Friday, August 31, 2012

The Sad Horns of Confidence

Recently, I went to lunch with some of my classmates.

At first, the waitress was speaking to us entirely in Danish, so I thought to myself, "Self, you should order in Danish."

Glancing over the menu, I realized that I actually knew how to order in Danish.  Simple stuff.  No problem.  All I had to say was "Jeg vil gerne have en burrito med kylling.  Tak skal du have!"

No problem.

And yet, when came to take our orders, what did I say?

"I'll have the burrito with chicken, please.  Thanks..."

*cue Price is Right sad horns*

It's an issue of confidence at this point.  I worry that I'm not pronouncing things quite right, and that whoever I'm speaking to won't understand.  So I stick to English, even when I know the Danish.

Not to mention the fact that I worry that, if my Danish is decent enough that they don't switch to English right away, they'll then ask me a question in Danish that I don't understand or can't answer in Danish.

Hopefully, I'll look back at this post in a few months and think, "Remember when I was too scared to speak Danish to the Danes?  That was silly."

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