Nordic Languages Thread

[Fen Shen]

I could offer German and French (I'm not a native speaker, but had it as second university discipline and lived in France for a couple of months). I'm interested in... well, anything, but for a start Norwegian and Italian get me most interested.

[Bobriha]

As I have allready mentioned, my first language is Russian, so if you feel yourself like to spend some time on it I'll be glad to help. My current languages of interest are Spanish, Japanese and Finnish.

[Logical Psycho]

In general, for learning languages, I can highly recommend the website Duolingo.
Has a large community whereby members help each other a lot.
The only downside for the time being is that, when I last visited several months ago, there weren't any scandinavian languages yet.

But new languages are added at a rapid pace - so it presumably shouldn't take too long [let's say: < 1 year].

[Silenter]

Perfekti is the "have done something", pluskvamperfekti the "had done something". Like "Olen juossut" = I have run, "Olin juossut" = I had run.

I don't know if people interested in Finnish language know this site or find it at all helpful, but there is this Donnerwetter Language Center web course for   learning Finnish culture and basics of the language called Tavataan taas! ("See you again!")

I actually ran into this site from the webpages of the Helsinki Uni. I find it very helpful so far. I have not gotten that far, but it's a good site. C:

[Sparky Dragon]

In general, for learning languages, I can highly recommend the website Duolingo...The only downside for the time being is that, when I last visited several months ago, there weren't any scandinavian languages yet.

There is a Danish course now, and a Swedish course is set to be coming out in Beta in about three weeks.

[Solovei]

There is a Danish course now, and a Swedish course is set to be coming out in Beta in about three weeks.

Oh my gosh, are you serious?! That's super awesome! I'll definitely have to try and remember to check it out.

[Sunflower]

Several posters to Page 184 were swapping recommendations for which languages to learn and why -- plus useful teaching tools.  The conversation thread (edited slightly for length):

Maera Fey
Thanks to this comic I feel tempted to learn one of the scandinavian languages... I just can't pick which one. They all seem so cool!

SparkyDragon --> Maera Fey
I went for Finnish, and it's awesome. Oddly, one of my favorite things about it is the numbers. They make MORE sense than English numbers!
As for similarities, Finnish is closer to Hungarian and Estonian than any other Scandinavian language.

plem -->  Maera Fey
Go for one that's not Finnish and you'll find it and English have roots together. It'll be really fun, and an awesome gateway to languages like German and Dutch, too.

Chloe --> Maera Fey
That's actually how I was introduced to Finnish, so you're not alone.
Do you have an iProduct? If so, there is a good group of apps for language learning (at least for nouns and such), and it has the four basic Scandinavian languages (excluding Icelandic and Faroese ): ).  It's also really helpful when learning pronunciation, and you know, helpful stuff!

nti Täti
I can't help but mention (promote..?) this little* group we have on Facebook named Let's learn Finnish language. We have a couple of active natives and few advanced non-natives as volunteers to help with almost every kind of question that might arise during studies. We already have a collection of links to help with the learning and a list of language cafes - but we could sure use Someone active member** to list recommendations on apps for our learners. ^_^

*over 4000 members by now, we've been active like 1,5 years
** hint, hint!

En vaan voi olla mainitsematta (mainostaa..?) pientä* suomen oppijoiden ryhmää Facebookissa nimeltään Let's learn Finnish language. Meillä on pari aktiivista suomenkielistä ja muutama edistynyt kielenopiskelija auttamassa melkein missä tahansa pulmissa, joita voi tulla eteen kieltä opiskellessa. Meillä on jo linkkikokoelma opintojen tueksi ja lista kielikahviloista, mutta ei olisi pahitteeksi, jos joku aktiivinen jäsen** listailisi oppijoillemme suosituksia appseista!

*tähän mennessä yli 4000 jäsentä
** vinkki vinkki!

[JaneB]

I actually go somewhere in the Nordic or Baltic countries for work most years, and have therefore learnt things like 'hello', 'thank you', 'I am vegetarian' and 'three beers please' (for my colleagues, not ALL for me!) in most of the languages (the Finnish, apart from 'thank you', will not stick in my head).  Hoping to spend a few weeks in Sweden next year, not just visit for a few days, so I am using that and SSSS as an incentive to actually try and learn some Swedish systematically... also, I live in the part of Britain which was under the Danelaw a mere thousand years ago, and I've been delighted to find that a lot of the regional dialectal words and constructions I've picked up actually do show up in Swedish (and Danish) too, or clearly share roots with them.

[RumbleRose]

I am thinking about studying graphic design abroad in Finland, Sweden or Iceland.

I have a question to you about that matter:
If I were to study in Finland, could I come around with knowing Swedish and a little bit of Finnish?

[Pessi]

If I were to study in Finland, could I come around with knowing Swedish and a little bit of Finnish?

In everyday life yes, since I take it you speak english too and most Finns nowadays have a functional level of English skills (people's willingness to speak foreign languages is of course an other matter ). And as far as I know, there are at least some lections in English in the universities that take foreign students. But of course the more you can speak or at least understand Finnish the easier.

Quick googling about studying graphic design in Finland gave me links to the Aalto University department of media in Helsinki and the University of Lappland, "the northernmost university in the Europen Union". I actually just read an article about Japanese girls studying clothes design in Lappland, so I guess their teaching languages aren't restricted to Finnish and Sami. 

[Fimbulvarg]

Quick googling about studying graphic design in Finland gave me links to the Aalto University department of media in Helsinki and the University of Lappland, "the northernmost university in the Europen Union".

Aha. I can see why Finland joined the European Union now. Now they won't have to compete with Norway and Russia for the "northernmost x in the world" titles.

[Pessi]

Yes, yes, we all know the northernmost university in the world is the University of Tromsø

As far as I know we joined the union for economical and security reasons. I was unfortunately too young to vote so my NO went unheard.

[Chloe]

Im currently learning Finnish, so if anyone can teach me ot maybe be a study partner that would be cool

[Fimbulvarg]

Dette er et sted for diskusjon og læring av nordiske språk, inkludert Islandsk og Svensk

This is the thread for discussions in and about Nordic languages that has been discussed. I was going to make it Scandinavian only, but we'll see how things fold out.

[ruth]

hej fimbulvarg! jag ska använda svenska på den här plats (hoppas att du besväras inte!) men jag tänker inte att det blir ett stor problem—trots min dålig svenska jag kan utan svårighet förstå dig.

nyss jag tittar på tv-serien bron/broen. emil stämmer, jag kan verkligen KNAPPT förstå de danskspråkiga karaktärer!