Category: Languages

Things i write according to my knowledge and readings as a (Nordic) languages enthusiast

An introduction to Estonian: sister language of Finnish

Estonian is a Finnic language, sharing many similarities with its ‘bigger’ sister Finnish, while being unrelated to all their bigger language neighbours

24th February is Estonian Independence Day! To celebrate, here is some info on one of the closest relatives of Finnish and insight on Uralic languages.

Finnish and Estonian are both Uralic languages, belonging to a different family than most languages spoken in Europe, from Icelandic to Italian, which are all Indo-European languages. Find out more about Finnish compared to other Nordic languages. I already wrote in Estonian culture in general compared to Finland after my trip to the Baltics last summer.

Finnish and Estonian: Finnic sister languages

Estonian is the second biggest Finnic language after Finnish , spoken by around 1 million people, (Finnish has 5 millions). Other related languages exist in the Baltics, although most have very few speakers left: võro, Livonian (in Latvia).

There are many similarities exist betwenn Finnish and Estonian. Although they are not always mututally intelligible, Finns and Estonians can often understand each other, particularly in written form. Estonians in particular used to be able to understand Finnish very well thanks to access to Finnish media they had access to during the Soviet occupation.

Unique Finnic language features

  • Gender-neutral pronoun: The English third person pronoun has a gender distinction – he/she. Finnish and Estonian have only one, neutral version: “hän” in Finnish and “ta” in Estonian.
  • Vowel Length (2 in Finnish, 3 in Estonian): Both Finnish and Estonian have short and long vowels: you often see double ones when bumping into these languages – aa, ää , ee, oo, ii etc. For example: mutta ‘but’ vs muuttaa ‘to change’ in Finnish.
    Estonian, has however not two, but three vowel lengths: kala (fish) Long: kaala (weigh), kaalla (with a neck).
  • 14-15 inflections of grammatical cases (simplified in Estonian): Both languages often convey meaning through inflection: I go to Estonia – Tulen estii Finnish stayed more conservative, while Estonian started using more prepositions instead and dropped the accusative case.

Finnish and Estonian vocabulary

There is a large Finnic common vocabulary: the following words are the same in Finnish and Estonian, unrelated to indoeuropean languages:

  • water: vesi
  • moon: kuu
  • money: raha
  • tree: puu
  • snow: lumi
  • hand: käsi
  • expensive: kallis
  • sea: meri

Countries around Finnic people got similar, distinct names in their languages, notice the following: Finland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Denmark:

  • Finnish: Suomi, Ruotsi, Saksa, Venäjä, Tanska
  • Estonian: Soome, Rootsi, Saksamaa, Venemaa, Taani. Maa means ‘Land’ also in Finnish

Finnish got many loanwords from Sweden, being its neighbor and ruling power. Similarly, Estonian has borrowed as much from German. As a common Finnic feature, many words which originally had S with another consonant after it, dropped the S.

FinnishEstonianSwedishGerman
schoolkoulukoolskolaSchule
chairtuolitoolstolStuhl
to paintmaalatamaalimamålamalen
hamkinkkusinkskinkaSchinken
cakekakkukookkakaKuchen
kitchenkeittiököökköketKüche
mirrorpeilipegelispegelSpiegel

Tell Finnish and Estonian apart

Estonian and Finnish look similar, so if you’re not familar with any you can tell if it is Estonian instead for these features:

  • Estonian has the unique letter Õ, and – unlike Finnish – uses Ü, B and G in native Finnic words (Finnish only in foreign words). Š and Ž can also be rarely seen in words of foreign origin in Estonian, although not officially part of the alphabet
  • diphthongs not present in Finnish: if you see two different vowels next to each other, that cannot be Finnish – but if it looks like it, it might be Estonian: päev.
  • No vowel harmony in Estonian: In Finnish, words contain vowels from only front or back vowels – so ä, y, ö cannot be together in the same word with a, u, o. In Estonian, mixing them is possible.

Spoken Estonian tends to sound softer and more fluid, while Finnish pronunciation is more rythmic. This might be due to dipthongs and consonant length distinction in pronunciation, stricter in Finnish, where the difference between short and long consonants is stronger.

Finnish and Estonian language days

Both countries have a day dedicated to their respective languages.

Estonian language day, also Mother Tongue day, Emakeelepäev, is celebrated on 14th March since 1999, birthday of the poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson. Poetry readings including a 12-hours reading marathon mark the day.

Finnish language day is on 9th April in honour of Michael Agricola, a 1500s clergyman considered the father of written Finnish for having published the first book in this language.

sources

5 symbols of Sami culture

Sámi people, indigenous people of North Scandinavia, have a distinct culture, symbolised by its unique flag and traditional clothing, and part of it are Duodji handicrafts and unique musical expression through yoik.

Chiara's avatar by Chiara

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The best Scandinavian language to learn

How to choose the 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.

You can first of all learn about general features and learn how to tell Scandinavian languages apart. 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.

Some 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. Icelandic (unfortunately?) retained its heavy grammar. More about the Icelandic 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.

Some more or less tricky 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.

This would mean Norwegian is probably the most convenient to learn: vocabulary/spelling lean towards Danish and Pronounciation to Swedish, while you will spare yourself the (for most people) struggle of learning how to pronounce Danish.

My journey

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.

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.

If you find all of them interesting, just be patient and once you got to a decent level with one you can start picking up the others just by immersion!

Novels and books to study Nordic languages in 2026

my 2026 language plans with books: continue reading Swedish novels and Norwegian non-fiction, and studying Finnish.

As I did for my Nordic books 2025, here is an updated list of books I will be reading and textbooks I want to use in 2026

Below my trackers for 2025 and 2026: in 2025 I mostly studied Japanese and read Swedish novels

Book I am reading in Swedish and Norwegian

Novels to finish

  • Straff, Ann-Helen Laestadius – Sami kids taken away from their families to a Sami-hostile environment, who meet again 30 years later.
  • Allting växer, Lyra Koli – dystopic novel about a Scandinavian girl set in a post- world war and climate catastrophe world.

Norwegian books got from the thrift book shelf at the Norwegian Seamen Church

  • Europeere, Simen Ekern – an essay on the European Union, written around 10 years ago. This was how I opened my 2026 readings!
  • Norges Historie – encyclopedia-ish book on Norwegian History, from Vikings to the 70s, when it was published

Books to study Finnish

Later this year, I want to try focusing on Finnish for a while. I still have my coursebook I purchased a couple years ago, and can work on vocabulary thanks to the Ultimate Finnish Notebook (get a discount on such books for a lot of languages! – code ChiaraBeretta)

Due to my limited time, i had no time for Finnish last year, also because I tried to fully focus on studying Japanese (as for Japanese – I will use Irodori/いろどり free online textbooks/resources). I recently purchased an Assimil book for Finnish, which should make learning Finnish while commuting easier thanks to it’s compact format and bite-size lessons

Icelandic and Danish for fun

As I wrote last year, I might try to improve my Danish with the German Assimil edition. Other books, as Swedish assimil and Short Stories in Icelandic, were started in the past and I might continue (for Icelandic) or review (for Swedish) them later.

What books/resources will you use in 2026?

Who are Greenlanders? 3 symbols of Greenlandic culture

Discover Greenland, home to the Inuit Kalaallit, and its most iconic aspects as its flag, language and folk costumes. The biggest island of the world has a rich history of indigenous culture intertwined with Norse colonization and later Danish rule.

Chiara's avatar by Chiara

Who are Greenlanders? 3 symbols of Greenlandic culture

Discover Greenland, home to the Inuit Kalaallit, and its most iconic aspects as its flag, language and folk costumes. The biggest island of the world has a rich history of indigenous culture intertwined with Norse colonization and later Danish rule.

Many have heard of Greenland lately because of what is going on in the world. Here is an introduction to its culture and history, with iconic aspects from this Arctic nation.

Greenland – Kalaallit Nunaat – an Inuit nation between the Vikings and Colonisation

Most of Greenland’s population – the Kalaallit – are Inuits, the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, from North America to Siberia. Although the current Greenlanders’ ancestors, the Thule people, migrated from Alaska around 1000 years ago, Inuits were already present in Greenland in 2500 BC.

Greenland also had Norse inhabitants for a while – Its norse name Grønland, ‘green land’ was given by Erik den Røde, arriving around 1000 a.D after being exiled from Iceland. Norsemen left around 1400, probably due to the worsened climate conditions of the little ice age. A sign of the Norse settlement are the ruins of the Hvalsey church.

The Scandinavians returned with the Danish colonization from the 1700s, beginning with an expedition to find remaining Norse inhabitants. This time led to suppression and attempts to westernize its people, and despite this, Greenland now proudly preserves its Inuit culture, with its language, traditional clothing, and in its flag.

Flag and coat of arms of Greenland

The Greenlandic flag is called Erfalasorput (‘our flag’) and was introduced in 1985, flying for the first time on Greenland’s national day, Summer Solstice.

It symbolizes the sun rising in the arctic Greenlandic landscape, on a light midsummer sky. The red-white colors reference the Danish flag.

It was designed by the Greenlandic artist Thue Christiansen (1940-2022), and was voted as the winner among many other concepts, in particular against a Nordic cross.

Greenlandic Language

the Greenlandic Inuit language, Kalaallisut, is spoken by around 50.000 people – the majority of Greenland’s population – While Danish is taught and spoken as a second language. Greenlandic belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut languages, spoken by indigenous peoples of the arctic area. Loanwords from Greenlandic present in all languages are kayak and anorak.

A distinctive feature is that a single word can express what in English and most European languages would be an entire sentence: Silagissiartuaarusaarnialerunarpoq means “The weather will slowly and gradually become good again”…

Greenlandic incorporated many loanwords from the Danish language (and western culture): biili (bil – car), iipili (æble – apple), juulli (jul – Christmas), as well as greeting as“kumoorn” (god morgen – good morning).

A more detailed post about the Greenlandic language will follow!

Greenlandic national costume

The Greenlandic national costume – probably the only women’s folk costume in the world with pants instead of a dress or skirt! – is worn on special occasions and is a symbol of Greenlandic identity.

Besides festive days as Christmas/Easter, Weddings, confirmations and Birthdays (on a child’s first birthday in particular), the national costume is worn on Greenland’s National Day (21st June, summer Solstice), and typically by children on their First day of school.

The national costume features a top, pants, and kamik boots. Anorak is the name of the top’s outer! Much is made with sealskin, which was the only material used for clothing until fabric were introduced by Europeans in the 17th Century.

Follow for more info about the culture and language of Greenland!

7 fun facts about Lucia, Sweden’s pagan saint

Lucia brings light in the darkest night of the year and is a mix of pagan and christian traditions. It is celebrated in Scandinavia with processions, saffron buns and church concerts.

Chiara's avatar by Chiara

Nordic findings in japan

Nordic culture experienced in Japan: Moomins, Dala horse stationery, Nordic-inspired foods and books about Scandinavia seen by the Japanese.

Chiara's avatar by Chiara

How Nordic are Baltic countries

Are Baltic countries Nordic at all? I explored Latvia and Estonia, noting their ties to Nordic culture, from languages to Rye bread and Midsummer.

Chiara's avatar by Chiara

sources:

  • guidetogreenland.com
  • lex.dk
  • Preciosa-Ornela.com
  • Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu – Greenland National Museum & Archives
  • omniglot
  • wiktionary

False Friends within Scandinavian languages

False friends in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic that can lead to misunderstandings and funny situations between Scandinavians.

False friends are a very common thing in similar languages, and they can cause funny or weird situations, from calling someone calm instead of fun and pastries becoming headaches. Or insulting a girl by calling her girl.

So here is a list to find out curious false friends and keep yourself safe from incoveniences. As you will notice, Danish and Norwegian often have the same meaning opposed to Swedish, but not always.

(se-dk-no) wordSwedish meaningDanish meaningNorwegian meaning
roligfun (calm=lugn)calmcalm
artigpolitefunnyfunny
frukost/frokostbreakfast (lunch=lunch)lunch (breakfast=morgenmad)breakfast (lunch=lunsj)
blomma/eflower (plum=plommon)plum (flower=blomster)plomme=plum (flower=blomster)
varelse/værelse(living) being (room=rum)room room
bytown/village (city=stad)city (town=landsby)city (town=landsby)
stad/stedcity placeplace
semesterholiday (semester=termin)semester (holiday=ferie)semester (holiday=ferie)
lovsummer break , promise (law=lag)law (a promise=et løfte, but to promise=at love) law (a promise=et løfte, but to promise=at love)
rarweird (nice=snäll)nice, friendlyweird (nice=snill)
konstig/kunstigweirdartificial (weird=mærkelig, underlig)artificial (weird=rar, merkelig)
snålstingy–weird, odd
lesmile (laugh=skratta)laugh (smile=smile, read smeeleh)laugh (smile=smile)
grina/eweep, cry, also gråtalaugh (cry=græde)cry (laugh=le, also gråte)
glassice cream (glass=glas)glass (ice cream=is)glass (ice cream=is)
kjol/kjoleskirt (dress=klänning)dress (skirt=nederdel)dress (skirt=skjørt)
killingyoung goatkitten*geitekilling=young goat
bumsimmediately, at oncepimple–
kryddsill/krydsildspiced herringcrossfire (spiced herring=kryddersild)-, spiced herring=kryddersild)
tallrik/talrigplatenumeous (plate=tallerken)-, plate=tallerken
hurtigcheekyfastfast
anledningreasonreasonopportunity
bedriftachievementcompanycompany
styggnaughtyugly
flyescapeairplaneflight
tillbud/tilbudincidentofferoffer
tullcustoms– (customs=told)joke/nonsense (customs=toll)
snortsnotlace, cord
driva/e medjoking with/kiddingdoing
måste/må jeg…do I have to?may I?do i have to?

and here special section with Naughty words…. Pay attention

Swedish meaningDanish meaningNorwegian meaning
skedephasevag**a
tös/tøsgirlgirlsl*t
bolla/eplay boll (to f8&k=knulla)to f*cken bolle=bun pastry, å bolle seg=chill, have fun (to f8&k=knulle)
kneppe–to f**k (button=knappebutton (fuck=pul3)
måsseagullbutt (seagull=måge)– (seagull=måke)
svanstailfag**t–
källing/kællingkitten*b**ch–
kukd1ckcuckoo , mess (d*ck=p1k)d1ck
bärs/bæ,sjslang for a beerpoop

icelandic also has a few interesting cases:

SwedishIcelandic
huggachopconsole
bakverkpastrybackache

That’s all for now, I will keep this updated in the future!



more:

How I learned all Scandinavian languages (and more)- Anchor language method

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.

At the Polyglot Gathering 2025 – an event to connect with fellow language lovers and attend talks on language-related topics – Richard Simcott mentioned an interesting concept during his talk Language Bubble. Replying to a question about learning many closely related languages (and avoid confusion) he talked about relying on an ‘anchor’ language. And I realized i actually used that method without being fully aware of it.

As I mentioned while talking about learning all Germanic languages simultaneously, I did not start 5 languages at once. It was a gradual journey. And I relied on different languages at different stages. First on German, then on Swedish, and that is how I gradually studied/learned all Scandinavian languages. My experience as follows.

How I learned Scandinavian languages together

My first Scandinavian language was Swedish, which I picked out of feeling. Sweden was probably just slightly better represented in my head than Denmark and Norway. I started it after having studied English and German for years, and that helped me significantly, vocabulary and grammar wise. The same goes for Dutch, which I started at the same time as Swedish – they are related, but not that closely.
When I started, I could make a lot of assumptions and give things for granted thanks to my German knowledge: verb position, past verb paradigm, vocabulary I could understand etc. Back then, German could be loosely defined as my Anchor language for both.

Then, after having focused myself only on Swedish for 2 years, I started trying to write in Danish. I could not express myself but all i needed was figuring out how to modify my Swedish. The grammar works In the exact same way for most things, vocabulary is often very similar and has recurring spelling differences. After a while just google translating you see the patterns, and learn fast because of how similar they are.

Similarly, as I happened to chat with more Danes than Norwegians, I expanded a lot my Danish skills, making it more ‘independent’ from my Swedish. For Norwegian I have been relying on both, being aware of typical Norwegian features. I believe the key when attempting to speak is learning well filler words. The listener will be impressed about it before you recycle a word in another language – fake it until you make it they say.

Knowing Scandinavian languages surely did not have the same role as an anchor language when learning Icelandic, but I guess I could/can still use them as a ”reference”. German similarly when it came to Icelandic grammar in the beginning.

Anchor language concept In a nutshell

This concept consists in one language being on a higher level than the rest, To know something also means to know what distinct it from the rest, and for that you need a solid base you can rely on and use as reference. At some point, you will rely less and less on the anchor language.

  1. Pick a language and focus only on it and no new closely related ones for a while. You do not need to become fluent, but you need to know the language structure well: how grammar works, general vocabulary etc. So you are sure of what is Swedish, and do not mix it with what isn’t when learning.
  2. Get exposure in other related languages: start getting to know the other members of the family. Just like in a real family you do not remember the names of everybody after first introductions with many new people, so you have to have contact with them again here and there to actually be acquainted.
  3. Start using the other languages. As the passive language skills are already there due to language intellegibility, and you can use what you naturally absorb after a while, also by searching words you do not know and grammar concepts that might be different in your anchor language.

you can also see it as writing two essays: it works better to first write and finish one with a defined structure, then take that structure for a different topic and slightly modify it, than starting two different essays simultaneously, adding bits to both now and then, ending up with two randomly written texts.

The same can be applied for Romance languages, though my Anchor language is my native language, which I obviously have a strong base of to begin with…

I do plan to focus on Finnish to be able to make it my anchor language in order to easily learn/understand Estonian. It already helps with absorbing grammar features and some words I have randomly encountered, but to be a proper anchor there is work to do!

Find more language tips & facts on Nordic languages learning on this blog, or check out my free language resources list.

20+ Mindblowing Icelandic Composed Words

curious Icelandic compound words, from unique Icelandic words as ‘number prophetess’ for computer to ‘light pear’ for lightbulb.

Icelandic, like other languages, has a lot of compound words, expressing a concept with multiple other words.
For new concepts, for example technology-related vocabulary, Iceland has a committee inventing new words for new concepts, by assembling existing Icelandic words. This is to follow the language purism policy, and avoid just adapting foreign words or using loanwords.

Here are some Icelandic compound words I like. Can you guess the meaning by looking at the literal translation?

words unique to Icelandic:

  1. a classic example is tölva – Number-Prophetess (tala+völva): computer
  2. ljósmóðir – light-mother: midwife
  3. bergmál –rocks-language: echo
  4. spékoppar – naughty cups: cheek dimples
  5. tónlist – sound-art: music
  6. hugmynd – mind-picture: idea
  7. ástfanginn – Love-captured: be in love. This one is probably my favourite!!
  8. hugfanginn – mind-captured: fascinated
  9. sálfræði – soul-study: psychology. Most academic subjects have their own icelandic name, as málfræði – language-study: grammar.
  10. ratljóst – know/find the way (rata)-light: enough light to wander. This is however not widely used.
  11. Viðskiptavinur – business-friend: customer
  12. Mörgæs – Fat-Goose: penguin
  13. smokkfiskur – condom-fish: squid: it might be that smokk comes from smock, however, smokkur means condom, and that would somehow makes sense…

Compound words that also exist in other languages

Icelandic also took words that are jut adaptions of the original Greek words, literally translating into Icelandic, and shares quite a few with other (Germanic) languages, which are still curious if you are not a speaker of any of them.

  1. eldfjall – fire-mountain: volcano (just like 火山 in Japanese)
  2. Reikistjarna – wandering-star: planet. (what Planet originally means in Greek)
  3. rafmagn – amber-power: electricity (as electricity originally comes from Greek ēlektron meaning amber)
  4. flóðhestur – river-horse: hippo. (As in Scandinavian languages flodhe/äst or ‘Nile-horse’ in German and Dutch Nipferd/nijlpaard, it is just the literal translation of Greek hippopotamos). Nashyrningur – nose-horn: rhino. See above literal translation of rhinocerus, as Noshörning, neshorn, Nashorn, Neushoorn.
  5. Legkaka – Womb-Cake: placenta. (As Scandinavian mo(de)rkake, ‘mother cake’…)
  6. Gæsalappir – Goose-Feet: Quotation Marks (besides Anführungszeichen, German also has Gänsefüßchen)
  7. Ljósapera – Light-Pear: Lightbulb (as Glühbirne in German, and lyspære in Norwegian)
  8. Innblástur – In-Breeze: inspiration…(yes, you’re welcome)
  9. vínber – wine-berry: grapes (also exists in Estonian viinamarjad)

sources:

Article by Silvia Cosimini on Passenger Islanda, Iperborea.
Reddit thread: /r/linguisticshumor/comments/17k5ivl/whats_the_most_ridiculous_example_of_semantic/
guidetoiceland.is ‘s Icelandic Language iverview

Guide to practice languages with penpals

Snailmail is a great way to practice languages at your own pace, make friends and get creative at the same time!

I have been into penpalling/snailmail since my early teenage years, and I started using this hobby more recently as a way to practice languages.

I actually started learning Danish and Norwegian by writing letters in them. I spoke decent Swedish already and could read them, but had to look for a lot of words and correct grammar forms, and that was a boost, learning actively while having fun and being creative! At the moment, I am actively using my Finnish and Japanese with my penpals from Finland and Japan.

How to find penpals: hashtags, communities, websites

scandinavian stamps
Pretty stamps from Scandinavia!
From a Finnish penpal

One of the ways to find other people interested in penpalling is searching with the right hashtags on social media as instagram and tiktok. For example #penpalswanted , #lookingforpenpal, etc. In some cases snailmail accounts give a chance to comment and introduce themselves under a post to those looking for a penpal.

There are also websites made for people looking for a penpal, for example Global Penfriends, interpals.net... Here you can select a country and age to find your future penpals! Other websites are country-specific as Pen friends clubs of Japan.

introduce youself with a video or post adding the hashtags above, or interact and send messages to other penpal-wannabes. Talk about your interests, your aesthetic, show your letters and. No creativity, special things you’d send as stickers, postcards..

Get creative: material you need & ideas. pinterest board

Some of my snailmail material: washi tapes, stamps and pretty sticky notes

There are no right or wrong things to include in a letter, but usually, the more things you include in it, the nicer it is for your penpal receiving it!

In this Pinterest board I add inspirational pictures for my letters. Some ideas:

  • washi samples, stickers
  • memo notes
  • postcards
  • cutouts (pictures from magazines..)
  • Questions for your penpal
  • songs

Similar the length of your letter is up to you. When practicing languages, the longer the more space to improve! It can be as personal as you want it to.

fun fact: When writing to a new penpal, I always write/doodle about things I like or know about the other person’s country, copying illustrations from books I had as a child among others 🙂

Stick to the language

As I mentioned in my blog post about practicing a language spoken in a country with high English proficiency, it is important to find a space whee you force yourself to use that language no matter what – and writing letters is a perfect solution for that. It is a relaxed, fun way to practice taking your time, both when reading others’ letters and writing your own. You can look up words, and exercise writing in other scripts too if needed! Just handwriting å, æ or ð feels quite satisfaying to me.

letter for Japanese penpal
For a Japanese penpal
Letter for Danish penpal
For a Danish penpal

Penpal etiquette

  • If you are the one asking to become penpals and get a yes – write first. It is also possible to do swaps – one-shot mail exchanges where you send more things than in an ordinary penpal letter. In that case, sending it at the same time would be a fair option if you inform yourselves about what the other person likes to begin with.
  • In the first letter, introduce yourself and your interests, what you like/dislike..
  • Try to put similar effort in letters as your penpals do, or ask them what they’d like to receive – it would be a bit unfair if someone uses a lot of materials, decorations and small gifts while you send a half empty sheet in a blank envelope.
  • If you do not feel like continuing writing to a penpal – that’s totally okay, but let the penpal know.

Nordic books to read and study in 2025

Novels, non-fiction and coursebooks to learn Nordic languages I plan to or might use this year, from Swedish to Icelandic.

I already had these books in 2024, started some of them during the year but still have some to begin yet:

  • Story of Scandinavia, Stein Ringen – detailed history of Sweden, Denmark and Norway from Viking Age to Present!
  • Sprog, Mikkel Wallentin – a booklet about language as a way to communicate and its peculiarities, part of the series Tænkepauser by Aarhus University.

Started (and already finished) in 2025:

  • New Finnish Grammar (Nuova Grammatica Finlandese), Diego Marani – novel about a soldier found in an italian harbour without any memory of his past and believed to be Finnish, he will be brought to Finland to re-learn his language and culture.

A few novels I still have to start:

  • Straff, Ann-Helen Laestadius – Sami kids taken away from their families to a Sami-hostile environment, who meet again 30 years later.
  • Allting växer, Lyra Koli – dystopic novel about a Scandinavian girl set in a post- world war and climate catastrophe world.

Language books

This year I want to begin by focusing on Japanese, but also Finnish, continuing the coursebook by Hoepli (from Italian).

I am looking forward to improve my Danish a little with the German Assimil edition. Other books, as Swedish assimil and Short Stories in Icelandic, were started in the past and I might continue (for Icelandic) or review (for Swedish) them later.

That was pretty much all for now.. Let’s hope 2025 continues better than how it started, for me by being sick…

Tips to Practice the Local Language where everybody speaks English

4 tips to practice a language as Swedish and Dutch, where most people are fluent in English and foreigners struggle to improve the local language.

You are learning a language and would be eager to use it when you are in the country where it is spoken. But what if everybody switches to English the second they hear you are not from there?

This is a typical problem in Holland and Scandinavia, where most people speak English well, and the fact that English will simply always work better and be the easiest option prevents you from attempting at speaking anything else.

I have had experiences with Dutch, Swedes, Swedes and Norwegians in various contexts and with the given language being at various levels at different times, and these are a few tips to exercise the language if you are not (or do not feel) fluent yet:

1. important information in English, smalltalk and chitchat in local language

Sometimes you just have to be sure you know what is going on and what you need to do, other times you can miss some parts of a dialogue without causing yourself any damage – in the latter give a go at your target language, you’ll never understand 100% anyway if you never practice.

example: Last time I was in Denmark, I heard a confusing announcement on the train. As i wanted to be 100% sure my train would reach my destination, I first asked that in English to the person sitting next to me, to switch to Danish right after having received that piece of information, (saying that I actually did speak Danish) and had a nice conversation in it.

If your level is still basic, do make sure to (be able to) say small things like hi/thanks/sorry/excuse me/good evening etc. You’ll get those small expression stuck in your head, and give yourself and others the feeling you do speak the language, which is a better start than not using it at all.

3. Prepare what you want to say in advance, or fake it until you make it.

Sometimes you can look up how to properly say something in advance, as in shops and restaurants – things like ‘do you have a free table’ ‘i would like to this and that’, or even look up some extra vocabulary for a conversation of which you already know the topic.

Also: in given contexts like shops the things you get asked tend to be standard, as ‘do you want a bag?/receipt..’ , so you know what words might be pronounced, anticipating what you’ll be asked, and be less scared you will not understand.

example: I had to talk to a Norwegian client on the phone, so I wrote down what I would say, and looked up vocabulary I needed: that means learning new words and getting to practice with them!

3. Find ‘comfort zones’ and people with whom you stick to the language

If your level in a language is not very high, you might not dare making attempts with strangers. I am a quite shy person myself, other than a perfectionist, so I know that feeling well. But you learn a language by practicing it (and making mistakes), and as soon as you have someone or somewhere to freely practice -no matter how off your grammar is, how many gaps you have in your vocabulary, how many times you ask for repetitions – do it. Having active conversations is also important to absorb the language yourself and learn from your language partner.

With strangers you can stick to English if you feel uncomfortable otherwise, but it is good to have a situation in which you’ll always stick to the language (This counts also when chatting online!). Or at least often enough that your default language is Swedish, Finnish, etc. You learn to swim by swimming – but it does not have to be in the open sea from moment one.

Other options if you do not know anybody, you can use find tandem partners on apps such as hellotalk, tandem etc. and give yourself the rule to rather use translators, but never use English. Events as language cafés are also great occasions to practice if you find any!

keypoint: sometimes it is a matter of self-confidence more than language level

The thing with Swedish, Dutch, Danish etc. is, you might be pretty good at them, but if you are a bit insecure, allowing yourself to use them language over English will be hard. In countries where the average level of English is poor, that is of course completely different.

So you’ll just exercise your Italian, Japanese, Spanish, etc. without thinking much about whether you are good enough at it. You might barely know how to order a drink in Italian or Japanese, but still, you’ll do it, because they will understand it better than in English, even with bad pronunciation or grammar. Maybe they will be relieved they can use their language with you, while the Dutch either want to help you by using a language you are more fluent in or just want to have a smooth communication.

It does take some self-confidence to stick to a language if the counterpart easily switches to English! Even if it does not necessarily mean you are bad at it. It is all about finding contexts and people to use the language, broadening them gradually as you get more comfortable or fluent enough to use it for everything.

How I have done it: First I would use Dutch only in written form and with given people, then I got to the point I’d dare using it with strangers, in shops, but not at an airport desk, then I started using it even for formal things like registering at the municipality , but I did not switch back to Dutch if people switched to English. Now i stick to Dutch, always. With Danish I am in the phase where I could use it in formal context but do not always dare due to fear of not understanding. But I did ask for information in Danish at a museum desk, which I did not do one year ago.