Cadence

As a swede learning German I totally agree with you! The languages are very similar and I think it makes the learning process a whole lot easier. There are also a lot of words that are basically (or exactly) the same in both languages so it makes it quite easy to understand German even though i haven't actaully learned it properly yet. However I find it much easier to understand written and spoken (slowly) German than it is to speak or write German myself.

Interesting topic! As a swede I should know the answer for this but it sure is hard to explain pronunciation in writing.. I guess "anden av anden" ("the spirit of the duck") would be a though one..

English is most definently part of my education and it feels like it always has been. I started learning english in school in 2nd grade when I was 8 years old and it is still part of my education now at 20. In Sweden it is basically mandatory to learn english and I think you'll find very few swedes that don't know the english language well. At least well enough to get by, not everyone is completely fluent of course. Apart from it being a mandatory subject in school I think many swedes learn a lot of english from music and especially from watching TV and movies in english. Unlike in Germany we don't dub movies and TV to Swedish (apart from childrens programs) so even if there are swedish subtitles you're bound to catch up on some english too.