Archive for June, 2012
Studenterhue Time Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2012
First of all, I’m happy to tell you that some friends helped me create a video illustrating the D-R-G pronunciation post. Go check it out! Secondly… Wait a second, I can’t concentrate, a lastbil (lorry) full of studenter is driving past my house; through the flower-decorated scaffold that prevents the 18-year-olds from falling off the…
Colonial Bliss Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 22, 2012
As you could read in the previous post, a kolonihave (”colonial garden”) is a special garden where some Danish families choose to live during summer. The house in such a garden is a kolonihavehus. The kolonihaver (with houses on) are usually gathered in ”holiday villages” called kolonihaveforeninger (”colonial garden clubs”). I met Nika and Karsten…
Home Green Home Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 19, 2012
It’s time for ferie [FEH-ree-eh] (holiday)! Where would like to go? Disneyland Paris, or maybe Thailand? For an increasing number of Danish families, the choice is easy: They go to live in their kolonihavehus [kolloh-NEE-hav-eh-hoos]. Imagine you’re living in a flat in central Copenhagen… You spend most of your time working or studying and hanging…
A Visit from China Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 17, 2012
The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, just made his first official visit to Denmark. (The last time he was here, was during the huge conference on global opvarmning, ’global warming’, which was hosted in Copenhagen, December 2009.) Greeted by dronning Margrethe (Queen Margrethe II) at the airport, Hu and his enormous retinue (including several Chinese minsters)…
3 Strange Friends: D, R and G Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 16, 2012
As you’ve hopefully learnt from the last few months’ how-to-say-it sessions, one of the reasons Danish is so hard to pronounce is found in the way vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y, æ, ø, å) mess up their neighbours. Let’s review: R after a vowel becomes a kind of British or sound, as in…
For the Love of Books Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 13, 2012
Tucked away in an upstairs department with a backyard entrance accessible from Klostergade in central Århus, a lady and a black cat make a living selling bøger (books) in French, Spanish, Italian, English and German. I met them for a chat. What’s your story? My name is Geneviève Munck, I’m French and came to Århus…
How the roligans got flabbergasted Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 10, 2012
”Og det var Danmark, og det var Danmark, olé, olé, olé!” And it was Denmark, and it was Denmark, olé, olé olé! The usual war cry of the Danish football fans didn’t cause the stadion (stadium) in Kharkiv to soar yesterday. According to the media, very few Danes had taken the trip to Ukraine to…