Monday, September 19, 2011

How to Learn Danish Without Really Trying

On Saturday night, my fiance and I had company over for dinner.  Now, in our house, that means an aperitif of gin and tonic to start, followed by several shared bottles of wine with dinner.

Some time in the middle of the meal, my fiance said something in Danish.  For the life of us, neither can now remember what the phrase was, but right after he said it, I said "Oh, that means..." and then I translated the phrase.

It was one of those moments where I said the translation, stopped, and then said "How did I know that?"

The answer?

Booze.

Apparently, I'm pretty good at understanding Danish after a few drinks.  And as a Danish friend pointed out after I mentioned this, it may also help with my pronunciation.  In fact, my fiance just agreed that "the Danes rarely speak Danish when they're sober."

Were I much of a drinker, I would say I could learn the language much faster if I just stayed drunk more of the time.

Sadly, it seems am going to have to continue to learn the hard way.

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