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!

Smart Carnations, Or: How to Meet Important People

There are some people in this world who always seem to meet the right people at the right time.  The truth is, these people are so socially confident that they're willing to talk to whoever is near them, and some of those people happen to be "the right people at the right time."

My husband is one of these socially confident people.

He is heavily involved with the local rugby league program, so we went off to London this weekend for the rugby league Challenge Cup at Wembley Stadium, so that he could meet-and-greet with other representatives for the international rugby league scene.  This was only my second rugby game ever, the first having been at a game that my husband played in back in Boston where the crowd would have been lucky to top a full dozen.  At Wembley, we were two out of 79,000.

Now, I'll be perfectly honest: I'm not really into sports at all.  I don't have any particular sport that I watch, or any team that I support.  But I can also say honestly that I've always enjoyed going to games whenever they've come up.  There's nothing like a happy sports crowd, and this one was an amazing.  Rugby league fans are incredible.  Sure, there are rivalries amongst the fans, but they're all so amazingly good-natured.  It felt like everyone was so happy to be there, no matter who everyone else was supporting, and it gave the whole event a really happy, festive feel.

Since my husband was at the game representing Danish rugby league, we were given fun little VIP passes to the post-game schmooze-fest in the Great Hall at Wembley.  I've never had a VIP pass for anything.  I've never even had a backstage pass for a concert.  So, this was an interesting event.  The snacks were good, and the people were nice.  Most of them seemed dressed more for a cocktail party than for a rugby match, but there were enough casually dressed folks there for me to feel comfortable in my jeans and sweater.

Towards the end of the event, after my husband had rubbed elbows with everyone he'd planned to rub elbows with, we sat at a table to rest our feet.  We were soon joined by two men in suits, both with carnations in their lapels.  I would never have thought to start a conversation with them, but my husband loves to chat with everyone.

So, he turned to them and said "Those are smart carnations.  You must be very important."

As it turns out, they were.

One was in charge of the Warrington Wolves, the team that had won the Challenge Cup that day.  The other... happened to be the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

When he found out I was American, he started asking me what I thought about the upcoming American election.

I had a conversation about politics with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

What?

My husband leads a ridiculous and surreal life, and my life has become ridiculous and surreal by association.