Norwegian seems to be the wisest choice. I'm from Iceland and I simply cannot understand why the fuck they are making us learn Danish ( yes they ruled over us for many years) but if they want us to learn Scandinavian language why not go for something more similar like Norwegian then we might actually be able to speak it.
@herrfriberger59 жыл бұрын
+Gunnhild Edwards Nynorsk then, I guess, at it is based on old norwegian dialects. Bokmål is basically Danish.
@Dixxi918 жыл бұрын
+Sven Ekeberg The issue is that if you're learning "Danish" in school you also need to pronounce it like a Dane. If they were learning Bokmål at least they could pronounce it like a Norwegian, which is way better xD Let's be real here, Danes mumble a lot and it's hard to tell what they're saying some times. Norwegian would be a more obvious choice now that they aren't ruled by Danmark anymore.
@herrfriberger58 жыл бұрын
Neueregel I don't hate bokmål at all, as a swede :) But the nynorsk dialects are closer to the old Icelandic language, as the settlers on that island were Norwegians, originally.
@abcabcboy8 жыл бұрын
+Dixxi91 Often when Icelanders speak Danish, they sound more like they are speaking some sort of Norwegian. Their Danish is more easy to understand for Norwegians, than "real" Danish...
@cezarstefanseghjucan7 жыл бұрын
Nynorsk er best! ^_^
@CristinaOslo9 жыл бұрын
Dear all, I am happy about all the comments to the video, but I am a bit surprised that no one seems to realize what was my first answer to the question:" Which language should you learn?" The answer was: " It does not really matter". If you have a compelling reason to learn one of the three languages, go for it! Only in the case when you have no clue which one to take, I recommend Norwegian. I do that based on the fact that we understand both Danes and Swedes and they understand us - so four out of four possible. If you learn Danish you will not so easily understand Swedish, the Swedes will not understand you, but you will understand Norwegian and the Norwegians will understand you, so only two out of four - the same goes if you learn Swedish.
@Dixxi918 жыл бұрын
+CristinaOslo Yeah, I think most people agree with you, (I do). But people like to pick fights on the internet because they're bored :) Sorry.
@danyukhin6 жыл бұрын
do you mean there out of there?
@herrbonk36354 жыл бұрын
@@Dixxi91 Or because they feel lonely.
@janandersen79329 жыл бұрын
WELL well well.... ALL you people from outside Scandinavia..., YOU dont understand..... When ever I meet a Scandinavian, ALL over the world...... WE ARE ONE....!!! Two years ago, I meet, in AUS, an Icelandic, an we ARE ONE.....!!! ALL Scandinavians keeps together.....
@MrRazorblade9999 жыл бұрын
Sorry but that's not true.
@20Unbelievable069 жыл бұрын
+jan andersen I absolutely disagree 100% with this. I've never felt that way or felt that anyone else I've met has either.
@Dixxi918 жыл бұрын
+jan andersen I agree. Because I'm Norwegian living in Sweden, but I prefer speaking English to them, because my Norwegian dialect is from the south so it's heavily influenced by Danish, and I moved to the north of Sweden so up here the Swedish is heavily influenced by Finish, and therefore they can't understand much of what I am saying. ^^' SO they view me as a foreigner and ask which country I'm from, and when I say I'm actually just Norwegian they suddenly view me differently xD I've only lived here for 6 months now and they consider me half Swedish already.
@Neueregel8 жыл бұрын
+jan andersen Lol. In English, it's spelled Icelander and not Icelandic
@gnawershreth8 жыл бұрын
+jan andersen It is quite fun really. The amount of Scandinavian travels who have drinking stories etc. involving other Scandinavians they just randomly met somewhere is quite impressive considering our small populations. It's not like there are millions of us everywhere after all. It's all about context though. I'm may day to day life I don't think about "my brothers" in Norway and Sweden, but I can sort of feel something bubbling up if something big happens or if we're comparing us to other foreigners. I mean, compared to Greeks, Koreans, Tunisians, Americans or whatever there's no doubt that I feel much closer to the other Scandinavians. It's not that I hate all the other nationalities or anything but there's just something relatable about the Swedes and Norwegians. I'm Danish and people often say that we're sort of the "relaxed" or "laid back" country in Scandinavia and that's possibly true but when it comes to values, culture, humor, what to do vs. what not to do etc. we tend to be extremely similar all over Scandinavia so I always find Swedes and Norwegians very easy to get along with. I've also noticed something interesting when traveling in non-Scandinavian countries. We tend to trust each other more from my experience which is probably exactly because our cultures are so similar. I don't need to personally know every Swede or Norwegian family to feel safe enough to ask them to watch my bags while I go to the toilet for example. I know that the same "rules" apply in the other Scandinavian countries so they're essentially the same as Danes to me in that situation. I've also noticed that we tend to be very relaxed around each other. Like a Swedish guy hitchhiking through Denmark or whatever. Chances are (from my own limited experience obviously.) that he would be much more comfortable and relaxed getting a ride from other Scandinavians. Not because he hates everyone non-Scandinavian or thinks they'll murder him or anything but we simply know the other Scandinavian countries and cultures so well that we're really not that worried.
@lucreziaoddone11 жыл бұрын
I fell in love with Norwegian when I was in Norway :) I've lived in Asker for one year!
@CosmoSkerry3 жыл бұрын
Ciao
@74Darkman10 жыл бұрын
Well, i am swedish myself and i really can't t decide on what anyone else should focus on (concerning learning danish, swedish or norwegian). Imho it pretty much depends on you purpose by learning another language. Are you interested in all of the 3 languages, then i agree with Cristina. You should take Norwegian since it in the mid of all 3 languages. It's a mix of swedish and danish. Except that you might consider that swedens population is about the combined population of Denmark and Norway. Most likely you will meet more swedes than danes and norwegians, no matter where you go. Swedes and norwegians generally have no problem what so ever to understand eachother in a conversation. Although both swedes and norwegians struggle with understanding danish, and it goes the otherway around as well (although you adapt fairly quickly, but it might take some time to iget into danish). Reading is without a doubt the easiest part since you can pick up any scandinavian newspaper and read it no matter if you are danish, swedish or norwegian. Oh, and i almost forgot. Just recalled a huge difference in one particular thing = counting. Swedish and Norwegian share (as with almost most other countries) the same 10-based counting system. Denmark on the other hand has a very confusing way to count. It's (correct me if i'm wrong) based on a weird mix of a 20-base combined with a difficult mix of halfs times 20. Ie. 50. In swedish it's "femtio", in norwegian "femti" while danish say "halvtreds". Halftreds literally means "half third times twenty". I won't go into details, but counting in danish is confusing if you are accustomed to a 10-based counting system.
@bjowolf22510 жыл бұрын
Yes, we are only doing this - using our very weird number system between 50 and 100 - to annoy our dear Swedish and Norwegian brothers big time ;-) But we do not think about these strange numbers in our daily lives though - they are really just names to us now ;-) I think you are right - Danes tend to speak much faster than Swedes and also cut corners, merge words, drop endings or even whole small words at times. And then we have all the strange mute d's and"soft d" ( ca. "-th" ) , corresponing to the similar sound in English ( just less pronounced ), which does not exist in Swedish and Norwegian and therefore confuse them - as well as most ending k's now having turned into g's" - which are often even soft ( ca. "-gh" ) or hardly pronounced at all. e.g. baka -> bake -> bage [ ba-ge -> bagh-e -> bay-e ] = baka = bake. For instance: D: "Der er en mand" [ Da'r'n man* ] S: "Där är en mann" [ Däärrr ärrr enn mannn ] E: "There is a man" We seriously need to shape up here in Denmark ;-)
@herrfriberger59 жыл бұрын
Bjowolf2 Younger people tend to speak very clearly today (especially when talking to foreigners...), but not all of them do, and certainly not a 50 year old guy from Svealand (Stockholm). I would certainly still pronounce _där är en man_ as _"där'n man"_ in everyday speech. The general trend here has been to follow the spelling more and more closely (although with many exceptions), almost to the point where the written word is regarded as some kind of phonetic writing... However, the spelling has varied heavily over the centuries, much more so than (the educated) pronunciation... so this prescriptive status of the written word over the spoken is a recent idea, partly based on historical ignorance.
@billkelly82229 жыл бұрын
When a Dane or a Norwegian travels to Sweden, do you have to bring along your own supply of those little lines through the 'o' -- or do they make you change them into dots at the border?
@Spacemongerr9 жыл бұрын
+Bill Kelly They are easily exchangeable at a local Tøddelverket - they have them all over in border regions and in the largest cities.
@Axel-qz2rj7 жыл бұрын
swedish because it's beatiful and it's the most widely spoken scandinavian language norwegian because you will be able to understande more danish and swedish, and because of skam danish i don't even know if you should try it lol but ... danish becuase of copenhagen? icelandic because it's the closest to old norse so it's very interesting.
@aularound4 жыл бұрын
For a Swede, Norwegian is more beautiful than Swedish. They sound so cute and happy all the time when they speak :D So just go for any of them except Danish :D
@egwpisteuw8 жыл бұрын
I recently chose to learn Swedish for totally subjective reasons (it somehow attracted me more than Danish and Norwegian). I like it but the pronunciation is crazy, I did not expect so many silent letters and weird letter combinations like the sj-, stj-, skj-, tj-, kj-, etc.. I thought it would be more like German or Dutch in terms of the correspondence between the written and spoken language but it is actually more like French.
@鬱鬱-e2w10 жыл бұрын
I prefer Swedish because it sounds classy. Norwegian sounds too rustic. Danish on the other hand, I'd prefer to not comment on. Icelandic sounds quaint.
@鬱鬱-e2w10 жыл бұрын
Nope, I'm a girl
@Bjowolf210 жыл бұрын
Swedish does sound either very "gay" or really "silly" ( not very far from how the chef in the Muppet show speaks actually ) ;o) - and very "sloooow" as well.
@鬱鬱-e2w10 жыл бұрын
Nynorsk is the real Norwegian, Bokmaal is Danish with the Oslo accent
@Hammerhook1210 жыл бұрын
鬱鬱 It's jus a compilation of different Norwegian dialects. The grammar is quite new.
@Hammerhook1210 жыл бұрын
Hammerhook12 Nynorsk that is...
@Kalinho838 жыл бұрын
Learned Swedish so you could learn Icelandic?? That doesn't make any sense at all. Icelandic is basically old Norwegian/Danish.
@pm712418 жыл бұрын
I agree that it makes little sense. But Icelandic is not old Danish. The old norse language split into east and west nordic languages. Danish and Swedish are east nordic. Icelandic and old Norwegian (before Danish influence) is West nordic.
@Ledarifique8 жыл бұрын
He learned Swedish because his University program worked in such a way that Icelandic was an elective you could chose once you had taken Swedish.
@annasmith45596 жыл бұрын
Den kalles "old norse" den er IKKE dansk!!!!!
@herrbonk36354 жыл бұрын
It actually makes a lot of sense. Swedish has thousands of words similar to Icelandic, and the Icelandic pronuciation is much closer to Swedish than to modern Danish. Furthermore, that west/east-divide of Old Norse (fornnordiska) does not go very deep, especially not when compared to how Norwegian has changed drastically under Danish (and Swedish) influence.
@CelineOlsen10 жыл бұрын
I understand Norwegian, Danish and swedish beqause i am norwegian. It isn't that hard to speak swedish and danish.
@Jefff7210 жыл бұрын
Molo CnR Hvernig er það að skilja íslensku? (Google translator)
@Peter_19869 жыл бұрын
Det är kul att besöka Norge, det är så likt svenska att det nästan känns mer som en dialekt än som ett annat språk. =P
@Jefff729 жыл бұрын
I've Swedish tried learning off & on for 20 yrs. In the last few months i got an iPhone app which I've worked on. It helps but I'm far from being fluent. I'm an American in Germany and I am fluent in German. We are going to Denmark in the summer. Now I didn't feel like switching to Danish midstream. How much will Swedish help me in Denmark? I know a few word in Icelandic like counting to 20 or asking where my luggage is.
@HorizonExer9 жыл бұрын
Molo CnR Det gjør du vist du prøver å forstå det. Dansk e faen ikkje vanskelig...
@Peter_19869 жыл бұрын
jteeselink I am from Sweden and my experience is that Danish and Swedish are fairly similar - kind of like Spanish and Portuguese - although a lot of Swedes find it hard to understand spoken Danish. You can probably make yourself understood if you are somewhat comfortable with Swedish though, and you can probably read a few Danish signs and texts. However, personally I think Norwegian is much more similar to Swedish; those languages are mutually intelligible to the point that they sometimes feel more like dialects of one single language rather than two separate languages, and Swedes and Norwegians can usually understand each other incredibly well.
@zagadkamisteriya10 жыл бұрын
I am going for Danish. I know she makes it clear that for people who are new to Scandinavian language are recommended to start Norwegian. However, I just love Dane's accent. Plus, when you speak Danish really fast to other Scandinavian, the surprised face on them is just priceless!
@sincerepeoples56892 жыл бұрын
I’m hear for it, I’m an American and I’m choosing Danish as my first language to learn. And even though people say it’s very difficult or it sounds weird. I still like it and I’m going to stick with it. Hope u do too. Good luck
@desktopkitty11 жыл бұрын
A Norwegian once told me that "Norwegian is speaking Danish in Swedish". A bit off-topic: I live in Texas near a town called Oslo. Our local high school calls the P.E. building Valhalla. I was born about 20 miles from a town called Norge. And yet I live in the South, and nobody here speaks Norwegian (at least no one I know).
@osmanabdi413311 жыл бұрын
jag underviser mig svenska spraket.. det är mycket lätt
@OliverPerssonMusik11 жыл бұрын
Welcome to Sweden, enjoy your stay and please do not only get stuck by Stockholm. There is so much more to see out there. Hope you enjoy living here!
@Vagabund929 жыл бұрын
There is a constucted language based on Danish, Bokmal and Swedish called SamSkandinavisk(Samska)
@Dixxi918 жыл бұрын
+Vagabund92 We should teach this in schools xD and unite the countries to "Scandinavia", we already go by that name most of the time (when talking about big world stuff) so why not ^^(we'll adopt Færøyene and Island too just for fun :) )
@Vagabund928 жыл бұрын
yeah! :-), it would make a good language for some scandinavian federation, also pretty cool for foreigners to learn. It could also be used like the arabs use standard arabic, as a written language and for text and news
@AnthonyLauder12 жыл бұрын
What a gorgeous garden!
@mykimikimiky10 жыл бұрын
I couldn't get to danish course although I learned it alone at home, but when I got the chance to learn norwegian all I can say: norwegian really IS the first choice, because of the pronounciation which is tottally straightforward. Danish, which is really a tongue-brake language, will be much more easier after the norwegian, I just love norwegian !!!
@adelaarrobin91739 жыл бұрын
mykimikimiky Jag är överens med dig, danska är svårt att tala, läsa går mycket bättre.
@adelaarrobin91738 жыл бұрын
tack för att reagera.
@mykimikimiky8 жыл бұрын
Robin Holthinrichs jeg så kommentar din bare i går :)
@mykimikimiky3 жыл бұрын
....oooooog det er jeg igjen. :) Svenska & dansk meistert. :D
@gnawershreth6 жыл бұрын
Haha, like she says in the video it's all about being exposed to a language. Reading Danish should be easy for anyone with some Norwegian or Swedish skills, but the pronunciation isn't as "singing" as the two other languages. It's sort of like American English compared to English English. Danish is more "flat" and "slurry" and not so singy-songy and up and down in tones. Danish had much more influence from its southern neighbors over time whereas Norwegian and Swedish were more "isolated" up north. Denmark always had way more interactions with Germany (also before it united into Germany), with The Netherlands etc. so we have been influenced by them, and we also have "German" words that the others don't. One example could be "Potato": Swe: Potatis No: Potet Da: Kartoffel De: Kartoffel My problem (as a Dane) with understanding Swedish and to a lesser extent Norwegian is the "rhythm" messing with my brain. We're all used to listening for the spaces between words in our native languages (and potentially any other languages we're fluent in) but if someone speaks a language in a different "rhythm" it quickly ends up sounding like a long stream of sounds without any spaces at all. When I listen to someone Swedish saying a single word or a simple sentence I can usually understand it, but when they talk normally at full speed the "singing" rhythm results in me being unable to hear where one word ends and the next word begins since I'm not used to that rhythm and can't tell where the spaces between words are. So it just ends up sounding like an endless stream of singy-songy sounds to me.
@Howbee12 жыл бұрын
I have been learning Swedish for the past couple of months, and I love it.
@keishamaria647811 жыл бұрын
I just think it's amazing, that people from Norway, Sweden and Denmark can talk in their own language to eachother, and still understand almost everything :)
@wolfhammer8810 жыл бұрын
This lady is stunning for an older lady, well she is Scandinavian :)
@AlexMoby12 жыл бұрын
Thanks for this video. I am fond of languages and, concerning the Scandinavian languages, I focus my attention on Danish because I love the accent and I am interested in the Danish history. Generally, Scandinavia is full of cultural treasures so unknown. Med venlige hilsen fra Frankrig !
@Partyffs11 жыл бұрын
As a Norwegian I can understand Swedish and Danish and read in both languages. I can understand parts of Finnish and Icelandic.(Spoken and written) But in all honesty, if you speak Swedish,Norwegian or Danish you will be fine.(English is also good, but you will have problems dealing whit older people and the government) I did not include the Faeroe Islands or the Sami people, because they are Norwegian.(Just shut up and do as you are told children!!!(......meant as humor fyi))
@vannisapimp11 жыл бұрын
Færøerne er Danske!
@Partyffs11 жыл бұрын
Minnesota Noice Nope, Norwegians setteld there.
@vannisapimp11 жыл бұрын
was that when Norway was Danish? Because its Danish land now..
@Partyffs11 жыл бұрын
Minnesota Noice nope, it was during the viking era, even before Denmark existed.(If I remember my history correct)
@vannisapimp11 жыл бұрын
Well, if you want to get technical, Denmark has the oldest still standing kingdom in the world, dating back to the 10th century. though, to be fair thats already 150-200 years into the viking age. thats not saying that most of the people were not FROM Norway, but that if they were from Norway, they were probably technically Danish. But i believe they are also influenced by alot of the gaelic- nordic people, from skotland and ireland. anyhoo, its been Danish for pretty much the last 600 years so yea, Færøerne er danske :)
@VHSKisten11 жыл бұрын
Written Dutch yes, would say about 70% of the dutch I read, I can understand completely.
@CHR69502111 жыл бұрын
Well, although I speak now Swedish, my favorite skandinavian language is Danish....I like the sound of the language...maybe bcause I cannot understand quite well spoken Danish..( you always love and crave after what you haven't got!!! )... Between Danish spelling and pronunciation there is a gap...it reminds me what they say in Dutch about English spelling... ( In't Engels schrijf je "street", ze zeggen "striet"...en bedoelen " straat " )
@louisiananlord175 жыл бұрын
I would say Swedish because it is more widely spoken in Scandivania as most Finns speak it and most Norwegians know the vocabulary and verb morphologies. But most Scandinavians learn English, Spanish, or French in school to speak to the outer world.
@lorenzovonmatta8278Ай бұрын
Day 24: Interesting. Never thought about learning any of the Scandinavian languages. I certainly want to visit this region. I might learn one of these languages. This was a very interesting discussion!
@kebman11 жыл бұрын
Hi, I'm norsk, and if you have no connection to Scandinavia, learn Swedish. More people talk the language, and it's pronounciation is way easier than Danish. Most Scandinavians understand it too, including the Finns. The woman's obviously biased, and what the other dude said about Icelandic is only relevant to his particular university.
@kebman11 жыл бұрын
Finland used to be Swedish, just like Norway. ^^ Finland stayed Swedish a lot longer, though. Check out "The Kalmar Union".
@kebman11 жыл бұрын
Because Finland got a lot of Swedish immigrants (it's got a prominent minority), and because Finland still has a very close relationship with Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
@TheFutski11 жыл бұрын
I agree with you. A united Scandinavia would be wonderful since we have so many interests in common.
@DHjelseth9 жыл бұрын
I am Norwegian myself, but if I were English or American I would go for Swedish, because it has only one written language unlike Norwegian which has two. And because Danish is a bitch to pronounciate. This is only my opinion, I am trying to look at it as objective as I can. I can understand 99% of Swedish both verbally and written, but Danish I can understand 99% written and only about 33% spoken.
@Clichet811 жыл бұрын
Do Danes and Swedes speak their own languages when having a conversation or just switch over to English?
@herrbonk36354 жыл бұрын
Older people (like me) usually use our respective native languages, or a mix of Danish and Swedish. Perhaps a little bit slower tha usual, of course. Younger people are more prone to using English.
@BaZo2k1111 жыл бұрын
In Denmark we get Swedish channels in many places of the country, haha :).
@benj.am.x9 жыл бұрын
Just learn Swedsih, because if you speak and understand Swedish you also understand Norwegian and Danish, because Swedish and Norwegian are very similar to each other. And Swedish is with around 12 Million+ speakers the biggest of the Nordic languages! And come on PewDiePie is from Sweden ;)
@Dixxi918 жыл бұрын
+Benjaminnet Hmm you make a good case with the Pewdiepie and most speakers, except that if you speak Swedish you DO NOT necessarily understand Danish xD You might understand East Norwegian (Oslo region), but you'll struggle with the other dialects. Speaking from experience since I'm from south of Norway living in north of Sweden. If I fake an Oslo-accent they understand me pretty well, until I switch back to my own dialect. Being Norwegian myself I understand all the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish dialects I've encountered so far (which is many). So I can assume I understand "all" of them, ofc excluding Älvdalen, because not even Swedes understand them. (Eventho their language sounds beautiful ;) ) Swedes and Danes don't usually communicate well together until they switch to English. Whilst most Norwegians I know can switch to Svorsk* and Dorsk* real easily when on vacations ;) My conclusion: I'd say Norwegian is the best bet. It's the one in the middle of the three. Note: Svorsk = Svensk+Norsk (Swedish-Norwegian), Dorsk = Dansk+Norsk (Danish-Norwegian)
@abcabcboy8 жыл бұрын
+Dixxi91 I agree. Most, at least somewhat educated Norwegians, know which word are difficult for Swedes and Danes, and know how to speak more easily when apporaching our beighbours. In my experience Swedes and Danes are not always so good with his, and Danes very often speak "Swedish" to Norwegians, thinking somehow that Norwegians will understand him more easily if he says "fönster" instead of "vindu" etc. This is really annoying, since 90% the word the Dane changes into Swedish, is the same in Danish and Norwegian. Which just tells me that most Danes don't really have any knowledge of Norwegian, just thinking it must be like Swedish, because in their ears, it "sounds" the same.
@herrfriberger58 жыл бұрын
What has "PewDiePie" to with anything?
@thelinguistblogger12 жыл бұрын
Glad to finally see Cristina in a KZbin video! This is a great topic to address and I'm glad you did.
@juanmarcos11453 жыл бұрын
Richard, the youtube algorithm has been recommending me for a log time a number of videos about learning..... My native language!!!! Does this mean that I'm making a nice immersion in my target language???
@SpeakingFluently3 жыл бұрын
Hahahaha - absolutely! The KZbin algorithm never lies!
@VHSKisten11 жыл бұрын
Dutch when written is so much similiar to danish :) "Jeg fanger fugle med mine lange negle"
@ILOVEDAVIDCAVAZIS11 жыл бұрын
I love the three of them, Jeg eslker Dansk, jeg elsker Norsk og jeg älsker Svensk :) Farvel og vi ses, greetings from Mexico
@antix99510 жыл бұрын
I aim to learn Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian. Heard Finnish is super hard though :/
@juanmorell488410 жыл бұрын
The thing with finnish is that, even though Finland is located very close to the Scandinavian countries, its language is not a northern germanic language like the Scandinavian ones. In fact, it is not germanic, nor romance, not celtic, it is not even within the indo-european family. Finnish, along with estonian and hungarian are Uralic languages, and they are extremely difficutl to learn because as agglutinant languages, each word can have dozens of variations depending on its function.
@74Darkman10 жыл бұрын
***** Agreed. Look at the video (Nick). Swedish, danish and norwegian are very similar. Finnish is not related to germanic language at all. You have absolutely zero benefits from understanding danish/swedish or norwegian when it comes to finnish (which belongs to ugric along with ie. estonia and hungary),
@johanlindgren962410 жыл бұрын
Anything is hard if you don't know anything about the language.
@tauceti834110 жыл бұрын
I too started Finnish and found that the sounds were a little to hard. I started with German then went upwards. German -> Swedish -> then started Finnish and Norwegian over again. This gave me the word base to recognize some of the words but the sounds were still hard.
@insertnamehere33407 жыл бұрын
As a Dane, I'm 0-100 triggered
@TheChokladlover11 жыл бұрын
I really love how alike our languages are! :D I'm swedish, me and my family were visiting a norwegian family. We could understand each other very well! But once when my dad was talking to a danish person on the phone, he talked swedish but the other person had to speak english xD haha!
@neohotch12 жыл бұрын
Pure language learning wisdom in action, thanks both of you for this interesting video.
@TheQneb11 жыл бұрын
All of them are much softer and nicer than my own rough language, that I thought still love very much! :P
@herrbonk36354 жыл бұрын
Now I'm curious... what is your language?
@HesseJamez11 жыл бұрын
Makes me think of German (native), Bavarian (sth.similar) + Swiss German (foreign language).
@enigmath11 жыл бұрын
i have just started learning danish by myself (with bands and movies) and i undertand a lot of words already. i can tell when i'm reading swedish too and use google translator to check if i'm right. most of the times i am. and i know danish is one of the most difficult languages in the world but i fell in love with this band from denmark (Volbeat) and now there's no going back. i read about DK all the time, i love their way of life, well scandinavia as a whole is amazing. thanks for the video
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
I am pretty sure that my ancestors came from the Jutland area. Perhaps I could pick up some lessons in that dialect? I also seem to be able to follow quite a bit of German by the way. As with Dutch, there seems to be something intuitive about it.
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
Tak så meget for dit svar. Old English is pretty hard for us modern speakers to understand so I was wondering that as it must be close to old Norse, learning either a modern Scandinavian language or preferably old Norse would help in understanding old English. I guess I am trying to find the distant links between the two languages? It is a shame that modern English drifted apart from old Norse and finally the Scandinavian languages. It would be so cool if we all spoke the same language now.
@edo_far7 жыл бұрын
I think the best choice is Swedish, because it has more native-speakers and you get almost 2 countries, because in Finland is taught as a second/third language. I love Swedish but its pronunciation is so difficult.
@DorinaKoncz9 жыл бұрын
I'm from Hungary... and at the end of the video, I was quite surprised, that you mentioned the hungarian language :D
@CHR69502111 жыл бұрын
...so after my vacation on the island, when I got back to Athens, I went to a bookstore and bought the teach yourself book for Norwegian...I was very exited by the fact that I could understand and the only thing I needed to do, was to learn the differences...well after a couple of weeks I bought also the Danish teach yourself book and then I started to correspodend with Skandinavians in their languages. Many of them corrected my grammatical faults, I started to make lists of " false friends"....
@adam21089011 жыл бұрын
The thing I found about spoken Danish is that there are many glottalstops within the speech of the language, similar to British and Australian english when we omit the 't' from the end of words like "roed" in danish, you basically omit the 'd' at the end of the word. Aside from these three languages, Dutch is much easier to approach as an english speaker. What you see written is always pronounced the same way whereas German and the others are mostly all over the place.
@Minzon311 жыл бұрын
hey! New Norwegian is based on norwegian dialects. Bokmål is based from the danish written language, because we were under the rule of denmark for 400 years, and all the universities were there. When that is said, most people write bokmål, because it had a tradition of being the educated language and most people on the eastside of Norway speak in terms of this written language. Nynorsk (New Norwegian) is mainly based on the westcoast of Norway and in the middle of Norway.
@Satsumeh12 жыл бұрын
I've been learning Norwegian for around 8 months and have been working here for 1 month. Before I came here I was in Stockholm for a week and found the language still extremely to understand spoken, but everything written was fine as the differences are small etc. As for Norwegian the language itself is great and the people here are friendly and will happily speak with you providing you make them aware of what you want to do- cheers for an awesome video Richard, speak norsk next time :P
@SongmakersCry12 жыл бұрын
I don't know his name, but this man is my hero. I love languages so much, but have so much trouble learning them, but this guy is so smart, and knows a countless amount of languages. I'm envious, but it is good to know that it's possible.
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
As you are from Jutland, I have a question for you: Is the name Birkebæk very common around there? I suspect that this is the area where we originally came from? Not withstanding a higher sex drive, I should have thought that a predominance of a name in one area is likely to indicate that that was where it originally came from? If that is the case then I guess it confirms my suspicions. I do know that there seem to be many more versions of that name in Denmark than Norway/Sweden.
@CHR69502111 жыл бұрын
Hei paa dere ;)) !!! I am Greek and I've studied Swedish at first,...since I allready spoke Dutch and German when I started learning Swedish (...and English ), I hadn't got any trubble learning swedish grammar & vocabulary...whithin 4-5 months I could read and understand about 80% of a newspaper text....and suddently one day, I remember I was on Rhodes ( the greek islnd ), in the hotel I was staying, I found a life style magasin in a strange language I never studied but I could understand...
@Fasulye200912 жыл бұрын
This is indeed a beautiful garden, Cristina! You both raised a very interesting and important topic and I am very glad that you, Cristina doe not generally discourage people from learning Danish! I find Danish worthwhile learning and it's possible to manage the Danish pronounciation. Cristina, you have answered the questions, I had around the usage of Bokmâl and Nynorsk. So Bokmâl is more widey used and it makes more sense to learn that. Kind regards, Fasulye
@johanrangmar298411 жыл бұрын
The Scandinavian peninsula is Norway and Sweden. Scandinavia is usually meant to include Norway, Sweden and Denmark because of their shared history between 1300 - 1700 (around that period). Finland is usually not included because they don't speak a scandinavian language and Iceland is more part of our shared Viking heritage. When you want to include Iceland and Finland to Scandinavia we often just call it "The North"... atleast that's how a swede would put it.
@HermelJaworski12 жыл бұрын
excellent video, you guys give me wanderlust to learn one of those Scandinavian languages !
@skeppsbrogatan11 жыл бұрын
Also, there are a lot of materials, online dictionaries, etc aimed at foreigners wanting to learn Swedish but I suspect Norwegian is rather limited. The accent variety in Norwegian is also high.
@coloroflann11 жыл бұрын
I'm American but I live in Denmark (with my Danish husband) so I am learning Danish. I also have some Norwegian friends and though I can't understand them when they speak, I can pick up what they are talking about when they have something written on Facebook.
@mormor19glad12 жыл бұрын
I noticed she said, that her husband speaks english with danish colleagues. I`m not sure but in Denmark, there are many people that find it difficult to understand and speak swedish or norwegian. I think it has something to do with where in Denmark your from. I`m from north Jutland. Here we understand the two languages with no problem. Perhaps it has something to do with our dialects? I have family at Zealand/sjælland, i know that they find it difficult to understand the two languages.
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
Not quite sure what you meant? Did you mean that Danish is written more phonetically than English and French? I know that when I came across 'hendes navn' I read it out to my wife and she thought I was saying, 'her name'. Another interesting word used in both Scandinavian and German is 'langsomt/langsam', which to me sounds like 'long time', which of course relates to 'slow/slowly'.
@roedgroedudenfloede12 жыл бұрын
I left a similar message on your Facebook posting, but I've been learning Danish for 7 years. Despite it arguably being the most difficult of the 3 languages to understand/speak (reading/writing it isn't too bad), I am still motivated to improve. I also feel that, if you understand 1 of the 3 languages reasonably well, you should be able to get by in the other 2 - e.g. I was in Stockholm last month, and understood pretty much all the (simple) Swedish written text I encountered.
@Ulvestorm11 жыл бұрын
Any of the four main Scandinavian written languages as well as English can be used in Norwegian colleges.
@mysticalcatnip2218 жыл бұрын
Haha love your personality!
@osmanabdi413311 жыл бұрын
iam from somali and i liv in somali and i learn swedish very well.. with out teacher... it is easyst language i ever learnt it.. like dreaking water..
@JonasPalle6 жыл бұрын
My expat friends here in Denmark say that even though they take Danish classes and live in Denmark, they understand Norwegian and Swedish better
@herrbonk36354 жыл бұрын
That's probably because the Danish pronunciation has changed drastically during the last (two) centuries. Swedish and Norwegian are both much closer to Icelandic in that regard.
@AlexMoby11 жыл бұрын
Tak min ven. I hope I would have the opportunity to visit the "yndigt land".
@sjg43888 жыл бұрын
If Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes standardized their languages into one language, more people would try to learn their language.
@hakimsalifu51937 жыл бұрын
김상윤 except that I would never care to learn some Norwegian and Danish, I'm fine with swedish
@Gabriel59559597 жыл бұрын
Stop with this globalized thought already. Why do so many people want to kill cultures?
@CesarAntonio37818 жыл бұрын
Who would teach me either of them? just for fun. I can english, french, italian, german, spanish and some corean, and mandarin. A friend learned norwegian alone by herself. she says it is easy. Danish sounds so strange, swedish sounds good to the ears...
@dennismuller35737 жыл бұрын
Cesar Antonio Sry you simply can't can a language. You can learn a language, speak a language and/ or know a language though. A fairly German mistake that one. It's like a French person telling his age. I have 30 years :) Just kind advice and nevermind what I've said in case of a modern typing mistake or autocorrect related issue.
@Gabriel59559597 жыл бұрын
Dennis Müller oh my, you must've been popular in the high school hahaha. Just kidding. I understand the struggle, because I speak Portuguese and with it we also say 'I have 30 years' as in French. I'm learning German now, and it's nice to see the resemblance with English that it has, for example 'ich bin 30 Jahre alt', it's identical to the English counterpart
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
Which of the 3 languages would be closest to the old language that was spoken by the Danes when they took England? I am asking because I am curious about old writings of the time of the Danelaw/Danelagen and also Old English at that time. Are the present languages still similar to old Norse, or are they now very different?
@IamDaReAlSeaN11 жыл бұрын
I have been learning Danish for a week and it's really not that hard. I already speak English and German so I don't really spend any time on grammar, and because I speak Irish (Gaeilge) I'm fairly accustomed to abstract sounds and some vocabulary of Norse origin. Tip for learners of Germanic languages - since Germanic language speakers tend to speak English really well, focus less on grammar and more on vocabulary, improving your "flow" and concealing your accent.
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
I would have thought that as we started with a common language, any modern Scandinavian language would be easier to learn for a British person than for someone of another nationality? However, perhaps the same statement is true for someone from the Netherlands or Germany? Any idea if this is true?
@aitchist12 жыл бұрын
Having studied Finnish at university in the last 2 terms I can tell you that studying it isn't a walk in the park as it requires a lot of effort. The vocabulary by itself isn't hard to cope with. Being German I could actually recognize quite a couple of cognates, such as "pullo" (bottle) which in casual German can be referred to as "Pulle", or internationalisms in general. But it has a lot of features other languages don't have and which are quite strength-sapping such as consonant gradation.
@passdedutch11 жыл бұрын
Im half Danish so Ive always wanted to learn that language , but being Canadian I don't see my Danish side of the family very often
@bjowolf22510 жыл бұрын
You would be totally amazed by how many words you "know" - or almost know - in Danish ( within some fairly systematic consonant and vowel shifts ). English and Danish (+ Swedish & Norwegian ) have many similarties in their basic vocabulary - nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, prepositions - and also with respect to basic grammar ( both much simplified along similar lines compared to German ) and word order. It's really just a matter of seeing through our "weird" spelling in many cases - or spotting where a letter has been dropped or added etc. ;-) have, give, tage = take, find, hold, se, bring, gå [go] = go, føl = feel, drive (push), er [air] = are ( + am & is ), hør = hear, kan = can, vil = will, skal = shall, leve = live (be alive), dø [doe] = die, tænk = think, bage = bake, svøm = swim, hade = hate, vade = wade, vandre = wander, slyng = sling, hæve = heave, løft = lift etc. rød =red, grøn [groen] = green, blå [blo(w)] = blue, brun [broon] = brown, grå[gro(w)] = gray, hvid [veeth] = white ... god = good, fin = fine, flad = flat, tyk = thick, fed = fat, tynd [toen*] = thin, bred = broad, lang = long, ny [ne(w)] ) new, lille = little, glad, harmløs = harmless, (s)kort = short, sløv (sleuw) = slow (tired), hungrig = hungry, rig [reegh] = rich, nær[nair] = near, kold = cold, varm = warm, hed = hot ... jeg[yigh !] / mig[migh] / min [meen] = I / me / my | mine du / dig [digh] / din [deen] = thou / thee / thine han /ham/ hans = he / him / his vi [ve] / os[us] / vores = we / us / our(s) I [ee*] / jer [yer] / jeres [yeres] = you (ye) / your / yours de [dee] / dem / deres = they / them / their(s) over, under, ud [ooth] = out, ind[in*] =in, efter = after, fra = from, på[o] = on ( as in uPOn ), til = to, her [heir] = here, der = there op [up] = up, ned [neth] = down ( as in be-neath ) ... igen [ee-gain] = again, indtil [in*-til ] = until, allerede = already ... hvad = what, hvor = where, hvorfor = why ( wherefore ), hvem = who(m), And so on and on - this list is nearly endless. Hav en god dag [day(gh)], min frænd(e) ;-)
@TheLadySakai10 жыл бұрын
one word darling; Skype (invented by a dane among others ;) )
@adelarsen977610 жыл бұрын
TheLadySakai Norway gave the world GSM.
@thezombieshogun12 жыл бұрын
there's also faroese, but as you said before it is very different from the other main scandinavian languages
@Minzon311 жыл бұрын
I would say that both icelandic and Norwegian are languages with roots from the norse language, just as the way they speak in Shetland too.. But they have taken different courses and icelandic has preserved more of the grammar rules and pronounciation than the norwegian language. Norse was a huge language back in the days, well in comparison to todays languages based on it, because it was very influencial on other languages. Its roots are from the germanic branch. As are german and english too.
@hildeabelvik5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your video. The reasons you listed for choosing Norwegian as the Scandinavian language to learn are all valid. I disagree though, with with her comment on the users of various Norwegian accents. It's not like we all hide in the mountains! We do get around, and we bring our dialekt with us. Shocker! I'm a bit offended by her attitude. However, this patronizing laugh /attitude towards dialects I find somewhat typical for speakers of standard eastern Norwegian. It's kind of a cliché. Most users of dialects are not that hard to understand. Language learners will be able to «turn the switch» on accents and learn additional words, and you don't have to choose an eastern accent yourself either. The major cities all have dialekt that are pretty much bokmål with an accent, and also the Finnmark dialekt is pretty similar to bokmål. Good luck, language lovers! :)
@sofitocyn1002 жыл бұрын
Bf is danish and understands swedish pretty well. Danes watch a lot of swedish movies. Also many danish movies are made in collaboration with sweden, so characters use danish or swedish. To me, a foreigner, this is amazing. One man will speak danish to his gf who answers back in swedish and the audience understands. Bf lives in Norway now and understands people fairly well and texts even more, about 90%. Having stayed in both Norway and denmark, I can tell that they are almost the same written language. The pronunciation is completely different though. Swedish sounds more like norwegian but is much different in the written form. I am learning norwegian now and it is super easy from an English perspective. I'm sure norwegian is the best language to learn for people interested in Scandinavia. It opens all the doors. So I concur with what the lady says.
@alexg646411 жыл бұрын
The Swedes sound humorous and happy :3
@aularound4 жыл бұрын
Norwegians sounds happy to Swedes :D
@arhus1211 жыл бұрын
That's something I'd like too. As a swede I would love to understand you guys better. I don't think one needs too much exposure anyway, the words are pretty much the same
@stevoe100012 жыл бұрын
Richard, I'de love to see how you do with the Finnish language. I've been here for years and still have a lot of trouble with it..... maybe you could have a little look at how this language is put together... soo many endings, about 15 different endings with exeptions on a lot of endings... voi voi :)
@marcuslarsson89979 жыл бұрын
You get Danish and Norwegian for free when you learn Swedish. It's easy to understand them both if you know Swedish.
@adelaarrobin91739 жыл бұрын
Marcus Larsson För all del norska är lätt. Bokmål eller nynorsk. Jag tycker att verben på nynorsk är lätt.
@Bjowolf29 жыл бұрын
***** Yes, it is! They are nearly the same languages with almost the same grammars and 80 - 90 % the same vocabularies ( and many of the differing words can be guessed ) - and with Danish and Norwgian being particular similar in writing - and with Swedish being somewhat different, in a rather systematic way, so that Swedish texts are usually easy to read as well - and vice versa. D & N simply look like slightly misspelled versions of each others ( for historic reasons ), whereas the pronounciation differs considerably between these three languages, but once you tune in , it fairly easy to understand the "standard" speakers of the neighbour languages. They are really just variations - or "dialects" - of the same base language - a bit like British English vs. American English, just a couple of centuries further apart ;-)
@Bjowolf29 жыл бұрын
***** Maybe because you haven't been exposed to it that much and are not used to listening to it? If you watched Danish TV - with subtitles that look very much like Swedish and Norwegian and with loads of familiar or guessable words ( just spelled somewhat differently ) - you would be able to understand most of it by far and to tune into the way(s) we speak in matter of weeks (!) - especially since the grammars are nearly identical apart from minor details.
@metal4ever3399 жыл бұрын
I think is is the same for Portuguese and Spanish, am I right?
@cryaboutit4329 жыл бұрын
+Metal4ever \33/ Portuguese to Spanish, but not the other way around
@Weeload11 жыл бұрын
Det er fordi, det er mega svært at forstå jer! :)
@Jensemannen10 жыл бұрын
In general I would agree in what the woman says. Norwegian is danish in swedish. Both bokmål and nynorsk are written languages, however nynorsk sounds more like different dialects from the west cost. The problem with learning norwegian however is that norwegian is very diversified in different dialects (not accents). The dialects use somewhat different expressions and words, different grammar and sometimes different phonemes. Eg. all these words are norwegian ways for saying "I" ("jeg" in bokmål, "Eg" in nynorsk): Jei, Je, I, æg(aeg), eg, e, æ(ae) + + .. What norwegians usally learn forreigners is "pent", a mixture of eastern norwegian/written norwegian,
@TheKlaustro12 жыл бұрын
@Letheryed2 it's easy to understand since me and a norweigan friend guessed about 70% correct on icelandic centences..
@clement27808 жыл бұрын
Exactly, i think the written language tends to be far more similar. Spoken language sounds much more similar to each other even though even a norwegian would have less trouble even understanding dutch or german , called languages than cantonese, taiwanese, shanghainese, mandarin normally considered dialects can understand less than ten percent of what the other is saying if they have not learned the other persons language. Similar for french, italian, spaniah, portuguese, romanian. Russian, polish, czech, bulgarian, Croatian languages, similarly have far more ease understanding each other than chinese supposed dialects
@Ozoneblizz11 жыл бұрын
I totally agree with this, this is my observation as well, and I am Swedish
@ProxCyde12 жыл бұрын
I had danish TV channels as a child (I'm Norwegian), so I do understand some of it. But I can honestly say I have a very hard time understanding some of the dialects over there. Some I can't understand at all, maybe I can pick up a word or two in each sentence, but that doesn't really help all that much. So yeah, I agree that it's definately the dialects. As she said about the swedish dialects, I have no trouble at all understanding any of them.
@Roman_Teslenko4 жыл бұрын
Датский, норвежский и шведский языки сильно отличаются? Можно ли, изучив один из этих языков, общаться со всеми скандинавами? Какой из них самый общий и распространённый?
@MegaCessnapilot11 жыл бұрын
After mastering Bokmal, I studied Danish and that was extremely easy, except hard to understand at first. It's similar to an American trying to understand a Scottish brogue dialect.
@mormor19glad12 жыл бұрын
They always speaks in English if they talks to Swedes or Norwegians when they are on holiday over here. So i think it has something to do with dialects. Often Danes from Funen/fyn and Zealand/sjælland have difficulty understanding the dialects here in Jutland. of course this is just my opinion :)
@OliverPerssonMusik11 жыл бұрын
Swedish is a very Tone friendly language and the pronounces of the letters are very simple. The hardest bit might be used to saying Å Ä and Ö. But that comes in every scandinavian language. Id choose between Norwegian and Swedish. But if you can read norwegian you can read danish and about 70% of swedish.
@OliverPerssonMusik11 жыл бұрын
Depends on where you live. Me who lives closer to Olso then Stockholm (VÄRMLAND) Knows much about Norway and hear alot from you in our everyday life :) School and parents often teches us how good it is to go to norway and work there. Living on the border to Sweden and norway is the perfect life according to many of us. Norway got good pays in jobs and isnt realy that bad politicaly. Sweden got the prices down i litl bit. So you live on the norwegian side of the border but shop in Sweden, mostly
@CHR69502111 жыл бұрын
...well, although I arrived to the point, after some 2-3 years, to write in relatively good Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, when I tried to speak....it was a language of my own...:)) something between all three...so I had to decide on which one I would concentrate myself.Well, I choosed Swedish, since I had my teacher, also more swedish books and also friends and family in Stockholm. Thus, through my skandinavian adventure and experiance I can tell that the easiest skand. lang. is Norw. Bokmaal!!
@thomuk20068 жыл бұрын
Agree with the Norwegian being a good one to learn.... for the reasons mentioned.... BUT, I think people should go for Swedish.... as Swedish has the largest number of speakers in total... so it will be most useful....
@thevitruvianman97818 жыл бұрын
SirAiki AQW Why?
@theninel12 жыл бұрын
I don't think there are so few speaking Nynorsk, in fact most people of the west coast speak dialects based on Nynorsk and for somebody that has learned Bokmål it is quite difficult. Accents change a lot from place to place so a foreigner learning Bokmål and going to Stavanger for example will have a really hard time, in some degree it's like 2 different languages. If you know Bokmål you will be able to read Danish and speak/communicate in Swedish but not the other way around.
@Max-rg4jm11 жыл бұрын
Would you like to understand others or make others understand you? Norweigan is like a mix between swedish and danish, so you could understand both languages quite good. Most scandinavians understand swedish though (many finns understand it too). (Personal opinion, I'm a swede, don't sue me)
@amandastrand146810 жыл бұрын
Many from Finland understands Swedish as it's part of their "basic" school (grundskolan), it's obligatory, so of course they understand us! (I'm from sweden as well)
@Max-rg4jm10 жыл бұрын
Amanda Strand Sorry, I expressed myself poorly. What she said ^-^
@PIANOPHUNGUY12 жыл бұрын
She is correct. I speak and read and write Danish. I can read Norwegian, but I have to switch to English, as Swedish when spoken quickly I don't understand it. Skaansk is different. I can understand much of that East-Danish dialect. (No, Skaansk isn't South Swedish, but East-Danish linguistically , culturally speaking. Not politically of course.
@Leatheryed112 жыл бұрын
Ah, that's interesting. It always seems that other languages compared to English are like French; object first. I think for me then that one of the Scandinavian languages would be easier to learn. Maybe that is why I seem to be able to get the gist of written Scandinavian? I have more difficulty with listening to Scandinavian because the pronunciation is often very different to the written word. On the other hand I presume some words like 'hendes navn' sound like it is in English: 'her name'?