It's been hot and humid in Copenhagen over the last couple of days. While 70+ degrees (fahrenheit) never used to feel especially hot, here in Copenhagen it feels oppressive. Something about the combination of the angle of the sun and the high humidity.
That, and the total lack of air conditioning anywhere.
It was in these sweaty conditions, and accompanied by the seemingly unending sounds of construction outside of the Studieskolen building, that we took the first part of our module 4 exam.
The test was fairly similar to previous exams, although it seemed to take much longer. We started with one of two written bits, for which I wrote a letter about where and how I grew up to a fictional person compiling stories of people's childhoods. We then moved on to the listening portion, in which we listened to various passages and answered questions based on them. This was then followed by the reading and understanding portion, where we had a variety of tasks involving reading or scanning through texts and answering questions or filling in blanks. The teacher was kind enough to break up the two long writing assignments, so we finished with the second of these. The final written task asked that we write an article for the fictional school newspaper discussing the pros and cons of volunteering to visit lonely elderly people in connection with the Red Cross.
We were given the test without any breaks, and the whole thing took 3 hours.
I was sweaty, tired, and starving when I left, but I'm 99% sure that I did just fine.
Providing I didn't somehow manage to bomb the whole thing, and that I don't completely forget how to speak Danish in anticipation of the spoken bit of the test on Monday, my plan is to attend module 5.1 over the Summer. The dilemma I briefly had was that my current teacher, who I have learned so much from, is taking the six-week Summer break and not continuing on to module 5.1 until August.
The solution?
I will most likely repeat module 5.1 again in August, because he's definitely the best teacher that I've had here so far. Plus, the more time I can spend in module 5 before the PD3 exam in November, the more likely I will be to get the minimum 10 required to move on to module 6.
Whatever it takes. Within reason.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Studieskolen - Module 4.2, EXAM PANIC!
They've gone and scheduled our module 4 exam. It'll be broken up into two bits. The first bit will be a week from this Friday, and the last bit the following Monday.
As far as the actual make-up of the test, I don't have too many details. What I do know is that, much like the module 1 exam, we will have a spoken portion in which we are given a topic at random (from a list of three books we've read and two topics that we've prepared), and we are supposed to talk about the topic for two minutes, followed by questions from the teacher.
As far as the rest of the exam, for now I assume it will be much like the previous exams: some reading comprehension, some listening bits, and a written portion involving writing letters and/or emails.
To be honest, I'm not especially panicked about this exam.
It's the module 5 exam that's stressing me.
We were given Monday's class to decide on and research the two topics of our choosing for the spoken section of the test, and I found myself sitting at a computer next to our new teacher. I took the opportunity to grill him on what would be needed to proceed to module 6 after the PD3 exam at the end of module 5.
He explained the grading system, which is on a scale of 12. To pass the PD3, you only need to score a 2. In order to get Danish citizenship, you need to pass the test with a score of at least 4. In order to be allowed to proceed to module 6, which I would need in order to take university courses in Danish...
I'll need to score a 10.
So, the plan is to seriously buckle down. I've downloaded a couple of language-learning apps onto my iPad (the most useful of which, so far, is called Memrise, and teaches languages and loads of other topics), and plan to jump back into the Rosetta Stone practice as well. My main problem is, as always, remembering the vocabulary. I find myself looking up words a dozen times and still not being able to remember them the next time.
My plan, as well, is to try to continue to take Danish classes through the Summer break. There's only one day class offered at Studieskolen during the break, and my teacher admitted that it's entirely possible that there won't be room for everyone and that there's nothing I can do to ensure a spot, so...
Just gonna cross my fingers and hope that everyone else decides that they need a Summer vacation.
As far as the actual make-up of the test, I don't have too many details. What I do know is that, much like the module 1 exam, we will have a spoken portion in which we are given a topic at random (from a list of three books we've read and two topics that we've prepared), and we are supposed to talk about the topic for two minutes, followed by questions from the teacher.
As far as the rest of the exam, for now I assume it will be much like the previous exams: some reading comprehension, some listening bits, and a written portion involving writing letters and/or emails.
To be honest, I'm not especially panicked about this exam.
It's the module 5 exam that's stressing me.
We were given Monday's class to decide on and research the two topics of our choosing for the spoken section of the test, and I found myself sitting at a computer next to our new teacher. I took the opportunity to grill him on what would be needed to proceed to module 6 after the PD3 exam at the end of module 5.
He explained the grading system, which is on a scale of 12. To pass the PD3, you only need to score a 2. In order to get Danish citizenship, you need to pass the test with a score of at least 4. In order to be allowed to proceed to module 6, which I would need in order to take university courses in Danish...
I'll need to score a 10.
So, the plan is to seriously buckle down. I've downloaded a couple of language-learning apps onto my iPad (the most useful of which, so far, is called Memrise, and teaches languages and loads of other topics), and plan to jump back into the Rosetta Stone practice as well. My main problem is, as always, remembering the vocabulary. I find myself looking up words a dozen times and still not being able to remember them the next time.
My plan, as well, is to try to continue to take Danish classes through the Summer break. There's only one day class offered at Studieskolen during the break, and my teacher admitted that it's entirely possible that there won't be room for everyone and that there's nothing I can do to ensure a spot, so...
Just gonna cross my fingers and hope that everyone else decides that they need a Summer vacation.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Chatting with Children
Here's a conversation that I had today with a little boy who lives in our building (translated from Danish, as he has not yet started to learn English):
Little boy: What have you been doing today?
Me: I had Danish class this morning.
Little boy: I think you speak Danish well.
Me: Thank you! But there are still a lot of words that I can't understand.
Little boy: Yeah, me too.
All together now... Awwwwwww!
It has actually been really helpful and confidence-building to speak with the children in the neighborhood lately. The language is new-ish enough to them that they don't find it strange or frustrating if there are words I don't understand. In fact, I found myself nervously not unsure about a question that some kids in the dog park asked me a few weeks ago, but they happily obliged me by miming the action of picking up the dog. They were just asking if they could hold the puppy.
I'm getting to the point where I understand quite a lot of what people are saying around me. In fact, I tend to understand more than I think I understand. The trouble comes when someone asks a familiar question in a slightly unfamiliar way, and I completely lose the context and assume they're asking something I won't understand. For example, I was just in the dog park (again) and a little boy asked me how old my dog was. Trouble was, he didn't ask it in the way most people ask, which is "How old is he?" or "Hvor gammel er han?" in Danish. Instead, he asked "How many years is he?" or "Hvor mange år er han?" I knew the words, but wasn't used to being asked that way, so it took me a moment to wrap my head around the question.
It's all just going to take lots of practice.
And I'm going to need to start stepping up my Danish practice and consumption outside of class if I plan to continue on to module 6.
After class today, I asked my teacher if there was anything special I should do in order to continue on to the 6th module, as most people only go through module 5. The big Danish fluency exam takes place after module 5, and only those who want to take university courses in Danish continue on to the 6th. She clarified that I will need to get a very high score on my module 5 exam in order to be allowed to take module 6, so she recommended watching lots of Danish television, reading lots of Danish books and newspapers, and listening to Danish radio. Apparently, once you take and pass your big module 5 exam (known as Prøve i Dansk 3), you cannot be readmitted into module 5 classes without paying for them yourself. So, if I pass the Prøve i Dansk 3, but don't have a high enough score to continue to module 6, I'll have to pay to re-take classes and to re-take the exam.
So... you know...
No pressure.
Little boy: What have you been doing today?
Me: I had Danish class this morning.
Little boy: I think you speak Danish well.
Me: Thank you! But there are still a lot of words that I can't understand.
Little boy: Yeah, me too.
All together now... Awwwwwww!
It has actually been really helpful and confidence-building to speak with the children in the neighborhood lately. The language is new-ish enough to them that they don't find it strange or frustrating if there are words I don't understand. In fact, I found myself nervously not unsure about a question that some kids in the dog park asked me a few weeks ago, but they happily obliged me by miming the action of picking up the dog. They were just asking if they could hold the puppy.
I'm getting to the point where I understand quite a lot of what people are saying around me. In fact, I tend to understand more than I think I understand. The trouble comes when someone asks a familiar question in a slightly unfamiliar way, and I completely lose the context and assume they're asking something I won't understand. For example, I was just in the dog park (again) and a little boy asked me how old my dog was. Trouble was, he didn't ask it in the way most people ask, which is "How old is he?" or "Hvor gammel er han?" in Danish. Instead, he asked "How many years is he?" or "Hvor mange år er han?" I knew the words, but wasn't used to being asked that way, so it took me a moment to wrap my head around the question.
It's all just going to take lots of practice.
And I'm going to need to start stepping up my Danish practice and consumption outside of class if I plan to continue on to module 6.
After class today, I asked my teacher if there was anything special I should do in order to continue on to the 6th module, as most people only go through module 5. The big Danish fluency exam takes place after module 5, and only those who want to take university courses in Danish continue on to the 6th. She clarified that I will need to get a very high score on my module 5 exam in order to be allowed to take module 6, so she recommended watching lots of Danish television, reading lots of Danish books and newspapers, and listening to Danish radio. Apparently, once you take and pass your big module 5 exam (known as Prøve i Dansk 3), you cannot be readmitted into module 5 classes without paying for them yourself. So, if I pass the Prøve i Dansk 3, but don't have a high enough score to continue to module 6, I'll have to pay to re-take classes and to re-take the exam.
So... you know...
No pressure.
Monday, May 27, 2013
A Swedish Sojourn
Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary, so we decided to get away for the weekend.
With Sweden so close, it's felt entirely ridiculous that, after nearly a year, I had still never been. So, we spent the weekend in Malmö.
Malmö is just a short train ride from where we live here in Copenhagen, but it seems quite different. Technically, Copenhagen is the older of the two cities, but since much of Copenhagen was burnt down by the Brits in 1807, there isn't much that remains here that is older than that. Malmö, on the other hand, maintains much of it's old architecture, making it look much more like bits of Germany or Flanders in Belgium.
Those of you who know the infamous Eurovision song competition may be quite familiar with Malmö by now, as it was just held there last weekend. Luckily, we did not get married a week earlier, or it would have been much more difficult (and much more expensive) to get a hotel room. As it was, we managed to get a really lovely room right on Malmö's Lilla Torg, or "little square."
We were literally two doors down from a Spanish restaurant that was recommended by a colleague of my husband's, so we went there for dinner on Friday night. On Saturday, we spent the morning wandering around town, and stumbled upon a really lovely park that was crawling with geese and ducks. Not only that, but it seemed were just in time to see a bit of the Malmö Garden Show in the very same park. Dinner was at a little seafood restaurant (which could have been better, to be honest), followed by a surprisingly good and creative dessert in our hotel restaurant.
Malmö really is a lovely town. There isn't a whole lot to do, but it's got lots of beautiful architecture and a really comfortable vibe. If I had any reason to, I could see myself living there. And in fact, there are a lot of people who live there and work in Copenhagen, because the cost of living is so much lower.
Today, it was back to the grind with Danish class. The first day that we met our new teacher, he said (in regards to how difficult it is to learn Danish), "Det skulle ondt!"
Translated, this means, "It should hurt!"
And boy, does it ever.
With Sweden so close, it's felt entirely ridiculous that, after nearly a year, I had still never been. So, we spent the weekend in Malmö.
Malmö is just a short train ride from where we live here in Copenhagen, but it seems quite different. Technically, Copenhagen is the older of the two cities, but since much of Copenhagen was burnt down by the Brits in 1807, there isn't much that remains here that is older than that. Malmö, on the other hand, maintains much of it's old architecture, making it look much more like bits of Germany or Flanders in Belgium.
Those of you who know the infamous Eurovision song competition may be quite familiar with Malmö by now, as it was just held there last weekend. Luckily, we did not get married a week earlier, or it would have been much more difficult (and much more expensive) to get a hotel room. As it was, we managed to get a really lovely room right on Malmö's Lilla Torg, or "little square."
We were literally two doors down from a Spanish restaurant that was recommended by a colleague of my husband's, so we went there for dinner on Friday night. On Saturday, we spent the morning wandering around town, and stumbled upon a really lovely park that was crawling with geese and ducks. Not only that, but it seemed were just in time to see a bit of the Malmö Garden Show in the very same park. Dinner was at a little seafood restaurant (which could have been better, to be honest), followed by a surprisingly good and creative dessert in our hotel restaurant.
Malmö really is a lovely town. There isn't a whole lot to do, but it's got lots of beautiful architecture and a really comfortable vibe. If I had any reason to, I could see myself living there. And in fact, there are a lot of people who live there and work in Copenhagen, because the cost of living is so much lower.
Today, it was back to the grind with Danish class. The first day that we met our new teacher, he said (in regards to how difficult it is to learn Danish), "Det skulle ondt!"
Translated, this means, "It should hurt!"
And boy, does it ever.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Studieskolen - Module 4.2, A New Hope
The new teacher walked confidently into the room wearing jeans and an open button-down gingham shirt over a plain white t-shirt, looking like a mix between Paul Giamatti and Tim Curry. His hair was wild and curly and his smile was big and full of humor.
I knew immediately that this was going to work out.
From the start it was clear that the new teacher had been teaching Danish longer than our previous teacher. He was infinitely more sure of himself and of the answers he was giving to our questions. Not only that, but his Danish was far easier to understand. Both because his pronunciation was clearer and because he seemed to have a better understanding of which words and phrases we had and had not learned in previous classes.
I already feel more optimistic about the class going forward. To be honest, I had started to seriously lose hope and motivation, and was beginning to wonder if continuing was a waste of time.
It's clear that he's going to be a tough teacher. Strict but kind. Insisting that we speak Danish whenever he's in the classroom, even before class starts and during breaks. But always with a smile on his face.
It's nice to feel a renewed sense of hope.
I knew immediately that this was going to work out.
From the start it was clear that the new teacher had been teaching Danish longer than our previous teacher. He was infinitely more sure of himself and of the answers he was giving to our questions. Not only that, but his Danish was far easier to understand. Both because his pronunciation was clearer and because he seemed to have a better understanding of which words and phrases we had and had not learned in previous classes.
I already feel more optimistic about the class going forward. To be honest, I had started to seriously lose hope and motivation, and was beginning to wonder if continuing was a waste of time.
It's clear that he's going to be a tough teacher. Strict but kind. Insisting that we speak Danish whenever he's in the classroom, even before class starts and during breaks. But always with a smile on his face.
It's nice to feel a renewed sense of hope.
Monday, May 13, 2013
En Film på Dansk
Strange as it feels to say, this is already the last week of module 4.1, and I'll be heading to module 4.2 next week.
Not only that, but it seems like we're changing horses midstream.
Instead of continuing on with our nice-but-frustrating Monday/Wednesday teacher, Studieskolen has altered the class a bit and we will have a brand new teacher next week. We'll still have our other teacher one day a week, but our less experienced teacher is being replaced by someone who has, apparently, been working at the school for many years.
I, for one, am relieved.
So, today was our last class with the aforementioned inexperienced teacher. We spent the first hour of class going over our homework, and took the following two hours to watch a Danish movie.
He asked the class if we would prefer English or Danish subtitles, and I think I was the only one to meekly squeak "...English...!" That's was my insecurity speaking. Everyone else enthusiastically voted for Danish.
So, Danish it was.
We watched a film called "Adams Æbler," (which, as you might have guessed, translates to "Adams Apples). This is a film from 2005 starring famous Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. You might know him from the current American TV serious "Hannibal."
I went into it fully expecting to be completely lost, but I surprised myself. I actually understood most of what was said. To be fair, I would never have been able to figure it out without the subtitles. But with the subtitles, I found that I could follow fairly well.
This gives me hope. And maybe even a tiny bit more confidence.
By the way, speaking of subtitles... It's now a word that I often have difficulty remembering in English. I find myself always wanting to use the danish word (which is "undertekster").
I'm not sure I have room in my brain for both languages, and may eventually forget English completely.
Not only that, but it seems like we're changing horses midstream.
Instead of continuing on with our nice-but-frustrating Monday/Wednesday teacher, Studieskolen has altered the class a bit and we will have a brand new teacher next week. We'll still have our other teacher one day a week, but our less experienced teacher is being replaced by someone who has, apparently, been working at the school for many years.
I, for one, am relieved.
So, today was our last class with the aforementioned inexperienced teacher. We spent the first hour of class going over our homework, and took the following two hours to watch a Danish movie.
He asked the class if we would prefer English or Danish subtitles, and I think I was the only one to meekly squeak "...English...!" That's was my insecurity speaking. Everyone else enthusiastically voted for Danish.
So, Danish it was.
We watched a film called "Adams Æbler," (which, as you might have guessed, translates to "Adams Apples). This is a film from 2005 starring famous Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. You might know him from the current American TV serious "Hannibal."
I went into it fully expecting to be completely lost, but I surprised myself. I actually understood most of what was said. To be fair, I would never have been able to figure it out without the subtitles. But with the subtitles, I found that I could follow fairly well.
This gives me hope. And maybe even a tiny bit more confidence.
By the way, speaking of subtitles... It's now a word that I often have difficulty remembering in English. I find myself always wanting to use the danish word (which is "undertekster").
I'm not sure I have room in my brain for both languages, and may eventually forget English completely.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
A Mixed Bag Round-Up
I've been a bit distracted this month, so it's been a full 2 weeks since my last post. But with April coming to a close, it seems like a good time for a quick round-up of recent events.
Let's go back to April 16th, which is the Danish queen's birthday. It's traditional for her to step out onto the balcony at her palace here in Copenhagen on her birthday and wave at the gathered masses. A girlfriend of mine who I met my first module of Danish classes wanted to go see, so she and I took my puppy, Wooster, and joined the celebration. It was a perfect day for it:
That's the queen in the red jacket on the balcony. Wooster was, as you might expect, quite impressed:
As far as Danish class goes, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. One of the main issues this module is that the "textbook" that they're having us work from is what appears to be a not-yet-published version of a future textbook. So we've been receiving each chapter as large stapled-together packets. It's chock-full of errors and missing information and incorrect page numbers, making for a lot of confusion. Not only that, but the DVD that they handed out to go along with the "textbook" was a burned DVD with a hand-written title, and which we were asked to download onto our computers and then return. In addition, the track titles on said DVD don't match the names of the assignments in the book, so it's a bit of a guessing game to figure out which video to watch.
Our Monday/Wednesday teacher actually seems to have gotten his act together a bit. Instead of just assigning a ton of homework and spending class time going over the answers to that homework, he's now having us work on more interesting, varied, helpful assignments during class. He still hasn't prepared enough to actually know all of the correct answers, but at least he's moving in the right direction.
It seems, however, that we are going to have a mid-module teacher change. The new course schedule came out this week, and it looks like our Monday/Wednesday guy is going to be replaced by a Monday/Wednesday/Friday guy (with Thursdays remaining with our other teacher) when we move to module 4.2. We've been told that this new guy has been teaching Danish for a long time and is very good.
And finally, today is my birthday.
The big 3-2.
Happy birthday to me.
Let's go back to April 16th, which is the Danish queen's birthday. It's traditional for her to step out onto the balcony at her palace here in Copenhagen on her birthday and wave at the gathered masses. A girlfriend of mine who I met my first module of Danish classes wanted to go see, so she and I took my puppy, Wooster, and joined the celebration. It was a perfect day for it:
That's the queen in the red jacket on the balcony. Wooster was, as you might expect, quite impressed:
As far as Danish class goes, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. One of the main issues this module is that the "textbook" that they're having us work from is what appears to be a not-yet-published version of a future textbook. So we've been receiving each chapter as large stapled-together packets. It's chock-full of errors and missing information and incorrect page numbers, making for a lot of confusion. Not only that, but the DVD that they handed out to go along with the "textbook" was a burned DVD with a hand-written title, and which we were asked to download onto our computers and then return. In addition, the track titles on said DVD don't match the names of the assignments in the book, so it's a bit of a guessing game to figure out which video to watch.
Our Monday/Wednesday teacher actually seems to have gotten his act together a bit. Instead of just assigning a ton of homework and spending class time going over the answers to that homework, he's now having us work on more interesting, varied, helpful assignments during class. He still hasn't prepared enough to actually know all of the correct answers, but at least he's moving in the right direction.
It seems, however, that we are going to have a mid-module teacher change. The new course schedule came out this week, and it looks like our Monday/Wednesday guy is going to be replaced by a Monday/Wednesday/Friday guy (with Thursdays remaining with our other teacher) when we move to module 4.2. We've been told that this new guy has been teaching Danish for a long time and is very good.
And finally, today is my birthday.
The big 3-2.
Happy birthday to me.
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