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English in Scandinavia | ||
Tags: Scandinavia | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5832 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 36 24 June 2012 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes, but many, including Scandinavians use American vocabulary and idoms rather than British vocabulary and idioms. Most speak with Dutch and Scandinavian accents because their English simply isn't good enough to sound convincingly like a native, however, the few that do start to sound like natives generally sound like Americans. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5832 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 26 of 36 24 June 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Most Scandinavians who sound anything like natives will usually sound like Americans and use American style vocabularly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5832 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 27 of 36 24 June 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
For example, in one of her posts, I noticed "Solfrid Cristin" used "Yes, sir" "No, Mam" as an example of English polite phrases. Those phraes are mostly only used in American English, as far as I'm aware they rarely occur in British English in any colloquial sense. No one in England would ever use those phrases, which makes me assume that her English is probably highly American influenced, although I could be wrong. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 28 of 36 24 June 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
How do you know? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6660 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 29 of 36 24 June 2012 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
That is the most far reached argument I've seen since long. They might use sir and ma'am more scarcely than their American kinsmen, though when they have to, they do not have many other choices except for the nobility and all the titles they bring along. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 30 of 36 25 June 2012 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Many professional Dutch people speak an excellent standard of English but few actually sound American or British. The Dutch accent is quite distinct. But why would they want to sound anything other than Dutch? It's rarely a case of their English not being good enough. If you can use a language in a spontaneous and highly-educated manner, why try and imitate someone from, say, California or London? Unless you are a dedicated linguist striving for native-style intonation, or someone who has picked up a substantial twang as a result of a long period in an immersion environment, you will always sound "foreign" when speaking any language other than your own. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Some people have an obsession about accent, but in the real world few people care. Edited by beano on 25 June 2012 at 2:31pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 31 of 36 25 June 2012 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I don't think I really want to agree with COF's general point(s), but in the specific case of using "Sir" and "Ma'am", the average British citizen probably very rarely use them. I believe they are used in the police services (i.e. a junior police officer will refer to a senior female officer (there are a few), as "Ma'am" (or "Guv", more colloquially), and I think the same would be true in the military, but apart from that, the only people who use "Sir and "Madam" or sometimes "Ma'am" are shop assistants and waiters. I believe that when meeting the Queen, 1st time it's "Your Majesty", then after that "Ma'am". Diana is supposed to have called Charles "Sir", until they were officially engaged. (I can just about believe that). But the Royal Family is from Mars and doesn't count :-) Once in my local supermarket, another customer had left his plastic card at the checkout, and no one else had noticed, so I called out to him "Excuse me sir!". I probably sounded like one of the supermarket employees, but it was the shortest thing I could think of, and still sound polite. But it was the first time I'd called anyone "Sir" since I was at school! :-) What were my options? I could have said: "Excuse me mate!", which some people would have said, but it didn't seem right. Or just "Hey, you!" or "Wait a minute!". No one outside comic books ever says "Hey Mister!". (Well, maybe they do in London, but this wasn't London). Technically though, I suppose Cristina was right, but it's not what I would routinely say, unless I couldn't think of anything else under time pressure. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| decamillisjacob Newbie Canada Joined 4733 days ago 38 posts - 63 votes | Message 32 of 36 27 June 2012 at 7:06am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Does monolingualism/unilingualism exist at all among any younger generation Scandinavians? I.e., a Swede or an Icelander who cannot function in English?
North Americans live by the notion that one can live in a Scandinavian country entirely on English, I duely hope that that notion can be disputed at the civilian level. The same applies to the Netherlands. Edited by decamillisjacob on 27 June 2012 at 7:09am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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