Learning Swedish?

[Vargaressa]

its pretty easy...but norwegian is more easy=)=)=)hehehe...

i think,when somebody will learn svenska(norsk,dansk),he must know german and english too.i am speaking norsk with german akcent,but i am no german...hoho...
u mast take more practic and u will have a success...

 

[Vampyrian]

 

[Disgustipated]

The threadstarter, like me, is a native English speaker. Both Swedish and German would be of equal difficulty to learn, as both are nothing like English. So you are biased.

Well, to settle this argument once and for all, you really need my opinion, as I am always right.

I am a native English speaker, who speaks both Swedish and German. German is definitely the more difficult language to learn, in my opinion. Mostly due to the confusing sentence structure, noun genders, complicated verb tenses etc etc. I would say, however, that the Swedish pronunciation is harder to master.

I taught myself the basics of Swedish vocabulary and grammar through books, then expanded on both by watching Swedish films, reading Swedish articles on the 'net, chatting in Swedish etc.. but you never really do get a true grasp of the language until you immerse yourself in it.. ie, go to Sweden.

Oh, and by the way, mental_mercury; Swedish, German, and English, are all Germanic languages. All three have a vast array of similarities in vocabulary, and grammatical structuring. Thus knowledge of either will making learning another much easier.

 

[Thidrek]

I'd say, Swedish is easier to learn for a native speaker of English speaking of grammar. both languages are analytic which means that the word order is very strict due to the fact that in both languages there are only two cases left whereas in German, aswell as in Icelandic, you still have 4 of them and are relatively free in the word order. If you are not used to "working" with cases it should be far easier to learn another analytic language especially if it is as strongly related to English as Swedish.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

I agree with "Mental Mercury".
To truely learn it fluently, you must learn from a native speaker/teacher.
Even then, you will more than likely screw up every now and again. You see it all of the time, there are a lot of people that are native speakers and often still screw up. You see, in Sweden, there are many different dialects. You have Stockholmers, Norrfolk, and you have the people that are crazy... from Skåne. Also, you have people that use a lot of slang and people that speak with an older dialect. For an example, when reading Swedish, often you may come accross words like "o" or "e". It's slang, a shortend version of "och" and "är". Also, you have to watch where you are in Sweden and who you are talking to. What I mean, is if you speak like Vintersorg does(how he writes his songtexts), most young people would look at you like a question mark. Take the word "Ulv" for an example, that's soo old, people say "varg" now, and some people won't know what that means.
So, my advise to you... is to pick a region that you want to learn the dialect. Also, if you choose to speak Swedish fluently to everybody, it would be wise to learn a bit of the slang because it is heavily used(as lame as it sounds).

 

[Svarthjärtad]

Also, and another thing. Which, I'm sure you realize this...
But, songtexts and everyday speaking aren't really the same thing. So, sure... translating the texts will make you know what Mr.V is saying, but really won't help you in speaking abroad. People, well.... really do not speak like that everyday. Hehe.
Good luck, my man!

 

[tobz]

and you have the people that are crazy... from Skåne.

Wuhuu!!!
Thanks for that great description of us! I know I live in Denmark now, but I was born and raised a 'skåning'.

Oh, and didn't you forget two of our most used dialects? I.E. Göteborgska (gothenburg) and Finlands-Svenska (finlandic-swedish, swedish with a very heavy finnish dialect spoken by the many finnish immigrants we have...).

 

[lefay82]

People, well.... really do not speak like that everyday. Hehe.

really????
so now you have destroyed a myth to me.... i'm sooo sad



( i hate this smiley but is the only one that laughs decently)

 

[Blind Guardian]

I agree with "Mental Mercury".
To truely learn it fluently, you must learn from a native speaker/teacher.
Even then, you will more than likely screw up every now and again. You see it all of the time, there are a lot of people that are native speakers and often still screw up. You see, in Sweden, there are many different dialects. You have Stockholmers, Norrfolk, and you have the people that are crazy... from Skåne. Also, you have people that use a lot of slang and people that speak with an older dialect. For an example, when reading Swedish, often you may come accross words like "o" or "e". It's slang, a shortend version of "och" and "är". Also, you have to watch where you are in Sweden and who you are talking to. What I mean, is if you speak like Vintersorg does(how he writes his songtexts), most young people would look at you like a question mark. Take the word "Ulv" for an example, that's soo old, people say "varg" now, and some people won't know what that means.
So, my advise to you... is to pick a region that you want to learn the dialect. Also, if you choose to speak Swedish fluently to everybody, it would be wise to learn a bit of the slang because it is heavily used(as lame as it sounds).

And there´s the people from Gotland,i wonder if an outlander would get that they spoke Swedish at all,Gotländska (at least in speech) is almost less Swedish than Norwegian is.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

OH yes, those fucking Finnish! Buggers!
Yes, Gotländska is a bit difficult to understand at first. But, moreso, the Finns invade Stockholm more than anyplace. As it is refered to as "the gayest city ever". Hehe. I utterly dispise Stockholmers. If I am abroad and people ask if I am a Stockholmer or a person from Stockholm, I get fuuurrrriousss! Trust me. The Norrfolk don't really bother me much, of course tehy just live in their own little world. Hehe. They just.... you never know if they are being sarcastic or not so you have to guess. Plus, most of them have like a funny dress to themselves. The people from Skåne, they are crazy and weird - a bit hard to understand. Hehe. Perhaps this is side-effect of being once owned by Denmark? Hehe. I'm kidding ...(whatever you name was, I forget)! Hehe. Danes are great people, I just know nothing of their language. Hehe.
But anywho, back to the main topic here, my advice to you, is that if you cannot take a personal class to learn Swedish, buy the Rosetta Stone computer software. Right now, I am learning Arabic, and it's going fairly great! I am using this program you see!

Skål!,
Svart

 

[Thidrek]

Gotländska actually IS an own language.
Skånska is just a word for several dialects and languages spoken in Skåne, if I understood the article in the Swedish wikipedia the right way.

 

[tobz]

Several dialects yes, but not different languages. It's 'broader' than your normal Swedish, and also use a few Danish words as slang (is that the correct English word? can't remember right now...). Not that I knew this until I moved to Denmark, before I did that I could hardly understand a word that was spoken here. We (skåningar) usually see Danish in a bit like speaking Swedish with your mouth full of oatmeal, and I think that this is also how we are looked upon by the rest of Sweden .

 

[Svarthjärtad]

A mouth full of oatmeal? Hehehehehe!
Danish, for me.... well, it's really hard to understand for me. I think I may recall of one or two words that I remember. Finnish, even though it's a lot like Swedish - it's almost impossible for me to understand. Of course, I hail from the west coast - so if any other language makes any sense to me, is Bokmål.
The funny thing about dialects, they can be anywhere. I mean, I pick it up in the USA quite a bit. The town I live in and the town right next to it, in a way, speaks differently. However, Skåne, was once owned by Denmark, which explains the "odd" language. They skip a lot of words/letters and word things a bit differently. If you're not use to it, then it is going to take some time to get use to. For instance, imagine a person from California talking to a British person. Sure, it's all English - but the dialects are different - different words are used and in different orders. But, whatever dialect it is, it is all Swedish, nonetheless.
Whether you are listening to Vintersorg, Månegarm, Fronda, or even Tommy Körberg... it's all Swedish. Although, people such as Fronda, (I don't think) would never understand some of Otyg's text - and likewise. Hehe.

 

[lefay82]

what i'm trying to understand is: do you understand each other from a part to another of the country?
of course there dialects everywhere in the word, and of course some kind of expressions and words change from a part to another of a state, but the difference is so damn big?
are you able to understand what peolpe say in another part of sweden? or is it only a difference of intonation or pronunciation?

here in italy dialects are so fucking crazy, we cannot really understand from the top to the bottom of the peninsula. i live in the middle, and i can't understand northern or southern dialects, and above all the isles' dialects (for exemple in Sardegna they speak a mix of arabian - latin - spanish - french - italian tongue). i've found a nice dialects translator on internet and i've searched for the verb "to go" - "andare" and those are some of the results, quite amazing : allé, andà, vayare, sbiasciai, andär, anna', gghiri, gì, gire, ire, indà, ir, iri, ji, jìri, nare, nar, ne, scìjre, scì, scire and so on

yesterday i went to a library, they have the svenks ordbok, it's a long time that i'm courting it, so i decided to have a closer look to the volume (the price is high so i wanted to be sure i liked it) and i got very disappointed.
i don't know if is because the dictionary is made for swedes who want to learn italian but near the swedish words isn't written if the word is "en" or "ett" neighter the plural form, which is one of the most difficult things for a person who wants to learn swedish. and the irregular verbs were not conjugated.
the strange thing is that i found a smaller dictionary, with less words, but with the indications i needed. for example for flicka is written flick/a/an/or

 

[Thidrek]

A mouth full of oatmeal? Hehehehehe!
Danish, for me.... well, it's really hard to understand for me. I think I may recall of one or two words that I remember. Finnish, even though it's a lot like Swedish - it's almost impossible for me to understand. Of course, I hail from the west coast - so if any other language makes any sense to me, is Bokmål.

You mean Finnland-Swedish? Finnish itself is nothing like any other Scandinavian language, but related to the Sami languages, Estonian and Hungarian.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

Yes, but you see we use to own Finland many and many years ago. Sure, Finnish is a combination of many other languages, but one of them (as I have learned in school) being Swedish. I don't know about the entire country, but maybe perhaps only on the west coast of Finland.
Personally, I think the words were made up of a little child putting letters together with his alphebet soup. Hehe. It's very difficult to understand, pronounce, or even read. But you see, in Finland, sometimes, the street signs and stuff are wrote in both Finnish and Swedish.

Oh, and as a reply to you, Lefay82....
Yes, typically, people can understand everybody from all over teh country. It's just personally harder for me to understand people from Skåne, that's what I was trying to say. I'm really not use to their way of speaking, but I can understand it - it just sounds strange to me (as with any other dialect!). But yes, I can understand everybody. Yes, the plurals and passedtenses are one of the harder things to learn. People always think that the vowels are the hardest(EX: äåöé). WHen reallly, they sooner find out that it's not. Usually, when I teach a person Swedish, they find that the word order is most hard and the (as they say) "odd" pronounciation. Like, for an example, the word "Kärlek", you would think it would be like "k-air-leak", but that is not the way of it. Infact, at times, the K is also pronounced like a CH sound almost. Like, the Norwegian word, Kjem!
So, there are a lot harder things than the vowels.
Also, there are many ways of saying one word. Like "my", you can say "min, mitt, mina" and stuff like that, but generally it doesn't exactly have the same meaning. "You" is another one! "Du, dig, er, ni"... all of them are "you", but mean different things in a way. Compound words are difficult if you're learning, because... you may not be sure if they can go together or not or what should you add to them.
I hear people say that English was very, very difficult to learn. I don't get it! I mean I don't think that it's very hard, really. Maybe this could be that I spoke it half my life. Hehe.
So really, any language you want to learn, your best bet is to pick a dialect and learn from there. Because, any language you are wanting to learn, you are going to have somesort of a difficult time.

 

[Blind Guardian]

We still "own" Finland

 

[Svarthjärtad]

We still "own" Finland

Hehe. Yes.
You know, Finland is such a beautiful place - but you see, the people are (more than likely) assholes and dirty. Besides, Finland doesn't really have much to offer the world. We have the Ice bar/hotel, Norrlands Guld, Skruf, SRF, Legion Festivalen, and most importantly... Vintersorg. And most of them come into Sweden to work for more money. But atleast, it's not as bad as the Muslim problem we have - at least some Finns know Swedish. Muslims come and collect social money and just annoy everybody else.
...BUGGERS!

 

[Svarthjärtad]

Wait...
In a way, that really doesn't make sense. Some of us go to Norway to work for better money. I was offered to drive truck for both Sweden and Norway, but I turned it down. Maybe I should have concidered the job-offering? Driving truck would be great, one of my biggest passions.

 

[Rivfadír]

Hehe. Yes.
You know, Finland is such a beautiful place - but you see, the people are (more than likely) assholes and dirty. Besides, Finland doesn't really have much to offer the world. We have the Ice bar/hotel, Norrlands Guld, Skruf, SRF, Legion Festivalen, and most importantly... Vintersorg. And most of them come into Sweden to work for more money. But atleast, it's not as bad as the Muslim problem we have - at least some Finns know Swedish. Muslims come and collect social money and just annoy everybody else.
...BUGGERS!

Eh, from my experiences I like Finns and Finland a lot better than Swedes and Sweden. The language is prettier as well.