Danish Classes: Part 1

Part 0 of this could be Jeg beundrer Tori Amos. Part 2 is what I started to write back in October, but it has been a challenge to wrap it up, so I am making this detour instead. It was inspired by the recent discussions I had about Danish classes with one of my PhD students and some of my new colleagues at ITU.

 

I completed all the Danish class modules one should ideally go through before taking the mandatory Danish language test to apply for Danish citizenship (for all) or permanent residence (for non-Schengen-folk) back in summer 2020. I also passed the mandatory test around the same time.  Of course, when all was done, it was very rewarding. But the process of going through these modules and preparing for the exam was sometimes rewarding but mostly frustrating.

 

Let’s start with the rewards.

I met the person who became my #1 partner-in-crime in Denmark during Module 1 of the Danish class. I called her, temporarily, partner-in-crime-in-Denmark in Sore Throat post, but I finally have an official blog nickname for her: Sister in Movies, which she also approved. During the many round-of-introductions you perform during such language class modules, I learned that she was from Argentina and her university education was on films. Plus, she activated my feminist radar. I told myself “You should try to be friends with that person.” So, I did what every normal person would do. I asked her if she would be interested in seeing two bad movies with me at Husets Biograf. (The movies were The Room and The Apple if anyone is interested.) She thankfully said “yes.”

I learned how to be more compassionate and patient toward my own students as a professor thanks to being a sub-optimal student in most of the Danish classes. Up until Module 5 (which is the last module of Danish classes before the mandatory Danish exam), I seldomly did my homework because I was too exhausted as a junior academic and the homework wasn’t fun. Module 5 was the first module where I had the luxury of giving a class for the second time at the university, which helped carving the time to do my Danish homework more properly. My pronunciation of Danish words was also terrible up until Module 5. My Module 5 teacher, Anna Gerd Mc Nair, fixed that, and I am grateful to her for it even though I didn’t enjoy the process.

I was able to follow movie subtitles in Danish roughly one year after I moved to Denmark, which helped me enjoy my life in Copenhagen more. If you aren’t a passionate movie-goer, you may not understand why this is so important, but to me it is crucial not to be stuck with English-speaking movies when I am living in a foreign country. Pedro Almodóvar released two excellent films since I moved to Denmark, which I watched together with Sister in Movies as soon as they hit the movie theaters in Copenhagen. Life is more beautiful when there is an Almodóvar film to look forward to.

I discovered gems like Borgen, Rita, Skam (Norwegian not Danish, but an acceptable distraction on the path), ToveDitlevsen … while trying to learn Danish.

In September, I managed to cancel movie tickets over the phone in Danish. Negligible step for humankind, extremely big step for me.

In October, I visited Norway for the first time. While I couldn’t follow spoken Norwegian, I was able to understand written Norwegian signs and instructions on the streets.

In December, for the first time, I managed to schedule a doctor’s appointment in Danish and went through the first half of my appointment in Danish as well. The second half required knee-vocabulary, which I don’t have in any language, so I switched to English.

Since 2019, I have been able to follow Danish politics enough to have my own opinions and frustrations about it.

I like being able to hear the differences between Danish and other Scandinavian languages when people around me or in movies speak these languages. They used to sound like the same noise.

 

Now the frustrations.

My social life had to be way more restricted during the time I followed Danish classes. For example, I refrained from signing myself up for a hobby course or even gym because going to the Danish class twice a week was already too much in addition to my job. I didn’t want more commitments during the week even if they would be for fun. The most I could commit to during most weeks was going to the cinema with Sister in Movies. Shortly before reaching Module 5, I decided to switch to once-a-week Danish class as opposed to twice-a-week ones. Some may think that this is sub-optimal since it isn’t as frequent exposure to Danish during the week, but it made my life better. I gained an extra evening where I either went to the gym or was able to plan more social activities, which in turn improved my mental wellbeing.

I missed the wedding of Sister in Movies because it was during early days of COVID and very close to my mandatory Danish exam date. Some may think this is an extreme overthinking on my part. Maybe it was. But if I got unlucky and got COVID during the wedding, that meant not being able to attend the exam and waiting for another six months to take it. I didn’t have the nerves for such a wait at that time. I wanted to be done with Danish classes and become free of the exam stress. Sister in Movies didn’t mind, but I am upset that I missed her wedding.

Most foreigners around me told me that they learned to speak Danish fluently from their Danish spouses and the classes aren't enough for that. This made me feel like I was a lost cause in this battle. 

I was often frustrated with our written assignments. There were several reasons for it.

First, the advice you give as an academic supervisor in Computer Science to your students on writing and the advice you get from your Danish teachers on writing are at odds many times. The more complicated sentences you manage to form or the more pronouns you use, the better grades you get in Danish. I understand this from the point of showing how well you can use the complexities of the language. However, as an academic, we both receive and give the advice of “keep your sentences simple and don’t rely too much on the pronouns” while writing. It is more important that a broader range of audience understands what you write.

Second, what you write, or your ideas don't really matter. The key to a successful Danish class/exam essay is keeping it to one page: four-five paragraphs (one intro, one ending, 2-3 argument paragraphs). There is no room for you to get into the nuances of the topic. Even if there was room, your Danish isn’t good enough to get into the nuances of the topic. In any case, you aren’t judged for your ideas. You are judged on your Danish language writing skills. It is much better to stick with straightforward ideas and generalizations. This drove me crazy on topics that I actually had a lot of opinions about. Over time, I somewhat learned to detach my emotions from my Danish homework, and when given the option between two topics, I picked the one that I cared less about. On the other hand, the Part 2 mentioned above is about the Danish writing assignment that I struggled the most with. Coincidentally, it is giving me a hard time for this blog as well. Spoilers: It will be about Dansk Frisind and alcohol.

Third, the writing and in-class discussion topics are often picked based on what Danes and Danish politicians have been discussing recently, because Danish classes aren’t just for learning the Danish language, but also for your integration to Denmark. I can write a separate blog post about the topic of integration and how much it triggers in me, but let’s put that on hold at the moment. Here are some of the topics I either had to write about or discuss in Danish class or both: lifestyle diseases, alcohol over-consumption among teens in Denmark, pros/cons of immigrants, plastic accumulation in human body, impact on climate change on crops, the negative impact of longer human life expectancy on accumulated taxes … I find it ironic that a country that exports the concept of hygge abroad forces you to discuss week after week a set of topics that would even be strong enough to get Pollyanna depressed. The only topic I enjoyed discussing in class was when I chose “history of abortion rights in Denmark” as my presentation topic in one of the weeks.

 

Overall, Danish classes were like a medication that I had to take for my own good but was super grumpy for having to take due to their undesirable side-effects. In the end, I was glad that they were over and made my life healthier in Denmark.