XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   Sandman  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   > In article ,   
   > Troels Forchhammer  wrote:   
   >>   
      
      
      
   > Well, since both denmark and Norway *was* sweden back in the days,   
   > the linguistic inheritance lines are muddy to say the least.   
      
   You might want to read up on your history ;-)   
      
   Denmark was occupied by Swedish forces for about a year (total) at a   
   couple of cases in the mid-seventeenth century (1657-1658 and, I   
   think, about a year later) resulting in Scania (Skåne), Halland and   
   Blekinge becoming Swedish (after which the Swedish king started a   
   programme of ethnic cleansing to turn them Swedish -- needless to say   
   he wasn't entirely successful). I do not know of any Dane who'd agree   
   that Denmark in any way 'was Germany' under the Second World War, so   
   I cannot officially recognize military occupation as legitimate rule   
   -)   
      
   Earlier than that, we'll get to the Kalmar Union (1397 –- 1523) which   
   was the only period when the whole of Scandinavia was ruled by the   
   same king (staring with Margrethe I, after whom our current queen is   
   named). However, while the king mostly stayed in Denmark (at the time   
   including Scania, Halland and Blekinge), there was no effort to   
   create a single nation (the idea of the nation was a bit different at   
   that time), so it would be an error to claim that it was other than   
   three separate countries in a personal union.   
      
   Much earlier than this, and we end up with a much larger number of   
   smaller kingdoms.   
      
   > While this may be true - no Swedes, or at least most Swedes, do   
   > not get exposed to Danish through the media in any way.   
      
   While there are some large areas where we can watch each others'   
   television (I think most of southern Sweden can receive Danish TV --   
   certainly all of Scania), it is certainly not a majority of homes in   
   either country (though, with Copenhagen covering at least a fifth of   
   our population, I think a much larger fraction of Danes can watch   
   Swedish television than the other way around -- even including Malmö   
   and Gothenburg).   
      
   All of this may actually have changed with the new digital channels,   
   but I think that, irrespective of the technical possibility, the   
   daily use of Swedish television has gone down considerably ever since   
   we got more than one or two Danish channels to choose from.   
      
   >> English (which most Danes and Swedes, while reasonably proficient   
   >> for a non- native language, are no-where near as proficient at as   
   >> we tend to believe).   
   >   
   > Can't say about the danes, but having worked with lots of american   
   > people, I get told a lot that Swedes are generally good at English   
      
   I've worked with quite a few Swedish engineers, and their English is   
   generally at the same level as their Danish colleagues'. That is,   
   actually very good for a non-native language, but nowhere as good as   
   they believe themselves (and this, I hurry to say, probably also   
   applies to myself).  If I wanted to be nasty I might say that   
   Americans (and the English), having no need to be really proficient   
   in any foreign language, impress more easily ;-)   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer   
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.   
    - Albert Einstein (1875-1955)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)