Should I learn Swedish or Norwegian?

Question

I really want to learn either swedish or norwegian. However, I can't choose between the two. Swedish has more speakers, Stockholm is a beautiful city, and I love swedish people in general. However, Norway is supposed to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world in terms of scenery, the fjords and mountains, etc. So I can't choose. If I were to move to one of the countries and learn the language which language/country should it be?

Answer 1

I'd also go with Norwegian. Not only because my wife is Norwegian, but because among Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, it is the one with more points in common with the other two. And Danish is hell about pronunciation!
Once I read something: "Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish". Of course, it is not exactly like that, but if you learn one of them, you'll be able to understand and be understood to some extent by speakers of the other two.

Answer 2

Well, depends on what you want to use it for. German is by far the language spoken by the most people of the languages you mentioned but it's also grammatically the trickiest for an English speaker. Knowing German would help a lot when learning Dutch, and maybe a little to learn Swedish and the others, but vocabularywise they're quite different languages. Swedish does have a vast amount of Low German loanwords, though, as a Swede, I find I can read quite a lot of Dutch without actually knowing it. Knowing Swedish helps a lot when learning Danish and Norwegian and vice versa, and Danish and Norwegian are very close since they've shared their basic written language for a long time. However, when it comes to speaking any of the languages mentioned, or understanding it spoken, it's a whole different matter. As a Swede I can find it quite difficult or close to impossible to understand, for example, a Danish speaker, even though reading Danish can be a piece of cake. On the other hand, Norwegian is far easier. There are Swedish dialects that are harder to understand than Norwegian, for other Swedes. Icelandic is a wholly different story. And to get the terms right. They're all Germanic languages, just different twigs of the same branch. English is also a Germanic language, even though the vocabulary nowadays is mainly loanwords from French and Latin. The skeleton of the language is still Germanic, though.

Answer 3

Actually, anyone speaking Danish, Norwegian or Swedish can be understood by someone speaking one of the other two languages. Pick one, then you have something to fall back on whilst you learn the language if you move to the other country.

Where are you from? English people have a hard time learning Danish but it is easier for Scots. I assume that would be the same for Swedish and Norwegian.

Answer 4

I think Norwegian is a bit easier to pronounce than Swedish and it's spelling rules seem a bit easier. They're both closely related so whichever you'd learn would get you pretty far in the other. Norwegian is also close to Danish so you'd be able to read that easily

Answer 5

I would choose Swedish, since it can be understood by most (or many) people in Denmark, Norway and Finland as well. Swedish is the Scandinavian "universal" language.

Answer 6

if you want to work with international business, or something with the environment, study Norwegian, yep, i would choice Norwegian, but personally i like more Portuguese, is more useful, and Portuguese speaker countries (Portugal, Brazil, some parts of India, Cape Verde, Macao, etc)have beautiful cities and scenarios

Answer 7

Heja Sverige!

Answer 8

Norwegian!!!!!

Answer 9

probably whichever is most useful but I'd go with

English, French, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese

Answer 10

why don't you learn both?