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Should I learn Danish or Norwegian? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5570 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 9 of 49 16 February 2009 at 6:11am | IP Logged | ||
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A British analogy for Scandinavian:
Swedish is the way the Queen speaks. Norwegian is the way a typical common Geordie (Northern England) would speak. Danish is a man from the rough part of Glasgow. What I'm told by Swedes is that wheras they find it very hard to get Danes the Danes have much less trouble working out what Swedes are saying (hence making the analogy more apt). I would ask Danish speakers if they believe there is truth in this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amoore Senior Member Denmark Joined 5558 days ago 177 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Danish* | Message 10 of 49 16 February 2009 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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... I believe that to be true. Danes are just more intelligent.
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| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5570 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 11 of 49 19 February 2009 at 9:32am | IP Logged | ||
Nah. I mean it seriously; Swedish has a clearer pronounciation of their words whilst Danish strings more together (which really fits in with the Northern English vs. Southern English thing....). So can you actually understand them better? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amoore Senior Member Denmark Joined 5558 days ago 177 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Danish* | Message 12 of 49 19 February 2009 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I am not Swedish so i do not know how well one will understand a Dane.
But Sometimes I do have a bit difficulty understanding what a Swede is trying to say. But then again, they are drunk all the time. No, but seriously. More words are not the same, or even related in Danish/Swedish than Norwegian/Danish... so it seems. (I have nothing to back up this thesis). Anyway. I just read a swedish newspaper this morning, and it was no big deal. Ask, and more nonsense will come... André Moore 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| teddo Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6198 days ago 22 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English, Polish Studies: French | Message 13 of 49 20 February 2009 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a question for you Amoore.
Apart from the main topic, could you tell me, how you (as a Dane) understand German (Low German)???? (speaking & writting) thanks for your reply in advance!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amoore Senior Member Denmark Joined 5558 days ago 177 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Danish* | Message 14 of 49 21 February 2009 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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You mean how well I understand it?
German for 3 years school (almost 6 years ago). I do not write or speak it at all and hardly learned anything these years in school. I went to Berlin 1 year ago, and me and my friends decided to go to the cinema. We watched the movie "10.000 BC" all in German. I really enjoyed listening to German and was very surprised about how much I understood. My friend speaks German fluently and it was possible to ask questions about a specific scene during, and afterwards, the film and it seemed like I could understand the dialogs "okay". Sadly the movie is **#%"! It was possible for me to understand the directions to the hotel given in German, and order a room at the hotel. 5 min. ago I read the headlines on http://www.spiegel.de/. I believe I can tell you what 4/5 of them means. I can recognize many of the words from danish, and some I just know for some reason. André Moore Edited by Amoore on 21 February 2009 at 3:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Grammaticus Hexaglot Newbie Norway Joined 5541 days ago 36 posts - 40 votes Speaks: FrenchC2, Norwegian*, EnglishC2, GermanC2, Italian, Russian | Message 15 of 49 23 February 2009 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
German is very accesible for us scandinavians. It takes little time and effort to get quite fluent. Very easy to remember words, we only need to hear them or read them once or twice. Many can be improvised. Some grammar and declinations has to be learned, but nothing scary. Somewhat more difficult than passing from french to Italian, but still easy and very rewarding. I was a very poor student at school, but when I first came to Austria, I started speaking right from the very beginning. It was in 2002, right before the Iraq war, so I would first read some news in french or English and then read the same kind of information i German. After a few weeks I was reading Goethe with a dictionnary at a respectable pace. After about a year spent in Germany/Austria, my German was up to C2 level, mainly thanks to extensive reading. I'm no exception, but unfortunately few scandinavians give it a try. You really just have to learn grammar for a couple of hours and sit down with a book and a dictionary. IMO, a scandinavian with a sincere interest in languages and litterature has little excuse for not reading German. It used to be widespread throughout universities and in the business world, but nowadays it's all English. Really a shame. Scandinavian philology/humanities students should read German. After all, I think it's still today the second-biggest language in term of annual original publications and it gives access to an enourmous wealth of material, old and new. Unfortunately, for some absurd reasons, scandinavians tend to believe German is a difficult language and it has a very poor reputation. There are even some scandinavians who embark upon English-language study programmes in Germany! Such is the extent of our ignorance that you quite often hear young people saying rubbish such as "I think Spanish is easier than German". I can also add that most swedish words not immediately intelligible for danes and norwegians are of German facture. With regards to Low German, I've never heard it spoken (didn't live in those parts of Germany), but I understood it easily when I read Thomas Manns novel "Buddenbrooks". There were some sentences written in Plattdeutsch. I suppose it's basically a mixture of German and danish. Edited by Grammaticus on 23 February 2009 at 6:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| insane Diglot Newbie Norway Joined 5541 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: German | Message 16 of 49 24 February 2009 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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one thing.. why isnt swedish in your list?
i am a native norwegian myself, and i have to say that danish must be a really hard language to learn for people who have never been associated with denmark in their childhood. this is mainly due to the words being really hard to pronounce. i have my doubts that youd ever be able to sound like a native, but feel free to prove me wrong. norwegian is alot more monotone, and though it might not be as pretty as danish, its easier. besides - we can understand and communicate with both swedes and danes, and from what i have heard, swedes and danes have problems with understanding eachother. to us norwegians, danish is very easy to read, but very hard to understand when spoken. with swedish it is the other way around. IMO: norwegian > swedish > danish. also, norway might be really expensive, but weve also got some of the highest salaries around, so yeah.. just dont come here if you run your own private business ;) really, just STAY AWAY from scandinavia all in all if this is what you do. i recommend you visit some of the scandinavian cities before making your decision. oslo is really ugly, though - bergen is where the beauty is at :) haha, ok, im a lil biased. check out ålesund - ive heard its nice! also, copenhagen has the most international airport in scandinavia, which is a huge plus if you like travenlig. heck, copenhagen has a more international feel (than oslo) altogether! copenhagen > oslo norway > denmark see where im going? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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