Scandinavian/Nordic
Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:11 pm
I'm setting a goal for myself. I don't know where it will take me, but it seems like a great challenge.
I want to learn all the Nordic languages each up to a semi-fluent level.
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Finnish
Icelandic
Faroese maybe...
I know I know inb4 can't become fluent blahblahblah . I mean I just want to be able to talk in each of them comfortably.
Anyway, I read somewhere that people of Scandinavia can understand each other in different languages.
Like a Norwegian person can understand a Danish person and a Swedish person and vice versa.
I also heard that Norwegian was one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker, besides Dutch.
So I was thinking that maybe I learn Norwegian first. They say that "Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish". Kinda confusing to wrap your head around, but Norwegian speakers are able to comprehend like 90% of Danish and 75% of Swedish or something.
Then I learn Swedish, because it's a bit more consistent than Danish in pronunciation. I believe..And if I can understand Norwegian then maybe I could understand Swedish and Danish.
Then I learn Danish.
Then I learn Finnish, which would be hard because it's Uralic, and I would have to start over. But I love the sound of Finnish, so I wanna learn it.
Then I can attempt Icelandic. Icelandic intimidates me because of the cases and just....the weird pronunciations.
I've actually been to Iceland before though, and stayed there for 2 months. It was 5 years ago. I even smuggled some kind of John Bunyan book, but it's like a Christian commentary of it. I stole it from a pastor's house. (I was 12, who knows?) I don't even think it's worth stealing, but it's all written in Icelandic. Such a beautiful language.
I heard that in Iceland they teach a form of Danish in school so it would be understandable for Norwegians and Swedes. It's called Scandinavian. I tried to search for it, but I can't find it. Is there another name for this? I thought that maybe that would help even more if I could learn that.
So this is my goal right now. I'm excited for it.
I need some good FREE websites (preferably for each language seperately). So I can learn the basics.
I found a news website in Norwegian: http://www.klartale.no/ They even put it in really basic Norwegian, I guess, for foreigners to understand it.
Is there any other sites kinda like this? In any language?
I would like some good music. I already have Kjærlighet by Sissel. It's Norwegian, and I'm already singin it in the shower :] I love it. It's really simple too.
But any music is great! My tastes are eclectic. I especially love punk rock, emo, and industrial though :]
Music is good because I would remember the words more easily. I know all the words for Kjærlighet and the translation too :] Most people learned English from the media so that's what I'm going to do :]
Then movies and shows. I know there's a show on my TV called Borgen which is in Danish and has English subs. It's on Link TV which is like a international type of channel. It's the only scandinavian thing I could find though on my TV.
Does anyone know anything I could download off the internet? With English subs. It's difficult looking through all the videos on Youtube. I think shows directed towards children would make it easier to learn. Like cartoons and stuff. I watch Pokemon in Japanese and I'm sure I've already learned 100 new words :]
So can you please help me :]
Any tips?
If there's anything I'm doing wrong (as usual lol) just let me know...but don't get carried away please -.-
Thank you !
I want to learn all the Nordic languages each up to a semi-fluent level.
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Finnish
Icelandic
Faroese maybe...
I know I know inb4 can't become fluent blahblahblah . I mean I just want to be able to talk in each of them comfortably.
Anyway, I read somewhere that people of Scandinavia can understand each other in different languages.
Like a Norwegian person can understand a Danish person and a Swedish person and vice versa.
I also heard that Norwegian was one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker, besides Dutch.
So I was thinking that maybe I learn Norwegian first. They say that "Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish". Kinda confusing to wrap your head around, but Norwegian speakers are able to comprehend like 90% of Danish and 75% of Swedish or something.
Then I learn Swedish, because it's a bit more consistent than Danish in pronunciation. I believe..And if I can understand Norwegian then maybe I could understand Swedish and Danish.
Then I learn Danish.
Then I learn Finnish, which would be hard because it's Uralic, and I would have to start over. But I love the sound of Finnish, so I wanna learn it.
Then I can attempt Icelandic. Icelandic intimidates me because of the cases and just....the weird pronunciations.
I've actually been to Iceland before though, and stayed there for 2 months. It was 5 years ago. I even smuggled some kind of John Bunyan book, but it's like a Christian commentary of it. I stole it from a pastor's house. (I was 12, who knows?) I don't even think it's worth stealing, but it's all written in Icelandic. Such a beautiful language.
I heard that in Iceland they teach a form of Danish in school so it would be understandable for Norwegians and Swedes. It's called Scandinavian. I tried to search for it, but I can't find it. Is there another name for this? I thought that maybe that would help even more if I could learn that.
So this is my goal right now. I'm excited for it.
I need some good FREE websites (preferably for each language seperately). So I can learn the basics.
I found a news website in Norwegian: http://www.klartale.no/ They even put it in really basic Norwegian, I guess, for foreigners to understand it.
Is there any other sites kinda like this? In any language?
I would like some good music. I already have Kjærlighet by Sissel. It's Norwegian, and I'm already singin it in the shower :] I love it. It's really simple too.
But any music is great! My tastes are eclectic. I especially love punk rock, emo, and industrial though :]
Music is good because I would remember the words more easily. I know all the words for Kjærlighet and the translation too :] Most people learned English from the media so that's what I'm going to do :]
Then movies and shows. I know there's a show on my TV called Borgen which is in Danish and has English subs. It's on Link TV which is like a international type of channel. It's the only scandinavian thing I could find though on my TV.
Does anyone know anything I could download off the internet? With English subs. It's difficult looking through all the videos on Youtube. I think shows directed towards children would make it easier to learn. Like cartoons and stuff. I watch Pokemon in Japanese and I'm sure I've already learned 100 new words :]
So can you please help me :]
Any tips?
If there's anything I'm doing wrong (as usual lol) just let me know...but don't get carried away please -.-
Thank you !