I think that if I hadn't taken that class, and if I hadn't been completely overwhelmed to the point of tears after each one, I would probably feel differently. But even if that class didn't teach me much, it did give me some perspective about what's effective when it comes to learning a new language, and what isn't.
One week in, and I'm able to have very basic conversations about who I am and where I'm from. I've learned the Danish way of telling time, and all of the numbers from one to one billion.
With our teacher speaking mostly Danish during the class, I've certainly had moments of complete confusion. The most frustrating of which happened in class yesterday morning. We had a new student start yesterday, and he is from India. Now, the teacher turned to me and was trying to explain to me why someone from India is called "en inder" rather than "en indianer." Having been brought up as a politically correct American, it didn't occur to me that she could be telling me that "indianer" is the term for an "American Indian." She further solidified the point, and further made my inner political correctness cringe, by then switching to English and referring to them as "red Indians." This was certainly not the first time that I'd heard the phrase come from a European, but it's always a little bit shocking and always makes me uncomfortable.
All-in-all, though, I feel really good about how the class is going. I feel like I'm following at least as well as most of the class, and for now I'm feeling cautiously confident that I'll be able to learn Danish in a reasonable amount of time.
In other news, after more than 6 weeks waiting for our furniture and whatnot to cross the Atlantic on a cargo ship, everything was finally delivered this week. Now we can work on really making that dining room into a proper English pub.
Also, it's nice to see the Superlambanana again:
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