A Canadian in Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 19, 2011
Hello Jennifer! You’re from Canada, right? Hi! Yes, that’s right. I’m from Calgary, Alberta. Wow, that is a long way to travel! What brought a Canadian like you to Denmark? Well, I married to a Dane, that’s why. I met him fourteen years ago. Since then we’ve been travelling a lot, but our home…
Ord is Word! Learning Danish Through English Part II Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 13, 2011
I recently got a reaction to my claim that Danish is an easy language to learn for native speakers of English. I can understand that for a new learner who has just started looking at the language, this may seem to be taken out of the blue. It certainly also makes sense to me that…
A Kingdom for a Ball Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 11, 2011
Spirits are high in Danish barer and værtshuse (pubs) tonight, as well as in countless stuer (homely sitting rooms), where hr. og fru Danmark (the typical Danish family, literally ’Mr and Mrs Denmark’) have just left the television set to fetch something to toast with: Denmark just beat Portugal 2–1! Of course we’re talking about football, that…
Woman in charge Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 5, 2011
Yesterday Denmark had its Obama moment. Or perhaps rather Hillary moment, as Helle Thorning-Schmidt, winner of the recent September elections, mounted the talerstol (rostrum) of Folketinget (the Danish Parliament) and delivered her åbningstale (inaugurational speech) as the first female statsminister (prime minister) in the history of Denmark. Although the audience – consisting of VIPs like…
Days of the Week Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 2, 2011
Mandag (pronounced ’manda’). This is the first day of the week in Denmark – and most of Europe, for that matter. The American habit of putting Sundays first in calendars looks weird to Danes. You can’t start the week relaxing, you know, it takes some toil before you merit that weekend! Mandag looks like…
Learning Danish through English Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 29, 2011
Having a hard time learning Spanish? Wrestling with Chinese? Learn Danish! 🙂 Jeg er f@cking ligeglad med alt dit crap! I don’t give a f@cking damn about all your crap! Modern Danish slang sometimes sounds like a bad Hollywood rip-off… In Denmark you start learning English in fjerde klasse (the fourth grade), when you’re just 10 or even…
September Blues Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 23, 2011
Whenever you catch a tog (train) or bus in Denmark, you are sure to encounter a number of people with white Apple earbuds in their ears, relaxing to much of the same r’n’b and pop music as the rest of the (Western) world. However, the Danes have a very rich song tradition themselves. While the classic vise/r ([folk]…