ak_nelson - Greetings from Denmark!

Hi everyone,
I'm an american living in denmark. No polish relatives, only friends. I just like poland a lot. :-) I'm really interested in polish culture and arts. I'm crazy about Lem and Keislowski, certain Polanski films, and Jerzy Stuhr. I want to learn a lot more though.

I think it's really a shame that so many people seem to have a decades old view of poland. Especially aggrevating when people don't even want their out-dated perspective challenged.

I travelled there a few summers ago and loved it. The tatras are just beautiful, and I found people very nice about working through the language barrier. The people I spent time with were such great hosts. I was really excited to learn about poland, and it was great how many people were excited to tell me about it. The good, the bad and the weird. Fascinating place.

I'm also very interested in polish immigration and integration in denmark and other scandinavian countries. And, of course, it would also be fun to make some new polish friends. :-)
-AK

Welcome to the forum!

You have some new friends right here. Welcome.

Welcome, AK. What kind of work are you doing in Denmark or are you just there for the culture or a student?

Hi

I've lived here for nine years. I used to be married to a dane, but stayed on after that relationship because I love it here and thankfully have a permanent residency permit. I never liked the american lifestyle, and can't imagine I'll ever go back. Scandinavia suits me much better. ;-) I consider myself very fortunate.

Web sites. Corporate ones.

Goddag


That's all of my Danish andout of the way up front. Welcome and enjoy your stay.

Hi fives!

I like Denmark, like the language, nice people. Do you speak Danish pretty good now?

Welcome.

Hehe. I think that's the first time I've heard someone say they like the language. :-) I speak it fairly well. I'm proud my pronunciation is good enough that danes rarely guess I'm american. Correct and proper writing is another thing though. I'm trying to work on that in order to pass the language test I need to get a danish passport. The conservatives made the tests much more difficult a few years back to make it tough on foreigners. The test is not even practical for living here... 4 hours, most of which is writing essays. Speaking and understading are so much more important.

Here's a few easy words...

Hi = "Hej" (almost like in english, just clip the last part of the 'i' sound)
Bye = "Hej Hej" or just "Hej"
Cheers = "Skål" (skoal)
Thank you = "Tak" (kind of a short, clipped version of the polish 'tak')
You're welcome = "Selv tak" (like 'sell', but not drawn out at the end.) (literally 'thanks yourself')

Most danish is pronounced from the back part mouth, it's possible to say quite a few words without moving your lips at all.

welcome AK

Welcome ! Denmark is my favorite Scandinavian country.

What is the difference between Danish and Swedish? I know some letters are different. I'm studying Swedish and it's almost the same as Danish. Do you know in which way it differs?
What made you decide to stay there? I was in Copenhagen several times and I really like it there as well as Sweden.

Pronounciation is very different the words in Danish come much more back from the mouth as nelson said.

For example: "läkare" and "lärare" are indistinguishable in their spoken form in Danish.

Cool! Can a Swede communicate with a Dane and understand each other?

The swedes like to say danes sound like they speak with potatoes in their mouth. We tend to mumble A LOT in danish. It can be quite a hard language to learn to understand. Pronunciation is also quite a bit harder to learn than swedish.

Depends a lot on where they are from. Swedes from Stockholm tend not to understand much, whereas those from southern sweden can grasp quite a bit. This goes for danes as well, those living closer to sweden vs. those who don't. Most foreigners who've learned danish can't understand much swedish. It's pretty hard.

They are not as similar as people think. Many verbs are not the same. Swedes who move here to have professional careers, learn danish. Same with with danes. Written norwegian is more similar to danish, than swedish.

Generally, danes have no particular fondness for swedes or swedish though, so it's usually much better to speak english here than swedish (or german obviously).

A polish friend here says it's similar to comparting polish and czech.

Cool. We are the most fun!

Thanks ak. Very interesting. Do you miss the US?

I understand the Viking connection, but why do people say that Denmark is a Scandinavian country, since it doesn't lie on Scandinavian Peninsula?

Not much actually. I miss certain people, but not the lifestyle or culture.

It's mainly comes from common culture and language. The territories also changed considerably after the viking days. "Scandinavia" is also more of a term of conveinence than anything else. It's only been popularly used since the 1800's, thanks in part to Hans Christian Andersen.

"Scandinavia" often gets used rather loosely. Officially, it is only comprimised of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. "Nordic Countries" is broader, including: Finland, Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands.

Drifting down south a bit... What's the deal with the term "central europe"? It keeps changing. What countries do Poles consider to be in central europe?

I get it.



This term is sooo last summer! It seems that I'm an Eastern European now. EE as some prefer. Basically the term "Central Europe" was always a very artificial one and I don't think that many people treat it serious.

Interesting, thanks.

I've been using it, mainly because it seemed wrong for poland and russia to be in the same group. But, I guess if poles aren't bothered by it, I shouldn't be.