This morning, I had a nice surprise in the newspapers.

First, let me give you a bit of context.  It is one of my personal goal to know 4 languages.  I already know very well English and French, and I also have been studying Spanish for a while.  Early in 2013, I decided that I wanted to start a fourth language.

I live in Canada and have been exposed to French and English, so learning those two was not a big problem.  I chose Spanish because I often travel for my vacation to countries that speak Spanish.  Actually, I started to learn Spanish during my last trip to Costa Del Sol in Spain a few years ago.

However, Spanish and French are reasonably close to each others.  I can guess many words just because I know French.  So I wanted a new challenge and a discovery adventure.  I wanted a fourth language that would be so different… When I say that, sometimes people say “How about Chinese?”… OK, different, but not that different.

So I decided to learn Swedish.  (If you want to ask Why?, I’ll just say “Why not!”).  It is so different that my progression is much slower than Spanish.  I just barely passed the 1,000 words level last week

 

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Learning a new language is also a nice way to discover a new culture and a new country (or countries, for Spanish).  I love music so I started to listen to music in Swedish.  So far I am having more trouble finding music in Swedish, compared to music in Spanish.  Anyway, it is probably just me (or the fact that there are more people speaking Spanish around the world).

sweden flagI also did some reading about Sweden.

In those reading, I found the bridge that was built between Malmö and Copenhagen.  The bridge was completed in July 2000.  I was actually searching for Malmö on Google Maps, only because one of my language learning exercise was talking about Malmo.  Being from Canada, I had no clue where Malmö was.  Then I noted the bridge, but also the fact that I couldn’t see part of it.

I asked a friend who lives in Sweden, and was told that it is because part of it is a tunnel.

 

This bridge is very impressive.  I would live to visit and see it with my own eyes.  I would love to take photos, another one of my hobbies.  Maybe one day.

The bridge is called the Øresund Bridge.  In Denmark and Sweden the bridge is usually referred to as Øresundsbroen and Öresundsbron respectively. The bridge company insists on Øresundsbron, a compromise between the two languages.

You can read more on the bridge on Wikipedia.

 

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