Learning Danish as an Exchange Student

The most difficult thing about my exchange so far, has been learning Danish...

Before I came, the advice I got from my Norwegian friends was... "Its just like speaking Norwegian, just put a potato in your mouth."

The pronunciation of Danish is definitely quite... interesting. Not quite like a potato though, maybe more like a grape. (I'm sorry Danes, just jokes, I love you guys) Putting a small grape down in your throat and trying to push it up again is what it feels like to attempt to make the "R" sound in Danish... I was being taught by a friend of mine to say the color "red" in Danish, "rød". I would try, and she would tell me if I was totally off, close, or correct. Most of the times I would get it, it was purely by accident. She would get so excited, when she said that it was correct, and I laughed and said "yes!" but in my mind I was thinking "How was that any different from before?". After a few times of practicing with her, I was able to make it sound right most of the time, but honestly I'm still not sure.

Another tricky part of learning Danish, when you see the letter "D" in a word, and you think it would sound like a "D" because its a "D", but its actually sounding like you were trying to say an "L" but stopped halfway through. Like in the word "mad" or "bad"... or "hedder". I swear, it's like Danish is trying to scare off new learners. The most basic sentence "My name is Maria" or "Jeg hedder Maria" is still one of the hardest for me to pronounce. But don't worry, you only pronounce the "D" like this sometimes. You'll just have to remember. :)

Or when you want to say "a cat", "a house", "a horse"... The word "a" is changed for every noun, which again, you will just have to remember. It's either "en" or "et". "en kat", "et hus", "en hest"... There isn't even a pattern. Like in French, if a noun is masculine or feminine, you can usually make an educated guess with using the knowledge of if an "e" is at the end of the word or not. In Danish, they just all know. People will say "Well, we know what you're saying even if you mess it up, but we know you're wrong."

Also, if you see the characters... æ, ø, or å... don't be alarmed, its still Danish. There are just 3 new letters for you to learn now! Along with sounds that if you're an English speaker, you've probably never had to make other than if you stub your toe on something and make the sound out of pain.

If you're learning Danish as an exchange student, and you meet a Danish person, you'll probably get asked the question, "Can you say rødgrød med fløde?". When I first arrived in Denmark, I remember counting the amount of times I was asked that question by separate people, and I'm pretty sure I ran out of fingers. You'll also most likely eat flødeboller, and you'll be asked "Can you say fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollerfad?" Which quite is a roller coaster ride.

Danish people are also usually really good with English, so they will most likely speak English with you a lot. It seriously impresses me how fluently they can speak. They'll turn around, speak Danish with each other, flip a switch, and they sound like a slightly more british version of me. It almost makes me ashamed of my language skills.

Putting all the "fun" parts of Danish aside, it definitely is one of the coolest sounding languages I've ever heard spoken in my life. I love the sound of Danish language, even if some try to argue that they sound grumpy. It is definitely one worth learning! (or trying!)