Hello dear italki community !
I am in a bit of a quandry and would like to have some objective opinions. I am considering studying either Swedish or Norwegian and am having a hard time making a choice as to which(Sorry Danes ;^)
I have already studied a bit of Norwegian and already have a few books and other ressources. However, I have put my studies on hold for a while now because of lack of opportunities to practice the language and also because of the shortage of Norwegian tutors on italki.
While there are not tons of Swedish tutors either, I have noticed that there seem to be at least a few more options than Norwegian. I do not, however possess any books, dictionaries, or other ressources in Swedish and studying it would require further financial investment.
The third question I am asking myself deals of course with usefulness and also opportunites to use the language. I know that Sweden's population is greater than Norway's, but does that mean that I would necessarily have more chance of actually speaking it ? Is there any usefulness to learning these languages in terms of career opportunities ?
Any and all relevant comments are welcome.
Best wishes to all for the new year !
hej alla! Tack för hjälpen. Jag tänker kanske at studera svenska eftersom jag kommer från Frankrike. Dêrför kunde jag leva, jobba eller studera i Sverige lättare eftersom jag är från EU. Hej då!
Hard question! I understand you're finding it hard to decide.
When it comes to the usefulness of the languages, I would say that they're both about as useful, but of course almost twice as many people speak Swedish and Sweden is a larger country. But once you get past a certain stage, you can always use the one you've learnt to communicate with people speaking the other, whether it's people you meet in the street or for work purposes. You can even get a job in Norway on the basis that you speak Swedish - and I assume the other way round, just that's it's much more common to move to Norway.
I would go for the one whose country and culture I find more interesting or where you would like to travel (but Norway is way more expensive!). If you think they have interesting writers, films, TV shows, whatever.
I don't know about resources for learning Norwegian, but if you go for Swedish there are a lot of books available etc, probably much more than in Norwegian. There is even a lot to choose from at an advanced level (C1-C2), which I know isn't the case for example with Finnish, where it seems that it's expected that after B1 no one will study the language anymore... Another benefit with Swedish is that we don't have the whole bokmål/nynorsk thing, and dialects are not as prominent anyway.
Like Ian said, I don't think you can go wrong with either. Just go for one (and stick to it, or your grammar & spelling will get confused!) and good luck!
Hello!!! :) So I will start Swedish in a couple days but I have some knowledge to share about this subject. Norwegian speakers can understand Swedish and Danish speakers quite well. They are almost mutually intelligable. But Swedes can undertand Norwegians much better then Danes and the other way around for Danes. So like a make shift chart would be: Danish-------Norwegian-----Swed.
On another hand ( as Swedens population is bigger ) I'm pretty sure you'll find more Swedes travelling around then Norwegians. I also think that all of these languages are absolutley beautiful. honestly I don't think you can go wrong with either :) Good Luck!!!
