One benefit of learning Danish is that you will understand Norwegian and Swedish pretty well too without any training, so you get 3 languages for the work of one. 🙃
Norwegian is West Norse, while Danish is East Norse. The orthography is based on Danish orthography, but Danish orthography doesn't have much to do with spoken Danish.
have multiple friends who do not speak danish at my uni, also friends who prefers english to danish despite them being able to use the language (danish is not their mother language)- I study in cph :)
I've lived in Copenhagen for nearly 6 years now and while I've put a lot of effort into learning Danish, it still feels like a "cute gimmick" when I actually try to speak Danish to people. My accent isn't great - and I definitely only speak like I'm a 6 year old, but I feel quite often that as soon as I make a mistake, or almost - as soon as I open my mouth and someone can tell I'm a foreigner, I can see the excitement for them to practice their English on me and they'll immediately switch. Quite often I'll have conversations to a Dane where I'll be speaking Danish and they'll be replying in English. It definitely makes it feel a bit pointless sometimes and I've only once in my entire time living here met someone who couldn't actually speak English. Maybe I should visit Aarhus a bit more, as perhaps they're a bit more open to forcing foreigners to speak their language if they're telling you to learn it, but at least in Copenhagen, it's not just a matter of wanting to learn the language, but a matter of not being able to even practice it 😅
One of the problems with Danish is that they aren't really exposed to more than one way of speaking (or maybe two, if they still have a regional dialect). You either speak standard Danish, or wrong. Many don't even tolerate Danish dialects and look down on people who speak jysk/fynsk/bornholmsk.
I am native danish, and whenever I hear someone speak “danish” with a heavy accent and mispronouncing words, I really try to understand without switching to English. And that can be difficult, because I am not very good at “guessing” what people are saying, if the pronunciation is wrong. And I really try not to be arrogant or rude.
@@jakeforrest Thank you for helping us foreigners out! 😅 I actually came home from trying out a martial arts class today and the first time, I felt like I was actually using Danish as a way to properly communicate and also forced myself to not just fallback to English (which is also admittedly a bad habit because as soon as I can see someone is struggling to understand me, I'll switch to English), so I guess another issue is that Danish is so hard to pronounce with all the extra vowles so the barrier to entry to even get to the point where a native could figure out what you're saying is perhaps harder than someone speaking bad English, where people are so used to hearing weirdly pronounced English. (I guess I've just rehashed @matt92hun's point here though, so I'll stop there
@@jakeforrest It's difficult, because most varieties in Danish are extinct, or nearly extinct. People don't get the same kind of exposure to different ways of speaking the same language as with something like English, German, or Arabic.
If you ever want to learn Danish, I suggest ignoring what they write and listening to what they say. Language teachers, as well as people who just want to help with Danish, pretend the spoken language is closer to the written language than it is, but if you try to learn the Danish they pretend exists, you'll never be able to understand people in real world situations. The YT channel DR P3 has subtitles on all their videos and you can view the transcripts. It's an infinitely better resource for Danish learning than language schools.
That in the first five years where they pay you the language course you are too busy getting your life up and when you had finally done it it is too expensive.
I have heard people say, in the presence of Danes, that it is "a waste of time" to learn Danish. Flat out disrespectful! The excuses pretty much always the same: "too difficult" (like anything new you are picking up), "I don't have any place to use it" (and you will never get to use it if you don't start), "I have a trip planned so I can't sign up for this module" (they will usually have another trip planned for when the next module starts and it will be the same excuse again)... But the best one has to be "I don't know if I'll stay", said by someone who has been more than ten years in the country, with Danish partner/kids and even owns property.
@@daro8921 I will flip that one around and say that it is absolutely fine if you want to learn my native language... but it should never be a necessity to function in Denmark. I would argue that English should be an official second language in Denmark, especially with how internationalized the Danish economy is.
I am a Dane who has lived and worked In 5 very different countries and been a traveler/tourist in several more. Even for a short visit in any country I have found that showing a little effort and respect goes a long way. How much effort you put into learning the language of your host country depends on several things. How long do you plan to stay? Do you have children who through your choices are forced to the privilige and difficulties of dual language/culture/school systems etc? For a short or longer time? And how much do you respect that aspect of your children's lives? I find your rant quite arrogant, mostly towards your children. A few times in Copenhagen restaurants I have been met by nice and enthusiastic young American employees in American English. I asked for a Danish speaker. Received an offended no. Though I have no problem hearing, reading or speaking English in its various forms, I cannot and will not accept such a business model in my country! Where both the naive US-youngsters and customers are scammed. While refugees who do not have the choice to stay in their own country struggle to learn both Danish and English and so much more to get even the lowest paying jobs.
It's not so much that it's hard, but they teach it wrong. They focus on writing and grammar for a language where writing is very different from speaking and it has maybe the simplest grammar out of all Germanic languages. When they try to teach speaking, they teach a form of speech that no longer exists, so you can't use what you learn in the real world. I could already read and still nobody understood me, then I found a single book about Danish phonology that used the actual international standard for phonetic transcription instead of the impressionistic mess most textbooks use and I went from everyone switching to English upon hearing my pronunciation to communicating fluently. What makes it hard is that you're forced to self study if you want to be any good at it as an adult.
One of my greatest motivation to get good at Danish was all the Danglish I was forced to endure. I'd much rather talk to people in Danish than listen to their broken English.
One benefit of learning Danish is that you will understand Norwegian and Swedish pretty well too without any training, so you get 3 languages for the work of one. 🙃
You are aware that Norwegian (bokmål) is in fact Danish with a twist from the time that Norway was Danish????
I mean that was kinda the joke…👀
Norwegian is West Norse, while Danish is East Norse. The orthography is based on Danish orthography, but Danish orthography doesn't have much to do with spoken Danish.
have multiple friends who do not speak danish at my uni, also friends who prefers english to danish despite them being able to use the language (danish is not their mother language)- I study in cph :)
I've lived in Copenhagen for nearly 6 years now and while I've put a lot of effort into learning Danish, it still feels like a "cute gimmick" when I actually try to speak Danish to people. My accent isn't great - and I definitely only speak like I'm a 6 year old, but I feel quite often that as soon as I make a mistake, or almost - as soon as I open my mouth and someone can tell I'm a foreigner, I can see the excitement for them to practice their English on me and they'll immediately switch. Quite often I'll have conversations to a Dane where I'll be speaking Danish and they'll be replying in English.
It definitely makes it feel a bit pointless sometimes and I've only once in my entire time living here met someone who couldn't actually speak English. Maybe I should visit Aarhus a bit more, as perhaps they're a bit more open to forcing foreigners to speak their language if they're telling you to learn it, but at least in Copenhagen, it's not just a matter of wanting to learn the language, but a matter of not being able to even practice it 😅
One of the problems with Danish is that they aren't really exposed to more than one way of speaking (or maybe two, if they still have a regional dialect). You either speak standard Danish, or wrong. Many don't even tolerate Danish dialects and look down on people who speak jysk/fynsk/bornholmsk.
I am native danish, and whenever I hear someone speak “danish” with a heavy accent and mispronouncing words, I really try to understand without switching to English. And that can be difficult, because I am not very good at “guessing” what people are saying, if the pronunciation is wrong. And I really try not to be arrogant or rude.
@@jakeforrest Thank you for helping us foreigners out! 😅 I actually came home from trying out a martial arts class today and the first time, I felt like I was actually using Danish as a way to properly communicate and also forced myself to not just fallback to English (which is also admittedly a bad habit because as soon as I can see someone is struggling to understand me, I'll switch to English), so I guess another issue is that Danish is so hard to pronounce with all the extra vowles so the barrier to entry to even get to the point where a native could figure out what you're saying is perhaps harder than someone speaking bad English, where people are so used to hearing weirdly pronounced English. (I guess I've just rehashed @matt92hun's point here though, so I'll stop there
@@jakeforrest It's difficult, because most varieties in Danish are extinct, or nearly extinct. People don't get the same kind of exposure to different ways of speaking the same language as with something like English, German, or Arabic.
If you ever want to learn Danish, I suggest ignoring what they write and listening to what they say. Language teachers, as well as people who just want to help with Danish, pretend the spoken language is closer to the written language than it is, but if you try to learn the Danish they pretend exists, you'll never be able to understand people in real world situations.
The YT channel DR P3 has subtitles on all their videos and you can view the transcripts. It's an infinitely better resource for Danish learning than language schools.
what, no mention of being asked to say "rødgrød med fløde"? are you sure you have been in Denmark? :)
What is the WORST excuse not to learn Danish? 👀
That in the first five years where they pay you the language course you are too busy getting your life up and when you had finally done it it is too expensive.
I have heard people say, in the presence of Danes, that it is "a waste of time" to learn Danish. Flat out disrespectful!
The excuses pretty much always the same: "too difficult" (like anything new you are picking up), "I don't have any place to use it" (and you will never get to use it if you don't start), "I have a trip planned so I can't sign up for this module" (they will usually have another trip planned for when the next module starts and it will be the same excuse again)...
But the best one has to be "I don't know if I'll stay", said by someone who has been more than ten years in the country, with Danish partner/kids and even owns property.
@@markrichardson21 haha that's actually a pretty well crafted one...
@@daro8921 I will flip that one around and say that it is absolutely fine if you want to learn my native language... but it should never be a necessity to function in Denmark.
I would argue that English should be an official second language in Denmark, especially with how internationalized the Danish economy is.
@@daro8921 I think you have more important matters to be offended over currently with the increase in crime over there, get well 👍🏽
Did u just call our dialect norwegian? ....
Have you learnt Danish yet?
Is that really you Marketplaceman?
it might be fine in CPH, so pls stay in CPH.
I am a Dane who has lived and worked In 5 very different countries and been a traveler/tourist in several more. Even for a short visit in any country I have found that showing a little effort and respect goes a long way. How much effort you put into learning the language of your host country depends on several things. How long do you plan to stay? Do you have children who through your choices are forced to the privilige and difficulties of dual language/culture/school systems etc? For a short or longer time? And how much do you respect that aspect of your children's lives? I find your rant quite arrogant, mostly towards your children.
A few times in Copenhagen restaurants I have been met by nice and enthusiastic young American employees in American English. I asked for a Danish speaker. Received an offended no. Though I have no problem hearing, reading or speaking English in its various forms, I cannot and will not accept such a business model in my country! Where both the naive US-youngsters and customers are scammed. While refugees who do not have the choice to stay in their own country struggle to learn both Danish and English and so much more to get even the lowest paying jobs.
Yeah, everyone should just learn English.
Danish is so so so so hard, it would take me many years to learn it. No thank you.
Any other language would also take years to master...
I know all the vegetables and fruits already, I just don't know how to pronounce them correctly...
have a romanien friend who speak it fluently after 2 years - and his accent is good
Its easy, you just sound lazy..
It's not so much that it's hard, but they teach it wrong. They focus on writing and grammar for a language where writing is very different from speaking and it has maybe the simplest grammar out of all Germanic languages. When they try to teach speaking, they teach a form of speech that no longer exists, so you can't use what you learn in the real world.
I could already read and still nobody understood me, then I found a single book about Danish phonology that used the actual international standard for phonetic transcription instead of the impressionistic mess most textbooks use and I went from everyone switching to English upon hearing my pronunciation to communicating fluently.
What makes it hard is that you're forced to self study if you want to be any good at it as an adult.
Pfff, danes don't care. We will gladly speak english with u haha
No Danes - No Denmark, so thats fine? Thank u fo yer sacrifice 👍🏽guess yer soldiers really died fo no reason..
@@Goldenfish-o5p i Guess so 🤷🏼♂️
One of my greatest motivation to get good at Danish was all the Danglish I was forced to endure. I'd much rather talk to people in Danish than listen to their broken English.
@@matt92hun broken english? Most Dane’s speak better English than native English or Americans? wtf 🤣
@@jackpetersen7231 That's what they seem to believe at least. Then they suggest going to the "soo", where you can "use some hours".