The Scandinavikanians

Who could forget, the Italian Viking conquests of the British isles.

And let us also not forget the Kalmar union, uniting the Kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland.

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My spouse’s aunt honestly thought that I spoke Italian, because isn’t that what they speak in Sweden?

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lol they even exist on Hisingen Island where I live. XD :red_car: :blue_car:

just last week?? The King and Queen of Netherlands visited Gothenburg for some kind of 3 day-event with the King and Queen of Sweden, and of course they visited the Volvo museum! I’ve never been there as I have really no interest in cars, though they make more than cars I know. :sweat_smile:

You talking about Eurotrucker has gotten my interest up and I might actually buy one of these at one point. XD

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:rofl:

I love that both bookstores failed to get their geography of the Nordic countries together! :joy:

The mix-up between Switzerland and Sweden is well-known. It’s been a while since I last saw it though. XD

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Sorry, meowt of likes again, but I guess, in a way, I was just like @Kumirei 先輩’s spouse’s aunt:

:rofl:

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On the topic of which language we speak in Sweden:

A shop clerk asked me today if we speak English in Sweden, and I said yes, and she said something to the effect of “Huh, I didn’t know that”. I now wonder if I may have given her the impression that we speak English as a first language, as I have been asked before if we have our own language.

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@LazyPanda007 さん、I think you might like this thread too.
I don’t know about Kristiansand, but there certainly are people from Norway here – @Abstormal さん、@TrinityBringer さん、@Beyond_Sleepy さん…

I myself only ever visited Kristiansand in Euro Truck Simulator 2, but it’s a very beautiful place!

P. S. Anyway, welcome to WaniKani and this community. I really hope you’d like it here!
In any case, best of luck with your studies!

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Gosh, remember the first time I went to Japan and I usually got the question about where I was from and I replied with; Sweden. I could quickly tell when my reply translated incorrectly and I had to explain with my very basic knowledge of the Japanese language the difference… The horror. In the end it basically ended up being, "No, further up north in Europe, just between Norway and Finland. Been to the UK? It’s, eh, close by. :rofl:

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Heisann alle mine naboer! Norwegian here!

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…och välkommen till WK! ^>^

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For the sake of balance, I’d like to mention that I also had a conversation with a fellow non-Japanese person on my latest trip, and he was very excited about the fact that I came from the country that makes Rolex watches.

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Strangely enough I’ve gotten the exact same question, although about norway in my case. I guess it’s because so many countries speak english people get confused :stuck_out_tongue: Another strange conversation I had while abroad was about the norwegian/russian border, took maybe 10 minutes before I realized they mistook norway for finland

Anyway, mostly dropped by this thread to ask if anyone have tried using the “Naruhodo” books by Harry Solvang for self-study. It’s fun and easy to read, but I find myself immediately forgetting all the grammar points because there’s no exercises to go with it. Re-reading the same textbook over and over isn’t exactly fun :frowning: Do you think doing the workbook from another grammar book would work, even if the order might be slightly jumbled?

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So what did they get wrong that made you realize they weren’t talking about Norway?

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Difficult to say as it’s been years. I think conversation was about culture differences within a country, and the Norway/Russia topic started with me mentioning a small amount of culture shock when I moved to northern Norway (because suddenly you come across a lot of Russians).

He thought it was strange I wouldn’t meet Russians down south, and I thought it was strange he thought Russians would drive all the way through Finland/Sweden and into Oslo for just a day/weekend holiday.

I guess at some point I must’ve asked him why he thought Russians coming to (southern) Norway would be more common than them going to Finland/Estonia and the confusion got cleared up, but who knows.

I mostly remember this conversation happened because he mentioned how his daughters friend couldn’t read English despite speaking the language (they lived in Ireland). A very eye-opening conversation about how the Irish language is woven into their culture, and that trying to resurrect it (with Irish-language only schools and whatnot) isn’t as easy as one might think. Essentially she spoke English with her parents, but all her schooling had been in Irish so she never learned how to read English. It’s not like written English is consistent with how it’s pronounced after all :stuck_out_tongue:

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You know, I moved to Trondheim from northern Norway and it’s been a little strange how I hear so many different languages spoken here (including Japanese) but basically never Russian which by my estimation is the third/fourth most common language to hear in Troms after Norwegian, English, and maybe Sami. Or you’d think so regarding Sami, but I’m definitely more used to hearing Russian spoken :man_shrugging:

So I’ve had the reverse slight culture shock experience. (having night in the middle of summer and sunlight in the middle of winter was the biggest shock to me. It’s warm and dark out at the same time!?!)

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Seems like the Naruhodo books are supposed to function like a dictionary kinda.

image

(Naru hodo by Fagbokforlaget - Issuu)

I’d recommend checking out the grammar SRS site BunPro. They have a one month free trial after signing up. You’ll have plenty of exercise. (I’ve heard rumors that lifetime sub will be discounted around Christmas time). A workbook also works if you prefer that. The jumbled order won’t be a problem.

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Will I see any fellow Norwegian WK users at the Kongsvinger test site on sunday? :saluting_face: :sunglasses:

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I did see that at the beginning of the book, but it really does read like any textbook I had in school. I don’t think anyone would claim a “naturfagsbok” is an “oppslagsbok” just because you can’t absorb all the knowledge simply by reading it.

I’ll give BunPro a shot, thanks!

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I’m not living in Scandinavia (apparently I have ancestry from the region) but want to learn some of the languages. Is there anything like wanikani for languages of the region? I know it’s not a common language, but I do have an interest in Icelandic.

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I’ve heard the Duolingo courses aren’t too bad, but I haven’t tried them out myself.

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