During their education all pupils in Swedish upper secondary school are supposed tocome into contact with some teaching in the neighbouring languages, Danish and Norwegian.The aim of this study is to investigate with the aid of interviews ho fouractive upper secondary school teachers perceive the neighbouring languages in terms ofthe central questions of teaching and learning: How? What? and Why? The studyfocuses on the course Swedish 2, a subject taught by the four teachers. The result showsthat the teachers have different perceptions of the neighbouring language module andthat there are different reasons underlying this. The teachers’ own training in this varies,and this affects their own outlook on this module in the Swedish 2 course, so that lessteaching is devoted to the module. Time is another factor that makes teachers feel thatthe neighbouring language module is a less important part of the teaching in Swedish.The teachers’ perceptions of the neighbouring languages can be viewed as both positiveand negative. The perceptions in this study are based on the informants’ experience andpersonal preferences.