I agree. I did the same and it helped my vocabulary as well as my pronunciation.

I learned english by watching Friends on television and with time when I was a young teenager I didn't bother to put on subtitles anymore. I have had german for 8 years and rarely watch tv in german, so I SUCK at german! I can barely say a sentence and I can't answer if someone asks what the time is, so television is truly important !

As did I, back in 1982 i watched "Så er der tegnefilm" on DR1, the language is in english, so begain picking up and speaking english at age 7.

This is how I learned German, watching German television growing up in Denmark way back in the '70s and '80s.

Tak!!

I know I live in Skåne and most ppl here dont understand danish. I realy dont understand why cause it is realy easy. Only danes I have some problem to understand is from Syd- Jylland

Nonsense with you! When you are in Denmark, you can see that even small children can speak Danish. So how hard can it be? lol

“Danish” is better to eat, than to speak :-)

@@nenne7253 Funny how most Danes easily understand Swedish, but it doesnt work the other way around.

Good idea! Perhaps we can have a specific hour or two where we try to speak only Danish at the house.

That is a realy good idea to make Maya speak danish at home. The best wishes for all.

Thanks!

@@TravelinYoung I definitely second that. Besides English as a second language (my first of course being Danish) I've dappled in multiple other languages, and using a language is really the only way to learn it. It can be frustrating at first, because no one is all that eloquent in a new language, at least not to begin with, but when you find yourself in a spot where you can't remember the word for something, or can't quite remember how to phrase it, either look for a different way to form the sentence, or just give it your best shot and fumble through until you get there. Besides the hour or two of only Danish, another thing that helps is in the evening, try to describe your day in Danish. "I woke up at X, I took a shower, put on a plaid shirt and jeans. For breakfast I had X and Y. Then I went to do X Y and Z" It helps by going through some different nouns and verbs, it helps with getting you used to the sentence structure etc. and you will be introduced to new words as they become relevant in your daily lives

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice Practice Practice.

Thanks! Aarhus would be a great place to live, we love it there. Happy New Year!

Thanks for sharing this and for following along with us :). It has been interesting that Danes have mentioned having some of the same experiences as we have had socially. The Danish classes are going very well! We are both gaining some confidence. I have started to say a few things when out and about if I feel I can. Numbers and things like that. I would have never done that before. It has been fun and folks are both surprised and appreciative when they find out we are taking classes. Thanks again!

@@TravelinYoung The first thing you should learn is your phone number, address, and CPR number. Not much different than learning our native language for the first time.

Thanks!

Just as long as we don't eat the fish!

@@TravelinYoung vă așteptăm și în România!

Flying high. LOL.

Tak! Super nice of you to say!

Thanks, my guess is we will get there eventually. We do want to see all of DK.

I absolutely love that you said Keep on Truck'n. I have considered saying that on a video or two but realized most won't understand :). I am starting to watch more and more DK TV to help me get used to it. We are definitely improving and the classes have helped a ton.

Thanks! I do need to get back to watching danish tv. I did when I first moved here just to get used to hearing the sounds, but now I’ve stopped. Good idea to start again!

Thanks for watching! It has been a fun journey and worth the challenges. We will definitely keep going and look forward to being able to get out and around DK more again soon.

Haha, might be a while, but that is a good goal to have :).

That is super nice of you to say. Hard to say if we've always been this way, but I would guess we've become more and more easy going and open as we've had more experiences. We've traveled around much of the globe, which has helped us grow. Living in DK has also done a ton to make us more appreciative of the opportunities we get. At least I hope so :). It means a lot to read this, we appreciate it!

We are grateful they are free again, but also disappointed when they weren't upon our arrival in 2018. At the same time, I don't think I was mentally ready to learn Danish at that stage anyway. I was acclimating to a new job and trying to figure out how to manage life. Now is the right time, so for us it worked out. You are correct, the political winds have influenced that a ton, but perhaps they are coming back around since language courses are now free again. I am hoping this is a positive signal. It is very unfortunate that a similar option isn't provided in the US and English. So many Americans feel that anyone intending to live in the country should be able to talk in English fluently. For that to be true there can't be barriers making it difficult to learn. This of course is the argument used to bring it back in DK, but it seems in the US it's not so easy. I hope you are adopting to life in the US okay! It is actually a great place for Danes, for one big reason that you mentioned, you can already speak English removing a huge hurdle when moving abroad. Thanks for the support, the quest will be long, but so far so good! Godt Nytår!!

That is awesome, thanks! We sure will :).

We are glad we can help! While we didn't come as students, I know a few Americans who have and it is possible for sure. It would definitely be helpful to start with Danish. You can survive with out, but I believe it will make it easier to connect to people in the end. I am in IT and this is a good market. Lots of innovation, growth, investments, going on here around technology. Find a good focus and maybe a Danish company to connect with and make it happen! I wish you luck!

Thanks, I hope so! I need to invest a lot more time outside of class studying.

Thanks, and thanks for watching!

Thanks, and I agree, great English speakers make it hard to become a horrible danish speaker :). We have had a great time so far!

Soon we will be eating Danish candy together while all talking Danish :).

And your right Joshua. Bin your inhibitions. Just talk and get stuff wrong without thinking about it.

Haha, sounds good, I will do it!

@@TravelinYoung look forward to bumping into you around Copenhagen.

@@johnlovenhill1 definitely say hey if you see us!

Thanks!

Thanks!

You are welcome! That is great about your wife, I am glad you can be reunited here in DK. I wish you both the best.

I am definitely gaining confidence by going to class. But as you say, it’s almost a couple different languages since the spoken word follows different rules than what is written. Makes it more of a challenge :). We are committed to make this work, but do plan to speak it out loud more often to gain practice and feel better about speaking in public.

@@TravelinYoung yes definatly! What works (for us) is definatly speaking it! Because then you do the pronounciation more and more you obviously learn more. But f. Eks the smart People say, that Norwegian is much easier to learn both writing and speach compared to danish, and it is very similar to danish. So look it up. I am danish and i understand most Norwegian 😅 anyway whatever you do, if you try, People Will help 😊

We’ve only been by to see it from afar. Need to go back during the summer months when more is open. This year!

Thank you! 😃

Tak!

Thanks, I think after we get into the 2nd module of classes I will feel more comfortable at least having casual conversations in danish about how the weekend was, what did we do, etc.

For sure! I just finished watching the rain on netflix. Definitely helps to get it in the brain.

Thanks!

Have you guys tried out Duolingo? I don’t know if it is good for learning Danish. But i am corrently using it for learning Italian, and it is giving me a really solid foundation of the Italian language.

I did when we first moved here, it is helpful for sure. But the classes are much better now that we are taking those. I might use Duolingo some when on break to make sure I keep learning in between modules.

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking about watching some Disney/Pixar movies in Danish over the break. I know some of those stories pretty well and the speech should be easier to understand. I also want to start trying to say more basic things with friends at work.

@@TravelinYoung no problem, if you come to South Funen and want to see things that you do not normally see, I like to show around a bit as I myself am from this area.

Ps. I myself have family in both Canada and the U.S.A respectively

Great idea! We can try that some over the break. I plan to make some flash cards as well to help with memorization.

@@TravelinYoung repetition is king and just seeing the word køleskab each time you open the fridge will help so much ... best of luck to you guys and happy xmas

@@northbound42 Definitely, I actually labeled our old house a bit but didn't make it too far. And the sticky notes kept falling :). I did get the køleskab one up and that is a word I easily remember because of that. This is one of my mail goals over the break and we have 3 weeks off from classes, so I have a lot of time to memorize, practice, talk to Maya, etc. Thanks for the help and I hope you have a great xmas also!!

That is a good idea, maybe we can do it over the holidays when we are eating together and spending more time as a family. I did buy some index cards with the plan of creating flash cards for myself, just never made the effort. Now is the time! My danish colleagues have been helpful so far. I have been practicing basics with one of them as I prepare for my class in the evenings. I am feeling positive about what I have learned so far!

Thanks!

Thanks!!

Yep, same is true now! We both passed our module 1 exams so we move to 2 in a week or so :).

@@TravelinYoung tillykke. My danish took off when I started “hanging out“ with people that insisted that I speak it (re: church). When Covid is a thing of the past, you may want to look into it. “Danish Lutheran“I’m not extremely religious, but church activities during the week really helped me out.

Thanks! I am glad to hear you enjoyed the video.

We have tried a few, we just finished our first official "voluntary" Julefrokost :). We are going to have a Christmas video that talks about that experience. I plan to do a few more about Danish foods though as it is interesting to try and compare to things we are used to in the US.

Top of the morning to her.

Thanks, and you are right it makes it hard to learn but easy to get around.

Haha, thanks!

You are welcome, we are happy to share our experience! If you haven’t watched yet, we do have one video where we talk a bit about the process. I can say a few things here though as well. I think you should assume that when you move only 1 of you are able to find a job beforehand. It would be pretty amazing for the timing to work where you both did, but we came here knowing it wouldn’t be easy for us both to. So I started working and it took about a year for Miranda to find something. She wasn’t actively searching the entire time as we had some things with our dogs getting ill and helping our daughter adjust that took her time during that year. I don’t know much about university jobs, but I would have to assume speaking danish may be a requirement if she is a professor. I suspect even the international schools have professors who are bilingual. But I am certainly no expert there. I’m in IT and there are a good number a jobs, so it is really about finding the right company willing to sponsor you and help with the move. I have changed IT jobs since living here and it was easier the second time as I was already here and the residence permit in itself isn’t that tough or expensive for a company to handle. So the challenge will have to do with how much you’d want to ask the company to pay in relocation costs and what you can handle yourself in terms of costs and organization/management of the move. I worked in consulting and a big consulting firm was willing to pay much of the cost but I managed it all myself. They also recruited me directly from the danish office, I didn’t previously work for them in the US. Lots of growth is going on here (if you ignore covid). But like everywhere digital is becoming even more important, so I think jobs are out there and it is knowing where to look. I used my already established network in Europe and DK to get introduced to who eventually recruited me. So that was my avenue. Hope this helps some, good luck!

I really appreciate you getting back to me and sharing your thoughts. It’s a big help and will allow us to set some reasonable expectations. If it works out, It will be so nice to have some work/life balance and enjoy time with my family rather than working all the time. Good luck with the language classes! I look forward to seeing more of your videos and Denmark.

@@jasontomasacci7162 of course, no worries. Feel free to ask questions as more arise through your journey. The work life balance is better here for sure, you are right. There are moments were you can’t escape deadlines. Generally though being happy increases productivity, so it is prioritized.

Haha, I have found that Danes that feel like they can't speak English well are actually very good! I find it very impressive. I will have to do that with Spanish :). We may get in touch with her soon, when we get out to explore Jutland a bit more. We watched a lot of her content since we moved here. It is always helpful to find folks who have had similar experiences. Might be cool to meet her!

I hope so :). Thanks!

I did not! Interesting, we just learned 'window' in class last night. I hope to see more and more similar words making the memorization bit a little easier.

@@TravelinYoung If you really want to learn about Denmark, you should start in the Viking era - 7/8 century. Fex in Roskilde, where the danish viking king - Harald Bluetooth ( who bluetooth technology is named after ) is buried, and the reason why every king/queen in Denmark since then, is buried in Roskilde Cathredal ( and also the queen of today will be ) Denmark also ruled Norway and Sweden at that time. And is the reason, why the flags, the language are similar etc. In Roskilde ( today home of the biggest Music Festival in Northern Europe ) is also the former capital of Denmark, and where you will find the Viking Ship Museum - the way the vikingship is build ( klinke build ) is also why the Vikings was so succesfull and superior to all other at that time. The Danish viking king Rollo ( also known as Rollo, the Duke of Normandy, France is the reason why the Royal Family of England and all the royals of Scandinavia is related ( his son is William the Conquer 1066 ). Denmark was in the viking era a power country, and where the viking era started, with the town Ribe as the first and biggest trading point in all of Scandinavia. The Viking impact, still has an powerfull impact on todays living ( not just in Denmark / Scandinavia, but also the world ( fex in the English language )

Super interesting. I'd learned bits of this, but not until we moved here. I am eager to put together a really good video on Roskilde, as so much history lives there (as you say). I will need to plan and organize that one a bit more than the others so I can really do it justice. That might be a multi-week project for the spring. It might also be interesting to do a future video that dives a bit into the history of the language and talks about the things you mention above. It is very cool to learn more about words, where they come from, why they are or are not similar in other languages. A lot of that goes back to power, rule, royalty, war, or other circumstances in history. The more we do this and hear from folks like yourself, the more ideas come up for future content. I love it!

@@TravelinYoung Fun fact. Nowadays Sweden, Norway and Denmark has a relationship like brothers (because through history we are family ) But since Denmark has ruled both Norway and Sweden for several centuries, there has been numerous independent wars. So the 2 countries, that have been most at war with heother in the world is...........Denmark and Sweden ! - 11 times since 1521.

@@jackieolsen7707 i really like how similar danish is to english. I dont know if they have a correlation between the viking era, or it is aan old endnu european language share. But a few words such as: Hand = hånd Cat = kat Hi = hej Brother = bror Sister = søster Little = lille Warm = varm Cold = koldt House = hus Mouse = mus I = jeg Time = tid God = gud Good = god Grusome = grusomt Up = op Rider = rytter Devil = djævel Give = giver Take = tager Grass = græs Tree = træ Wander = vandre Loan = låne Feet = fod Moon = måne Wall = væg Smile = smil :)

That is true, it can be had since the English is so good here.

Miranda here! This is definitely something we need to try. We are all at varying levels of being able to speak it. I've also been trying to watch more Danish tv to improve listening comprehension. There has been a great series about Frederick IX that I have enjoyed watching :)

We moved to DK in April of 2018.

It is both fun and challenging so far!

Thanks!

I have some Danish friends who I have known for years and I have always been impressed with their English. Now that I am learning all of the different sounds in Danish I am even more impressed that Danes rarely carry their accent into their English.

Tak!!

Sweet, thanks for following us! Yes, I think one of the hardest parts in speaking Danish would be the vowels. Sounds I have never heard before are hard to say. I don't even hear them properly until I train my ears. Vordingborg has been added to the list of places to visit! Thanks for the tip! Stay tuned, more adventures to come.

@@TravelinYoung Oh you're welcome, you make great content with an interesting outside view on Denmark! As for the vowel thing it is difficult, yes, but it can be learned (sort of) over time. Things get even more interesting - or weird - when it comes to nouns. In the english language the rule for when you use "a"or "an" before a noun is quite easy to learn. The danish equivalent is "en" or "et" and there is no rule that decides wether a certain noun has one or the other before it. We say "en bil" (a car) but "et hus" (a house). We say "et skateboard" but "en mikrochip"... A teacher I had once said that if an L2 learner asked her when to use one or the other she would just answer "I'm sorry, but you just have to take a guess!" Since we grew up with the language we don't even think about when to use one or the other, but foreigners have no choice but to go with trial-and-error if they can't remember if "en" or "et" comes before the noun they want to use. The danish language is just strange some times I guess :-D

Ha yes, this is frequent topic of discussion in our Danish class. The teacher always answers with "no rule, you just need to know". Fantastic! Though in reality I know that English has a ton of strange things as well. I find pronunciation the most challenging as rarely are words spoken the way my mind wants to read them. It will take time, but worth it to learn.

@@TravelinYoung Fantastic indeed! :-D I was even trying to think of a loose rule of thumb you could use for some noun groups but I immediately started finding too many exceptions to it, so no luck unfortunately... English does have its quirks as well but at least we danes have the advantage of being exposed to it at a fairly young age which makes it a lot easier for us to learn it. You are right about the pronunciation. Not that it helps you, but the reason for this is that the written language more or less froze some 200 - 400 years ago while the spoken language remained dynamic. This means that the spoken language has moved quite far away from the written one over the years. That's tough luck for L2 danish learners as they pretty much need to learn two different languages - a written one and a spoken one. In any case, I wish you the best of luck learning our language. Since danish is one of the smaller languages I think many danes feel quite honored when they meet foreigners who put time and effort into learning it as you and your family does.

Haha, the text was more for friends back home in the us that would watch :). Thanks though, we are working on the pronunciation, I think we are getting better! Good idea, and Christmas time is perfect for learning songs! Thanks!

Tak!

Good point, most my friends have felt okay correcting me. I definitely want to say things correct :).

Thanks!

We did post a video describing it a bit, but we came here to gain new experiences and learn what it is like to live in a new culture with a different language. Life is too short, so we thought we’d add a little adventure in :).