THIS IS THE FSI SWEDISH BASIC COURSE: THIS COURSE INCLUDES THE BASIC SET STUDENT TEXT MANUALS. THERE ARE 16 UNIT LESSONS IN ALL WITH MP3 AUDIO INSTRUCTION THAT GOES ALONG WITH THE STUDENT TEXT MANUALS.

To the Student Welcome to the world of Sweden Swedes and Swedish! You have obtained this book as a way to help you learn the Swedish language and to help you prepare for life and work in Sweden. We hope that both these experiences will be enjoyable for you but before you begin we would like you to know some facts about language study in general and this book in particular. The new FSI Swedish Basic Course has been written especially for the future G.S. diplomat in Sweden. It is meant to serve as a textbook as well as a source of cultural information and it is accompanied by a complete set of tapes. We all know that the ability to speak a foreign language and to live in a new culture is not learned through books and tapes alone. These are only aids in a learning process which begins in the classroom where the instructor is the primary source of information and your main conversation partner and which later expands to the whole country of Sweden where a nation becomes your teacher. However the book has taken into account the student who may not have a teacher available. It was designed in such a way that together with extensive use of the tapes it may be used profitably by the self-study student. A self-study course however cannot provide sufficient opportunities to practice speaking and understanding Swedish. The primary goal of language learning is to communicate with the native speakers in a natural and productive way. A secondary goal is to learn to read and translate Swedish since this is an important skill you will need in your work. The first twelve Units consist of dialogs which cover a range of situations relevant to your life and work in Sweden. The last few Units are written in a narrative form and constitute a transition to further reading. Each Unit includes "Notes on Basic Sentences" which clarify certain grammar points cultural Information and idiomatic expressions that we think are particularly important. Following "Notes on Basic Sentences" is a section called "Points to Practice." This section deals with the grammar which is first explained as clearly and simply as possible and then put to use in Practices. Here you can cover up the correct responses with a piece of heavy paper or cardboard and then slide the paper down the page to confirm the correctness of your response or correct any error you may have made. Be sure you do the Practices aloud. Grammatical explanation should be thought of only as a tool when learning a foreign language. But it is the key to understanding a structure and a system which might otherwise seem confusing. Even though Swedish grammar and vocabulary are related to their English counterparts a word-by-word translation from either language into the other does not necessarily produce good sense. Because of important differences in ways we have of expressing the same thoughts speakers of English and Swedish see each other as using different patterns of language. It is therefore invaluable to learn Swedish patterns to the point where they become a real part of your speech so that the difference between English and Swedish becomes natural to you. Over many years of teaching Swedish to English speaking students the teachers at FSI have noted consistent patterns of difficulty that an English speaker has in learning Swedish. We have tried to draw on this experience in explaining the grammar and in pointing out the pitfalls. Our happy Vikings are used to draw attention to some of the grammar points and to make the task of learning Swedish grammar a little less serious. A dragon appears in places where we discuss something that may be unusually tricky. How to Use the Tapes The tapes provide the correct pronunciation of the dialogs narrative texts and grammar practices. On the tapes each Unit begins with the dialog "For Listening Only" to give you the chance to understand as much as possible unaided. Remember that it is just as important to understand what is being said as to produce your own sentences. Following "For Listening Only" there is a section called "For Learning." It contains the same dialog but this time each new word is given with a pause during which you are to repeat the word before the correct pronunciation is confirmed. The same pattern is then used for longer utterances. Try to mimic the native speakers as closely as possible paying close attention to stress and intonation. When an utterance is very long it will be divided into two or more sentences and then given in its entirety. .