|
 |
Switching from Norwegian to Swedish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Greendog Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5262 days ago 47 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 20 14 August 2010 at 3:52am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Hey everyone!
So recently I've been considering making the switch from Norwegian to Swedish. Although I've been studying Norwegian for a few months, when I looked for a Norwegian dictionary online and couldn't find one (but could find one in Swedish) I began to think that the additional resources for Swedish learning might make the switch worth making despite needing to relearn some things. Also, I was thinking that I may do a semester or two at a Swedish university and I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll do one at a Norwegian university. However, I have heard that Norwegians have a better understanding of both Swedish and Danish than Swedes do of Norwegian and Danish. So, what are your thoughts? Do you think it's worth the switch? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| cypherpunks Newbie Sweden Joined 5212 days ago 14 posts - 16 votes | Message 2 of 20 14 August 2010 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Regarding the better understanding, I wonder how well it applies to learners of the language. (Common words in Norwegian might be fairly uncommon in Swedish and vice versa, so common words between native/advanced speakers are not necessarily so with a learner.) Personally I find both Danish and Norwegian fairly easy to understand, though Norwegian certainly is easier.
I do remember hearing from a Norwegian that they had a particularily easy time understanding Swedish since they had Swedish television! If you're thinking of going to Sweden it's a pretty obvious choice. In either case, materials for e.g. LR should be pretty easy to get a hold of, as audiobooks are popular in both countries. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5445 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 3 of 20 14 August 2010 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
A lot of people say so, but I think it's a myth. Until quite recently Swedish TV was not available, at least not via terrestrial TV, in many parts of the country. People from these regions also understand Swedish perfectly well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Greendog Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5262 days ago 47 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 20 14 August 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I'm not totally decided about going to Sweden - I'm also really considering the University of Copenhagen. I know that Danish is the hardest to understand and speak though, and I've heard education is better in the other two countries than Norway, so that's what's making me consider the switch.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dshödsh Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5208 days ago 14 posts - 20 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 20 14 August 2010 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, I would say that this makes Swedish a better choice - it's primarily a question of attitude on the part of the Norwegians rather than Norwegian giving you a better foundation to understand Swedish than vice versa. It certainly helps that Norwegian is far more forgiving of dialectal eccentricities than Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vyxir Hexaglot Newbie Norway Joined 5229 days ago 11 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 6 of 20 15 August 2010 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is hardly a general impression, there are good and not-so-good places to study in all three countries. It will always be important to find a specific place to study that you know good things about, I think it's dangerous to make generalizations like that. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cypherpunks Newbie Sweden Joined 5212 days ago 14 posts - 16 votes | Message 7 of 20 16 August 2010 at 1:21am | IP Logged | |||||
You mean they understand Swedish even without TV? It might not be the reason then. Then again, I'm just passing on what a bunch of Swedish-understanding Norwegians told me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6071 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 20 16 August 2010 at 2:55am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Norwegian dialects are largely pushed through state owned channels and media in the
sense that you seem to be more likely to get a presenter job if you speak a dialect that's very different from the Oslo dialect. Some of the Norwegian dialects could sound at least in the same neighbourhood as many Swedish dialects, so perhaps Norwegian TV helps us more? ;) We have Swedish TV here but I never ever watched it in my life, and I don't think it's a very common thing to do either. Anyhow, for the OP's question, I would definitely change to the language of the country you want to live in. I'd rather spend a few months extra attaining the language I would actually use than save that time and end up speaking in a way which might make it difficult to be understood and definitely difficult to understand. Norwegians understand both languages very well it seems, but these are native Norwegians and not Norwegian learners. As an example, I can understand a lot of written Afrikaans because it to me looks like how old Norwegian texts were written. A student of Norwegian wouldn't have this experience with old Norwegian texts (most likely), seeing as he wouldn't have them shoved down his throat during education, and thus he wouldn't have this advantage either. Danish might be the trickiest out of the three, but they're still some of the least difficult languages you can learn as an English speaker. Also, I think there's several online dictionaries for Norwegian if that's what you meant? 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
