learn danish

og kan jeg bedde taler og skriver dansk nu. Jeg arbejdede meget hårdt om det siden jeg har begyndt. Vi har lært cirka 400 subjunktiver og 140 verber. Vi har en andet 3 module at lære, så vi kan sidde det Prøve i Dansk 3 eksamen, hvis man skal have et grønkort for Danmark. Eller ansøger en kandidatuddanelse når man må tale og læse i dansk.

Three classes in, and we’re on to the next lesson (1.2). I have to buy a binder to put my notes in. I am doing well so far but this week there are no classes and I still have yet to read my homework.

I will get there.

So I better learn the language!

Norwegian has two types: Ny Norsk and the old one. Wish I knew the Norwegian words for both. Most words are the same as Danish but spelled differently and sing-songed like Swedish.

Danish has some really funky vowels and pronunciations though. Took me a while to pronounce “ad” and “ed” like “al” and “el.”

I have registered with the City so I can take the course for free. I go to my registration interview tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah I know I could back-burner “scuba in the Red Sea” and “adopt a kid” and other great big ideas that are like strange lands I must visit. But I dream about those. They stay. Of course I also dream of speaking danish and norwegian each passably well, but there’s a context to them, they fit in with that context, and they will happen with that context. They’re not a strange land I want to visit, they’re the language of the strange land. And that’s covered by the “live in Europe for a while” goal. Who knows how long a while is. Guess I’ll speak adequately for the time I spend there.

I may also get a Danish homestay student in the spring – probably a teenager – through Vanier College. If so that’ll be better than nothing!

I went to the St. Ansgar’s church bazaar today to see about meeting people my age-ish in the Danish club and learn how to speak Danish. I ended up talking with Karen Jensen-Wales and her husband John. They say that Danish is a dying language, half of it is English nowadays, and that everyone can speak English anyway (this I know). She says they’ll think I’m a real cute tourist and laugh at me behind my back. (So, I wonder, if it is true about people who are really kind to your face? That’s what they say about Maritimers here in Canada. “They’re sweet – stab you in the back, but they’re sweet.” Gah! Like I need any of that!

So I can either learn some Danish here, or save it up for when I actually get there. I know which is more likely and more time-effective. Really. So I either long-term this goal, or deep-six this goal.

The “learn danish” goal is here

I ought to perhaps join this goal, but the thing is, I know the languages are similar, and there aren’t any courses here in Montreal, so though I’m more interested in Danish than Norwegian, or Swedish, I have to learn what I can get and then apply it to Danish if it doesn’t happen to be dansk. Any language is good, I suppose.

so many goals I want to do, shared by others, also have the “finish what I start/ed” goal too.

I started learning Danish maybe two years ago. I had about 5 lessons or so. I went to Denmark this year and visited family, and I’m going to have future opportunities to speak it, based on what I’ve decided to do for the next part of my career (or, at least, life). Also, Norway. I found a book called Norsk Nå in a box of books left on the sidewalk near my home in Brooklyn in 2001, and I had no idea Norwegian and Danish were so similar. So I recently dug that out of my files, which is amazing, because I’ve been the Queen of Household Purge since last fall.