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…
Let’s talk about feelings Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 8, 2012
We can’t be talking about grammar and pronunciation all the time – let’s get down to the essential stuff: følelser (feelings, say ’FURLsor’). If someone makes you smile or even laugh, you may describe your mood by the words Jeg er glad! [yaah glath] I’m happy! If you’re happy at a more profound level –…
Happy Grundlovsdag Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 5, 2012
A lot of Danes had a welcome day off today, as the country celebrated its grundlovsdag (Constitution Day). (Well, most places people actually had half a day off, working until 12 o’clock…) One and a half century ago, on June 5th 1849, Denmark got its first constitution. This was something Danish defendants of frihed (freedom)…
The King, the Queen and the Doctor Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 30, 2012
What do you do when the king supposed to rule the country has gone mad? That question was haunting the court of Christian the 7th. The young king was obsessed by childish fears and lunacies, and displayed anything but a leader’s cool sense of judgement – to the great embarrasment of princess Caroline Mathilde, who…
The Gs that Be Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 26, 2012
If the Danish R’s confused you, you’d better stop reading right now! The letter G is basically pronounced in three different ways: • As the hard G of English girl. This is the ordinary sound of G when it comes in front of a syllable, a T or another G. (If you’re not quite sure…
Let’s Grill! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 20, 2012
Parallel to the sweet strawberry season runs the hot grill season. Real men need kød (meat) – or so the joke goes. (Of course, there are plenty of vegetarer in Denmark too!) Nonetheless, firing up the grill has become something of an annual intelligence test for many family fathers… For thousands of years, Danes have…
Soft D’s Are Not Hard Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 11, 2012
If there was a Miss Denmark contest for sounds of speech, the soft D (blødt D) would run off with the gold medal. Danes love asking foreigners to pronounce the phrase rødgrød med fløde (which, as you may remember, means ”red fruit pudding with cream”). That’s four of the difficult ladies, lined up with exotic…