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Ereader Easy Swedish

ereader-swedish.fly.dev

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Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#61

Post by marssaxman »

stevesimmons wrote: post #59
tapland wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My SO has lived in Sweden for a few years, gone through the provided Swedish classes to be eligible for university studies, but really feels the need to consume more swedish text. The easier-to-read books in the libraries are all too simple, and they don't want to learn by regularly reading a lot of news (which is probably the easiest way to be trickle fed new and niche words), but this seems really nice. This looks…

When I was learning Dutch, I found the same gap between kids' books that were too simple and proper novels that were too complex. Newspapers were the easiest and best way to bridge that. They made it easy to pick a story where you had both some interest and enough background context. I started with De Telegraaf, a popular newspaper, with short, simple stories and lots of photos. And over the course of 18 months worke…

Funny timing - I just finished today's episode of "NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal". I have not regularly followed "the news" in many years, but this channel offers a pleasant way to get some daily practice; it's simple enough to follow along, with a few new words and phrases to learn each time. I'll check out De Telegraaf as well - thanks for the recommendation.

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#62

Post by Kiro »

BurningFrog wrote: post #54
ftrobro wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "ateljé" (meaning art studio) really the correct Swedish translation here? I suspect "etta" (meaning one-room apartment) would be more suitable.

Yeah, 99% sure it's an apartment in this context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_apartment

No, it's not. The book is taking place in some kind of arts center for music and art.

"And at exactly the same instant Signor Jacobelli was bursting without warning or ceremony into a studio on the second floor where a model posed."

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#63

Post by Kiro »

unwind wrote: post #25

I tried to figure out if the translation is correct (the concept of a "studio apartment" in English is not easy to express in Swedish, and "ateljé" is certainly not it). I even found this [1] comment on Reddit, detailing the exact same concern. Perhaps worth looking into? [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Svenska/comments/1j4teje/comment/mg...

It's not a studio apartment though. The book takes place in some kind of arts center:

"And at exactly the same instant Signor Jacobelli was bursting without warning or ceremony into a studio on the second floor where a model posed."

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#64

Post by [deleted] »

amarant wrote: post #58
dehrmann wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with learning Swedish is 95% of Swedes speak English and are more than happy to speak English.

And will switch to English as soon as we detect the slightest hint of a foreign accent, in a often misguided attempt to be helpful.

[deleted]

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#65

Post by pigscantfly »

cetu86 wrote: post #37
pigscantfly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It converts to lätt svenska (simplified Swedish), which is usually intended for beginners / students and I believe is the point here. The translated text is missing a lot of details, though, yes.

I'm currently starting to learn swedish myself. I was looking for the translation of "facing the west" but I think that was omitted in the translation. (Btw. Why is it facing THE west and not facing west anyways?) if the translation omits such a lot of detail it's not interesting to me.

Honestly probably just literary license -- this author seems to employ pretty florid prose. I'd say it actually sounds more natural to say "towards the west / mot väster" in Swedish since it's more common to use as a noun vs. as an adverb than in English.

If you're in the US, I recommend bokon.se for ebooks -- they're one of very few sites that accepts American credit cards. Otherwise, you're kind of stuck with libraries (if you have one nearby with a good foreign language section) or packing your suitcase. I'd also recommend Historiepodden on Spotify and Sommarprat on sverigesradio.se -- don't really watch TV myself but others here have mentioned svtplay.se if you're into that.

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#66

Post by karl42 »

In a similar vein, I made https://www.wikdict.com/reader/sv-en/ , which adds translation pop-ups to each word in the input text. The cool thing compared to manually looking up words is that it will translate idioms/phrases (if they are in the dictionary) and split compound words (if they are not in the dictionary) into their translatable parts.

I also have some code to add the translations as pop-up footnotes to epub files (I like to use that on my e-reader). That is not mature enough yet for public usage, but if anyone wants to help testing it, I can run some e-books through it. Just let me know!

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#67

Post by mistrial9 »

tapland wrote: post #55
pivic wrote: post #41

I believe this type of 'translation' can't help with learning a language unless the person who's reading already knows a lot of idiomatic expressions, grammar, and knows both English and Swedish on an everyday-conversation level. Let me show you what I mean. Here's the first paragraph in English: > The town studio of Signor Jacobelli faced the west. It was situated on the top floor of an old eight-storied building in…

My SO has lived in Sweden for a few years, gone through the provided Swedish classes to be eligible for university studies, but really feels the need to consume more swedish text. The easier-to-read books in the libraries are all too simple, and they don't want to learn by regularly reading a lot of news (which is probably the easiest way to be trickle fed new and niche words), but this seems really nice. This looks…

news is uniquely terrible for learning a language IMHO. One word changes meaning substantially.. lots of long form statements when a short form would work; lots of references that take local, political or cultural context to know; lots of ideas and words, very fast.. etc..

Re: Ereader Easy Swedish

#68

Post by vidarh »

jamesblonde wrote: post #51
vidarh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But English is simplified French ;) With apologies to Dumas ("L’anglais n’est que du français mal prononcé" - "English is little more than badly pronounced French" - spoken by D'Artagnan in Twenty Years After) The "quick and dirty" solution would be to cut and paste into Claude or ChatGPT, probably in sections to prevent it from going too far off piste/forget what it's meant to be doing, with a suitable prompt.

n’est que du -> is only

"little more" can, and often is, be used as a synonym of "only". In this case, take it up with the translators of Dumas' works - it's a common choice for the translation.
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