Svenska – hur svårt kan det va?

I debatten är det många som tycker att det tar för lång tid för nya svenskar att lära sig språket. Men svenska är allt annat än enkelt. Och att behärska svenskan efter bara två års studier blir därför ett nästan omöjligt krav. —Sandra Vilppala, språkkonsultstudent vid Stockholms universitet.

Sandra Vilppala is a Swedish Language Consultancy Programme student at Stockholm University. In this Språktidningen blog post Vilppala writes about how hard could the Swedish language be: hur svårt kan det va?

Apparently, it probably takes about two years to complete the SFI levels A to D, with level D comparable to sixth graders (age 12 or 13). Some say two years are too long for foreigners to learn the language. Swedish is not difficult to learn, but it’s not easy either.

For me, Swedish is ‘easy’ because, for example, I don’t have to conjugate for every subject pronoun (first-person, second-person, and third-person), as seen in the case of Italian. But in the case of Swedish, the energy I conserved from conjugating (for example) I channel towards prosody. 

I’ve enrolled myself into the free SFI program (started in October), got bumped up to level C after one month into the program (in late November), and so began my systematic, formal study of the Swedish language towards nationally recognized proficiency.

I commit to mastering Swedish within one year by December 2022. I recognize my strength in reading (läsa) and writing (skriva)—I’m a strong speller! I acknowledge my weakness in speaking (tala) and listening (lyssna), so these will be the areas to focus on for improvement. I’m super excited!