# Teaching English In the Netherlands and Scandanavia **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681 "2009-05-16T20:50:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681/81 "2014-01-07T12:10:55Z")
> [@WormTheRed](#): > > But ok, maybe my bud didn’t speak Bokmål, but he was from up north in Norway somewhere. Nobody speaks Bokmål. It’s a code for written Norwegian. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > As evidence of this, I might mention that there was a series of Detective stories written by a Swedish couple. His name was Per Wahloo, I have forgotten hers. Maj Sjöwall. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > On the other hand, I know a Norwegian married to a Swede who claims they each speak their own language at home. I don’t know what was his dialect. He grew up in a place (called Kirkenes) that is actually east of Sweden and just north of the Russian border, so it might have more heavily influenced by Swedish. I sincerely doubt any influence from Swedish. The language in the part of Sweden closest to Kirkenes is Finnish. > [@slaphead](#): > > A lot of the swedish/norwegian dialects have more in common with one another than with whatever is spoken in ‘their’ capital city, which is hardly surprising since they have been dealing with their neighbours regularly for centuries while some chump from the big city would turn up once in a blue moon. National borders and Language borders are two different things. If dialects on both sides of the Swedish/Norwegian border are similar it’s because they are one and the same and whatever differences there are are the results of turning different directions culturally, politically etc. As it happens there is a dialectal belt starting in Norway, crossing the border and continuing Southeast through Sweden. I have heard about some Norwegian students, visiting a Swedish university, who thought that a sample of the dialect in a place called [Ulrika](http://goo.gl/maps/TgxM0), which is far from the border, was recorded in Norway. > [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I guess it has to do with the amount of exposure, as well as the amount of effort put in and shit given. I’m pretty sure that pronunciation is most of the problem, much more so than vocabulary or grammar. Very true. Swedes tend to think “it’s Danish and therefore incomprehensible” instead of trying to understand. I was once taught what to do if someone approaches you at a library information desk and asks for some information that is only available in Danish. You simply tell them that the book is in Norwegian (Bokmål as it happens) and they will have no problems reading it. As for the OP. Films and TV programs are subtitled in Scandinavia and the Netherlands so we hear the original language all the time as opposed to Germans, French, Italians and other people where they dub them. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681/82 "2014-01-07T13:54:53Z")
One more funny thing: the Dutch are so used to subtitles that we also subtitle originally _Dutch_ spoken reality shows. Especially stuff shot on location, where the sound footage isn’t studio quality and people may not articulate as well as professional actors do. People in the US and UK seem much better able to understand spoken accents and dialects then the Dutch do, spoiled as we are that everyone on TV is either perfectly audible OR subtitled. I actually admire that in native English speakers. One more bit of trivia: in Belgium, English movies are subtitled simultaneously in French and Dutch. Subtitles take up a fair part of the screen, as you can imagine. So they get an continuous double language lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681/83 "2014-01-07T14:00:28Z")
French, Dutch and the original language, IME. Takes up quite a bit of real estate and I’ve heard that it’s also a reason many movies get released later than in neighboring countries. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681/84 "2014-01-07T14:23:04Z")
Once upon a time, you could spot a Swede or a Dutchman by his stereotypical accent. But nowadays, you spot a Swede or a Dutchman by his total LACK of ANY kind of accent. Most Swedes I’ve met speak English a little TOO perfectly, a little TOO flawlessly, to pass for American. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681/85 "2014-01-07T14:38:12Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > One more bit of trivia: in Belgium, English movies are subtitled simultaneously in French and Dutch. Subtitles take up a fair part of the screen, as you can imagine. So they get an continuous double language lesson. I saw _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ in Finland subtitled in Finnish and Swedish. It was a bit bizarre, especially when someone said something that really didn’t need to be translated, like _Hi!_: - Terve! - Hej! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-english-in-the-netherlands-and-scandanavia/496681.md?page=4)