Hello, I am a Native English speaker and I am looking to improve my speaking and writing abilities with a native speaker. In return I can help you with your English. (And I can maintain a conversation in Spanish). If any native Swedish speakers are interested out there, please send me a message, TacK !
Hi Traeton! Unfortunately I donât speak Swedish (my mother comes from a Swe-Fin bilingual family, but she didnât speak Swedish to me). 
Iâve found language exchange partners at interpals.net There are plenty of Swedes who are looking for chances to speak Swedish. Luca Lampariello wonderboy recommends sharedtalks which has chat rooms, if I remember right.
Swedish is an interesting language. Iâm planning to continue learning it some day. Itâs an official language in Finland, so all Finns have to learn it in school. And 5% Finns speak it as their mother tongue, as you may know. My dream is to be able to read Tove Janssonâs stories and comics. They have become super popular in Finland and Japan because of a anime that was made of it.
1 Like
Hey, Thank you very much for your response! Im actually a long time member with both sharedtalk and interpals. lol. There are rarely if never swedes in the chat rooms on sharedtalk and most other swedes have not responded to emails on that site. with interpals I am constantly writing many swedes. 1 out of every 15 people will respond, and then when they do respond they never seem to follow up and continue the conversation with you. itâs been quite discouraging. Swedish is a language which I really enjoy but sadly its been tough to get a consistent language partner with it to practice⊠Most swedes already speak fluent English and desire to learn other languages instead. I will continue learning it to the point Iâm comfortable, and just enjoy the language but I probably wonât get a whole lot of practice speaking It until I visit Sweden one day.
Thank you for telling me these things though. I didnât know it was an official language in Finland, thatâs cool ! Thanks for your response
"I probably wonât get a whole lot of practice speaking It until I visit Sweden one day. " Itâs the same issue in Sweden. I go there a lot and I find that if you canât fake the accent well enough, or make a mistake, they will always revert to speaking English with you. Iâve yet to meet a Swede who didnât speak excellent English - even when they modestly claim to be bad at it! (Iâm told that some older people donât speak much English - just havenât met one yet) As regards the search for online conversations, I found it similarly difficult. In the end I found a couple of people on italki.com that offer conversation practice - not free, but very cheap, $8-10 per hour.
2 Likes
hello help me to be perfect e in english
Oh yeah, I bet thatâs a big difficulty. In Austria, where I live, they do it very often, and quite often their English isnât even any good!
âall Finns have to learn it in schoolâ âŠwell thats a truth that needs modification (:
The level after 6 âyearsâ of âPakkoruotsiâ, could be betterâŠ(with help of LingQ for example!)
This is true for the younger generation, and I donât think itâs even mandatory now, right?
Sorry for the off-topic.
Hey thanks, yes I know there is a struggle to find people to talk with when you study languages of smaller countries. I think the solution for your trips to Sweden is to pretend you donât speak English. Then they will have to communicate with you in Swedish !, Since my last post, I have made a few Swedish language partners after searching every site on the internet⊠Shared Talk, Interpals, Hello Talk app, etc are some other places to try without having to pay, you just have to cast a wider net to find people to talk to with these small languages. But enjoying my journey with Swedish, I will put it on the back burner to focus on other languages soon, but im feeling good with my Swedish.
1 Like
Pretending not to speak English is a great idea. Note to self: Learn to say âI am Latvianâ in Latvian!
1 Like
In these kind of situations Bennyâs advice may be useful. Battle of wits: Nice and nasty ways to win when they want English practice » Fluent in 3 Months âBATTLE OF WITS: NICE AND NASTY WAYS TO WIN WHEN THEY WANT ENGLISH PRACTICEâ. I think these tricks will work to most Swedes too. You people probably know that often people donât know that you want to practice their language.
1 Like
Yea I havenât thought about it carefully, but probably I would vote against compulsory Swedish, if there was a referendum. But the evil Swedish elite is too powerful⊠: P Although not all of them support compulsory Swedish (âpakkoruotsiâ).
Or I donât know why this situation goes on. Finland fell off the motherland Sweden already 200 years ago (thanks to RussiaâŠ).
What Steve Kauffman has written about compulsory French education in Canada sounds very much like the Swedish thing here in Finland.
âPerfect is the enemy of good.â But good luck. There is lots of good stuff in lingQ!
Haha,thats a good article. Thanks, !
Well, it was funny.
âI say that Iâll gladly speak all the English they want, but my rate for private English lessons starts at âŹ50/hour and I require payment in advance. I ask them if theyâd like an estimate in the local currencyâ
So Benny, hur man sĂ€ger âObnoxious wankerâ pĂ„ svenska? 
hahaha, If you have to struggle that much to get someone to stop speaking English with you, your better off finding someone else to speak with⊠Till exempel.----Ive been attending and working with a Spanish speaking church lately and one of the problems I found was when people saw me they automatically wanted to began speaking with me in English instead of spanish like everyone else is speaking. well my spanish is quite proficient and Ive just had to make a conscious decision to only respond in spanish. Some people have caught on and began to only speak with me in spanish or ask me if I prefer them to speak in spanish with me.
Other people seem to refuse to talk spanish with me. But I continue to only speak with them in spanish. you canât always control what language other people respond to you in, but you can control what language you respond in. it is easier to get listening practice in because you can watch tv listen to radio, etc. without assistance from other people. but authentic speaking practice for the most part takes two people. So you have to stick with your guns and keep speaking in the language you want practice in.
1 Like
Hi Traeton! I donât speak Swedish neither, but I have recently start using www.langademy.com Itâs another language exchange site and I donât know if there are any Swedish there, but you can organize or join meetups to talk in the language you want to learn. They use a videochat (Language roulette) system, so you donât have to share your skype address or anything, and you can also make your contact network.
I hope it helps and you can find someone to practice Swedish!