Counting in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 14, 2011
Trouble falling asleep? Counting får (sheep) in Danish might just do the trick! For one thing, the Danish words for 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 are much less transparent than the fif-ty, six-ty, seven-ty, eigh-ty, nine-ty row of English – and so it goes when comparing them with a lot of other languages too…
Talking about the weather Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 11, 2011
Danes love talking about vejret (the weather). I recently had a chat with a guy who’d been spending some time down under — he was really surprised that the Australians he’d met hardly ever talked about the weather! That made him realize, he told me, just how much people ”up here” discuss things like regn…
Written Danish: a couple of quirks Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 1, 2011
When learning Danish, one of the most confusing things is the huge distance between the written and the spoken forms of the language. In a way it resembles the problem faced by people learning English as a foreign language, who have to get a grip on the strange fact that women in a queue is…
Election Frenzy Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 30, 2011
This friday, journalists got a welcome break from the Danish agurketid – literally ’cucumber time’ (from agurk cucumber + tid time) – the ”silly season” in summer where nothing really happens and newspaper employees spend their time making ice-cream tests and interviewing dogs… So, what happened? Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Danish statsminister (Prime Minister), went live to…
The Joy of Being a Folk Musician Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 22, 2011
From ’Barbie Girl’ to the upbeat reggae of the late icon Natasja, modern Danish music is as cosmopolitan as ever. For some people, however, nothing beats the groove of traditional folk music. I met passionate fiddlers Maja and Eigil at the dock of the bay… How long have you been playing folk music? Maja…
Getting Connected Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 15, 2011
Learning a foreign language by textbook and audio clips can be a stimulating mental feat. However, once you start using that language in a real-life communicational situation, the fun begins! Getting to know people in Denmark isn’t always as easy as depicted in language courses. Many Danes seem to be a little reserved, perhaps…
Bright Nights Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 8, 2011
Looking at today’s kalender I couldn’t help feeling a bit of nostalgia as it informed me the lyse nætter were coming to an end. Lyse nætter, literally ’bright nights’, usually rendered in English as white nights, are the hallmark of a pleasant summer in Denmark. From about 5th of May till 8th of August there is literally nothing between dusk…