[Warning: not to be taken entirely seriously!]
In my about two and a half years of living in Copenhagen, I’ve talked to many Danes - first in English, now in Danish. They are no doubt a bunch of nice and friendly people - with exceptions, of course, but those are everywhere. But over time, I couldn’t help but notice a somewhat repetitive pattern in my conversations with the Danes, especially upon just meeting them for the first time. So I thought I’d put together this little list of five things that I hear a lot! If you have other examples of things you get asked all the time - let me know in the comments!
“Oh, ich kann auch ein bisschen Deutsch!” (oh, I speak some German, too!)
This is typically one of the first things I get after introducing myself and answering the question of where I come from. Often, this sentence is also the only German they know, which is too bad because I love hearing Danes speak German - it’s a very cute accent! Variations include something about Oktoberfest (which I’ve never been to) or whether I own a Dirndl (which I actually do).
“Wow, you learned Danish fast!”
Another question that tends to come up early on in a conversation is about how long I’ve lived here. When I say that it’s been about two and a half years, I usually get astounded looks and overflowing compliments for my Danish, which makes me slightly embarrassed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very flattered! But I feel like I had an advantage, because I think being (or speaking) German helps a lot when learning Danish, as many of the words and a large part of the grammar are very similar. It does make me happy though that I apparently don’t have a strong German accent (although they can hear I’m not a native Dane, but I’ll totally take that). But hey, I did spend many, many Saturdays taking Danish classes, so it’s okay to get a little bit of credit, right? Some of my thoughts on learning Danish are here.
“Can you say ‘rødgrød med fløde’?”
I bet there’s not a single expat in all of Denmark who’s never been asked this. I get it, it’s funny to hear us poor foreigners twist our tongues trying to pronounce those darn soft d’s! The short and slightly party pooper-y answer is, yes, I can. I won’t sound 100% like a Dane, but it’s close enough so people won’t make fun of me. At first I got annoyed by being asked this, but I’ve learned to play along – and based on some comments to the post I mentioned above, I’ve now started to turn the tables and in return ask the Danes to say “Eichhörnchen” (German for squirrel), which is quite hilarious, actually. If you dish it out, you have to be able to take it, right? Fun for everybody, yay!
“How long do you think you’ll stay here?”
I don’t quite know why this is always brought up – maybe foreigners don’t tend to stay in Denmark for long? I haven’t seen any statistics on that, so if anyone has any, feel free to share in the comments below. I don’t necessarily think the question is meant in an inhospitable way, as in “please go home again soon”. Maybe many Danes can’t imagine living abroad for a long time, so they assume that, naturally, I’ll only stay here for some years – I don’t know. This may also not be a strictly Danish thing – I imagine expats in other countries being asked the same thing – this is just the only country I’ve lived in “indefinitely”, without a set return date.
“So, are you studying here?”
I fully attribute this question to my youthful looks! Kidding aside, this comes up surprisingly frequently. I think there’s two reasons: for one, it’s one of the main reasons for why people move abroad, especially within Europe. Second, people are usually surprised to hear that I’ve completed both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and have been working for almost four years now (wow, just reading this made me feel old). At my work, we have student assistants who are just one or two years younger than me – in my understanding, it’s very common to do a “gap year” after school to start working, and to take a break between two degrees as well. That naturally means that students here are often older, especially the ones doing their master’s. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite questions to get!
What are some questions or things you hear a lot from Danes? What about other expats – maybe I should do a post on that, too!
Nate Jones says
The one I always get is when Danes find out I’m from Texas is “but you don’t have a Texas accent and do you own guns and ride horses. If all else fails they’ll do the double finger gun point and say proudly “George Bush”…I didn’t even vote for him nor do I like what he has done to my country and the rest of the world.
Laura says
Haha, the double finger gun… wow! But I think often people don’t mean anything by it, they probably just want to show that they know something about the place you come from - and they end up doing it in a clumsy way!
Syamira says
I have a handful of Danish friends and they’re always trying to get me to say “rødgrød med fløde!” I’ve done it successfully a handful of times, but man, that word is such a tongue twister!
Laura says
Hi Syamira - I’m with you, it is a tongue twister! Initially, I tried to just say it super quick, in one big mush of “ø’s” and soft d’s, but that didn’t work out so well!
Danika Maia says
I’m from California so I hear “what are you doing over here then??” all the time. I’ve been here almost 4 years and have Danish citizenship but I study in english, work in english, and talk to my boyfriend and friends in english so even though my danish is alright I prefer to speak english and this annoys people too. I know I should practice more but it’s hard!! Do you speak it every day??
Danika Maia
http://www.danikamaia.com
Laura says
Honestly, with this weather in the middle of April, aren’t you sometimes asking yourself that question? Even I am, and it’s only marginally warmer in Germany! ;)
I also prefer speaking English and do so with my boyfriend, but at work, for example, I use Danish as often as possible, so I actually end up speaking Danish pretty much every day. But yeah, it’s definitely hard! I’m thinking I’ll make a post about the Danish words that frustrate me the most! :)
Ley says
That “wow, you learn … fast” is a typisch question for all of us who needs to adapt to a new country and we are willing to live in their language. No matter how long you live there, they are always going to be surprised that we, in fact, can speak dutch/german/danish/etc.
Laura says
Hi Ley - that’s a good point. I think it also has to do with the Danes’ perceived difficulty of learning Danish. I’ve often been told (by Danes) that Danish is one of the hardest languages to learn, and I know I’ve said the same to others learning German - so that’s probably also a factor.
Birgitte Gøtzsche says
I am wondering why the “soft d” is so hard for you to pronounce - isn’t it the same sound englishspeaking people use for ‘th’?
Laura says
Not being a native English speaker myself, I would say it’s generally similar to the “th” in e.g. “they” (not as in “think”), but especially when a Danish word ends in the soft d (like “rød grød”) it becomes quite hard to pronounce - for me, there’s also something of an “L” sound in there, if that makes sense? Hard to describe! :)