First of all, I really love your work. I love nature and taking photos but I don't even know how you get this close to the wildlife. It must take a lot of patience and good equipment, I recon.
Second, since I was a child I always wanted to learn norwegian because I love horses and work with them since I was 8 and fjord horses have always been my favourite breed. Is it true that swedish, norwegian and finish folks can understand each other while speaking their own language?
I'm from northern germany and I am able to understand/read dutch without being able to speak/write the language.
I hope you have a good day. I always love to see your work on my dash!
Thank you so much for your very kind words. I am really glad you enjoy my photos. You are absolutely right, it takes a lot of patience, and good equipment certainly helps, but spending time outdoors, learning animal behaviour, and letting wildlife get used to your presence are just as important. Many moments come from simply waiting and observing rather than actively chasing a shot.
As for the languages, this is a really good question, and your comparison with German and Dutch is actually quite accurate.
Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are closely related North Germanic languages. In general, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes can understand each other while each person speaks their own language, but the degree of understanding varies. Personally, I find it easy to read Danish and to understand spoken Norwegian. Spoken Danish, however, is harder for me to follow because of pronunciation, and written Norwegian can also be tricky due to the different written standards. Norwegian is often considered the “bridge” language, as many Norwegians understand both Swedish and Danish very well.
Finnish is a completely different case. It is not a Germanic language at all, but belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, so it is structurally very different from Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. Finland does have a Swedish-speaking minority, and Swedish is one of Finland’s official languages, but most Finnish speakers do not understand Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish unless they have specifically studied them, and vice versa. That said, there is a long shared history between Sweden and Finland, and many people in Sweden have Finnish roots. In my case, I am married to a Finnish man, so Finnish is very much part of my life as well.
And we should not forget Iceland. Icelandic is also a North Germanic language and shares the same roots, but it has preserved much older linguistic features. Because of that, Icelandic is generally not mutually intelligible with modern Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish without study.
So, in short: Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are largely mutually understandable to varying degrees; Finnish is a different language altogether; and Icelandic shares the roots but stands more apart in practice.
I hope that clarifies things a bit, and thank you again for following my work. I really appreciate it, and I hope you have a lovely day too!
