Which of these "official" languages would you expect an average swede to speak?

[Swedishguy]

English is not an official language in Sweden. Why? Because the language is spoken as a foreign language. Hmm. How about the other languages? Well we've got...

Romani

This is what the Swedish gypsies speak. They're not that many, really.

Jiddish

This is the language of the Jews! There's quite a lot of Jews, 20 000 last time I checked. But not many speak Jiddish so it's kinda pointless to have this, really...

Finnish

Wee! We've gotta appease our neighbors etcetera blah blah....

Samian

The language of the Native population in Lappland. Kinda like Native Americans. 'Course, The US doesn't have Native American as an official language.

Latvi-something

I read in my Social Studies book that this is an official language. Didn't say what it is though...

Which of these "official" languages would you expect an average swede to speak?

 

[bhsup]

Swedish is probably the only language I would -expect- a Swede to be able to speak.

 

[philippe]

I expect the average Swede to die, except when they are from the Wood-party, or a chicken teaser

 

[Imrahil91]

I've never expected anything more than Swedish, max English from a Swede... ^^

 

[Mirc]

Swedish is probably the only language I would -expect- a Swede to be able to speak.

Same.

 

[The Last Conformist]

These languages aren't official languages in the usual sense of the word - they're "nationally recognized minority languages", which basically means squat.

Also, your social studies book is off - no Latvi-anything is recognized. The list is Yiddish, Sámi (formerly known as Lappish), Romani, Finnish, and Meänkieli (also known as Torne Valley Finnish - essentially a dialect of Finnish).

 

[Ansar]

I would expect a Swede to speak, besides Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, English, and maybe some Icelandic/some other language in that region.

 

[Swedishguy]

I would expect a Swede to speak, besides Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, English, and maybe some Icelandic/some other language in that region.

Noone living in Sweden would.

 

[Ansar]

Noone living in Sweden would.

Ok, fine, not Danish (since we all know that's not a language, but random gibberish )

 

[Thorbal]

I would not expect a Swede to speak any of those.
( that would be like asking a Bavarian to speak standard German )

Is there a particular reason for asking? I´m interested!

 

[GinandTonic]

Well dont you guys have to learn Finnish at school? Sure a mate of mine had to when he moved over there fifteen years ago, as well as IIRC Norwegian? And English of course.

Must be hell if you are poor at languages.

 

[Harald]

Well dont you guys have to learn Finnish at school? Sure a mate of mine had to when he moved over there fifteen years ago, as well as IIRC Norwegian? And English of course.

Must be hell if you are poor at languages.

As far as I know no one has to learn Finnish. A bit of Norwegian though but the only Norwegian & Danish I remember learning was in Swedish class. We had to read a couple of N & D poems and analyse them.

 

[Winner]

You made Romani your official language?

Jesus Christ

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

In fact it is somewhat difficult to learn Finnish in Sweden, we don't learn it at all in mandatory education and I was having real trouble finding courses in Finnish at University level. Gothenburg University for example do not offer any... even though they have courses Danish and Norwegian which seems kind of pointless.

I would expect a Swede to be good at Swedish and English as well as knowing the basics of either French or German.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Well dont you guys have to learn Finnish at school? Sure a mate of mine had to when he moved over there fifteen years ago, as well as IIRC Norwegian? And English of course.

Must be hell if you are poor at languages.

You have to learn English. Most also learn, or at least study, German, French, or Spanish. Microscopic minorities learn Finnish or Norwegian.


You do have to read a couple Danish and Norwegian texts in Swedish class, but the three languages being very close this is not hard, and you don't have to learn to speak or write a word of either.

 

[Bast]

I thought all Swedes spoke 10 languages at least.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Same in Norway w/r to reading Danish/Swedish in Norwegian classes.

Only Saami and Norwegian are recognized as official languages in Norway. Having said that, Norwegian has two equally accepted sub-forms and Saami has three. The two Norwegian languages are, in their purest form, as different as Norwegian and Swedish.

For non-Scandinavians: Finnish belongs to another branch altogether than the other Nordic languages. In fact, Finnish is closer to Hungarian than it is to the other Nordic languages.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Ok, fine, not Danish (since we all know that's not a language, but random gibberish )

<-- Clickable smiley

 

[sirdanilot]

I would expect a Swede to speak Swedish, English, and then either French, German, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish or Saami, or maybe a couple of those. But Danish and Norwegian seem to be very similar to Swedish so I don't think those should be required. I am very surprised Swedes don't have to learn Finnish, while I do know that Finnish have to learn Swedish. I think it's a bit unfair

 

[Yoda Power]

<-- Clickable smiley

I just watched that whole clip, and it sounded almost exactly like Norwegian in my ears.