Would it be very difficult for me to learn norwegian or danish?

Question

I'm an american so my native language is english, i also studied spanish for 3 years. I am thinking of moving to either denmark or norway(due to the high quality of life) after college and was woundering if it would be too difficult to learn the language?

Answer 1

Of course, the language you opted for would be that of your country of choice, but the best advice would be to go for Norwegian as a starting base. (You will be surprised and thrilled at its similarities to English!) I suggest Norwegian because Danish has a very, very difficult pronounciation and every time I have endeavoured to get my tongue round it people have looked at me with compassionate tolerance and said: "Learn Norwegian!" It is true that Norwegian is much gentler on the foreign speaker! I gather that once you have mastered one Scandinavian language it is not difficult to adapt to speaking the others. I have found links for you to get started here and now. http://www.101languages.net/norwegian/
http://www.apronus.com/norsk/norsk_links.htm.

You are obviously young and at your age it is always possible to learn a language when you have sufficient motivation. And what greater motivation could there be than living in a country and needing to communicate with those around you? Good luck in your endeavours!

Answer 2

Norwegian and Danish (along with Swedish) are part of the Germanic language tree. Therefore they are particularly easy to learn if you already know a similar germanic language, such as German or Dutch.
I myself am a native German speaker and had to learn Norwegian when I was young because my family moved there. I found it quite easy.
In terms of grammar, the nordic germanic languages are much more simply structured than for example German.
In terms of pronounciation however, where German is relatively straight forward, foreigners tend to find Norwegian a bit more complicated because its very melodic, a kind of sing song.
If you have learnt Spanish before that will be good because you know what its like to learn a language (you will have developed a certain routine in terms of vocabulary, grammar and speaking) however, Spanish is not related to Norwegian or Danish at all so you will not be able to transfer any knowledge gained in your Spanish studies to your Norwegian.
Good news is that once you learn one of the three (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) you will be able the two others because they are closely related.
Another thing is that most Norwegians learn English from a very young age at school so most people can speak english and you shouldnt have any problems communicating.
Also there are a lot of foreign companies in Norway (due to the oil) and I have met a lot of native English speakers who speak excellent Norwegian.
So definitely give it a try, for example try to do a course at home (I dont know how popular Norwegian/Danish will be where you live, but you can probably find free resources on the internet or online bookshops where you can buy good books) and visit the countries, then you will be able to get a feel for the language and culture!

Good Luck!

Answer 3

It's fairly easy, on a par with Spanish, I would say, although your opportunities to speak with other people who know Norwegian/Danish will be few relative to Spanish, unless you're in some odd corner of Minnesota or Michigan or something.