Learn where Swedish is spoken
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Where Is Swedish spoken? |
| Jesper: And how many varieties of Swedish are there? |
| Michael: At SwedishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation. |
| Emma Eriksson is a college student and she is meeting her classmate, Viktor Viklund, for the first time. On hearing Viktor speak Swedish, Emma asks, "Where did you learn Swedish?" |
| Emma Eriksson: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Dialogue |
| Emma Eriksson: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Viktor Viklund: På Åland. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Emma Eriksson: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Michael: "Where did you learn Swedish?" |
| Viktor Viklund: På Åland. |
| Michael: "In Åland." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In the conversation, Emma asks the question, "Where did you learn Swedish?" |
| Jesper: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Michael: to which Viktor responds, "In Åland." |
| Jesper: På Åland. |
| Michael: You might be surprised to find out that Åland is an island that belongs not to Sweden, but to Finland. Are you surprised to learn that Viktor learned Swedish in a country other than Sweden? Believe it or not, Swedish is the official language in both Sweden and Finland. There are a total of approximately ten million Swedish speakers around the world. There are 9.4 million people in Sweden, who make up the vast majority of Swedish speakers in the world. However, a group of Swedish speakers in Finland are also included in this number. Furthermore, due to emigration and travel, Swedish speakers can often be found in many other countries worldwide, including USA, Norway, Spain, and the UK. |
| Jesper: So, the next time you're trying to immerse yourself in the Swedish culture, remember that you can often find Swedish speakers all over the world. |
| Michael: Even if you're not hopping on an international flight any time soon, you can still practice your language skills by consuming media such as music, movies, podcasts, and news from Sweden or from Swedish speakers living around the globe. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review what we heard in this lesson. I will say the target sentence in English, and then you should respond by saying the sentence out loud in Swedish. Jesper will then model the correct answer. Listen to him carefully, with the focus on pronunciation, and then repeat. |
| The first sentence is "Where did you learn Swedish?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Jesper: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen to Jesper again, and repeat. |
| Jesper: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Jesper: Var lärde du dig svenska? |
| Michael: The second sentence is "In Åland." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Jesper: På Åland. |
| Michael: How did you do this time? Again, listen to Jesper and repeat. |
| Jesper: På Åland. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Jesper: På Åland. |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: So, how many varieties of Swedish are there? And did you know that Swedish is so closely related to other Scandinavian languages that the Scandinavian languages are in a way just different dialects derived from the same language? Let's look closer at the dialects of Swedish. As every region in Sweden has its own dialect, there are many ways to categorize the Swedish dialects. One common way is splitting the dialects into six general categories; the South Swedish dialects, |
| Jesper: sydsvenska mål, |
| Michael: the Götaland dialects, |
| Jesper: götamål, |
| Michael: the Svealand dialects, |
| Jesper: sveamål, |
| Michael: the Norrland dialects, |
| Jesper: norrländska mål |
| Michael: the Gotland dialects, |
| Jesper: gotländska mål |
| Michael: and Finland Swedish, or Fenno-Swedish, |
| Jesper: finlandssvenska. |
| Michael: It's the Svealand dialect, which is generally considered the Standard Swedish, |
| Jesper: standardsvenska, |
| Michael: and is used by most Swedish people. One of the most widespread dialects of the South Swedish dialects is Scanian, |
| Jesper: skånska, |
| Michael: which has a melody resembling Danish, and has a few specifically Scanian words that differ from the Standard Swedish. For example, the word for girl, in Standard Swedish, is flicka, |
| Jesper: flicka, |
| Michael: and, in Scanian, it's |
| Jesper: tös. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Jesper: Vi ses! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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