Part of the Process
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This book/CD pack is a good way to get you started on your home Swedish Lessons. Given the price it's hard to dish out bundles of criticism. Swedish isn't as abundant in resources as some other languages so it's really a case of picking and choosing your route in from a few options.
As with any language, multiple reference points in written and most importantly spoken language are needed and this book can prove very helpful as part of that. Firstly I would recommend only buying the CD/Book version of the course as both written and spoken skills are covered in each section. As others have commented the pace is very fast, and you are thrown in at the deep end, so in order to get the most out of the book it's a good idea to try a basic spoken course first.
For this purpose there are 15 free lessons from SurvivalPhrases available on iTunes. This will help you to get used to the tone of the language at a slower level. Moving onwards, there are various websites which promote basic Swedish and give hints on language usage. Once you have a grasp of this it's time to move onto the book.
The book starts with a basic alphabet explaining the Swedish alphabet and there is also a basic pronunciation guide. This is quite useful as to refer back to as occasionally Swedish has some odd pronunciations as it is a tonal language. In each of the 18 sections, we follow 3 dialogues of a family navigating their way around Sweden and picking up the relevant bits of language. Each of these sections takes around 1-2hr to complete, and includes written tests too. In addition to this there is a gradual introduction of grammatical structures allowing you to build on the words you have learned. Bear in mind that there is the possibility that you may need to re-take each section to master it.
At the back of the book is a (very) condensed English-Swedish dictionary to help with some common words, and a condensed verb list. In order to keep progressing in tandem with this book or after you have completed it, I'd recommend a concise verb reference 201 Swedish Verbs Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses (201 Verbs Series), a grammar book Swedish: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Grammars) and a quality dictionary Swedish Dictionary: English-Swedish, Swedish-English (Bilingual Dictionaries).
This package can be a very helpful product in your goal of learning Swedish. It is not without its flaws, but for its price it has go down as a useful tool when used in conjunction with other resources.
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Avoid
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This is a terrible book. Not only does it have, as a previous reviewer pointed out, a total lack of structure it also has a very steep learning curve. It starts at the usual greetings and then, improbably, goes straight to talking about having dinner, and then a section on what time people get up in the morning.
The book has long passages which are beyond the language skills of the person at that particular point in the book, and not enough useful phrases or summaries of vocabularly.
I even showed the book to my swedish girlfriend who found the book baffling and in parts inaccurate and explained that some of the expressions were very old indeed.
All in all, steer well clear of this course.
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A valuable resource
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The book and CDs together really do make a complete course for you to follow at home. Presentation in good within the constraints of the small format and lack of colour printing/illustration. Each chapter is very well organised and follows a logical format. Grammatical points are explained succinctly. There are exercises and dialogues and also a focus on an aspect of Swedish culture within each chapter. The variety is very welcome. There is a lot of information in each chapter, and you should not expect to progress particularly quickly after the first few chapters. The CD is essential as a guide to the sing-song pronunciation of Swedish. I do not think this book could be improved within its price bracket. It does take a more scholarly or academic approach to the learning of a language. If you have learnt another language previously, you should feel at home with this format
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LEARN SWEDISH THE EASY WAY!
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This teach yourself book on how to learn the Swedish language was one of the first books and tape packs I got on learning the Svenska. It starts really as a kind of story book following the Taylor family who arrive for a vacation in Gothenburg. It tells the story as well as learning you useful phrases on how to say things for a trip to Sweden. The beauty of this book is that unlike most teach yourself language titles it does not start with My name is....? It in a way throws you in the deep end learning what would happen when you arrive at a ferry terminal. The tape included guides you throw each stage and is presented by two Swedish speakers. In my experience as this was the book I got first on teaching myself Swedish over 6 years ago, I still refer to it as one of the best to start learning a new language. I am about to aqquire the Finnish one in the same format to begin a new language yet again.
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A good guide to the Swedish language
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This is definitely one of the better items in the Teach Yourself series. The grammar parts bring you a surprisingly long way, and the topics covered induce a wide vocabulary for a book for beginners. If you need Swedish only for your holidays you can still decide to skip the passages dealing with history, the school system, etc. The one decidedly negative aspect is that not enough emphasis is laid on the tonal system of the language. This is essential from the earliest stages on and therefore it would deserve more attention. The cassette is quite helpful in this respect but still questions with respect to tone are left open.
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