Going to Sweden after 7 years learning Swedish

[@daysandwords]

Pick up a StoryLearning course at a great price! shorturl.at/N270G REFOLD also have a deal that's been extended just to accomodate for you awesome viewers of my channel: refold.link/lamont-black-friday-2024

[@codyscott8687]

Man I don’t know how to describe this, but I get emotional by proxy because what you just lived is what I’m hoping to do with a Spanish speaking country one day. It’s so wild that hearing you say you just had an ordinary Swedish day, to me, was the highlight of the video. Incredibly happy for you, Lamont

[@EvanDelay]

Hi Lamont. I have been waiting for this video for years since I first started following your channel. After learning French for 5 years, I spent a month in France in July and my experience was similar to yours. I reached a high enough level that people didn’t switch to English when I spoke to them. Thank you for making interesting videos and thank you for educating people on language learning. Can’t wait for part 2.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Evan!

[@bookswmadi]

Playing snakes and ladders with your language is so true. One day I tried to communicate with my deaf coworker, and I was so mentally exhausted from events the night before that I couldn't understand him and forgot how to sign basic words like "right" to him (I've been studying ASL for 2 years now, I'd place myself B1 if I had too). I was so embarrassed and felt so, so bad. The next time I saw him (a week later) I was the translator for our staff meeting seeing as my job did not provide a professional translator and I am the only one who knows sign language throughout the entire facility. While I did not translate perfectly, and I defaulted to fingerspelling certain words I had never used before, he understood and complimented me immensely on my progress, even said I should become a professional translator. After that interaction I felt much more accomplished.

[@daysandwords]

I still remember a night back when I was learning French and Swedish, and I was at some small party thing and then my friend asked me to come and get a drink with him and some other people, and the other people turned out to be some French, and some Swedish... and MAN if those languages were not just rolling off the tongue for me that night. I mean, of course it was relative to my ability... so I'd definitely speak Swedish better nowadays (by a lot), but basically that night I was just on form... not sure what it was.

[@ethanhastings7816]

I’ve learned German through comprehensible input for 3 years, and I can now understand almost everything said on the news, and I can read fairly difficult texts with no dictionary, but I have never spoken a single sentence to anyone, really need to get on italki or something😂

[@BrunUgle]

@@ethanhastings7816 The first few times trying to speak are really difficult and uncomfortable, but your speaking will soon catch up to the other skills with a bit of practice.

[@ethanhastings7816]

@ yeah it’s honestly crazy how I can already form grammatically complex sentences in my head without studying grammar or having any social interaction with a native speaker at all. Comprehensible input works, folks.

[@cicolas_nage]

pretty much in the same boat, but i did have one singular conversation where i was able to keep up reasonably well. really goes to show how overrated speaking is

[@o_o9039]

how much do u "practice"? like 1 hour a day?

[@ethanhastings7816]

@ yes, on average probably an hour of input a day or a little more.

[@minna2911]

the bit about seeing the wonder in little mundane daily things and places is so real, i think to me languages kind of inherently are able to carry a bit of that wonder within them, with time they feel almost like a souvenir that reminds you of those pieces of the world you gained access to by learning them. cant wait for pt 2 ❤

[@BrunUgle]

Wow! This is so exciting. I can’t wait for part two. When you started talking about continuing in part two, I wondered why you were mentioning part two when the video had only just started a few minutes ago, then I looked and the video was almost over. I couldn’t believe the time went that quickly. I have no attention span these days, so it’s kind of amazing that you caught my attention and held it for so long that I lost all sense of time. I really think that those people who say Nordics always switch to English are greatly overestimating their own abilities and going to areas where the only people going there are tourists. Because here in Norway, I rarely hear anyone switch to English if someone starts out speaking Norwegian to them, even if their Norwegian is pretty bad. The default language thing is very real. When you live with several languages, you develop subconscious rules about what language to use when and with whom. The thing is, you don’t know what the rules are because they are subconscious. So, you only really find out what the rules are when something happens to make them not work anymore. A long time ago, when I was still married to my ex, we used to speak English together a lot and I also spoke English on the phone with my mother, and I spoke Norwegian with everyone outside. So, my subconscious rule was English for close relationships and Norwegian for everyone else. I noticed that when I would start to develop a close friendship, sometimes a word or two of English would slip out accidentally when talking with that person. Then I went on a work trip to Crete. The rule then changed to Norwegian with the people closest to me (my colleagues) and English with others. After a week or so, when we came back, I got all confused at the airport in Norway. I started speaking Norwegian to someone working at the airport, switched to English and then when she switched to English, I switched back to Norwegian. My brain had just gotten all confused and didn’t know what the rules were anymore.

[@daysandwords]

This comment is full of gold. "The thing is, you don’t know what the rules are because they are subconscious." Yes. And actually Louise (my English friend) and I first "met" in Swedish, and her husband is Swedish, so our default in Swedish... unless no one else is around and maybe we sort of never "clicked into" English on that car trip. I also had a moment in Estonia, when, despite knowing literally one word of Estonian, my subconscious decided it would be a good idea to greet someone in a shop in that word... and as soon as I did I was like "Well that was stupid now they're going to think you speak Estonian..."

[@BrunUgle]

@@daysandwordsThe language you meet someone in is a trap that’s hard to escape from. That’s why when people have a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse with a different language and they try to learn their partner’s language thinking it’ll be easy because they can just practice speaking with their partner, they almost never manage it. My ex and I met in English and even though we lived in Norway and I spoke Norwegian fluently, it took years before we were able to switch to speaking Norwegian with each other. It always felt so artificial when we tried to switch, like we were doing some kind of role play or something.

[@daysandwords]

Yes! (the role play thing) I used to be in a German speaking club that was like that. I think you've just explained that car trip to me... Louise and I default to Swedish, but we make a conscious decision to speak English when there's no need for Swedish, because I feel it's a bit pretentious to go on speaking Swedish when both of us so obviously speak English much better... and especially when we're working on stuff, it's like... Why not use the best language we have... BUT... it's still a conscious decision, even if a very logical one. And on that car trip, we weren't doing work obviously, and both of us had spent all day in Swedish and we were talking about Swedish things that happened in Swedish... so since we didn't bother to make the switch... it never happened. Hmm... aint consciousness strange haha.

[@BrunUgle]

@ That’s sort of how my ex and I finally ended up switching to Norwegian. I got a second degree here in Norway in order to more easily get a job and I just didn’t know how to talk about school and work stuff in English because I’d studied it in Norwegian and the same with his job. So, we ended up switching to Norwegian to talk about those kinds of things and that gradually led to us speaking more and more Norwegian together. Of course, there’s also a tendency to take the path of least resistance. When talking to someone, you tend to pick the language you both speak best. But sometimes you’re better at certain topics in another language and then it’s easier to switch languages back and forth according to the topic.

[@matt_brooks-green]

Amazing work man. Aside from the whole travelling to another continent, this was next level in the amount of effort!

[@SwimingPolarbear]

Det finns något speciellt i Kumla, ett högsäkerhetsfängelse (till på köpet det mest kända/ökända skulle jag säga), Kumla anstalten XD. Hoppas att du snart får chansen igen att hälsa på här i Sverige, kan rekommendera fjällen eller kanske inte, det är ju inte så mycket folk där man kan prata med :)

[@daysandwords]

Haha, jag tänkte nämna fängelset och särskilt att den där Knutby killen (Mikael nåt va?) är inlåst där... men det kändes onödvändigt att vara så taskig. Faktiskt så gillade jag den korta tiden jag spenderade i Kumla. Kvinnan där som pratade med mig om tågen trodde att jag var svensk... så jag gillade henne. :-)

[@Tomanita]

Yay, can't wait for part two😃

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for watching Anita!

[@esraaMohamed-k4p]

I want to learn English fluently. I am an Arab and I will follow the methods you are talking about.❤

[@Hi-sb2yg]

your English already sounds pretty good. good luck👍

[@Jonas-b3i]

Jättefin video. Ser fram emot del 2. Jag har väntat på just den här videon sedan efter att du lade upp videon om ditt första dygn i Sverige. Dina videos inspirerade mig att på allvar lära mig spanska genom comprehensible input (och med Dreaming Spanish). Drygt 100 dagar senare så har jag nu drygt 100 timmar comprehensible input (utöver alla timmar jag lyssnat på spanska där språket varit lite för avancerat och snabbt) och gjort stora framsteg i min hörförståelse på spanska. Välkommen, välkommen hit.

[@tiltedkiddo4240]

I can feel the effort you've been putting into your content, keep up the good work! It's great that you got to visit Sweden.

[@francegamble1]

I have done the speaking a language that isn't default language... I spent so many years teaching myself Japanese when I was a kid and then I moved to the country. I loved my first week... then I had a month of just avoiding as much as possible. I made a friend who spoke French. Later, though, we hung out and spoke Japanese. My roommates were all Americans. When I moved to Minnesota I still defaulted into Japanese with my kids and friends on the phone. I haven't lived in Japan for 17 years now, but I woke up from surgery speaking Japanese recently. Not my first language of French, which is the language the doctors were ready for. 😂 I do understand the emotions of realizing you are finally "there". I self studied for five years before moving and working in Japan. My family thought my goals of Japan were silly at the time, too. I am now learning Mandarin, and don't know if I ever will be goint to China... but I am enjoying the adventure again of self study.

[@paholainen100]

excellent. I relate a lot to this experience. I learned German, not Swedish but my whole adventure/experience is very similar to yours. Studied it mostly here in Australia and have kept it up for years. My first trip to Germany was surreal

[@JM-kj3dx]

dang, I'm so happy for you, you did so much work and put in so much discipline and consistency and you got such a good experience out of it, I've been learning English for 7 years roughly too and Frech for 4 in a very similar way, I haven't gotten the chance to go to an English or French speaking country but I enjoyed it vicariously through this video of you going to Sweden, it does pay off!

[@adamgg123]

Jag har följt dig ganska länge skulle jag säga. Att folk svarar dig på svenska är typ bästa komplimangen man kan få. Eftersom jag följer dig så märker jag att svenska inte är ditt första språk, men om jag mötte dig "in the wild" och inte visste nåt om dig så är jag inte så säker på att jag skulle göra det. Fett kul att du fått payoff för ditt slit.

[@Gizk4]

Håller med, jag skulle nog gissa på att han är från Stockholm om jag bara hörde det lite kort. För mig som inte är stockholmare låter det ungefär så iaf

[@adamgg123]

@@Gizk4 Jag är stockholmare, jag fattar vad du menar men jag hade trott samma sak fast nån dialekt jag inte kunde placera typ

[@elgueromeromero4277]

Det här är så coolt! I’ve been waiting for these videos since you mentioned you were going to Sweden. Got goosebumps too because I remember living a week in Colombia like I was Colombian, even speaking Spanish to my kids on FaceTime because my brain just defaulted that way. Looking forward to pt 2 and the project reveal

[@flipevent]

I relate to this video quite a bit! I went to South Korea for the first time after 2.5 years of study. My Korean was far from perfect at that point, but I had already gotten comfortable with speaking with Koreans in the US. But, I knew that it would be an absolute different level speaking to native-natives in Korea. Suffice to say, that first trip to Korea was unforgettable for many reasons. In the beginning, I felt that I forgot nearly my entire vocabulary and was deathly afraid of all the things I heard on the internet--they might have an accent, they might be using different words/slang than Korean-Americans, etc. Not to mention that I didn't have English as a backup, as I usually would have in the US. But, after slogging through it, I'm happy to say that my Korean VASTLY improved from that experience. And, even a year later when I lived in Korea for 2 months, it only gave me even more confidence just going up to someone and starting a conversation. I'm taking my friends and family around Seoul these holidays, and I'm excited to show them around this country that means a lot to me.

[@ADHDlanguages]

This is awesome dude. Can't wait for part 2 😊

[@RogerRamos1993]

I've started doing something quite intensive for 3 days. I paste one page of The Trial by Kafka in German to ChatGPT. My prompt turns it in a bilingual interlinear text and provides the definitions of the rarest words below the text (Actually ChatGPT chooses whatever 4 words it wants, but that's ok). With a somewhat literal English translation. I read it slowly and compare the unknown words. I listen to it. I then read the Italian translation (the book is bilingual German - Italian). I know Italian well (but still don't know many words). Then I paste another page and repeat. I tried with other languages and sure will be using this method for all my reading I think. Even languages I know well. It just feels so good and it is so rewarding understanding 98-100% of a text instead of 90% for Catalan for example.

[@NomadicVegan]

Oooh, I've never thought of using ChatGPT for that. Could you share the prompt please??

[@RogerRamos1993]

@NomadicVegan Just write something along the lines of: Provide a literal word by word interlinear translation for the following text. Provide the definitions of the hardest words below the text. If ChatGPT provides only the translation without the original, then just say something like "I want both the original and the interlinear translation". Try that and tell how it worked out for you.

[@NomadicVegan]

@@RogerRamos1993 Great, thanks!

[@Skiis44]

You inspire me to keep plugging away at Latin American Spanish. I’ve progressed from understanding the gossip at the laundromat to having small conversations with clients at the Salvation Army food bank. I’ll get to Panama eventually.

[@artbrutnewyork]

So entertaining and enlightening! Looking forward to part 2!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@jeremybuckets]

2:58 This was my exact experience in France, notorious for, apparently, 1. speaking English exclusively with tourists and 2. being really critical of foreigners who try to speak the language. Turns out if your language ability is any good people prefer to stay in their native language.

[@biferose158]

Yes! First time I went while being a french speaker, my french was ROUGH and we spent a lot of time in disneyland paris which wasn’t ideal. They often switched instantly if my accent wasn’t good enough of simple words, or I made a basic grammar mistake. But when you manage to convince people you speak it well enough, it’s a borderline exhilarating feeling to get through what is maybe a 5 min convo at most ahah I love the language, but it’s one of the most gatekept populations i’ve ever seen. On the flipside, latvians and italians have been MUCH more receptive and borderline excited to see you making progress in their language.

[@TheStickCollector]

This would have to be me for every language since at least for a couple of years I won't be able to travel anywhere. I would consider actually visiting the country as a good exam of what I actually learned versus what I think I learned. It would require imagining what I need to know first and foremost in order to not get (as) stumbled when speaking to the natives.

[@rickaspentv]

Awesome video man! Really interesting, and it feels like a massive goal reached for you personally. Traveling to the country that you have tried to immerse yourself into for years. Really cool to see and i cant wait for part 2 and i hope to one day do this kind of a trip to France. Ha det fint!

[@dangmefinnish]

As someone who has lived in the country where my target language is spoken and I can testify that it helps very little. Struggle is real...

[@chelseamccormack810]

What a fun journey! Thank you for bringing us, looking forward to the second part!

[@Felixxxxxxxxx]

Kumla is famous for something, they have one of the most renowned Prisons in Sweden. A friend of mine grew up there and he said it is really the only thing that's going on over there. Also to me, it is funny that you stayed in Hallsberg. I have been to the Pizza place near the train station probably 5 times because I had a transit there when commuting to Oslo but I never ever thought about going there. Kul att du verkade ha det bra när du var på din resa i Sverige!

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, there are actually outtakes from this video in which I mention the prison and that the Knutby killer guy is there... but it seemed a bit harsh if someone from either Kumla OR Knutby ended up watching. Plus my friend works near there, which is why she dropped me off at that station, so there is an outside chance that one of her friends ends up watching this. The locations in this video were somewhat meddled with in order to not give too much away - Hallsberg was actually only once, there were other nearby cities. As an Australian, any too places that are closer together than Stockholm and Göteborg are just the same place anyway.

[@ryanpmcguire]

SAMCI - its good to finally have a name/acronym for it

[@justinnamuco9096]

Speaking and getting corrected either by native speakers or by yourself through research is in fact the best way to learn a language. The most important thing is that you get corrected as soon as possible. That's the learning part. Spending so much time to read or listen or write before speaking just stalls your fluency whose most required skill is speaking. Speak and the rest follow easily. Also your language learning and trying experience is comparable to a Hawaiian's first time visiting London.

[@daysandwords]

"Speaking and getting corrected either by native speakers or by yourself through research is in fact the best way to learn a language." Which research says this, and what does it say to counter the mountains of evidence that we acquire languages through hearing and reading them? Also, what does this research have to say about the fact that on my first day in Sweden, I was taken for a native speaker, while thousands of people who have lived there and been given formal training still can't formulate a sentence? Also, I countered the argument of "speaking early" in this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5SwZXZpe5WMq6M You've not actually presented a good argument; you've just said a bunch of stuff that you think sounds right.

[@Dinomasc]

Crazy conclusion to your learning Swedish adventure

[@alexirdevvv]

Hi! Didn't watch the whole video yet, but wanted to post an idea here. One thing that I really struggle with is choosing a language and STICKING to it. I would always go back and fourth between norwegian and swedish, sometimes even losing all my motivation. The reason for this, in my case, are the questions "will it be the right country to live in?" & "will i have the chance to live in that country?". I know ur situation might be different, but in my case, as a 22 years old guy from Romania, my main motivation for learning a nordic language is trying to relocate to that country and become part of that society. But what always makes me quit or switch the language is either the thought that "nah, i won't be able to relocate there" or "yeah, but there are many issues in that country, is it really what i want?" (for example the immigration problem in Sweden). I even talked to a swedish man in Romania a few days ago and he told me "Sweden is a lost cause" (related to the immigration issues). What is ur view on such things? I'd love to hear that, maybe in a comment, maybe in a video. Thanks!

[@Komatik_]

Norwegian and Swedish are absurdly close. Learn one, and learn it well, and the second one will be child's play. I've been hemming and hawing between Japanese (where the interesting content is) and Korean (where I actually have work colleagues at and travel to sometimes) for years. And if I'd just dedicated myself to one for two years? Well, yeah, I don't think I need to tell you I'd actually be somewhere with them rather at the proverbial starting line overthinking the choice.

[@daysandwords]

I would just learn Norwegian because it's essentially the middle of the three and that way it doesn't matter which one you end up able to go to. The immigration thing in Sweden... hmm, I'm sure some areas are a bit like that, but in the parts I was in it wasn't nearly as big a problem as it is in parts of Australia which have become like going to China without taking the plane... and even that, to me, isn't really that big of an issue. It's like when you hear that the USA is just a big civil war and everyone's divided over the right or the left and whatever and then you go there and you're like "So... is there a day off from the war or what?"

[@alexirdevvv]

@Komatik_ @daysandwords Thanks a lot! I’ll just pick norwegian and won’t look back. I already spent so much time of my life trying to choose a language that, if i wouldve focused on one, i’d probably be an advanced speaker by now.

[@daysandwords]

P.S. Speakly, which IMO is the best language app, now has Norwegian (they got it like a week ago so the timing is perfect).

[@alexirdevvv]

@@daysandwords Thanks for the info! Do you recommend using the free plan or buying the premium version? And also, is there any code/discount for your followers? Thanks!

[@Stephanie-gv8rh]

This is such a great video. I can only imagine how it must have felt to go to Sweden after so many years learning the language. I hope to experience the same thing in 2025 when I just might get to go to France 🤞though i second the cost and distance from Australia 😭 it’s either ridiculously long or crazy expensive… and sometimes it you’re very unlucky… both 😅

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

I´m glad to see that an actual native speaker of english is going through the trouble of learning a foreign language, even tho he didn´t have to bravo mate, keep it up

[@hermonymusofsparta]

You're my favorite language KZbinr

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for saying that!

[@Sonya54675]

My "knighting", so to speak, in L3 (not a EU language), was when someone looked at my EU passport and asked "since when do you have european citizenship?". I'm not sure how much emigration happened from Sweden to Australia and if "diaspora Swedish" is a thing, but in that hotel they might have assumed you're a heritage speaker. Which is a terrific way to not speak 100% perfectly and still be taken for a member of the tribe.

[@zedxspecturm4698]

Yeah but will learning Swedish make me enjoy basshunter more

[@pyrosphynx5449]

Inspirational stuff! I enjoyed the video!

[@elainen8672]

Interesting! I am of Swedish heritage (American) -have been dabbling in learning Swedish for years! I will never be fluent, just hope to understand and be able to speak a little more basic stuff when I travel there again next summer! I went there for the first time last summer and muddled thru somehow..

[@freewill8218]

Easy swedish. Run car snow pen.

[@MrBrianYoutube]

När du var på tåget till Hallsberg, åkte du förbi staden Köping?

[@hecate6834]

You shouldn't necessarily assume that people know what language is spoken in a country, I have had many discussions explaining to people that in Germany we do speak a language called German and not English and also my favorite, English is not only the language of the USA :)

[@scottmartin3816]

Love the acronym SAMCI. That is all.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@fredmiser]

looking forward to part 2

[@tommyhuffman7499]

Interesting. Enjoyed this one.

[@daysandwords]

Cheers!

[@stevencarr4002]

Coming from an English-speaking country, sometimes when I spoke Polish to people in Poland, they would respond in German. I guess my Polish accent is imperfect.... I was pretty close to the German border, and they are used to German tourists in that region.

[@castormajeur5557]

I'm Polish and one day a tourist asked me something and I replied in German, asking them to repeat. After 2 times I realised they were asking in Polish and their Polish was quite good. My brain just completely switched off to German because I assumed they spoke that language. 😂could be that this happened to some of those people as well

[@seanmaher3018]

Yo Lamont, do you have a rough estimate on how many hours youve spent immersing in Swedish?

[@daysandwords]

It's pretty rough... anywhere between 1000 and 1800 hours.

[@tordjarv3802]

Som svensk vill jag välkomna dig till Sverige trotts att jag själv har bott i USA de senast 2 åren. Anyway, great video. My wife doesn't speak Swedish, she is from China, but she is trying to learn it. Do you have any good tips for her? Specifically when it comes to keep up the motivation?

[@run2fire]

We had Chutes and Ladders. Great comparison though. So true.

[@LudwigExipe]

17:50 I'm from Kumla! "Nowhere special" is a pretty accurate description :D We do however have Sweden's biggest prison

[@daysandwords]

I'm glad I clipped the bit in which I mentioned that actually (about the prison). It felt in poor taste to say something "bad" about a place that had made me happy.

[@Radddd]

Two questions: 1.) Did you brave doing customs in Swedish after 24 hours on the plane? What went through your head walking up to that desk, lol? 2.) Did you *really* think people would reply in English? Like, deep down. You've gotta have enough ego and self awareness to expect it wouldn't happen. Not after so much immersion and conversational practice, but I'm curious if you had doubts the first few times you spoke to someone anyway. Excellent video. I've been looking forward to it, and I'm excited extra videos are coming!

[@daysandwords]

I didn't do customs in Swedish because she just took my passport before saying anything, and obviously addressed me in English (plus there's a separate line for those with Swedish passports so they're not expecting anyone Swedish in the line I'm in.) Now, I COULD have changed to Swedish, sure... but the time when they're deciding if you're a security risk is not exactly the time to be showing off that you could pretty much pass for Swedish if you needed to. In fact in customs on the way OUT did get a bit suspicious. When she heard my Swedish she said "Oh this is faster if you use your Swedish passport" and I told her I didn't have one and she's like "Oh ok, you might want to get one. They're easy to get if you've lived here more than 5 years." and when I said I hadn't lived here at all, she stopped and looked up at me and then asked a bunch of questions that she'd already asked again, including which city I was born in in Australia, to check against my passport. And that's part of the answer to your second question. Of course I didn't expect people to respond in English when everything was always going to be in Swedish; there's no way they could know that my English was better (I could be Dutch or Polish or something), but when staying in hotels and especially hostels, a lot of the time you don't even get a chance to say something in Swedish before they just greet you in English or take your ID, as was the case at the hotel... I only got to say "Hej" before she looked at my reservation which shows where you're from... and the same goes for Uber these days. Literally before they've picked me up, they know I'm Australian... so whether your Swedish is good or not is irrelevant. But the woman at the hotel (the second time... different woman to the first one) actually asked how I came to have an Australian passport and said how she'd love to visit etc., and when I said I was born there and lived there my whole life she was like "Oh right, Swedish parents then?"

[@Radddd]

@daysandwords thank you for the in depth answer. The part about customs getting sus on you is so funny. You should share it in a video. The swedish parents thing ties in here too. It makes sense these are the conclusions people draw, but in your head you must be thinking... mate. I just watched 5000 hours of Bluey and read some stories. They don't even know.

[@daysandwords]

I haven't even done 5000 hours. I estimate it to be under 2000 actually. Between 2020 and 2024 I was actually pretty "out of love" with Swedish.

[@Radddd]

@@daysandwords I originally typed 500 and added an extra zero instead of changing it ha. I can relate to your falling out of love vibe. Tbh, I have no idea how many hours I've done either. I just know it gets less by the year, and the number of hours per day I'd need to improve gets bigger. I'd estimate I have at least 2 hours of second language per day. Mostly speaking. Hours that I don't even think about because they're just part of who I am now, and yet it STILL feels like I am regressing compared to the early days of input input input. Languages are a trip. Gotta remember to be nice to yourself.

[@ToastbackWhale]

5:40 this is just living with a stutter, honestly. Not that I’m thinking of what to say, my mouth just stops working for a few seconds. Same types of pauses 😅

[@daysandwords]

Well, yes... But one of my friends has a stutter and you always know that he's going to say something, plus he has that thing that if he hears you say it, he can say it fine. (I don't know if that's universal or not.) But if someone without a stutter in English then sounded like they had stutter in a different language, I'd question how well they knew that language.

[@ToastbackWhale]

@@daysandwords Of course. I was just making a joke at my own expense, really.😅

[@daysandwords]

Yeah sorry... I typed this response at like 5am haha.

[@julbombning4204]

Hur känner du för att flytta till Sverige? Eller ha ett sommarställe i Sverige du kan besöka under vintern i Australien?

[@daysandwords]

Jag försöker övertala min fru... Att jobba kan också vara problem (for henne... inte för mig alltså som jobbar online). Stommarställe är tyvärr lite "upp och ner" med tanke på att vintern i den finaste årstiden i Australien (okej hösten kanske men definitivt inte sommaren... usch.) Men svaret är ja, vi jobbar på det!

[@julbombning4204]

@@daysandwords Härligt fortsätt så!

[@BrunUgle]

@@daysandwords Yay! We’ll be neighbors. Sort of.

[@ProjectArclite]

I'm almost a year and a half into learning German and if I watch something in German with German subtitles I can understand about 70-80%, but without looking at the words my understand drastically diminishes. I feel like I've been listening to the same songs and still not getting it without the lyrics. It's very frustrating. I've wanted to give up at so many points.

[@elusive7565]

i find it quite interesting how our brains can get stuck in another language even if we have significantly less experience with it compared to our native language, id describe it as trying to talk as a child with a limited vocabulary.

[@petermaling943]

Eight minutes in and all we’ve seen of Sweden are a croissant, a coffee and a pile of of books. You might as well have stayed home and saved the money.

[@anna7276]

I had to google what a gimbal was, gosh I’m Old and hopeless! 🤣

[@j.spiegel3650]

Good video

[@daysandwords]

Thanks!

[@sirjilo8635]

Your Stockholm dialect is stronger than actual people’s from Stockholm. As someone from Gbg I don’t know what I should feel.

[@daysandwords]

It's actually made slightly stronger in this video by the fact that I have a cold (seriously). You can hear the nasal block even in my English - I'm talking about the one in the blue shirt in front of the flag - when I recorded that bit I had a cold, but not the other bits. And I honestly think it brings out the Stockholmska.

[@sirjilo8635]

@ Now that you say it, they do kinda sound like they have a constant cold xD

[@declangodfrey]

How come the video is only available in German and Portuguese and neither is your voice?

[@CGohStudio]

Was about to say that too. His voice is dubbed ..like AI or something

[@dogerino1084]

lol I had the same issue. refreshing the page fixed it luckily

[@daysandwords]

This has been happening on KZbin for a while now. It's got nothing to do with the person uploading the video. I am curious to see what KZbin AI dubbing does with the fact that 5% of the video is in Swedish though...

[@paalluw]

If you're on mobile, just go to settings and change the audio track to english original. Not sure about desktop, havent been able to find a solution there. Mine was dubbed in french.

[@daysandwords]

Desktop it's just down in the corner with quality and subtitles and everything. I almost threw my headphones across the room a few weeks back when I clicked on a video in Russian, knowing it would be in Russian, and got a horrible AI English voice... gross.

[@sicko_the_ew]

One starting point in the matter with not becoming disheartened because of the way hard things are hard is to remember that most of us never truly master our own language. (And you can always stretch the meaning of "master" a bit further, if you start feeling like your native tongue usage is pretty much unimprovable at some point. There's Shakespeare somewhere up in that big cloud overhead, for instance. And there are more apt metaphors than clouds for putting one kind of masterful language usage above another. And isn't it illegal to start a sentence with "and"?) Phew! Was getting a bit cocky there (and I don't mean struck by an inexplicable impulse to embark upon agricultural pursuits in the Antipodes), but I managed to find some humility without having to confess to the fact that I just can't tell jokes. I try (and it's a joke I've heard people - such as myself - laughing at), but the person I'm telling it either starts to look around, and try to change the conversation, or patiently endures the whole thing, and then can't manage a convincing laugh at the end, in spite of trying really hard. Oh shite, I just did. Domkop! (I can digress, and thence, escape, by noticing that the languages one gains some fluency can take up permanent residence inside one's brain cavity, and displace native words - to the detriment of intelligibility outside the reach of the other language.) I thought that last thought, because, in speculating about the way the lacunae you mention in your Swedish reveal the necessary incompleteness of any language mastery one attains, it occurred to me that if you did manage to achieve "perfection" in the sense of having no such little corners of language preference (I think once you can pass as Swedish among Swedes it's a matter of what the brain defaults to, rather than of ability), er ... um ... long sentence again, innit? ... oh yes ... if you reached a point where there were no little pockets of English defaults, or language skills you still have in English only, maybe you'd no longer be you? You'd be Vik. You'd have a sister who was bitten by a Moose, once, and such things. This "Lamont" guy would become a memory. Someone you once, alas, knew well.

[@danielmarklund3555]

Det ända jag vet om Kumla är att det finns ett fängelse där😄

[@daysandwords]

Jag känner bara till tågstationen och att jag lämnade min laptop i min kompis bil och därefter missade nästan tåget. Kopierad från ett annat svar (bara för att spara på tid): Yeah, there are actually outtakes from this video in which I mention the prison and that the Knutby killer guy is there... but it seemed a bit harsh if someone from either Kumla OR Knutby ended up watching. Plus my friend works near there, which is why she dropped me off at that station, so there is an outside chance that one of her friends ends up watching this. The locations in this video were somewhat meddled with in order to not give too much away - Hallsberg was actually only once, there were other small cities that I was in. As an Australian, any too places that are closer together than Stockholm and Göteborg are just the same place anyway.

[@icicestparismaxwell3794]

I think your Swedish would go into overdrive if you had to explain what a gimbal is and its usage in Swedish, lol.

[@daysandwords]

The thing is, I don't really know how to describe what it does in English either haha. I know what it does... but it's hard to describe in any case.

[@DAve-by3oq]

It's cold now

[@Micke323]

Picked my cat up in Kumla, other than that the only reason to go there is if you're a criminal sentenced to a high security prison xD

[@shananigans0117]

Foreshadowing 😂

[@run2fire]

Everywhere is far from the land of Oz. Cause there is no place like Oz!

[@baller84milw]

Curious, but why are you learning Swedish in the first place? 🤔 Like I'm learning Danish, but that's only because that's where my maternal grandparents all come from-and then after that I want to maybe learn Swedish only because that's where my other grandfather is from. It seems a pretty random language for someone to learn if they have no heritage there or don't plan on moving there. (p.s. sorry if you've already answered this in another video)

[@daysandwords]

I just do stuff like that. A Finnish friend told me I wouldn't do it and boom, here we are. Haha.

[@Komatik_]

@@daysandwords What if a Finnish follower told you you wouldn't learn Finnish, hm?

[@daysandwords]

Nah people have tried this before... I have to genuinely believe that THEY don't believe that I will do it. You challenging me would be just to make me rise to the challenge... so it doesn't count. It's like commentators pretending to give a commentator's curse... there is no such thing as tricking God/the Universe/whatever. Only a real commentator's curse can be real.

[@YukiAki02]

Been waiting for this video ever since you've posted the "happy Australian guy rants about Sweden" 😂

[@harpie9022]

I recognize you as the guy from Days in French 'n' Swedish. I saw online a lot of people are skeptical about language skills and some even claim you are a FRAUD(teaching language related stuff but can't speak the languages you are learning plus you changed your youtube channel name) . Are you able to make a video speaking purely in swedish and french to clear this alleged rumor once and for all?

[@daysandwords]

I'd love you to direct me to these people "online" who are skeptical about my skills.

[@harpie9022]

​@@daysandwords LOL. Did you just go into defensive mode? haha. Bro, a google search could lead you there. Can you don't be lazy bum and just search it yourself. Also, you're never going to speak in french or Swedish because you just can't speak those languages right?

[@tylern3696]

So it sounds like you regret your use of italki and wished you had just watched more videos. Is that an accurate understanding?

[@daysandwords]

Certainly as MUCH of it as I used was unnecessary.

[@esraaMohamed-k4p]

First. ❤

[@Mr.Monta77]

Learning arabic would be more useful moving to Sweden.

[@biaberg3448]

Hei. Jeg er norsk og synes at du snakker nydelig svensk. Skulle gjerne hørt deg snakke svensk mer. Om du kommer til Norge, så vil folk her forstå hva du sier når du snakker svensk. Men du ville kanskje ikke forstå hva vi sier på norsk, i alle fall ikke noen som snakker en spesiell dialekt. Men si for all del ikke at du snakker engelsk, lat som om du ikke forstår et ord. For selv barn snakker engelsk her.

[@jmolofsson]

Nettopp! Förra veckan var jag, för andra gången i livet, på besök i Bergen, dvs så långt västerut som man kan komma i Skandinavien. Det slog mig att jag upplever skillnaden i dialekt som *_mindre_* i öst-västlig led än i nord-sydlig. Mellan Växjö och Umeå talas en förhållandevis enhetlig svenska. Men i mina öron är skillnaden ändå större än mellan Bergen och Gävle. Och avstånden är desamma, ungefär tusen kilometer. (Söder om Växjö är det slut på enhetligheten. Skånska dialekter är en helt annan värld!)

[@pog-poggers5290]

290 views 26 minutes ago :pog:

[@cooledcannon]

How come they didn't immediately switch to English?

[@daysandwords]

This is addressed in this video.