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Simple Swedish — Parallax Forums

Simple Swedish

Ahle2Ahle2 Posts: 1,179
edited 2013-01-12 20:31 in General Discussion
It's time for all you Americans to learn a second language. And why not pick one of the less usable and one of the hardest to learn?

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Comments

  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-12-30 03:25
    I learned all the Swedish I know from here:
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-12-30 04:12
    *excuse the lack of line breaks, the forum editor and my iPad no longer get along
    "it doesn't matter because my English is still better than your Swedish!" - classic - I'm apparently dumber than every Swede out there!Thank you for sharing this! I made an attempt to learn Russian a few years back and found it to be terribly difficult for a number of reasons, one of which is the Cyrillc alphabet - nothing like extra letters and then making the ones that look familiar sound completely different. I'm also dumber than every 4 year old Russian when it comes to spoken Rissian...I may have had an advantage with written Russian!! :0)
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2012-12-30 05:29
    "But you are wearing lederhosen"??
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-12-30 09:11
    What's up that some people think Switzerland and Sweden is the same country?
    Sweden is not famous for Chocolate (though their Marabou is good) and cuckoo-clocks.
    Sweden= Volvo, Ikea, H&M and Absolute and so on.

    Though only 10million people speak Swedish, it will take centuries before it will fade away
    due to it's phonic and easy rules, like you can never have two vowels next to each other.
    They don't really have spelling-bees in Sweden due to this.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-12-30 09:16
    Funny stuff :)

    I had some Norwegian friends 30 years ago. Skal was our favorite word (sounds like skoal).
    Here's a list of "cheers" interpretations http://www.awa.dk/glosary/slainte.htm
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-30 10:15
    That is as in "skull". Taking a drink from the skull of your vanquished enemy. The vikings were a charming bunch.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-12-30 10:51
    Heater. wrote: »
    That is as in "skull". Taking a drink from the skull of your vanquished enemy. The vikings were a charming bunch.

    Thanks for the correction! Either my memory has faded or my friends were just being nice :)
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2012-12-30 10:53
    They have a lot to answer for the swedish, after all they gave us ABBA!
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2012-12-30 11:04
    I wouldn't bet money on the etymology.. "Sk
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-12-30 11:53
    Yes I think most English speaking people think that
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-12-30 14:01
    tony12p,
    But it's not, the Nordic alphabets does have more letters.
    Yes they do, except over here in Finland they have the
  • Ahle2Ahle2 Posts: 1,179
    edited 2012-12-30 15:27
    tonyp12 wrote: »
    What's up that some people think Switzerland and Sweden is the same country?
    Sweden is not famous for Chocolate (though their Marabou is good) and cuckoo-clocks.
    Sweden= Volvo, Ikea, H&M and Absolute and so on..
    You forgot Abba.... that's a first! ;)
    Though only 10million people speak Swedish, it will take centuries before it will fade away
    due to it's phonic and easy rules, like you can never have two vowels next to each other.
    Even though that's true for like 99% of all words, many common words do infact have two vowels next to each other.
    Here are some of them: Seende, beteende, koordinera, igloo

    Then you can combine words to make up new words in Swedish. For an example, In English you say "travel agent" in Sweden we make a new word out of the two and say "researrang
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-12-31 08:16
    Ikea is Swedish?, Not Japanese? I thought the Japanese invented the reindeer meat ball, along with canned corn pizza topping and wasbi peanuts.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-12-31 08:28
    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    Ikea is Swedish?, Not Japanese? ....



    That's funny, I thought IKEA was a Chinese company. But now I understand why my wife was paying Scandinavian prices for Walmart quality.
  • Dave MatthewsDave Matthews Posts: 93
    edited 2012-12-31 15:10
    Ahle2 wrote: »
    It's time for all you Americans to learn a second language. And why not pick one of the less usable and one of the hardest to learn?

    I spent a month in
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-01-01 03:18
    It one really wants to speak Swedish, try sucking on a sour pickled herring for 15 minutes before speaking. Then have a sumo wrestler walk on your back. It will come to you really quickly.
  • John A. ZoidbergJohn A. Zoidberg Posts: 514
    edited 2013-01-01 03:39
    mindrobots wrote: »
    *excuse the lack of line breaks, the forum editor and my iPad no longer get along
    "it doesn't matter because my English is still better than your Swedish!" - classic - I'm apparently dumber than every Swede out there!Thank you for sharing this! I made an attempt to learn Russian a few years back and found it to be terribly difficult for a number of reasons, one of which is the Cyrillc alphabet - nothing like extra letters and then making the ones that look familiar sound completely different. I'm also dumber than every 4 year old Russian when it comes to spoken Rissian...I may have had an advantage with written Russian!! :0)

    Wait till you try Mandarin. I never get around writing or speaking them correct even after 20 years of exposure on that language. I'm struggling to even string a proper correct sentence. It is a very difficult and a convoluted language. Everytime I tried to speak and listen it killed some of my brain cells. I really admire those who studied Mandarin in PhD level - it's never been an easy journey. Man, even Japanese is miles easier than Mandarin!

    On Russian, I can remember most of the alphabets because my neighbour taught me these everytime he went back from Moscow for holidays (he was studying Medicine there). On just a week, I can write them well enough.
  • Erik FriesenErik Friesen Posts: 1,071
    edited 2013-01-01 05:18
    I have a theory that the reason children learn languages so well is in part from complete lack of inhibition and the fact that children will correct mistakes, as well as immersion. This environment is very difficult for an adult to recreate. Then, you have adults that don't speak proper grammar to a non native speaker.

    One boss I had said he knew spanish, it was just english twice as loud.
  • Ahle2Ahle2 Posts: 1,179
    edited 2013-01-01 06:25
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-01-01 08:38
    Erik Friesen wrote: »
    I have a theory that the reason children learn languages so well is in part from complete lack of inhibition and the fact that children will correct mistakes, as well as immersion. This environment is very difficult for an adult to recreate. Then, you have adults that don't speak proper grammar to a non native speaker.

    One boss I had said he knew spanish, it was just english twice as loud.

    The brain actually changes structure at puberty and it seems that prior to doing so children just absorb languages as if they are all pretty much one and the same.

    I guess puberty just pretty much is a mass destruction of learning ablility and it is all downhill after that.

    Mandarin is quite interesting... about 14 ways to say if and no ways to say no.
  • AleAle Posts: 2,363
    edited 2013-01-01 11:41
    I'd like to learn swedish so I can watch Komissar Beck in its original language, there are no translations available for the first seasons :(. All three languages, Norwegian&Danish, Swedish and Finninsh sound as if the speakers were singing. Specially Norwegian.
    But now it is Ucranian in my list. Quite a complicated language, after the cyrillic, that is really not a real issue, it is spoken mixed with different amounts of Russian words, and there seems to be at least two diminutives for every word... and 7 declinations, Russian has only 6 :)... and the verbs are conjugated differently according to the gender of the subject, all of them. At least I can tell my child a few things :)
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-01-01 12:16
    As to the singing Norwegian.. of the three Scandinavian languages (which would have been dialects of the language "Scandinavian" if not for "a language is a dialect with a navy and an army", as someone said), Norwegian has the most variability in (local) dialects. Presumably due to all the mountains separating communities up until recently. Anyway, the singing intonation is something you'll mostly find in the very south-east corner of the country, with some additional interesting intonations a bit south of the middle section. We like variation though.. some of us at least.

    As a programmer I find Japanese the most logical of all languages I know anything about. To my programmer mind, everything I learn makes complete sense. My non-programmer friends seem to find its concepts baffling though, they take a very different view. To me it's just delightful.

    -Tor
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2013-01-01 13:49
    Danish is also fun. The phrase "r
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-01-01 14:04
    Ale,

    I'm curious, "Komissar Beck translations in Finnish...sound as if the speakers were singing."

    I have seen a lot of Beck in Helsinki and like most TV shows and movies imported to Finland they do not dub a translation sound track over it they just provide Finnish subtitles. Also spoken Finnish is far from "singing" to my ear. It has a totally different sound to the Scandinavian languages, what with being a very different language.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-01-01 22:47
    I think Ale meant translation (dubbing) into German.

    -Tor
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-01-02 23:46
    Tor wrote: »
    As to the singing Norwegian.. of the three Scandinavian languages (which would have been dialects of the language "Scandinavian" if not for "a language is a dialect with a navy and an army", as someone said), Norwegian has the most variability in (local) dialects. Presumably due to all the mountains separating communities up until recently. Anyway, the singing intonation is something you'll mostly find in the very south-east corner of the country, with some additional interesting intonations a bit south of the middle section. We like variation though.. some of us at least.

    As a programmer I find Japanese the most logical of all languages I know anything about. To my programmer mind, everything I learn makes complete sense. My non-programmer friends seem to find its concepts baffling though, they take a very different view. To me it's just delightful.

    -Tor

    Thanks Tor. I visited relatives in Oslo and Harstad a couple of years ago and never noticed any singing intonation. I was beginning to wonder if I was loosing it.
  • Ahle2Ahle2 Posts: 1,179
    edited 2013-01-03 08:20

    Nu n
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2013-01-03 09:43
    Du g
  • Ahle2Ahle2 Posts: 1,179
    edited 2013-01-04 10:46
    How come you know Swedish?

    1. Been in Sweden for a while
    2. Swedish relatives
    3. Has got nothing better to do than to learn a minor language
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-01-04 11:40
    4. Swedish women are attractive.
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