Are you wondering what the names of IKEA products mean? Are you in love with Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking and Stieg Larsson’s Millenium and dream about being able to read the original Swedish version? Are you a fan of Ingmar Bergman and would like to see his masterpieces without subtitles? Or the Scandinavian nature simply takes your breath away? And you sympathize with the Scandinavian way of living and would like to get closer to it? Then you are in the right place! Swedish is the language that conquered me and I am sure it is starting to conquer you if you are here. On this website you can find my tips about learning Swedish, my reflections on similarities and differences between Swedish and other languages (English, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, German etc.) as well as my contact information in case you’d like to learn Swedish or get better in any of the mentioned languages.
About me
My name is Daria Polishchuk. I am originally from Ukraine but have been living in Prague, Czech Republic since 2013. I have always been amazed by languages and I kind of knew from the very young age that it is something I want to work with in the future.
It all started with English when I was 10 years old, by the age of 14, English was not enough, so I randomly picked Italian and started learning it on my own. Shortly before moving to Prague, I started learning Czech as well. At different times in my life I also spent some time learning French, Portuguese, Latvian, Hebrew and Danish.
Swedish came along when I was 17 and I have been devoting my time to it in one way or another ever since (from non-obligatory courses at the university to self-study to a full degree in Scandinavian studies and finally teaching). During my studies I spent 3 weeks at the summer school in Axevalla folkhögskola in the west of Sweden, 4 months in Blekinge Folkhögskola in the south of Sweden, 5 months at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and 5 months at Stockholm University.
I have been teaching Swedish since 2016. During that time I’ve worked for several different language schools in Prague as well as offered individual classes as a freelancer. At the moment I’m teaching both company and individual courses at James Cook Languages in addition to my own courses. At JCL I’ve also completed a number of teacher training courses. Since the pandemic started, I’ve also attended a fair number of online webinars about online teaching.
In June 2021 I got a Master’s degree in Scandinavian studies at Charles University in Prague.
