Is Swedish Hard To Learn? (So many people get this wrong)
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2024
- In this video I address a common misconception about the difficulty of learning Swedish as well as discuss the easiest and hardest languages to learn for English speakers. I also discuss some of the key things that I find to be difficult and easy about the Swedish language.
🇸🇪 Learn Swedish With Simple Phrases Daily: / languagelockin
My Instagram: / stefanthyron
I think Swedish is "easy to learn, hard to master" it's pretty easy to have a Swede understand you but to completely blend in is hard.
I would say it's impossible to fully blend in.
Well I think it has to do with dialects and even their influence og high swedish. Sometimes the abbreviations can be different from city to city. This can be the truth in the UK as well, but I'm not sure if the difference in the US is that large except on a regional level
@@cargobob7817 More or less impossible if you come here as an adult. It might be possible, but I have not seen an example of it yet.
I'd say it's the same for Amurican English. At least where I'm from, there's so much slang and so many idioms that I think it's very difficult for a non-native speaker to fully comprehend.
@@charlies.5777 It's the pitch accent and specific sounds that are difficult with Swedish. There are of course idioms and some words but that is the same with every language.
Just saying, if someone has a hard time saying "Ö" as an english person, think about how you say "Girl", you could basically replace the "i" with a "ö" and it would be exacly the same thing. Unless it's a hard Ö.
Or how you say Earl, it could be Örl instead.
I hope I helped someone :)
Now challenge to YOU! Say my last name and see if you can get it right (;
english speakers say Ö all the time, for example O in Customer, it's really Custömer.
@@maxysurvivorsucks That's true :)
That only gives you one of the two pronunciations of "ö", although, if you're from one of the larger cities and under 30, chances are that's your only "ö".
In modern Swedish, one variant of "ö" is used before "r" and another is used in all other instances (but again, if you're a younger speaker from a major city, the first kind is likely your only "ö"). The first is formed more towards the back of your mouth with the lips more relaxed and open, while the other is more fronted, with lips more tense. To speakers whose speech has both variants (most people outside larger cities and almost everyone over 40), they sound quite distinct, but younger speakers might not even be able to tell them apart unless they make an effort.
There is no equivalent sound in English to the second variant of "ö".
Österberg, ett berg åt öst. Btw my name is another example of that, Sjöström
And in "can" you say Ä. so "cän" (if you´re using American english)
The thing with swedish is that it's easy to learn but hard to master, thanks to the pitch accent that the swedish language have it's really easy as a swede to spot a foreigner. If you don't know what the pitch accent is, there are some great videos explaining it. And I do recommend watching some videos about it if you are learning swedish, because it's a big difference.
The pitch accent is the different accents required for Swedish words like "anden" (the duck) and "anden" (the spirit). The difference is subtle, but extremely obvious to a native Swedish speaker. And hard to master for anyone who didn't grow up with Swedish, I'm sure.
That's true, I have a friend who I thought was born and raised in Sweden until I noticed the way he pronounced/pitched* some words. I asked him about it and he came to Sweden five years ago.
*pitched = "betonade" in swedish
@@haalloondricka Yes, I found it a bit surprising that Stefan didn't mention pitch accent since I'm sure that can be quite difficult to master.
Translating it simply as "betona" though might create some confusion for some readers thinking it has to do with emphasis. So to clear that up I just wanted to write that differently to emphasis (which both English and Swedish has), pitch accent also has to do with tones that vary in pitch and length in different patterns. Emphasis happens mostly on a sentence structure level, whilst pitch accent happens in a single word.
@@annsidbrant7616 Isn't 'ankan' duck? 'En anka' is a duck & 'ankan' is the duck?
@@brigidspencer5123 Exactly. And "anka" is a two-syllable word with pitch accent 2. But "and" is another word for "anka". And "and" is a one-syllable word with pitch accent 1.
As a Finn I've always struggled to learn Swedish until I realized that I have to study it in English and not in Finnish.
pakkoruotsi funkar int..hälsningar: rannikkohurrista =)
Ja
Yeah English and Swedish have a lot in common
Yes this is indeed true, because Swedish has more similarities with English and the amount of resources for learning swedish in english i assume is going to be larger than in finnish. Knowledge of english would help you a lot in learning swedish as a Finn.
I noticed too that sometimes i need to change my mindset if i want to learn a language, like for learning german it's easier to start from "dutch" i feel, while for romance languages, due to the amount of resources, it might be easier in english. English also has a lot of shared vocabulary but having knowledge of two languages also helps me a lot. It's easier to learn a third language if you know two languages, than outright learning a second one and so on, because you're more familiar with the process of language learning and might have knowledge of more cognates.
@@Lakigigar what other language do you speak?
Totally agree! Swedish is not hard. But the circumstances make it hard to learn. Because your rarely need it.
I would also add that, because the country is so small, there is not that much media (videos / songs / etc) that is in Swedish. Unlike Spanish or German.
We love to create tips and trick that make it fun and easy to learn Swedish. So maybe we could do some form of collab in the future :)
I'm learning Norwegian now. Pronunciation is way more complex and difficult to learn. I have a hard time understanding each word spoken in a sentence.
I spent an year learning Swedish, getting the basics down is easy except finding content to become perfect is impossible
I think it so interesting to watch people learning Swedish and see their journey, like you!
So happy you find it interesting ☺️🙏🏼
Even more funny when you are swedish
Where are you from? And I are you know korean! Me too
@@AmogusSusAmongusSussyBakaAmogg Which I am
@@fae.bae.._ najs
Hej Stefan, I just moved to Sweden (three days ago) and I instantly wanted to learn Swedish. This video it gave me some peace of mind. Tack!
Miranda, there are a lot of words that are “the same” in Swedish and English.
Cat - Katt
Foot - Fot
Hand - Hand
Hungry - Hungrig
If you observe this it should be a great help I believe. Does not help you with grammar of course but it should enable a kickstart.
Welcome to Sweden :)
Welcome here :) hope u will enjoy the country
Check out TheSwedishLad - he's done videos of Swedish vocabulary for years :3
I hope you like out country!!!
I'm Danish so Swedish is really really easily. For me it's just feels like a different dialect of Danish. Norwegian can be even easier, dependent on the dialect of the speaker.
I am Swedish. Have lived in Skåne close to Denmark for 8 years now. I cannot for the life of me understand a single word of Danish...
@@charliekoohler4774 Du forstår ikke et af hvad jeg skriver nu?
@@schnelltv1956 Skrift jo. Jag menade talspråk.
@@charliekoohler4774 Det kræver øvelse for begge parter. Efter at have hørt svensk hver dag i nogle måneder kan jeg forstå 80-100% Før kunne jeg forstå omkring 40-60%
In fact, all three Scandinavian languages can be seen as dialects of the same language.
Stefan on road trip trying to blend in in rural Skåne. That would be a fun video.
Yes, Stefan could interview the English TV gardener John Taylor who speaks a funny sort of Scanian dialect.
Go far enough down and you stand out with the skåne accent, far up enough and you stand out from the local north swedish/bondska accents, you'd stand out like a sore thumb
My aunt has lived in sweden for over 20 years and still struggles with speech, because everyone speaks to her in english. She had to put a sign on her office door that says 'Swedish only, please' in order to get a decent chance to practice her speech.
Did it say Swedish only please or Svenska bara tack?
@@catholicdad Jag vet inte
“ÄÅÖ” .... 😂 native swedes will probably understand. Great video Stefan, as usual! ♥️♥️♥️
Hahah, satt och tänkte på det!
Feel Good : inte så lätt ändå fan 😁♥️ Man måste väl nästan ha sjungit bokstavslåtar på dagis för att veta ordningen 😃
ÅÄÖ. in Norway they say ÆØÅ
Yes I can tell this letter is in Swedish mr president, lots of ös and äss in it.
ÄÅÖ hurt my eyes 😂🙈
As a native Dutch speaker, my journey in learning Swedish entailed a super easy time learning grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary but an absolute dumpster fire when it comes to listening comprehension.
To this day, Swedish’s fluid, often legato orthography, mixed with the frequently unclear annunciations just sounds like complete gibberish to me if it’s not accompanied by subtitles.
I can generally talk to a Swede decently, but when they talk back,.. oof!
On the bright side, at least it’s not Danish
Ja man!!! Ik ga verhuizen naar srockholm één januari. Had een zweedse meid ontmoet maar ze wil me niet meer, heb nu in 3 maanden Zweeds geleerd, en de uitspraak is echt makkelijk als je het eenmaal onder de knie hebt. Ga nu zweedse video's maken op RUclips en muziek zoals Antoon en Lil Kleine maken daar in zweden, hoop dat ik doorbreek en dat ze me terug wil. Ha det bra ;)
Som en tysk lärde jag mig språket över många år. Tack och lov hade jag fått hjälp från mina svenska vänner och det gick mycket bra efter en viss tid. Jag patar svenska, lyssnar på svensk radio och svensk musik och fick däremot lära mig om språktempot. Det är inte ens perfekt. Men en dag ska jag vara riktig bra på svenska. Jag älsker Sverige så mycket. Bästa landet, bästa mataffärar och snällaste människor med särdeles stora hjärta
bra.👍
Recommend changing "hade jag fått hjälp från" to "fick jag hjälp från", it's subtle but the way you say it now can imply the opposite.
How I learned English while living my whole life in Sweden.
Watching un-dubbed American movies and playing video games.
I worked in an American Food store for a while. I had one 10 year old guy wander in and his English was the best I'd ever heard for someone his age. As good as my husband's. I complimented him and asked if he had an American parent or something. He gave me the biggest grin and said, "No. RUclips game streams!"
English is everywhere though, hard to miss it.
How do you learn a language undubbed I just don't understand that so you're saying I could learn Swedish by watching stuff undubbed?
@@ImAgentK What I'm saying is that I grew up watching American movies. The Scandinavian countries are among the few countries in Europe that do not dub every foreign movie or Tv- show.
This is why 98% of all Swedes are able to speak English without any issue as compared to Germany or Italy
@@ImAgentK Also - Watching undubbed swedish movies now when you are in the age that you are in now will probably not help you much.
I was 5 years old when I started watching american movies that my brother used to rent on VHS.
What a kind, respectful, and instructive video. You are helping in lowering the bar for foreigners to learn Swedish. Many foreigners are told that Swedish is very hard to master. You break the language learning down in a smart way and demonstrate by example why Swedish does not have to be very hard to learn. Thank you.
I'm learning German now and it's pretty discouraging to learn German because of the grammar. I've always thought Swedish is a sexy language, sounds like they are singing when they speak.💙
Cutelittle Trips Hahahah never heard anyone say that before😂
Haha I am Swedish and I never thought about it/that way
Meanwhile us Swedes think that Norweigans sound like they are singing
I have studied German for 6 months and living in sweden for eight years and I can tell german grammar is way harder than swedish. Altought, swedish pronunciation is harder than german.
I'm a native Swede and yes, I've heard that foreign people thinks it sounds like we sing when we speak, but I guess we don't realise it ourselfs XD
As for German... I studied it in school from 6th grade until I finished gymnasiet... I'm still trying to learn it, since I have both friends and distant family in Germany... and to be honest, I still can't get Der Die Das right...
When foreign internet-friends ask me if Swedish is hard to learn i usually say that rule of thumb is that the grammar is easy, but speaking it without a heavy accent is very hard.
Almost impossible even.
No one cares though. We have so many immigrants that we're used to all sorts of accents. We're not language snobs like the French..!
Hello there teach me swedish
@@zlattesboy the ethnic variety represented in Mello over the years is perfect example: big ones for me being Loreen Talahoui(?) and Eric Saade. And that was 2 years in row. But then you have Mendez, Samir, Mohombi, Mr Fjallgren, etc.
@@stpatrickcentre7694 I can point you towards some resources if you're serious.
Even as a swede, I learned a thing in this video. Never knew of the 80% thing.
Du är inte ensam haha
I speak English and Afrikaans fluently and would love to learn Swedish next. My dad's family is from Sweden and some still live there and would love to visit and be able to speak the language. Because of my Afrikaans heritage I do understand some Dutch but not a whole lot.
The Swedish language is easy grammatically for English speaking people, which makes it easy to learn. But to pronounce the words correctly and pretty much sound like a somewhat native speaker is near impossible for an English speaker if they aren't from Scotland (that gives it a slight advantage). So you'll be able to read Swedish quite perfectly and somewhat understand it perfectly when spoken, but you probably won't be able to speak it perfectly if you don't work really hard on the pronunciation and when i say hard, I mean HARD.
Very true, the pronunciation is the hardest part for me as well!
Unless they come here as a child.
Perhaps self evident, but Swedish pronunciation is much easier if you are musically talented (and/or able to listen carefully). It's about rhythm as much as about melody (prosody). I know English speaking people that achieved pretty realistic Swedish in a couple of years, but also people that never learned it (and are old or dead now).
That applies to every language
In Sweden it is more important how you look than how you sound - so if you want to be accepted try to wear the same kind of clothes as Swedish people at your work place or your school, and cut/arrange your hair as they do. Swedes come in all colors, but show where they belong by dressing alike. If you dress very differently Swedes read it like you don't want to have contact with Swedes. It is silly, but that is how it is.
There are always some Swedes that are willing to share your interests and concerns, because there are so many different subgroups in the country, some are prejudiced and narrowminded, some the opposite. Look out for those you like the most! Swedes often connect to strangers (native or not) through what they like to do outside the family and job. Music, football, boating, animals, crafts, gardening, bird watching, hiking, etc. It takes at least a year to learn to know a few Swedes, if they don't have happened to be newly moved into the area themselves. Swedes are mostly occupied with their family and long-time friends, and there might be no vacuum in their lives, on the contrary. Swedes are not so chatty and not much for small-talk, they prefer more permanent relationships with fewer people, but then they don't care so much about pronunciation or grammar mistakes, it is not like Swedes are snobbish in general. But avoid the worst upper-class people, they are hopeless in any country. Do your best for the sake of communication or the demands in your job, for example if you work with people in service, health care, or education.
Your videos are super helpful man!
Will be moving to Stockholm for work very soon from Canada. Cant wait!
I think it's a little odd that americans like yourself would have difficulty pronouncing Å Ä and Ö as the English language contains sounds that are pretty much identical to all those three sounds.
Å = OH-vowel like in or, boar, four, core etc.
Ä = Air-vowel like in air, fair, pair, care etc.
Ö = Uh-vowel like in burn, urn, learn (try pronouncing fur in an RP UK accent and it will be pretty much a perfect ö)
Ö is slightly odd because traditionally, there are two different pronunciations of this vowel depending on whether it proceeds an R or not. However, in most of Sweden, except north of about Sundsvall and some inland places, they've started to only use one Ö-variant (the one traditionally preceding an R) making it easier for you guys.
The vowels that actually do have different pronunciations from anything in the English language are O (groda), U (gul) and Y (lysa), as our O is different from the "fool"-vowel and you have no U sound that isn't a difthong, and our Y is different from I as opposed to your Y and I that are pronounced the same (like in Garry and Garrison)
I was just about to wrte about the ÅÄÖ as well. I find it weird too that they find it so difficult. I believe it's because the think of its written form: A+¨. They read the letter, instead of listenning to its sound. "Är" is pronounced as "Air". "Får" is pronounced as "For", and "För" is pronounced as "Fur". Don't look at its written form, but learn how it's pronounced.
Ö does not sound like "u" in "burn"
@@pierreo33 Well you're right about that, at least when you're talking about American English, since there's barely even a vowel in their pronunciation of burn. Works in British (rp) English though, or if an American tried to sing burn on a long note.
That's not as close as you think. English vowels are odd compared to most other germanic (and indo-european) languages and very distinct. Especially the A, and the shift of E to sound like I in most other languages. Then you have the disinct R. Most native English speakers I known who speak Swedish pronounce är exactly like air, or örn as earn. The different R changes the sound of the vowel quite dramatically. It's approximate, but not really close. The Swedish O is also distinct, while the English O is close to the Swedish U. English good would be spelled gudd in Swedish, for example, with almost exactly the same pronounciation.
@@henrikl.w.4058 Neither of your three examples are close to the Swedish pronounciation. Är is not pronounced Air, Får is not For and För is definitely not Fur. The Swedish vowels have very different quality. The För-Fur is very close in Canadian English though.
When talking about difficulties of learning Swedish and pronounciation, I'm surprised pitch accent isn't mentioned since it's quite uncommon in the world with languages with pitch accent. (Think: tomten vs. tomten and similar words differentiated only by their pitch accents.)
I'm curious about this, pitch accent is frequently mentioned in connection with Swedish in particular. In Italian we have the words ancora (accent on second syllable, meaning still or yet) and ancora (accent on first syllable, meaning anchor). Is this an example of pitch accent? Even after reading about it I'm a bit confused about the difference between pitch accent and "stress".
Clearly, Swedish is not a tonal language, in the sense that for example Thai (5 tones IIRC) or Ga (officially 2 tones) are. I'll limit myself to Ga, since I am more familiar with it. In Ga tone is a part of the syllable, so 'la' can mean blood, fire, dream, to sing, depending on the context and whether you say it with a low or high tone. Then there is the La part of Accra, so you can throw in one other meaning as well.
I wrote that Ga officially has two tones. I'm not expert on such matters, but if Iisten to a language like Yoruba, which I don't know very well, to my ears it seems to be a very "pure" tonal language. It has three tones, low, mid and high, you can think of these as do, re and mi. In Thai, Mandarin, etc., "tones" are actually tone shifts: rising, falling, etc., in addition to flat tones, i.e. low, medium and high. In Ga, the word for dog is 'gbee' (you produce the 'gb' sound by saying a 'b' sound but with the tongue in position for a hard g sound, it is not two sounds). Gbee is said to be a high tone sound, but it is actually more of a mid-to-high rising tone.
In a language like Swedish (which I understand really well, but don't really speak), tone is clearly not significant at syllable level. It does matter in some cases, like stegen (the ladder) as opposed to stegen (the steps). Then again, it seems to do so in (at least some) other languages as well. Could somebody help clear this out: why is Swedish a 'pitch accent' language, but other languages are not?
@@lorenzocabrini I wouldn't call sweden a pitch accent language. There are some words that have a pitch accent, like already mentioned- "tomten" and "stegen". But even without pitch accent you would in 99% still be able to figure out what word was meant based on the situation. Sentences like "Tomten är på tomten", (Santa is on the plot) is literally never used apart from examples. And even looking at the words with pitch accent, they are relatively few and it's not like there's entire sentences with different pitch accents.
However one thing swedish definitly is, is a tonal language in the way that the swedish speech is very colourful and often compared to singing. I think that is one of the reasons why swedish is often seen as a pitch accent language, despite that apart from a few words, it really isnt.
@@paecmaker Thanks, your answer makes a lot of sense. I guess the term tonal language is quite broad and covers both languages in which tone carries meaning and languages which, as you point out, have a "singy" aspect to them.
I still wonder if my own language has an aspect of tonality in it. We also have distinction between some words base on some spoken characteristic, as in the example I gave between ancora (still, yet) and ancora (anchor). I just don't know if that characteristic is tone or something else. When I went to school (i.e., a very long time ago) we were never taught that ours was a tonal language. And as it turns out, I know far less about the formalities of my own language than I do about many other languages. :p I guess I'll just have to STFW one of these days.
TIP: if anybody is interested it tonal languages and wants to do things like pitch analysis, I can recommend praat (www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat). It's in the Debian repos, but I use Arch so I just build it myself. It helped me quite a bit when I was struggling to get my Ga tones to a point that I could be at least somewhat understood. It may be interesting to see the pitch diagrams of the above mentioned Swedish words.
@@lorenzocabrini You might find this video interesting if you want to learn more about the Swedish pitch accent: ruclips.net/video/lXp7_Sjgm34/видео.html
People dont bother and most Swedes dont even know that they use a pitch accent. Finnish swedish dialect dont use it at all. You can almost always guess the word from the context in the sentence.
Det är så spännande att följa dina videor. Och du är en positiv och framåt ung man.
I have heard this before, that it can be a challenge to learn Swedish when coming to Sweden, because everyone around you speak English. I have had a lot of colleagues from mainly Germany come and work here for like 3 years and then move back to Germany. And we are so "nice" so as soon as we hear someone struggling to find the words in Swedish we switch to English. I work with marketing at a international company here in Sweden. Right now we are owned by a German company, but even when we were Swedish-owned we made all our marketing material and also technical manuals etc. in English as the original language. Sweden isn't a very big market for us so our material is first and foremost for international use (we use a translation agency to make Swedish translations of the material if needed)
wow
that’s crazy! but so cool! I was thinking sweden 🇸🇪 itself isn’t that big of a country just like alot of the other surrounding countries like germany 🇩🇪 norwegian, spain 🇪🇸 They probably all have a lot of english speaking language because english is a dominant language and culture that brings in the most money in markets just like china and japan and mexico . You go to those countries and you’re not going
to find majority of english speaking people in those countries.
Thanks for explaining Swedish! I just started taking a course in Swedish through Babbel. Some of my pronunciations need a bit of practice but according to Babble I get many of them correct. It could be that my learning to sing along with some songs in Swedish helped a lot there! Love the songs, love the language! Sweden fascinates me, as does their culture! Would be nice to visit someday! Love your videos! 💖
Loved this! Always wondered as I’d heard both sides so happy to get your perspective 👍
G’day I am a Swedish guy born in Stockholm now living in Australia, I just watched your video and found it very interesting to hear what you say and tell people about my native language. I did enjoy listening to you and will probably subscribe to your channel, not that I need any help in Swedish but fun to hear you talking about different aspects of the language. My English speaking friends are always telling me how hard they find the sch/tjä/ske sound as it’s spelt differently however pronounced the same when spoken. Try the classic and get the pronunciation right….”SJU SUNGADE SJÖMEN PÅ ETT SJUNKANDE SKÄPP”. That has always been a hard one for foreign people visiting or living in Sweden I’m interested in ow you find this. Anyway all the best and have fun in Sweden speaking Swedish or English as you said either works well there! Hälsn. from the land of OZ
For me who speak Portuguese, it is very difficult to learn Swedish, because the sound produced by the Swedish language is very different from Brazilian Portuguese. I really think the Swedish language is beautiful.
And as a Swede, I think Brazilian Portuguese sounds very sensual. European Portuguese howeversounds like Spanish in Russian 😅
Very easy, especially if you already speak English or German!
Tack för videon. Var väldigt rolig att se på även som Svensk! Lycka till med att lära dig språket!
Man I am so happy to pump into your channal with this video since I wanted to learn swedish and I wanted to know the comparsion between German and Swedish since I have been learning German for 3 years, I am so glad I found somebody who would understand me and answer my question, bless your German side of the family because they were the answer to my question haha :D
Things I'm struggling the most with in swedish are the huge amount of visually similar words. Like a bunch of fors..., for..., be... verbs, and those words that have 3000 meanings depending on the situation.
I'm a Portuguese native speaker.
Great videos!
Bra förklarat stefan 👍
Excellent overview. It is very much appreciated. Thank you.
jag kan ha svårt att förstå personer med brytning ibland, jämförde dina äldre videor med dina nyare och det hörs verkligen vilket framsteg du har gjort. bra jobbat!! :)
My kryptonic in Swedish is the word "Man". It means so many things!! My brain sometimes can't comprehend lol
People who learn Swedish always have problem with:
I went to the doctor=jag gick till doktorn. Ok. No problem.
But:
Then I went to the doctor=då gick jag till doktorn
In Swedish we change places of words some times.
verb stays in the 2nd position
@@nickhall1632 If you translate word by word "då gick jag till doktorn" it will be "then went I to the doctor". This is not easy to learn.
It was cold this night=det var kallt i natt.
This night it was cold=I natt var det kallt (this night was it cold)
@@lokis7230 V2 word order is a Germanic feature, that only English has lost (=
In German:
I went to the doctor = Ich ging zum Doktor
Then I went to the doctor = dann ging Ich zum Doktor.
So you see that the grammar is the same in germanic languages
The way I learned this was the general rule that most verbs always come in the second position. Verbs are always a priority in the speech.
Stefan, kudos! You do a great, and entertaining, job! Du imponerar - tack så mycke' för alla videon du ha' lagt upp!
Thank you for a very informative lesson. I am just embarking on a tentative start to learn Swedish. I have a grandson who is now learning to talk who is half Swedish and living in Sweden. So I need to get my act in gear to be able to communicate with him properly. He will pick up English from my son, but he will also start to learn Welsh when I see him next. Iaith y nefoedd.
Hej, stefan! I am going to move to Sweden at the end of this year, and I watch your videos, and I learn a lot about the swedish culture while watching them! i Just wanted to say thank you for being so helpful in my life right now :)
Hej, Dig flytta till Sverige?
@@napzfnxja, jag bo här nu
Stefan, one reason we are so good at English is that we don't dub movie or tv show from other countries, well; we might dub it for children up to like 8 or 12 yo.
For example, Germany dub movies into their own language.
@@gee8883 Did you get offended or something? Why even comment like that?
It was a super interesting video ! I've been following you ever since you started on RUclips and its been inspiring to see your progress. I just moved to Sweden 2 weeks ago and hope to learn the language (I am lucky to live with 10 Swedes in a corridor, so I should be able to practice with them :) ).
language is about attitude! if you have a good attitude to the society then you learn their language faster. That is what expert says. Ive learned to speak Swedish by watching SVT and listening to Sveriges Radio in a way that helped me not only learn swedish but also understand whats going on ( even if my pronunciation is still not as a swedish born in sweden). I guess your positive attitude is what make you learn and search learning swedish and that will help you feel and live this country as anybody else born here! wish you luck!
Why people have difficulty with the Swedish language has partly to do with grammar but also dialects.
I myself am from Skåne, but if I drive to Eastern Skåne, the dialect begins to be distorted, so even we in Skåne have difficulty with the language. Skåne was Eastern Denmark
many hundreds of years since the Viking Age until now.
My hometown Helsingborg was a hub for Denmark. That is why most of the Skåne wars were here,
and not in Malmö.
The population of Helsingborg is twice as small due to these wars
.
I read somewhere that Helsingborg was a Viking pirate nest, that's how my city came to be over a thousand years ago.
I am from South America. It wasn't difficult to learn swedish but to speak it was something different. I have been spoken swedish 30 years now but I still have problems in expressing some words sometimes. I studied at the university too and it helped a lot but anyway. I came to Sweden as an adult so that can be a problem if a person wants to learn a new language. Besides spanish is a romance language and swedish is germanic so they can be very different.
My experience.
Hey! I have been following you. Been trying hard to learn and speak Swedish. This helps
Great video, you hit the nail with this one. Worth sharing!
Dude I love your videos . I am from
Buenos Aires, Argentina . I studied the Swedish languages for over 3 years in Argentina because I wanted to move to Sweden . I really love both Swedish culture and Swedish people .
In 2010 I meet my wife in germany so I ended up living in Berlin ;) I speak both Swedish and German and I agree 100% with you : Swedish it is way easier than German , no doubt about it ;)
If you ever come to Berlin contact me and I ll show you arround and we ‘ ll drink a couple beers
Regards
Lucas
As a native English speaker, I find Swedish to be an extremely easy and enjoyable language to learn. I absolutely love not having to conjugate verbs based on who you are referring to. Even though it has grammatical gender, the fact that it is a roughly 80/20 split of en vs ett makes it something you barely have to worry about. Also having a fairly consistent word order (ordföljd) gives you an easy blueprint on how to build sentences.
The main challenges I find for me with Swedish are pitch accent, the lack of Swedish speakers locally, remembering the exceptions to the rules, and sometimes the pronunciation of Swedish's more unique sounds.
Hi, sorry to bother you. I'm planning to move to Sweden and I want to start studying some Swedish before going there so that I'll have a starting point in learning the language while I'll be there. Would you mind telling me how you learnt Swedish? I mean the resources you used. Thanks 🙏
@@danielestella3144 Hej, most of my learning of Swedish came from 2 Swedish classes I took while still in university, so some of the resources I had like the teacher and other students to interact with or the worksheets/homework assignments aren't really available.
However, in terms of books, there were a few that I used at the time. Maybe they might be useful to you as well, but I'm sure there are tons of other great resources out there you can't go wrong with.
Nybörjarsvenska (the blue one with a house on the cover) was one of the main books that was used, especially early on. I never had the yellow workbook version, but I assume my teacher pulled stuff from it for us to work in class. Prisma's english - swedish dictionary AND Prisma's swedish - english dictionary (third edition if it matters). Swedish an essential grammar (2nd edition if it matters), I didn't use this one much, but maybe that was just because I was learning grammar through other means in a classroom setting. Nya mål 3, a more intermediate book that was only used later on. I don't really remember much about it, but I think it was mainly used for reading and comprehending short stories. There is a main book and a workbook that exist for it, I have pdf copies of it.
Lycka till!
@@totalbrootal Thank you so much! I wish there were Swedish classes in my uni, but unfortunately since not many students are interested in that language here they decided not to teach it. Thank you again for your kind response, I really appreciate it. Have a great day!
Så kul att se! Innan jag såg den här videon trodde jag att svenska var rätt svårt, vi har ju en hel del konstiga uttal av ord. Typ sked, skön, skära, tjära och gärna...
I stopped giving "likes" to normal videos, only music, but you deserve the "like "man. great job.
Thank the author of the channel for making this beautiful and useful video for us! Many people are embarrassed to speak a foreign language if they have no speaking skills. People are afraid to hear criticism from others in their address. It all comes from having a psychological complex - to make a mistake. But, after all, he who does nothing is not wrong! In Yuriy Ivantsiv's workshop "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign language" states that we need to talk as much as possible: with yourself, with the mirror, with inanimate objects, with children and with pets. Find an interlocutor in real life or online. Talk without shyness. People won't care how you speak. They understand that you are a foreigner, as long as they understand you. They may even acknowledge your progress in their language and compliment you. However, always be prepared for criticism of your speaking skills. If you have the will to speak, you will gain an interesting interlocutor to consolidate your knowledge. Everyone is strewn with mistakes - don't be afraid to learn from them. As the Latin wisdom says, "walk and thou shalt not go astray". In the book "Polyglot Notes" by Yuriy Ivantsiv an entire chapter is devoted to the development of spoken language. Here you will find many useful tips and each student can choose a technique that suits him or her best! I wish you all the best of luck in your language learning!
I moved from England to Sweden two years ago I found to learn Swedish really easy ❤️
dina videor är verkligen spännande ur en svensks perspektiv och det är fantastiskt att kunna följa din resa. dina videor får mig att reflektera över saker med sverige och svenska som jag aldrig har tänk på innan, och säger saker som jag alltid har velat säga haha. keep it up:)
What language are yu speaking
I also think the most difficult when it comes to Swedish is how you stress a syllable and how you stress a word in a sentence. Because it may change completely the meaning of the message that’s been adressed.
Once again, loved this posting 🥰
I think that’s quite individual. It depends as well on someone’s general talent for foreign languages. I personally didn’t experience problems with “ä” and “ö” sounds because I’ve been learning German in school (not that I’ve learned much 😹) but that helped me very much with sounds as well with the words of germanic heritage. The “å” sound didn’t presented me a problem as well. I’m native in Croatian and I just had to soften my syllables. The only thing I’m still practicing is “i” sound because it’s extremely soft in comparison with both my native Croatian and English which is my 2nd language. I’m lucky to have an ear of a parrot so to speak so movies, tv series and Swedish pop helped me a lot. 😃 Swedish grammar is a lullaby compared to grammar of many other languages. I’d dare to say it’s even simpler than English grammar, not to mention French. 😄 However one needs to practice. Vocabulary wise one must get used to many words that sound similar. One must organise them on some manner. As well there are a lot of synonyms so it takes some time to learn how to use the right one in the right context. Okej prepositions and particles can be tricky. But nothing one can’t master with practice. It’s been 2 years now I can speak language with confidence. I even text with some friends in Swedish. I feel that I’ve acquired a solid language base that will enable me to adopt to the Swedish environment easily when I move up north. My advice for everyone wether currently living or not in Sweden and who are fellow learners would be to practice everything from speaking to doing grammar and other exercises. And surround oneself with language as much as possible. Lycka till! 😊😊😊
Toppen!
I don't think there's much point in learning the grammar, since it's both irregular (pretty much every rule have exceptions) and very simple, it's better to focus on vocabulary and pronancation
That said, since your native language is Croatian, you will already be familiar with pitch accent and 30% of the vocabulary
@@simontollin2004 wdym 30% of the vocab? Croatian is a slavic language we only have borrowed words from English, French, German, Hungarian, turkish and Czech AFAIK and none from Scandinavian languages
For the sake of knowledge on pronounciation for anyone who's interested:
å = the o in ore
ä = the a in have
ö = the i in girl (this one is actually used for the same thinking sound ("öh") which in english is spelled "err")
200iq
This advice makes no sense unless you specify which English dialect/accent you have in mind. American? British? Cockney? RP? Scottish? Australian?
@@TheKfauw Like most general statements on pronunciation, I was more going for the American accent. :P It's hard to truly learn it without hearing it though.
Thank you! I've been telling people for years that all the Germanic languages are actually way closer to each other than you'd think from just listening to them.
Thanks also for mentioning that knowing some German helps.
The Romance languages are 'easy' for English speakers because almost half the words in English are borrowed from the Romance languages. Their grammar, however, is another is very different. From what I've seen it goes the other way as well; people who have Spanish, Italian, etc as a first language often develop a very impressive English vocab very quickly yet struggle with constructing simple sentences.
Thanks again. Subscribed!
Det är ganska underhållande att kolla på detta när man själv kan språket
The definite article (the) in German is even more of a pain in the arse than you mentioned, because it also changes according to number and case, so there are six different words for 'the'. I spent a lot of time in Geman writing exams trying to visualise the grammar table in my head for really basic things!
even the word order in German is a pain in the ass, to me it is more similar to Japanese (grammar?) than to Swedish or English
Because I am a huge language learning fan myself I try to avoid speaking English with people that have moved here and that are learning Swedish. Why would I?
I am not helping anyone by treating them differently and it’s only a matter of adapting to their level. Sure, code switching between the languages is natural and when their skills are limited, moving over to English if needed.
But in order to function and integrate in Sweden, people need at least basic Swedish. We need to stop talking about learning languages as huge obstacles and how difficult it is bla bla bla. It’s relative, depends on your previous languages, and above all actually making the effort. It’s highly rewarding to learn, that’s the point :)
I know native English speakers who refused to speak English when moving abroad and of course they did learn the new language quickly.
It’s sad meting people living in a country for many years and realising they’ve been to lazy to learn even the basics. Like why?
To you, wonderful learners of Swedish;
Swedes will adapt quickly if you refuse to speak anything other than Swedish. Just tell people if they seem to forget, remind them as much as needed that you only want them to speak Swedish with you. Have to admit, I’m not sure why some Swedes speak English to learners and people moving here. Many Swedes will however speak Swedish to you for the reasons above. So it’s up to you in the end.
I would recommend practicing the pitch accents because that will improve your spoken Swedish immensely.
Keep up the good work young man!
While in Quebec, I found that some people liked to practice speaking their English with me, meanwhile I was there to learn French
Eeeeeeey snyggt jobbat! Jag fattade verkligen vad du sa. Du jobbar verkligen SUPERHÅRT och det fattar jag! Jag förstår också. Det är jättekul att se på dina videor ❤️ (jag är svensk och halvdansk det är därför jag kan skriva så här bra.)
I love your videos, man. I'm from The Netherlands and moved to Sweden in 2017, and I'm still having difficulties speaking Swedish because it's just so tricky haha. But I live in the Stockholm area as well :)
Depends a lot on where you come from.
I'm swedish and work in a school where there is SFI and I think it seems to be quite easy to learn swedish but hard to perfect it, especially spoken swedish. Partically from english speaking countries it seems really hard, I have never met someone that speak english as a first language that I can't immediately clock where they're from. For exemple our english teacher have lived in Sweden for 40 years and I still have to concentrate sometimes to understand her.
Yeah I noticed that too. Especially with the older generations of immigrants. Sometimes it's shocking hearing "25 år jag har bott i Sverige"" and they still have a really rough accent. It really depends on where they are from, like if someone is from Thailand, Syria, Afghanistan etc.. they generally have a harder time with the accent compared to someone coming here from Iceland or the Netherlands. Also when they already come from a Germanic speaking language they'll have to spend less time on grammar and can generally just focus on their pronounciation a lot more. Also a lot of Swedish people are too scared to correct immigrants, because it can be seen as rude. So when the person makes a grammar mistake people don't correct them. So the mistake becomes a habit that just becomes harder and harder to break out of.
I agree. Most native English speakers have a very thick accent (brytning) and can be
difficult to understand when they speak Swedish. Also, word order (ordföljd) as well as many other aspects of Swedish grammar can really trip them up. However, there are some English speakers who are able to speak, read, and write very fluently in Swedish (and don't have a thick accent). They are few and far between, but do actually exist (perhaps they're language unicorns?)!
Swedes tend to have major problems with subject and verb agreement in English (among other things - including thick Swedish accents and other grammatical and/or pronunciation issues), so they're easy to spot, too.
For example, in your comment above: "our English teacher have lived in Sweden for 40 years" is not correct. It should be "has". The word teacher is singular, so it can't be "have" as that's plural. And it isn't "I have never met someone that speak english as a first language". It's "I have never met someone who speaks English as a first language". The subject and verb have to agree in English, so in that sentence it needs to be "speaks", not "speak".
Just pointing it out as it goes both ways...hoppas ingen tar illa upp...
SFI = Svenska För Invandrare = Swedish For Immigrants
Swedish lessons given (free) to most immigrants.
BEST EVER LANGUAGE REVIEW. THANK YOU TONS! REGARDS FROM TURKEY/ISTANBUL
Bra video, trodde det var jättesvårt för personer som inte kan svenska att lära sig det 😯🙃❤️
Pronouncing and the pitch accents
Thanks I've been deciding trying to learn Norwegian or Swedish cuz it's my family background. I guess I can start this winter is good time to do it.
You can pick any of them Norwegian is basically just an accent of Swedish
@@vicepresidentyoda9274 if you are Swedish I suggest you go ahead and read a book in Norwegian. You will be surprised how different Norwegian actually is. Not saying you will not manage. But you will be surprised. Us Norwegians
And Swedes are mutually exposed so much to the spoken versions of our respective languages that we tend to think they are more similar than they actually are.
@@beorlingo Reading in norwegian isn't that difficult i do it all the time on instagram
@@vicepresidentyoda9274 all I'm saying is reading makes you more aware of the differencies. Try reading a book!
Hehehe, from the third party's point of view, Norwegian is like an attemt of Swedes to speak Danish.
I agree that learning swedish is hard because pretty much everyone over 15 is going to start speaking english to you almost directly just because that's often the easier eay to go. And just because of that english speakers almost need to tell us "hey speak swedish so i can learn " otherwise we are just going to switch to english.
I have revatives in Ohio and visited them 2 years ago. My uncle married a girl from there and she wanted me to almost always speak swedish to her so she could talk to my uncles mom which is pretty old and isn't the best english speaker. And we had a blast trying to learn her as much swedish in 2 weeks as possible.
Love your videos have been watching for a while now.
love your videos, älskar dina videos
tbh i think the hardest sound in swedish is "sk" or "sj" but "r" is a hard second because it varies by region
Yes! It took me forever to learn how to say turtle “sköldpadda”, shirt “skjorta” and seven “sju”.
@@steveharris1740 Have you been learning swedish on Duolingo, too? xD Because Duo uses these words so often and I hate it because they are so hard to pronounce and i cant remember them
I find prepositions to be partically difficult out of everything , "på" is usually on, "i" is usually in, "om" is usually if and "till" is usually to. But it changes alot, but you get this in every language i suppose, prepositions are always different. I find everything else to be quite easy, its just the prepositions I find myself bashing my head against a wall at times, I will get there one day! :D
"Om en dag" means in a day (after a day), "på en dag" means in a day (timespan of a day) and "i en dag" means for a day.
- "vi arbetar inte på lördagar." - we dont work on Saturadays
- "på eftermiddagen" - in the afternoon.
- "jag sover inte på morgonen" - i do not sleep in the morning.
- "månaderna på året" - the months of the year
- "Jag dricker kaffe på restaurangen" - i drink coffee at the restaurant
- "Katten är i hatten" - The cat is in the hat
- "Jag sover i flera timmar" - I sleep for several hours
- "kommer du i eftermiddagen?" - Are you coming this afternoon?
- "i sommar" - this summer
- "Barnen leker i en kvart" - The children play for 15 minutes
- "vi kommer till er i november" - We come to you in novermber
- "Mannen köper kläder till barnet." The man buys clothes for the child
-"vi äter ägg till frukost" - we eat eggs for breakfast
- "om du vill" - if you want
- "jag äter om du dricker." - i eat if you drink
-"Hans tidning kommer om en månade." - his newspaper comes in a month
- "om en timme." - in an hour
- "om en vecka." - in a week
Just a slight correction: "kommer du i eftermiddagen?" is sort of a mix of two different sentences with different meanings.
"Kommer du i eftermiddag?" - Are you coming this afternoon?
"Kommer du på eftermiddagen?" - Are you coming during the afternoon?
Otherwise, spot on.
@@christofferhembo9454 thanks for correcting me! x
Good job on the 100k!
As I’m a terrible language gik/nerd. So not sure of the spelling. No time for looking it up. Anyhow, this video is so amazing. It just wanna make me follow you even more. Yes, you may give a heart for the reaction😂
Now back to rewatch your posting. Looking forward to next video 😊
In the "state" of Småland we dont use the letter R when we speak, is like a dialect down here! ^^
Hej! Jag är också från Sverige!
Ä - jaw drop 😀
E - smile ☺
Å & Ö - no lips needed
O - kissing lips 😚
Å and Ö are both rounded vowels, so there you need your lips.
@@valo2872 Men du, på å har man ju läpparna på samma sätt som på o och u. Tungans läge är däremot lite olika. Nåja, kanske finns det flera sätt att producera samma ljud, kanske har vi olika uppfattning om vad som är rikssvenskt uttal.
@@anderslavas6846 jo. Men själva ljudet formas längre bak i munnen. Sen kan man ha hur mycket läppar man vill beroende på dialekt. Men Ä och E blir svåra att skilja åt om man inte är noga med läpparna. Och O blir inte uttydbart om man inte plutar.
Det är en fingervisning för dem med annat modersmål så dem vet vilka uttalanden dem ska vara noga med för att det inte ska missuppfattas. T.ex. svenska "el", kan låta som "öl" när vissa med annat modersmål försöer säga det.
WORST OFFENDER:: Swedish name for FInnish city of Turku.. I have never yet mastered that damn thing...
xd
Getting to the point where you can use grammar properly and have conversations without much issue is the easy part.
Dealing with the exceptions to rules, slang, regional words (especially if you're up in norrbotten/västerbotten or down in skåne) can seem almost like a different language.
Then comes the issue of being able to blend in. Pitch accents, pronouncing Å Ä Ö natively, common filler words, non-words (the sucking in air noise as an affirming/confirming word, same with a closed mouth M sound, äh, nä, nänä, nähä, nänänä, nääh ect) will make you stick out like a sore thumb no matter how good you get at speaking swedish otherwise. I have never been suprised that a native english speaker isn't natively swedish, while many swedes can get away with it quite easily if we move/travel to an english speaking country for a time.
I just gotta say , since im from scania - that I feel for those who are learning swedish in places where we have our own words for things .
A BIG example is here in Skåne , even swedish people have a hard time or dont even know what a certain word is or what one is saying due to the dialect .
Btw this gave me a fun idea for a video , It would be fun and interesting to see a video of you trying some scanian words!
Im from sweden!😄
Can you do a Video when you talk swedish a whole Day?
Yeah you can tell, the hardest thing In Swedish is å, ä, and ö. Even he is still struggling with “är” etc
Just keep practicing sjükhus & köttbullar & you'll be fine.
Swedish sounds very beautiful.
I think so too. I also love Norwegian, my native language.
Knowing a lot of expats in Sweden, it baffles my mind how many make no effort to learn the language. Sure, people speak good English here but signs, menus, manuals, maps are all in Swedish. And what about being able to follow local news on TV and radio, following other people's conversations, being able to go to the theatre or any kind of seminar or public meeting?
Mycket intressant, jag trodde svenska var ett svårt språk att lära sig. Det kan ju iofs bero på att du är duktig på inlärning. Pedagogiskt upplagd video, man skulle ju kunna tro att du jobbat som lärare 😄
Nej, inte för engelsktalande eller andra germanska språk.
In south Sweden their pronounciation of R is closer to danish, further back in your mouth. Some dialects in Sweden has diphthongs. Especially in Skåne and Gotland.
The sj-sounds are hard to learn pronounce, but even harder to spell. It can be tj, sj, sh, sch, sk, skj, stj, k, ch. Pick the wrong at it means something compleetly different. Swedish and the other nordic languages have few words, so some words are very similar. They kan even be spelled the same, but a little difference in pronounciation tells what it means.
Tjära (tar) and kära (be in love) are pronounced the same. Skära (to cut) have a little different sj-sound. Kärra (wagon) just have a shorter ä and more r, than kära. Skär can be a small island or stone in the water, but also tell someone to cut, skär gurkan (cut the cucumber). But it can also be to glide on skates, Du har fina skär (You are skating nice). Skär can also mean the color pink.
The lackmus test of the sj-sounds. Try to pronunce: Sju sjösjuka sjömän, sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor på ett sjunkande skepp i Shanghai.
Good luck!
And one more thing for you english speaking folks out there. In swedish we put the words together. Almost all the time. If you forget it is called "särskrivning" and is something that compleetly can change what you say. En brunhårig sjuksköterska (A nurse with brown hair) is not the same as En brun hårig sjuk sköterska (A brown hairy sick nurse).
The intonation/melody is hard for most languages in Swedish. This is probably easy for some south east asians since they have that part (but even harder)
Good and Interest post.
The one thing I kinda don't really agree with is the comparison with Skära gurkan (Cut The cucumber) and fina skär (skating nicely) as that's actually the same verb.
The Skär when skating is actually from skära (to cut) so it's not really two words sounding the same or ever one word meaning two different thing but one word with two different context.
@@F1rstWorldNomaD One is a noun, the other a verb, but it comes from the same base word, yes. I wanted to show how it changes meaning. In english cut and skating is to different things.
@@andvil01 that's really rather nitpicky as it's only a noun/verb because of the phrasing you used.
But I digress.
I get your point and what you were trying to say and I don't disagree with that premise.
Thanks for clarifying. 😄👍
depends where in south Sweden, I live in the north of Skåne and I dont have R like danish ;)
Im Australian and don't know one single swede.. but I love the culture (Ikea need I say more!) and LOVE the sound of the language. Im very much a beginner but love your videos! Thank you!
Thank you for your video...You seem to confirm my guess that Swedish is both fun and easy...I am enjoying this language
Man, huzbee and someone. Anything/one else?
I am 14 years old, when I speak English, it's really good, espacilly since I go to a English school where 90% of the teachers only know English.
I still have that obvious Swedish accent though and the bigger words are difficult. Either that I don't know the word at all, I have heard it but don't know the exact meaning of it or I know it but don't remember it when there's an oppertunity to say it.
Also, my English grammar may not be the best, but my Swedish grammar is bad too.
You write very well. There's a lot of native speakers that will search for words, too.
Hope you don't go to the english school in Göteborg, snatched a road sign from there hehe
It's always interesting to hear non-swedish speakers pronounce Husqvarna :D
Klasse ich finde ich die Erklärungen.
Ich kann etwas schwedisch. Habe noch viel zu lernen. Tack sa mycke!
Not a big deal, for any of Slavs, at least...
Träffade dig på Bron för någon vecka sedan och är fortfarande helt chockad över hur bra du förstår svenska! Du förstod till och med en lite för packad människa hehe
it depends on your linguistic background. I find swedish to be extremely easy as I speak both english and german quite well. Swedish tends to be self-explanatory in this case because every other word is very similar to either english or german or both. What is difficult, in my opinion, is the pronunciation in some cases and probably finding people willing to talk to you.
See I’ve always found it to be fairly simple. I still get him and her confused and sometimes sentence structure will be mixed up. Other than that it’s pretty simple.
As a person that actually speaks many (many) languages I would like contest your assumption that "the closer the easier". When a language is too close to an already known/spoken language it's actually harder (at least for me) since its easy to mix things up. I grant you that the process of starting to understand is easier at first tho. Its also harder to learn to pronounce properly (instead of pronouncing it in your own language) when words are the same in two different languages. Furthermore I find it easier to try to think in the language I speak, and with those "easier" languages it takes longer to start doing that since they are so similar.
Teach me Swedish language please
@@stpatrickcentre7694 The best way to quickly learn is to watch kids-shows in Swedish with English subtitles. Its simplified language used (especially in shows for toddlers like "Tellietubbies") and in that way you get a base fairly quick.
@@Pastor24u OK I'm asingle teacher here in Kenya.. Kindly connect me there please
@@stpatrickcentre7694 mimi napenda kiswahili. Please contact the Swedish School. There are sever schools called "Swedish School" in both Kenya and Tanzania. They might have books for learning or even staff that are Swedish.
@@Pastor24u unapenda kweli naona
Great video! /Greetings from a Swede
Motivation for my Swedish Journey 😃
I speak English (native), Spanish, and Japanese. I started to learn Swedish a little while ago, since I find it one of the most beautiful and fascinating languages. I was worried about how hard it would be, but I'm finding it to be the easiest language I've ever studied. 😂
Swedish isn't so hard to learn to understand, just because most of the words in the language comes from other languages. The hardest to learn can be the tonal aspects, to sound swedish. Then have a lot of words that are spelled the same way, but mean completely diffrent things.
I would say that finnish is ALOT harder to learn.
I'm a born and raised swede and i remember always being more proficient speaking English than all my teachers. We once had visitors from a school in Latvia and basicly they parked themselves behind my desk for most of the visit and u would tell them what we used to do during class. This was in 4th grade I think. That's the benefit of watching alot of English TV and reading alot of fantasy in English.
You really have a good point here.