School children and adolescents
As a child or adolescent, make use of your time in school. School is open to everyone, and your teachers are most likely well-educated. In addition, the number of students in language classes is usually limited, which in turn should mean good teaching conditions. While you’re young, you have an easier time learning a language, but you’re also more likely to forget what you’ve learnt if you stop studying. So keep going! Take a language course abroad during your holidays if you can afford it. It’s likely to boost your language proficiency, and to increase both your cultural awareness and your knowledge about society. And it’s usually a lot of fun too.
Youth and adults
Youth and adults aiming for sheer proficiency will be well-advised to apply to Folkuniversitetet (’The People’s University’). Folkuniversitetet collaborates with the univiersity, which in turn scrutinizes their courses to ensure high quality is maintained. If you’re looking for a more light-weight course at a lower pace, then there are lots of independent study courses available. If money is not a problem, or if you have a company backing you up and ready to invest in your learning, then there is also a range of private schools and institutions happy to customize their courses to your needs.
Adults
If you are an adult with an upper secondary school diploma or equivalent, you can apply to study at university. Apart from sheer proficiency training, studying a language at university entails a consistently analytic perspective on the language per se, on its cultural forms of expression, as well as on the societies in which it is spoken. For optimal effect, once you have settled into your studies, apply for a semester as an Erasmus-exchange student in a country you find interesting. Stockholm University offers a wide array of languages and opportunities.
Mature adults and seniors
As a mature adult you can apply to study at Senioruniversitetet (’The University for Seniors’). Courses there are specifically adapted to people with extensive life experience. Keep an eye out for trips and theme courses abroad for adults and seniors. If your first language was not the same as the one you now speak in your daily life, then it may just be that the old one is starting to come back to you. That’s a natural process as you are aging. Keep your languages active, and your mind will stay vital.
/Christine Ericsdotter Nordgren, August 2016. Translation: Albin Hillert