It’s a Numbers Game Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 28, 2021
How often do you need to do number tricks in a foreign language? Det står nok ikke øverst på listen (it probably isn’t on top of the list), but still, if you’re a little bit like me, you’ll sometimes find yourself in situations where simply counting is not enough… In Danish, saying basic calculations out…
Danish endings and beginnings Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 31, 2021
After some culture-related posts it’s time to take another look at det danske sprog (the Danish language). ”All Danish words seem to end in -er!” my sister once ex-claimed. And true enough, really many Danish words end in -er: • verbs in the present tense: køber, maler, smiler (buys, paints, smiles) • plurals of around…
Danish Football for the Win Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2021
Jeg er normalt ikke til fodbold, men… (I normally don’t like football/soccer, but…) Recently, variants of that phrase have been buzzing around everywhere in the air of Danmark. Fodbold-EM [fothbolt-eh-em] (the European Football Championship) is upon us, and almost everybody has a good excuse to be excited! Farvel, nedlukning – goddag, kvartfinale! (Goodbye, lockdown –…
A Danish Lesson from Italy Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 31, 2021
Måneskin! [mawneh-sken] This month, millions of music fans learnt a rare Danish word straight from the poetry box. The unlikely incident happened when the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest was won by the band … Måneskin from Italien (Italy)! Måneskin is the perfect example of a Danish sammensat ord (compound, literally ”put-together word”). Måne [mawneh], of…
Cheers to the Danish Oscar Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 30, 2021
And the Oscar goes to… For Danes, denne uges store overraskelse (this week’s big surprise) certainly was Oscar-prisen (the Oscar prize) awarded to the Danish film Druk [drawk]. Even though many people had guessed filmen (the film) would win the prize for bedste internationale film, it still felt surreal watching filminstruktøren (the director) Thomas Vinterberg…
Making it as a woman in Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 31, 2021
Did you celebrate kvindedagen (Women’s Day) on March 8th? This year, many people decided to turn all of marts (March) into a kvindemåned (Women’s Month) to highlight women’s achievements and ongoing struggle around verden (the world). For this month’s post my idea was to interview en dansk kvinde i et mandsdomineret miljø (a Danish woman…
Spring is in the Air Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Feb 27, 2021
Der er forår i luften! (Spring is in the air!) Even though February is traditionally considered a vintermåned (winter month) in Denmark, the country surprisingly just jumped from frost og sne (frost and snow) to open blomster (flowers) – some say the temperatur increased more than 30 degrees in about a week (from -20 °C…