Pitch Perfect Wannabe

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with two kinds of music:  show tunes and a cappella music.

As you can imagine, I was way cool...

An opportunity popped up out of the blue last week to audition for a local a cappella group.  I'd been considering trying to find a choir to sing with, and I've always wanted to try a cappella, but I hadn't really gotten around to taking more than a passing glance around the Copenhagen music scene.

But when I saw a posting looking for a soprano for this group, I responded without even thinking.

A few days later, I got word back that they wanted me to come in for an audition on December 12 (that's tomorrow, for those of you keeping track).  They sent along music for two songs that they wanted me to learn, one of which is in Swedish.

Oh, by the way, my Danish module 2 exam is also tomorrow.

Busy day coming up.

For now, I'm working on learning the songs, focusing mostly on the words for the Swedish one.

It would be a lot easier if the puppy didn't think I was howling in pain every time I started singing.  Every time, he stops what he's doing and jumps up to try to lick my face.

It's sweet, but... not helpful.

And speaking of the pup, he's been having a blast with the snow lately.  Here's a recent romp in the dog park:

Studieskolen: Prepping for Danish Module 2 Test

The test to finish module 2 for Danish at Studieskolen sort of snuck up on me.

All of a sudden, it's less than a week away.

The whole process has both been spelled out for us and remains shrouded in mystery, so today I'll fill you in on what I know about the process.

The module 2 test for Danish is provided by the government, not by the school.  So everyone trying to move on to module 3 will be taking the same test.

There's a lot more to it than the quick-and-painless oral exam for module 1, which took less than 10 minutes.  This one is set to take a couple of hours, and is broken down into 4 parts:

1 - Writing: We'll likely have to compose an email about a given topic.  We did a practice run in class yesterday where we composed an email to some friends about our Danish class detailing what we do in class, homework, our teacher, our classmates, etc.  There may also be some fill-in-the-blank worksheets to complete for this section.  The practice we did for that was shockingly simple.
2 - Listening: In this section we'll listen to some audio of people speaking Danish and have to answer questions or match up correct answers or fill in blanks as it relates back to said audio.
3 - Reading: This will involve reading various texts and once again include things like answering questions, matching up correct answers, and filling in blanks.  Our teacher also mentioned that we'll have one section that involves crossing out sentences in a text that don't make sense with the context
4 - Speaking:  During module 2, we've been given 3 short novellas to read.  As part of our spoken exam, we'll give the teacher a list of the 3 books we've read and two other topics (either from essays we've written or informational texts in our textbook), and she will choose one at random.  The idea here is that we walk into the test able to talk about any of the 5 topics, but we only talk about one.  We go into the spoken exam in pairs, so that we can also have a dialogue with one of our classmates as part of our "grade."

Actually, the tests aren't given a grade.  You either pass, or you fail.  Failing means repeating module 2.2 and trying again after another 6 weeks of classes.

Passing, of course, means moving on to module 3.

I'd kind of prefer the latter.

Christmas in Denmark: First Impressions

Back home in America, the Christmas season starts earlier and earlier each year.  As early as September, stores are putting out Christmas decorations or stocking the shelves with holiday-related kitsch.

And every year, radio stations have an unofficial race to see who can switch to 24-hour Christmas music first.  Once they do, all of the other stations who'd planned to do so rush to change their format until after the New Year.

And don't get me started on the ridiculousness of Black Friday.

As I'm sure a lot of Americans will agree, the holidays can be an extremely stressful time.  Have to get the best gifts for the best price, have to find something unique, have to impress the family and the friends and bake (or buy, in my case) more cookies and pies than necessary.

Call me a Scrooge if you will, but it's been a while since I was actually a fan of Christmas.

In Denmark, though, it seems to me a much nicer thing.  A few tasteful decorations go up here and there in November, but most wait until December 1.  And the decorations that do go up are so much less garish.  It just strikes me as a much more subdued, tasteful thing, and less of a competition to see who has the most "cheer."

As far as Christmas traditions in Denmark, I don't really know much about them yet.  I can tell you that Danes generally do their celebrating on Christmas Eve, as opposed to Christmas Day.

And then there is the company Julefrokost.

I have yet to experience one myself, but these are Christmas parties hosted by companies all over Denmark.  Technically, "Julefrokost" means "Christmas lunch," but it's generally more of an afternoon-into-evening-into-early-morning kind of thing.

And they're notorious.

It's traditional for employees and their bosses to eat and drink more than is good for them, and to act out.  Rumors abound about how the divorce rate jumps up right after Christmas because of all of the Julefrokost indiscretions, and how bosses and employees are known to regularly hook up at these parties and then never speak of it again.

I'm sure that's the case at some of them.  In general, though, it sounds a bit like a "big fish" story to me. People love to appear to have a wilder life than they actually have.

This Danish Christmas season started with a little bit of snow here in Copenhagen, so I thought I'd share the latest picture of our puppy, Wooster.  Here he is, enjoying his first snow day:

How to Learn Danish From Your Dog

I don't think I realized how rarely I actually spoke to Danes until I started speaking to them every day.

In fact, the only times I really even heard Danish spoken was either by my classmates and teacher in my Danish classes, or when I overheard conversations while out and about.  I would generally tune out the latter, assuming I wouldn't understand anyway.

Now, however, Danes come up to me and start conversations almost every day.

How have I achieved this sudden conversational miracle?  After all, Danes are not known for being terribly outgoing while amongst strangers (unless they've had a few drinks, but that's true of anyone).

Here's the secret:  Find yourself a tiny, adorable puppy (He's so adorable that he now has his own YouTube channel).

I take my high energy puppy out for a walk 3 times a day, so I have conversations with strangers every day now.  And since they're the ones starting the conversation, and I'm tall and blonde, they have no reason to assume that I am not Danish.

Now, I'll be honest, a lot of the time I still have to stop them and explain that my Danish isn't very good.  But if I understand what they're asking, and know the answer in Danish, I'm actually able to have short conversations in Danish!

Granted, I hear a lot of the same phrases every day.  "Han er så sød!" is the most common.  It means, "He is so cute!"  I also commonly hear questions about how old he is, and if it's a boy or a girl, and what kind of dog is he.  Just being able to respond to a few simple questions has helped to boost my confidence and also seem to be helping me to tune my ear to everyday Danish as well.  While I can't always respond, and I still don't understand a lot of the words that people are saying, I find that I am suddenly having more luck with understanding the gist of what people are saying.

In my mind, this is one of the biggest reasons that it's so difficult to learn Danish while outside of Denmark.  The sound of the language is so different from what folks outside of Scandinavia are used to that it takes some getting used to.  And unless you hear a lot of different people speaking the language on a regular basis, this can be extremely difficult to do.

So, my advice if you find yourself in Denmark and don't have a lot of Danish colleagues or university classmates to listen to:

Get yourself a tiny adorable dog.  Like this one:

Updated Comment Policy

Hello all!  A reader recently brought to my attention that it was quite difficult to comment on my blog posts.  In response, I've decided to open up commenting on my blog to everyone!

I do reserve the right to change the comment policy again if things get too spammy or trolly, of course.

Feel free to re-read and comment on old posts!

The Shortest "Must See in Copenhagen" List Ever

My in-laws were in town this weekend, visiting from England.  They'd been here once before, so it was actually a little bit difficult to think of things to show them.

That may sound strange.  European capital city, tons to do, right?  Well, sort of.

Copenhagen is a lovely city, with plenty to see.  But it doesn't have the spectacular sights that many other European capital cities have.  The few sights that it does have can usually be seen within a day or two:

- The Little Mermaid statue (which most people are generally disappointed by for one reason or another.  It's either too small, too large, too close to shore, surrounded by too many tourists, etc.),  Probably best seen from one of the boat tours that leave from Nyhavn, as you can then also take in some of Copenhagen's interesting modern architecture (The opera house, the "black diamond" library, etc.)

- Nyhavn (meaning "new port" in Danish, this is a line of bars and restaurants lining the lovely port seen in the background of this blog); as I mentioned above, you can hop on a boat tour from here, or you can eat or have a beer at one of the cafes.  In the warmer months, the locals bring their own beer and sit along the water, while the tourists generally sit in the (more expensive) cafes.

- Helsingør (better known to Shakespeare readers as Elsinore, or Hamlet's home town) can be reached by taking a quick train north.  The castle there is lovely, and the town center is also quite nice.

- Christiania (Copenhagen's hippy commune); I actually haven't been yet.  I have no good excuse other than that I've had other than that I've had other priorities, but my Danish teacher mentioned possibly taking us there for the final module 2 class, which is after we've had our test.

- Noma (foodies will recognize this as one of the best restaurants in the world, with prices and a reservation wait list that reflect this); this is another place that I have yet to see for myself.  Maybe some day.

- Strøget, or The Walking Street; this is the shopping center in Copenhagen.  Lots of stores (both local and international) and lots of restaurants and cafes.  During the day, it's almost always packed with people.  I prefer to walk it at dusk or after dark, when there's a little more room to breath.

- Tivoli; I almost forgot this one, which is silly considering I was just there last week.  Tivoli is the 2nd oldest amusement park in the world, opened in 1843.  Wikipedia tells me that the oldest is also here in Denmark, but Tivoli is the one to see.  When I was there last week, they were just setting it up for the Christmas season, and it was really nice.  Christmas decor is so much more tasteful here in Denmark than it tends to be in the US.

Like any capital city, Copenhagen has lovely art museums, and like most European cities it also has its palaces and castles that are worth a look.  And I'm sure there are plenty of sights that I've missed.  But these are the top few, in my mind.

When it comes right down to it, though, Copenhagen's culture of "hyggelig," or coziness, makes it more of a nice place to settle down and live, rather than an exciting city to spend a week-long holiday.

It doesn't help that it's an extremely expensive city, making shopping and eating out every day a bit of a financial burden.

The Theater and The Theatre

I took in some light-hearted culture this week.

I really enjoy going to the movies and to the theatre, but I haven't had much chance to since moving to Denmark.

In fact, on Sunday I went to the movies for the first time since we arrived.  My husband and I decided to have a date day, and went off to the Palads Teatret in central Copenhagen to see Skyfall before going to dinner.  I had to ask my classmates the following day about some of the differences in going to the movies here.  Turns out, America is the oddball when it comes to seating in movie theaters.  In America, you buy your ticket and then go sit wherever you want.  I was surprised by the assigned seating here in Denmark, but it turns out that's the norm in many other places as well.  I have to say, I kind of like it.  No need to worry about getting to the theater an hour early to get a good seat for a popular movie.  The screen and theater itself were also far smaller than what I'm used to.  It felt more like going to see an independent movie at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston.

In class on Monday morning, a classmate asked if I had any interest in going to see the Crazy Christmas Cabaret in Tivoli on Tuesday night.  I didn't know anything about the show, but I'm always up for a trip to the theatre.  It turns out that the Crazy Christmas Cabaret is in its 30th year.  It's an English language comedy show that has become extremely popular.  This years theme was Hitchcock movies, and my classmate and I had a good time.  The show was silly and completely ridiculous, but fun.

The biggest downside, though... the woman sitting in the seat directly behind me who thought EVERYTHING that happened on the stage was the most hilarious thing that she'd ever seen.  That in itself wouldn't bother me, but her laugh... I've never heard anything like it.  Her laugh alone was louder than the combined laughs of the rest of the audience.  There were moments when it was clear that the actors on stage were struggling to keep focus.  Good for her for clearly enjoying life more than most people, but... yeesh.

All of that being said, I did enjoy my movie- and theatre-going experiences this week.  I enjoyed them enough that I might just hit up a matinee in an hour or so.

Don't judge me for going to see Breaking Dawn on opening day...

Or do.  That's fine.  I deserve it.