Danish Lessons

My language background consists of 5 years of French during elementary/high school and a year each of German and French as well as a semester of Japanese during college. I loved languages and learning them, especially French. So I looked forward to starting my Danish classes and learning the language of my new home.

Ha . . .

Instead of starting at the beginning with a bunch of other beginners at a set time, I was thrown into a class that had been going for months. There was Danish being thrown back and forth, and me sitting there going 'Huh?' Amazingly frustrating and the little I learned between April and July consisted of my numbers and saying 'Hvad?' I did have an excuse in that I was becoming increasingly pregnant and had morning, noon and night sickness so it was a little difficult to concentrate, but really . . . it was the most bizarre way to be introduced to a language that I've come across to date.

As I was due in August, I was able to take a break from lessons and concentrate on giving birth to a brand new Viking. Meanwhile, I did pick up quite a bit from reading subtitles on the tv and newspapers though my speaking was still very rough. According to the hubs, my American accent is extremely strong and rather funny-sounding *sigh*

So after several months, I was back. New class, new teacher, new experience? Nope, was thrown in and expected to pick up right away what was going on. Not only that, but this teacher loved to ask everyone the most personal questions (Describe your first date, in Danish please - 'Det var dejligt' *silence*) I'm a rather shy, private person (ok, stop snickering) and this just really drove me nuts. But went through a couple of months of that before I needed to stop once again. I had gotten permission to start at a business college to upgrade my skills in order to get a job here. As hubs at the time worked shift work and babysitters were highly expensive, I could now skip the lessons and focus on improving job skills for the next two years.

Skip ahead two years . . .

I can now read Danish enough to understand non-technical items and signs. I can also speak enough to get by when out and about. So it was time to go back to Danish lessons while the job search was underway. But this time, I was not looking forward to it at all. The classroom experiences were highly discouraging but nothing compared to the experiences on the streets of Denmark. Every time I spoke Danish to someone, there would be one of three reactions:

1. Answer back in English.
2. Look of disgust and walking away without saying anything.
3. Look of disgust coupled with a few swear words before walking away.

If I got the first one the majority of the time, then there would be no problem. But I got 2 and 3 most of the time. Well gee, Danish people, thank you for welcoming me to your country. I actually was thinking it was me - was I not smiling enough? was my accent really that bad? did I pronounce the words that badly? did I step on their toes? Though my husband witnessed some of it (and got angry), most of the time I was out and about on my own. Over time it became harder and harder to gather the initiative to learn more Danish. And as luck would have it, the Friday before I started up the lessons once again, I got a job in a company that had English as the corporate language. Yay, no more danish lessons! And considering the reactions I got from speaking it, hardly any incentive to continue learning on my own - why bother if they're going to be rude and swear at me? The French have the reputation of being mean if you speak their language wrong, but they have nothing on the behavior of many Danes. And before I get hate mail, notice I didn't say ALL Danes - there are a few who are actually helpful and have manners.

I wonder if they could clone these special people to repopulate the country . . .