Sometimes two languages are close enough that speakers of one understand the other. But it's not always fair. It's easier for Danish speakers to understand Swedish than the other way around. Same goes for Portuguese and Spanish. Many other languages, too. How come?

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~ Briefly ~

In this animation I'll share a couple cases of this strange uneven understanding. I'll tell you about a time I witnessed it myself, then take out a map and journey to Scandinavia, where this kind of thing is normal. With Scandinavian languages in hand, we'll think about the terms "mutual intelligibility" and "asymmetric intelligibility".

We'll see three factors at work: attitude, exposure, language. Journeying into that last one, we'll look at results of studies that try to relate Scandinavia's linguistic differences to asymmetric difficulties in understanding. We'll hit a snag that requires a bit more research before concluding it's not entirely about the languages themselves.

I'll end with some quick examples, including ones that patrons pointed out when they voted for this video.

~ Credits ~

Art, animation, narration and some of the music by Josh from NativLang

Doc full of sources for claims made and images, music, sfx, fonts used:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o...

Music that's not by me:

Tickled Pink
Josh Woodward - http://joshwoodward.com/

Marty Gots a Plan, Silver Flame, Thinking Music, Cheery Monday
Kevin MacLeod - https://www.incompetech.com