Virtually every Dane can speak English. Some more than others. Yes, if you get way out into the middle of Jutland you're likely to find a gap-toothed yokel that only speaks Danish, but it rare. Despite this, speaking English isn't the norm. As with most non-English speaking countries, English is the lingua franca of the professional world, not the working class world.
This puts me in a bit of a bind. For two reasons.
One, given my job experience / skills, I'm most likely going to be hired as a laboratory technician. Danish is the language of most labs.
Two, it makes it difficult to just grab a job to make ends meet. Say, pizza delivery or pumping gas.
Three, I know I said two earlier, it will make it difficult to build my taco / bbq truck empire.
As such, I will be starting Danish lessons on Monday. This is the Berlitz course provided by Novo. Additionally, I will be taking another course through the kommune. It is free and intense. I have a "consultation" on the 21st to determine which of the four different classes would be best for me. Here's a description.
I am extremely worried that I'll be put into 3b and fail miserably. We'll see. This also seems a bit class-ist, but that's Denmark for you.
As an ex-patriot in Denmark you have up to three years - from the date of entry - of free Danish classes.
No comments:
Post a Comment