kareina

I finished reading/listening to the audio book of Gösta Berlings saga yesterday, and today I picked up another audio book/real book combo to read. The Swedish translation of Aurian, by Maggie Fury. This is a fantasy I have never read before, but it is amazing how much more comfortable I am with this story than I was with Gösta Berlings saga. That book was all about human interactions, and I couldn't understand many of them, not because the Swedish vocabulary was beyond me (though sometimes it was), but because they were just weird (what kind of parent hopes their adult son will die so that they won't have to tell the son that his bride doesn't love him?). But this book is a much more familiar comfortable sort of tale. I am only 26 pages in (45 minutes of audio book), and there is magic and a contest of wills that I can actually understand. The other book I read/listened to because I need to learn how the Swedish printed word relates to the spoken word and to get a better sense of how sentences are typically formed in Swedish. This one I am going to read for fun, and listening to a native speaker pronouncing the words is just a bonus. Ok, a bonus that is worth making it take longer to read than if I just read it silently--I have caught myself a couple of times getting a line ahead of what she was pronouncing, and having to force my eyes back to the correct place in the text...

Day three of Gösta Berlings saga: listened to audio book to 1:55:41, which is the end chapter 3 (page 55). Three days reading, and better than 30 minutes listening/reading every day--goal is on track.

Day four of reading/listening to Gösta Berlings saga got me to 2:32:17 in the audio book, which is the end of chapter 5 (p 72).

Day 5 of reading/listening to Gösta Berlings saga: to 03:16:28 on the audio books is the end of chapter 6, p 92. So for not only making time to listen/read every day, but also exceeding the 30 minute at a time goal....

The other day at my Swedish for Immigrants course my teacher asked a few of us students if we would go talk to the rector about how we felt about the program--what was working and what they could do better. I was the newest student in the group, since this is only my third week of class, but, since I tested into the highest level the school offers I was able to participate in the conversation, which took place only in Swedish.

I was the last student to speak--the others spoke of things they and their classmates had discussed about what they did and didn't like in the program. I haven't been around long enough to have gotten involved in such discussions with my classmates, but I did have one thing I would like to see done just a little differently. Reading Class. (my mother will not be surprised to hear this one--ask her to tell the story some time about how and why the way the school I went to Second Grade for changed their approach to reading class.)

I love the format of our reading class--we sit around a (round) table and take turns reading a couple of paragraphs, and then we pause to discuss what we just read, explain (in Swedish) any words one or more of us didn't already know, and be certain we all understand, and then the next person reads. Sometimes, when the word is extra hard to pronounce, the teacher helps us with the pronunciation. So, what is the problem? The books are too easy! They have us reading "LättLäst" brand books, which are books designed to be very easy reading--very simple, straight forward sentences, without subordinate clauses or more than one adjective. Only a few sentences per paragraph, and no idioms for clever turns of phrase.

This is a good thing for helping to build student confidence if reading on one's own, but, I think it is too easy for this format of reading. If we are reading them out loud with someone to help explain what it all means I think it would be worth reading quality writing, and learning how Swedish *should* sound, when we get good at it. At least occasionally. So I mentioned this idea to our rector, and also confessed that there may not be so many of us who would like this, but I think it would be "jatte roligt om vi kunde läsa riktig literature".

The very next day was reading class, and, at first, it was only the teacher and I, so I talked to her about this idea, and she said that we don't have such a course at SFI, but they have them at the University and encouraged me to take them, then she took me to the library and found me a book my a noble prize winning author, Selma Lagerlöf called Gösta Berlings saga to check out.

Later in the day, in another conversation with someone else the topic of listening to audio books while reading the text to help me get better at Swedish pronunciation and actually recognizing words that I know to read when I hear them. So we looked on line and found a place where we could download an audio version of the book. They say that the audio version takes 14 hours to play, and the library says I can have the paper version for 4 weeks. Therefore, if I listen to it and read along in the book for at least 30 minutes every day, I will finish the book before it is due.

Today was day on on this goal, and I can report that the mid-chapter interlude on page 18 of chapter two falls at the 30:23 point on the recording. The plan is to listen/read every day till I finish the book wish me luck.

( and a quick summary of what has happens so far behind the cut where those of you who don't want spoilers don't have to read it )