Day 67 - Full Time Student

Wednesday night. Our flat. Emily and I took our first Danish lesson with our Berlitz language teacher Nanna. Not to be confused with Nnanna. Or Na Nah Na Nah.

It is actually pronounced nAn-ah. Sorry Master P.

These lessons are part of Emily's relocation package from Novo. Our package consists of 45 lessons. Each lesson is 45 minutes long and we will have 3 lessons per evening session.

It was exhausting. The Berlitz method begins with the instructor speaking Danish exclusively. We both felt pretty stupid, but it was fun and I can't wait to get better. Nanna is very nice and understands that we are obviously unskilled.

Our workbook - which is awesomely very much a children's book - started out with learning the names of familie Peterson. There were many questions about the various members of the Petersen family. Er det Kristine? Ja, det er Kristine. Det er ikke Michael.

The hardest words to pronounce so far? Red. Also key. Also blue magazine - at least I think it was a magazine. Now I can't find the word. Blel? Something like that. Check it out.

Red



Key



Baby steps. We learned Danish words for countries around the world, where people live, land, by, colors, greetings - hvordan går det? - cats, dogs, tog, etc. Danish does not have masculine / feminine words and the associated articles but it does have two different words for the - et and en. There is no rhyme or reason to which words go with which articles. You simply have to memorize them. This wouldn't be a problem, however, the adjective used to describe the noun changes depending on the article. Poor.

Additionally, I met with a counselor at VUF to discuss language classes through the kommune. For three years, all new permanent residents in Denmark get free Danish classes through the kommune. There are four levels of classes.

1 - for the illiterate
2 - for those with only a high school education
3a - for those with advanced education but with limited foreign language skills
3b - for those with advanced education with multiple languages

The counselor - Annelie who I initially thought was Emily - pushed me to go for 3b, but I'm in 3a for now. The class starts Monday. It is four times a week for three hours each day. I start Monday.

The course is built into modules and each module takes about 3-4 months to complete. There are six modules.

So, to recap, I am taking 16.5 hours of Danish a week. Yeah.