{"id":1310,"date":"2015-10-31T22:26:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T22:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2015-10-31T22:26:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T22:26:01","slug":"meet-the-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2015\/10\/31\/meet-the-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(From<\/a>

(From openclipart.org.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Uhyret er l\u00f8s!<\/b> (The monster is \u201dloose\u201d!) After all that hygge<\/a><\/b>, the time has come for some real uhygge<\/b> (eeriness, literally \u201dun-hygge<\/b>\u201d). And that creepy monster<\/b> is lurking in the dark, doing everything it can<\/i> to prevent you<\/i> from learning dansk<\/b>! You want to get through Halloween alive? Godt s\u00e5<\/b> (good). First, you have to kende din fjende <\/b>(know your enemy).<\/p>\n

Of course, the Danish villakvarterer<\/b> (residential neighboorhoods) are full of demons\u2026 Inversion, Strong Verbs and Adjective Agreement are just some of the beasts that are vying to make you run away screaming!<\/p>\n

However, the most uhyggelig <\/b>(spooky) bastard for Danish-learners has to be \u2026 Sound-and-Spelling! Just consider the following examples:<\/p>\n

\u2022 You know that for certain words \u2013 the st\u00f8d<\/a><\/b> words \u2013 you have to \u201dcough\u201d ever so sligthly while speaking them. You don\u2019t remember which words, so you go around \u201dcoughing\u201d all the time and end up sounding like a Swede making fun of Danish! \ud83d\ude42 Mor<\/b> (mum) becomes mord<\/b> (murder)\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022 You\u2019re writing an SMS and want to ask Hvorn\u00e5r skal vi k\u00f8re?<\/b> (When are we gonna drive?) However, you\u2019re in a hurry and type Hvorn\u00e5r skal vi k\u00f8rer<\/i>?<\/b> Since Danish final Rs turn into a kind of short \u201daw\u201d sound (that glidingly merges with the vowel next door to form a single syllable), both k\u00f8re<\/b> and k\u00f8rer <\/b>sound like \u201dKUR-aw\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 You want to order a cup of te<\/b> (tea) at a caf\u00e9. However, you really struggle with the Danish e<\/b> sound, which is often only a tad more open than the Danish i<\/b> sound. The busy waiter has no time for language lessons, and brings you \u2026 ti<\/b> (ten) cups. (Okay, that example is a bit s\u00f8gt\u00a0 <\/b>\u2013 far-fetched \u2013 but you get my drift! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 )<\/p>\n

As language learners, we want clear and easy guidelines for spelling and pronunciation. Actually, we secretly wish that Danish was a bit like Esperanto<\/a>\u2026 Men hejsa!<\/b> (But hey!) Then come those mumbling, coughing, lazy, crazy, speed-talking, half-drunk Danes and ruin everything! <\/i>The Copenhagen island of Amager<\/b> becomes Ama\u2019r<\/b>, and selvf\u00f8lgelig<\/b> (of course) becomes se\u2019f\u00f8\u2019li\u2019 <\/b>\u2013 of course!<\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/a>

Happy Halloween to all readers who celebrate it! (Image from openclipart.org.)<\/p><\/div>\n

But here is the good thing\u2026 You\u2019re reading this in English! That means your brain is already used to some of the world\u2019s most bizarre<\/i> ways of spelling and pronouncing words! \ud83d\ude42 \u201dWeemen\u201d appears as women<\/i>, \u201dnite\u201d appears as night<\/i>, or even more shockingly as knight<\/i> (where on earth did that K come from?) Furthermore, the English language has almost as many shades of vowels as Danish, and there are more similarities than you thought\u2026 (Final Rs also become \u201dvowel-ish\u201d in British English, and if you speak Cockney English, making those st\u00f8d<\/b> coughing sounds will be a breeze.)<\/p>\n

The bad thing is, se\u2019f\u00f8\u2019li\u2019<\/b>, that you\u2019re exposed to English 24\/7 (or maybe 22\/6). That means that the quirks of English appear \u2026 natural to you, while the quirks of Danish become an unconquerable mareridt<\/b> (nightmare)\u2026 Stop that thinking now<\/i>! Small children are conquering Danish, adult immigrants are conquering Danish, and so can you! A German friend of mine, who had spent some time in Denmark, once remarked that all of a sudden Danish didn\u2019t sound strange or weird or impossible at all\u2026<\/p>\n

Many Danes will be impressed that you\u2019re trying to learn their language (and a bit proud, even if they keep talking about how \u201dugly\u201d or \u201dimpossible\u201d their language is). Nobody\u00a0expects you to say r\u00f8dgr\u00f8d med fl\u00f8de <\/b>exactly <\/i>like a native! Stay in the country, ask people to stop answering you in English, listen to Danish radio stations, hang out at Danish bars\u2026<\/p>\n

F\u00f8r du ved et ord af det<\/b> (before you know where you are \u2013 literally: \u201dbefore you know a word of it\u201d), you will be speaking Danish.<\/p>\n

Now, are you ready to meet that monster? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Uhyret er l\u00f8s! (The monster is \u201dloose\u201d!) After all that hygge, the time has come for some real uhygge (eeriness, literally \u201dun-hygge\u201d). And that creepy monster is lurking in the dark, doing everything it can to prevent you from learning dansk! You want to get through Halloween alive? Godt s\u00e5 (good). First, you have to…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[362789,930,3213,362791,362790,362760,238018,3442],"class_list":["post-1310","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amager","tag-english","tag-halloween","tag-r","tag-rodgrod-med-flode","tag-spelling","tag-stod","tag-sweden"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1314,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions\/1314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}