Im going to learn Danish, and I'm going to be quite good at it too

[LizLemongrass]

Any Danish speakers ? laughing at my confidence

Any Broen fans?

No - but I'd love to learn Danish and move to Denmark.

No, but my sister does as her husband is Danish. Didnt find it to hard she said, but every single person ive met there speaks good English!

I'm not expecting to get so good that a Danish person wouldn't have better English, but I think I can learn a few basics and few phrases.

I am watching the bridge series one now, after series two :-/ but ah well. I have Borgen lined up. It's amazing, the internet tools available now to assist with learning a language. I know my brain is old now but the combination of swotting a bit on www.speakdanish.dk and then watching Danish tv.

jeg vil ikke...forsigtigt, det er ganske svært

It is weird though... after watching killing (x 3), Borgen (x3) and Bridge (x2) I really forget they're speaking another language and I'm reading subtitles!

It just seems natural, possibly because we still have many words in English from Danish and Swedish.

My friend lives in Denmark, speaks Danish, it took quite a long time to become fluent, because the accent is hard (the area she's in) and people insist on speaking English so much. She's good now though.

Hansolo, my goals are realistic! I just want to get my ear in gear sufficiently that I am ready to learn from the Danish tv shows I'm watching!

Also, I have an advantage over English people I believe. [cockyfuckerface] No language that I've ever attempted to learn has seemed harder than Irish. Also, the tools available (on line) are much more useful. Danish is also more like English than irish is like English. So, I'm convinced that it is easy (comparitively).

My DH who is a linguist says Danish is just bad German like Italian is bad Latin ...

over- I did German, and yes- there are some words that stand out to me, in Borgen especially, that are obviously same root as German words. (entschuldigung for example)

Yes go for it. I lived in Copenhagen for the best part of a year and seriously considered moving there permanently. I keep the ould Dansk going with Borgen broen and forbrudelsen (sp?). I was at that point where I understood what people were saying and was just starting to talk back but sadly I left. Another month I reckon would have helped enormously. My husband is an Arabic speaker and I haven't even bothered to try to study Arabic. It has just come naturally to me because as a culture they are not so keen on speaking English when they don't have to so I've absorbed it from repetitive phone calls betweeny oh and his family, him talking baby Arabic to our dd etc. I would go so far as to say Danish is the more difficult language despite a lot of English French and German words cropping up because as others have rightly said, the feckers reply to your broken Danish in perfect English. It kind of undermines one's confidence! For fen!!

Oh Liz I would agree with you about the Irish. It's the most bizarre language. Interestingly though some Danish words are used as slang in Scotland and Northern Ireland eg barn (prounounced 'bairn') = child. Fuld (Pronounced 'full') means pissed/drunk. 'For til' means in order to or 'fer til' in culchie-speak. They travelled around them there Vikings, so they did!

No, but my sister does as her husband is Danish. Didnt find it to hard she said, but every single person ive met there speaks good English!

Not sure why my post posted again!? But had meant to say, my sister did live in copenhagen for 3 yrs so.time to learn, but she had to firmly tell her in laws to stop.talking to her in English or she would never learn.

I personally find Swedish easier (all those Wallander episodes) but am currently enjoying my new language of Flemish on a Saturday evening. I'd really like to speak be Swedish but I'm not sure what use it would be in my everyday life

I learnt Danish. Grammar and vocab are ok (It's a relatively small language). The pronounciation is a bastard though, that's what makes it so hard.

The worst is when your own children correct your pronounciation (no loyalty apparently) and even worse is when you say a name or word that is originally English in a sentence that is otherwise Danish and the little blighters correct that pronounciation to the Danish way
Although I appreciate that's less likely to be an issue in your situation

My mum is Danish, I learnt a bit as a child but unfortunately can't speak it now as she didn't bring me up bilingual.

There are two basic problems with learning Danish. Firstly the pronunciation is a nightmare (I can sound good but unfortunately have no vocab) - as an adult learner it's hard. The spoken language doesn't sound like the written language as they tend to leave out all the consonants, make impossible vowel sounds and then throw in some random glottal stops. However if you've learnt Irish this may not phase you

The second problem is that everyone in Denmark speaks fluent English. Really everyone - I've had conversations with homeless drunks who had fluent English. As soon as you have a go at speaking some Danish, everyone will launch into grammatically perfect English and ask 'Why do you want to learn Danish, we are such a small country and so few speakers?'