r/Nordiccountries

I am from south India, we have 4 main languages in our 5 states (Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu plus some smaller languages like Tulu + dialects). All of our languages are related but they use different scripts.

So for convenience, if 2 strangers don't speak any shared south Indian languages here, they speak in English or a mix of their native language + hand gestures + random English or possibly Hindi words to get their point across.

My understanding is that scandinavian languages have a much higher degree of mutual intelligibility than ours do, and obviously your languages use the same script so reading each others language should be easier. But I have also heard that Finnish and Icelandic are less related and written a bit differently too.

Based on this, I have some questions:

1. If a room has 5 people, one from each nordic country, will you speak in English?

2. If it is just 3 people from the Scandinavian countries, how do you decide which language to use? Is it based on the country you are located in?

3. Do you find it insulting if someone from a neighbouring country visits and insists you speak their language even if they can understand yours?

4. Do icelandic and finnish folks feel a little left out due to their languages being less related to the scandinavian ones? What about the Faroese and other such minorities?

5. Do you speak English everywhere else in Europe?

Thanks in advance!

Estonian researchers estimate that Baltic Finns have lived about 5000 years on the shores of the Baltic Sea. They arrived first in Latvia and established a culture around Daugava-river, and then started to move northward to Estonia. After some time, some of them moved to Finland, and then Finnish and Estonian cultures started to separate from each other, which is the start of Finnish culture. The culture inside The Peninsula of Finland started to be a distinctive entity of its own. Still Finnish dialects in South-West Finland resemble a lot Estonian language, as a reminder of this migration from Estonia to Finland. Ancient chronicles written by the neighbours of Finnic people described ancient Finns and Hungarians as blue-eyed and blond people. The proportion of blond and blue-eyed people among Finns is actually still the highest in the World, and that's why some European scientists have speculated that blond hair colour came originally from The Finnic people. So it is not the other way around, as many people expect.

Baltic Finnish culture in Latvia, called "Livonians" begun to mix to Baltic tribe of Latgals, and together they formed the nation of Latvia. Latvians still have a significant proportion of Finnic paternal ancestral lines in their DNA.

In Finland few Finnish tribes lived for centuries separately in Southern Finland. Sometimes these tribes had some clashes, but they also intermingled with each other. Carelians lived in the East around the Lake Ladoga, Tavastians lived in Mainland Finland around current day cities of Tampere and Lahti. Their native land started just couple of dozen kilometers to North from the Gulf of Finland. The Northern Shore of the Gulf of Finland was mainly uninhabited until Swedes started to move there in the 1100s. Carelians and Tavastians mixed together and formed a new Finnish tribe called Savonians, which later became the biggest and most influential Finnish tribe. Most residents of Helsinki are ethnically Savonians.

A South-West Finnish tribe called "Finns Proper" started to intermingle peacefully with the Swedes around 1000 AD, and Swedes begun to move to empty coastal areas of Finland. Finns and Swedes started to create a common society together. Finnish and Swedish tribes have never had a war with each other. Most people don't know that the unification of Sweden and Finland was totally peaceful, and led to a point when Swedish princes invited Finnish princes to the Swedish Royal Election on The Stones of Mora in Sweden in 1300s.

Finland joined Sweden peacefully during a couple hundred years of process, and it actually happened before The Kingdom of Sweden existed. Sweden was established in 1250, and South-West Finland was already a part of Swedish speaking society. Southern Finland belonged to the core of Sweden during the Swedish era of Finland. It was not a colony. But despite of that both Swedes and Finns saw that Finland and Sweden were two separate countries under the rule of the same monarchy. There were cultural differences between the two, and Finland was led autonomically from Turku. One of the main reasons why Åland Islands was given to Finland in 1921 was, that it belonged to Finland since ancient time. It belonged to Åboland, South-West Finland.

Fingol-theories don't belong to the Finnish identity. In Finland no one knew about them before the internet in the 1990s. It is a made up story among some questionable circles in the internet. It is a misconception of some weird researchers of the late 1800s Europe. When they visited Finland, they wrote bact to home in their letters, that not Fingols found yet, but there might be some of them somewhere. So Fingol-nonsense from the pits of the internet is not a part of Finnish mainstream culture.

Hi all, I suspect I will be posting a lot on this sub in the coming months. I am currently a US student who is about to begin a 2 year program in Sweden. As a result I have begun my adventures into learning a bit more general info about the people and country (I have plenty of questions I am sure I will ask at a future time). One of the things I stumbled into is the difference in dating culture as compared into the U.S.. However with that I have had some conflicting information. Some sources say that exclusivity takes time whereas others say it’s pretty common early on just unspoken about etc. etc. etc. From the perspective of you all, how would you describe the dating culture in Sweden. I have heard that women and men are typically reserved, and either flirt by doing nothing or by approaching. How does one begin a partnership? What’s the relationship with sex (some people say the hookup culture is very large and mutually exclusive from relationships, some say the hookup is the entrance to the relationship [with that how do I know if someone only wants a hookup vs a relationship, and how are things like abstinence till marriage received]). How does commitment and exclusivity work? To put it simple, I am confused, I would love to attempt to date while in Sweden but I would like to do it the correct way. Any clarity on the situation, especially about commitment, relationship with sex and personal values and the how beginnings of something like a relationship are approached in Sweden.

p.s. please direct me to another sub if this questions is best asked elsewhere (and let me know if they take English posts, im just beginning to learn Swedish)

Recently some nordic leaders have said that Canada is the most "nordic" country outside of Scandinavia. well if that is true, can we also make fun of the Danes? or will they be off limits still? I am asking because we need more rivalries with other countries that aren't America (🤮) that is all, thank you in advance.

Are there any universities, where it would be possible to study Civil Engineering or Road Engineering (which also goes to the same category) or some similar bachelor in English?