I think about maybe starting to learn Swedish or Norwegian. But Scandinavian languages do/did you learn? Why? What are your’re recommendations?
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You can learn either Swedish or Norwegian. They are quite similar. But of course both languages have their own dialects, which can be hard to understand even for a native speaker.
As Swedish is spoken by more people then Norwegian, so Swedish may be your choice. It also depend on if you are planing to travel to either country. As an bonus Swedish and Danish are similar, but not as similar as Swedish and Norwegian.
You probably know (?) the Finnish language is quite different compared to the other Nordic languages. And also the language on Island, is a Nordic language, but is also very different language compared to Swedish/Norwegian.
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I am a native Swedish speaker but I’ve traveled across most of Scandinavia here are my thoughts.
Swedish (obvious bias asides), is the best choice if you aren’t looking to learn more than just one language.
Why? Swedish is an official language in Finland, Sweden, and the Åland Islands (and an extremely small minority of second language speakers in Estonia, for historical reasons we have close ties).
Meaning your personal abilities to move around and engage with the state is much easier in Swedish. Swedish is by far the largest Scandinavian language.
Norwegian is the easiest Scandinavian language to learn. The writing is the least confusing and it’s the most common language if you wanna maximize Nordic outreach easily. The dominant dialect, riksmål, is very easy to understand for both Swedes and Danes.
Danish is perhaps the hardest but also the best hurdle to pass. Danish is extremely complicated with its pronunciations and sounds. To the degree where Danish babies, I’ve heard, learn to speak Danish later than their Norwegian counterparts even though the languages are extremely similar in grammar and vocabulary. But if you learn Danish first. Especially since you speak English Norwegian and Swedish will comparatively come freely to you.
My own thoughts are, ask yourself if you will ever need/want to live in the Nordics. The politics here varies a lot so that can be a big determiner. Also the layout of our economies. Other than that whatever you pick doesn’t really matter. If you are educated in any Nordic language that’s enough for you to count as fluent in any other language. This is from the school I’ve been planning to apply to in Finland that has Swedish as a language of instruction. Icelandic isn’t at all mutually intelligible but the government pretends so because all Icelandic kids have to learn Danish anyways.
No matter which Nordic language you speak, the transition to another Nordic language is minimal. Our distinctions are smaller than those between various dialects of German, all of which are still counted as German. For historical reasons, we never began speaking Scandinavian, however plans were in place for that to be the case. So whatever you pick, stick to it. It’s easier to learn another language once you’ve mastered your first.
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I have relatives in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but I was hoping they were close enough that I could get by. Turns out, not so much as a beginner so I picked Norwegian. Here’s what I discovered.
With an Intermediate level (according to LingQ) of Norwegian, I can also read Danish, but I can’t make out ANYTHING in spoken Danish. Nothing.
I can understand spoken Swedish almost as well as Norwegian, but I find it very difficult to read.
My experience has been verified by several posters to reddit, but it depends on a lot of factors not the least of which is your own interests and incentives for learning either language.
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