Danish language learning

Learning a new language can be a fun experience. It is true, that the further the language is from your mother tongue in terms of origins, the harder it is to learn.

When facing such a challenge, any person would naturally turn towards what is familiar, in this case, the very language they grew up using. If you try to compare most of the European languages to each other, you will find, that the logic of the grammatical structure and even many of the words will sound or at least seem familiar. You will have strange, un-understandable gut feelings about the meaning of several phrases, just to later find out that they really mean what you thought they did.

This phenomenon occurs because almost all the languages used in Europe (amongst many others) originate from the Indo-European language tree and have mutually influenced each other over the centuries. Almost every spoken language has words that originate from Latin and some more than others were influenced by Germanic languages.

The Danish language is one of the less widespread languages in Europe. It belongs to the North Germanic language batch, therefore it is very similar and at many points mutually intelligible with its Nordic neighbors, Swedish and Norwegian. It is spoken mainly by the nearly six million inhabitants of Denmark, but it is also widespread in Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well as in Schleswig-Holstein region of Northern Germany, where it is recognized and protected as a minority language.

Despite all that, the grammar of the language will seem extremely familiar to those speaking German or English, since Danish is very closely related to those in its core.

Disregarding the Danish pronunciation, it has a lot of words in common with the above mentioned two, which makes it easier to build a vast vocabulary relatively fast. Over the centuries, Danish has drifted away from the original Old Norse language due to the many language reforms it has undergone in Denmark and now, it is the language that differs the most from the ancient language of the Vikings.

It is generally established, that Danish is not one of those languages that you can learn from the textbook only. If you cannot practice speaking, you most probably will not succeed in figuring out how to pronounce things properly and make yourself understood.

Many foreigners, who have mastered Danish, vow that taking a Danish language course will provide you with the essential basics of the Danish language, so that afterwards, you could go and practice speaking as much as you can with a Dane.

It is very important to use all the resources you have available: apps like Duolingo can help to make you more confident and comfortable in pronouncing the basics or finding a tandem partner can boost your motivation to learn more and can also give you the satisfaction of teaching some of your own language to that other individual.

Since movies are not translated in the Danish TVs, you can find plentiful of movies in English with Danish subtitles right in your living room, an asset that many recommend using, as you can pick up a lot of words and phrases.

The Danish are very appreciative of someone trying to master their language and will provide a supportive environment and help you with your learning process. Since most Danes speak perfect English, you can safely practice your newly found language skills with the natives. Step out of your comfort zone and socialize in Danish. Try to include every tidbit of knowledge you have picked up and make mistakes. Remember, that is how you learn a language, and learning Danish means making a lot of new friends.