Faris Bachari
Learning Scandinavian Languages

I am a 23 yo Moroccan, and I'm very interested in learning the scandinavian languages Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish as well. Are they easy to learn ? Can I learn them all simultaneously? And is there some one amongst you who would like to teach me and I will teach you Arabic and French :)

Oct 7, 2013 4:16 PM
Comments · 3
2

Hi Faris ! As a Frenchman who learnt Norwegian for years during my teenage years, I found it easy, the grammar and vocabulary being close to English.

Of course, as you may know, it is a Germanic languages. Danish and Swedish are very close to Norwegian (especially the former). When you speak Norwegian, you can be understood without major difficulties by Swedes and Danes. So I recommend learning one of the 3 languages and focus on it. Icelandic and Faroese belong to the same group.

As for Finnish language, though, it has nothing to do with the 3 Scandinavian languages and stand on its own. Much more difficult. 

 

20 years ago, I had bought a very effective method to learn but now it's no more available and I already gave it to someone. I still have my 2 dictionaries which I use regularly, when reading the "Norsk Nyheter" on Internet. Of course, travelling  throughout beautiful Norway brought a major improvement to my accent and fluency. 

 

Good luck mate.  "Lykke til !"

October 7, 2013

If you speak english well, then norwegian is not so hard grammar wise. My biggest two difficulties are the following:

Preposition choice - it doesnt seem to line up as perfectly to english as say French prepositions do.

Pronounciation - This makes norwegian more difficult for me to understand than other scandinavian languages because of the silent consonants which themselves seem to vary based on where in norway you are. This is probably similar to how english can be difficult for others to learn.

From my perspective having learned French also but being native English, french is easier to learn from a grammatical and pronounciation standpoint because it is so consistent, but norwegian is easier for me to speak fluently because I have to think less about the differences with english.

Finnish is not technically scandinavian. Some say its very hard because its grammar is case based instead of preposition base, but one nice thing about it a Finn friend told me is its extremely predictable once you have learned the grammar, and pronounciation is pretty standard.

November 30, 2013

Well, Norwegian is one of the hardest language to learn, because of the grammar and pronunciation. But its not impossible.

I have once learnd finnish, but it was hard for me, but maby not for you :)

November 30, 2013