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Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts

Friday, September 21, 2012

English is Spoken in Sweden, So Why Learn Swedish? (Nordic words used in English and all things Swedish)


Coat of Arms of Sweden

The Kingdom of Sweden is on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in the northern portion of Europe. It is bordered by the countries of Norway and Finland and is at the same time connected to Denmark via a long bridge. Swedish is the official main language spoken in this Nordic country. On July 1, 2009 the Swedish government created a language law to protect and promote its official language as well as the country’s minority languages, namely Finnish, Romani, Yiddish, Meänkieli or Torne Valley Finnish, and all the Sami dialects. Sweden ranks eighth with the highest per capita income in the world, with a total GDP/PPP in 2011 of around $ 381.719 billion. It was one of the great powers of Europe during the 17th century and early part of the 18th century and is now one of the world’s richest countries.

What come to mind when we think of Sweden?
·      Meatballs
·      Absolut Vodka
·      Automobile manufacturer Volvo
·      The Swedish Chef in the Muppets
·      Home furniture store IKEA
·      Ericsson, one of the largest is telecom companies in the world today
·      Nobel Prize

Some famous Swedes are:
·      Alfred Nobel, the chemist who invented the dynamite, but also gave us the Nobel Prize
·      Professional golfer Annika Sörenstam
·      Poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt
·      Poet/Novelist Verner von Heidenstam
·      Stieg Larsson, author of novel turned movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
·      Niklas Zennstrom, the co-founder of Skype