How hard is it to talk to a Swedish Person? | Taskmaster | TEACHER PAUL REACTS

[@tailortelhais1744]

Katherine calling a friend and using a search engine/dictionary/translator is very much not cheating. The whole point of the show is for them to think of the most efficient way to do each task. As long as something isn't explicitly banned in the text of the task itself, anything is fair game -- in fact imagination and flair is often encouraged and rewarded.

[@rickardelimaa]

Mobile phones should be banned tbh. In the Swedish version of Taskmaster, they were going to spread their clothes out as far as possible. One woman took snapshots of her clothes and sent them all over the world.

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

Yes it was. The point was YOU should figure out what he was saying, not "let someone else do it" and give you credit.

[@Daltwan_Kenobi]

Bending the rules to fit wasn’t explicitly the point originally though, it was intended to be serious but Tim Key in series 1 started to play the game of bending the rules and it’s just became a staple part of the show since.

[@MarkPentler]

The show is supposed to be entertaining. Rigid application of the rules doesn’t always lead to that.

[@bengtolsson5436]

That's probably mostly his opinion. As Swedes, we are probably not so afraid of failure.

[@knoxpuffer]

Contestants are allowed to solve the tasks using any means necessary, unless otherwise specified in the task description which is handed to them in the envelope. There's a lot of awesome tasks from this show that you can react to and I would love to see more! :-)

[@LasseEklof]

As a Swede myself, I do not feel any greater fear of failure, I think it is a fairly individual feeling among Swedes.

[@annabackman3028]

Instämmer! (Agreed!)

[@w0t3rdog]

Swede here: I used to be afraid of failing. Then I did nothing but fail for awhile... Now I embrace it.

[@herrbonk3635]

14:00 Danish and Swedish are pretty close in grammar and vocabulary. It's the Danish pronunciation that makes it a bit hard for us Swedes and Norwegians. It could be compared to a mix of heavy cockney English and rural German.

[@suctioncatfish5506]

It's also very hard for us Danes to understand Swedes and Norwegians.. I can read it just fine, but I'd rather just speak English...

[@pia91]

okay so first of all: "Taskmaster" is an absolute GEM! Genuinely the best show I've ever seen so watch it, in full, and if you can - react to it. at least one full episode. that would be gold. Secondly: The origin of the English language is...mixed. There's definitely some Germanic/Slavic in there, but that was much more prevalent in Old English than it is now. As a German (who studied German and therefore Old German), I got a lot of the words better - he still got me with the "88" though. :D I love the different approaches though, and that's what this is all about. "Fred the Swede" makes multiple more appearances by the way, he's a bit of a show favourite ;)

[@rickardelimaa]

_Taskmaster_ is about solving tasks with lateral thinking, and all of the contestants are comedians, but I guess you figured that out already. Been watching all kinds of renditions, and in the Swedish one, they had an Icelandic instead. :P Apart from the typical Swedish dish (with tart lingon), Fredrik speaks for himself, and not the whole country. Something I learned when living abroad was I should never show that I know something about a nationality by bringing up stereotypes. The amount of times I heard remarks that I wasn't blond or tall ... 😵

[@rickardelimaa]

What's surprising/interesting is that the level of understanding between Danes and Swedes is asymmetric. Danes understand Swedes easier than Swedes understand Danes.

[@jonashansson2320]

@@rickardelimaa That's not strange at all, after all, swedish is a language while danish is a speach impediment. ;) But seriously, danish is actually the language that is the most difficult to learn to speak. There are tests done on small children to see how many words they know, and danish children are the slowest in the world to learn to speak. And listening to the language, it's not hard to see why..

[@rickardelimaa]

@@jonashansson2320 I think one major part is also that Danes (and Norwegians) listens to more Swedish (radio and TV) shows than Swedes listen to programs from their Scandi buddies.

[@ResettisReplicas]

This is a comedy show, where there’s no prize money - the prize each episode is a pool of (usually worthless) items that the contestants brought in, and a trophy for the series winner. These contestants are aspiring comedians being paid a fee, so it’s in their interest to be funny, occasionally at the expense of winning. Part of the fun is seeing what loopholes they can find - they weren’t expected to know Swedish (as you observed, cognates from Greek/Latin won’t work). You can do anything that isn’t specifically outlawed by the letter of the task. Anything that seems “unfair” just remember that all five could’ve thought of the same exploit. Also, the show is not meant to be completely fair - sometimes they put an additional constraint on one contestant (eg “also, you must smile at the camera with increasing intensity every 30 seconds”) just for our amusement.

[@qwertyTRiG]

There's a wonderful video on KZbin about Taskmaster and existentialism.

[@storageheater]

9:15 oh interesting, to me (UK) "painter" and "decorator" are nearly interchangeable and very close to not existing as independent words and I assume that's why they guessed it correctly, do you split them more precisely? Is it necessary to define someone who can only paint walls?

[@MusicalJackknife]

This is the episode where I, as an American, learned that in the UK they call interior painters decorators. Here, painters can do interior or exterior painting, or specialize in one, but if we had anybody called a "decorator" it would probably refer to someone who does interior design, which may include wall paint but I would normally associate with everything BUT that. Maybe it's different for rich people, but in my experience people like to do all their own decorating, but some don't have the skill, experience, equipment, or time to paint, so they have painters do it.

[@henrikalriksson4034]

Pannbiff is minced beef and pork that you mix with breadcrumbs that have soaked in milk or/and cream, onion and salt&pepper. Then they are shaped almost like small hamburgers and fried in a pan. They are served with: Gräddsås - a sauce made of the gravy that you get after frying pannbiff, heavy cream (grädde) and salt&pepper. -Kokt potatis - boiled potatoes -Stekt lök - fried onion -Lingon - lingonberry. We say only lingon but it is to sour to eat on it’s own so either we do a jam of the berries or just mix them with sugar. Hope I made it understandable. 😅

[@zpitzer]

In the Swedish version of this show (Bäst i test, Best in test) It was an icelandic guy.

[@js0988]

Go to IKEA and have the meatballs and gravy and pour on a lot of lingonberry jam. It's heaven.

[@andersgranstrom7128]

Absolutely a fear of failure! We do not want to fail - we want to contribute, and add to our beautiful country.

[@saranilsson5949]

As a Swede I’m behind this. We have a good welfare state but everyone wants to work and contribute ♥️

[@Pellefication]

Don't know if it's about fear of failure but some are probably due to it. We have an expression in Sweden .... "vinnarskalle" which roughly means "winners head" in English. An incredible stubbornness to win in sports and games and so on. Maybe that's the reason why Sweden has had so many internationally talented athletes per capita over the years. PS. I am Swedish and have lingonberry jam with almost everything. :-) From Swedish thin pancakes to waffles (with a little sugar or whipped cream added) to Swedish meatballs with sauce and even....fried herring. DS: ' PPS. Of course, I do not mean that Sweden is alone with athletes having a "vinnarskalle" for that reason DDS.

[@Umla80]

yes we eat quite a few dishes with lingon berries tbh :) its quite tart and tastes quite alot like cranberries so it pairs nicely with savory meat dishes.

[@annabackman3028]

The Swedish, Danish and Norwegian languages are very close, and we understand each other's written language very well. Norwegian and Danish are closer i vocabulary and grammar, however Norwegian and Swedish are very much the same in pronunciation, but not always in the rhythm. Norway actually has two languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk. It's more like two dialects, with different spellings. That Swedish is a little different has two reasons: First Swedish was separated from Nor-Dan before the Viking era, but second, we have many more German (Low German, the northest part of Germany) words that we use on daily basis. If we look to our siblings they still use the same words as we did 150, or maybe 700 years ago. How strange it is, but we, who has a lot of water in between, use more German than German's neighbor Denmark. We have to go back to the "Hansa" era, For som time during the middle ages 50 % of the population in Stockholm had Low German as first language. Low German was also the language used for business in the Hansa areas. Norwegians always sounds like they are super happy 😃. In Sweden we have Norway on the west side, and Finland on the east. Finnish isn't related to Swe-Nor-Dan at all, but anyway, the Finnish language sounds depressed. Not depressing, just depressed I think that has made some sort of impact on how we speak, "lagom" happy, "lagom" depressed. "Lagom" is a word that doesn't translate directly to English. It's a very important word in Swedish, we live in "Landet Lagom", you know. "Lagom" is an exact measure of something you can't calculate. It's not too much, nor too little. Not too hot, not too cold It's lagom. In Sweden we are lagom. Not too loud, but not too quiet, lagom. We don't dress too wild, but not too dull. We dress lagom. We don't like when people exaggerates themselves, but neither if they are too self-effacing. Lagom self-effacing. In Sweden everything is lagom. "Landet Lagom", "The Country Lagom".

[@jamesmoore4910]

You'd love reacting to Taskmaster, it's only a tiny bit Swedish but it's very funny!

[@emmakrusten6520]

I think a lot of us swedes have that feeling. Not all. But yes, I have that fear. Everyone around are so passionate and our universities are free so I should have no problem to succeed. That’s idiotic because those thoughts create stress and a lot of pressure. Not all of us swedes, but a lot of us.

[@seriksson9721]

Sweden was one of the best countries not so long ago, but now has many major challenges, which may not be easy to overcome.

[@reecep4016]

As is the same for a lot of Europe. We’ll all be fine in the end

[@OlssonDaniel]

Regarding fear of failure: I heard (a long time ago) that Donald Duck is more popular in Sweden then Mickey Mouse is and that Donald more fitted the Swedish mood. But I am looking for a source. I want to keep my good story. 😉

[@flingan7512]

This television program was a great success in Sweden and our program was called Best in Test. we had this one too. but instead of a Swede, we had an Icelandic fireman.

[@kallemon]

As a Swede: 1. I'd take bribes! I'm poor! 2. (Almost) My whole life is a failure, so I'm used to it. It's far from my biggest fear. 3. Many Danes understand Swedish, but few Swedes understands Danish. 4. Yes, lingon berry "jam" is quite common for traditional Swedish food. I don't like it, but many do. Especially the older generations.

[@johnnyhagman4556]

That's interesting. First time i hear someone bring up fear of failure as a country/culturally problem, but i got it deeply rooted to. My thoughts is that it comes from this illusions: be independent a man doesn't fail fear of being seen as lazy

[@qwertyTRiG]

Watching full episodes (in order) might give you a better idea of the flow of the show. "All the information is on the task", so nothing Katherine did was cheeting, as the task didn't outlaw it.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Oooh you're wrong there, we love some easy money. Fear of personal failure is very common I'm sure. 9:48 What? Why would you apologize? There's nothing wrong with it, it's British TV, not American. Not cheating, they can do almost anything to solve it. Yes, lingon, lingonberry jam. I eat it with a lot of things.

[@herrbonk3635]

As a Swede that don't appreciate the aspects we are known for, like modernism, social engineering or IKEA, I'm still proud over the things that I love, like Stockholm's older architecture and similar cultural heritage that survived the socialist's demolitions. I love Brazilian music btw (whatever you say about samba), especially mixed with jazz, and can't really come up with any brazilian "shaming" your country ;)

[@sussie5463]

Taskmaster is a funny show. People have already explained the show. In Sweden we have the same show but we call it Bäst i test (best in test) and this segment in the show ”talking with a Swede” we have talking with an Icelandic person instead and it really is hilarious to see how the contestants figure out or try to understand what they say.

[@firstsurname7099]

Awh bless, not wanting to chat whilst taking out the bins is pretty normal I'd say, although a quick hi to a neighbour wouldn't go amiss, but having conversations, even small talk, no matter how uncomfortable is part of human interaction that we all have to push through. We say rubbish in British English (rather than American, I expect you already know that) I've always found Swedes really chatty, but then I've mainly met friends of friends who are really keen to practice their English and get their 'pun on' e.g. test out funny word play they've thought up.

[@MachivelianBear]

We Danes and Swedes pretty much understand eachother like The Spannish and someone from Bolivia. The accent i extremely different and also the pronounciation. But the words, struckture and grammer is pretty much the same.

[@patrikbroden6592]

The fear of failure he has is more like a fear of personal failure

[@Dalpilarna]

I can relate on having a fear of failure.

[@annabackman3028]

By the way of self-effacing... Teacher Paul, you know Sparks, ('This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us' - Sparks) From their latest album 'A Steady Drip Drip Drip', 2020, the song 'Self-Effacing', could you let us know what you think about it?

[@turtleyee4599]

React to more taskmaster

[@flingan7512]

Norwegian, Danish and Swedish writing is easier to see similarities in than speaking. to a certain degree. Examples like this simple sentence.... English: I love you Swedish: Jag älskar dig Norwegian: Jeg elsker deg Danish: Jeg elsker dig

[@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek]

LINGONBERRIES we have them in the UK too. Cmon Catherine lol

[@birgittalagerstrom6264]

This is not in general. Some sweeds are very talkative🙂 some are not. It all depends on your upbriging I guess. Nice video.

[@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek]

I've heard Swedes and Scandinavians in general love british humour so I doubt your viewers would be offended by swearing lol

[@majasand4989]

actully the closest languish to swedish is norway

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Languish and norway... orz

[@ajastoa6545]

... we accept a bribe 😄

[@nick3745]

react to the she show, shouldnt be hard to cut since ius FREE on YT

[@pia91]

"Fear of Failure" is a Millenial thing. or a human thing. not a thing that pertains to a country. Nothing ever does, that'd be generalising and that's never good (yes, I see the irony)

[@karinboman6877]

Ha ha, this is not true!

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

most swedes have a fear of failure, its probably not the most common fear but its definitely on the top ten. As far as "high standards"goes, thats almost exclusively women. Men also have a very high standard of natural life but they wont break down if it was taken away. They would find a way to fix it. Swedish women, *IN GENERAL,* wouldnt... they would cry until someone saved them.

[@memoblom2112]

What circles do you hang out in?😂 It sounds like if you’re talking about the stereotype of a 17th century victorian trophy wife. Swedish women are known for being very independent. I’ve never heard anyone describe swedish women the way you did here.

[@maxmaximillian3626]

😁😁😁😁😁👍👍👍👍👍