Learning Swedish?

[lefay82]

It also means few.

Determiners in Swedish are pretty stupid, because many have no rules at all, for example:

table = bord
forest = skog

the table = bordet
the forest = skogen

You just have to know when to use et and when to use en.

And if we make these plural, the lack of logic continues:

the tables = borden
the forests = skogarna

yes it's very difficult, i mean, for someone who wants to learn the language. if you're mothertongue you learn things while growing , and some things become natural. but if you're studying swedish you have to remember if every word is a EN or en ETT word.
but it's the same for many languages. the only difference is that in the other languages there's the femminine and the masculine form (sometimes neuter form) , instead of en or ett.

the hardest thing for me is to remember how plural forms are, because they always change, like dag-dagar or minut-minuter vecka-veckor hus-hus arbete-arbeten. there's a little logic in that, words are put into groups so for example monosillabic EN words that end with a consonant generally add -OR for the plural form (correct me if i'm wrong), but sadly some words are irregular so... :Smug:

 

[Thidrek]

I think only words ending in -a have the -or plural.

 

[NovembersDirge]

so that construction isn't used that much? fiuhhhh....
yes with 2 verb is really easier

i still have problems with the meaning of the word få, it can be used different ways so sometimes i get lost.
kan jag få...= in this case means to get, to obtain, to have
får jag titta på tv? = in this case is an ausiliar verb and means to can, to have permission

what else? are there any other uses?

There are certain things that I have issues with like that, too. Få isn't too tough for me, but även and nog are two words that I have issues with for one reason or another.

The three verb politeness is kinda funny, I always feel a little weird about it. My girlfriend always accuses me of being too straight forward, but I think that has to do with the fact that I don't add verbs for politeness because it feels unnatural. Though, honestly, I'm getting way more used to it now. "Skulle jag kunna få..." or "Jag skulle vilja..." But, I have to say, in English we have some pretty winding politeness rules as well. You gave the example of "I would like..." but depending where you are, that's actually even considered kinda rude. Instead you ask questions instead of making demands, like "Could I please get a glass of..." Despite the fact that the person working at a restaurant or bar is there to serve you things, it can still be considered rude to not break out the "questioning demand." My mom used to do that to me when I was a kid. She never ordered me to do things, instead she would politely ask me to do everything that was required of me, as though I had a fucking choice.

We worked out one time in class that you can get up to 5 verbs in a sentence in Swedish, but I forgot how you would do it.

yes it's very difficult, i mean, for someone who wants to learn the language. if you're mothertongue you learn things while growing , and some things become natural. but if you're studying swedish you have to remember if every word is a EN or en ETT word.
but it's the same for many languages. the only difference is that in the other languages there's the femminine and the masculine form (sometimes neuter form) , instead of en or ett.

the hardest thing for me is to remember how plural forms are, because they always change, like dag-dagar or minut-minuter vecka-veckor hus-hus arbete-arbeten. there's a little logic in that, words are put into groups so for example monosillabic EN words that end with a consonant generally add -OR for the plural form (correct me if i'm wrong), but sadly some words are irregular so... :Smug:

People ask me about the hardest part of the language, and I think en or ett is probably the toughest thing. From those things you get all other information in a sentence, so that whole noun, adjective agreement thing can get really tricky and frustrating. I'm constantly checking up words, 'cause I hate sounding like an idiot. I've gotten pretty good at knowing what's what, but I'm sure I still make mistakes from time to time.

Another thing that is a total bitch is definite and indefinite. For me, the issue is not bordet or borden, but instead, when one uses definite and indefinite. For example, in English we tend to make abstract things "abstract" by not adding the definite article. So in English where one would say just "society" in Swedish one says "samhället," or "the society," or instead of saying "suicide rates" they say "självmordsstatistiken" or "the suicide rates" all the time, despite it being general and you're not necessarily referring to one specific instance or study (this is probably a bad example as I'm coming up with counters right now off the top of my head, but you get the gist of what I'm saying). There are, of course, other examples of this as well when talking about politics, or the government and so forth. Where I would use indefinites or no article, Swedes use definite articles. It drives me fucking crazy sometimes because it seems so absolutely illogical to me. The problem is, of course, that I am a goddamn psychotic perfectionist about this kind of stuff. I believe this comes from being monolingual and never really being forced to struggle through a language until now, but I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate sounding stupid and I hate saying things wrong. And Swedes are all too damn polite to correct you, so you can walk around saying shit wrong for months before some drunken dude finally has the balls to tell you that you're saying something wrong.

I tend to make up this frustration by laughing at Swedish how say "wiking" instead of "viking" in English. Despite the fact that the V sound is exactly the same in Swedish, they still manage to fuck it up. It blows my mind.

Also, fun tip: if you spend a lot of time with Swedes, listening to their mistakes and translating them back into Swedish is a very good way to pick up things that might commonly be mistakes. For example, they regularly say "on the pub" instead of "at the pub." Well, that's 'cause they say "På pubben." My list of svengelsk mistakes is quite long, because Swedes are really pushy about speaking English with native speakers.

On the thing about plural: very good way to think of it is that often times an "a" ending leads to an "or" plural (flicka-flickor, Annika-Annikor). Single syllable ett words often have no plural (hus-hus, bord-bord). But those rules don't always hold. You basically have to learn words by each word, and that's a pain in the ass, but so it goes.

 

[Qu Appelle]

I like the words that end in -a. It makes Swedish sound pretty, even when Swedes are trying to sound brutal and metal. (Sorry, Mr. V!)

 

[lefay82]

There are certain things that I have issues with like that, too. Få isn't too tough for me, but även and nog are two words that I have issues with for one reason or another.

The three verb politeness is kinda funny, I always feel a little weird about it. My girlfriend always accuses me of being too straight forward, but I think that has to do with the fact that I don't add verbs for politeness because it feels unnatural. Though, honestly, I'm getting way more used to it now. "Skulle jag kunna få..." or "Jag skulle vilja..." But, I have to say, in English we have some pretty winding politeness rules as well. You gave the example of "I would like..." but depending where you are, that's actually even considered kinda rude. Instead you ask questions instead of making demands, like "Could I please get a glass of..." Despite the fact that the person working at a restaurant or bar is there to serve you things, it can still be considered rude to not break out the "questioning demand." My mom used to do that to me when I was a kid. She never ordered me to do things, instead she would politely ask me to do everything that was required of me, as though I had a fucking choice.

We worked out one time in class that you can get up to 5 verbs in a sentence in Swedish, but I forgot how you would do it.



People ask me about the hardest part of the language, and I think en or ett is probably the toughest thing. From those things you get all other information in a sentence, so that whole noun, adjective agreement thing can get really tricky and frustrating. I'm constantly checking up words, 'cause I hate sounding like an idiot. I've gotten pretty good at knowing what's what, but I'm sure I still make mistakes from time to time.

Another thing that is a total bitch is definite and indefinite. For me, the issue is not bordet or borden, but instead, when one uses definite and indefinite. For example, in English we tend to make abstract things "abstract" by not adding the definite article. So in English where one would say just "society" in Swedish one says "samhället," or "the society," or instead of saying "suicide rates" they say "självmordsstatistiken" or "the suicide rates" all the time, despite it being general and you're not necessarily referring to one specific instance or study (this is probably a bad example as I'm coming up with counters right now off the top of my head, but you get the gist of what I'm saying). There are, of course, other examples of this as well when talking about politics, or the government and so forth. Where I would use indefinites or no article, Swedes use definite articles. It drives me fucking crazy sometimes because it seems so absolutely illogical to me. The problem is, of course, that I am a goddamn psychotic perfectionist about this kind of stuff. I believe this comes from being monolingual and never really being forced to struggle through a language until now, but I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate sounding stupid and I hate saying things wrong. And Swedes are all too damn polite to correct you, so you can walk around saying shit wrong for months before some drunken dude finally has the balls to tell you that you're saying something wrong.

I tend to make up this frustration by laughing at Swedish how say "wiking" instead of "viking" in English. Despite the fact that the V sound is exactly the same in Swedish, they still manage to fuck it up. It blows my mind.

Also, fun tip: if you spend a lot of time with Swedes, listening to their mistakes and translating them back into Swedish is a very good way to pick up things that might commonly be mistakes. For example, they regularly say "on the pub" instead of "at the pub." Well, that's 'cause they say "På pubben." My list of svengelsk mistakes is quite long, because Swedes are really pushy about speaking English with native speakers.

On the thing about plural: very good way to think of it is that often times an "a" ending leads to an "or" plural (flicka-flickor, Annika-Annikor). Single syllable ett words often have no plural (hus-hus, bord-bord). But those rules don't always hold. You basically have to learn words by each word, and that's a pain in the ass, but so it goes.

very exhaustive post

i used the example "would you give me" so i'm probably on the right way to courtesy
i understand what you want to say, it's hard to get used to certain strange contructions.
italian verbs are quite difficult cause the verb changes from person to person and we have 8 tenses only for the indicative, 4 for the conjuntive and 2 for the conditional, but when you learn them you are basically done. you don't need to make strange combination between verbs and auxiliary modal verbs.
for every shade of meaning you have the appropiate tense.
that's why also english is sometimes hard for a native italian speaker cause you have to use a lot of could/would to make past or conditional tenses, or to do questions, or to be polite, etc
on the other hand if your's studying italian you have to learn about 14 tenses for each verb and 6 person for each tense, which makes in all 84 forms .....every language has it's own problems.

also here abstract words are put into a definite form, we usually say "the society" "la società" "the death" "la morte" and so on, so this is not a big change for me

the second part of your post was very hilarious
for example i love how vintersorg isn't able sometimes to pronounce an hard G, for example he sings "visions from the spiral yenerator"

from how long are you living now in sweden???
how long did you take to speak decently? i mean, not without errors but that people understands you, and you understand everything you're told and asked.

it will be funny to know more about those svengelsk mistakes

 

[NovembersDirge]

very exhaustive post

i used the example "would you give me" so i'm probably on the right way to courtesy
i understand what you want to say, it's hard to get used to certain strange contructions.
italian verbs are quite difficult cause the verb changes from person to person and we have 8 tenses only for the indicative, 4 for the conjuntive and 2 for the conditional, but when you learn them you are basically done. you don't need to make strange combination between verbs and auxiliary modal verbs.
for every shade of meaning you have the appropiate tense.
that's why also english is sometimes hard for a native italian speaker cause you have to use a lot of could/would to make past or conditional tenses, or to do questions, or to be polite, etc
on the other hand if your's studying italian you have to learn about 14 tenses for each verb and 6 person for each tense, which makes in all 84 forms .....every language has it's own problems.

Oi. Yeah, I always thought the case system in German sucked, but I've heard horror stories about the Romance languages. Noam Chomsky has a funny quote about French being the most illogical language in the entire world, and I've heard similar things about Italian and Spanish. But I've always been a big fan of the Germanic languages, for the most part. Problem is that I study church history, so I'm going to be forced to actually study Latin and some point. Yeesh. But yeah, you're on your way to politeness if you say "Would you give me.." but it can always be more polite.. "Could you please give me a Coke?" "My I please have the pleasure of procuring a soft drink from you?" ... OK, that second one was a joke.

also here abstract words are put into a definite form, we usually say "the society" "la società" "the death" "la morte" and so on, so this is not a big change for me

the second part of your post was very hilarious
for example i love how vintersorg isn't able sometimes to pronounce an hard G, for example he sings "visions from the spiral yenerator"

from how long are you living now in sweden???
how long did you take to speak decently? i mean, not without errors but that people understands you, and you understand everything you're told and asked.

it will be funny to know more about those svengelsk mistakes

There are some pretty funny ones. A lot of it is in the pronounciation. Swedes often say "yust" instead of "just," for example. The politicians are great. Now that Carl Bildt is all important in the EU, go out of your way to watch his press conferences—though, unfortunately, both Bildt and Reinfeldt are pretty good at English . Crap. Now of course I'm going blank. I'll be back with a better list later.

As far as speaking.. you know it really depends on who and what you're dealing with. Every new thing you go into has a different vocabulary, and therefore someone can seem really bad at a language even if they're not that bad, just because they have a more specialized vocabulary. For example, I can talk about politics and religion all day in Swedish and hardly ever be in need of a word. However, I can't talk about sports for shit, nor can I identify birds and trees. Also, I have trouble when talking about the kitchen, for example (though, that's not SO bad). It's because I've spent a ton of time studying and reading academic Swedish stuff (dissertations and stuff), I never read fiction and my girlfriend (who I live with) still speaks English with me, despite my insistence to the contrary.

That said, honestly with hard work it took me about 8 months to get to the point where I was conversational with everyone. I had been here for a while and studied it, but I didn't put in much effort until I got into a University prep course in Swedish. Then, according to my girlfriend, my Swedish made leaps and bounds and I got conversationally "fluent" in a pretty short time. Of course, I was in Norrland, so now I have to deal with a new dialect and a culture that moves far quicker than in Umeå (that is, people talk faster and pronounce things differently), so now I have to re-learn a few things.

Even now, however, I have Swedes who get really aggressive about speaking English with me. I find it to be really frustrating. If I have a small error or an issue with a word or something it always becomes "Oh, well take it in English." Two things: 1) my Swedish is better than many Swedes' English, so I'm starting to get offended and 2) I know Swedes probably think they're being polite, but I find it totally insulting. I always end up second guessing myself and it's really frustrating. I have gotten to the point where I've started being really rude to Swedes who insist on speaking English with me when there's no one around who can't speak Swedish. It's terribly insulting.

So my advice to you, if you ever come to Sweden and want to get good at Swedish, is to pretend that you can't speak English. Seriously, play dumb. I'm not kidding. Push through with your broken Swedish and learn as much as you can, because that's the only people I've met who are really good at Swedish after a short time in Sweden: the ones who couldn't really speak English.

 

[lefay82]

Oi. Yeah, I always thought the case system in German sucked, but I've heard horror stories about the Romance languages. Noam Chomsky has a funny quote about French being the most illogical language in the entire world, and I've heard similar things about Italian and Spanish. But I've always been a big fan of the Germanic languages, for the most part. Problem is that I study church history, so I'm going to be forced to actually study Latin and some point. Yeesh. But yeah, you're on your way to politeness if you say "Would you give me.." but it can always be more polite.. "Could you please give me a Coke?" "My I please have the pleasure of procuring a soft drink from you?" ... OK, that second one was a joke.

There are some pretty funny ones. A lot of it is in the pronounciation. Swedes often say "yust" instead of "just," for example. The politicians are great. Now that Carl Bildt is all important in the EU, go out of your way to watch his press conferences—though, unfortunately, both Bildt and Reinfeldt are pretty good at English . Crap. Now of course I'm going blank. I'll be back with a better list later.

As far as speaking.. you know it really depends on who and what you're dealing with. Every new thing you go into has a different vocabulary, and therefore someone can seem really bad at a language even if they're not that bad, just because they have a more specialized vocabulary. For example, I can talk about politics and religion all day in Swedish and hardly ever be in need of a word. However, I can't talk about sports for shit, nor can I identify birds and trees. Also, I have trouble when talking about the kitchen, for example (though, that's not SO bad). It's because I've spent a ton of time studying and reading academic Swedish stuff (dissertations and stuff), I never read fiction and my girlfriend (who I live with) still speaks English with me, despite my insistence to the contrary.

That said, honestly with hard work it took me about 8 months to get to the point where I was conversational with everyone. I had been here for a while and studied it, but I didn't put in much effort until I got into a University prep course in Swedish. Then, according to my girlfriend, my Swedish made leaps and bounds and I got conversationally "fluent" in a pretty short time. Of course, I was in Norrland, so now I have to deal with a new dialect and a culture that moves far quicker than in Umeå (that is, people talk faster and pronounce things differently), so now I have to re-learn a few things.

Even now, however, I have Swedes who get really aggressive about speaking English with me. I find it to be really frustrating. If I have a small error or an issue with a word or something it always becomes "Oh, well take it in English." Two things: 1) my Swedish is better than many Swedes' English, so I'm starting to get offended and 2) I know Swedes probably think they're being polite, but I find it totally insulting. I always end up second guessing myself and it's really frustrating. I have gotten to the point where I've started being really rude to Swedes who insist on speaking English with me when there's no one around who can't speak Swedish. It's terribly insulting.

So my advice to you, if you ever come to Sweden and want to get good at Swedish, is to pretend that you can't speak English. Seriously, play dumb. I'm not kidding. Push through with your broken Swedish and learn as much as you can, because that's the only people I've met who are really good at Swedish after a short time in Sweden: the ones who couldn't really speak English.

the last part was so fucking funny....sorry, i mean, from my point of view it is, from yours absolutely not

did you moved there for work...or...for love?

 

[Defiance]

Well, the translator is right in the way that "You are welcome" translates to "Du är välkommen" if you just do it word by word, but not if you take the actual meaning of the sentence.

Of course, that was the whole point of me asking and of having human translators in the world .

By the way, I'm studying translation next year .

Very interesting discussion, and to the guy who quoted Chomsky, I quote Mark Twain:

"I'd rather decline a beer than a German verb".

'nuff said.

i've never understood why english people use to say "you are welcome" after a "thank you"
i mean....you are welcome of what????

but all languages seems to have a strange way to reply for this, like varsågod in swedish or "prego" in italiano which litterally means "i prey"

Then again, if you're with a British guy/gal you probably won't get the "you're welcome" .

 

[Blind Guardian]

The problem is, of course, that I am a goddamn psychotic perfectionist about this kind of stuff. I believe this comes from being monolingual and never really being forced to struggle through a language until now, but I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate sounding stupid and I hate saying things wrong. And Swedes are all too damn polite to correct you, so you can walk around saying shit wrong for months before some drunken dude finally has the balls to tell you that you're saying something wrong.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you might have noticed that the Queen of Sweden still can't speak correct Swedish after 35 years here

 

[NovembersDirge]

the last part was so fucking funny....sorry, i mean, from my point of view it is, from yours absolutely not

did you moved there for work...or...for love?

I moved to Sweden for school, actually. I study political sociology and the sociology of religion (as well as welfare state stuff) and Sweden has a really fascinating history of a clash between the Social Democrats and the conservative elements of society (of course), specifically the Church of Sweden, during the 1920s/30s (actually ranging from the 1890s to the 1930s). I wanted to get better at the language and do research. So I did that. Then after my first semester I met my girlfriend at a party and we made the very rash decision that we should move in together. So we did. I finished my thesis, took a course in Sweden and now I'm waiting to get my permanent residency permit so that I can continue studying.

And it's totally not funny and I get really peeved. I met a metal dude at a party here recently and it was just me, my girlfriend and him. So I started asking him about clubs or record stores and stuff like that in Uppsala and despite that I spoke to him in Swedish the whole time, the fact that I aggressively pushed him on the issue of speaking Swedish with me, he insisted on speaking English the whole time. I would say things to him in Swedish and he would respond in English. I thought it was crazy rude and dickish, but Kim assures me that he was just drunk and either wanted to show off or was being polite. I think it was partially that he wanted to show off because he told me after my gf left that she was really hot.

But don't people want to speak in their native language most of the time? Particularly in their own country? I mean.. seriously. And isn't it considered polite to communicate in the language of the country that you're in if at all possible? I'm in Sweden, I've put time and effort into struggling through learning this damn language and I never have to use it if I don't want to. I found out that I will most likely write every academic paper I ever do in English. I could do all of my doctoral studies in English as well if I want to.

But, of course, I don't want to. It strikes me as the height of arrogance to do that.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you might have noticed that the Queen of Sweden still can't speak correct Swedish after 35 years here

Well, I still have problems but I take solace in the fact that every time I encounter people they're surprised by how long I've been here. About Silvia: when I first got to Sweden and had only had like one course and my Swedish wasn't very good, I met a guy who didn't speak much English (Swedish guy, but apparently fluent in Russian...) and he kept saying to me: "Wow! An American who speaks Swedish! And you speak better than our Queen!"

"I'd rather decline a beer than a German verb".

Hahahaha, that's fucking awesome. That is a great quote. He was really full of them, though.

Apropos "You're welcome": I have no proof of this, but I suspect that it probably comes from the fact that you're telling someone that they are free to take/have something, i.e., welcome to it. That is: "Is this for me? Oh, thank you so much!" "Not at all, you're very welcome." So, like, "Yeah, it's yours. You are welcome to it at any time." That's just my guess, but it makes sense in my mind.

BTW: does "prego" mean I prey or I pray?

 

[lefay82]

oh fuck...sorry

I pray



i really don't know why swedes want to speak english all the time. i work in a hotel so i see a lot of foreigners, especially during summer, and if some turists speak italian i let them speak it, they seems to be glad of it, so they can make some practice and learn. and of course i reply in italian, paying attention to articulate in the correct way and doing it slow (we usually speak quite fast). only if they cannot understand something i use english.

 

[Blind Guardian]

That's a thing I don't understand, to me it sounds like all people speak faster in the Romance languages. Or maybe I've just watched too many Pedro Almodóvar - movies.

 

[lefay82]

That's a thing I don't understand, to me it sounds like all people speak faster in the Romance languages. Or maybe I've just watched too many Pedro Almodóvar - movies.

we speak fast, but spanish people even faster.
i don't know why
it is just....i don't know, maybe we don't have strange pronunciation sounds like the english "th" that twistes your tongue.
we also use (the frenchs more than us, the fucking liaison, but they link instead of to cut) to cut words and put them together to have a faster pronunciation, when a word ends with a vowel and the following begins with another vowel, for example "he is a nice man" "è un bell'uomo", as you see we don't use eighter the subject sometimes
i think it depends also from the temper, we usually put in a lot of enthusiasm when we speak, and we also gesticulate a lot

 

[tobz]

"I'd rather decline a beer than a German verb"

Which beer?

 

[Defiance]

Don't be too hard on yourself, you might have noticed that the Queen of Sweden still can't speak correct Swedish after 35 years here

really? That's amazing! Do you have any examples? I find this incredible, Sweden being one of the most developed countries in the world… and its Queen does not speak nearly-perfect Swedish! Unbelievable! Preposterous!

I moved to Sweden for school, actually. I study political sociology and the sociology of religion (as well as welfare state stuff) and Sweden has a really fascinating history of a clash between the Social Democrats and the conservative elements of society (of course), specifically the Church of Sweden, during the 1920s/30s (actually ranging from the 1890s to the 1930s). I wanted to get better at the language and do research. So I did that. Then after my first semester I met my girlfriend at a party and we made the very rash decision that we should move in together. So we did. I finished my thesis, took a course in Sweden and now I'm waiting to get my permanent residency permit so that I can continue studying.

And it's totally not funny and I get really peeved. I met a metal dude at a party here recently and it was just me, my girlfriend and him. So I started asking him about clubs or record stores and stuff like that in Uppsala and despite that I spoke to him in Swedish the whole time, the fact that I aggressively pushed him on the issue of speaking Swedish with me, he insisted on speaking English the whole time. I would say things to him in Swedish and he would respond in English. I thought it was crazy rude and dickish, but Kim assures me that he was just drunk and either wanted to show off or was being polite. I think it was partially that he wanted to show off because he told me after my gf left that she was really hot.

But don't people want to speak in their native language most of the time? Particularly in their own country? I mean.. seriously. And isn't it considered polite to communicate in the language of the country that you're in if at all possible? I'm in Sweden, I've put time and effort into struggling through learning this damn language and I never have to use it if I don't want to. I found out that I will most likely write every academic paper I ever do in English. I could do all of my doctoral studies in English as well if I want to.

But, of course, I don't want to. It strikes me as the height of arrogance to do that.



Well, I still have problems but I take solace in the fact that every time I encounter people they're surprised by how long I've been here. About Silvia: when I first got to Sweden and had only had like one course and my Swedish wasn't very good, I met a guy who didn't speak much English (Swedish guy, but apparently fluent in Russian...) and he kept saying to me: "Wow! An American who speaks Swedish! And you speak better than our Queen!"


Hahahaha, that's fucking awesome. That is a great quote. He was really full of them, though.

Apropos "You're welcome": I have no proof of this, but I suspect that it probably comes from the fact that you're telling someone that they are free to take/have something, i.e., welcome to it. That is: "Is this for me? Oh, thank you so much!" "Not at all, you're very welcome." So, like, "Yeah, it's yours. You are welcome to it at any time." That's just my guess, but it makes sense in my mind.

BTW: does "prego" mean I prey or I pray?

Wow this is very interesting, since something similar happened to me.

I was at this karaoke Metal bar in Stockholm, looking all hot and everything , and these girls two tables from mine were looking at me. Hmm interesting, right? So after five minutes, one of the girl comes and says something in Swedish (I didn't know any Swedish then, today I understand a bit) and I say: "English, please". So the bitch just looked at me and went away. Crap, and I thought I was going to get laid .

This was very interesting, I still ponder on what happened. I'm sure most people in Sweden know English, so I guess there was a bit of racism involved since I was not Swedish. What do you think guys? I would also like the female perspective on this issue, Lefay .

we speak fast, but spanish people even faster.
i don't know why

Yeah, I've noticed that too! However, when Italians are mad (Vaffanculo viglio di putana!!!) they speak faster than when us Spanish speakers are mad. We tend (at least in Costa Rica, not so much in Spain) to pause more and emphasise the sounds a lot more. ¡Eeste jueeputa! (See previous example for the translation of this CRn insult.)

Which beer?

Hmmm probably an Italian one. I think they're horrible . I would appreciate if someone could recommend a good one.

 

[lefay82]

Wow this is very interesting, since something similar happened to me.

I was at this karaoke Metal bar in Stockholm, looking all hot and everything , and these girls two tables from mine were looking at me. Hmm interesting, right? So after five minutes, one of the girl comes and says something in Swedish (I didn't know any Swedish then, today I understand a bit) and I say: "English, please". So the bitch just looked at me and went away. Crap, and I thought I was going to get laid .

This was very interesting, I still ponder on what happened. I'm sure most people in Sweden know English, so I guess there was a bit of racism involved since I was not Swedish. What do you think guys? I would also like the female perspective on this issue, Lefay .



Yeah, I've noticed that too! However, when Italians are mad (Vaffanculo viglio di putana!!!) they speak faster than when us Spanish speakers are mad. We tend (at least in Costa Rica, not so much in Spain) to pause more and emphasise the sounds a lot more. ¡Eeste jueeputa! (See previous example for the translation of this CRn insult.)



Hmmm probably an Italian one. I think they're horrible .

i really don't know why, usually foreigners are good preys
i mean, something esotic always captures the attention.
for example the typical italian features are bronze skin, brown or black hair, and dark eyes. if you are blonde or red with blue or green eyes you are looked like that
i lost the count of how many times i was asked if i was foreigner, a lot people who talked to me in english asking me from where i was from, and stuff like that
here there's absolutely what i can call the myth of blonde hair!!!!!!
but probably if you go to sweden where the most part of folk has light colours features, the ideal of beauty may be a dark haired/eyed person...
i think we like what is diverse from us, i should say what is rare.
but i've never been to sweden so those are just suppositions

yes, when we are in rage we go out of control
just come here and have a ride with your car and you will invent a new range of wonderful and creative insults

the only decent italian beer is Ichnusa, the most famous beer from Sardinia (Sardegna)

 

[Thidrek]

we speak fast, but spanish people even faster.
i don't know why
it is just....i don't know, maybe we don't have strange pronunciation sounds like the english "th" that twistes your tongue.

Oh, Spanish totally has both "th" sounds you can also find in English and they're talking pretty fast. But in my ears Italian is way faster than Spanish.

Which beer?

Hopefully no German one. Sorry, I'm a beer patriot

 

[Gaunerin]

Holy crap, what's going on in here? Very interesting posts and funny quotes (that decline beer/german verbs quote is just great LOL ).
I would also like to hear what's the worst with drottningens svenska. She's still somehow "our Silvia"

I heard and read about Swedes refusing to talk Swedish with foreigeners many times. I can't say I made that experience though. Maybe because Germans aren't exactly known for a very good English and they don't expect to train their English with us
On the other hand, not everyone was guessing I was from Germany, I was suspected to be from England as well (other countries being Denmark and Iceland, I have no idea which conclusion concerning my accent I should draw from that range, hehe. Wtf?) Yesterday a guy even offered to speak a little slower just in case I had difficulties to understand him (I'm in Sweden at the moment).

I find it a tad sad that even your gf keeps talking English with you, NovembersD.

 

[lefay82]

I find it a tad sad that even your gf keeps talking English with you, NovembersD.

me too. this is the best occasion for you to learn a perfect swedish (as you said you know a lot about religion, history, but few about everyday's life words) and she doesn't help you with that. :Smug:

 

[Thidrek]

well, i can imagine thats it's kind of strange to change the way you speak with good friends. if they got to know each other in english it will probably take its time.