Learning Swedish?

[Thidrek]

That's awesome. I'm suprised they offer that in Germany.
In USA, I've noticed, they only offer Spanish, German, French. Some schools are requireing EVERYBODY to learn(and pass) Spanish. Even some jobs are pretty much forcing people to learn it, because of the Mexicans invading this place. In Sweden, we don't have to learn Arabic, they invade us! Hehe. Damn USA.

American universities are the best in the world so they most probably offer Swedish, too

In German schools you can usually learn English (of course), French, Latin (on the schools called "Gymnasium" for the "more clever" kids), Spanish (very popular atm) and sometimes Russian.

I don't mind if they come here to serve the country a good. But when you come here illegally, I hate that. It should be standard for learning English when comming.
Does people learn Swedish for me or Afrikaans(South Africa) for my friend? NO!!!
Makes me upset. I need a beer!

There is not even an official language in the USA and Spanish-speaking people have always been there (at least in the south) so why should they be forced to learn English?

 

[lefay82]

American universities are the best in the world so they most probably offer Swedish, too

swedish is offered also in italy, but not everywhere.
i suppose at least in 5-10 universities, i'm pretty sure about Genova and Firenze.
also norwegian and danish are offered, together with history of litterature.

 

[lefay82]

i've a question (maybe stupid):
i was reading some stuff about nordic mithology, and in particular about the god Forseti. it was written that the belief was born in Frisia, where he was called Fosite, and the region of Helgoland where the god was mainly worshipped was called Forsitesland, or Forsiterland or Forsterland.
i've noticed that the word fosterland in swedish stands for fatherland, it there any connection?

 

[Tranquillian]

i've a question (maybe stupid):
i was reading some stuff about nordic mithology, and in particular about the god Forseti. it was written that the belief was born in Frisia, where he was called Fosite, and the region of Helgoland where the god was mainly worshipped was called Forsitesland, or Forsiterland or Forsterland.
i've noticed that the word fosterland in swedish stands for fatherland, it there any connection?

I can help you with that. From http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/ (in swedish) jfr FOSTRA sbst., o. FOSTRE. ( fost- Apg. 7: 20 (NT 1526) osv. foost- 1Tess. 2: 7 (NT 1526), LPETRI 2Post. 272 a (1555)) [fsv. fostra (i bet. 2 o. 3), motsv. d. fostre, isl. fóstra, eng. foster, v.; av germ. fōstrōn, avledn. till fōstra- i dess urspr. abstr. bet.: födande, fostrande (se FOSTER)] In swedish this word dates back to ancient swedish (fornsvenska). It has the same meaning in danish, english. It comes from the germanic word fōstrōn and means feeding or to foster. Hope I understood it correctly. Not used to reading such acronyms. And from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forseti Forseti basically means the one who sits on the throne or rules, presides.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

Yes, I understand that they've been here longer. But you see, the area in which I live, there is none. At all. And maybe only three black families in our surrounding communities.
I just do not get that why does we have to learn a language that is unspoken here? Maybe in the city, I think you should have an option to learn it. But the high school here are talking about making it manditory for kids to learn. And some of the jobs are requiring the employees to learn Spanish, when no Spanish-folk visit or live here.
I live wayy north of USA, in Pennsylvania.
That is what I am confused. I am not saying that it is wrong of them to do this, but it should be an option - not demand

 

[lefay82]

I can help you with that. From http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/ (in swedish) jfr FOSTRA sbst., o. FOSTRE. ( fost- Apg. 7: 20 (NT 1526) osv. foost- 1Tess. 2: 7 (NT 1526), LPETRI 2Post. 272 a (1555)) [fsv. fostra (i bet. 2 o. 3), motsv. d. fostre, isl. fóstra, eng. foster, v.; av germ. fōstrōn, avledn. till fōstra- i dess urspr. abstr. bet.: födande, fostrande (se FOSTER)] In swedish this word dates back to ancient swedish (fornsvenska). It has the same meaning in danish, english. It comes from the germanic word fōstrōn and means feeding or to foster. Hope I understood it correctly. Not used to reading such acronyms. And from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forseti Forseti basically means the one who sits on the throne or rules, presides.

thank you!
in fact i had already found the verb "att fostra" reading the Valans spådom in swedish ( Jättar, i urtid alstrade, minns jag, som mig fordom fostrat hava) but i haven't connected the two things in my mind.
i only searched for foster as a noun on the dictionary and it said "fetus" or "abortus" and it didn't match so well with the word "land"

 

[Thidrek]

i've a question (maybe stupid):
i was reading some stuff about nordic mithology, and in particular about the god Forseti. it was written that the belief was born in Frisia, where he was called Fosite, and the region of Helgoland where the god was mainly worshipped was called Forsitesland, or Forsiterland or Forsterland.
i've noticed that the word fosterland in swedish stands for fatherland, it there any connection?

Although I'm no expert in any kind of ancient mythologies, I'd still say no. Fosterland probably comes from the word "fostra", meaning "raise"; "fosterland" literally means "the land which raised you"

The verb "to foster" does exist in English aswell.

"O.E. *fostrian "to supply with food, nourish, support," from fostor "food, nourishment, bringing up," from P.Gmc. *fostrom, from root *foth-/*fod- (see food)."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=foster

 

[Defiance]

Ah I love this thread.

Snorre would be a fairly archaic name I imagine, but still used none the less. Just think of Snorri Sturluson.

Ah OK I figured .

Well, I suppose Danish in some aspects could be seen as a mix of German and Swedish; just as Norwegian can be seen as a mix between Danish and Swedish.
It's interesting to see how languages and dialects blend with each other if you take any given geographical route, in my opinion.

Indeed, I like a lot the Chinese+Japanese one.

That's awesome. I'm suprised they offer that in Germany.
In USA, I've noticed, they only offer Spanish, German, French. Some schools are requireing EVERYBODY to learn(and pass) Spanish. Even some jobs are pretty much forcing people to learn it, because of the Mexicans invading this place. In Sweden, we don't have to learn Arabic, they invade us! Hehe. Damn USA.

I'm not that surprised because when I went to Sweden there were lots of info ads in German (which actually helped me a lot to get around hehe). But yeah no Swedish ads in Germany .

Before this gets turned into the Immigration Thread, I do want to point out that most of the Mexican immigrants do want to come here legally - but it's impossible for them to do so. This is one of the things that the Obama Administration wants to change, to make it easier for people to come here.

And the USA doesn't have an 'official language'. So making them learn English? No need, if they can function without it. In Seattle, you can vote in Mandarin if you want. And, the top languages spoken in my neighborhood? Somali and Cantonese

Yes, it's funny because people still see the US as the place to go. You really have to go to Mexico (or Costa Rica for that matter) to see why people want to go to the US.

I think it shouldn't be mandatory to learn Spanish in the US, but if you need to know it well, then learn it.

American universities are the best in the world so they most probably offer Swedish, too

In German schools you can usually learn English (of course), French, Latin (on the schools called "Gymnasium" for the "more clever" kids), Spanish (very popular atm) and sometimes Russian.

It depends in which area you're talking about and which universities, because I'm sure that the Art Colleges here are better than most of the ones in the US.

Well in here it depends, but you can learn many languages.

At my Uni there are English, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese classes. At another one (UCR) there's also Russian. And there are also private French, Italian and German (and English) centres recognised by the EU. You can also get Latin and Ancient Greek classes if you know where to look.

 

[Disgustipated]

The Centre for Adult Education in Melbourne offers Swedish, as well as Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Sign Language (Auslan), Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Melbourne University offers French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian and Swedish.

During Secondary School (High School), it was possible to study any of these languages (although certain Schools only offer certain languages, so study by correspondence may have been neccessary).

So yeah, Melbourne is a good place to study languages.

 

[Defiance]

The Centre for Adult Education in Melbourne offers Swedish, as well as Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Sign Language (Auslan), Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Melbourne University offers French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian and Swedish.

During Secondary School (High School), it was possible to study any of these languages (although certain Schools only offer certain languages, so study by correspondence may have been neccessary).

So yeah, Melbourne is a good place to study languages.

Indeed…, are you bragging or telling us?

But really, that's amazing. I'd say here the ones you can't get are Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Some will be a bit more difficult, but you can still get classes.

Yet you really have a lot of opportunities, congrats. How many languages do you know?

 

[Disgustipated]

Indeed…, are you bragging or telling us?

But really, that's amazing. I'd say here the ones you can't get are Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Some will be a bit more difficult, but you can still get classes.

Yet you really have a lot of opportunities, congrats. How many languages do you know?

I speak German and Swedish, and a little bit of Dutch.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

I can't get German. A friend tried to teach me, and since they are alike in ways, I would say Swedish word or in the Swedish order or something.
For me, I know Swedish and English fluently. Norwegian, I can just get by but spelling is horrible. I am currently learning to languages at once in small doses at times, they are Russian and Arabic. And both are really difficult. Norrsken has been sending my Italian lessons as well. Too much at once!
I'm not Arabic or anything, but I still find the culture fairly interesting, and the languages are soo diverse. They are almost written in backwards.
If I am correct, the exact way to say this phrase(translated into English) would be: "Today color are your what?" which is like saying "how do you feel today?", but they use colors to discribe feelings. If you were neutral, you would reply "white", sad=blue, happy-yellow, depressed=grey, mad=black. And when you would say something like "that is awesome!" you would say "nice a is that". STRANGE....... but interesting. I think so.

 

[Defiance]

I speak German and Swedish, and a little bit of Dutch.

Cool, ich spreche auch Deutsch .

I can't get German. A friend tried to teach me, and since they are alike in ways, I would say Swedish word or in the Swedish order or something.
For me, I know Swedish and English fluently. Norwegian, I can just get by but spelling is horrible. I am currently learning to languages at once in small doses at times, they are Russian and Arabic. And both are really difficult. Norrsken has been sending my Italian lessons as well. Too much at once!
I'm not Arabic or anything, but I still find the culture fairly interesting, and the languages are soo diverse. They are almost written in backwards.
If I am correct, the exact way to say this phrase(translated into English) would be: "Today color are your what?" which is like saying "how do you feel today?", but they use colors to discribe feelings. If you were neutral, you would reply "white", sad=blue, happy-yellow, depressed=grey, mad=black. And when you would say something like "that is awesome!" you would say "nice a is that". STRANGE....... but interesting. I think so.

Ich liebe Deutsch, die ist die besten und schönsten Sprache der Welt . Und die Schwierigsten auch har har .

I think it's really what you mentioned about the colours, I guess in most cultures "feeling blue" is not a good thing .
It's quite interesting what

 

[lefay82]

Cool, ich spreche auch Deutsch .



Ich liebe Deutsch, die ist die besten und schönsten Sprache der Welt . Und die Schwierigsten auch har har .

this is very basilar german, the proof is that i can understand it too
"i love german, it's the best and most beautiful language in the world. and the most difficult one too"

 

[Defiance]

this is very basilar german, the proof is that i can understand it too
"i love german, it's the best and most beautiful language in the world. and the most difficult one too"

I know, I wrote it so you/everyone could understand it . And you can easily write that on an online-translator and *poof* you understand. I'm in a mid-intermediate level, but I don't think I can continue with the next course. Crap .

^ And it's better to say "basic" instead of "basilar". (It's not really that basic anyhow.)

 

[Thidrek]

Quite strange that especially in Middle and South America people tend to like German alot. I mean: Jorge Luis Borges, Shakira, You, ... I've always wondered why


About the blue thing: In German "blau" means drunk. And in Russian, I think, it's gay.

 

[lefay82]

I know, I wrote it so you/everyone could understand it . And you can easily write that on an online-translator and *poof* you understand. I'm in a mid-intermediate level, but I don't think I can continue with the next course. Crap .

^ And it's better to say "basic" instead of "basilar". (It's not really that basic anyhow.)

thanks for the suggestion
sometimes i write without thinking enough and i do stupid errors like this basic = base o balisare (in italian)

german is really beautiful but also hard to learn....and the sad thing is that you forget the language very soon if you don't use it.
this happened to me i remember only few things which make me able to translate simple phrases like the one you wrote, but nearly nothing about grammar.

 

[Defiance]

Quite strange that especially in Middle and South America people tend to like German alot. I mean: Jorge Luis Borges, Shakira, You, ... I've always wondered why


About the blue thing: In German "blau" means drunk. And in Russian, I think, it's gay.

Ah aber mein Großvater war Deutsch . With the rest of the countries I don't know, but Costa Ricans have a tendency to feel like Europeans or Usonians. I hate that , it's come to the point in which traditions are felt like something "out of fashion". Ignorant bastards. Anyhow, since most of America was a European colony, it may be a frustration to be more like Europe, the First-World (developed), not third-world like most Latino countries are.

Ahhh ok that's interesting to know. Können Sie bitte die anderen Farben und dessen Menschrelationen schreiben? Vielen dank!

thanks for the suggestion
sometimes i write without thinking enough and i do stupid errors like this basic = base o balisare (in italian)

german is really beautiful but also hard to learn....and the sad thing is that you forget the language very soon if you don't use it.
this happened to me i remember only few things which make me able to translate simple phrases like the one you wrote, but nearly nothing about grammar.

Yes actually I think I had never seen that word, it's pretty poetic or old-fashioned. Haha yeah I figured it was some Italian-related issue . Pero non ti preoccupare!

German is indeed quite hard. The trick is to practise a lot, if you don't, as with any language, you'll forget it.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

Defiance:
Living in Costa Rica, I take it that you speak Spanish? *sorry, I don't know much about that stuff*
If so, have you ever sometimes forgotten Spanish due to speaking too much English?

Just a strange question or thought.
There are sometimes that I forget SWE words because of speaking too much ENG. For instance, adding -ing -es -ed at the end of some words. Hehe. Not a big problem, mostly when I speak if it ever does happen. I was just wondering if this ever happend to you or anybody else for that matter.

 

[Defiance]

Defiance:
Living in Costa Rica, I take it that you speak Spanish? *sorry, I don't know much about that stuff*
If so, have you ever sometimes forgotten Spanish due to speaking too much English?

Just a strange question or thought.
There are sometimes that I forget SWE words because of speaking too much ENG. For instance, adding -ing -es -ed at the end of some words. Hehe. Not a big problem, mostly when I speak if it ever does happen. I was just wondering if this ever happend to you or anybody else for that matter.

Of course, it happens to me all the time. Sometimes I know a word in English but I need to say it in Spanish, or backwards. I sometimes think in German or Japanese too, and sometimes I know a word or expression in the former and don't know it in English nor Spanish . I'm lucky because I'm bilingual, i.e. I grew up with two languages: English and Spanish. My father is British/Canadian, and I've lived here in CR all the time.

Actually my small sister said the other day "bulliaron" in Spanish, she was trying to say that the guy was bullied. I corrected her and said that the word in Spanish was "molestar" hehehe .

It's a good sign if you start confusing words when talking in (e.g.) Swedish (meaning you say some English word when talking in Swedish), because it means that you're assimilating the language .

So if you want to have a good mastery of the language, you're on the right track .

As an advise, don't stop talking in Swedish. You might say that'll never happen to you, but if you stop practising, believe me, you'll forget it. I've seen it countless of times, people who go to the US to study and stay there for 5 years and then come back to CR making basic grammar mistakes (and having excellent time-related culture shocks ).