I am pinning this comment because this video is taking off almost 5 years after I made it.
2026 update: I have just completed a quick and simple guide on learning a language to true fluency, available as an eBook:
https://payhip.com/b/ghea2

The rest of the things I want to say:

1. This video is almost 5 years old but it kind of blowing up now. More than 3 years after making this video was the first time I even WENT to Sweden. Since then, I've been a few times. So for those making various comments about my Swedish... this is my Swedish 5 years ago, not now. For those making the even DUMBER comments about "If Sweden is so horrible, you should leave!" - Great, but try watching the video next time. I had never been to Sweden when I made this video, and now that I have been 4 times, I like Sweden a lot. If you think I'm denegrating Sweden here, så förstår du inte engelska.

2. Ä vs E - yes I know, I said Ä wrong. I was actually speaking English, and was immediately aware that I'd said the wrong thing but this video didn't have a script and I was in a flow that was worth continuting just to see if the take ended up OK, and it did. Curiously, no one seems to have noticed (probably because they were too busy making their very important corrections in the comments) that I actually said "O" in straight-up Australian English. I didn't even try to say "O" in Swedish because I was like "I've already screwed up Ä..." - So yes, it was wrong, yes, I know the difference. You guys are going to keep commenting anyway but I can at least point you to this comment.

3. Min broder - see Sundqvist's comment with 300+ likes and my replies about this. (Again: this video is 5 years old).

4. Kommer att vs kommer döda... THAT WAS THE JOKE. The joke is that character 1 is a beginner and finds grammar difficult, but character 2 just decides to be a pedant on them. In my natural speech I would say "Den här grammatiken kommerådöda mig..." so that "att" would be there in spirit, but the people saying that both are acceptable are not understanding that this was a joke. I would have thought the very "påpekande" tone and the laughing afterwards got the idea across but anyway...

5. The use of English. I didn't say that this is the ONLY reason it's ever used, or even that the tone being implied is always humourous. I know that there are many other reasons it's used. But my Swedish is good enough to separate when it's being used because Astrid or Anders can't think of the word in Swedish, or when the English word has basically replaced the Swedish word... and when they are saying something like a line from a movie to be funny, or to convey some kind of different connotation. Also to the people who say that my friend wasn't joking about his other friend... Um, in Australia we say "I guess you had to be there." You only know what he said. I know how he said it, his facial expression, and how he generally speaks. (He almost never uses English, for one thing.)
People are taking what I say too exactly, especially considering you can tell there was no script and I shrugged and used mitigating words a lot.

6. Finnish. I did NOT say Finnish was a Norse language. I wrote that it was a Nordic language, as in, spoken in a Nordic country. Do I think it's similar to the other three? No. I have numerous videos on more than one YouTube channel in which I mention that it has nothing to do with the Norse languages and it was in fact a Finnish woman (not Finno-Swedish, just Finnish) who got me into language learning in the first place. I am well aware of the differences. (Edit: 5 years later, I actually know some Finnish too.)
So why did I say that these tips could help? Well, I mention a few resources that carry across Swedish and Finnish, such as Nextory and Storytel. If I were to start learning Finnish, I would take a similar approach to what I've been doing for the last two years in Swedish. Note that this is exactly the same reason that I DIDN'T include Icelandic. The resources are not the same (despite the languages sharing common roots). https://youtu.be/J-FSN4U2l8U?t=350
https://youtu.be/-V4QkqMemtI?t=36

7. More oftare and more bättre. Again, THAT'S THE JOKE. In Australia (and to a lesser extent, other English speaking countries), when you say "That's how that's done" or "That's how you say that", it is a sign that it is definitely NOT how you do something or say something. e.g. "Go and get the car from the... you know, the car holding place in the house."
"You mean the garage?"
"Yes. The car holding place in the house is how you say that."
It wasn't a redundancy error - it was a deliberate error because I started saying "more often" but then said "often" in Swedish so then I thought I'd just round that out by also doing it on "better". Note how "more better" would also be wrong in English.

Me, a native swede reading the video title: Hm, yes, what SHOULD I know before learning Swedish? I better find out.

A friend of mine, not a Swede, is sort of a globe trotter and had a funny comment about Swedes. "No matter where you go in the world, in the most remote places in the world, you will always find a Swede there having a coffe."

How to spot a native Swede: "Why the hell are you learning Swedish?"

It's something quite beautiful and fascinating to watch your mother tongue be analyzed by a non-native speaker.

As a swede we love hearing people talk about our country, language, culture or anything swedish related. If you speak about sweden there will always be a swede that heard the conversation and immediately run towards you and join the conversation

The reason a Swede would describe someone as "acquired taste" (e.g. go to English) is because to many Swedes it is deeply uncomfortable to describe someone or something someone cares about in any negative terms at all. By switching to English it turns it into kind of a joke but also distances you from it, allowing a Swede to communicate to another Swede what the Swede actually wants to say without triggering the "oh no I can't say that" filter

Making your Swedish aura known and the Swedes will come out.  Crying.

On svt play there is "Swedish news in easy Swedish" or "Nyheter på lätt Svenska" might help ppl trying to learn

Saying "Sorry, jag blev lite upprörd över det där..." is probably the most swedish thing you can say lmao

I'm kind of happy to finally hear someone saying that Sweden is somewhat edgy

>a loli store
"wtf"
>what americans call a candy store
"oh... oh... lol" * nods in american*

Born and raised Swede, it never crossed my mind that women speak with more "melody" than men. I'll definitely look for this pattern in the future to see if it's true. :)

That bookshelf is more organized than my whole life

The REAL killer is intonation.
"Stegen" means both "the ladder" or "the steps (walking)"
Or "banan" is either "banana" or "a track".
"Anden" is "the duck" or "the spirit".
Intonation means everything and is seriously extremely hard to nail down.
Accent and pronounciation can be spot on, but if intonation is off...
Boy, it's really funny..😃😀😀

Thank you for this video. I'm a 64 years old man and I started learning Swedish TODAY. Thank you for your advices. Greetings from Belgium

As a Norwegian, I guess it's "easier"(?) to find Scandinavian-speaking people, because Scandinavians travel a looot, especially to countries like Australia :)

My brain gets extremely confused when you switch to Swedish because it's so good.

Uttalet är utan tvekan det svåraste med svenskan. Även om man blir flytande och med nästintill perfekt uttal så kan svenskar ändå höra att en person är utländsk. Jag tror att folk blir imponerade inte på grund av hur bra ens svenska är, utan att man har velat lära sig språket från första början :)

The thing about Swedes being everywhere, I agree. As a swede I'd like to ADD that it goes further than that. I come from a medium sized town and no matter where I go in sweden, I'll find someone from my town. Not even looking for it, someone will just appear.