What I wish I knew BEFORE learning Swedish...

9 things that I wish I'd known before I started learning Swedish 4 years ago.
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My sound is so much better in my newer videos due to my RØDE Podmic. RØDE is an Australian company and the only reason you don't see their microphones EVERYWHERE is that certain other brands spend more on marketing. I have recorded music with my podmic, and I have a music degree. That's how much I trust the audio quality.
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[daysandwords]

I am pinning this comment to iron out some errors and my part and some misunderstandings on many viewers' parts:

1. Ä vs E - yes I know, I said Ä wrong. I was actually speaking English, and was immediately aware that I'd said the wrong thing but this video didn't have a script and I was in a flow that was worth continuting just to see if the take ended up OK, and it did. Curiously, no one seems to have noticed (probably because they were too busy making their very important corrections in the comments) that I actually said "O" in straight-up Australian English. I didn't even try to say "O" in Swedish because I was like "I've already screwed up Ä..." - So yes, it was wrong, yes, I know the difference. You guys are going to keep commenting anyway but I can at least point you to this comment.

2. Min broder - see Sundqvist's comment with 290+ likes and my replies about this.

3. Kommer att vs kommer döda... THAT WAS THE JOKE. The joke is that character 1 is a beginner and finds grammar difficult, but character 2 just decides to be a pedant on them. In my natural speech I would say "Den här grammatiken kommerådöda mig..." so that "att" would be there in spirit, but the people saying that both are acceptable are not understanding that this was a joke. I would have thought the very "påpekande" tone and the laughing afterwards got the idea across but anyway...

4. The use of English. I didn't say that this is the ONLY reason it's ever used, or even that the tone being implied is always humourous. I know that there are many other reasons it's used. But my Swedish is good enough to separate when it's being used because Astrid or Anders can't think of the word in Swedish, or when the English word has basically replaced the Swedish word... and when they are saying something like a line from a movie to be funny, or to convey some kind of different connotation. Also to the people who say that my friend wasn't joking about his other friend... Um, in Australia we say "I guess you had to be there." You only know what he said. I know how he said it, his facial expression, and how he generally speaks. (He almost never uses English, for one thing.)
People are taking what I say too exactly, especially considering you can tell there was no script and I shrugged and used mitigating words a lot.


6. More oftare and more bättre. Again, THAT'S THE JOKE. In Australia (and to a lesser extent, other English speaking countries), when you say "That's how that's done" or "That's how you say that", it is a sign that it is definitely NOT how you do something or say something. e.g. "Go and get the car from the... you know, the car holding place in the house."
"You mean the garage?"
"Yes. The car holding place in the house is how you say that."
It wasn't a redundancy error - it was a deliberate error because I started saying "more often" but then said "often" in Swedish so then I thought I'd just round that out by also doing it on "better". Note how "more better" would also be wrong in English.

[Lewisiaisoutofcontext]

Me, a native swede reading the video title: Hm, yes, what SHOULD I know before learning Swedish? I better find out.

[vickyxx]

It's something quite beautiful and fascinating to watch your mother tongue be analyzed by a non-native speaker.

[ladingever]

As a swede we love hearing people talk about our country, language, culture or anything swedish related. If you speak about sweden there will always be a swede that heard the conversation and immediately run towards you and join the conversation

[quercingtime]

Uttalet är utan tvekan det svåraste med svenskan. Även om man blir flytande och med nästintill perfekt uttal så kan svenskar ändå höra att en person är utländsk. Jag tror att folk blir imponerade inte på grund av hur bra ens svenska är, utan att man har velat lära sig språket från första början :)

[la_mirinda_mondo]

How to spot a native Swede: "Why the hell are you learning Swedish?"

[Aiethz]

The reason a Swede would describe someone as "acquired taste" (e.g. go to English) is because to many Swedes it is deeply uncomfortable to describe someone or something someone cares about in any negative terms at all. By switching to English it turns it into kind of a joke but also distances you from it, allowing a Swede to communicate to another Swede what the Swede actually wants to say without triggering the "oh no I can't say that" filter

[RealDarlanio]

As a swede, I am very happy that (1) you are able to talk Swedish (2) that you let other people know how to learn Swedish (3) that you make videos that are enjoyable.

[herreguda]

As a Norwegian, I guess it's "easier"(?) to find Scandinavian-speaking people, because Scandinavians travel a looot, especially to countries like Australia :)

[torbjornkallstrom]

About the woke thing, I think it's true that Sweden is very "woke" in some sense, but I think people expect Sweden to be "America-woke" as in, extremely confrontational. But in fact Swedes are mostly pretty chill and don't usually loudly proclaim their political views. I do however think Swedes are pretty conformist in many ways. There's a strong sense that there's a "right" way to think about certain topics. Many will grumble about not being "allowed" to express their opinions, even though no one's actively trying to stop them.

[mikaelfrosthage]

Born and raised Swede, it never crossed my mind that women speak with more "melody" than men. I'll definitely look for this pattern in the future to see if it's true. :)

[chillingchroniclesnow]

My brain gets extremely confused when you switch to Swedish because it's so good.

[abuhassanabo]

13:25 "min broder" is actually correct. The plural is "mina bröder"

[celesteceleste]

How nice, Max Verstappen is now teaching languages, love it

[Mshejhej]

4:40 "Är de nån svensk här?" This is so correct we are literally everywhere even in the small places most turist don't go too. A friend of mine was in India through school and was on the beach in this small unknown city talking with her friend in swedish about a guy further down the beach. This guy were walking towards them and when he came up to them he also started speaking swedish with them. They were not prepared for that

[veryaveragegamingstud]

As a northern Swede, to nail a Swedish accent, this applies to the northern ones, speak without emotion, you’re welcome.

[raine]

The thing about Swedes being everywhere, I agree. As a swede I'd like to ADD that it goes further than that. I come from a medium sized town and no matter where I go in sweden, I'll find someone from my town. Not even looking for it, someone will just appear.

[stefansander]

What can i say, i´m impressed...
Verkligen imponerad !! Fortsätt att sprida möjligheten att lära sig nya språk.
Keep up the good work

[orcasquall]

I’m learning Russian. From the get go, I knew I wanted male tutors instead of female tutors. Because Russian has a gender feature, and I needed to hear and imitate the intonation of a male speaker.

[bjornnorenjobb]

I'm kind of happy to finally hear someone saying that Sweden is somewhat edgy