Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Going out in Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jan 31, 2020
How do Danes survive the dark season? For many, the answer lies in good company and saying cheers across a table full of beers and drinks. For a Nordic country, Denmark has a vibrant natteliv (night life), with many places you can gå i byen (go out, literally ”go into town”). Even the smallest Danish…
Green Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 29, 2019
I dag strømmer folk til butikkerne for at købe billige varer. (Today, people are flocking to the shops to buy cheap goods.) It’s Black Friday – a tradition recently imported from the US. Yet, despite all the shopping, miljøet (the environment) is a hot topic in Denmark, and Danish people are making efforts to live…
Picking the Right Twin Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 31, 2019
Much to the frustration of new language learners, words can rarely be translated directly between two languages. Shades of meaning vary, and when you look in an ordbog [orbow] (dictionary), you just might get lost in lists of alternatives… Sometimes, a Danish word has several English translations. Other times, it’s the other way around. YES…
What’s this thing about Greenland? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 31, 2019
Although this is an apolitical blog, it’s hard to ignore that there has been a lot of talk about Denmark this month – or rather about Greenland. Without going into politics (which I’ll leave for others), I thought this might be a decent moment to re-highlight the Danish-Greenlandic connections a bit. 🙂 In 2019, Grønland…
A Danish summer cooler Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 31, 2019
Hvor er det varmt i dag! (How hot it is today!) Like many other European countries, Denmark was recently hit by a hedebølge [hethebolyeh] (heatwave) with temperaturer exceeding 30 grader (°C). Fortunately, Danes have many remedies to cool down – one of them being the sød og syrlig (sweet and freshly sour) dessert known as…
Wild Danish Mammals Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 30, 2019
A hare [ha-a] jumping mysteriously across the street in front of you. A ræv (fox) stealing your sausages at the beach barbecue party. A pindsvin (hedgehog) going for a moonlit stroll. As urban as Denmark is, the country has a lot of wildlife. 🙂 The Vikings believed in Ratatosk, an egern [e-yern] (squirrel) that was…
The Job Question Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 30, 2019
Hvad arbejder ud med? (What’s your job?) Many people enjoy talking about their job, and Danes are no exception! 🙂 Gear up the conversation with some work-related vocabulary – and don’t be put off by the ocassional brok (complainings), which is often just a way to vent some Danish irony… – Jeg er tjener /…