My Trials with Danish

I have been taking Danish lessons for almost two years now. I turn on the Danish news every once in a while to see what I understand, as my Czech friends would put it “Rozumim hovno”. “Alright” I say to myself, “no worries, you will understand it some day.” No need to freak out, learning a language takes time, and Danish being a language designed to confuse Swedes it may take longer than usual.

Speaking of Swedes, last year as I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, I realized I understood the foreign language one of the characters were speaking. I am like “Finally! Danish language unlocked! I can understand this guy”. Turns out he was speaking Swedish. One might be disheartened by all these years of Danish practice not leading to any understanding of the spoken language. One might think “I spent two years trying to learn Danish and I am no closer to understanding when people speak it.”

I am not that kind of guy. I think to myself “Hey, I spent no time learning Swedish and I am almost fluent at it.” I am not kidding, my colleagues give me funny looks when I try to speak Danish. Finally one of them said the other day “I am trying to figure out why you are speaking Swedish.” I guess I moved to the wrong side of Kattegat strait.