Danish Language Quirks

My Danish teacher has mentioned several times, "This book has the most current spelling, but you might also see this word spelled ___." In Denmark, the language is continually updated. This is not the organic updating that comes as a other languages influence it, but imposed changes, particularly to simplify spelling. It's interesting because the US does nothing about English; it's not even our official language, and any attempt for Americans to try "owning" English would be met with outrage. In France, it is the opposite, where the state tries to protect the language and prevent change from happening.

Another interesting thing about Danish is that there are two genders, but they are not masculine and feminine. Instead they are simply "n-words" and "t-words," named as such depending on if they use the article "en" or "et." This makes me curious to read more about gender in language and how it emerged.

Weekend in Trondheim

The first weekend in March I took advantage of the travel opportunities from Copenhagen and went to Trondheim, Norway where one of my friends from L'Abri lives.

When we were at L'Abri, we did a lot of hiking, so we hoped to do some outdoor things the weekend that I was there. Between my friend having a 17 month old son and extreme weather our outings were limited, but fun nonetheless.





On Saturday, it was very windy and rainy. We went for a walk along the fjord in Trondheim. It was pretty hard going; at times I would be walking as hard as I could into the wind and was still blown backwards. It was also difficult because there was snow and ice on the path. In the picture above, there is mist from a wave coming up behind me and I'm being blown around some. It was a very memorable hike, and it was pretty even if difficult going.

On Sunday it was snowy. We went up a mountain near Trondheim to do some hiking. We thought about cross-country skiing, but my friends didn't think there would be enough snow. However, when we got up there, we discovered that the snow was about knee deep. Again, it was hard going, but really beautiful.

On Monday, I had the chance to explore Trondheim some. It has about the population of Naperville, but is much denser. It also has an old and famous cathedral. I enjoyed seeing the city. Like Copenhagen it has an interesting mix of old and new, but both the old and new there have very different styles.

Kronborg Castle

One of the must see attractions in Denmark is Kronborg Castle. It's located in Helsingor, which is about  30 miles north of Copenhagen. Kronborg Castle is most famous for being the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. If you don't remember from high school, Hamlet was Prince of Denmark. Although no one knows for sure if Shakespeare ever visited Kronborg, it is known that actors from the Globe Theatre in London performed at Kronborg a few years before Hamlet was written.

When my mom was here last week, we went to Kronborg. It was a cold and windy day, but worth it. We both really enjoyed our time at Kronborg. The castle, both inside and out, are quite remarkable. 

The castle is square, built around a courtyard. The picture above is taken from the inside of the courtyard. There used to be a ten meter high fountain in the middle, but the Swedes dismantled it, stole it, and melted it into cannon balls which they fired at the Danes. 

Kronborg has a strategic location. It is less than 5 km from Sweden: in the picture above, behind the ship, you can see the Swedish coast. Over time there have been a number of conflicts with Sweden fought at Kronborg. Additionally, Kronborg was a revenue source for the Danish monarchy because they taxed passing ships. 

Inside the castle we could see the royal chapel (pictured above), the royal apartments, and the casemates. The casemates were the underground portion of the castle which for many years housed a large number of "soldiers," who were essentially kept there by the king to cause confusion and be a decoy in case the castle was attacked. I had been told to bring a flashlight for exploring the casemates, which was good advice because they are very dark. However, there was also a flashlight vending machine (see below) at the entrance of the casemates for people who did not come prepared.

If you're ever in Denmark, be sure to visit Kronborg. It was a highlight!

Apartment Tour: Bathroom

I haven't yet given a tour of our apartment: that needs to be fixed.

Although it seems like a strange choice, I will start with the most unusual room in the apartment: the bathroom.
The bathroom in this apartment is unlike one I have ever seen. In France, the toilet is generally in one small room, while the shower is in another. Here, the whole bathroom essentially becomes the shower.

In the picture on the left, you can see that there are two shower curtains. You pull both of these around the sink to form the shower area.

Then the shower head can go above the sink. It actually works pretty well, although it does get the bathroom pretty wet. Fortunately, opening the window dries everything up pretty quickly.

A Practical Danish Lesson

If you've ever learned a language, you can probably relate to the rather contrived exercises used to practice. For example, one of the few topics I can talk about in Danish is which floor you live on: Bor du i stuen? Nej, jeg bor på tredje sal. Although the exercise gives practice in answering and asking questions, using ordinal numbers, and a few other topics, I don't anticipate using this too much in daily life.
So, I laughed today when I found myself in a situation that could be part of some contrived language learning video. I had my first volunteer shift today for KBHFF, the local produce co-op that I joined. KBHFF has a central distribution center. Another volunteer picked up the produce from there and brought it to our location. Then, two of us had to weigh the produce into the number of bags that had been ordered for the week.
The produce is sorted into reusable cloth bags. Of course, the first thing we needed to do was count the number of bags out that we needed to fill. This week and last week we covered numbers in my Danish class and we had a quiz on them last night, so I was prepared when the other girl weighing produce with me started counting out loud in Danish. We also had to use numbers to talk about how many leeks everyone got in their bags and how many grams of mushrooms to weigh out. At the end when we were done, we counted the bags again to be sure we had it right.
Of course the other volunteers spoke English and were happy to speak it with me, but for things like counting and talking to each other about logistics, Danish was easiest. I was happy to be able to pick out the numbers. It was an effective lesson for me, but somehow I don't think that "Elizabeth Volunteers at the Food Co-op" will be featured after "Nina Borrows a Key," the video we watched this week in Danish class.

Our filled bags all lined up and counted.

CBS Case Competition

 While I'm here, one of the things I want to take advantage of is being at a business school and the differences that come with it (like having Champagne served in one of my classes last week. That was a first for me). One thing that is very different is the interaction with companies. In one of my classes, a company came and gave us a presentation about a business problem they have. Our final project is to come up with a solution to the problem. This is a common format for class projects at CBS.

On a bigger scale, every winter CBS hosts the CBS Case Competition. Nine teams come from all over the world to compete. On Wednesday morning, the case was announced: How can Tom's (a Danish chocolate company) diversify into a global economy? The nine teams had 32 hours to come up with a solution. The top three were chosen and they presented in front of a live audience on Friday. In addition, teams of Scandinavian students could work on their own to "Beat the Elite" and an award was given for the best of these solutions.
The final presentations are a big deal, so I went to see them. I got there 20 minutes early, but didn't get a spot in the auditorium, so I had to watch it streaming from another room.

The teams from University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and CBS each had 20 minutes to present and 15 minutes to answer questions. The business plans were interesting: UBC suggested moving into travel retail, NUS proposed a Chinese market as well as healthy options, and CBS also suggested healthy options in addition to expanding the Swedish market. I was impressed with the level of detail that the students came up with in such a short time. They had numbers and projections, slogans and packaging: they gave very complete business plans. In the end, NUS was the winner.

I really enjoyed watching the presentations (although there were one or two students who would benefit from taking my public speaking course) and was impressed with the real life experience that students get by doing this.

A Danish Danish

a) Danishes do exist in Denmark.
b) They are much better than American Danishes.

On my way to school this morning, I stopped at the bakery across the street from our apartment to get something for breakfast. One thing I love about the Danes is that they always like to eat with proper dishes and silverware. Once I got to school, I went to the department kitchen to get a plate and silverware to eat my Danish Danish in the Danish way.