About Swedish<UL><LI>Swedish is an Indo-European language that belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, all of which derive from Old Norse. <LI>This course teaches <I>rikssvenska</I> (sometimes referred to as Standard Swedish) as spoken in and around the capital region of Stockholm. <LI>Swedish is spoken by approximately 10 million people, mostly in Sweden and parts of Finland. <LI>Norwegian and Swedish are considered mutually intelligible, with Danish also being very similar. <LI>The Swedish alphabet uses the 26 Latin letters, plus three additional: Å / å, Ä / ä, and Ö / ö. </LI></UL><P><B>The Pimsleur® Method: the easiest, fastest way to learn a new language. Completely portable, easily downloadable, and lots of fun. You'll be speaking and understanding in no time flat!</B> <I>Swedish, Comprehensive</I> includes 15 hours of spoken language practice and one hour of reading instruction in thirty, 30-minute lessons. This course replaces our original Compact Swedish with new and expanded vocabulary, scenarios, grammar and structures.<UL><LI> In the first 10 lessons, you'll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You'll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills. <LI>In the next 10 lessons, you'll build on what you've learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You'll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. <LI>In the final 10 lessons, you'll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You'll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. </LI></UL><P>Reading Lessons are included starting at the end of Unit 11 to provide you with an introduction to reading the Swedish alphabet. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.<P>