Last June I’ve been on a very short trip to Kristiansand, my first time visiting Norway! Lasted one day but felt satisfaying to have added one more country to my visited ones..!
The Cruise was offered by Holland-Norway lines, and was first supposed to happen in February – but due to bad weather and various issues it got postponed, ending up in the best season for it!! The ship left from Emden, in Germany’s Ostfriesland region, so we also managed to see a piece of Germany. Pretty funny that I had a (Dutch) Friesland hat!
We then boarded, ate and assisted to a cover band, the ship also had a shop with Nordic chocolate/candy and souvenirs (read further to see what I got).
The following morning we were in Norway, welcomed by lots of rocky islets and perfect weather in the Kristiansand harbour.
Although the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, Kristiansand was founded by the Dano-Norwegian King King Christian IV in 1641, with -sand referring to the sandy headland.
Quick rundown of everything seen in Kristiansand, and skolekorps flags! Also the Danish restaurant chain Skagen..
We first got to the square with Kristiansand’s cathedral, from 1885 and one of the largest cathedrals in Norway. there were a few people selling thrift stuff.
Then we proceeded turing around town, seeing all the lovely white wooden houses in Posebyen, the old town – the only part of Kristiansand surviving a great fire in 1892
We then crossed the bridge and got to another part of the town. At some point one man cycling by said ‘du mistet papiret!’ (you missed a paper piece). My first Norwegian interaction..
Then we happened to run into a skolekorps event! Kind like marching bands?
On the way, I saw some funny signs:
beware of (hungry) seagulls, bikes LOVE to stay together and just an invite to throw rubbish in the bin written in (I assume) Kristiansand dialect (dæ instead of deg)
We got into various supermarkets: Rema, Kiwi, Xtra.
Norwegian Supermarket, souvenirs and a small hike
Of course, I had a few things to get from Norwegian supermarkets and bring home. Among these were Brunost, the beloved Norwegian brown goat cheese, and the iconic hiking chocolate Kvikk Lunsj, the latter mostly to be able to say I had tried it (Spoiler, it is basically the same as a kitkat with tips for a safe hike, sorry Norwegians).
I had already tried brunost during my Denmark workaway trip, knowing it was delicious, and was looking forward to eating more. I am sweet tooth and got a skolebrød as well.
Typical Nordic bulk candy section at the supermarket, smågodt in Norwegian
Besides supermarkets, I of course did some souvenir shopping: a skiing/moose keychain and a flag, with a long stick, like those people wave in their hands on 17 Mai!
At a bookshop i got a postcard of Sørlandet and an art card depicting women in bunads.
The shop was also selling of characters with bunads of given areas by Garbeez, didn’t get any but the idea is really cute!!
You can read about Norwegian bunads, Norway’s national dresses and how each district in the country has its own costume
Doesn’t really count as souvenir but I had to get a couple of these lovely Moomin cards!
They say ‘have a nice journey’ and ‘I’m rooting for you!’
One thing I’ve been low-key obsessed about is checking out other countries ‘custom’ Mcdonald-s things – in Norway i found the sour apple milkshake, absolutely delicious! Also got sweet potato fries and their apple pie (which is more like a strudel). Nothing very Norwegian but I had not tried them before.
Then walked up finding another cute neighbourhood, from which you could enter the forest.
We took a path in the forest, and found a nice lake with people bathing as well, great place!
I also purchased a few things on the ship on the way back: Finnish chocolate Geisha, Norwegian Sørlands chips, Swedish gifflar (sort of mini cinnamon buns), and moomin candy.
That was all for my first Norwegian adventure, Ha det!
The Fjallkona is the personification of Iceland and has a big role in the Icelandic national day, between poetry and parades
June, 17th, is Iceland’s national day, Þjóðhátíðardagurinn. The day was established after Iceland’s independence from Denmark in 1944, on the independentist Jón Sigurðsson’s birthday.
The day is marked by parades, with marching bands and flag-bearing troops from the national scout movement. After the parades, it’s time for the town’s elected ‘lady of the mountain’ to recite a poem. Her identity is however secret until the ceremony. Before that, authorities and freshman students in Reykjavík have laid wreaths to honour Jón Sigurðsson. You can see the program for 17 júní in Reykjavík.
The woman representing the fjallkona, literally ‘lady/maid of the Mountain’, wears the skautbúningur, dark dress with golden embroidery and a sort of horn-shaped headgear, inspired by the ancient krókfaldur with a veil. The first time a woman represented the fjallkona with a skautbúningur was actually in Winnipeg, Canada in 1924, where many Icelanders migrated in the 1870s.
skautbúningur and kyrtill dresses are worn by the fjallkona, both designed by Sigurður Guðmundsson in the 19th century
Icelanders are encouraged to wear a folk costume on the national day, Þjóðbúningur. There are officially several types among which the Upphlutur for women and Hátíðarbúningur for men, not too different from other Nordic folk costumes as Norwegian Bunads and Swedish Folkdräkter, often black but also in colours as red or blue. part of the outfit is a tail cap.
Icelandic national day feels to me kind of a mix between Norway’s 17 (!) mai, with national dresses, parades and marching bands, and Lucia, with its elected Lucia/Fjallkona!
Where does the Fjallkona come from?
the Fjallkona is the female personification of Iceland. She represents Iceland’s spirit and its nature. Its name appears in the poem Eldgamla Ísafolda.k.a. Íslands minni by Bjarni Thorarensen in the early 19th century. Its most popular depiction is the painting by German painter Johann Baptist Zwecker in 1866.
Eldgamla Ísafold/ ástkæra fósturmold/ fjallkonan fríð!/ mögum þín muntu kær/ meðan lönd gyrðir sær og gumar girnast mær/ gljár sól á hlíð.
(Ancient land of ice / beloved nurturing soil / fair mountain woman. /May you love your sons, while countries barricade their waters / and men yearn for maidens / the sun glistens on a hillside.)
In Zwecker’s painting, made for the last volume of a collection of Icelandic folk tales, Icelandic Legends, the fjallkona has a crown of ice from which fires erupt, representing Icelandic nature with its glaciers and geysers. On her shoulder is a raven, symbol for the god Odin and norse mythology, and runes on a parchment, representing Icelandic culture.
It then gained popularity as symbol for the motherland, sometimes opposed to theDanish King as father under the Danish rule.
Icelandic patriotic poems
On the occasion of the institution of the Republic in 1944, a poem contest was held. Hver á sér fegra föðurland (who has a lovelier fatherland) and Land Míns Föður (My father’s land) were the winning poems. An extract from the two follows:
Hver á sér fegra föðurland / með fjöll og dal og bláan sand / með norðurljósa bjarmaband / Og björk og lind í hlíð? […]
Við heita brunna, hreinan blæ / og hátign jökla, bláan sæ / hún uni grandvör, farsæl, fróð / Og frjáls – við ysta haf.
Hulda (Unnur Bedediktsdóttir Bjarklind), ‘Hver á sér fegra föðurland’
Who has a lovelier fatherland / with fells and dales and bluest sand, with northern lights up aloft, and birch and lime on hilltops? […] With hot springs of a pure hue / majestic glaciers, a sea of blue / she remains thoughtful, peaceful, sage / and free, in the farthest sea.
Hvíslað var um hulduland / hinst í vestanblænum / hvítan jökul, svartan sand / söng í hlíðum grænum. / Ýttu þá á unnarslóð / Austmenn, vermdir frelsisglóð / fundu ey og urðu þjóð / úti´í gullnum sænum. […]
Hvort sem krýnist þessi þjóð / þyrnum eða rósum / hennar sögur, hennar ljóð / hennar líf vér kjósum. / Ein á hörpu íss og báls / aldaslag síns guðamáls / æ hún leiki,ung og frjáls / undir norðurljósum.
Jóhannes úr Kötlum, ‘Land Míns Föður’
There were whispers of a hidden land / hinst in the western blues / white glacier, black sand / singing on green slopes. / Push them on a path of success / Men of the East, warmed by the embers of freedom / found an island and became a nation / out in the golden seas. […] Whether this nation is crowned / with thorns or roses / its stories, its poetry / its life we choose. / Alone on the land of ice and fire / the eternal sound of her divine language / forever she moves, young and free / under the northern lights.
How to choose which language to study among Swedish, Danish and Norwegian
Many people interested in learning languages of North Europe probably start with this question, Which, among Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, is the best language to study?
Surprise surprise, there is of course no answer, but you can pick one or the other depending on some factors which make one more “suitable” to your interests and goals. Do not start all or two of them at the same time if you do not have solid knowledge of one, you can read how I managed to study all Germanic languages.
3 factors you might take into account
The next points can be considered for any language you want to study, with some specific information regarding the three Scandinavian languages:
#1 – Your personal interest
The first factor to consider is personal: is there a reason that makes a country/language more special than the other to you – A travel destination? Friends from there? Some book you would like to be able to read in the original language? Regardless what the reason is, it is good to have something motivating you, whether it is needing it to live somewhere or because you like how ø looks.
#2 – the language that opens the most doors
It is generally handy to speak a language that will give you “access” to the most other languages. The three Scandinavian languages are quite similar to each other, so it won’t make a huge difference. The one having a bit more than the others in common with the other two could be Norwegian: Danish and Norwegian have a more similar spelling due to historical reasons, but Norwegian sounds similar to Swedish, while Danish is….Danish.
Norwegian is theorically a West-North Germanic language as Icelandic, as opposed to Swedish and Danish which are grouped as East-North Germanic. There are traces of that in some Norwegian dialects, but for geographical and historical reasons Norwegian got a lot closer to Swedish and Danish. You can find out about Icelandic and its heavy grammar.
#3 – the language which allows you to reach most people
Another factor people often take into consideration when starting a new language is how many people you will be able to communicate with. All Scandinavian languages are pretty small (all three make in total around 20 million speakers) but Swedish is significantly more spoken than all other languages of Nordic countries (as big as Danish and Norwegian together), and is present in Finland as well.
3 more or less tricky language features
Is æble Swedish, Danish or Norwegian? what about äpple and eple? You can first ‘get to know’ these languages by learning how to tell Nordic languages apart, but let’s see some specific features:
Grammar
Their grammar is very similar and essentially equally hard, with maybe the exception that Norwegian has the feminine gender too, although not used everywhere.
Pronunciation
Danes speak as if they have potatoes in their mouth. (While it is said Norwegian and Swedish sound like singing…) Some sounds like stød can be hard for foreigners to reproduce, saying rødgrød med fløde is a classic. Swedish Pronounciation has a sound similar to German ch in Bach, try this tongue twister: Sju Sjuka sjömän med sju sjuka sköterskor. People from Skåne, Sweden’s southernmost region, might sound to you like Danes speaking Swedish…Centuries ago, Skåne was actually a part of Denmark!
Language variation
Norwegian is famous for its dialects, “I” can be written/pronounced in a number of ways: jeg, Æ, eg.. Being already used to jump from a Scandinavian language to the other, hearing a new Norwegian dialect is not too scary I guess.. And it has two written standards, bokmål and nynorsk. Bokmål is far more popular than Nynorsk though.
conclusion: All in all, Norwegian could be the most convenient to learn for the access it gives to the other two, but not in an incredibly significant way. You might bump into Swedish more easily than the other two for the larger number of speakers, but even here it depends more on what you happen to bump into in your life, IKEA or Flying Tiger? My theory is that by learning/being used to Danish pronounciation the other two will be like going downhill, but I might be wrong.Even if you won’t actively study Danish, being a little used to both it and the singing Norwegian/Swedish will be satisfaying, but that’s just a language nerd talking here.
What I did
I personally started with Swedish and still keeping it as my “main”, although i learned the others on the way, I look at Swedish as my Scandinavian mother tongue or something, haha. There was no particular reason for this, Sweden and Swedish culture were just somehow more present in my mind and knowledge than the other two, and I just felt like learning Swedish without thinking much.
At the moment the order of the Scandinavian languages and how fluent I am in them is Swedish (the only one i purchased coursebooks for)>Danish>Norwegian. I had been very passively run into Danish and Norwegian until I started both more or less simultaneously, as I had a Dane and a Norwegian as penpals, and with google and my 2-years-old Swedish I managed to write letters in their languages.
Then I happened to bump into Danish people I clicked with more, so from nearly googling all words I ended up easily chatting in the course of one year or something. I am currently trying to write diary entries in Norwegian now and then. Something I find a bit hard is that as Norwegian and Swedish are quite similar, I often find myself not understanding with what accent (or tone i guess) I am speaking, while keeping Danish apart is very easy.
Truth to be told, many people are not particularly found of the sound of Danish. Not me though, pronouncing Danish is a guilty pleasure of mine. I was just generally attracted by anything Nordic so I think I wouldn’t care about what Danish sounds like anyway, I like it because it is Danish.
If you find all of them interesting, just be patient and once you got to a decent level with one, time for some immersion! Here are resources to learn Scandinavian languages among others
The Norwegian national costume, to be seen in all its glory on 17 may, and its old but not so old tradition
A bunad (plural bunader) is the Norwegian national costume. Bunads are among the most beloved folk costumes in the world, and the most worn in Europe. Other Nordic countries have their own folk costumes as well, but they are much less common and strictly connected to folk traditions as folk dances. Read about Swedish folkdräkter.
In Norwegian there’s a distinction between a Bunad and a folkedrakt (“folk costume”) , with the latter specifically used for costumes from the past. The word bunad, from Old Norse búnaðr began to be used in the 20th century, as the national costumes gained popularity with the rise of the National romantic movement in the 19th century, with artists as Adolph Tidemand and Hans Dahl depicting them.
Why bunads are so popular in Norway
After national romanticism, the use of bunads increased in the 1920s, but it was after the war that the national dress became even more popular, as a symbol of free and indepent Norway. First and foremost on the national day, and then for any festive occasions – as christenings and weddings. It is now officially seen as a gala attire, which can be for instance worn at the opening of the Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament. The best day to admire Bunads remains 17th May (Norway’s National day).
Young adults traditionally receive their bunad on their confirmation, as 15-year-olds, and it will last their entire lifetime. Crown princess Alexandra had hers sewn by her grandmother the Queen for this occasion. Purchasing a bunad costs thousands of euros/dollars, although lately low cost “China bunad” emerged.
Around 80% of Norwegian women owns a bunad. It is less common for men to wear it, with 20% having one, but the number is rising. In 1999, Pakistani-born Stortingen member Rubina Rana wore a bunad as the first person with migration background doing so in a 17 mai parade.
The diverse bunad designs
Norway’s fylker (counties) with some bunads from them
There are around 450 bunads in Norway, with each district having its own designs. They can be grouped into 5 categories of Bunads depending on how they were created, from traditionally in use to entirely recounstructed.
At the beginning of the 20th century Norway had just become fully independent and many were trying to promote Norwegian traditions and make the national identity stronger. In these years Bunads were being redesigned from old costumes with Hilda Garborg as leading figure for the movement. She published a very successful book called Norsk Klædebunad in 1917.
Bunads with the oldest tradition
The Hardanger bunad, was established in its use and is retained as the most Norwegian, depicted in art and easily recognisable. Setesdal, Hallingdal and Telemark are the other districts with the oldest and most established bunad tradition.
More recent bunads
Flower embroideries are very common. Present among others in the Nordland bunad (considered by many Norwegians the prettiest bunad) and Gudbrandsdalen bunad. The same design can also come in different colours, with the Nordland bunad existing both in green and blue and the Trøndelag and Romerike bunads in blue, red and green.
Left to right: my flower-themed original character with by Gudbrandsdal and Nordland bunads. Romerike (South-East Norway, near Oslo), Trøndelag (North Norway)
Accessories of the Bunad outfit
Part of the bunad outfit is Sølje, hand-made silver or gold jewellery, which is very important and gets bigger with older one gets. Silver was believed to have magical powers!
Headdresses, as bonnets, used to be important as they indicated an individual’s social or marital status, but big ones as the hardanger bonnet are now scarcely used.
An elaborate with bridal crown can be used for a traditional Norwegian wedding, it was a sign of virginity in connection to the Holy Virgin. The bridal crown tradition goes as far back as the Middle Ages. Like bunads, there are many regional variations, which you can see on Whigofwhimsy.
The silver crown, present in many regional variations, Hardanger perlekrune, Voss, Setesdal
The ‘anchor’ language concept allowed me to learn Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian easily starting from studying properly only one language. This approach helps prevent confusion and builds a solid foundational understanding of language structures.
Days on which the Finnish language, suomenkieli, and culture is celebrated in Finland, on birthdays of Finnish poets and artists
Finland celebrates its language and culture during special days chosen for birthdays of Poets and artists. Most are flag days in the country, on which the Finnish flag Siniristilippu(“blue cross flag”) shall fly.
Runeberg day – 5 February
In Finnish Runebergin päivä, it is the birthday of the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877). The highlight of the celebration is eating Runeberg’s torte (Finnish: Runebergintorttu; Swedish: Runebergstårta).
Runeberg lived in Porvoo/Borgå and although he is considered the national poet of Finland, he only wrote in Swedish! His Vårt land (“Our Land”, Maamme in Finnish) became an unofficial Finnish national anthem.
Runeberg ate the torte now carrying his name everyday, baked by his wife Fredrika. it is an almond and rum flavoured pastry with raspberry jam, and a ring of icing on top. You can find it in shops from the beginning of January until 5 February. The exception to this is Runeberg’s hometown Porvoo, where you can enjoy the torte the whole year round!
Kalevala day – 28 February
InFinnish Kalevalan päivä, it also known as Finnish Culture Day because of the central role Kalevala has as the national epic of Finland and Karelia. EliasLönnrot (1802 – 1884), a Finnish physician and philologist, compiled it in the 19th century by collecting traditional Finnic oral folklore in Finland, Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and the Baltic countries.
Kalevala means land of Kaleva, and its main character is Väinämöinen, a sort of godlike shaman with a magical voice, and it tells about the hero’s search for a wife.
As a symbol of Finnish culture and history, Kalevala has inspired many Finnish artists, among others the classical composer Jean Sibelius and the painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela.
A. Gallen Kallela, Aino Myth, Triptych, 1891
Something as old and quintessentially Finnish can be described as kalevalainen “Kalevala-esque”!
Finnish Language day – 9 April
On 9 April Mikael Agricola, the “father of literary Finnish” died, and Elias Lönnrot was born. For this reason it is celebrated as Finnish language day, suomen kielen päivä.
While the previously mentioned Elias Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala, Mikael Agricola was a Bishop and scholar who created Finnish as a written language in the 1500s, with all its lovely double vowels.
Agricola’s role for the Finnish language was similar to that of Luther for German. Both translated the bible into their people’s language. He did that with other Finns while living in Wittenberg, Luther’s town. Agricola also wrote theAbckiria (ABC Book), the first piece of literature in Finnish.
Other important days for Finnish culture
3 February – Day of Finnish architecture and design, Arkkitehtuurin ja muotoilun päiviä. It is the birthday of Alvar Aalto
12 may – Day of Finnish Identity, suomalaisuuden päivä, birthday of the statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman
9 August – Tove Jansson day, Since 2020 this day, Tove Jansson’s birthday, is a flag day in Finland, celebrating Finnish art. Tove Jansson was a painter and illustrator, most known as the creator of Moomintrolls. Her novels and other written work have been translated into more than 50 languages
8 December – John Sibeliusday, Birthday Jean Sibeliuksen päivä/ also day of Finnish music
cinnamon buns, waffles, semlor and more: there is a special day dedicated to each in Sweden
Soon it is time to eat semlor pastries in Sweden! Swedes have a few days dedicated to eating a specific thing. Whether it started to honour a king or just find an excuse to bake, time to mark some days on your calendar and join them in celebrating Swedish confectionery!
Semlor: February/March – Fettisdagen
On Shrove Tuesday (fettisdagen, fet tisdag = fat Tuesday), 21 February in 2023, tons of of semlor are purchased in Sweden. A semla is a cardamom-spiced bun with almond paste and whipped cream. A perfect pastry you’d want to devour before the fastening time preceding Easter starts! Semlor are eaten in Swedish Finland too, but called fastlagsbulle there, and Fettisdagen is called fastlagstisdagen. Slightly different versions of semlor exist in the other Nordic countries too, and they are usually eaten on Shrove Monday instead: Bollur in Iceland, Fastelavnboller in Denmark/Norway. Unlike the Swedish semlor, they often have chocolate on top…
Waffles: 25 March – Våffeldagen
The christian feast of the Annunciation, in Swedish Vårfrudagen, lit. “Our Lady’s Day”, ended up becoming for most Swedes the similar-sounding våffeldagen (“waffle day”). This turned a religious day into a chance to eat heart-shaped waffles! It is also ”observed” In Norway and Denmark!
Cinnamon buns: 4 October – Kanelbullensdagen
Cinnamon bun day has been celebrated since 1999, and it was actually invented for commercial reasons: the person who made it up, Kaeth Gardestedt, was at the time working for an association of baking products producers. After almost 25 years people still bake cinnamon bunson 4th October!
Gustav Adolf pastry: 6 November – Gustav Adolfsdagen
6th November is the date of the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf’s death in 1632. The king was very generous with universities as the one of Gothenburg, where a pastry was invented in his remembrance: Gustav Adolfsbakelse. It has been popular since the late 1800s. You can see it in a lot of variations, but what makes it a Gustav Adolf pastry is the chocolate bust of the king on top!
Gingerbread biscuits: 9 December – Pepparkakansdag
Gingerbread cookies, known as pepparkakor in Sweden, probably originated in Nuremberg, Germany, in the middle ages. Mentioned in Swedish in 1444 for the first time, the word pepper was used to mean spices in it, as pepper was the most common spice at the time. Baking them became a typical Christmas thing in Sweden and other countries, remember the episode of Pippi were she cuts them in the shape of her horse and monkey? Pepparkakansdag was, similarly to Kannelbullensdag, invented in 1996 by gingerbread maker Annas Pepparkakor.
Apparently there is also a Polkagrisensdag (candy cane day) on 20th April, but it mostly promoted in Gränna, near the Vättern lake. There Amalia Eriksson invented the polkagrisstång in 1859, the red-white peppermint candy cane, and many local shops celebrate this day.
What I’ve learned through my language learning journey trying to master many Germanic languages, from German to Faroese through Dutch and Swedish among others.
This article is derived from my Instagram post on my language learning profile inspired by @haluska.langs with her slavic version. I had also made a post about learning multiple similar languages in the past!
I speak to different degrees most of the main Germanic languages, including being familiar with a few lesser known ones as West-Frisian and Faroese.
I gradually added more and more of them through the years, starting from English and then German at school, then self studying more since I was about to finish high school.
As English was heavily influenced by French and uses many words with latin roots, besides the fact that it just feels like a given-for-granted language everybody speaks, it sometimes feels weird to include it in the Germanic languages family, but it indeed helped understanding for example to instantly recognize är in Swedish as the verb are, and the fact that verbs have att – in the infinitive form makes sense as English has to –.
However, When i started Swedish and Dutch simultaneosly in the now distant April 2017, it was German that made a lot of things easier than it would have perhaps been without it.
MY JOURNEY
I started English in primary school, and was always quite excited about learning it, wishing to have more hours for it every year.
My second Germanic language arrived much later, I choose German over Spanish in high school, but it had been fascinating me for many years, trying to learn random words of it here and there, I did learn the first word on cornflake boxes: Zutaten (“ingredients”).
During my last year of high school, after 5 years of English, French and German, I started self-learning Swedish and Dutch simultaneosly, using exclusively Duolingo for months. I theorically dowloaded duolingo for Swedish, but I loved Dutch too so i immediately started the course and used duolingo basically every day for a good year. I had a strong knowledge of German to begin with, it heavily helped me and made a lot of grammar and vocabulary instantly clear/recognizable, but also meant having interferences (see below), for example it ruled the verb order making me place verbs where it made no sense in Swedish nor English nor my mother tongue…
Two years later I wanted to learn some Danish and Norwegian: exposure, writing “adjusting” my Swedish with the help of online translators, but the effort to learn grammar and vocabulary was 70% done. learning Danish and Norwegian together without knowing Swedish would have been bad, you wouldn’t know when you are learning one or the other, but with a good Swedish knowledge and some exposure for both it’s manageable. Needless to say, focusing on one will make you better at it than splitting time/energies for both.
During the first corona lockdown in spring 2020, I started learning Icelandic with textbooks and online resources. I had actually read about pronunciation in a mountain hut in summer 2018, but didn’t understand much or took the time to process it at haha.
In the last few years I’ve been also getting some exposure to Faroese and West Frisian (which i can understand to a given extent thanks to other languages as Dutch and Icelandic) and casually learning them.
MIXING THEM UP
When learning multiple related languages, it is easy to end up mixing them up in one way or another. The more fluent you are in one, the less it is likely that you let yourself get influenced by another, this is way reaching a good level in onee language before learning another one in the same family is important. Moreover, you will be very familiar with much of its grammar and vocabulary, and you might rely way too much on your first language of that family. Using Spanish words when speaking Italian might not be the best, but you’ll be much better off than only knowing more distant related languages locals hardly speak.
There are a lot of false friends and words which would “fit” in the other language used without even realizing it. Some examples are short words existing in multiple languages but with different usage/meaning:
en means “and” in Dutch, “a(n)” in Scandinavian languages, and “but” in Icelandic!
ommeans “about” something in Scandinavian languages, while it’s usually “(in order) to” in Dutch
A false friend example is Icelandic að kenna meaning teach; while kennen/känna/kjenne/kende all mean “know (usually someone)”!
a funny fact about interferences is that I once used mensen talking in Swedish, “people” in Dutch, but “the menstruation” in Swedish!
Verb order is very vulnerable to interferences when learning multiple Germanic languages, at least at first: with subordinate clauses in German you have “..that I something done have“, in Dutch “..that I something have done“, in North Germanic languages ” ..that I have done something” as it is in English.
At first I would instantly use the German verb order with Swedish (for no apparent reason since the order in Swedish is supposed to be the most natural for me..), that doesn’t happen anymore, however, I still mess up it with Dutch and German since they only have the very last part switched! I hate it, but that’s what you pay for speaking both I guess…
To avoid interferences one of the most useful things is getting corrected or being aware of them, detecting the mistake is the first step to stop making it.
BONUS POINTS
Easy to learn vocabulary
Knowing languages related to each other can cause interferences but can also come very handy at times! Besides all words sharing a common root, You will understand and easily remember cognates and words which are everyday vocabulary in one language and seldom used ones in another one.
In Danish jeg spiser is “I eat”, you might easily remember this word as Speisekarte means “menu” in German. In the closely related Swedish you say “jag äter”, which however resembles eat, eten etc.
Despite my Swedish being more advanced, Danish and Norwegian helped me with understanding right away obsolete words in Swedish while reading an old book: Danish pige and Norwegian jente are the word for “girl”, while piga/jänta are “maid” in Swedish, not a word you’d learn in an everyday context.
Easy to guess the gender
Germanic languages, except for English, have different genders, whether masculine, feminine, neuter as German, Icelandic, and partially Norwegian, or general + neutral as Swedish, Danish and Dutch*. Being from the same family in many cases genders are usually the same for words with the same root:
House is neutral: das Haus/het huis/ett hus/husið;
Earth is feminine, sky is masculine: die Erde, der Himmel (German) /jörðin, himinn (Icelandic) /jorda, himmelen (Norwegian)
The closer the language the safest the bet: Dutch and German are more likely to have words with the same gender than them and North Germanic languages: book is neutral in West Germanic languages but feminine/general in North Germanic – het boek, das Buch (n) / boka, bókin (f).
*Neutral exists in all but English, while In Dutch, Swedish and Danish masculine & feminine merged. However, they are sometimes still visible, for example in pronouns for objects: hij/zij as he/she in Dutch (knowing German can give you great advantage compared to natives!); to tell the time in Swedish you say “hon är..” (she is..) because klocka (clock) was feminine! Norwegian does have feminine, even though in some Norwegian dialects feminine (book: ei bok, boka) and masculine are not distinct and general en is used (having en bok, boken which would be masculine).
Easy to learn Irregular verbs
All Germanic languages have irregular verbs, which mean learning lists of paradigms present-past perfect-past participle. Once you have learned them for one, it’s all downhill to learn the others, as not only you already know how the verb system works but many are very similar across different languages (and the set of verbs being irregular is more or less the same), or follow similar patterns:
Don’t learn more than 2 similar languages at once, if very similar and from scratch keep that at one. You might be dying for the other for a while, but the path will be downhill and you’ll be less confused.
I learned Norwegian and Danish more or less simultaneously but it wad 95% just exposure, as I already spoke Swedish. That means I knew well what I was dealing with and most importantly I didn’t have to learn a grammar system from zero, but mostly only how to adapt it to Danish and Norwegian, same for how spelling behaves in both. The proficiency you acquire then depends on how much time you spend on each. My Danish is better and I don’t have to check words as much as in Norwegian because I happened to use Danish more because of friends and such, but I used to write letters in Danish/Norwegian and basically check every other word on google, while the grammar structure was as good as done with some exposure on top of speaking Swedish.
Getting a little exposure is always fine, you will just get to know the other languages a bit more, preparing yourself for a more serious approach when you are ready. With some effort you’ll then split from the “rely on X language” phase and speak it independently.
Dutch and German are maybe almost as similar as Scandinavian languages to each other, but not as much, and if you learned Dutch first you’ll have to deal with cases and an additional gender, not quite the same as just adapting it and only learning from immersion.
Nevertheless, give love to all your target languages through frequent immersion, scheduling study sessions for those which require help.
A little fact in conclusion: in Germanic languages “moon” is masculine and “sun” is feminine, while in romance languages it is the opposite! I can see why if you look at the weather and daytime in North vs South Europe 🙂
10th July was a big day for the artist community around the Garden Studio: exhibition with a cafe, concerts and such. I started the day by taking away weeds at the entrance, it was raining and my feet got soaked wet! I got so tired and after a short lunch I went home, and then went back where the real thing was waiting for me: the café. It was scary because of my weird relationship with Danish (wanting and knowing how to speak it but not understanding well enough to function well? Which is like, a nightmare), but luckily two girls, daughters of Marie, were there to help, and after an awkward begin where I wasn’t sure what to do I happily went to wash up things and prepare coffee in the “backstage”. Later other two guys, Nils and Knud, came to help, and after a while the amount of work was reduced and I could rest. I was eventually happy of how it went and really thankful for the help! And I got to rest drinking a Sodavand, not my fav drink ever but much cooler than a coke right?
When the event was as good as over I went to sit with Ulla and other women, who were pretty surprised when they heard I could speak Danish! I am just too shy to speak it to begin with with unknown people, because of what i said above. One of them wanted to see my paintings! I also got a free tshirt 🙂
On the 11th I was given a free day, I decided to go to the Garden Studio, and after having helped a little in the morning I went to paint, and I added the sky to the beach painting. After that I went to the house to eat (made myself the usual rygbrød+butter and anything I found, including Brunost (Norwegian brown cheese, delicious!), and I spent the rest of the day reading books, a really chill day!
That was the Eurocup finals’ night, Italy vs England!! England had beaten Denmark n the semifinlans, and whole Europe was rooting for Italy, pretty cool honestly. I am always anxious about these things so I was only relying to DR app updates (Danish national broadcasting company, I have had the app before I even knew I’d go to Denmark though) and my friends!! It was a pain till the end but I was really happy we won!! We revenged Denmark!
12th July was a super nice day and I was invited to go to the beach! (Grenaa is actually a pretty popular Danish beach destination i think?) Before leaving I read some other books I found in the library:
about birds, and i found my favourites: Blue Tit, Blåmejse; and puffin, Lunde or Søpapegøje (lit. sea parrot, love it)
I spent time at the beach, not as long as i wanted to and the weather was exceptionally good? I was told the weather would be food for that day but I had low hopes haha. First got food at Kvikly: peaches, strawberries and a fat-ass burger to eat on the beach, I obviously couldn’t finish it at once so I got my dinner and lunch at once that day! I had to come back from the beach earlier than expected, but at least I got offered ice cream! Champagne Brus was a brilliant choice!
After watching videos and reading books the day ended with a roadtrip in the surroundings, and I saw the witch place (see part 1) again!! I’d say it was one of the best days in Denmark, I even got 2 tote bags for free, which i ended up using a lot!
On the14th it was pretty hot upstairs in the workshop, so I ended up doodling on a whiteboard downstairs, invading someone else’s space. Once i made sure I was allowed to draw there i went wild as you can see.
copied The Birth of Venus, italian pride worldwide 🙂 (everything mine but the graffiti-style thing)
I wrote one of my favourite quotes:
Livet må forstås baglæns men må leves forlæns (Life has to be understood backards but has to be lived forwards)
Søren Kierkegaard
I even added something more, copied Water Serpents by Klimt and more I can’t remember, but the board got cleared before i could take another picture…
15th July was a big day, I would go to Aarhus to meet my friend, a second time after the first day! I took the Letbane and once i got to Aarhus I walked up to my friend’s house and damn it was hot! I literally picked the hottest, stickiest day of the year! My friend said that heat wasn’t normal in Denmark. Well, wish I could say the same for the Italian summer. We went to a park and had a pic-nic, I got my skirt dirty with something and it was so hot we ended up going to her house, so I could get it washed. It was quite cozy and nicer than outside due to the weather.
I was eventually going to take the Letbane home, and while I was thinking I might miss it I decided I could just walk around in the city instead! The weather was not as hot anymore and I walked around quite a while for a couple hours, to Dokk1, then to (and inside) the station. I saw the iconic viking traffic lights!
At a point I heard a man saying hej and I thought he would try to sell me something but no, he went like Jeg har set dig (somewhere), du er dejlig har en dejlig stil, helt kreativ, something like “you have a very nice style, very creative”; more or less that concept repeated more times. Basically he had probably seen me when I was walking in around Dokk1 and when he saw me the second time he took courage to tell me that, I still don’t know how to feel about a Dane doing that hahaha. Ironically enough I understood everything he said perfectly, wonder what he would have said if I answered I was not Danish.. And of course I have a hard time understanding things when I would need to! How annoying! I just replied with Ahh okay, okay, tak like twice.
After that unexpected encounter I kept on walking without a destination, till I randomly saw AROS, the museum with a rainbow circle on top of it, standing in front of me. At that point i thought it was really time to go home, I would have walked for another couple hours if only I could but my ticket would expire..
16th July had a bit of a stressing start, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you should do exactly… But it went well eventually. Karina told me a Danish saying:
Det stille vand har den dybe grund (Calm water is deep)
meaning someone who doesn’t talk much is actually very profound deep inside
I remember someone saying I was so quite yet it seemed like I had a lot say, in 2017… I guess I do really give those vibes sometimes.
She also saw my doodles on the board and said I could go do graffiti at a place, but it was a bit late for that considering the 2 days I had left in Denmark… I still hate that.
On the 17thmy fellow workawayer Mado from Iran made a (apprently Irani?) dish: rice with potatoes! I did enjoy it and happened to try that myself a year later!
Also got to drink Søbogaardfruity drinks, Hyldeblomst and Æble-Solbær flavours, these were really good!
We went to the wood to eat dinner, and it was pretty cozy, around the fire! Bent, Sara and her daughters were there. While others were walking around in the wood, I spent quite a while sitting by myself around the fire trying not to freeze (should have had a sweater with me..) and drawing a little.
18th July was another important day for the artists and musicians of the area, with an exhibition in the usual wood. started as a sunny and windy day, my host had her meditation meeting, so I walked the dog around the place of it. It was beautiful and I got very inspired for a painting!
After that I managed to go to the Garden Studio again, painted super fast to finish it in a couple hours! After that i ate lunch and Marie took Ulla and me to the wood for the exhibition. It was getting quite chilly! There were quite a lot of people who came to it and we were walking in the wood in lines basically, seeing wooden works and then listening to the concert in the end. That included some food too! I also helped keeping the dog, and ended up looking at the wood for one last time while I was on the swing.
When the exhibition was over and we took all the stuff away, my host was thinking of getting Thai food, which was not available, so we got food at Kvickly: Kebab Pizza for me, and then a kanelsnegl “cinnamon snail”
I spent the morning of 19th July, my last full day, weeding. We then went to the Garden Studio, so I could get my paintings (which I didn’t think would fit in my suitcase) and say goodbye. On the way home my host got potato chips at the Gas station: GÅRDCHIPS. We then watched Momo alla ricerca del tempo perduto, a movie from my childhood I barely remembered anything of!
We later drove to the beach where I had a last swim, i named it my Viking baptism since it was cold
20th July was the day i left, I would have stayed a bit longer so that maybe I could trY doing graffiti, and it always feels awful to leave! Anyway I made sure to buy a few souvenirs: a hurraflag of course, a couple magnets and 3 postcards (there was a 3-postcard deal, one of them had a picture of Odense where I havn’t been but oh well) the flag was too long to completely fit in my backpack so I walked around flying the Dannebrog.. My flight was a couple hours late, but I came home safe and sound 🙂
There were people i couldn’t meet despite being really geographically close to them, places I didn’t see, things I didn’t do, a lot of mistakes, a lot of Danish I didn’t understand, but I am truly glad I did this and wouldn’t mind being back in Denmark again someday!
Of all Danish words I learned during my stay, I always think of Trillebør (wheelbarrow) first, and I just googled now to find it how to say it in English, but it was part of my daily life when gardening in Denmark!
Some Danish songs I found about during my stay were Valby Bakke – Peter Sommer (my host listened to it a lot!), hurtige hænder – Minds of 99, +artist Alphabeat. Right after my stay I started listening to even more Danish music, among others one of my favourites is Halvnøgen – Ulige Numre, Drømmer Jeg – Johnny Deluxe, and for quite a while the autumn 2021 had rapper Clemens among my most-listened artists…
How graduating from high school is like in Sweden, Denmark, Norway!
Hats and buses
the symbol of High school graduation is a hat resembling a ship’s captain cap, the first time I saw a Swedish graduation celebration picture I was pretty confused about those hats, but it’s actually a tradition inspired by German students, spreading it to Nordic countries in the 19th century.
Another common thing in Scandinavian is that graduates celebrate around town on rented buses or trucks (sometimes saving up years just to rent one), generally playing loud music, drinking and just partying!
Denmark 🇩🇰
Danes have an oral exam as final. you have to decide who from your family is placing the hat, studenterhue, on your head, when you step out from it. It’s the norm to wear the graduation cap for at least 2 weeks, It is courtesy that people they meet on the street congratulate them, even if they don’t know each other.
The ribbon on Danish caps was originally only either blue (Mathematics students) or red (Arts students), it now comes in many different colors depending on the length of your education and which school you went to, see all possible variations on Alt.dk. There are lots of rules involving the studenterhue:
You can’t wear your cap before your last exam (it would bring bad luck)
your gradehas to be written in the center of the hat, and friends and family can leave autographs and short notes in it
friends bite in the shadow for good luck.
the students with the biggest and smallest hat size, and the ones with the highest and lowest grade average have to buy a box of beers for the class
the hat has to be cut in different ways if the student has drunk 24 units within sunrise, if he vomits, and so on to the point a which if the student goes to the hospital because of too much alcohol the whole shade is cut off.
more rules are related to having sex (heart on the sweatband if with the partner, lightning on the rim if not in a relation) , kissing someone (if same gender the cross has to be turned), breaking up (metals going off), taking a swim with only the hat on (wave in the rim)
If the student has been awake for 24 hours then the hat must be turned around (shadow in the back).
You can see more on this site dedicated to studenterhue rules (in Danish)!
The Studenterkørsel – student drive – is an important part of the celebration, renting a truck decorated with beech branches to party, drink and play loud music on (here‘s a site where the trucks & stuff can be arranged). It drives to each student’s home for around 15 minutes, for a short visit where parents give snacks and drinks before the next destination.
This can last one or two days and of course also the studenterkørsel has its own rules, among which running after the truck if you get an A in your last exam, and learning a battle cry to scream at passing student trucks!
Everyone greets and sends their congratulations when they see these trucks. On my very first day in Denmark Student buses were driving around (slowing down the bus I was on though, haha) and following my friend’s example we waved at them, flying my welcoming flag! It felt quite cool!
Sweden 🇸🇪
In Sweden there’s one big day, Studenten, but the celebration starts around the end of April, where students organize games which will give points deciding who will be the first student running out of the school on the gruaduation day; it can be anything from chill to embarrassing things to do, though maybe not as wild as what you’ll read for Norway. In May, there’s one day called Mösspåtaggning, on which students dress up nicely with their hat Studentmössa on, and with classmates they go to school and then to a restaurant or bar, celebrating that one month is left until the studenten time.
The big day of Studenten may vary depending on the school, but it is usually around 30th May to 15th June, with 6th June (Sweden national day) being the pitch.
This day starts with fellow students meeting up very early – between 4 and 7 am for the Champagnefrukost, Champagne breakfast
At 8-9 it’s time to leave for school, with some proving they can keep up with the celebration despite being drunk.
Around 10 everybody listens to the principal giving a speech, some students get diploma for things as All-A-Student etc.
At 11-12: photo shootings of classes!
Once they got their diploma, Students run out of school to their families and friends, who are waiting for them holding a picture of the graduate as a baby or small child, and give them blue-yellow chains with flowers and trinkets as plushies!
The clothing for this day is quite formal, with boys wearing suits, girls usually a white dress. each student has their name and surname embroidered on the hat, which costs around 100 euros
After staying with their families for some time, studentsget on flatbed buses driving through the city as the Danes do, dancing, drinking and partying. In some cases they just walk around instead, something which has been encouraged by authorities after several accidents involving the flatbuses occured.
Norway 🇳🇴
Norwegian graduation celebrations, Russ (short for russefeiring) is a big deal in Norway, with youngsters in overalls roaming cities for almost a month, from the end of April to the Norwegian Constitution Day, (read more about May 17th). On that day, the students are awarded their caps and join the parade in their overalls. The russ period has also become known as “the three-week binge” treukersfylla, continue reading to find out why…
The personalized overalls, russebukse, are usually red, or blue in case of financial and business studies, and personalized with patches. On this website Norwegians can get their russ equipment 😉
On the caps, Russeluer, Students write the Russ names they’ve been given, but the important part is a long cord, which gets knots (knuter) added for given dares completed before graduation: russeknuter. The tradition was introduced in the 40s, with different lists of around 100 dares for every school. Many dares involve sex and alcohol, and a lot are just hilarious. Classics are wearing loaves of bread on your feet for a whole day, not sleeping for 48 hours and bathing outside before 1st May. After criticism that russ was getting too wild, some new dares were invented to encourage teens to make good choices, such as getting tested for STDs or giving food to a homeless person.
Here are a few recurring ones (trinket – dare associated to it):
TAMPON – Put two tampons in your mouth and drink a pint of beer/cider.
TWIGS FROM THE GARDEN – Sleep in a tent in a teacher’s garden.
CANDY BURGER – Eat a cheeseburger in two bites.
“L” – Put an “L” (used for driving practice) on the back of a public transport vehicle.
CONDOM PACKAGE – Buy a pack of condoms using only body language.
BANKNOTE – Place a 5 minute poledance on a pole on a public transport.
RUBBER DUCK – Bathe with someone else in a canopy in front of the school, remember to scrub each other.
TOY FIRE TRUCK – Have safe sex during your period/with someone on theirs.
Here is the whole list of Russeknuter of Oslo for 2022 (in Norwegian). Because of what’s happening, this year there is a special Ukraine-knut, which can be gained if the class contacts a refugee centre and brings some fun activities to socially engage the young refugees there.
As the other Scandinavians Norwegians also rent or buy buses – thetradition of buying an old van or bus and painting it started in the 70s – but they do it on the next level, with their Russebuss, large coach buses completely decked out with colors, graphics, retrofitted and customized to become mobile partying units! The average Russbuss is used by 15 to 25 students and costs around $116,000!! Drivers are hired to drive them to Festivals and landstreff (national meetings) to meet Russ from whole Norway and party, party, party.
You may now wonder why students party that wildly in April. That’s because by the early 2000s, the authorities were worried about the impact all this partying and alcohol would have on the students’ grades, so the final exams in public schools were moved to early May. but what ended up happening was simply that the students started the russefeiring earlier.
Bonus: Finland 🇫🇮
The girl I portrayed on the cover picture of this article is a Finn, (@alwaystimeforbujo on ig, she posts about bullet journaling), so here is something about Finland too:
The Finnish cap, Ylioppilaslakki, is similar to the Swedish version, but instead of coloured fabric cockade, it has a metallic, gold-colored cockade depicting the lyre of Apollo, the insignia of the University of Helsinki.
Truck parties are a thing in Finland too, but in February, when students begin preparing for their final exams. A typical thing they do is dressing up in various costumes visiting the town’s school and throwing candy!
You’d expect 50, 60, etc. till 90 to be fem-, seks-something, as it is in Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic (femtio, sextio; femti, seksti; fimmtíu sextíu…); but Danes use another… method, based on a vigesimal system: a numeral system based on twenty, making them harder to remember for Danish learners. You can’t guess what halvfems is without having learned it first, I suppose.
How I remember Danish numbers
Let’s start by remembering the easier ones, that is to say the ones that are just called “x times 20”
3 x 20 = 60: tres (three times twenty)
4 x 20 = 80: firs (four times twenty)
to remember them, I just think of half of the target number: 60 is 30×2 and 80 is 40×2 so the number will sound like 3(s), 4(s)
50, 70 and 90 are however not perfectly divided by 20, and start with halv. It might help you to think that each halv-is smaller than the similar version without halv by 10:
60 is tres, and 50 is halvtreds is 50
80 is firs, and 70 ishalvfjerds
90 is before 100, which is 50x2, so 90 is halvfems
In addition to all this, remember that from 20 units go before tens, just like in German and Dutch, separated by og (“and”), so 21 is enogtyve
The fractional system used in these numbers names is as follow: first half is ½ [0.5], second half is 1½ [1.5], third half is 2½ [2.5] (halvtreds=50), and so on as follows:
50 is halvtreds, which stands for halvtredje-sinds-tyve, meaning “third half times twenty”, or “two scores plus half of the third score” [2½ * 20].
60 is tres, short for tre-sinds-tyve, which means “three times twenty” [3*20].
70, halvfjerds, is short for halvfjerd-sinds-tyve, meaning “fourth half times twenty”, or “three scores plus half of the fourth score” [3½ * 20].
80 is firs, which long form firsindstyve, or fire-sind-styve, meaning “four times twenty” [4*20].
90, halvfems, short for halvfemsindstyve or halv-fem-sinds-tyve, means “fifth half times twenty”, or “four scores plus half of the fifth score” [4½ * 20].
Don’t ask me how this makes sense because I have no idea, I barely survived maths in school.
Ordinals
The vigesimal form leads to very long expressions of the numbers, which have been shortened phonetically, dropping -sindstyve (“times twenty”). Ordinal numbers may however still include that ending: 52 is usually rendered as tooghalvtreds (from the now obsolete tooghalvtredsindstyve), whereas 52nd is either tooghalvtredsende or tooghalvtredsindstyvende.
Even the Danes don’t know what they are doing
If you feel bad about not getting this whole thing, be aware that few Danish people know what the numbers actually mean, they just deal with those words all the time.
In addition, the decimal style is also commonly used in banking and when relating to other Scandinavian people. The numbers from 20 to 90 are: toti (literally “two tens”), treti, firti, femti, seksti, syvti, otti, niti.
Was this any helpful? Let me know 🙂 Held og Lykke! (good luck)
a Polyglot illustrating Scandinavia 