Studieskolen - Module 3.1, Words, Words, Words

I'm a little over two weeks into module 3 now.

So far, so... okay.

I'm still following along well enough, but I still have a tough time deciphering our younger teacher's accent.

The good news is, from what I can tell, we've basically learned all of the major grammatical rules.  It seems that module 3 focuses more on expanding our vocabulary and solidifying the grammar rules that we've learned.  And the latter is certainly working for me.  Rules that I'd learned in module 2 but had always had a tough time remembering seem to be making more sense to me now.  And I'm glad to be finally learning more words.

Danish is a much more compact language than English.  While some sources claim that English has over 1 million words, Danish has 150,000 at the most.  I think one major difference is that English has a lot more words that are obsolete, while Danish uses a far higher percentage of its words on a regular basis.

Pronunciation is still a bit of an issue for all of us in the class.  We can all understand each other fairly well, but Danes (our younger teacher specifically) seems to have a tough time understanding us some of the time.  Danish is not a language spoken by foreigners very often, so Danes often have a hard time understanding the language when it's spoken with any kind of accent, no matter how subtle.

There are some words in Danish, though, that make a lot of sense and should be considered for stealing by the English language.  For example, the Danish word for "mother" is "mor" and the word for "father" is "far."  Simple enough.  And then they take it a step further with grandparents.  Your mother's mother? "Mormor."  Mother's father? "Morfar."  And of course, "farfar" and "farmor."  It makes so much sense, and saves time from having to clarify if you're talking about your "maternal grandmother" or "paternal grandmother."

On an unrelated note, this is the Facebook page for the Copenhagen Rugby League Football Club.  "Like" it!

Studieskolen - Module 2, Back to School

Okay.

Module 2.

Class started Monday, we this time the classes are longer, but only 3 days a week.

So far so good.  It mostly feels like a continuation of module 1, since we're in the same room with the same teacher, and almost all of the same students.  We have a few new people, and a handful who didn't continue with us for one reason or another, but it's mostly the same.

We're starting to get a bit more into the nitty-gritty of Danish grammar, and that's good.  I wish there was a bit more focus on vocabulary, but that's probably just me being impatient.

I've found it kind of funny that the few Danish speaking people who I've told that I passed module 1 have assumed that I am now pretty much fluent.  From friends to my hairdresser, as soon as I passed the module 1 test, they started speaking to me and sending emails in Danish that were way beyond my current skill level.

I think it's easy to forget how long it really does take to get to a conversational level.  I'm definitely not there.  I can understand most of what my teacher says, but that's because she knows what she's taught us, and tries not to stray too far from that when she speaks to us in Danish.

We've been told that module 2 is longer than module 1.  Twice as long, in fact.  So it won't be until December that we take our test for module 2.  My impatience to be fluent made that news a bit frustrating.

But they know better than I do how long it takes to learn the language.  Best to trust the professionals.