13 replies to this topic

[FettJango]

Hello. I was wondering if I could have some advice on whether to learn Swedish or Danish. After watching the entire season 9 of South Park last weekend, I decided to try something worthwhile. I've been thinking of learning a language, and after many hours of debating against myself, I narrowed down the options to Swedish or Danish. I just can't decide. I love the culture, the landmarks, the soccer, and of course, the women... (Half joking on the last one   )And I also noticed that there are many Swedes and Danes on this site. So for all you Swedes and Danes, what is a better language to learn? Of course, being a lazy American and all, I would like the simpler of the two . So without a further ado, I'll let anyone persuade me into learning a new language. Thanks! Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Edited by FettJango, 13 September 2012 - 04:46 AM.

[Etzel]

FettJango, on 13 September 2012 - 04:45 AM, said:

Hello. I was wondering if I could have some advice on whether to learn Swedish or Danish. After watching the entire season 9 of South Park last weekend, I decided to try something worthwhile. I've been thinking of learning a language, and after many hours of debating against myself, I narrowed down the options to Swedish or Danish. I just can't decide. I love the culture, the landmarks, the soccer, and of course, the women... (Half joking on the last one   )And I also noticed that there are many Swedes and Danes on this site. So for all you Swedes and Danes, what is a better language to learn? Of course, being a lazy American and all, I would like the simpler of the two . So without a further ado, I'll let anyone persuade me into learning a new language. Thanks! Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Well, Swedish and Danish is very closely related so if you learn one of them good you will be able to understand much of the other (+ Norwegian) as well. I say go with Swedish, not only is it spoken by more people, but it is easier to learn as well. Danish children learn their language last of all European children because Danish has so weird pronunciations. Danish might be a tiny bit more closely related to English then Swedish, but I don't think it's a significant difference.

[PsyKater]

I am going to learn Swedish as well, as I love this country. But you might be thinking of working for TLG some time and then it would be helpful to learn Danish! ;)

[Cecilie]

Hell no, you must learn Norwegian!
Norwegians understand Danish and Swedish better than Swedes and Danes understand their neighbours' languages . Norwegian is kind of in the middle, by being close to both Swedish and Danish, while Swedish differs more from Danish. But it really comes down to what you want to use the language for. If you want to travel Denmark, then learn Danish. If you want to understand as many scandinavian languages as possible, learn Norwegian. If you want to learn the language spoken by the largest number of people in Scandinavia as a whole, learn Swedish. With swedish, you'll even be able to make yourself understood in Finland, because a lot of them speak Swedish. Also, like Etzel says, Danish has totally weird pronounciaton. Their written language is almost the same as Norwegian, but it sounds completely different.

[Kim Thomsen]

Ahem!

[FettJango]

Thanks all! For dramatic purposes    , I'm going to wait a little longer until my descision. I considered Norwegian, but the soccer/football just doesn't do it for me, unless they qualify for Brazil 2014 (Which is too far away). Thanks for the responses!

[The_YongGrand]

I like Scandinavian countries too. One day I love to visit there.

By the way, how do the Danes or Norwegians write "ae" vowels? I have a bunch of Learn Danish materials but I ended up writing like "ae" instead of the combined version of that vowel.

[Cecilie]

The_YongGrand, on 16 September 2012 - 03:29 AM, said:

I like Scandinavian countries too. One day I love to visit there.

By the way, how do the Danes or Norwegians write "ae" vowels? I have a bunch of Learn Danish materials but I ended up writing like "ae" instead of the combined version of that vowel.

You mean this one? Æ - æ
We have separate keys on our keyboards for the special characters, æ,ø and å. There's probably some way to get them typed using some meta-keys if that's what you were asking about.

[Calanon]

The_YongGrand, on 16 September 2012 - 03:29 AM, said:

I like Scandinavian countries too. One day I love to visit there.

By the way, how do the Danes or Norwegians write "ae" vowels? I have a bunch of Learn Danish materials but I ended up writing like "ae" instead of the combined version of that vowel.

Alt-145 = æ
Alt-0248 = ø
Alt-134 = å

Now for the capital versions!

Alt-146 = Æ
Alt-0216 = Ø
Alt-143 = Å

[The_YongGrand]

Calanon, on 16 September 2012 - 09:20 AM, said:

Alt-145 = æ
Alt-0248 = ø
Alt-134 = å

Now for the capital versions!

Alt-146 = Æ
Alt-0216 = Ø
Alt-143 = Å

Ja, that's directly from the keyboard, but how about if I have to physically write them on a paper? Uh, I mean, write by hand?

The letter "ø" is simple, just draw an "o" and a slash on it.

The letter "å" too, write "a" and draw a circle on top of it.

But, I'm a bit perplexed about "Æ", should I just write "A" and "E" as close as possible?

[Calanon]

The_YongGrand, on 16 September 2012 - 01:17 PM, said:

Ja, that's directly from the keyboard, but how about if I have to physically write them on a paper? Uh, I mean, write by hand?

The letter "ø" is simple, just draw an "o" and a slash on it.

The letter "å" too, write "a" and draw a circle on top of it.

But, I'm a bit perplexed about "Æ", should I just write "A" and "E" as close as possible?

You write it how it looks on the computer. :P So an A, but the second line is straight and goes into an E.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Danish. It's LEGO's land.

I have to ask about these "meta keys." Is it like hexadecimal? How exactly do you type different foreign letters?

Edited by Capt.JohnPaul, 16 September 2012 - 05:27 PM.

[Calanon]

Capt.JohnPaul, on 16 September 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

Danish. It's LEGO's land.

I have to ask about these "meta keys." Is it like hexadecimal? How exactly do you type different foreign letters?

See what I wrote about alt codes. Basically you press the alt button down and then numbers on the keypad.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Calanon, on 16 September 2012 - 06:56 PM, said:

See what I wrote about alt codes. Basically you press the alt button down and then numbers on the keypad.

Thanks. I also did some extensive research. It sounds like a useful feature. Though does it have all foreign letters in each language? After all my searching, it seems to only have French, Spanish, German, Norwegic, etc.