Hi Tom, have just started watching your content and I'm liking it so far! Just wanted to say something about English in Swedish schools: According to the national school curriculum we're supposed to learn British English in schools, you can see this in that the textbooks that the schools use are all in British English. This guideline was followed closely up until very recently which is why many of the older generations often speak "proper" English. However nowadays it's a lot more relaxed, the English that you are taught usually depends on your teacher. I've had acquaintances that were taught Australian English because their teacher came from there and when I was in school a few classmates and I talked to our teacher and asked if we could be taught American English instead. We were plenty surprised when we got the go ahead to switch but we only got to do so on the condition that we kept with it, if we mixed it with British English in any way we lost points on tests, got lower scores on assignments and so on. I also think there's a change towards American English becoming the norm in school as more young people get their teaching licenses. American media and culture has influenced the way we speak English here in Sweden a lot, especially for the younger generations.
Wow that’s really interesting Isak! A lot of people have mentioned that they had different experiences with what form of English they learnt in school, I think it’s really interesting. I’ve heard things like that, where mixing British and American English can mean lower grades in school. I have a young son, I’ve thought about what would happen if he got an ‘American English’ teacher in school, if he would get a lower grade for using British English. I could never teach my son to miss out letters in words like ‘colour’ and ‘flavour’, so I hope he would never get marked down in school for it!
I, who went to school in the 1970s, had a bunch of fairly bad teachers in English. And then in the seventh grade, a teacher who'd spent years in the US. It was controversial. She was probably a much better teacher than the others, but in the seventh grade, we were badly prepared. And unfortunately she and her American English became disliked by pupils and colleagues alike. Although I realize the pedagogical problems, it would have been good if the broad range of English dialects could be introduced on an early stage, from the dialects of India to them of Scotland. From the Midwestern dialects to the Australian.
Actually, we are thought British english at least for the schools i've been to. But we consume a lot of American media such as youtube, movies, series so we still learn a lot of American English hence why we usually use American words a lot of the time. British media doesn't have the same influence as it's not as big.
That’s interesting! Most of the Swedes that I have spoken to have been taught American English, so I suppose it could depend on which part of Sweden you’re from, or even the teacher! But yes, you’re definitely right about American media.
If you miss sand beach then at the very northern tip of Öland has a place called Böda Sand. Of course, summertime is over now but it is one of Sweden's best beaches if you are in search of that. Problem is the road up there, its a "no-passing-only-one-lane" all the way up and you can get stuck behind slow caravans. We usually rent a cabriolet if we going up there summertime, makes the travel better.
”We don´t have sandy beaches”, but we do, but not in the Bråviken area. Here on the westcoast, we have miles and miles of them. I think you know that, but if don´t, you have some wonderful exploring ahead of you! Good to have you here!
Thanks Jan-Olof! I’m looking forward to exploring the west coast a little more, as I’ve only really visited Göteborg and surrounding areas. In the video I was talking mostly about Bråviken (and the Baltic Sea), but watching it back I realised I wasn’t very clear, sorry about that!
My class were taught British English in school. Then you learn American English from movies and music and then I had years of playing online with almost entirely only british people so then you learn slang as well. A complete mish mash of different accents lol.
Interesting, there’s been a few people on here that have said they got taught British English, but almost all the Swedes I know were taught American! I think it must depend on region.
Great video Tom! I lived abroad for many years, but now back in Sweden, and haven't really thought about how I might have changed. I'll have to think about that 😀
Thanks Helen! It's definitely strange to think about, I was definitely surprised at how many ways I could think of! This video could have been an hour long...
0:58 Sweden do have sandy beaches as well. You should check out Halland, the coastal area around Falkenberg. Or Gotland, Skåne. Or even up north, at Pite havsbad. But we don´t have much tidal, on the west coast the Skagerrak och Kattegatt is pretty shallow, so the tidal wave is stopped before it reaches the coast, so it´s not that noticable, and on the east coast the the straight into the Baltic is too narrow for the water to have time to flow in and out sveral times a day, so it´s just a few centimeters or so, which we don´t notice. But yeah, we do have a lot of those grass beaches too, especially by lakes. 4:38 It depends on the teacher I think. Our teacher spoke British English, but her attitude was that it was up to us to choose, as long as we choose one and stuck with it. She didn´t like if we mixed spellings like "color" (American spelling) and "theatre" (British spelling) in the same essay, for instance. But we´re so much more influenced (or should I say almost brainwashed...) by American English in media that most of us speak it, unless we lived in the UK och live with a Brit. But sometimes we forget which one is American and British spelling/pronounciation so there might be a bit of a mix sometimes, which might sound odd. I think that a lot of people also tend to be a bit of a language chameleons, so we - often without even noticing it ourselves - adapt to the accent of the person we´re speaking with, so the same person could have different accents depending on the situation. Just like you do here. It´s not like we pretend, or change it on purpose, it´s just something that happens. 8:42 That must have been so hard to admit as a Brit. It made me imagine that there in the UK are these groups, meeting in secret "Coffee drinkers Anonymous". "Hi... My name is Tom. And I´m a coffee drinker.". I´m something as odd as a Swede that isn´t a coffee drinker. I´m an outcast.
So you've been in Sweden for 5 years, nice :) A recommendation about beaches if you haven't been there. CNN made an article "20 of the world's best places for swimming" and i highly recomment Vättern and Jönköping :)
I wonder if I will have the same problems when moving back to Sweden in the end of September this year after 22 years in England, mind you I am Swedish. I moved to England because I thought we were to much controlled in Sweden but now the British Government have surpassed that by miles
...instead of the proper word. Haha! I didn't know we taught American english in school. With the risk of sounding old, "back in my days" we were taught British english - but most of the cultural and media influences we encounter daily are of American origin. I'm pretty sure I use a hybrid, not really keeping a track on what word belongs where; at least not during actual use of the language.
This is interesting, I’ve had quite a few comments on here where people are saying the same thing! I really think it must be a regional thing, or even a decision by the teacher themselves. Most of the swedes I’ve spoken to were taught American English, but this is almost exclusively in Östergötland.
@@TominSweden I tried to find the answer to this mystery through google. According to this newsarticle it seems to be British english that is taught sverigesradio.se/artikel/7206321 . I had a lovely brittish english teacher and I can still hear her voice "After me please - tomaaato"
Sweds speak more ore less american english becouse of the american cultural imperialism :D We got their tv-shows, movies, you name it! Everyting that happens in the US sooner or later happens in sweden, sad but true
Take a look at my new channel, The Swenglish Adventure! ua-cam.com/channels/ThXcUQxJMkWdLjF2aOgG2Q.html
Hi Tom, have just started watching your content and I'm liking it so far! Just wanted to say something about English in Swedish schools: According to the national school curriculum we're supposed to learn British English in schools, you can see this in that the textbooks that the schools use are all in British English. This guideline was followed closely up until very recently which is why many of the older generations often speak "proper" English.
However nowadays it's a lot more relaxed, the English that you are taught usually depends on your teacher. I've had acquaintances that were taught Australian English because their teacher came from there and when I was in school a few classmates and I talked to our teacher and asked if we could be taught American English instead. We were plenty surprised when we got the go ahead to switch but we only got to do so on the condition that we kept with it, if we mixed it with British English in any way we lost points on tests, got lower scores on assignments and so on. I also think there's a change towards American English becoming the norm in school as more young people get their teaching licenses. American media and culture has influenced the way we speak English here in Sweden a lot, especially for the younger generations.
Wow that’s really interesting Isak! A lot of people have mentioned that they had different experiences with what form of English they learnt in school, I think it’s really interesting.
I’ve heard things like that, where mixing British and American English can mean lower grades in school. I have a young son, I’ve thought about what would happen if he got an ‘American English’ teacher in school, if he would get a lower grade for using British English.
I could never teach my son to miss out letters in words like ‘colour’ and ‘flavour’, so I hope he would never get marked down in school for it!
I, who went to school in the 1970s, had a bunch of fairly bad teachers in English. And then in the seventh grade, a teacher who'd spent years in the US.
It was controversial.
She was probably a much better teacher than the others, but in the seventh grade, we were badly prepared. And unfortunately she and her American English became disliked by pupils and colleagues alike.
Although I realize the pedagogical problems, it would have been good if the broad range of English dialects could be introduced on an early stage, from the dialects of India to them of Scotland. From the Midwestern dialects to the Australian.
Actually, we are thought British english at least for the schools i've been to. But we consume a lot of American media such as youtube, movies, series so we still learn a lot of American English hence why we usually use American words a lot of the time. British media doesn't have the same influence as it's not as big.
That’s interesting! Most of the Swedes that I have spoken to have been taught American English, so I suppose it could depend on which part of Sweden you’re from, or even the teacher!
But yes, you’re definitely right about American media.
I agree with this. The American media influence is great indeed.
I’m pretty sure most of us learn British English in school.
If you miss sand beach then at the very northern tip of Öland has a place called Böda Sand. Of course, summertime is over now but it is one of Sweden's best beaches if you are in search of that. Problem is the road up there, its a "no-passing-only-one-lane" all the way up and you can get stuck behind slow caravans. We usually rent a cabriolet if we going up there summertime, makes the travel better.
”We don´t have sandy beaches”, but we do, but not in the Bråviken area. Here on the westcoast, we have miles and miles of them. I think you know that, but if don´t, you have some wonderful exploring ahead of you! Good to have you here!
Thanks Jan-Olof! I’m looking forward to exploring the west coast a little more, as I’ve only really visited Göteborg and surrounding areas. In the video I was talking mostly about Bråviken (and the Baltic Sea), but watching it back I realised I wasn’t very clear, sorry about that!
My class were taught British English in school. Then you learn American English from movies and music and then I had years of playing online with almost entirely only british people so then you learn slang as well.
A complete mish mash of different accents lol.
Interesting, there’s been a few people on here that have said they got taught British English, but almost all the Swedes I know were taught American! I think it must depend on region.
Great video Tom! I lived abroad for many years, but now back in Sweden, and haven't really thought about how I might have changed. I'll have to think about that 😀
Thanks Helen! It's definitely strange to think about, I was definitely surprised at how many ways I could think of! This video could have been an hour long...
0:58 Sweden do have sandy beaches as well. You should check out Halland, the coastal area around Falkenberg. Or Gotland, Skåne. Or even up north, at Pite havsbad. But we don´t have much tidal, on the west coast the Skagerrak och Kattegatt is pretty shallow, so the tidal wave is stopped before it reaches the coast, so it´s not that noticable, and on the east coast the the straight into the Baltic is too narrow for the water to have time to flow in and out sveral times a day, so it´s just a few centimeters or so, which we don´t notice. But yeah, we do have a lot of those grass beaches too, especially by lakes.
4:38 It depends on the teacher I think. Our teacher spoke British English, but her attitude was that it was up to us to choose, as long as we choose one and stuck with it. She didn´t like if we mixed spellings like "color" (American spelling) and "theatre" (British spelling) in the same essay, for instance.
But we´re so much more influenced (or should I say almost brainwashed...) by American English in media that most of us speak it, unless we lived in the UK och live with a Brit. But sometimes we forget which one is American and British spelling/pronounciation so there might be a bit of a mix sometimes, which might sound odd.
I think that a lot of people also tend to be a bit of a language chameleons, so we - often without even noticing it ourselves - adapt to the accent of the person we´re speaking with, so the same person could have different accents depending on the situation. Just like you do here. It´s not like we pretend, or change it on purpose, it´s just something that happens.
8:42 That must have been so hard to admit as a Brit. It made me imagine that there in the UK are these groups, meeting in secret "Coffee drinkers Anonymous". "Hi... My name is Tom. And I´m a coffee drinker.".
I´m something as odd as a Swede that isn´t a coffee drinker. I´m an outcast.
That’s an interesting take on the language, I suppose we all alter our accents depending on who we’re around!
So you've been in Sweden for 5 years, nice :) A recommendation about beaches if you haven't been there. CNN made an article "20 of the world's best places for swimming" and i highly recomment Vättern and Jönköping :)
I wonder if I will have the same problems when moving back to Sweden in the end of September this year after 22 years in England, mind you I am Swedish. I moved to England because I thought we were to much controlled in Sweden but now the British Government have surpassed that by miles
22 years is a long time! It’s sure to have some effect, I’m sure it’ll be strange to move back here.
...instead of the proper word. Haha! I didn't know we taught American english in school. With the risk of sounding old, "back in my days" we were taught British english - but most of the cultural and media influences we encounter daily are of American origin. I'm pretty sure I use a hybrid, not really keeping a track on what word belongs where; at least not during actual use of the language.
This is interesting, I’ve had quite a few comments on here where people are saying the same thing! I really think it must be a regional thing, or even a decision by the teacher themselves. Most of the swedes I’ve spoken to were taught American English, but this is almost exclusively in Östergötland.
Tom in Sweden It could also be that the curriculum have changed in the 20 years since I left high school.
@@TominSweden I tried to find the answer to this mystery through google. According to this newsarticle it seems to be British english that is taught sverigesradio.se/artikel/7206321 . I had a lovely brittish english teacher and I can still hear her voice "After me please - tomaaato"
Sweds speak more ore less american english becouse of the american cultural imperialism :D We got their tv-shows, movies, you name it! Everyting that happens in the US sooner or later happens in sweden, sad but true