In Swedish: Hello everone, welcome back to our channel. I'm American and today we're going to speak Swedish.
Good job!
There's been a lot of people asking us to do a video where Evans speaks Swedish.
We're going to do that today!
Yeah, we took a poll and it was the number one request. So this is it.
This is an American speaking Swedish after six months.
I've been living here for six months.
And been going to SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) for about three months and-
I must say Swedish is not an easy language to learn.
For starters, there's a tempo. It's very up and down. It sounds like people are singing.
There's a reason why the Muppets made fun of Swedish with the Swedish Chef because-
-if you're not familiar with the language, it does sound like:
(Imitates the Swedish chef)
(The Swedish chef speaking "Swedish")
For example in English you just say "Amanda Peterson is walking to school" but in Swedish-
-it's like "Amanda Pettersson is walking to school" and it's very-
How do you say it?
In Swedish: Amanda Petterson is walking to school.
We say Amanda Peterson.
Doesn't that make the language more beautiful? Sounds like we're singing almost.
Well, I don't know if I'd call Swedish the most beautiful language. It's not exactly French.
Wait. It's so much more beautiful than English.
I disagree. Everyone knows that the most beautiful languages are French, Italian-
-Spanish is up there. Go down the list you have English, Portuguese. Go down the list even further-
-Australian English and at the very bottom you have like German, Russian, Swedish.
That is not true at all.
Russian and German before Swedish?
Well, I think you just upset a lot of Swedes by saying that.
Let's just agree that Norwegian is more beautiful than Swedish.
(Idiot)
What?
Nothing, I just said, "okay maybe you're right".
Okay, we're getting a little bit out of track should we just jump right into it?
Yeah, let's get to the speaking Swedish part.
I think the best way for you guys to hear me speak Swedish is to read out of a book because-
I can't memorize full paragraphs yet.
I'm gonna read from one of the most influential-
-best-selling Swedish books of all time. It's full of crime, mystery and deceit.
I think they even made it into a movie.
Yeah.
And of course I'm talking about:
LasseMaja.
Girl with the dragon tattoo.
No, LasseMaja and Kyrkomysteriet (=Church mystery)
Okay, not the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?
LasseMaja, this is one of Sweden's best books. And this is how I've been practicing Swedish.
So I'm just gonna open a paragraph at random.
Okay.
(Reading Swedish from the book LasseMaja and the Church mystery).
Really good. Do you understand what it means?
Yeah, it's like...
You know, it just means that it's a church-
-mystery and they're solving a church mystery.
Okay, should I do a little bit about me in Swedish?
Okay.
So this is some stuff I practice at SFI. I think I nail this one pretty good.
Hey!
In Swedish: My name is Evan. I'm from Los Angeles. I've lived in Sweden for 6 months.
I like to play basketball and to travel.
Sweden is beautiful but cold. I can't wait for summer. I listen to Swedish radio everyday.
Oh, that's pretty good. But do you think we should do some tongue twisters in Swedish?
Yeah, we can do that.
That'd be kinda fun.
Before we go any further, we just like to say if you're enjoying this video-
-please click the like button and click Subscribe.
Okay, are you ready for the Swedish tongue twisters?
I'm not ready but I'm as ready as I'll ever be so lets go.
All right, first one:
Swedish: Sex laxar i en laxask. English: Six salmons in a salmon-box.
No.
Salmons. Six salmons in a salmon-box.
Good. Do the whole sentence again.
Okay second:
"Seven seasick seamen sunk on the ship 'Shanghai"
Ok, that sounds like Chinese "Shanghai"?
OK, say after me:
Seven seasick seamen. That's English.
Sunk on the ship called Shanghai.
Okay, it actually is Chinese.
Okay, third:
Yeah.
Swedish: Kvistfritt kvastskaft.
No.
Yes. Do you know what that means?
No.
Knag-free broomstick. (Or splinter less broomstick).
That's really weird in Swedish.
Okay. "At 7 o'clock a sick cat sits at the hospital and sings".
At 7 o'clock a sick cat sits...
...at the hospital and sings".
Yeah, I got it.
Yeah?
One more time:
I have a very hard time doing these guttural Swedish sounds like:
Sju. Sjuuuu. (English: Seven)
For example in English you'd say: Vin.
But in Swedish: Vin (Wine).
Yeah, I can't do it.
So in Swedish there's this very guttural sort of noise you make where you like suck in.
That's one of the weirder Swedish language things. The other would be:
That's right.
So in Sweden when you're in a conversation and you agree with what someone's saying you go:
So it's like, oh wow weather so nice today you go:
Well, not quite like that. I mean if you agree, let's say someone is having a conversation with you and-
they're speaking, like explaining something you can be like: Yeah. Yeah.
It sounds like you're gasping for air.
You're agreeing with what they're saying.
That was all for the Swedish-
No, before we finish you have to do some English tongue twisters. You don't get off that easy.
Okay.
Okay. We'll start with:
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
How much wood could a wood, would...
How much wood can a woodchuck chug if the woodchuck didn't chuck wood?
No. I'll give you another one.
She sells seashells by the seashore
She sells she... She sells seashells by the seashore.
Actually that was really good!
She sells seashells by the seashore.
Okay, here's one. Say it ten times fast.
I want people at home to try to do it and if you can get it leave a comment because it's very impressive.
It's almost impossible to say "toy boat" ten times fast without slurring. Toy boat. Toy boat, toy boat-
-toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat.
Did I pass?
You passed.
Did I pass?
You passed.
Okay, we're gonna check back in in six more months and hopefully my Swedish has improved.
6 months? I think we should do one in like 3 months.
Okay, we'll check back in in three months and see if my Swedish has improved.
I don't practice it that much because everyone I talk to in Sweden speaks perfectly good English-
-and they don't ever want to practice Swedish. They just want to show off their English skills.
So it's not that easy to learn here.
It's not that easy even though I live in a country that speaks Swedish as a native language-
-it's very difficult to actually engage in conversation in Swedish with people.
Alright guys, don't forget to click the like button-
-it really helps us out and click subscribe and we'll see you in an other video coming soon.
We will. Bye!
Hejdå!
Bye! Take care!