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Comment by robin_reala | Hacker News Reader

Out of interest, do you think it’d be easy to get into the startup scene with minimal Swedish? My wife is Swedish and we have in the past considered a move to Stockholm but my Swedish is absolutely not fluent (although were we to do it I’d enrol in an evening course as soon as we moved).

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Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.

Hah, yeah, I know the Swede’s proclivity for English :) Just wasn’t sure that it’d be acceptable to speak it in a business context. That’s interesting for sure.

I've been in Stockholm for 1.5 years now. When I arrived, I didn't know a single word of swedish (I've taken classes since, but not in a very productive way), and things have been just fine. Like another said, I'm not improving so much because I have very few incentives to do so.

Our monthly Python meetings in Gothenburg are almost always in English. In part because it was founded by two native English speakers, in part because there are other non-Swedish speakers who come, in part because many of the software courses are in English, and in part because almost all of the literature and documentation is in English.

And of course, in large part because this is effectively a bilingual country. In the years I've been here, I've only talked with a handful of native-born Swedes who did not speak English. Those were older people who had learned German as a student. (There are non-native-born Swedes, like immigrants from Chile who speak fluent Spanish and Swedish, whose English can be poor.)

So yes, it would be easy.

I agree with Matti - doing business in Stockholm without knowing Swedish is no problem. Swedes are generally fluent in English and most often they enjoy speaking it. I know several foreigners who run startups here without bothering to learn the local language.

I had to go to Stockholm a few years ago. It was somewhat short notice, so I didn't have time to brush up on my Swedish. I knew how to say "thank you", and "Sweden", and that was that.

On the first evening I had a bit of difficulty operating the keycard outside the hotel. A chap came up to me and started talking, presumably explaining how to use it. "Murgle burgle burgle wurgle furgle", he said, or something like that. I must have looked blank for about 0.1 seconds before he slipped, with barely a beat, into flawless, unaccented English. And the first English words out of his mouth were, "Oh, sorry..." :)

(This was not a unique experience. Even the petrol station attendants spoke great English. You don't even get that in England.)

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