super nice. And yes, you can do that where you live. So find people who want to talk. Just talk.

And talking about activities in the bootcamp. We have many different activities that are fun. So now in summer in the bootcamp in August we will for example paddle a Viking boat, we will play games, we will have a crayon. The summer bootcamp is sold out this year. So next is the winter bootcamp and there we will have a New Year's party. Last winter bootcamp we went to Skridskor, it was really fun. We do a lot of different activities, we also bathe in Bastu. So that is a big part of this bootcamp. One of the appreciated activities is that we invite people from the PRO association in Mora. So, yes, I hope you found this useful.

Think about who your language parents could be. Have a good one, and we'll see you soon.