Improving my Danish thread

[intet_at_tabe]

It looks like I will have to learn Danish in order to answer this one and
spanish so that I can communicate with those emails I get from the
natives in Mexico.
judy tooley

Ms. Judy

There´s always room for one more at the polite class - on the Danish language However remember to bring boiled hot potatoes for the pronounciation.

[Contratrombone64]

Intet

It was a holiday weekend here and I don't have the internet on at home (for sanity's sake). I've got a wonderful book published by Gyldendal on Danish Grammar and Syntax at home. Once I've waded my way through my Danish course I'll sit down and master it (!). George and Alison have now travelled to Aarhus to talk to clients about selling English chocolates to Danish customers (such is the excitment of Bente Elsworth's course). Having said that, it is a wonderful beginner's course because it actually deals with plausible situations. Unlike when I learned French in high school (long ago) and we learned how to say uselesss things like: "there is a red cardigan on the chair".

[intet_at_tabe]

Intet

It was a holiday weekend here and I don't have the internet on at home (for sanity's sake). I've got a wonderful book published by Gyldendal on Danish Grammar and Syntax at home. Once I've waded my way through my Danish course I'll sit down and master it (!). George and Alison have now travelled to Aarhus to talk to clients about selling English chocolates to Danish customers (such is the excitment of Bente Elsworth's course). Having said that, it is a wonderful beginner's course because it actually deals with plausible situations. Unlike when I learned French in high school (long ago) and we learned how to say uselesss things like: "there is a red cardigan on the chair".

Hi CT64

I really enjoyed your statement about not having access to the internet at home (for sanity´s sake) .

I can tell you, on my own behalf, I bought the latest Gyldendahl language dictionary English/Danish and Danish/English during this week to keep up with you guys, the both of them like two heavy bricks for building a house. A lot of evolvement has happened since the school days and particular the past 9 years, so I figured to keep up my own modern English and Danish, I´d better have these like the prodical son returning to the MIMF, mostly for educational reasons and the fun always implemented here, not to mention the only kind of addiction I have known to be possitive.

Towards you and your questions, remember I am not a teacher, not even close, but I am grateful to you if I can help you in any way, which also help me. Of course the "boiled potatoes"-thing is merely for fun. But actually most foreignors say the Danes sound like talking with a potato in their mouths, you know the letters: æ - ø - å. Btw. your suggestion on "flæskesteg med rødkål" to be the overall national meal? Some people might not agree, but flæskesteg with rødkål and lots of boiled potatoes with fat brown sauce, is the meal most of us eat around Christmas, though many people also replace duck instead of the flæskesteg (from a pig).

About a year ago the Danish national language board within the ministry of education released the results of a test done nationally in public schools, to analyse and discover how well danish teenagers spell and how able they are to use the right syntax. The results were scarying.

One of the reasons for these overall worrying results suggested by researchers, was that the cell phone and the computer as a tool of written communications, mostly using short sentences and various English words, which have influenced the danish language increasingly since the 1960´s, like "remote controle" equals "fjernstyring". Danish shool children use the English "remote controle" rather than the Danish "fjernstyring" into their ordinary Danish language and so on an so forth. English has become the most spoken language in the western world.

This also has an inpact on the ability to maintain spoken dialects, you know the typical language spoken in various parts of the same country by the native Danes - which seems to decrease, because most of us have gotten used to using English as well as Danish, so dialects disappear rapidly.

Anyways, I am here for you sir, so don´t worry if you´re gone for the weekend or anything else. You ask anything, and I´ll try my best to help you out - period!!

[Contratrombone64]

intet - med mange tak til dig.

One thing I have learned about brushing up my Danish is that I'd forgotten all those tedious parts of speech that Ms Elseworth (a Dane) uses in her course such as:

Gerund, past participle, predicate ...

So ... I also reinstate my long since dis-used English from my high school days.

[intet_at_tabe]

intet - med mange tak til dig.

One thing I have learned about brushing up my Danish is that I'd forgotten all those tedious parts of speech that Ms Elseworth (a Dane) uses in her course such as:

Gerund, past participle, predicate ...

So ... I also reinstate my long since dis-used English from my high school days.

´

Right on CT64

You spoke some time ago about Danish manners at the table. We have a book from the beginning of the past century, which has become a classic in Danish manners at all, and especially for young women about how to behave and how to please their husbands - 2. in rank to the husband. It was written by a Mrs. Gad known throughout Denmark.

Though what she wrote about a hundred years ago may seem funny, old fashioned or out of date, it´s one of the most popular best selling books on Danish manners at all.

[Mat]

Hi,

I have a question, too. How do you pronounce "å", "ø" and "æ"?


TIA,
Mat

[Contratrombone64]

Mat - easy, firstly peel some potatoes, cut them into cubes and boil. Once thoroughly cooked and not too hot to eat, please them in your mouth. Now sound the vowels as you would in English, with your mouth full of boiled potatoe and you'll be very close to the Danish pronounciation.

[Mat]

That is one piece of advice, thanks. You know, we've had this TV commercial in Poland, where a guy is trying to pronounce "The Royal Guard" with pure British accent, so he fills his mouth with food. Surprisingly, it turns out to be a commercial for KitKat bar...

[Contratrombone64]

Mat -
"å" similar sound to the ou in course
"ø" similar sound to the e in perk, but more closed lips
"æ" similar sound to the e in egg but clipped

The Danes are odd, if you have the letter D starting a work, it's a normal (sort of) D sound, but it it's preceded by a vowel it becomes a cross between the th in thy and an L

[intet_at_tabe]

Hi,

I have a question, too. How do you pronounce "å", "ø" and "æ"?


TIA,
Mat

I have an answer for you my dear buddy, Mat

The pronounciation is excactly how you spell it - Æ - Ø - Å (you´re so funny intet,)

Mat -
"å" similar sound to the ou in course
"ø" similar sound to the e in perk, but more closed lips
"æ" similar sound to the e in egg but clipped

The Danes are odd, if you have the letter D starting a work, it's a normal (sort of) D sound, but it it's preceded by a vowel it becomes a cross between the th in thy and an L

My dear Aussie friend from Down Under, CT64

Let me please give you a piece of advice as one hombre to the next. Never demand any amount of money for your Danish language teachings. You might end up getting accused on federal charges of false marketing . Though very funny to read.

Mat - easy, firstly peel some potatoes, cut them into cubes and boil. Once thoroughly cooked and not too hot to eat, please them in your mouth. Now sound the vowels as you would in English, with your mouth full of boiled potatoe and you'll be very close to the Danish pronounciation.

However my Aussie friend from Down Under, CT64

At least you got the boiled potatoes method right for achieving the right Danish pronounciation, in fact to the letter - Duce points As an unprofessional teacher of the Danish language towards the clever always listening pupil, your explanation to Mat equals A+.

[Mat]

Belated thanks