Although I'm Danish and so also Scandinavian (sort of), I too, has a hard time, (sometimes
) pronouncing Norwegian & Swedish names. This has to do with the fact the Swedish & Norwegian have some sounds that is totally different from the sounds in Danish. [And where the Danish word for doctor would be 'læge', the Swedish word would be 'läke', meaning that you get a 'harder' k sound than the more soft g sound in Danish].
When I went to university I had to take Swedish and Norwegian since I studied Nordic Litterature (Danish). I didn'y think much of tit except that Norwegian has a sort of ch sound (I think) like in Lasse Kjus and Swedish has the the sound in 'sju' (seven) which the Danes simply can't say - and this amuses the Swedish people very much
On the other hand, most Norwegians and Swedish people can't say
*rødgrød med fløde*. (it sort of strawberry mash with fresh cream).
Not because they can't, but because this sentence simply have to
many soft sound in them. The d in fløde and rød is soft like the english 'th' .
This is exactly why the Swedish is somewhat easier to learn as a foreigner
than the Danish language is.
