Simple Swedish Podcast - #272 (1/2) - Vad kan jag om era länder?

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Nivå: B1-B2 (del 1/2) Jag går igenom länderna där den här podden är som mest populär, och berättar vad jag kan om dessa länder. Hur bra kunskap har jag om ditt land? För att läsa mer om bootcampet - klicka här För att registrera dig för ett gratis Q&A-webbinarium: Söndag 16/3 15:00 - registrera dig här Måndag 17/3 19:00 - registrera dig här I dessa möten träffar du mig och kan ställa frågor direkt till mig om bootcampet! --- Transkript Hallå, hallå! Välkommen, välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast.   Och idag så ska vi göra en liten spontan idé som jag fick nu.   För jag satt och kollade på statistik över liksom vilka länder mina lyssnare kommer ifrån.   Så, ja, du som lyssnar på den här podden, alltså personer som dig, vilka länder kommer ni ifrån?   För ja, jag kan se statistik på det. Och jag var nyfiken, så jag kollade lite på det.   Och jag tänkte att jag skulle gå igenom topp 10 och berätta vad jag vet om det landet.   Och jag har inte kollat upp någonting i förväg.   Så det kommer bli ett litet test för att kolla min geografiska kunskap.   Och jag ser mig själv som ganska bra på geografi.   Så, ja, jag är lite nervös att det inte ska gå bra.   Men såklart, först av allt ska jag tacka några patrons..och jag ska stänga av ljudet på min telefon också.   Sätta den på ljudlös, det kan vara bra när man spelar in poddar.   Så, nya patrons är Vic, Ronja..Ronja, trevligt namn. Gillar det namnet.. Наталья, Julia, Wesley och Friederike.   Också bra namn, Friederike. Nästan som jag, Fredrik. Och ja, tack till er för att ni stödjer podden.   Alla som stödjer podden på Patreon får ju transkript till alla avsnitt och kan också känna sig stolta över att de stödjer podden såklart.   Om någon annan vill det så är det www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist.   Och sen har ju vi öppnat ansökningarna också för sommarens Language Lock In Boot Camp.   Och jag tänkte bara berätta de tre sakerna som jag personligen gillar mest med bootcampet.   Eller kanske snarare de tre aktiviteterna som jag tycker bäst om, och som folk också brukar säga att det är det som de gillar mest.   Och det är ju dels att vi paddlar en vikingabåt.   Så vi sitter allihopa i en och samma båt.   Lite som en metafor för själva bootcampet. Att vi alla sitter i samma båt, att vi lär oss svenska allihopa.   Inte jag då, men alla deltagarna.   Och man måste vara synkroniserade när man paddlar den här båten.   Och det är lite svårt i början men det brukar gå bra till slut, och det brukar vara väldigt uppskattat. Det är en kul grej.   Och det kommer vi absolut göra i bootcampet i sommar också. Om det inte blir så att det blir..det kan ju hända saker med vädret som det alltid kan i Sverige.   Men det har vi alltid på schemat på sommarbootcampet.   En annan grej är att vi bjuder in pensionärer från den lokala pensionärsföreningen på fika i lock-in-villan.   Och det gör vi mot slutet av upplevelsen.   Och det är lite som ett test för att man ska förstå att man faktiskt kan prata svenska med svenskar.   Och det brukar vara jättekul, uppskattat både av deltagarna och av pensionärerna som kommer. Ja, jättetrevligt.   Och sen den tredje saken..okej det är ingen aktivitet men det är själva den här familjekänslan som vi bygger upp.   Att det är en väldigt trygg plats.   Så ja, ansökningarna är öppna för Language Lock-in Boot Camp.   Så gå in på www.languagelockin.com och ansök till bootcampet om du är intresserad av det.   Vi har redan folk som har börjat anmäla sig så se till att göra det snabbt om du vill ha din plats.   Okej, så jag tänkte faktiskt att jag skulle prata lite snabbare idag som lite variation. Så som sagt så tänkte jag att jag skulle prata om topp 10 länder där jag har flest lyssnare.   Alltså där flest människor lyssnar på den här podden.   Och det finns ju två sätt att räkna på det här.   Dels i absoluta tal. Så att liksom.. Och då skulle Sverige..Sverige är såklart överst.   Så att flest lyssnare har jag i Sverige.   Det är..43% av alla lyssnare till den här podden är i Sverige.   ..om du vill läsa hela transkriptet, klicka här!

Hello, hello! Welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast! because I sat and looked at statistics about which countries my listeners come from so yes, you who are listening to this podcast, people like you, which countries you come from. Because I can see statistics on that. And I was curious, so I looked at that a little bit. And I thought I would go through top 10 and tell you what I know about that country and I haven't checked up anything in advance so it will be a little test to check my geographical knowledge

and I see myself as pretty good at geography so yeah, I'm a little nervous that it won't go well but of course, first of all I should thank some Patrons and I should turn off the sound on my phone as well. I will put it on silent, that can be good when you play your pod. So, new Patrons are Vick Ronja. Ronja, nice name, I like that name. Natalia, Julia, Wesley and Fridrique. Also a good name, Fridrique. Almost like me, Fredrik.

And, yeah, thanks to you for supporting the podcast. Everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon gets a transcript for all episodes. And can also feel proud that they support the podcast podcast of course. If anyone else wants that, it's patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist. And then we have also opened the applications for the summer's Language Lock-in Bootcamp and I was just going to tell you about the three things that I personally like most about bootcamp or maybe rather the three activities that I like best and that people and they also say that this is what they like the most and that is partly because we paddle a Viking boat so we all sit in one boat a little bit like a metaphor for the bootcamp

that we all sit in the same boat that we all learn together, not me then, but all the participants and you have to be synchronized when paddling this boat and that is a bit difficult at first, but it usually goes well in the end and it's usually very appreciated. It's a fun thing and we will absolutely do that in the summer bootcamp as well. If it doesn't happen that way, things can happen with the weather as it always can in Sweden. But we always have that on the schedule for the summer bootcamp. Another thing is that we invite pensioners from the local pensioner association

to a fika in the lock-in villa. And we do that towards the end of the experience. lock in villan och det gör vi mot slutet av upplevelsen och det är lite som ett test för att man ska förstå att man faktiskt kan prata svenska med svenskar och det brukar vara jättekul uppskattat både av deltagarna och av pensionärerna som kommer. Jättetrevligt och sen den tredje saken by the participants and the pensioners who come. Yeah, very nice. And then the third thing, okay, it's not an activity, but it's the feeling of family that we build up.

That it's a very safe place. So yes, the applications are open for Language Lock-in Bootcamp. So go to languagelockin.com and apply for the bootcamp if you are interested in it. We already have people who have started to register, so make sure to do that quickly if you want your seat. Okay, so I actually thought I would talk a little faster today as a variation. So, as I said, I thought I would talk about top 10 countries where I have the most listeners. Where most people listen to this podcast. There are two ways to count on this.

Partly in absolute numbers. So... Sweden is of course at the top. Most listeners I are in Sweden. 43% of all listeners to this podcast are in Sweden. That's pretty obvious, not so strange. Number two is Finland. And then, if you count in absolute numbers then USA is number three

but I think it's more interesting to look at percent or relative numbers. So what I did was I compared I'm a little nerd and I like statistics I compared a country's population with the number of listeners to this podcast. And so you get like...

a kind of number for how popular the podcast is in a certain country. So, compared to the population in that country. So not absolute numbers. So, sorry USA! This is number 3 in absolute numbers. And is actually almost 9% of all listeners But I have chosen to do this in relative numbers instead

So as I said, I will go through this list and just tell you what I know about these different countries. So first is Sweden, and it might not be that exciting to talk about Sweden, so I hope so. And then we take the second place, which is Finland. And it might not be that strange that the second place is Finland, because Swedish is an official language in Finland and I think it's about 5% of Finland's population that has Swedish as their mother tongue. And... what do I know about Finland? The capital is Helsinki, so we say Helsinki in Swedish, we don't say Helsinki in Swedish, and it's because Finland and Sweden were the same country once in a while. And that's why there are a lot of cities in Finland that have Swedish names. I don't remember if there is, for example, Åbo. I don't know which one is which, but maybe it's like, Åbo, that it's Tampere.

I don't know, maybe it's completely wrong. But, yes. I actually have some Finnish blood in me. My mom did a DNA test and it turned out that she has a certain percentage of Finnish blood. And that probably comes from my grandmother's grandmother or something like that. Like four generations back. So I don't remember which city it was from, but it was somewhere in the archipelago. Somewhere in the Finnish archipelago, pretty close to Helsingfors. But yes, there is quite a lot to say about Finland. I like Finland a lot. I also know the historical band, since we were in the same country.

At that time Finland was more of a part of Sweden. it's a little better that we are two different countries, although we have very close contact. And it feels like Sweden and Finland have very good close contact and a very strong alliance. So I like Finland very much. I all the people I've met in Finland have been good and nice. I was in Helsingfors a few years ago on a visit and it felt very were very nice. And it was very cool to see my mother tongue, Swedish, as a part of the language there. You could see signs in Swedish and quite often you would meet people who spoke Swedish. So it was a bit strange to be in another country, even though the Swedish language was so close. And we also met Finnish Swedes who thought it was really fun to talk to us. Maybe especially in Helsingfors, there are a lot of Finnish Swedes there, but the majority are Finnish Finns.

So... Yeah. And... Yeah. I'm not going to talk too much about one country, so we can move on. But yeah. Finland is cool. And I feel like we have a good friendship. Next on the list is actually Iceland.

And of course it is not such a large part in absolute numbers, but in relative numbers Iceland is actually third. So that means that maybe not so many people in Iceland listen to Swedish on this podcast. But compared to the Icelandic population, which is like 300,000, it's like third largest in the world. I have been to Iceland as well, I was there a few years ago. And it's a really cool country when it comes to nature. I think it's the coolest country in the world when it comes to nature. There are volcanoes, black beaches, geysers and glaciers and stuff. So that was really cool and there are these cool buildings as well. There is this church

in Reykjavik that I don't remember what it's called, but it was also really cool with a really cool orgel in there too. And it was interesting, we we did a little road trip along the southern coast, all the way to the city of Thor, I think it was called. And there was some kind of I think it was like 8 degrees or something and I didn't have enough clothes with me. So I borrowed, I was there with my mom and the first podcast episodes I made about this Iceland trip. I can absolutely recommend this one, I recommend checking out Iceland. There is a lot of tourism there and it's pretty tough for such a small country to have so much tourism and you notice that it has changed a bit because we saw signs that you have to take your hands in and pick up your stuff and stuff like that. We weren't at Blue Lagoon because the people we talked to there said it was mostly for tourists and stuff. So we tried to find a natural hot spring in nature and we found some random place place in a mountain where there was a pool where the water came from a natural source.

So we swam there, it was a bit cool. I notice that I talk more about my own experiences than about the country itself. But it's more interesting when I've actually been there. But the next country on the list I haven't been to is Estonia. Estonia is number four on this list. And what do I know about Estonia. Yes, the capital is Tallinn and the language is, I don't know if you say Estonian or Estonian actually, but the language is close to Finnish. Once, I think it was a Finnish person who said that ethnic sounds like a full Finnish. Yeah, it might be the same thing that Swedes have with Norwegian and Danish. Danish sounds like they have porridge in their mouths, blah blah blah.

That's not what I personally think. I like the Danish language a lot. But of course, between these countries there are a lot of jokes and stuff. So between Sweden, Norway and Denmark we have a lot of jokes. And I can imagine that there are also between Finland and Estonia, because it is two countries that are close to each other, with languages that are very close relatives. And I think there are about two million people living there. I saw that recently when I was looking at the statistics, but I don't remember exactly. But I think there are about two million people living there. I know that it is very well adapted for the digital age.

You can get a digital visa. It's also preferable to start a company there. You don't pay very high taxes. I have a friend who started his company in Estonia just to make it profitable. Good with low taxes and stuff. And yes, Estonia has also been part of Sweden, so we have a common history there too. What comes next? The next country is Lettland.

Yes, that was the first part of this episode and the next part will be in two days. And if you are interested in Language Lock-in Bootcamp, we will hold a free Q&A meeting where you can ask questions to me and my colleagues about the bootcamp and we have two times for that right now. So it's Sunday, March 16th, at 3.00 p.m. Swedish time. So, Sunday, March 16th,

at 3.00 p.m. Swedish time. And we have the day after, that is, Monday, March 17th, at 7.00 Swedish time. So the second case is Monday, March 17th, at 7.00. I leave a link in the description for how to register for these meetings. I hope to see you then. Have a good time!