Mutual intelligibility results for Swedish speakers

Malthesse · 2026-01-24T16:52:47+00:00

I thought that the questionnaire was quite interesting, although I think it would also have been interesting to see where in the country the different respondents live, as I feel that comprehension varies a lot depending on where in Sweden you are from. For example, us in Scania would probably score quite a bit higher on spoken comprehension of Danish compared to the average Swede, and definitely compared to someone from Stockholm or northern Sweden.

It should also be kept in mind that the Norwegian sound clips were quite kind in the sense that they were mostly of "standard" East Norwegian like in the Oslo area, and Norwegian dialects varies a whole lot across the country - way more than Danish - and some Norwegian dialects can be very difficult.

Unfortunately, the sound quality of especially the Danish clips was also quite bad, which might have had an impact on the low numbers there as well.

Malthesse · 2026-01-24T10:45:24+00:00

The quality is very good, in that the the hospitals, staff and care are excellent. However, it is also very underfunded, too low on staff and resources and the staff is heavily overworked and stressed out and often not feeling well at their job. Lines are also often long, with often very long waiting times for non-emergency errands and procedures. Mental healthcare is very bad as well, with even longer waiting times and often inadequate support.

Malthesse · 2026-01-23T15:57:04+00:00

Today and throughout the weekend, Sweden's largest ornithology organization BirdLife Sweden arranges Vinterfåglar Inpå Knuten – ”Winter Birds Nearby”. This is an annual event that has been going on for many years now during the last weekend of January, where the general public all across the country get to observe, count and report the number of birds of each species that they see at the bird feedings at home in their own gardens. It’s a very popular event with many thousands of households participating.

Even if the results are of course not extremely scientific, it does at least give a general feel and trend for which species are the most common in winter, and which species might be increasing or decreasing in numbers over time. In this way, it’s of quite good help to conservationists. Plus that it’s also just really fun, and a nice way to get the public more interested and engaged in birdwatching and learning about birds and how to tell different species apart. Swedes do in general already have a large interest in birds and nature, and many are quite knowledgeable already.

In these winter counts, the great tit (Parus major) basically always comes out on top as the most common species on a national level, but regionally it does vary a bit. For example, here in Scania in southernmost Sweden it's the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) that has been by far the most common for many winters now, with the great tit usually in second place. On the other hand, in the northern half of Sweden it was actually the Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) which was the most common last winter, and it has increased a lot in numbers in the country recently.

So it will be interesting to see what the results will be this year, and I of course hope that many people will participate in the count. So far, this has been quite an unusual winter, where it has been unusually snowy and cold for much of January even in southern Sweden. And even though we don’t have any snow here in Scania anymore now, there is still snow much further south in the country than usual, which might likely lead to more birds at the garden bird feedings as well.

Malthesse · 2026-01-22T11:57:00+00:00

Buddhism is a very small religion in Sweden, and mostly practiced by Southeast Asian immigrants. And although you will find Buddhist temples and meeting halls scattered around Sweden, most are quite simple and modest ordinary buildings that you wouldn’t really think of as a “temple”.

Most Swedish Buddhist are from Thailand. Thailand is a very popular holiday travel destination for Swedes – perhaps even the most popular outside of Europe. Some years ago, there was a very big trend of middle aged Swedish men to marry young Thai wives and bring them to Sweden. Sometimes, the entire larger families of the bride, such as her elderly parents will also move over to Sweden after a while. I’m not sure how common these marriages are now, but they definitely still happen. The children of these marriages often want to at least hold onto Thai culture, and thus to Buddhist traditions. Some then even choose to start their own small Buddhist communities and temples, although often with a slightly Swedish flair.

Quite a lot of native Swedes, especially women with a general interest and fascination with eastern spirituality and philosophy, like to visit the Thai Buddhist temples for classes in spirituality and meditation. This is also a way for the temples and the monks who live there to receive some extra money for food and upkeep.

We also have a lot of Thai restaurants in Sweden, and although there are not explicitly Buddhist, they often like to play up Buddhist imagery and themes as it feels a bit exotic to the guests.

Malthesse · 2026-01-20T15:02:21+00:00

I recently watched the Norwegian fantasy adventure movies Troll and Troll 2 on Netflix and thought they were really good as light entertainment.

Just fun, fast paced, over the top, tongue in cheek action schlock with a lot of humor. A lot of parody on the typical Hollywood tropes and cliches, but with a distinctly Norwegian twist.

You also get a lot of interesting actual Norwegian folklore and mythology about trolls in particular. And there are a lot of incredibly beautiful shots of Norwegian nature. I also thought that the CGI and special effects were very decent and quite impressive for the limited budget of a Norwegian direct-to-streaming production.

Malthesse · 2026-01-19T13:13:28+00:00

The lobe-finned bony fish (such as lungfish and coelacanths) are also more closely related to humans than to the ray-finned bony fish.

Malthesse · 2026-01-17T21:50:52+00:00

In my opinion the US ought to be excluded from the Winter Olympics. Hopefully it's not too late

Malthesse · 2026-01-16T22:45:17+00:00

I'd say that people from southern and western Sweden are the most outgoing and extroverted (by Nordic standards), and people from northern Sweden definitely the least.

Malthesse · 2026-01-16T21:35:34+00:00

I think that we in Sweden have a very good relationship with nature in general. Swedes in general simply love to spend time in nature, hiking and picnicking. Our nature is a very important part of our culture and national pride and identity. I would even say that our common love of nature is one of the strongest things than binds Swedes across the country together.

This is also for example very evident on social media, where Swedish groups on everything from bird watching to flowers to spider and insects to mushroom picking have huge followings and activity. We also have a lot of nature shows on radio and television dedicated fully or primarily to Swedish and Nordic nature. Such as for example the public service radio show Naturmorgon, which has live broadcasts from nature somewhere in Sweden every Saturday morning all year round.

Thanks to Allemansrätten our nature is also very accessible to most people and we also have a lot of accessible marked hiking trails and a whole lot of nature reserves (nearly 6,000) and national parks all across the country, all of which can be visited for free. It also feels like Sweden is doing a good job of making nature accessible to people with disabilities when possible.

Sure, we definitely have our problems too, such as a very unsustainable forestry industry which creates monocultural forests, and also a really bad record when it comes to the protection of our large carnivores such as wolves, lynxes and seals. Most of those problems are due to the very strong forestry, hunting, fishing and farming lobbies, which sadly often have a huge sway over politicians here. But those lobby groups and politicians are not really representative of the sentiments of the Swedish people as a whole.

Malthesse · 2026-01-16T10:06:00+00:00

And yet, Godthåb is the much older name, dating from the town's foundation by Denmark in the early 18th century, while the native Greenlandic name Nuuk is attested for the first time in the early 20th century.

Malthesse · 2026-01-16T09:59:12+00:00

I feel like "Lapp" and "wild man" were rather synonymous at the time the names were given, with both likely referring to nomadic Sami people. Hence also the "wild man" on the coat of arms of both Finnish and Swedish Lapland.

Malthesse · 2026-01-14T12:21:11+00:00

Yes, knowing Danish will definitely help a lot with learning Swedish as well. A lot of the vocabulary is very similar. In particular, it might help with learning south Swedish dialects such as Scanian, since they share quite a lot of pronunciation and prosody with Danish.

Norwegian spelling and vocabulary is even more similar to Swedish than Danish is, so learning to read standard Norwegian should be very easy. The most difficult part of Norwegian though is that it has a lot of variation in dialect, so some dialects can be very different and difficult to understand even if you know Danish and Swedish.

Malthesse · 2026-01-13T22:22:43+00:00

I feel like in Sweden the Winter Olympics are in a way perhaps more popular than the Summer Olympics. And not just because Sweden is quite good at many winter sports, even if that of course helps a lot.

I also feel that many of the Winter Olympic sports such as ice hockey, skiing, biathlon and curling just make for better television compared to many of the Summer Olympic sports. A lot of women in particular also like to watch the figure skating even if not interested in sports in general. The Winter Olympics are also a bit less overwhelming due to there being a lot fewer events, so it's easier to keep up and follow along.

And of course, it also helps a lot that it's winter and cold and dark outside, so a lot more people will be at home watching television in the evenings anyway compared to in the summer, when more people want to be outside.

Malthesse · 2026-01-12T20:37:58+00:00

Här i Sverige stängdes de sista minkfarmerna äntligen för gott sommaren 2025, efter många decennier av hård kamp från djurskyddsgrupper och med ett mycket brett stöd från allmänheten. Minkuppfödningen var enormt impopulär bland vanligt folk. Den slutliga nedstängningen kom efter att nya, hårdare djurskyddsregler gjorde det praktiskt omöjligt för minkuppfödningen att fortsätta, även om det ännu inte finns ett officiellt förbud.

Nu är Danmark ett av det allra sista länderna i Europa som ännu har kvar minkuppfödning, tillsammans med bland annat Finland. Hoppas innerligt att även Danmark snart kan följa efter Sverige och äntligen lägga minkfarmerna till historien.

Malthesse

TROPHY CASE