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Speaking Norwegian in Sweden? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 12 26 April 2015 at 5:11am | IP Logged |
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I have been studying Norwegian for about a year now and can hold a fairly decent general
conversation, ask for directions, order food, talk about my job, etc. However, I am certainly not perfect and make some regular grammatical errors though I am quickly improving and making progress. I will be visiting Sweden for a few days this summer and am a bit unsure if I should try speaking Swedish or Norwegian while I am there? I cannot speak Swedish very much at all - in fact I've literally just dabbled in it to see how it compares to Norwegian, though I have been able to pick up quite a few words and recognized some big differences. I can speak Norwegian much better. I am concerned as to how I would come off if I tried speaking Norwegian or Swedish. My Swedish would not go very far and it would likely come out as some sort of Swedish/Norwegian hybrid thing that might offend Swedes. Though I also question how it would come off if I spoke entirely in Norwegian. Would it be acceptable for me to just speak in Norwegian? I could ultimately resort to speaking English but that would certainly take a lot of the enjoyment out of the trip. My biggest fear is coming off as offensive. Do Norwegians traveling in Sweden just speak in Norwegian? I do know the joke that a Swede, a Norwegian, and a Dane go into a bar and all have a conversation perfectly fine but I have never actually thought about how an interaction between a Swedish person and a Norwegian speaker would unfold. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 12 26 April 2015 at 5:39am | IP Logged |
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In my experience it shouldn't be problematic. I did it vice versa - I speak Swedish
better than Norwegian (though I can also speak Norwegian if need be, but a heavily Swedified version). I see it as pretty much the obvious thing to do. Speaking svorsk is fairly normal when the two interact in my experience. I'm sure Norwegians and Swedes do the same thing. My Swedish was understood in Norway with 0 problems. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5059 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 12 26 April 2015 at 5:57am | IP Logged |
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You can even give interviews in Norwegian on Swedish radio--they won't dub it.
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| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4290 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 4 of 12 26 April 2015 at 6:11am | IP Logged |
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I watch both SVT and NRK on a daily basis, and they literally talk to each other in
the other language if they cannot speak the other. I saw a coverage of the Ferguson incident in the USA on SVT a few months ago, for example. The SVT reporter was talking in Swedish to the NRK reporter, who responded to everything in Norwegian. I thought that that was kind of interesting, but they obviously understand each other more or less without difficulty. I think that Swedish/Norwegian and its mix is almost as likewise as Spanish/Portuguese and Portuñol/Portunhol, and the latter couple almost never have problems understanding each other. Do not switch to English under any circumstances whilst in Norway or Sweden. Last time I went to Norway I did Norwegian more or less fine even at my terrible level that was probably A1-A2 at most. I asked the till at a 7-11 in Bergen about when they were going to restock their uncarbonated bottled water and if they would have it ready on Sunday since everywhere else is closed. Despite being in the A levels, and even though I must have messed up something (or many things), they understood me and responded (yes). About the joke, I think that it was more like, a Swede, a Norsk, and a Dane go into a bar, and the Swede and Norsk understand each other, and the Dane has to talk to herself or himself because neither of the former two understand what the hell the latter is saying. Edited by 1e4e6 on 26 April 2015 at 6:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 12 26 April 2015 at 7:16am | IP Logged |
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My experience is that you can also talk to the Danes, but you need a lot more practice to
understand their pronunciation. Something I surely don't have. In Copenhagen they got my Danified Swedish just fine though. Edited by tarvos on 26 April 2015 at 7:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4521 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 6 of 12 26 April 2015 at 11:50am | IP Logged |
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If you speak Norwegian reasonably well, it's not going to be a problem. Last time I was
in Sweden I had not studied Swedish at all before and had to ask the Swedes to switch to English whenever it got too technical - they wouldn't switch by themselves even after I asked twice to repeat :) But it might be different for an American... Look at the show Skavlan on SVT for ideas on how you can slightly modify your Norwegian in order to be understood (Skavlan is Norwegian). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 12 26 April 2015 at 1:50pm | IP Logged |
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What everybody else said. And unless you have very good Norwegian accent and use vocabulary and structures that are exclusively Norwegian, there's even a chance that any Swede will just regard you as someone who speaks... well.... broken Swedish.
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| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 8 of 12 26 April 2015 at 8:59pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the advice. Looks like I will try going with whatever comes when I speak. I only ask because I
have heard that in France, Americans or Brits will speak in French and get replies back in English. I was unsure here though since I'd be a foreigner speaking to Swedes in Norwegian I felt it might be something that might offend some but I will give it a go. I can already recognize some major differences that I should be able to make us of without issue. So I guess Svorsk it will be. 1e4e6, Why do you say "Do not switch to English under any circumstances whilst in Norway or Sweden"? Last time I was in Norway my Norwegian was so terrible the only things I was able to do was to ask some immigrants what time a cafeteria would be open and told some women who were confused at using the T-Bane that I don't speak Norwegian. Everywhere else I used English without problem. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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