Learning other Scandinavian languages. Was it easier or harder?

[Ivan NWG]

I am starting to get over this now, but when I first started on reading Swedish stuff seriously (as opposed to the bits we did in school) in some ways, I found it a lot harder than German (even though I understood more in Swedish). The fact that the two languages were very similar made getting started more difficult to me, since it was easier to get confused about it when you encounter the areas that do differ.
Now that I have practiced for a while, the reverse is true and it feels easier because once you know a lot of the differences, your familiarity can help fill in. I hope that makes sense, hah.

However I have also seen people say that they had a much easier time learning a related language.

If you have seriously practiced with Danish or Norwegian, either for work, entertainment or whatever, what was your experience?

 

[Mekanurg]

I practiced Danish when I was young 40 + years ago, having relatives in Helsingör. However, I had serious problems with proper pronunciation (e.g. the stöd and the "gargled" G-sound) so I always sounded like a Swede. On the other hand, reading Danish was easy.

 

[Frederik J. Jensen]

I remember downloading a ten page primer on Swedish for Danes that helped me with the basic differences. After that it was just practice, practice, practice. I read Swedish as fast as Danish and English now. However, I still struggle when writing Swedish and with pronunciation.

 

[Ivan NWG]

My Swedish pronunciation is super bad though Im hoping to practice it more this year.

 

[Rangertheman]

When I worked in Denmark, I was pretty fluent reading, writing and understanding spoken Danish. At least in one-on-one conversations or in small groups. Pronunciation was, and is horrible...

I grew up watching Danish television, but haven't actually studied Danish. Learning by doing at work.

 

[Khan]

Speaking is hard, reading is not so difficult. I've read a lot of Danish texts, since a lot of the mandatory reading at university was in Danish. It helps to be slightly infatuated with old (1800s or older) Swedish as well, since both Norwegian and Danish were closer to Swedish then. Not in grammar, so to speak, but in vocabulary. Even today a lot of Norwegian phrases and words sound like Swedish, just old fashioned.

I've never really given it much thought though, and have no interest in giving Danish or Norwegian a serious go. I think the best way to practice pronunciation is just speaking and listening a lot.

 

[Robert Jonsson]

I'm in no way fluent in either danish or norwegian (don't even get me started about the finnish language), but during my universty studies we had to read text and books in both language. I remeber reading the dannish one was not hard, more like it took more time and effort but that's expected in a foreign language. It was a tad slower than english, but over all not horribly so. The norwegian language thou? Total gibberish (for me). It was ACTUAL a foreign language and I much rathr prefered the german languae. Hell, I guess I'd have more luck understanding turkish than I had with norwegian.

 

[w176]

Det är också så regionalt. Typ skåningar som säger att danska är lätt, gör det för att det är lätt för dom. Inte för en tornedaling.

Jag har inte studerat seriöst men jag har som norrbottning väldigt lätt att förstå nordnorska dialekter för ljuden är väldigt lika