Why are you interested in Danish?

Moderator:Mulder-21

SImon Gray
Posts:197
Joined:2006-12-22, 20:57
Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby SImon Gray » 2009-07-12, 18:50

I'm a native speaker so it was never a matter of choice for me, but I'm interested in knowing what your reasons are for wanting to learn our language.

That is all.

User avatar
Johanna
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6679
Joined:2006-09-17, 18:05
Real Name:Johanna
Gender:female
Location:Lidköping, Westrogothia
Country:SESweden (Sverige)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Johanna » 2009-07-12, 19:09

Not that I'm learning Danish, but I look into this forum because I'm very interested in all varieties of 'Scandinavian'.
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

User avatar
Jayan
Posts:223
Joined:2009-05-04, 13:39
Real Name:Jayan Nair
Gender:male
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Jayan » 2009-07-12, 21:09

I suppose you could say that I'm learning Danish for familial reasons. My mom's mom's family is Danish, and so when I was looking for an interesting language to learn, Danish came up. However, that motivation only endured a little while: I quickly came to love the language itself :) . SImon, I think I might be the only one who answers; ILuvEire is "taking a break" :? .

Johanna wrote:Not that I'm learning Danish, but I look into this forum because I'm very interested in all varieties of 'Scandinavian'.


I suppose you are in the camp that says Danish Norwegian and Swedish are all the same language? I suppose you are entitled to your own opinion, but still, it seems a sligthly whacky ( :silly: ) view :P
[flag]zh[/flag] [flag]th[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] | [flag]id[/flag] [flag]is[/flag] [flag]eu[/flag] | [flag]es[/flag] [flag]de[/flag] [flag]la[/flag]

User avatar
Jurgen Wullenwever
Posts:2876
Joined:2009-04-10, 19:32
Gender:male
Country:SESweden (Sverige)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Jurgen Wullenwever » 2009-07-12, 21:42

Jayan wrote:
Johanna wrote:Not that I'm learning Danish, but I look into this forum because I'm very interested in all varieties of 'Scandinavian'.


I suppose you are in the camp that says Danish Norwegian and Swedish are all the same language? I suppose you are entitled to your own opinion, but still, it seems a sligthly whacky ( :silly: ) view :P


They must be the same language, although they adhere to different standards, as it still is possible for Swedish, Danish and Norwegian persons each speaking their own tongue yet making themselves reasonably understood in a conversation.

To me, as a Swedish speaker, Danish and Norwegian appears to be a mixture of systematic and arbitrary deviations from normal Swedish, and they could say the same about Swedish.

I read books about Danish and Norwegian and Icelandic and Faroese to learn more about Swedish, so to me they are the same. (This does not mean that I understand all forms of Scandinavian. :( )

The linguistic differences between the Scandinavians have to some extent been artificially created for political reasons, when Sweden, Iceland and Norway wanted to distance themselves from Denmark, so if it had not been for a bunch of separatists, we would all be speaking something that would be called Danish today. (And it is odd that we are not speaking Standard High German, as they started to do south of us, after the reformation.)
Chekhov wrote:I don't know about naive worldviews, but Jurgen Wullenwhatever pisses me off to no end because of his extreme pessimism and cynicism. You'd think the world was going to end imminently when talking to that guy.

Jag är rebell: jag sockrar teet, saltar maten, cyklar utan hjälm, och tänder glödlampor.
(Ovanstående var förut, nu försöker jag minska sockret och saltet, och har gett upp mejeriprodukter.)

User avatar
Johanna
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6679
Joined:2006-09-17, 18:05
Real Name:Johanna
Gender:female
Location:Lidköping, Westrogothia
Country:SESweden (Sverige)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Johanna » 2009-07-12, 21:44

Jayan wrote:
Johanna wrote:Not that I'm learning Danish, but I look into this forum because I'm very interested in all varieties of 'Scandinavian'.

I suppose you are in the camp that says Danish Norwegian and Swedish are all the same language? I suppose you are entitled to your own opinion, but still, it seems a sligthly whacky ( :silly: ) view :P

Danish phonology is a bit different but genuine Scanian dialects are still more East Danish than Swedish, and no-one with some lingustic knowledge and in their right mind would say Swedish and Norwegian are different languages, there are less differences in vocabulary and grammar between the three written standards on the Scandinavian Peninsula (Nynorsk, Bokmål and Standard Swedish) than between my own dialect and the one my cousins from the north of Sweden speak.

If a Dane speaks slowly I understand him/her too.
Last edited by Johanna on 2013-01-13, 22:32, edited 3 times in total.
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

User avatar
ILuvEire
Posts:10398
Joined:2007-12-08, 17:41
Gender:male
Location:Austin
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby ILuvEire » 2009-07-12, 22:42

I'm not sure why I chose to learn Danish, besides the fact that it sounds much prettier than Norwegian or Swedish to me.

And btw, Seán, Mr. Hashimoto, Johanna, and I speak our respective Scandinavian languages to each other on Skype all the time, and I have no trouble understanding anyone. :P
[flag]de[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag] [flag]haw[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]
Current focus: [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag]
Facebook | tumblr | Twitter
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.” —John Waters

User avatar
Arcane
Posts:183
Joined:2007-02-20, 18:19
Gender:female
Country:DKDenmark (Danmark)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Arcane » 2009-07-15, 23:15

Hello to everybody! :)

It is my first post in the Danish forum and since I'm not really into opening new threads, I'm sneaking in here. I am most probably moving to Denmark in a month or so for my MA. This is the most obvious and recent reason for being interested in learning Danish but there's a varied background to my love for Scandinavia:

1. Black metal and Scandinavian experimental/jazz music. Especially Norwegian black metal has been a significant influence in my early teen days. It made me look into mythology, medieval history and Nordic paganism. Later on, at uni I got also interested in domestic and foreign policy. I know it may sound like a strange consequence of listening to black metal :)

2. Scandinavian literature - both children's and regular fiction. I've got a huge Scandi collection of books - from children's books from the 70s and the 80s to sagas, sci-fi and typical collections of Scandi [pretty depressing] novels. Btw Danish ones are the most suicidal from what I've read :twisted: Most are translated into Bulgarian and English but I've got some originals as well. The last one I got is "Lige ud landevejen" by Herluf Jensenius, 1958. Unfortunately I have never got to read a whole book in the original language yet, be it Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.

So I intend starting with Danish as soon as I arrive but I'm a bit worried. I've studied Norwegian (østlandsk bokmål) for a semester and I wonder if that would help or just the opposite - mess me up! I am good at reading but much worse in speaking and listening (not a big surprise). I've actually spoken in Norwegian to Danes and surprisingly they understood everything but I didn't get a word from what they said :lol:

Of course, pronunciation is the biggest problem. I don't want to speak some strange mutation in between the two langs and I am still wondering how to proceed. Any advice is welcome! :D

User avatar
Blooming_Tiger
Posts:63
Joined:2008-09-03, 20:35
Real Name:Johanna K.
Gender:female
Country:DEGermany (Deutschland)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Blooming_Tiger » 2009-07-28, 22:53

To be honest Danish would have probably slipped under my radar, but my best friend is Danish, and she can speak a bit of German so I thought it only fair to return the favor. :P
No just kidding, but she is the one who "awakened" my interest in it so to say.

User avatar
Zorba
Posts:3169
Joined:2006-03-24, 21:09

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Zorba » 2009-07-29, 0:46

I have dabbled in Danish and I'd like to learn it properly for several reasons:

-- Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the Vikings.

-- There is so much phonological reduction in Danish that it has (to my ears) a very distinctive sound. Unfortunately this is also what makes it very challenging to learn.

-- I'm interested in Danish film, especially the dogme movement. Although von Trier is pretentious at times, I love the gritty realism and quirky humour of Danish cinema.

-- I like Arne Jacobsen and Danish modernist architecture generally. Smart without being pretentious. Practical. I was fortunate enough to live next door to St Catherine's College (designed by Jacobsen) when I was in Oxford.

-- Although there has been a shift to the right in recent years and questions about the stability of the Danish socioeconomic model, I admire the idea of a strong social security system supported by high taxes as practised in post-war Denmark.

Reasons why I haven't actually learned Danish:
-- Vowel reduction.
-- Expensive to live there. Was there for a week in 2006 and loved it, but I simply don't have the money to go regularly. Sadly I don't really know any Danes -- they seem to be fairly reserved at first.
-- Most Danes speak good English.
-- The lack of a real course and no-one to practise with IRL; I have to rely on self-study and suffer from a lack of motivation.
-- Little obvious use of Danish in my field of Russian literature -- it will probably only ever be a hobby.

User avatar
sennacherib
Posts:1277
Joined:2009-06-07, 12:36
Real Name:Eric
Gender:male
Location:Shanghai
Country:CNChina (中国)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby sennacherib » 2009-08-01, 5:24

The following reasons are not ordered by importance, just some random thoughts. :blush:

1. I love the country's name 丹麥 in Chinese a lot.

2. Denmark is the first Scandinavian country that I'm aware of, and it's been one of the dreamlands since my childhood.

3. I'm obsessed with the fascinating natural landscape, the serene environment and the slow-paced life style in Denmark.

4. I like the three adorable letters: æ ø å :blush:

5. Denmark is ranked the happiest country in the world!

Honestly I like the country more than the language.. :blush:
Alles im Leben hat seinen Sinn.

User avatar
ILuvEire
Posts:10398
Joined:2007-12-08, 17:41
Gender:male
Location:Austin
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby ILuvEire » 2009-08-01, 5:30

Eric! Du tænker om at lære dansk!? Yay!
Eric! You're thinking about learning Danish!? Yay!
[flag]de[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag] [flag]haw[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]
Current focus: [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag]
Facebook | tumblr | Twitter
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.” —John Waters

User avatar
sennacherib
Posts:1277
Joined:2009-06-07, 12:36
Real Name:Eric
Gender:male
Location:Shanghai
Country:CNChina (中国)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby sennacherib » 2009-08-01, 5:47

ILuvEire wrote:Eric! Du tænker om at lære dansk!? Yay!
Eric! You're thinking about learning Danish!? Yay!


Hmm, actually I'm into all the Scandinavian countries. They appeals to me equally atm. :blush:
Alles im Leben hat seinen Sinn.

User avatar
Jayan
Posts:223
Joined:2009-05-04, 13:39
Real Name:Jayan Nair
Gender:male
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Jayan » 2009-08-01, 13:53

Pick Danish, pick Danish, pick Danish! :P No really, it's a great language, better than Swedish and Norwegian (though there seem to be fewer resources than the other too :( ).
[flag]zh[/flag] [flag]th[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] | [flag]id[/flag] [flag]is[/flag] [flag]eu[/flag] | [flag]es[/flag] [flag]de[/flag] [flag]la[/flag]

User avatar
csjc
Posts:746
Joined:2009-03-23, 4:16
Real Name:Jordan C.
Gender:male
Location:Reykjavík
Country:ISIceland (Ísland)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby csjc » 2009-08-02, 20:23

Danish is great. It's quirky, fun to listen to, and arguably the most far away from Icelandic any North Germanic language can get. I'm focusing on improving my Swedish/Norwegian at the moment, but I'd love to learn Danish eventually, and at least be able to speak and understand it somewhat reasonably. :D

Plus, Danish media is great. I watch a lot of DR1/2 online, and I've recently got into watching the comedy series "Klovn", which is utterly hilarious.
[flag]en-ca[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]is[/flag]
[flag]nl[/flag] [flag]fi[/flag] [flag]sv[/flag] [flag]fr[/flag] [flag]de[/flag] [flag]la[/flag]

User avatar
ILuvEire
Posts:10398
Joined:2007-12-08, 17:41
Gender:male
Location:Austin
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby ILuvEire » 2009-08-03, 1:54

I love Klovn, it's so funny! Thank you so much for showing it to me. :D
[flag]de[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag] [flag]haw[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]
Current focus: [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag]
Facebook | tumblr | Twitter
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.” —John Waters

User avatar
'''
Posts:1748
Joined:2008-08-29, 14:20
Real Name:Withheld
Gender:male
Location:Canberra
Country:AUAustralia (Australia)
Contact:

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby ''' » 2009-08-04, 11:59

it's the sexiest of the sandinavian languages. and I have a thing for the danish blonde girls.
26/♂/hetero/Hu/★☭/PRESCRIPTIVIST
(en)(hu) - native
(de)(fr)(fa) - intermediate

User avatar
Cylon
Posts:133
Joined:2007-06-27, 15:29
Gender:male
Location:none

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Cylon » 2009-11-24, 19:05

''' wrote:it's the sexiest of the sandinavian languages. and I have a thing for the danish blonde girls.


Right! That's my biggest reason why I am studying danish. :mrgreen: :yep:

No seriously:

I like the language itself
I enjoy all germanic languages
I would like to visit the country someday
Knowing this language will open up a rich cultural world to me (movies, novels,...)

User avatar
Eadseig
Posts:3
Joined:2010-01-02, 23:16
Real Name:Neil Lucock
Gender:male
Location:Northwich Cheshire
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Eadseig » 2010-01-03, 16:44

The wife bought me a "Teach yourself Norwegian" book (she said I ought to learn it as I didn't know it). Danish (and Swedish) are close, so it seems reasonable to look at them when I'm a bit more confident in Bokmal.
Danish is one of the languages that contributed to English.
Vikings! One of these days I'm going to do viking reenactment, but I just don't have the time to do 3 different time periods.
I'll probably go there this summer

Neil

User avatar
Marcellus
Posts:106
Joined:2008-01-05, 12:03

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Marcellus » 2010-01-04, 13:11

Honestly, now, why wouldn't one be interested in learning Danish?

User avatar
Kasuya
Posts:1008
Joined:2008-11-14, 7:31
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Why are you interested in Danish?

Postby Kasuya » 2010-01-04, 15:08

Marcellus wrote:Honestly, now, why wouldn't one be interested in learning Danish?

Because it's not very useful for the vast majority of the world population.


Return to “Danish (Dansk)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

cron