Why Learning Danish is Hard (but HILARIOUS) with Conrad Molden
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2023
- In this video, Derek meets up with the HILARIOUS @ConradMolden to discuss learning Danish as a foreigner. This is something Conrad knows a lot about, as he's made the attempt as well and share a lot of those experiences in his comedy.
There's a lot of laughs throughout our discussion of why Danish is so hard, and how the Danes contribute to the level of difficulty.
Have you ever wondered what Danish lessons are like? Get ready to crack up at our discussion of taking Danish lessons and trying to learn the language.
Learning Danish as a foreigner living in Denmark is not always easy, but it can be hilarious - and we show you why in this video!
Also featured: the glorious Danish summer!
🎤 Thank you again to Conrad for hanging out and collaborating and see more of him in a city near you! Check his tour schedule and buy tickets at: www.conradmolden.dk
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From denmark! Why do you talk shit about us all the time??? Wtf is your problem man! Please dont come back!!!!!!!!!!!
if you wonna see a funny small cartoon, about how to talk danish, try to go to "scandinavia and the world" its pretty hillaries.
I don't think that most danes are scared of hearing none native danish speakers speak danish. i think it's more nervous that we won't understand it and look confused and make who ever is trying their best to speak danish feel bad or maybe it's just me
Yeah, it’s not easy to hear second-language speakers in your language if you’re not used to it and we native-English speakers are very used to it.
It has nothing to do with them being scared, it's just because it's easier to go to English since Denmark is a small country. A lot of us can speak English to a high degree, so, it's just easier for us.
@@RobeTrotting This is so true! I'm really bad with accents, but in English accents keep being less and less of an issue.
I used to find it impossible understand English spoken with Indian accents.
Not because the words were unintelligible to me, but because the accent was so weird to me, it distracted me from the sentiment conveyed.
When people speak Danish with an accent, they might as well speak an entirely different language and the only words I'll understand are the Latin ones.
For me it's rather an issue of getting my point across clearly.
I work with a lot of non-native people and I try to communicate in Danish, so they might learn new words or phrases, but I'm fluent in English and usually so are they, so it's much easier if they don't understand what you're saying, to repeat it in English.
It does depend on how fluent they are in Danish though and a lot of times I just repeat it in Danish, or explain it using other words if I'm not in a hurry.
I grew up with friends of the family who spoke Danish with an accent and didn't know all the words.
@@RobeTrotting Like the few times i've had like people that have tried to speak danish to me and they've asked me for directions or other help in general It's always been like they tried speaking Danish to me at first then i most have the most Confused and nervous look on my face because they ALWAYS swap to english and again like for me i somewhat feel bad that they are clearly trying their best to learn it and then when they try to speak it. They get a confused nervous look back (atleast if they talk to me xD) makes me feel bad that i don't fully understand their danish D:
👋 Thank you so much for having me! My full stand up comedy shows are at my channel! ☝️🇩🇰🎤
Sometimes, when Danes speak English, it is mostly out of habit. I used to work in a Danish company with a multitude of nationalities - employees from all continents. One guy ("J"), from Finland, was learning Danish, and got pretty good at it. When I heard that he was getting close to his Danish exam, I made a point of speaking Dansih with him. Partly so he could practice, and partly because there really was no need to switch to English.
One day I went into a lab to speak with J. While J and I were speaking Danish with each other, a colleague (Dane1) came into the lab, and started speaking English to us. Shortly after, a second colleague (Dane2) joined the conversation in English. After a few minutes, Dane1 and Dane2 walked away, continuing their own conversation - still in English.
I couldn't help asking J rather loudly (in Danish): _"Why do the Danes speak English to each other?"_ Until then, I don't think that they even noticed which language they were speaking.
I lived with my Danish grandparents in Denmark for half a year when I was 9. I came home speaking not one word of English. My mom said she got a little Danish girl back. On future visits to Denmark, my friends and I had complete conversations where one of us spoke English intermittently and the other Danish but we understood each other fine and spoke in a completely natural way. We must have sounded strange to others.
I used to work at a tourist spot in Denmark. A few people came up, and since I heard them speaking English to each other, I started speaking English to them. Only for them both to answer in perfect Danish. I felt silly.
😂❤❤
There was (might still be) an advertisement of tv for something, where all the office people where speaking in their native language, like spanish, italien and so on to each other :) It was nice to see. I find having a conversation in two languages, to be like trying to sing two different things in a duo, it is hard. But awesome when it happens
My favorite example of a danish "word that just describes the thing" is the word for esophagus (spiserør) which just literally means "food tube".
That one is great! Breast warts is my favorite 😂
@@RobeTrottingYou should also do an episode about borrowed English words living their own weird life in Danish 😅
For instance "baby-lift", "speeder" and "at powershoppe" 😂
@@Bjowolf2 English and Danish morphed together after the Vikings raided England :)
Fun fact Nr 1,Speiseröhr, is the german equivalent. So easy to learn it as a German.
Fun fact Nr 2, esophagus isn't an englisch word, but greek.😁
@@TheAncientAstronomer And it probably means the same thing, if you translate each part of this Greek word litterally 😉
I always feel somewhat honored when Brits and Americans make an effort to learn Danish, because I am aware of how difficult it is to pick up, and as you point out, most of us speak English.
Don't mind the ones correcting you or switching to English, it is not to embarrass you, but to help.😊
As a Dane who has a foreign partner, she is learning Danish through apps like Duolingo.
We have talked a lot about the Danish expectations regarding immigration and learning the Danish language.
It does not matter how bad or good you are at it, as long as you are actively trying to learn, that is enough ^^
We tend to really respect anyone trying. We know it's really hard.
Dont worry guys, my dad came in 65 and i was born in 86 ki grew up listening to my dad and for me he spoke perfect danish, I only realised he had a accent years after he died, now when I listen to recordings of him i can barely understand him. It shocked me so much how much I got use to his accent, for me he was speaking clear Danish.
what they speak in Kobenhavn is one hell of a sloppy Danish, and Danish itself *IS* truly guilty of the "potato-in-mouth" issue as far as clearly pronouncing the way their language is written.
@@ZakhadWOW sae sønnejyden 😂😂
Linguists were still coming to the USA in the 1980s to study pre-migratory dialects, not least remnants of Elizabethan English in Appalachia and the Chesapeake, but also Scandinavian researchers studying dated Nordic linguistics in the Midwest. The Germans are still focused on such research, especially among the Amish and Tex-Deutsch. I wasn't entirely sensitive to Danish dialects until Danish-American society Christmas parties with the muse of trying to pick out the Jysk from the Kongsby in the mix.
@@williamjones4716 are you danish? Personally there is few danish dialects i have a problem with, I'm from Copenhagen and speak rigsdansk, but can perfectly understand all danish dialects and speak both Norwegian and Swedish too, my father was an immigrant from yugoslavia and keept a really strong accent that I couldn't hear, I can hear it now 12 years after he died.
@@williamjones4716 and to be honest it hurts me a bit. Because when I hear recordings of him, I recognise his voice but not his accent. I have to really listen too understand. I have no idea what happened, I guess only time happened.
The science behind drinking helping with danish goes as follow: The more you drink, the less you can articulate and the more weird noise you might end up doing with your voice --> the better you are at danish. Science.
Makes sense - I'll grab a beer from the fridge right now. Because, science :)
@@RobeTrotting Science AND tradition. Enjoy your Fredagsøl
Norwegian here. The specific "thanks" we also have in the Norwegian language. I had a Spanish colleague who found them very strange and amusing. Especially the Nordic phrase "Takk for meg" ("Tak for mig") when leaving a party. Anyway, Norwegian appearssto be the best inter-nordic language to speak. Norwegians understand Swedish and Danish (well, most of Jutland, at least) pretty well, while most Danish people appears to have difficulties to understand the differences between spoken Swedish and Norwegian. (Yes, we love Denmark, anyways.) All the best for your language classes!
My own experiences also back up the Norwegians as the middle ground. Danes mumble everything,and Swedes distort the hell out of their vowels.... the Swedish Chef muppet parody IS NOT THAT FAR OFF.
I noticed when in Oslo 1988 that the Cetral Train depot said Stasjon ins a clear attempt to use the general latin pronunciation, but not the spelling.. Still, it clearly indicated Sjo to be vaguely like "sh" in English.. Roughly equal in Danish.. WHERE THE EVERLIVING HELL the Swedes came up with a throat-clearing noise for "sjo" is inexplicable.. KHooooooo. as in Melodi nummer 7 (khoooo)..I give up
@@ZakhadWOW That's not really true. In older or more formal Swedish and in some dialects it sounds just as in Norwegian.
As a "copenhagener" it's so weird hearing that the easiest danish is the Jutlandish danish, which we mock quite a bit. Also, I think (atleast in my family) we are pretty good at hearing the difference between swedish and Norwegian, but we are also half Norwegian, so that may be why. And also, what does "takk for meg" mean? Is it some way to say goodbye?
@@snorrekber4089 "Takk for meg" is saying "Thank you for a great party/event. I am leaving now. Goodbye."
Native speakers of a language generally do not know its rules. You just say what sounds right, and it is right.
Fair point haha
If no-one complains, I guess it's right. That's my philosophy
Well, A LOT of danes doesn't know how to speak proper danish or even write in danish. But I get it; it is a pretty complicated language.
Example: present and past tense apparently is hard to differ between for native danes.
Maybe 30% fail at it, and that's a lot. But not as bad as the brits trying to write in english though xD
Also it seems that at least 50% of danes cannot pronounce or write "trains" in plural. Which is the exact same word as "train" in singular.
Not that I'm blaming the danes. Again, it is pretty confusing. But it's wild how many danes fail at danish haha! I'm danish myself of course.
3:46 this is hilarious because I'm learning Dutch while being natively Danish, and some words are just so obviously the same, even if spelled incredibly differently.
To put it into an analogy, it's like Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are all close friends with each other with a distant friend (Icelandish), while Dutch and German also are close friends, but slightly distant friends with Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. And then there's English, which is like the friend almost no one knows or cares about in the group, so much less commonalities with the rest of the group, and so you miss out on so much of the fun the rest of the group can have with each other.
It really is strangely fun that sometimes even with minor prior experience with German, I can just sometimes "know" kinda what's happening on text. Oral is a different conversation though.
I'm natively Dutch trying to learn Danish, maybe we can help eachother?
I haven't found a source where they learn Danish from Dutch, only English. While there are a lot of similarities between Dutch and Danish. And learning from English is an additional translation step
Great clip. Don’t forget about the dust sucker and the cooling cabinet 😅
Yes, so good haha
@@RobeTrotting just remembered the Door Punch (dørslag) = a strainer. That one just makes no sense; speaking as a Dane
As a dane, my favorite is the "Flodhest" - RiverHorse (Hippopotamus) 😅Thanks for the video.
@@newsummersdale it's actually "through" (like durch in German).
@@Ksejl And what exactly do you think hippo(s) and potamos mean in Greek? Horse and river.
Been living in Denmark for 5 years and this has been my experience to a tee! I am you and you are me.
When I lived in Denmark in 1983-85, I worked for a company doing computer graphics. The word for "computer" in Danish was "databehandlingsmaskin" (data handling machine). But everyone just said "computer" because it was easier and quicker to say. The same went for "fotografiapparat". People just said "camera".
And "camera" is Latin 😅
I had an American tai chi teacher who first lived in Sweden, and spoke pretty good Swedish, so good he would teach his class in Swedish. Then he moved to Denmark and thought he would pick up the Danish language pretty quick, and he also felt it was going so well that he would soon start to teach in Danish. He had to give it up cause no one understood him!
On study trips to western Sweden I'd try to "Swedish Chef" the meter of my Danish to make it sound Swedish, Whether believable or not I got compliments that I was pulling it off.
My favorite is when someone is speaking Danish to me and I understand 80% of it or so and piece the rest together. If they ask me if I understood them, I totally have something in my head that makes sense and most of the time it is correct, and sometimes it's way off and we are having 2 totally differen't conversations
Yes 🙌🏼 so relatable
Of course as a Dane, I can't speak of the difficulty of Danish for foreigners as I've spoken it my whole life. I think in comparison to, let's say German, Danish grammar is easy enough to get a grasp of and even if you don't master it completely you'll still be understood in 9/10 cases. What I've realized is definitely the many pronunciations we have in Danish and all the combinations of different letters, some which create a specific sound, and which combinations make silent letters. Keep getting input, listen to the sounds, mouth the words and just practice and you'll be a master in no time.
Jeg bor i USA og prøver at lære dansk, og jeg er enig. Grammatikken giver mening. Det er udtalen at giver mig problemer, når jeg snakker og også når jeg prøver at forstå danskere.
@@allenculpepper9553Du kan bede os om at snakke langsommere, mere tydeligt og bruge enklere ord. Min nabo er tyrkisk og har meget svært ved at lære dansk. Jeg bruger enklere ord, jeg taler lidt langsommere og tydeligere. Held og lykke.
In no time? Ten years maybe
It doesn't take ten years to learn danish, just like it doesn't take ten years to learn french.
Ey guys as a Dane myself, i think more people should now more about our country. WE ARE SO ICONIC!!! We even invented LEGO, like isnt that iconic?
Tak for i dag & in all that rain ☔️
Many good points, guys 🎯
Love the collab, it's good fun!
hello from Hundested 🌸
Thanks for watching and happy you enjoyed this one. Always a lot of fun meeting up with Conrad - even in the Danish summer haha (although it looked worse than it was).
@@RobeTrottinghej fra try
That was such a cute and fun video, would love to see you guys collab more in the future!❤
This was a fun collab of you two sharing experiences. You are getting there Derek, just keep on, really not that bad at all, and your danish language videos and shorts are often really funny. Love your humour. And yes I think danes switching to english pretty fast(I can understand the frustration when wanting to improove your danish)is a mix of trying to spare you the hassle, trying to speed up the conversation/get to the point, and just not thinking about it/many times just immidiately turning to english, because its easy.
Thank you for making my day, that were hilarious.
You both had a lot of good points.
Haha, this with the germans is so true :-) I am german and live near Billund for the last 17 years. Here is it not so common that they answer in english. I work in Alderly care, so i have to learn danish really fast, because there are not so many 80 years + they speak english. So learning danish fast was a priority and i came op til level C1 in about 6 months. Then i started my work and have to learn "sønderjysk"... how lovely 😅, but i pass my exam a year after we came to Danmark with a 10 and a 12. I work at my current "plejehjem" for almost 10 years now, but i learn new words almost every day. I have found many danish friends in the many years i live here, but dam its hard. Danish people grow up together and stick together, so for a outsider its difficult but not impossible. I (we: my hubby and 2 kids/both are born in DK and they are more danish then we ever will be 😂)) love Danmark and we will never trade it with Germany or an other country. by the way. It´s so common that i say a word and the danish say exact the same but dont understand me... okay, but have learned to deal with it.
Best error: We were at the beach and I found some really nice seashells and i made a window with a fishnet and all the seashells... I proudly brag about it to a friend: Jeg har fundet nogen rigtig fine muslimer på stranden og nu hænger de i en fiskenet i min vindue.... 😂😂😂😂 Be careful: muslinger and muslimer is not the same!!!!
Tak fort den her!! I er både et spejl og en resonnans-bund for det, I ser og hører!! Jeg tillader mig at sige, at det var ret lærerigt og festligt!!
It is SO funny to hear you guys takling about which words you find funny and why. Never stop making these episodes.
We will definitely have more like this in the future 😊🇩🇰♥️
We were in Denmark, eating lunch with my grandparents. Mormor asked my brother in English, if he wanted more he said "Nej tak. Jeg er fuld!" Morfar and I started laughing while my brother and father looked confused. I said "You just told mormor you are drunk!" 😂
In a dinner setting "jeg er fuld" is perfectly normal to say when you are full.
@@099lasyeah it’s just a shorter version of saying min mave er fuld (my stomach is full)
@@099las sounds like a strange anglofication to me. The normal sentence would be "Jeg er mæt"
@@pipkin5287 Well it might also depend on the region. But I'm pretty sure not a single dane would misunderstand "jeg er fuld".
@@099las I can easily picture it
I am from denmark. Jeg er fra danmark. I love my country. JEG ELSKER MIT LAND🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰
That was absolutely hilarious. I laughed through the entire episode. Love it
So glad you enjoyed it Anders! Thanks for watching 😃
Sometimes “hvad” is said even if people have heard the thing, but need 2 seconds to process what was said 😂
This was a lot of fun. Hope your laptop is alright, Derek 😱
😎😎😎😎 tak det var fedt og super godt lavet håber i har en rigtig forsat god dag alle her 🥰
I love it!!!! :-D Super sjovt!
A good way to learn everyday danish is to be at a danish work place. At my work, we've had a girl from Romania, who followed a whole day. I work with the elderly, and the girl got much from hearing me talk to both my collegues and the elderly.
Thanks for all your nice videos❤
Hello from Vojens
I work reception and we have quite a few international clients. If they speak Danish to me, I'll try to speak Danish back, because learning is ridiculous and I respect that you're attempting. But I have definitely been guilty of the switching thing XD I have even, when my colleagues were speaking English with another client, switched _with a Dane_ XDDD
admittedly what is spoken up in Skagen area, is gonna be hella different than in KBH and down on the Flensburg border zone area LOL
@@ZakhadWOWWas gonna mention this same thing xD. I live in Viborg, and I STILL have difficulty understanding, and need to make mental notes and slowly understand what someone was saying to me xD. I've lived here for almost 9 years, but when a true Midtjyde comes up to me, I still struggle a bit 😂. I grew up on Faroe Islands, so my danish grammar is sometimes even better than most natives, because they don't actually put much focus on it when you're a native speaker, but when it comes to social cues and appropriate conversational tones etc is some of the most difficult things to grasp, so even when you sound fluid in pronounciation, but the content of the speaking or tone and word choice etc, can give you away instantly. It's what I struggle the most with. Even after 9 years, where I already could speak danish and read perfectly, social cues and correct idioms is still a bit of a struggle.
I love this - so funny. I have a really good friend. She is from Poland. And now lives in Aalborg, she is great at danish, but she talks danish like a person from Aalborg. So she has at dialect like someone from Poland AND Aalborg - so funny :)
Actually, when we say "tak for sidst" we ARE indeed referring to that specific last time we were together. We actually almost only use that phrase when the last time we saw each other was some sort of special event experienced together.
Right? I wouldn’t say it’s just a phrase people throw around XD
Nice to see Conrad, he is a great guy.
He’s fantastic!
In Australia I quite often say Thanks for today if someone has gone to some trouble to meet or provide food. Danish learner here, via Duolingo. Son and his family live in Denmark. It is very difficult to learn 😢 but it was fun when my grandson was at the single word level of language 😂
Happy that Denmark are the proud host of two so beautiful visitors👍 👍
'Throwing the Taks around' - I had to teach my Dutch BIL that 'Tak for alt' ('thanks for everything') cant be used like 'Tak for sidst' - Tak for alt is what we write in obituarys and on tombstones.
YES lol - big difference there
You're both great at danish, and if You speak i slowly everyone should understand it! Great video again Rigtig god video😁
Thanks! 😃 Conrad is definitely the better of the two of us - I hardly use the little bit of vocabulary and skills that I have.
Seeing one of the few comdeions I like with a youtuber I follow is both great and not what I was expected. Love form a dane!
💜 Aw that’s so cool, glad you enjoyed it! Conrad is a great guy, you have good taste 😃
Great fun to watch! I do wonder, how much have you gone into Danish language "culture", like TV, movies and theatre (including the various revues with their sketches and songs ("viser")), and also pop music songs for the spoken Danish, and fiction literature, not just novels, but also comic books, for written Danish?
There are many good examples in songs, if you want to know how Danish works. For example the classic song _Nå!_ by Poul Henningsen, performed by the Danish diva Liva Weel in 1937, elaborating all the things that _tiny_ word can express. There is also _Det er måden_ - originally performed by the other diva, Marguerite Viby, in 1948, lyrics by Arvid Müller. Danish is very often not what you say, but the way in which you say it. And it can be extremely subtle. You mentioned "hvad?" which is another perfect example, even better, perhaps because it is also used in much the same ways in English. I had a girlfiend, who could do something, like anything, then look at me and say "hvad?" in a way that would just stop any thoughts whatsoever in my brain - like pressing reset and keep holding the button in.
I would _love_ to see you two, or three if you get Mike in also, look into some of these revue songs, old classics as well as new, and song by Shu-bi-dua and Kim Larsen, and see what they can give you of new insights into Danish.
Maybe you noted during Covid, how Danish TV arranged sing-alongs, hosted by Philip Faber. I think the English, maybe all British, have this phenomenon too, of sticking it out together by singing. During WW2, this was also a way of sticking it to the German occupiers, and getting away with it. PH (as Poul Henningsen is known affectionately to all Danes) did several.
Also, if you would look into comic illustrations, and comic strips and books, in particular Storm P (Robert Storm Petersen, a Danish Rube Goldberg), Jørgen Mogensen (comic strip _Poeten og Lillemor_ ), Claus Deleuran (you _need_ to read his _Illustreret Danmarkshistorie for folket_ - but also the superironic and naïve _Rejsen til Saturn_ - don't bother with the "animated version" it's crap, and others.) And not least Olfax, who made a strip that ran in Information and Politiken for decades. A little bit like Doonesbury, but very, very Danish. All his daily strips have been published in books that you can probably find in any library.
Haha I love how you talk about the sense of rudeness in some of our more blunt phrasing and then later talk about how odd it is that we say thanks so much😆 I feel like these two linguistic quirks might be connected somehow. Like, we're blunt for sure, but we will also say thank you for the time we have spent in your company (tak for sidst og tak for i dag) to balance it out. I lived in Quebec for a while and kept being corrected when I said "no merci" because I was used to "nej tak" - just saying "no" seemed so rude. Thankfully "no thanks/no thank you" exists in English too!
Tak for en interessant video😄
So, tak, is short for "taknemmelig(hed). Appriciate(tion).
So it would be, that I appriciated the last time we hung out.
Wich means, that we appriciate and value a lot, here in Denmark. :P
Ive been slowing absorbing Swedish since I made a day trip over from Copenhagen in 2011 to my GreatGrandmother's home city. IN 2014 I started watching Melodifestivalen, the programs where Sweden chooses it's representative to the Eurovision Song Contest (which they won this year), and since that is 100% in Swedish, the repetition has really helped get my ear used to it. I also have studied French, and when you remove the Norman French part and Anglo-Saxon part of English, you're left with old Dano-Norse from the 1100. As result I recognize that part of English which is Scandinavian.. That also helped with the Swedish. However, I worked with a Norwegian woman as my boss for 15 years, and have spent time in Norway as well, and intereact with that language via some TV shows. I have an ear for that, but not as much vocabulary. NOW, I spent 14 days in Copenhagen proper in 2011, so I got a realllly good dose of what that sounds like, and my American buddy who was there on a work visa was also manditorily studying Danish, with a Kobenhavn emphasis. I made freind online with the 2011 Danish representative to Eurovision, becomign decently acquainted over he last 8 years or so. Recently he;s been posting some IG stories where he's speaking in Danish -- something I havent heard a lot of from him. HE ABSOLUTELY SOUNDS LIKE HE HAS A POTATO IN HIS MOUTH. I truly understand why the Swedes and Norwegians say that aobut Danes! LOL
In my gynasium time we had an exchange student from Australia in our class and she learned danish really fast. After 4 or 5 Month was she telling a group of 6 to 8 year old kids about Australia in danish. They all understood her. Today she is married to a guy from one of the other classes in our school and they life in Australia. She is comming to Denmark from time to time and her danish is great
I would love to snakker med both of you!!!
lol. i've heard the whole "as I get more drunk, my Danish improves" from quite a number of foreigners. Really says something..
I’ve heard asking helps. I’m sure they’ll oblige. Just keep at it, you guys.
Conrad er også skide sjov - har set et par klip her på youtube med ham. Det er super hyggeligt at se jeres "colaborations work out" (at se jeres samarbejdts videoer med andre youtubere fungere? the english part was easier said than in a Danish version = )
Hygge og god ferie når i kommer dertil - husk at have tid til andet end youtube når i er afsted, selvom jeg gerne kigger med håber jeg i også husker at slappe af / gøre det i gerne vil, når i er afsted, uden at tænke på hvad vi på youtube kunne tænke os at se ;-)
Norway here, danish sounds like a stroke-stricken Scandinavian. And dont let me start on your numerical system! The halvfems-stuff..
But with your Christianian hash, you could be talking Klingon for all I care🤗🤗🤗😀
You are good people, and Danish girls (almost)ALL look like supermodels👍👍👍
As a dane I feel "scared" is a kind of strong word. 😅 Not that I'm offended or anything 🤗
But I'm pretty sure that we often switch to English to politely show you that we can continue in English so that you don't have to speak danish. For me that would also ensure that you don't feel awkward or feel like you've failed when talking to me.
If you catch my drift😊
So it's to be polite in my experience.
you guys will there at some point. Just keep going
FUN WEIRD TIMING FACT: when this video popped up in my suggestions I was listening to the Danish National Orchestra's famous rendition of the soundtrack from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". It is truly legendary.
Its fun because i don't switch to English as I'm very used to foreigners or accents from my old classmates parents, who might not come from Denmark and had a fun accent.
But like many of my friend do not understand what my mom says even though she is originally Norwegian and have lived here for 50 years... Like she speaks Danish, but, she has a tiny accent and that is enough for waiters to sometimes answer her in English!
Taxi drivers are always so sweet and asks "oh where are you from?" but they keep it Danish bc they know and relate! And they speak like perfect danish without any accent, haha!
Yea Go Conrad! :D
We learn English at school and it's quite fun to speak, but rarely we get the chance to do it.
That’s how Danish learners are too.
To be fair the “soft” letters were hard when learning how to spell. We had a wall with a lot of words that included that “soft” letters.
Also considering how hard time I had learning German sometimes the similar words help but that doesn’t happen all the time.
Also fun fact vegetable in German is Gemüse which is no where near grøntsag but does actually sound like the name of a character in one of our tv Christmas calendars
I think we Danes, has to chance to a different “listening-app” in our brain-computer when a non-native danish-speaker talks to us in danish. It takes a sentence or two to load the right app before we begin to understand ❤
PS I really miss my compound-words in English 😉
That’s a good way to describe it 😂 spot on!
Tak for sidst, in my experience, is normally used when you have seen someone recently.
So you should be able to remember the occasion.
But it may be different in Copenhagen.
Yeah, I think it’s the same in at least Copenhagen and Aarhus since we have had the same experience 😁
It can also be used to remind the receiver that the punch you just landed was simply a belated revenge.
In my world, you don't say "tak for sidst" unless you mean it.
It's like saying: I am glad we did that! It was nice!
You MAY also say it as a formality.
But as always in human relations,
honesty is the force underneath the spoken word.
So you'll most often hear it when it's true.
I only feel inspired to use that expression,
when I am truly glad about the last time we hung out.
But maybe I'm not normal.
I do hear, though, that we Danish don't use smalltalk
as much as, say Amaricans.
In fact, I believe I heard it on this exquisite and inspiring channel!
Yeah, that’s true - definitely less small talk. I think we have come to miss it in some ways (but also appreciate being left alone in some other instances haha)
"Hvad?!" in Danish (with a flat A and the full, soft D) is an expression of bafflement. It can be hurt, but not aggressive. Saying "Hva'?!" with an Arr sound and a mock "I don't think I heard you right" attitude... That's aggressive ;)
It's kinda funny how different the different parts of Denmark is. My husband is not danish and speaks english or broken danish and he never had the "automatic switch" to english from people here where we live. But then we went to Copenhagen for vacation and it was a whole new world. People switch to english as soon as they hear it and even kept it up with me who is a Dane. It was weird. My take is that this only happens in Copenhagen, because here in Aalborg people will run away from you if they have to speak english 😄
having subtitles on is the funniest thing.. Lair Dance = Lær Dansk :D
Amazing video guys… or… fantastisk video drenge ☺️❤️
Slavic people also seems to learn Danish more easy than most -about the Germans it is the pronunciation it is very much like German
As a German I haven't notice that: Danish seems to swollow letters and the intonation is puzzling.
Do we? I didn't get the note and struggling here, why nobody told me 😂
One thing that might be useful when integrating into danish society, is a little curiosity that the Danes don't even know is special. It's one of those things where when you know, you know. So you have been warned... ;) - It's called "Ingressive Affirmation" it is the thing Danes and other Scandinavians (and only a handful of other places) do in conversation where they will agree with something in that conversation and ex. in danish say "ja" and pull sound in the word. Or even say "no" but still agreeing with 'ingressive Affirmation'. This curiosity is not thought in school and we don't know that we do it but it is a high integrated part of conversations in danish. So if you don't know this quirk it will set you back. Some linguistic studies have found that in some parts of Ireland (and Irish descendents in the US) it is predominantly used when women converse.
I remember being thought in school that in Europe we translate names in general. Like King Charles is “Kong Karl” and Louis is “Ludvig”.
That is why we translate our Danish names for you:) it is ancient European tradition.
My name is Rasmus. So when meeting other Europeans that are like wtf even is that name, i just add on Erasmus and they all know the name(from the EU exchange student program).
Interesting, I don’t hear it all the time though, with female names specifically.
Elsker det, sorry love it ;-)
Mange tak :)
Christmas man 💪
It's the way you say "hej" that gives you away 😂 - it "should" be shorter and going slightly up in tone instead of long and going down in tone ( in the typical case ). 😊
I have lived in Finland for 40+years I was born I Denmark in 1969. Still I know how to speak Danish. Last time I was on a visit to Denmark was 2013.
Tillykke? 👏 🤔
@@RobeTrotting No. The point was, once you learn it you never forget my parents are Finnish and I only could talk Danish with my little brother. These days we speak mostly Finnish but, if we don't want someone in the hearing range to understand us we speak DANISH!🇫🇮🇩🇰🇫🇮
my name is Cirkeline. I usually tell none danes to give it up, and simply make up their own nick for me. Or do the easy thing, Circle-line. I know my name can be a tongue twister, and sort of intimidating from all the syllables. I can see the distance in the peoples eyes when I tell them my name, and they give up lol
Ha! Spot on, I have a Russian friend, who speaks very good danish, hardly any accent. For some damnable reason I always speak english to him...
same in the rest of Scandinavia really...we switch because we don't want to waste time and we want to avoid misunderstandings
I think that´s just us locals, shifting to English and just trying to be polite and savning Y'all from the hassle of trying 😊 (Danish being the 9th hardest language to learn). We Danes need to allow you guys more space, to learn and practice your Danish skills 😎. I work at at a place withe a lot of visiting expats. I´m more aware of speaking Danish, if they start of, doing the same. That's thanks to you and Mike 👍😊👍.
Jaja…
@@kmjkmjkmj Knowing that, would you speak Danish back to the learner?
So, will you speak to learners in Danish in the future?
Definitely.., unless I'm asked to do other wise😊! I do US English, German and Danish. But I´m so much more aware about expats doing there best to be proficient in Danish. I´ll do my part to make that happen 👍😊👍 !
2:10 You are so spot on. The secret to our language is of course alcohol. How do you think the language evolved in the first place?
We may not have an exact word for "please", but the sheer amount of different versions we have for giving thanks, probably trumps 😂
Btw, it's "Julemand" because we celebrate Jul/Yule and not Christmas per se
Fastest way to learn Danish is to speak it at all times incl home, that way you can correct each other. Learnt fluent danish in one year that way
Not much help when we don’t live with any Danish people 😂
I say you are exaggerating quite a bit.
@@thomasbarchen nop it was quite easy, depends how seriusly you take it aswell
@@notsaying543 You must be a genius
@@thomasbarchen not rly, me and three sisters of mine we all learned the same way. Granted i do speak Faroese English Danish and a little German
About the Drinking Distraction Technique:
Alchohol can make you feel relaxed,
and this may help you to speak more fluently.
Some have trouble speaking in front of a large crowd
- even in their native language.
I once spoke French with a man from Algier,
he only spoke French and his own Arabic,
which I don't speak or understand at all.
So we had to communicate in French,
and I was surprised at how well we understood eachother.
And, I had had a handful of beers!
So, in my opinion, it works.
But Google brain waves, alpha and beta (+ 3 more, at least)!
You missed the best one. "Don't interfere/Mind your own business!" - "Bland deg udenom!", litt. "Mix yourself out of/outside!"
Wonderful! Also that you are those great 'vejroptimister' who stayed out in the rain. :D
..er du ked af bål, Bybo?
We figured it would pass since it was off and on, but never a hard rain that whole morning haha
Fun fact about speaking danish in Denmark, danes don't care if you can speak danish they just want to know that you try, call it a test.
Just comes down to Danes being affraid of foreigners taking advantage of their generousity, so if you show effort and try to speak danish, most Danes will attempt to reply in english to ease the comfort.
It's because we are to lazy to wait for you to find the words 🙂, and once we have tried waiting for forigners to find the right word and it becomes kneejerk reaction to just speak english to speed up the conversation. And to be fair english has just as many exceptions in it's grammar as danish.
Do you try to speak Danish to them now.
@@benjackson7872 try is the operative word, and if it is someone i am used to speaking english to it takes a lot of fokus not to lapse back into english specially if they are struglung to find the right words.
Unrelatable lmao
I am Norwegian , and I speak ok englesh…. Men jeg tenker det er lettere å forstå enn å snakke
Da vil jeg hjelpe med å snakke norsk, selv om motparten snakker engelsks. Tenker det er universalt😊
"Snakke snakke parking forbudt" That probably means I can park here. 😂😂
😂
I am a Spanish living in German and yes, many words are similar even though not one-to-one, so learning some of the Danish words is easier when you speak some German already. What is very different anyway is the pronunciation.
Truth 🙌🏼
Pog Jacob Tårnhøj cameo
Jeg bor på en lille ø i Danmark (Fejø) og der er bosat 19 forskellige nationer, Engelsk, spansk, italiensk, polsk, osv. Jeg taler dansk til dem jeg kender, så de kan øve sig og oversætter gerne til engelsk når det kniber. Its fun. Og dansk er udtalt på mange måder.
The English version of Danish names is so true. I had an international classmate who told me that she had had a Danish teacher who insisted that they pronounce her name in Danish, and her name was "Frederikke" which is arguably the most difficult Danish name to pronounce properly. So be happy that most Danes will accept the English version.
Also... to be fair, when Conrad was like "And Michael (Danish version) will say his name is Michael (English version)..." (at 7:28) Conrad did in fact NOT say the Danish version of "Michael", he said the Danish version of "Mikkel", which is often the case with the Danish version of the name, Michael.
Sincerely, Michael from Denmark
I actually noticed that in editing - I actually call Mike "Mikkel" even though it's not a direct interpretation. I even changed his Netflix account profile LOL
@@RobeTrotting Haha. I feel like that'd be like calling Conrad, Connor 😄
But who am I to comment on that, I'm Marty McFly on Netflix. So... Martin I suppose
😂 I’m SO going to do that now
Impressing that you are learning this language at all - I know, it’s not easy, and the spellings are not similar to the sounds. Respect 👍
Thank you 😊
As a Dane I use tak for sidst in the way you dismissed. Aka i express gratitude for/reminisce the last time we met. But its usually used for things if we recently hung out, because otherwise i cant remember it
Yeah, I hear it a lot and I'm like "I haven't seen you in half a year at least and I don't remember where or when"
"and you've never invited me to your home ever" haha
@@RobeTrotting Yeah that totally makes sense, I would be confused as well if someone "tak for sidst"'-ed me and it was like half a year ago.
I'd probably just repeat back to them "tak for sidst?" and maybe add a "Er det ikke længe siden?" in a confused tone and see if they explain hahaha
often when i speak with someone who is learning danish or has learned danish, and automatically switch to english, is because i sometimes have a hard time understand people, even with the smallest accent, when its danish with another accent. I dont know why, because its not as much an issue in english.
For me my brain just instantly switches languanges whenever someone speaks, especially if they says an english word, but it even does it when someone sounds like they dont really speak it naturally, so its really not on purpose, i mean i even start thinking in english or if its another language i know a good amount of.
I think one of the reasons many danes switch to english is a sort of misunderstood modesty. In the spirit of saying "oh, you don't need to... we can just speak your language, it's easier for everyone" - and ofcourse it IS easier for everyone, but if you are trying to learn danish it's a bit of a bjørnetjeneste!
Spot on for me at least.
Also for those that don’t know “bear favor” is doing someone a favor but actually making it worse
It's a bit out there. But for me as a Dane I find it difficult to spell Dyslexic where in Danish it's so much more simplified as its just word blind "ordblind". Always having to google translate "ordblind" to get the desired result. Danish can be really easy sometimes. But Danish isn't easy for native speakers. so we are all in the same boat :)
Æggekage is actually an omelette! But close enough!
I was actually wondering if he meant a paella instead of tortilla. Surely that'd be closer to "æggekage"?
@@gnawershreth Paella seems to be made with rice and not eggs. Omelettes are, though there might still be a small difference between french Omelettes and Danish æggekager. Can't rule that one out.
@@gnawershrethpaella is definitely further off than tortilla lol