Team Nordic [study and support group]

[Ug_Caveman]

Anyone studying Swedish?

I have a tip. There's an epic new TV-series on the history of Sweden. So if you're interested in history and in practicing Swedish...

It can be watched for free on SVT online, also abroad.

I'm learning many new Swedish words.

Funnily enough I'm currently in the process of digitising the cassette audio from Hugo Swedish in Three Months... Although won't be studying it full time for a little while.

[dubendorf]

Looks like the Nordic team is a quiet thread. Anyone else still learning Norwegian here? Curious what books/courses others have used. The Linguaphone course from the 1960s is my favorite one so far.

[PeterMollenburg]

Looks like the Nordic team is a quiet thread. Anyone else still learning Norwegian here? Curious what books/courses others have used. The Linguaphone course from the 1960s is my favorite one so far.

Hi dubendorf,

I continue to study Norwegian, albeit at quite a slow and steady pace, often with breaks, unfortunately.

Near the latter pages of my log you'll find a list of courses. I'm currently trickling through the later chapters of The Mystery of Nils.

PM

PS Despite my overly zealous attitude towards completing a ton of Norwegian courses, I've only completed a bunch of straightforward audio courses and dabbled with the earlier chapters of these courses: Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman, Assimil Le norvégien, Ny i Norge (the 1990 edition), Le norvégien en 20 leçons by J. Renaud & M. Buscall, Beginner's Norwegian by Laura Ziukaite-Hansen and Hugo Norwegian in Three Months. That is until I zoned in on one of my 'dabbled courses' and decided to work through it to the end of is, as mentioned above, The Mystery of Nils.

[dubendorf]

Looks like the Nordic team is a quiet thread. Anyone else still learning Norwegian here? Curious what books/courses others have used. The Linguaphone course from the 1960s is my favorite one so far.

Hi dubendorf,

I continue to study Norwegian, albeit at quite a slow and steady pace, often with breaks, unfortunately.

Near the latter pages of my log you'll find a list of courses. I'm currently trickling through the later chapters of The Mystery of Nils.

PM

PS Despite my overly zealous attitude towards completing a ton of Norwegian courses, I've only completed a bunch of straightforward audio courses and dabbled with the earlier chapters of these courses: Learn Norwegian by Sverre Klouman, Assimil Le norvégien, Ny i Norge (the 1990 edition), Le norvégien en 20 leçons by J. Renaud & M. Buscall, Beginner's Norwegian by Laura Ziukaite-Hansen and Hugo Norwegian in Three Months. That is until I zoned in on one of my 'dabbled courses' and decided to work through it to the end of is, as mentioned above, The Mystery of Nils.

Cheers! Thanks for the list. That's quite comprehensive.

I am also working through The Mystery of Nils. Was using the online course, but now putting it on pause until a physical copy arrives in the mail. Looking forward to finishing Linguaphone, Nils, and Pimsleur in the next two months before moving onto something else.

Lykke til!

[DaveAgain]

Swedish birthday cake superstition?

I was watching a Swedish whodunnit earlier. In a birthday party scene, after cutting the birthday cake, the lady who cut the cake said "that means you'll get married", and then after cutting a slice for someone else "no marriage for you".

Does this ring any bells for anyone?

[Tumlare]

Swedish birthday cake superstition?

I was watching a Swedish whodunnit earlier. In a birthday party scene, after cutting the birthday cake, the lady who cut the cake said "that means you'll get married", and then after cutting a slice for someone else "no marriage for you".

Does this ring any bells for anyone?

I haven't come across that one yet but I did find this webpage that seems to suggest it has to do with the cake slice falling over: http://www.misi.se/?p=5992

[DaveAgain]

Did Peter Høeg invent the name "Smilla", or did it already exist?

Behindthename.com says Mr Høeg invented it.

Invented by the Danish author Peter Høeg for the heroine of his novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1992). In the book the name is explained as a short form of Smillaaraq, a blend of Danish smil "smile" and the Greenlandic name Miillaaraq.

---------
I'm curious because there's a Swedish athlete called Smilla Sundell who pops up in the sports news from time to time.

[Klara]

According to a Danish website - translated with DeepL:

The name Smilla was created by author Peter Høeg for the novel "Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow" from 1992
Smilla is derived from the Greenlandic word "Miillaaraq", which means to hum. The father in the novel changed it to "Smillaaraq" because the child smiled at him, and it was then shortened again to the name Smilla.

And on another site:
Smilla can also be a Polish Name
Smilla means: musical and creative
See also Smila, Smillah, Zmilla

But I could not find any connections with Polish in my dicitionaries ... and online on Wikislownik it reads: Smilla (język szwedzki) - Smilla (Swedish language)

[Bigbri5050]

Am new to this forum so this might be a silly question. Am I in the right place for an almost beginner, learning Danish?

[emk]

Am new to this forum so this might be a silly question. Am I in the right place for an almost beginner, learning Danish?

Absolutely! Or so the first page of this thread suggests.

You might also want to check out the Language Logs sub-forum and maybe start your own log. That's where a lot of the interesting stuff happens these days!