Going to school in another language is like being tossed or leaping into the deep end of a very large body of water like Lake Michigan or Cape Cod Bay. It is not small like a swimming pool, nor is it the whole ocean.

I knew I needed to learn Swedish before I went to the ESI and I tried. I made it through level 2 of Rosetta Stone. They have 3 levels, and my goal had been to do all 3, but I made it only through 2. Level 2 of Rosetta Stone is allowing me to tread water, so I wouldn’t want to be without it. But I need more to swim. I could pick out words and phrases from the beginning (one month ago!), but the language goes very fast and there is a lot of talking, so it is exhausting trying to keep up.

Music and dance lessons in another language are semi-reasonable, because I speak music and dance. Even when I don’t fully understand the explanation, I can hear the example and imitate that. But any deviation to another topic is very challenging because I don’t have that vocabulary, yet.

I use the Google Translate App on my iPhone but it is too slow to use on the fly. I am continuing to work through Rosetta Stone here, and of course am studying Swedish by immersion all day every day. It is getting better.

Some teachers are good about speaking clearly and trying to allow us to get it, even adding phrases in English to recap or clue us in. This is really, really helpful. Teachers who do not do that, or who speak in another dialect are more problematic. We can ask for translations; the teachers are cheerful about clarifying, then go back into Swedish after that.

Here is an audio example of 4+ minutes of a class where we are learning a new tune. The unnamed guest teacher sounds good, but the whole group sounds kind of bad; you can hear the spoken language.