Lucky Linguists and Local Laughs

Tomorrow is a big day for me, E. I'll be heading over to my local "SprogCenter" to take the Module 2 oral Danish exam. Last week I took the written portion--a 2 hour test focusing on creative writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension--and passed. That entitles me to move on to the 25 minute exam tomorrow.

In the written exam, we were required to write a letter to a Danish friend, explaining that we had just moved, and describing our new neighborhood. I adopted the persona of a fictional librarian and modern art lover named Gitte. We also read a story about a robbery in a butcher's shop, and listened to a story and a dialogue before answering questions about the material.

Tomorrow I'll be speaking with a proctor about any two of five topics--three novellas I've read from the LaerDansk library; "my education and work;" or, "the city of Århus." After that, my conversational partner Bulgarian J and I will be assigned a topic and asked to chat about it for 4-5 minutes. We've been practicing on topics like these:

what I did this weekend
movies
North Africa
ice cream
beer
my family
museums
music
my dream job

So I need all your good wishes! Kryds fingerne!

And in the meantime, this little video about the Danish language might amuse you. I found it pretty funny myself, and so did two actual Danes. It originally aired on a Norwegian TV show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," so all the subtitles are in Norwegian, not Danish. Check it out--after all, how many chances for Scandinavian hilarity do you usually get?

Language Lessons, part a million and two

I love this and have to say it to everyone.

In Danish, a sloth is called a "dovendyr." A lazy animal! So charming!

But I'll leave it to you, dear readers, to figure out this one.

en hvalros....

Fødselsdag Fest!

B had his first Danish birthday this week, so we had to do it up right! That meant plenty of Danish flags, and the Red and the White everywhere! If we'd been really traditional, we would have had buns too, but we're just ex-pats, so we're allowed to have pancakes.

Danes are pretty into the Danish flag--the Dannebrog--and decorate in red and white every chance they get. So if you go to your local Tiger (think Target, but smaller and more Danish) to buy wrapping paper and party supplies, everything will be red, or white, or have the flag printed on it. This is actually super-efficient, since it means you can use that wrapping paper or set of fancy napkins for any event at all. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, handball tournaments, you name it, the Danish flag will be there.

We wanted to have a great day, so B was sure to wear his tie-dyed shirt. The night before, we made cookies, since it's traditional for Danes to take a treat into their workplaces on their fødselsdag. We had a tasty pancake breakfast (on a week-day, no less!) and enjoyed some festive dinners with friends this weekend.

You can tell we're feeling very Danish lately since we still have the flags up. Actually, B's parents are visiting next week, so we thought the flags could stay for a while. Danes even take little flags to the airport and wave them at their arriving friends and family members, so we'll be in good company. Besides, we had another mini-celebration....

Behold the sweater!

Also, it's snowing again!