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Festival Fun Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 19, 2015
Hvilken festival skal du til i år? (Which festival are you going to this year?) For many danskere, Summer is Festival Season. A festival means musik, venskab (friendship), kærlighed (love), god stemning (good atmosphere), hygge and lots of øl. Summer Denmark is peppered with festivals, from tiny island get-togethers such as Tunø Festival, to children-friendly…
Summer Cleaning Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2015
Så skal der gøres rent! (Then it’s time to clean up!) If you’re anything like me, you’d rather do overspringshandlinger (”procrastination actions”)… The støv (dust) and the snavs [snaoos] (dirt), unfortunately, don’t automatically disappear… Here are some words and phrases to help you keep everything clean in Danish: Vasketøj (laundry) Har I en vaskemaskine/et…
Something is brewing in the state of Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 12, 2015
If you’re visiting Danmark these days, you’ll probably notice two things: 1. Vejret er dejligt [vare-eth ar die-leet] (the weather is nice/lovely). 2. Gaderne er fulde af valgplakater. (The streets are full of election posters.) On May 27th, plakatophængerne (the poster ”hangers”) hurried to put up huge photos of politikere (politicians) all over the country. Helle…
How to spot a Danish chicken Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 20, 2015
Reklamer (ads) can be a great way of picking up ord og udtryk (words and expressions). Very often, you also learn something about kulturen (the culture). This is particularly true in Danmark, I think. Ads here very often use humor or ironi or ordspil (word-play) – remember the movie about buspassageren (the bus passenger)? The…
Remember the words you forget Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 13, 2015
Together with my students at a language course, I recently found a great way of activating det passive ordforråd (the passive vocabulary). I wrote a simple word on tavlen (the blackboard), asking my students to find its modsætning (opposite). Then we picked another word, found its ”opposite”, and the game went on and on and…
Crossing the Border Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 30, 2015
Vil du med til grænsen? (Do you want to [go] with [us] to the border?) When two friends offered me en plads i bilen (a spot in the car), I couldn’t miss the chance to go on my first ever grænsehandel (border trade [trip]). Not that I actually needed to købe (buy) anything on the…
Being Polite in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 26, 2015
”Two fries and a cheeseburger!” If you hear someone saying this, they might be a forgetful Dane. Danish, you see, has no proper word for please. This has given birth to the idea that Danes are less høflig (courteous, polite) than other people. Well, actually, Danish has various ways of expressing høflighed (courteousness): • tak…