To Saff-- I actually do not know any Scottish expressions but I did learn an Irish expression from Scottish students: "What's the craic?" Apparently that's just a way to say "What's new" and "craic" is pronounced like "crack." :P I also just Googled "bunny hug" and it's basically what we call a hoodie. I hope I am correct.

Well here in America, Chinese people have celebrations and invite their friends but the rest of the country doesn't really celebrate it, although we acknowledge it. I think that there are a lot of stereotypes surrounding Chinese New Year in America and we don't know a lot about the real traditions. But we do enjoy the concept of the Chinese zodiac (like the year of the Rooster and so forth).

I think the only thing you can do is speak as much as possible. I know it sounds silly, but talk to yourself out loud in the new language when you are alone. That helped me immensely as I was learning Swedish. And of course you can chat with your buddies on Skype/iTalki.

I am not sure what your strategy is but when I was learning new words, I would write them all down and review them any chance I got. Riding in the car, waiting at the bus stop, waiting for my food, etc. Now I just use an app on my phone called Quizlet and I can create flashcard sets. You can put a star on certain words that are difficult.

One thing I have found SUPER helpful is not trying to memorize long lists, but instead memorizing smaller lists. So I only try to learn six difficult words at a time and practice them a lot. Then I move on to the next six. Our brains memorize better when we group things together rather than trying to learn a lot of things at once.

Maybe you already know these things, but this is just what I have found to help me. :) Good luck. I love Swedish.