At Babbel, the Didactics team of more than 150 language learning experts is responsible for creating and optimizing our language units. They decide on learning goals for each lesson, pick the best training methods to achieve these goals – and then plan, script and record the units. That’s why they probably know the learning approach at the core of Babbel’s app better than anyone. And that’s why we asked them to reveal their favorite units. We ended up with a list of some of Babbel’s coolest units – which might inspire your next learning session but also show the time and effort that the Didactics team puts into each new lesson. Here comes our first editor’s pick: Swedish for Everyday Life, presented by Elin, project manager for Swedish and Norwegian.
Elin, tell me about your favorite unit.
I picked Swedish for Everyday Life, a unit that’s meant for anyone who has a little knowledge of Swedish already, and focuses on everyday situations. In the unit, we follow the character Simon through a normal week: a friend’s birthday party, a dinner out in town and a visit to the police. It’s a mix of reviewing words and concepts that an upper beginner learner knows, and new vocabulary mixed with cultural information. You will, for example, learn how to ask for your clothing size while shopping or how to sing a popular Swedish Birthday song: Ja, må hon leva!
What are the main learning goals?
The main learning goals are to get closer to mastering everyday life in Swedish and reviewing your vocabulary in a new context – and hopefully adding new words, too. The learner will practice to read and listen to various dialogues, and of course also learn how to interact in different situations.
How did Swedish for Everyday life come to life?
In total, it took about three months to produce the unit. I’m a project manager, which means that I’m in charge of managing the unit creation and localization processes. When we decide to release a new unit, the project manager and the editor draft the content of the unit together. The project manager then plans all steps of the unit creation: authoring, reviewing, localizing into different display languages, reviewing again (and again), recording sounds, choosing images, and finally sending the unit into our in-house testing process. The editor has the text focus, the project manager the planning focus, you could say.
About four or five people from the Didactics team worked on this unit – for reviews, proofreading and image editing. And this does not even include the voiceover artists: All of our units are recorded by native speakers, and as there are many dialogues in this context, recording required some joint effort.
Why do you like the unit so much?
We tried to make it a bit challenging and assumed that the learner would have some knowledge already. In the beginner’s units, there is a lot of basic communicative interaction to cover – but in Swedish for Everyday Life the learner builds on what they know and learns to find their way around in Sweden. I thought about my first months after moving to Germany and what I would have liked to learn back then, only now I thought about an average week in Sweden instead.
Where can Swedish for Everyday Life be found?
The unit is available for those whose display language is English or German and who are learning Swedish. It’s listed in the Extra section.
Who should try this unit?
Try this unit if you have a beginner’s knowledge of Swedish!