Learning Swedish, part one of many

I've been studying Swedish on my own for awhile now, and luckily it's a good way to put a damper on the antsy impatience of waiting for my residence permit to be approved while floating around at sea for five weeks.  So far the easiest part has been reading Swedish, while pronouncing it is a whole different story...with the addition of the letters Å, Ä, and Ö, the Swedish alphabet has more vowel sounds than I can keep track of.

One of the best ways for me to learn new vocabulary has been to break down each word into smaller chunks that are easier to memorize.  Some of the word combinations I've come across are very practical and downright adorable. Here are my favorites so far:

• Sköldpadda:  Sköld is shield, and padda is toad.  A shield-toad is a turtle.
• Jordgubbe:  This is a weird one...jord is earth/soil and gubbe is a little old man.  So essentially a dirty little old man is a strawberry.
• Ormbunke: Orm is snake and bunke is bowl.  A snake-bowl is a fern.
• Tvättbjörn:  Tvätt means wash/laundry, and björn is bear.  A laundry-bear is a raccoon.
• Blixtlås:  Blixt is lightning or flash.  Lås is a lock.  A flash-lock is a zipper.
  
•  Noshörning: See if you can figure this one out...yep, a nose-horn is a rhinocerous.
•  Havstulpan: Hav is sea, and tulpan is tulip.  A sea tulip is a barnacle.