Wait, what?

I've talked a lot about how difficult it can be to pronounce Danish words to a degree that the Danes will understand.

Today, let me talk a little bit about how hard it is to understand the Danes.

First, a clip from a Danish film that we watched in class yesterday, called "Bænken" or "The Bench, " in case you're not sure what Danish sounds like:

Our teacher has taken to showing us Danish films on Fridays that are in some way related to the material we've been learning.  The current chapter we're working on is about Danish drinking culture (the Danes drink a lot), and this film has a lot to do with excessive drinking.  So, not only are they speaking Danish (which is mumbly on its best days), but the characters are also drunk off their asses most of the time.

That being said, we always watch Danish films with Danish subtitles, just so that we can follow what they're saying.  Not such a shock for a foreigner to have an easier time if the subtitles are there, sure.

The thing is, the Danes use the subtitles too.  I was just chatting with a Danish friend earlier today who said that she often turns on subtitles when watching Danish movies.

Now, sure, a lot of countries have a variety of accents which people from other parts of the country have trouble understanding.  England is a great example, as they have countless different accents, and people from the south of England often have trouble understanding accents from the north.  The opposite can be said of the US, in fact.

The thing is... Denmark is a very small country.  There are only 6 million people living here.

It strikes me that 6 million people shouldn't have such a tough time understanding each other.

But the one phrase that you'll hear the Danes say to each other more than almost anything else is, "Hvad siger du?" which translates to, "What did you say?"

Pludselig Kan Jeg Forstå Dig!

So... all of a sudden, I can speak Danish.

I'm not sure when the shift happened from me feeling like I just didn't understand enough Danish to converse to suddenly feeling fairly comfortable with it.  The change seemed to just appear from thin air.

It's a nice change.

Last week, I was hunting for a used digital piano on what is basically the Danish equivalent to Craigslist.  I wasn't feeling terribly optimistic, because I'd never had a response from anyone I'd ever contacted from the site about anything.  This time, however, I felt at least confident enough to write my inquiries in Danish, so I responded to two ads.  And within an hour, I had responses from both.  I arranged to take a look at one of the pianos, and when I was biking there, I decided I would try to get through as much of the conversation as possible in Danish.

We ended up doing the entire deal in Danish, and he actually seemed surprised to find out that I wasn't Danish.  Point for me!

And just now, while out walking the dog, I struck up a conversation with a woman who's daughter I normally see walking their dog.  She asked me where I was from, and when I told her, she said (in Danish, of course), "Oh, yes, I thought I heard a bit of an accent."  She was then surprised to learn that I'd only been here a little over a year.

Granted, I've gotten pretty used to responding to the kinds of questions other dog owners ask, so it wasn't anything too complicated, but I'm feeling a little bit proud of my Danish skills lately.

It's refreshing to suddenly understand most of the conversations going on around me.  There are still countless words that I don't know, but I'm feeling more and more confident that I might be able to do fairly well on my PD3 exam in November.

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.

4 Tips to Learn Danish Quickly

Danish is an extremely difficult language to learn.  However, it turns out that there are a few factors that can greatly improve your chances of learning it before other people.  Today, I give you a few of those factors.

1.  Have a Danish boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse.  Your Danish teacher may very well assume that you have one, and therefore some of the homework that you are assigned will involve talking to said significant other.  For those who do not have a Danish significant other, see option number 2.

2.  Regularly go to a job where most of your colleagues are Danish and will happily be patient with you while you struggle to express yourself in Danish without switching to English, despite the fact that speaking English is far easier for both of you than speaking Danish together might be.

3.  Be a highly logical person who already has a fairly firm understanding of grammar rules.  Learning Danish will test the grammar skills of even the most literate of native English speakers.  If you don't already have a basic understanding of grammar, learning Danish will teach you more about the structure of the English language than you ever thought you needed to know.

And finally...

4.  Already speak either German, Dutch, Swedish, or Norwegian.  There are a few classmates of mine who, from early on in our Danish classes, were able to understand most of what the Danes said.  At first, I found this extraordinarily frustrating.  What was I doing wrong that I just didn't know what all of these words meant, even if I could understand what words were being said (which is a challenge unto itself, especially early on)?  Turns out, the only thing I was doing wrong was not knowing one of the aforementioned languages.  Enough of the words in those 4 languages (and possibly a few that I've forgotten) are similar enough to words in Danish that it's entirely possible to understand Danish very quickly.

Those who are lucky enough to fit into 2 or 3 of these factors will find themselves racing ahead of the others in their class.

As for me?  The only category that I even vaguely fit into is #3.  In most cases, I'm able to understand and remember the grammar rules easily enough.  Unfortunately, it's the words that I have a tough time remembering.

There's very little that one can do with even a perfect understanding of Danish grammar if they can't remember any of the words.

Studieskolen - Module 1.1, Week 5 of 6

Less than a week to go until the end of module 1 in my Danish classes at Studieskolen.

Providing I pass the test, that is.

What I know of the test itself so far is very little.  It will be a spoken test consisting partially of re-telling a couple of stories from some texts we were given over the last two weeks, and possibly some talking about ourselves (where we're from, what we do, etc.).

In yesterday's class, we were told to turn to a page in our books that had a page of text and read through it looking for anything we didn't understand.  My first instinct when I opened to the page was to be overwhelmed and assume I wouldn't understand much.

I was actually completely floored by how much I did understand.  A few words and phrases stumped me, but not really enough that I didn't get the context of the story.  As disastrous as my previous attempts at learning Danish were, I really didn't expect to have much luck with this method either.

It feels pretty good to be wrong sometimes.

I certainly can't pick up a Danish newspaper and understand any of the stories yet, but the progress doesn't seem to be slowing at all.

In fact, providing I manage to pass the test on Wednesday, I move right onto module 2 the following Monday.

I'll spend the weekend cramming, and we'll see how it goes.

Pronunciation Problems

When I was back in America, there were a few standard questions that I was asked every time I told someone that I was moving to Denmark.  One stood out as the most common question.

Is Danish a difficult language to learn?

At the time, I would laugh at what an understatement it was to call it difficult.  If you've never heard Danish spoken before, here's a sample from the original Danish version of the TV show "The Killing" (known as "Forbydelsen" in Denmark).  For comparison, the guy on the phone is speaking Swedish, while the man and woman in the field are speaking Danish:

It's definitely a difficult language.  Though, my own experience hasn't been nearly as rough as I expected it to be.  After several failed attempts when I was back in Boston, I was worried that I was going to seriously struggle.

I seem to be doing alright, though.

What I found especially interesting this week, though, was how the level of difficulty varies a lot depending on what language you were brought up speaking.

I recently wrote about how I felt that our Tuesday teacher spent too much time focusing on the minutia of pronunciation, and not the broader picture (vocabulary, grammar, etc.).  Turns out, quite a few of my classmates prefer the focus on the pronunciation details, as the pronunciation is what trips them up most.

For me, my own memory is what trips me up.  I can say the words, I just have to remember what the word is and which pronunciation is used, and then I seem to be okay.

On Tuesday this week, the teacher mentioned that she would not be teaching us on Tuesdays for the next module, as she'll be giving classes focusing only on pronunciation.  And not only that, there are different pronunciation classes for people from different countries.

It makes sense, but I'd never considered it: being brought up speaking some languages gives folks different speaking habits than others.

So, the teacher is teaching one pronunciation class for Asian students, and another for those brought up speaking Slavic languages.  The Russian girl in my class seems incredibly relieved, and said that while she knows how the words are supposed to sound in her head, she's realized that her mouth doesn't know how to make those sounds.  It's a matter of muscle memory, I think.

For me, I think I'll skip the pronunciation classes for now.  My focus is going to be on forcing myself to remember all of the words and phrases we've learned, and using the various grammar rules.

The good news is that, much like getting a song stuck in my head, I find myself getting Danish phrases stuck in my head fairly regularly.

It's either a sign that I'm learning, or a sign that I'm losing it.

Either way... Fun!

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."

I Want to Go to There

I go back and forth between being seriously stressed about the move to Denmark, and being seriously excited.

Maybe it's the magic of a good night's sleep and a sunny day, but today I feel really positive about the whole thing.

I've gone through a few of the things that I'll miss when we move, but I thought I'd go through a few of the things I'm looking forward to.

1.  Home ownership - My fiance's spent much of the last year or so insisting that what's his is mine, and I've had a tough time really wrapping my head around it.  But I've finally started referring to the flat that he owns in Copenhagen as "our" flat.  I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty and making it feel like home.

2.  Change of scene - New England just isn't for me.  It never has been.  I've met wonderful people here, but it's never felt right.  I'm excited to find out if Denmark feels more right.

3.  Learning Danish - For real this time.  I've made some minor strides to learn it on my own, but once I'm a legal resident, I can start taking official Danish classes provided by the Danish government.  I'm looking forward to having some structure to my Danish lessons, and classes where everyone is at the same level as I am, so that I don't feel like I'm holding everyone back.

4.  Proximity to history - Europeans love to chuckle at us Americans for being so awed by anything that's older than 50 years old.  Eddie Izzard sums it up beautifully in this clip:

Last year, we stayed in Roskilde, Denmark for a couple of days, and I was amazed by Roskilde Cathedral.  Built in a 12th and 13th centuries, it houses the sarcophagi of hundreds of years of Danish royalty, and was just steps away.  It's one of the most breathtaking places I've seen.  And I look forward to seeing far more.

There is quite a bit more that I'm looking forward to, but now that I've started thinking about how beautiful Roskilde Cathedral is, I figure I'll end this post with a few photos from our visit there.

Danish Lessons - Rosetta Stone, Entry #5: The Binge

We've narrowed down our move date a little bit, and it's coming up quickly.

With our honeymoon in New Orleans scheduled for mid to late June, and my fiance due back by mid-August, it looks like we'll be heading to Copenhagen some time during that window.  Probably some time in July.

That's 4 months.  I have 4 months to learn Danish.

That realization hit me this week, and I went on a Rosetta Stone binge.  I've taken to sitting down with it for 1 or 2 hours each day.

The sad part?  I'm still only halfway through Unit 1....of 8.

I have a looonnnggg way to go.

It's starting to get a little bit more frustrating that Version 2 of Rosetta Stone doesn't explain any grammatical rules.  I definitely appreciate learning the vocabulary, and committing phrases to memory.  But I'm looking forward to taking the formal state-provided Danish classes once we move, so that I can start to get an understanding of why some words are pluralized one way, and others another way, etc.

I think if I can keep up the binge, I may be able to finish the program before we move.

If my head doesn't explode first.

Danish Lessons - Rosetta Stone, Entry #4

I don't remember if I learned numbers using number blocks when I was a kid, but that's how I'm learning them now.

Technically, I supposed I started learning Danish numbers in the informal class I took this past fall, but I definitely prefer the Rosetta Stone method.  When I was taking that class, I found myself trying like hell to cram and memorize those numbers before each class, leaving me with barely any time to even look at everything else he'd tried to teach us.  Rosetta Stone makes the basics far more intuitive.

Here's the thing: I get that repetition is part of the method, but maybe three quarters of the way through each lesson, I find myself distracted.  And since I already basically know one through ten in Danish, I even found my eyes drifting up to the TV... which was showing "Honey" on mute in the background.

"Honey" of all things...

I'm going to try to move through numbers as quickly as I can, and hope that the next unit keeps my attention a bit better.

Danish Lessons - Rosetta Stone, Entry #3

Learning colors is hard work.

And the bizarre thing about it is that while I'm going through these lessons, I'm thinking to myself, "This is far too simple.  I can't possibly be learning anything."  Yet, at the end of each lesson, I have more vocabulary floating around in my head that wasn't there before.

And it must not be as simple as the program makes it seem, because I still find myself ready for a nap when I'm done.

I'm sure that eventually I will find that version 2 of Rosetta Stone's lack of explanation of grammatical rules frustrating, but for now I'm just glad to have the vocabulary.  Every once in a while my fiance will come in while I'm working on a lesson, and he'll try to explain slight grammatical differences in the phrases I'm learning.  Most of the time, I have a hard time processing it, because my brain is in vocabulary mode, and not grammar mode.

This constantly gets me re-thinking this post.  Some days I agree with myself, and other days I'm not so sure.  But for now I'm grateful to have a few more Danish words floating around in my head.

My fiance has suggested that I give the formal informal Danish classes another try... the classes that I attempted this past fall...

I'm not sure that I'm ready to jump back into that.  I think actual formal Danish classes in Denmark will be much less of an emotional roller coaster, especially if I manage to make it through Rosetta Stone by the time we get to Copenhagen.

Danish Lessons - Rosetta Stone, Entry #2

I'm trying to do one exercise with the Rosetta Stone every day.  I've just finished exercise 3 (of 5) in lesson 2 (of... I'm not sure how many).

Lesson 2 is all about verbs, so I've been learning all about how to talk about men, women, children, fish, birds, bulls, and airplanes doing various things.  Running, jumping, swimming, reading, flying, falling...

I'm not going to lie, the repetition gets a bit tedious.  Each exercise in a lesson has all the same pictures and phrases as the previous exercise, but learned in a different way.  Whether it be learning to read the text, or recognize it aurally, it's all the same stuff.  I'm not going to complain about it, though.  Tedious as it is, it does help to solidify the information in my mind.  Unfortunately, a side effect is that my eyes start to blur a bit by the end.

And when I'm done, I'm usually ready to take a nap.  Just one exercise, and I'm mentally exhausted.

I'm glad to be learning it this way for now, though, so that this mental exhaustion doesn't get the better of me when I'm sitting in Danish classes in Copenhagen.

Danish Lessons - Rosetta Style

My Christmas gift has arrived in the form of a bright yellow box from Rosetta Stone.

So far, I've done most of the first lesson, and I'm feeling positive.  I suppose this is the whole point, but I feel like a child learning to speak for the first time with this program.  I haven't learned a whole lot so far, but the repetition and the visual aids with each phrase really do help.

What have I learned so far?  Phrases like "en dreng er under en bold," or "a boy is under a ball."  Where one would expect to find him, of course...

I know that I will never forget the word "flyvemaskine," or airplane.  

And, of course, "elefant."  If the prevalence of the word in my lessons so far is any indicator, I can only deduce that Scandinavia is made up of pachyderms, boys flying airplanes, and other boys hiding under beach balls.

On the English Accent

We've spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in my home town, and managed to catch up with an old high school friend of mine last night.  He's one of these friends who is always wonderful to talk to because he's always honest and always asks thought provoking questions.

Last night, one of our many lines on conversation turned toward the English accent and why on earth it has such an effect on Americans.

It's hilarious to watch people react to my fiance when he starts talking.  The women, especially, will often get all giggly.  Even my friend last night asked him to say "Oxford" and "hot wings" again.

Indeed, that accent once got us a table at a completely packed restaurant.  A table that very conspicuously had a "reserved" sign on it when we first walked in.

Two of the theories that we discussed:

1. It's all about the movies.  In the movies, English guys are almost always the most charming, suave, and educated of the characters, even when they're playing the baddies.

2.  The key is in the tone of voice.  We Americans get a lot more across with our tone.  The highs and lows of sound that get across more of the feeling of what we're trying to say.  Indeed, the first time my fiance and I spoke, he remarked on how enthusiastic Americans are when we speak.  In England, on the other hand, with their centuries-long history playwriting and literature and poetry, and their appreciation for much dryer humor, they rely more on the actual words to express what they're trying to say.  And perhaps that's part of why the English just seem to have a more colorful way with words.

Then again, I think we'd all react the same way even if he weren't using such colorful language.

It's that accent.  We can't help ourselves.

We're Seriously Smart When We're Drunk

My fiance and I are always having really intellectual conversations about the Danish language and language learning in general...

...While drinking...

Which is to say that we think we have really intellectual conversations on the topic.

Last night is a prime example.  I remember sitting there thinking "This is a great conversation!  I'll have to blog about this in the morning!"

And upon waking I found myself asking him... "What was that conversation we were having last night?"

Neither of us can remember.

Highlights that we have remembered so far:
- The frustration with the lack of versions 3 and 4 for Danish from Rosetta Stone, as they apparently tell you if you're pronouncing the words correctly.
- The tendency to start translating everything you say into the language you're learning in your head.
- Where the stresses/accents are put on words in Danish, compared to English and Spanish.

It was all fascinating.

You'll have to take my word for it.

Informal Formal Danish Class #3 - Less Oy?

While my fiance is off being the swankiest Brit in Omaha (a.k.a. the only Brit in Omaha), I spent the evening in another Danish class.

I left tonight's class feeling much less overwhelmed than I was last week.  While the material was still hard, and I'm still well behind the other girl (seriously, she can read a sentence in Danish without even thinking about it, where as I have to pause before and after almost every word over 3 letters long... and some under...), I do feel like I'm progressing.  If only nominally.

Today's lesson started with verbs.  And, strangely, verbs are actually easier in Danish than they are in Spanish.  While they have their tenses, they aren't conjugated based on the subject.  As soon as he explained that, I thought "Yes!  I got this!"

My brain may have gotten over excited.

After going over verbs, we did a little work on sentence structure (which is going to take a while for my brain to soak in), and how to ask and answer questions.

Oh, and I learned to tell time.  So, that's good.

A "Chicken or Egg" Question

We were out to dinner last night, and I told my fiance that I was going to start pointing at random things and asking how to say them in Danish.  He was on board, so I started by pointing at my glass.

Sort of an easy one.  "Glass" in Danish is "glas."

But he then asked if I knew how to say "a glass" ("et glas" in Danish).  This lead to a discussion about grammar and whether it's important to learn a language's grammar first, or its vocabulary. He asserted that it is more important to understand the grammar of a language first, and then pick up the vocabulary later.

Part of me wants to disagree.  If I knew every word there was to know in Danish, and I knew the grammar rules of the English language, I could probably speak Danish relatively well.  Sure, my sentence structure would make the Danes laugh, but at least they would mostly understand me, and likely correct my grammar.

What I actually think, though, is that the two need to be learned simultaneously.  It's really not a chicken or egg situation at all.

False advertising.  Sorry.

Informal Formal Danish Class #2 - Oy...

That's right, I said "Oy."

Keep in mind, this is a small class to begin with, and the handful of us last week were at varying levels.  My fiance speaks Danish very well, but has been out of Denmark for a year and wants to brush up.  One girl is a beginner, but her husband is Danish and she also speaks 3 or 4 other languages, so she has a leg up.  And then there was a Spanish girl who was as much of a beginner as I am, if not more so.

Well, this week, my fiance had a work event, and the Spanish girl dropped out.

So, it was me and the girl for whom languages clearly come pretty naturally.  Not to mention that I definitely hadn't studied nearly as much as I should have.

From what I understand, the class is moving infinitely faster than a traditional, formal Danish class would, so I take a bit of comfort in that.  But...

Yeesh.

I felt so lost today.  While the other girl read through sentences like they were in English, I struggled with the pronunciation of half of the words I saw and couldn't remember the meanings of most of them.

I definitely feel like I'm learning important stuff here, but...

Oy.

Kan jeg Dansk? Nej.

Can I speak Danish?  No.

And the prospect of learning is daunting.  As my Teach Yourself: Complete Danish book mockingly tells me, "Danish is not a phonetic language, so spelling is no guide to how a word is pronounced."  Granted, neither is English, but I learned that when I was young and impressionable and didn't know that languages could be phonetic.

Then I went and took Spanish in school, which has extremely simple rules for pronunciation that are pretty much always followed.

I'm starting to think that the biggest problem with trying to learn a language at 30, as opposed to when we're kids, is that we're much better at convincing ourselves of how difficult it will be.

Kan jeg Dansk? Snart.  Damnit.