I have a german friend who works in denmark who has the same issue XD
Just ask us to talk danish. If you want to learn. Most people would follow that request.
As long as it is either or, i try to avoid falling into Danglish.
This meme is fyldt med good vendinger!
Du should se The Julekalender
I switch to English cause it can be hard to understand foreigners speaking danish so it’s just easier to switch to a language we both speak
My husband just ignores it and keeps speaking Danish 😆
My husband ended up saying fuck it in the end and gave up as he didn’t nead Danish for work.. He went to language school and everything in the beginning, but everyone just spoke English to him even when he tried speaking Danish.
Edit. Honestly the weirdest things you get downvoted for in this sub. I
I am guilty of trampling all over someone else’s sincere attempt at learning and speaking Danish. If I believe that the other person speaks English fluently, I won’t even try to respond in Danish.
Conversation is an exchange of thoughts, ideas. The language itself is just an abstraction. If one party insists on injecting their language practice sessions into the conversation then fine I guess but the whole session effectively becomes burdened by that, lowering the level of discourse.
Responding in kind I’d have to concentrate about pronunciation, laboriously interpreting their mangled phrases and mispronounced words, carefully choosing which simple Danish words to use that might be understood by a learner, and then speaking slowly with stilted, unnatural diction. It’s an enormous amount of distraction from the subject we’d otherwise be discussing, and makes what might be a pleasant conversation into a chore.
Unless we’ve agreed from the beginning that the exchange is specifically a language speaking excercise, I just switch to English and stick to it if I know this gets ideas across most clearly.
You are right but don’t learn Danish. It will not make your life better
Just tell them you’re Dutch.
My husband is. He speaks excellent english and understands German and French. But everytime he said he was Dutch, the Danes stopped trying in English or German.
I think we’re just too accommodating. Tell us you want us to speak Danish to you. I sometimes have to tell Swedes and Norwegians they don’t have to speak to me in English.
“He went peaceful ‘round the corner.”
– Han vendte pissefuld rundt i kornet.
This meme varmer my hjerte
Shit, it’s på danish
Ah, let me, Hansi!
This is a jock from the 90 , slightly dry .
Love denne meme
I think the best way is just to ask us to speak danish to you for the most part. Most of us are really good at English but we want to teach others too😁
It has more to do with culture than with language.
Danes are quick to experience discomfort when communication breaks down and so we seek to remedy that situation as effeciently as possible whenever it occurs. It’s really more of a reflex.
For an example of just how far this can be taken I recommend watching the absolutely classic movie The Celebration (Festen)
Is this meme template available somehow? 🤔
I remember reading a post about someone lamenting the same thing, and ending it with “I just wanna’ get better, so please talk in Danish”, I’ve tried to consequently start every conversation in Danish and switch if the other person does first.
To be honest i think it is because we are a very efficient and direct in speaking to each other. So when we switch to English it’s pretty much because we want to make sure that the conversation runs smoothly and that no misunderstandings occur.
And as most Danes are fluent in English that is the go to solution.
In my company the corporate language is English and we have a lot of different nationalities and I can’t remember who has a desire or proficiency to speak Danish. So it’s much easier to just use English when talking to each other as that limits any misunderstandings and my mental load.
But on the other hand if it was a close colleague and they expressed verbally that they want me to speak Danish to them, then i would definitely put in the effort to help them train their language skills 👍
Danish people greatly overestimate their proficiency at Danish. Many think if they can watch an episode of friends with subtitles they’re fluent. I guess they’re doing it to be nice but I think it can sometimes seem, they’re patronizing or trying to show off. The only answer is to continue to speak Danish and after 2-3 further exchanges they get the picture. In 20 years we’ll all speak English so just hold tight.
premise: I am Italian and learned Danish as an adult and I can consider myself fluent, although not sounding native. If I’m really inspired the other Danes think I’m from Norway/Sweden
I’ve experienced the same at times, but I have also experienced the opposite. When Danes see you have a fair command of Danish, they would have hard times falling back to Danglish again, thanks God.
In my experience the trigger to switch back to English is when a Danish learner can’t really make a certain amount of Danish sounds. Even though he/she is able to fully understand and to answer back producing incorrect but coherent sounds, that will still be enough to switch to English, if that’s an option. Danes will only accept this type of communication if English is not an option, I see this happening at times for example with taxi drivers (I don’t mean to generalize).
It’s really hard, but if you’re able to do the right sounds in the right flow, nobody will switch to English, even if you have limited vocabulary. The other option is to pretend you can’t speak English, but your wrong sounds will stick with you.
One thing I have noticed is that most of Danes, including the ones with high education, have hard time with explaining Danish grammar and phonetics to foreigners.
It makes me believe that they learn English really naturally as children, differently to most of the other countries.
Bare sig at de skal snakke dansk, så du bedre kan lærer det
Is thta you Conrad Molden?
We just want to impress you with our English skills!
It’s hard to be a nissemand
We danes is real good englis
Mit dansk og engelsk flyder nogen gange så meget sammen, at folk ik forstår hvad jeg siger… det er fandme nedern
“Snakke the dansk” makes me laugh so much, unsure if you’re tryna chat with them or eat them 😭😂
Also as someone also tryna learn I feel this in my soul.
Oh yeah, however different people different preferences. Ive worked with +10 foreign people that were all too afraid to speak danish because it made them feel stupid. But i welcome everyone that wants to learn danish to just speak it and swap to english when they lack the right words. I Think it is rude to only speak english to someone that actually wants to learn the language. But i Will also respect it if it crosses their boundries (which i dont really get, But their choice)
Det gør svenskere også ved mig. Virkelig træls, føler nærmest jeg taler flydende svensk.
This is true, but for me i do this to protect from “en ubelejlig situation”
My son is a skifting – I left him for after-birth gym at the maternity ward, so the trolls took him and gave me their terrible child!
Han er dog blevet en rigtig god søn efterfølgende, og nu vil jeg ikke bytte tilbage.
Hey Danskere vi ved godt hvad det her det er. Racisme eller uvidenhed har absolut intet med det her at gøre. Vi er beskyttende for absolut alle der gerne vil besøge os, og vi er beskyttende overfor vores sprog. 💯 Vi danskere tror jo at vores sprog er besværligt at lære, men nemmere end tysk 😜 vi stopper ikke op og lærer folk hvordan de skal begå sig. Nej nej fordi vi har da haft engelsk i skolen ikk?
Ikke?
Hallo er jeg den eneste her der tør tale engelsk? Ahh dejlige Danmark, når løsningen på det her er fundet må alle gerne skrive til mig <3
Is that kid hitting the cat off the barrel, as is the tradition on Fastinglawn?
41 comments
https://satwcomic.com/language-barrier
I have a german friend who works in denmark who has the same issue XD
Just ask us to talk danish. If you want to learn. Most people would follow that request.
As long as it is either or, i try to avoid falling into Danglish.
This meme is fyldt med good vendinger!
Du should se The Julekalender
I switch to English cause it can be hard to understand foreigners speaking danish so it’s just easier to switch to a language we both speak
My husband just ignores it and keeps speaking Danish 😆
My husband ended up saying fuck it in the end and gave up as he didn’t nead Danish for work.. He went to language school and everything in the beginning, but everyone just spoke English to him even when he tried speaking Danish.
Edit. Honestly the weirdest things you get downvoted for in this sub. I
I am guilty of trampling all over someone else’s sincere attempt at learning and speaking Danish. If I believe that the other person speaks English fluently, I won’t even try to respond in Danish.
Conversation is an exchange of thoughts, ideas. The language itself is just an abstraction. If one party insists on injecting their language practice sessions into the conversation then fine I guess but the whole session effectively becomes burdened by that, lowering the level of discourse.
Responding in kind I’d have to concentrate about pronunciation, laboriously interpreting their mangled phrases and mispronounced words, carefully choosing which simple Danish words to use that might be understood by a learner, and then speaking slowly with stilted, unnatural diction. It’s an enormous amount of distraction from the subject we’d otherwise be discussing, and makes what might be a pleasant conversation into a chore.
Unless we’ve agreed from the beginning that the exchange is specifically a language speaking excercise, I just switch to English and stick to it if I know this gets ideas across most clearly.
You are right but don’t learn Danish. It will not make your life better
Just tell them you’re Dutch.
My husband is. He speaks excellent english and understands German and French. But everytime he said he was Dutch, the Danes stopped trying in English or German.
I think we’re just too accommodating. Tell us you want us to speak Danish to you. I sometimes have to tell Swedes and Norwegians they don’t have to speak to me in English.
“He went peaceful ‘round the corner.”
– Han vendte pissefuld rundt i kornet.
This meme varmer my hjerte
Shit, it’s på danish
Ah, let me, Hansi!
This is a jock from the 90 , slightly dry .
Love denne meme
I think the best way is just to ask us to speak danish to you for the most part. Most of us are really good at English but we want to teach others too😁
It has more to do with culture than with language.
Danes are quick to experience discomfort when communication breaks down and so we seek to remedy that situation as effeciently as possible whenever it occurs. It’s really more of a reflex.
For an example of just how far this can be taken I recommend watching the absolutely classic movie The Celebration (Festen)
Is this meme template available somehow? 🤔
I remember reading a post about someone lamenting the same thing, and ending it with “I just wanna’ get better, so please talk in Danish”, I’ve tried to consequently start every conversation in Danish and switch if the other person does first.
To be honest i think it is because we are a very efficient and direct in speaking to each other. So when we switch to English it’s pretty much because we want to make sure that the conversation runs smoothly and that no misunderstandings occur.
And as most Danes are fluent in English that is the go to solution.
In my company the corporate language is English and we have a lot of different nationalities and I can’t remember who has a desire or proficiency to speak Danish. So it’s much easier to just use English when talking to each other as that limits any misunderstandings and my mental load.
But on the other hand if it was a close colleague and they expressed verbally that they want me to speak Danish to them, then i would definitely put in the effort to help them train their language skills 👍
Danish people greatly overestimate their proficiency at Danish. Many think if they can watch an episode of friends with subtitles they’re fluent. I guess they’re doing it to be nice but I think it can sometimes seem, they’re patronizing or trying to show off. The only answer is to continue to speak Danish and after 2-3 further exchanges they get the picture. In 20 years we’ll all speak English so just hold tight.
premise: I am Italian and learned Danish as an adult and I can consider myself fluent, although not sounding native. If I’m really inspired the other Danes think I’m from Norway/Sweden
I’ve experienced the same at times, but I have also experienced the opposite. When Danes see you have a fair command of Danish, they would have hard times falling back to Danglish again, thanks God.
In my experience the trigger to switch back to English is when a Danish learner can’t really make a certain amount of Danish sounds. Even though he/she is able to fully understand and to answer back producing incorrect but coherent sounds, that will still be enough to switch to English, if that’s an option. Danes will only accept this type of communication if English is not an option, I see this happening at times for example with taxi drivers (I don’t mean to generalize).
It’s really hard, but if you’re able to do the right sounds in the right flow, nobody will switch to English, even if you have limited vocabulary. The other option is to pretend you can’t speak English, but your wrong sounds will stick with you.
One thing I have noticed is that most of Danes, including the ones with high education, have hard time with explaining Danish grammar and phonetics to foreigners.
It makes me believe that they learn English really naturally as children, differently to most of the other countries.
Bare sig at de skal snakke dansk, så du bedre kan lærer det
Is thta you Conrad Molden?
We just want to impress you with our English skills!
It’s hard to be a nissemand
We danes is real good englis
Mit dansk og engelsk flyder nogen gange så meget sammen, at folk ik forstår hvad jeg siger… det er fandme nedern
“Snakke the dansk” makes me laugh so much, unsure if you’re tryna chat with them or eat them 😭😂
Also as someone also tryna learn I feel this in my soul.
Oh yeah, however different people different preferences. Ive worked with +10 foreign people that were all too afraid to speak danish because it made them feel stupid. But i welcome everyone that wants to learn danish to just speak it and swap to english when they lack the right words. I Think it is rude to only speak english to someone that actually wants to learn the language. But i Will also respect it if it crosses their boundries (which i dont really get, But their choice)
Det gør svenskere også ved mig. Virkelig træls, føler nærmest jeg taler flydende svensk.
This is true, but for me i do this to protect from “en ubelejlig situation”
Do you know who Conrad Molden is?
[Conrad Molden – Danglish 2](https://youtu.be/HL8BeQoHgfI)
My son is a skifting – I left him for after-birth gym at the maternity ward, so the trolls took him and gave me their terrible child!
Han er dog blevet en rigtig god søn efterfølgende, og nu vil jeg ikke bytte tilbage.
Hey Danskere vi ved godt hvad det her det er. Racisme eller uvidenhed har absolut intet med det her at gøre. Vi er beskyttende for absolut alle der gerne vil besøge os, og vi er beskyttende overfor vores sprog. 💯 Vi danskere tror jo at vores sprog er besværligt at lære, men nemmere end tysk 😜 vi stopper ikke op og lærer folk hvordan de skal begå sig. Nej nej fordi vi har da haft engelsk i skolen ikk?
Ikke?
Hallo er jeg den eneste her der tør tale engelsk? Ahh dejlige Danmark, når løsningen på det her er fundet må alle gerne skrive til mig <3
Is that kid hitting the cat off the barrel, as is the tradition on Fastinglawn?
it’s hard to be a nissemand
Fastelavn is my navn
Boller vil I want
If I inge boller get
Then I will make ballade