Did you know The Local also has a weekly podcast? In Sweden in Focus, we discuss the big news and talking points in Sweden as well as explore and explain the big issues that impact life in the country. We also answer your essential questions and look ahead at what’s coming up.
STARTING OUT
Coffee Break Swedish
Coffee Break Swedish aims to take you through the basics of Swedish in a casual lesson-like format. It is extremely easy to listen to. Each 20-minute episode acts as a mini-lesson, where Swedish native Hanna teaches Mark Pendleton, the founder and CEO of Coffee Break Languages, the basics.
All phrases are broken down into individual words. After new phrases are introduced the listeners are encouraged to repeat them back to practise pronunciation.
The advantage of listening to this podcast is that the learner, Mark, begins at the same level as you. He is also a former high school French and Spanish teacher. He often asks for clarification of certain phrases, and it can feel as if he is asking the very questions you want answered.
You can also stream the podcast directly from the provider’s website, where they sell a supplementary package from the Coffee Break Swedish Academy, which offers additional audio content, video flashcards and comprehensive lesson notes.
Say it in Swedish
This lively podcast from Stockholm-based Joakim Andersson has an enormous amount of content, with a course of beginners lessons, and stand-alone lessons on various different aspects of Swedish usage. Andersson stopped making podcasts after 80 episodes to concentrate on his YouTube channel, which is also very much worth a watch, with a lot of interesting, and fun, snippets on how to pronounce and use Swedish. There's also a merchandise site, with some fun Swedish-themed t-shirts.
Pimsleur Swedish
OK, so this is an app rather than a podcast, but the experience of doing the daily 30-minute audio lessons in Pimsleur Swedish is very similar to listening to a regular podcast. This is a highly structured audio-based language learning programme, which encourages you to learn through sound rather than the written word, and repeats vocabulary and grammar at intervals to implant them in your memory. It's very effective, and is a good way to have decent pronunciation from the start. The downsides are the cost – at $150, it's not particularly cheap – and the fact that Pimsleur have so far only made 30 lessons, meaning it only gets you to quite a basic level.
DEVELOPING YOUR SWEDISH
Radio Sweden på Lätt Svenska
This daily news bulletin in simplified Swedish put out by Sweden's state broadcaster SR is a fantastic resource. It's essentially the main stories from Ekot, SR's main news bulletin, simplified and then read very slowly, with short sections of real-life interviews. If you go onto Radio Sweden's website, you can read along with the text. Incidentally, 8sidor, which means literally "eight pages", a newspaper in simplified Swedish, has a function which allows you to listen to the stories.
Klartext on P4
The Klartext news bulletin is actually designed for people with mental disabilities, but it also works for beginners learning Swedish. It's faster than Radio Sweden på Lätt Svenska, but still uses simplified language, so it's good for language learners wanting to move a step up (so long as you don't mind getting a bit more news than you might expect of particular relevance to the disabled).
Simple Swedish
Despite its name, the Simple Swedish podcast from Fredrik Arhusiander, is not for beginners, but rather to help people who already understand basic Swedish develop their vocabulary and listening skills. The episodes aren't graded, so can be listened to in any order, and feature Fredrik discuss his life, what he's doing, what's in the news, basically anything at all, in slow, simplified Swedish. With over 100 episodes so far, there's a lot of material to get through. Fredrik also offers his Strong Swedish online course for €199, and you can also become a Patron on Patreon for access to transcripts of all podcasts.
SR Ekot nyheter
After you've listened to the two simplified versions of Sweden's official radio news bulletin for a few months, it might be time to try the real deal. The Ekot Nyheter podcast has three major broadcasts a day: in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening. If you make it part of your routine, you'll find that what starts off a bit hard to grasp slowly becomes as easy to understand as news in your own language.
Radioapan
Anyone with children who speak Swedish can benefit from listening to Radioapan, "the radio monkey", a podcast from the Swedish state radio's children's channel which has original stories, children's radio plays, and readings from children's books. It's a really great resource.
PERFECTING YOUR SWEDISH
Lysande Lagom. The Lysande Lagom podcast from Emil Molander and Sofi Tegsveden Deveaux combines analysis of the clichés and reality around Sweden and Swedishness with language-learning advice. It's from Lys Förlag, the publisher which published The Local's Swedish Word of the Day anthology, Villa, Vovve, Volvo, and it makes for very entertaining listening.
Ekots Lördagsintervju
The long Saturday interview on SR, Ekots Lördagsintervju, is a great way to develop your listening skills, with host Johar Bendjelloul grilling party leaders, ministers, agency chiefs and other important people in the news.
Alex och Sigges podcast
Alex & Sigges podcast, which is over a decade old, is an institution in Sweden. It features Alex Schulman and Sigge Eklund, two novelists and media personalities, talking about the news, their lives and just about anything they find amusing.
Rättegångspodden
One of Sweden's most listened-to podcasts, Rättegångspodden, which translates as "The Trial Podcast", exploits the fact that all trials in Sweden are recorded, with the audio available to the public, to develop dramatic true crime podcasts. The podcast's founder Nils Bergman, also uses audio evidence collected by police, such as intercepted phone calls. For language learners with a true crime bent, this is a great way of improving your Swedish. The long form documentary podcasts on P3 also have a lot to offer for true crime enthusiasts.
Politiken
The Politiken podcast from Svenska Dagbladet is far and away the best podcast in Swedish on politics in the country. Wife and husband journalist team Maggie Strömberg and Torbjörn Nilsson analyse the week's developments, with the help of journalist and radio host Henrik Torehammar. Strömberg provides up-to-the-minute gossip from the Riksdag cafeteria and Nilsson draws on his encyclopaedic knowledge of Swedish political history to put it all in context. Linguistically, it's quite rich, so regular listening will expand your vocabulary.
Språket
Language geeks might enjoy Språket, a podcast from SR on language usage and etymology, which will help advanced Swedish learners get to grips with some of the things that puzzle even native speakers. If this is the sort of thing that floats your boat, then you might also enjoy Språktidningens podd, the podcast from Sweden's language newspaper Språktidning.
Emma Löfgren, Editor, The Local Sweden
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