Swedish Language The 15-Year Plateau: Why I Still Struggle with Swedish (And How I'm Fixing It)

In 15 years of living in Sweden, I have never felt fully confident in mySwedish Language.

As a coach, I have all the tools. I know how to build structure, manage limiting beliefs, and create routines. As a professional, I have paid for tutors, bought the apps, and studied the grammar.

I am not hopeless. I understand almost everything. If I plan a conversation ahead of time—usually by talking to myself in the car—I sound pretty good.

My proudest Swedish moment was actually reading and finishing my wife's book.

"To My Love". Swedish/British 90's music and mystery if you want to check it out https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/till-min-love-9789174614619

But honestly I find it hard.

The words do not flow naturally from my British brain and mouth. The nuances and complexity of my English sound childish and stunted in Swedish. I feel like a diminished version of myself, and I hate that feeling.

I know it has cost me. It has cost me at times professionally, and it has created friction in building relationships. I still get that awkward, reluctant feeling when someone asks how long I have lived here. The immediate thought in my head is always: I know, I should be better by now.

Applying the Endurance Mindset

I am not stopping. This is where the endurance mindset kicks in. You don't finish a long race by being perfect, you finish by being consistent.

I started thinking about how I best learn and I realised I needed a different training partner. That is where I started looking at AI. If I can ask an AI to teach me in my exact preferred learning style, I suddenly have a 100% unique, controllable path, built to my wishes, for my best outcome.

I learn best by reading about things that keep my attention, weird history, interesting facts, and odd stories. So I built a new system. Tailored with topics I like, delivered when I want it. I learn best in the morning, so that is when it happens.

I do not have hours to spare, so I capped it at 15 minutes a day.

Just 15 minutes. But 15 minutes a day, skipping weekends, compounds into 65 hours of highly tailored education in a year.

My AI tutor is there every single morning exactly as programmed. All I have to do is show up.

Takeaway

As an international in Sweden, improving your language skills is the single biggest lever you can pull to integrate and belong. But it is a marathon. It takes inventiveness, determination, and the willingness to keep tweaking the system until you find what actually works for your brain.

If any of this sounds familiar and it's showing up at work too, that's actually where I can help most. 

Start a conversation

Scott

(Extra tip: If you want a great daily habit builder, check out this Lovable app built by Parto Jahangiri. https://dagens-svenska.lovable.app/ 

It's cool and it gives you fresh Swedish content every day).