Learn Danish. Please speak it. No one can make all the mistakes that I have made trying to learn and speak a foreign language. If you live in Denmark it really is important that one become fluent in the native language. And, please know that you might always sound a bit American or British regardless of how hard you try and there is nothing wrong with THAT!
I'm a big fan of Folkeskolen's Law of Purpose § 1, especially part 3: Folkeskolen must prepare students for participation, co-responsibility, rights and duties in a society with freedom and democracy. The school's work must therefore be characterized by freedom of spirit, equality and democracy.
As a Dane that moved to the US I was blown away at how early US kids start reading and doing homework. That being said, while Danish kids are allowed to be kids for longer and start school much later they seem to catch up fast and by junior high there is no difference in academic achievement.
I'm an American who moved to Denmark with my family a few years ago. While we're happy overall with living in Denmark, I'm actually surprised and appalled at the education system. I don't feel they catch up by middle school at all. Both my kids are in Gymnasium (high school), and after several years in the Danish system "hoping it would catch up", we eventually moved them to an IB (international bachelorette) school because our kids were so bored they were getting depressed. Jantelov (no one is allowed to be special) is so pervasive and the teachers' union is so strong that every class teaches to the slowest (and least passionate) students. There were two very positive aspects to Danish education, however: (1) there is a TON of group work, which is great prep for the real world, and (2) frisk luft (fresh air) is a really big deal, do they got to go out of the school a lot.
@@MikeWilliamson_this_is_mvw To be perfectly honest that was also my experience as a Danish school kid in the 1970s but I was under the impression the system had improved; at least they now acknowledge and talk about helping gifted students in Denmark. My kids in the US system suffer from burnout not from boredom but from stress. All focus is on the volume of homework and testing. They literally get only 5 minutes to run from class to class and no actual break at all throughout the day. And even in kindergarten they had mountains of homework every day which I found ridiculous. We need to invent a school that combines the best qualities from both systems.
@@MikeWilliamson_this_is_mvw The PISA tests show that Danish students score significantly higher on mathematics and similarly in science and reading to Americans. Are you sure what you’re experiencing isn’t just that you are originally from a very good school district in the US, so your experience of the American school system isn’t typical for Americans?
@@Lemonz1989maybe combined with a bad school in Denmark.. 😅 as a Dane i can only say that there is a BIG difference in how well public schools do in Denmark, like in all places..
A teacher who has Danish as his or her native language may have a very good level of English and may consider themselves to be fluent. However English would still be a second language. They may have a large vocabulary but they may not have the level of English nor vocabulary to discuss educational issues, particularly to a professional standard. In these circumstances it' seems rather churlish to expect the teacher to discuss your child's education in English rather than their native Danish in Denmark where the child's education is conducted in Danish. If a parent's level of Danish means that they cannot converse adequately in Danish, it would be preferable to use a professional translator until such time as the parent has improved their language skills.
I was thinking something along that line too.. It is also a little spoiled to be able to ask for the conversation to be held in ones own language simply because it’s the modern Lingua Franca. A Danish parent wouldn’t have that luxury in the UK or the USA…
You are so lucky that so many people are willing to speak your mothertounge with you. It seems a tiny bit entitlet. I know that parent-school meetings are difficult . But your child visits a danish school, it your duty to learn the language, which is spoken there. You are supposed to help with homework. No, it is not easy, but there is only one way to learn - try! Sorry, my english is not that good. I am danish and live in german and french speaking region.
As a fellow Brit im a bit embarassed by his entitlement: expecting parent meetings to be held in English so he can understand. Just because English is widely spoken, doesnt mean that all Danes feel equally comfortable speaking it. If you are building a life here in Denmark, then learn the language.
@Zhiperser As a 27 year old Dane, who pretty good at English and spend a lot of time interacting within the English language, I will still stumble upon a word I didn't know in everyday language. I wouldn't even dare entering the different niches that found in specific subjects and work environment.
🇬🇧🇩🇰 Thank you all for the interesting aspects of Denmark and Danish info you're posting. I am a half Dane with a Danish mother & English father. My mother didn't actively teach us Danish & my siblings didn't pick up, nor were they interested, in any Danish. But I was completely different, listening avidly to all the Danish I could get - to my mother on the long phone conversations, when we had Danes for meals or coffee and Danish radio. I also went to Denmark on my own at 7yrs old (!! this was over 64 yrs ago) to have my tonsils out. For 3 weeks I stayed with a rich aunt and her maids, gardeners & farm workers who talked only Danish to me which set me up with good pronounciation and lots of words. But I have been hindered ever since by not knowing enough of grammar & sentence construction to talk or read easily. Until I decided 3 years ago to learn seriously with Duolingo online. Since then, I have enjoyed the leaps & bounds, connecting all the bits together. I can now watch films like "Badehotellet" almost without subtitles. It feels wonderful after living outside the Danish language door for so long🤗
My mother was born and raised in the US. All her kids though were born and raised in the Nordic countries. My dad was Danish. Our home language was English. We lived in Sweden until I was ten then we moved to a Danish speaking area. In Sweden I spoke Swedish with my dad then that gradually changed to Danish. Today, I’m a native speaker of all three languages. At one point my mother seriously considered moving to the US with all of us. I’m am sooo grateful today that she decided not to do it and that her kids now live, and live well in one of the Nordic countries.
10:40 I wonder if English speaking people are a bit spoiled with the language, the assumption is everybody speaks it and certainly spoiled in the Nordics, experience in Spain, France and Germany, is that not everybody can or will speak English with you
@@williamjones4716 Morten P. Meldal, Chemistry, 2022 with a total of 14 nobel from a relative small countries. Quite a lot. So stop being so high on your horse. There is even more from other non English countries. If you cared to look it up.
@@williamjones4716If supperiority is what you argue, then you are right, america has 1.23 Nobel laurents pr million people, uk 2.04 and denmark 2.37. So educational supperiority in denmark iguess.
I just it feels and looks a bit more than entitled when, in middle of the vid, the two foreigners voluntarily moving to and living in Denmark sorta complaining how hard and inconvenient it is when Danish teachers in Danish school in Denmark are a bit lets say pushy or less than enthusiastic about parent of one of the kids theyre responsible for and with whom they have to communicate with on almost daily basis isnt speaking Danish and that those teachers should automatically switch to different language for your convenience to accommodate you. Like English is modern lingua franca and Denmark is one of most English friendly cultures and countries but like you made decision to live in foreign country and you made decision to have kids in foreign country so what did you expect, like if we have 2023 as was mentioned would they expect teachers to speak Danish with you if you moved to capital city of Western country like London or Washington? I dont think its those foreigners who are meeting the surprising resistance or the teachers who should put their egos aside and do whats best for kids to paraphrase one of the guests.
I saw a RUclips video once where a woman from another country listed the reasons why she left Denmark and one of the reasons she gave was that Danes spoke Danish. If you move to a country and are surprised that the natives of that country speak their native language, then perhaps you are not quite ready to live abroad.
As a dane living in Sweden since 47 years, I have kids with a woman from Åland (they speak swedish). I spoke danish with the kids from day one. The mother peak swedish to them and together we spoke swedish. Our oldest kid spoke danish with me and swedish with his mother from early age. The youngest spoke only swedish, but understood danish. When he was about 13 years old he just decided to start speak danish with me. He learned it very fast. Now they are both grown ups. Speak danish with me, swedish with each other when I am not around, and swedish with their mother. Swedish is sure their first language, but they are confident in danish. Not just as fluently bilingual as I am, but close. An extra language is a light burden to carry.
Bringing up kids with the one-parent-one-language philosophy as you... just... the languages are a bit more different from eachother; Cantonese and Danish with English as common. My daughter picked up Danish as her main language before kindergarten was over, but my younger son isn't the same quick to pick up the languages, so he often default to English (probably because he's figured out that the kindergarten staff also understands English 😄, and the kids from mixed African families often speak English at home) Anyway, what I can say is that my 9 year old daughter is fluent speaking all 3 languages, and English education to her, here in DK, is more about learning to read and write, as she already has the vocabulary. (Could hope she gets the chance to choose Chinese as 3rd language, though in that case I can't help much with homework) The new generation of Danes will be a lot more fluent in English... I put a real effort into getting fluent myself, to my kids and their classmates it seems to come much more natural. At the same time I can only say that their Danish is still very good, despite the mix they grow up in.
I really like these video formats you have been doing, they are really great 😃 have watched some of your videos during the last year or so, and the way you are developing your channel is really cool! 🙌 thanks for these awesome videos 😃
Thank you so much 😊 really glad to hear you’re enjoying them and seeing a growth - we are really focused on investing back into our channel and improving the content
Dual language children often have more difficulties with reading/speaking in the early years, but they will catch up and have the advantages of speaking several æanguages later on.
The level of English language skills needed for a teacher to do meeting with the parents in English and conveying sensitive topics in a constructive and firm way is quite high. Counting in the fact that many of the teachers teaching right now might only have had 6-9 years of English education 20-30 years ago. It is quite a big ask. Even though most Danes are relatively good at conversational English with related vocabulary is a different thing. The hole education of folkeskole teachers is thought in Danish so their English vocabulary in child psychology and teaching methods is understandably limited.
I don’t think they’re expected to have an academic level meeting or defend their thesis - it’s a meeting about someone’s child and the parents can’t hold off their schooling until they’re fluent and know child psychology vocabulary in Danish. School districts in the US are required to have interpreter options for non-English speaking parent conferences - it’s not hard to do.
All Danish schools can arrange a translator, you just have to ask for one. 😊 We do it all the time at my school, we just have to know from the parents that they're attending the meeting, and what languages they need the translator to know. Plus in good time so there's enough time to arrange it. Also, I know a lot of teachers who don't feel they have good enough English to properly express themselves about their students. Also because we use a lot of terminology when we speak about teaching and problems which can arise in school, terminology that most Danes won't know in English.
@@penny3160 I figured that was probably the case - it's pretty standard in the US. It's surprising that people are so shocked and even upset that his happens.
@@RobeTrotting It is an interesting discussion, and I am not saying that you are 100% wrong, but I would like to ask for thinking about the fact that English might not be the "emotional language" of the teacher ,and therefore having a hard time to convey complicated topics in a second language. I have been speaking English in my work life for 25 years, but still find myself struggling from time to time when n social settings with colleagues. It is not about defending a thesis, just speaking about topics which you are not talking about in English everyday is hard. But I am also thinking, that why is it that the teacher should speak second language and the parents not? I realize of course that English is more common obviously. How would we think of a non native English speaking parent in the UK or US asking for the teacher to switch to - say - French for a delicate conversation.
@@RobeTrottingthe US don't have a national language, Denmark have, and if you want your child to succeed, you want to take the meeting in Danish, otherwise you will only get the superficial version, if you need an interpreter, then arrange that, but you will still be missing out, and your child will not see you as a person they need to respect, it's already proven,
Even the Tone Trotting guys can barely speak English, and they have been here for what 5-6 years. Even Prince Henry could speak better Danish, and his Danish were rather bad. Even Mary can speak Danish fluently, while these 2 amaricans barely can pronounce Danish words correctly
i live in the us and have cousins that live in denmark, ranging from the ages of 8 years to 10 months. they moved to denmark 2 years ago from the us, and they speak english. the 8 year old goes to a charter school for american kids that speak english and he learns danish there. i think the 6 year old is going to a regular danish school, the 4 year old just started school, and the 10 month olds are in daycare. everyone except the twins ride their bikes to school, its crazy that they aren’t supervised by their parents there, and this isn’t copenhagen or a big city, it’s in the outskirts of billund. i went to denmark to visit them in june-july this year, and it was amazing to be there.
Its fun how kids feels about a language. I used to live in London and was working as a pedagogue for a danish child. Both his parents was danish and we all spoke Danish around him. I took him to playgroups and of cause he had English friends and when he turned 2,5 years old he started preschool. He wouldn’t speak English to the kids or the teachers and I actually had to stay with him for several month before he was ready to speak English. There was another danish child in this preschool and she was so happy that I understood her because she did not speak english as her parents had just made the move from DK to the UK and the teachers had such a hard time understand her. So I helped for a few month with both the children. But the bottom line was this boy I was working with, even though he grew up with Danish language around him I spoke danish, his parents spoke Danish he got such a thick accent when speaking danish. His English is absolutely brilliant even though it’s a quite flat British you cant really hear where his from ( up north the have a certain accent and if your from London you can easily hear that) but not with this kid. His danish is a real struggle for him and it’s always been difficult to understand his danish even as a 2-3 year old boy that refused to speak english.
should have had a Danish teacher there to talk more about the system aswell. so you could have talked more indebt with the differences. and why they do it this way in Denmark.
Could have been a good addition to the video, since a lot of the focus from the two guests seemed to be more on their experience about speaking danish(even though that's an important angle too)
Dane here. The mother of my kids is from southern Germany and when we started dating, she did not speak Danish. (I spoke and speak German), I asked her to learn the language - also because we would be together with the Danish family and friends often. So, we ended up speaking our mother tongue. She would speak German to me - and I would answer her in Danish. When the kids came, they would speak German to their mother and Danish to me. (We lived in Germany). If the spoke German to me, I would not react - they would have to say it in Danish. They both became fluent in both languages and are adult now. And they are happy, that we did it this way.
@@MrSkipperBent Har lige snakket med min yngste i går. Han har sabbatår og sidder ved kassen i et supermarked, hvor der jævnligt kommer danske turister - tit unge, der skal øve sig på tysk. Så han taler tysk til dem...og slutter så af med at sige: Hav en god dag. Det siges, de ser sjove ud.
Moved from the US almost a year ago with my 9-year-old and 1-year-old. My husband is Danish and we speak English at home. I want to speak more Danish at home because I'm in language school and it helps my oldest practice what she is learning at school very fast. Now that my little one is in daycare they say to keep encouraging English at home while she will pick up Danish fast in daycare. It's going to be interesting to see how we navigate it all. I love the schools here, they focus more on the kids than standardized testing.
Your kids will pick up Danish, especially the little one, even if you speak English at home. But I suggest you make an effort learning it with your younger child. Spoken Danish is notorious for having some quirks in intonation, gutteral stops and whatnot.
I honestly find it very arogant, to move to another country expecting them to speak your language... also... you have lived in this country for multiple years, you should've learned the language by now, at least to an extent where you can attend meetings with your kids teachers. Such a big part of the culture in a country is bound to the language.
I don’t disagree with your entire statement, but there’s more nuance to it than that and it’s really unnecessary and over complicated to learn Danish if you love to Denmark for a number of reasons. It’s also a meeting about your child, so even being able to mostly speak and understand Danish, I’d still want it in English to be able to fully discuss something so important. You’re not going to wait years and years to enroll your kids in school once you’re fluent - which you almost never will be, again for a number of reasons.
Hear hear Adrian: You are definitely not the only one puzzled by the immense parent involvement. Being a native Dane attending school in the eighties, and now father of 3 kids, I have witnessed this undesirable development. It wasn’t like that back then, and it is too much now.
Talking about being bilingual. When I was living in Japan I met a Japanese married to Austrian. They were both musician and had two children. When the wife talked with the children she spoke in German. When he spoke with the children he spoke in Japanese, When they were all together they spoke in English (like during dinner), It was amazing! The children was completely trilingual and they could basically switch language mid sentence without a glitch.
Thanks for a great channel with lots of interesting takes on Denmark - always fun to watch how people who didn't grow up here sees the country! Just a tiny take on the whole Danish in meetings about kids - can see a lot of other comments about it as well. A lot of Danes speak English very well, but it is still tricky for a lot and some people are very self-conscious about it and might feel like they could even come off unprofessional or get misunderstood in a pretty important situation like a parent-school meeting. I'd bet that's why some are pretty hesitant to do so. Just like you guys would probably not want to have an important workmeeting in Danish for the same reasons ☺️ a lot of Danes don't use English all the time or at least not actively - my boyfriend is from Holland so I noticed it even with some of my close, relatively young friends and family who's English is fine, but become very aware of how or what to say when the language swaps. Someone else said translators are a possibility if asked for in these settings - sounded like the perfect option tbh! Thanks again for the channel ☺️
Det er "lidt" interessant hvordan folk, som ikke kan dansk, forventer danskere skal tale til dem på deres sprog i Danmark. Måske en smule mere respekt for stedet, de har bosat sig og en større indsats i dette tilfælde for at lære dansk ville være på sin plads. Der er mere til at leve i Danmark end, have en dansk kæreste eller/og et job i Danmark. Der er mere end bare end ens egen sprog eller det specifikke steds sprog, når man bosætter sig et sted i verdenen, men for reelt at kunne forstå stedet/kulturen, er man nødt til at starte med sproget ellers er man altid en fremmed og hører intet sted hjemme. Hvis jeg som dansker flyttede til UK eller USA og så forventede, at fordi jeg ikke var 100% flydende engelsk talende, så skulle de tale på dansk. Hmmm, gad vide hvorden det ville gå!
In an American school you would be offered an interpreter. I think you’re right about how it helps you to understand the culture to understand the language, but it’s a different situation to compare learning Danish to learning English - in particular regarding the priority and necessity. You’re comparing the global bridge language to a language spoken by a population half the size of London in a culture where the overwhelming majority of natives also speak English. It’s just not the same scenario.
@@RobeTrotting Beklager jeg ikke udtrykte mig godt nok. Groft sagt. Bør den herboende befolkning tilpasse sig den fremmede eller bør den fremmede tilpasse sig den herboende befolkning. Hvad nu hvis det var kinesisk og engelsk, hvis vi skal snakke specifikt sprog og ikke respekten for stedet man vælger at bosætte sig.
Have to understand that Danish is a hard language to learn, even for Danish children! Reading and writing is not easy, so many mute letters... I grew up bi-lingual Danish/Canadian, my brother and I have always spoken/flipped back and forth, no specific language for any given occasion. My children are also bi-lingual, so when they started school, I had to have a heart-to-heart with their respective teachers. 'My children speak Canadian English. I will not accept, at any point in time, that any of my children come home and tell me, that the teacher says, they are pronouncing the words, wrong!' It worked and they did great!! (safe to say, this was 20-40 yrs ago, when English, in Danish schools, was spoken with a British accent) 😉 hello from Hundested 🌸
As a Dane with trilingual kids... I don't really care what branch of English they end up with 🙄 regarding languages, the most important is to understand and be understood.
Linguists regard English as the hardest European language to spell, and Danish is number two (very small languages were not included in the survey, though).
I have two kids 18 and 17 years old. Yes they started 0 class when they were 6 and they read their first words perhaps one year later. But by now they both speak three languages (Danish, English and German). They know world geography, world history and are aware of historical and contemporary political developments in Denmark and around the world, as I'm writing these words. My children are no prodigies at all. Quite average actually compared with their peers. It's true the Danish system is different than other systems but systems should be measured by the results they produce I feel. Cheers
Derek and Mike, I have always loved your channel, but I miss the “hygge” of the recordings in your apartment and walking in the streets of Copenhagen. Will that happen again?
Aw, thank you - I get that, it’s a nice vibe to have a cozier set but turning our flat into a studio adds some stress and it’s nice to separate our living space from our recording. I’m sure we will film outside and around town again (but that also has some inconvenience too) 😊
I get why you'd want teachers to be able to communicate in English because most teachers speak English. But not all teachers speak English fluently and a lot of nuances can get lost when you're a teacher and want to get a specific point across and you have to use a language that you don't master fully. Also immigrants from non English speaking countries would never assume that the teacher could just do the meating in Arabic or German. That would actually be pretty nuts to ask your childs teacher.
Right, but a global bridge language that’s taught in the same school seems like a fair ask - and translators should be provided if there’s not a common language that can be used.
In Denmark we speak Danish. Do you Realty mean that a public School must be able to talk in every other language parents may demand? There are international School
I think there's something in between where accomodations can be made - You'd probably agree that when discussing children, it's best if both parents are involved in the conversation - so using an interpreter (American schools do this for example) you can include both parents rather easily. So to answer your question, yes - a public school should make whatever adjustments are necessary to properly communicate to the parents of students. It's not a time to scold someone for their poor Danish skills or leave them out of discussions about their child's development and you can't hold a kid out of school until you're proficient enough in Danish, and international school's aren't for everyone and there are pros and cons to each.
My impression of kids reading is that I'm quite impressed that my 9 year old can already read and write both Danish and English. Teaching about alphabet and the Danish sounds started in kindergarten already... age 3-5... but of course, those years are not required by law. But English education starts at 2nd grade. Basically the offspring learns both languages at once, opposed to my own school time when it was English from 4th grade, German by 6th. I taught myself the BASIC programming language without knowing English properly by age 10.
Pre-Kindergarten is basically børnehave but there’s some learning like shapes, colors, ABCs etc. It’s a lot of play and childcare but useful to identify learning disabilities for early interventions.
Not really a fair comparison though. There's a difference between a global bridge language like English and a micro-language with 5.5 million native speakers. There are other factors for each person's situation that influence their focus on learning the language.
Here in the Faroe Islands, we use the same Danish educational system, but we have our own alphabet, just like the Danes have their. Ours has no C, no Q, and no X and we have no Å, which the Danes use. we have Ð (Edd) and 2 double letters EI, EY and OY. The Danes don't use those either. So for example: No = Nej (Danish) = Nei (Faroese). the Danes use "ej" to make the same sound as our EI letter. it sounds exactly the same, just spelled differently. I started school at 7. I think they have pre-school now which is 5 or 6, not sure. we had Danish as a subject in school in the third grade, so by the age of 9, I started reading Danish and we started reading English in 6th grade. Now it's earlier I think, 4th or 5th grade. That said I knew how to speak English before I learned to read it because of television. all my Saturday morning cartoons were in English, now everything is Danish, the kids today are ruined.
Is it just me feeling it is pretty arrogant to move to another country and expect the country to speak your language just because you dont speak the language of the country you have moved to. Just like the sons emotional language is English, it could be that the teacher just dont't feel they can express themselves well in English?
So I don’t know how the schooling system is today, I graduated in 2016 so a while ago by now My family had us in kindergarten/daycare from the age of 1, in kindergarten we did begin early reading lessons, not so much writing lessons but learning the alphabet was definitely a thing we did in kindergarten At age 6 I entered a private school (Helsinge Realskole) where it was very much focused purely on the academic, it should’ve probably been a sign that I had adhd when my teachers complained I struggled to sit still and concentrate, and it should’ve probably been a clue that I’m autistic when I struggled to connect with the fellow students at lunch time 😂 At 10 I decided I had enough of the (I believe it was motivated by a lack of understanding between me and the other students) bullying, which seemed racially motivated but I just think they didn’t understand any better, it wasn’t extreme they just called me different names that was mostly based off my race (Vietnamese) I entered a different private school (Gribskov Lilleskole) which had just expanded up to the older grades I believe, that school had a focus on the academic aspects but also very much on the social aspects, I still find it hilarious that, during one year we had the same teacher in all our scientific subjects, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and our teacher straight up said fuck it and just renamed all his classes to “Stefan” (the teacher’s name) because “if I want to switch topic to chemistry in the middle of a mathematics class I will do it” At 16 I attempt high school, and fail hard, I attend 2 different high schools that I drop out of in 2016 and 2017, in late 2018 I get diagnosed with autism and adhd, and I enter the high school Høje Taastrup Gymnasium, which has an ASF program, focused on the diagnosis. I graduated in 2022 from that program, in September of 2023 I enter university studying English That is my personal experience with schooling in Denmark I don’t know if it has changed drastically since my time in grade school
My son is now 52, we moved to Denmark in 1972.He read at the age of 4 , he basically taught himself. I was later scolded by the principal for teaching my son to read before starting school!😮
It all depends on the school (and teacher). I taught myself to read before starting school as well at age 4 and read things like The Hobbit and LotR by the time I started school. This was never a problem and I had a teacher that strongly encouraged my literary interests so they kept growing. There are good and bad teachers everywhere so all we each have are anecdotes, but the data seems to say that the Danish schools on average do just fine academically.
@@kasperstergaard1592 Same but with the English and German languages, which i taught myself from adult educational language programs on the then in the 70ties only Danish TV station. Something happened in my brain back then, it just gobble up languages and i have a fairly good grasp on 4-5 of them, and a superficial vocabulary in several other languages. And mind you the traditional school way of learning things absolutely do not work for me, to this day + 4 decades later i still call my 9.5 years of school the biggest trauma in my life. And i remember most of it, CUZ my brain for some reason it like to store traumas / negative experiences, where as i can not remember much of what i did last week, i vivid recall the day my mother dragged me screaming and crying to preschool, and many many other things from my early childhood as a victim of frequent bullying from other kids and even teachers. But ! i have forgotten how to do math pretty much i am helpless without a calculator.
I know of several people who learned to read before they started school (sometimes upside down, on account of sitting across the table from older siblings doing homework). I have never heard about them being scolded for it, even if the notorious horrible teacher at a school nearby thought my best friend has learned to book by heart. But she was famous for being a horrible person. (The teacher, not my friend).
When my son attended school in Denmark between 1984 to 86, (På Amager) there was 14 children and two teachers in his class. When we returned to Australia, they put him back one year. As John Lennon sang, " As soon as you are born, they make you feel small by giving you no time instead of it all."
I went to a public school about the same year in Copenhagen NV. We had teacher/student ratio of 1/26 the ratio of 1/7 you describe sounds more like a "lilleskole" or private School
I think the reason some Dane’s would look at you after you’ve been here for years (I’m danish btw) and be like “don’t you speak danish yet 😮” might have something to do with us learning so many other languages. And if we (most of us I hope) go live in another country we’ll do a lot to blend in or at least learn the language fast. But having lives abroad for many years I now see things a little different than most Dane’s. But I guess that’s what often happens. Does that all make sense..? 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah, I think there’s more of an incentive for a Dane to learn English than the other way around though - it’s a global bridge language. Personally, we don’t have Danish partners, family, or a requirement to speak Danish anywhere in our lives. Our friends are largely international so we commonly speak English in groups, and Danes don’t make it easy to converse in Danish as a second language with any hint of an accent - those may seem like all excuses, but it’s also just my situation and I did spend six months doing language classes twice a week for 3 hours per session with homework two other nights per week. Still haven’t met a Dane who would prefer to speak Danish with me.
@@RobeTrotting That's a rather lame excuse. I've been living in Sweden a few years and I certainly didn't need to speak Swedish when I started learning it (I studies in English, my kid went to an international pre-school, my friends were either other international students or parents of my child's pre-school friends and pretty much every Swede speaks great English). I learnded Swedish anyway, without any need for it. You clearly don't WANT to learn Danish, which is fine, but why don't you simply admit it instead of making excuses?
i know this is late to say just, the notifikantion just came in, but i like to speak to these persons, about what they are talking about, im delexsia and that was not what happen in 80/90, i was just hyperactive, in the doctors eyes back then... i have adhd today
If you have lived many years in DK and haven't learned basic Danish, I would say it is pure laziness. I know, I sound like a horrible person, but I don't see any rational reason not to learn it. Don't say it is so hard because all Danes speak English. Force yourself to speak Danish.
sagen er den at hvis nogle kommer og snakker gebrokken dansk med klare undertoner af engelsk så slår samtlige danskere over i engelsk uanset hvor meget energi der ligges i at prøve at kommunikere på dansk - hvis nogle er dovne er den gængse dansker der nægter at tage sig tid til at snakke dansk... Right? ;-)
One thing is to learn the words, then comes pronunciation... but I'd say that English and Danish aren't that far apart... and the brits I know of have accepted their British accent and the fact that they sound like Ole Henriksen, in that way sounding more fluent than those that focus very much on getting our R's correct. And in that context I'd like to mention that Mandarin has much more difference, and I still don't understand tonation... Especially coming from English, you can just read the words as they'd sound in English, and a Danish listener would quickly pick up... because we know how English letters sound. The real difficulty comes when trying to understand our sayings, puns and so on. Have had colleagues doing cross-lingual pun competitions. And we have The Julekalender that actually takes quite a good level of understanding in both languages to catch all the jokes they built in... Most Danes I know would struggle if they had mixed Danish with German instead... and I believe it would only be really fun to those living in southern Jutland.
That is incredibly rude actually. You learned English because it’s much easier and English speakers are used to all kinds of weird pronunciations and will understand you no matter how bad your English is. If it’s Danish - people just look at you as if you’re an alien or are speaking alien language and ignore you or call someone that speaks English to help you. And I’m a person that picks languages fast, but this just shut my interest. You have to be more encouraging and understanding towards foreigners.
I strongly disagree with Adrian. Kids shouldn't be in school at age 4, they should *play* and have fun while it lasts. They also shouldn't be doing tests and exams, at least before they are teenagers. "Academic Ability" isn't everything in life.😐
The thing is its the polite thing to do to at least try to speak a little Danish than out right saying to speak English. For those who say its entitled to expect your host country to speak English in a parent meeting, yes and no. When I was growing up my school acknowledged the diversity and translators were available but it wasn't pushed onto parents because those parents didn't grow up speaking English. Danish is difficult and English is easier. My kids are trilingual: dutch, spanish, english and even they prefer to speak English because its just easier while I wish they didn't so much. I think schools should provide translators in an international setting, but also the option of speaking Danish to the parents if they feel comfortable.
What a muppet that Adrian guy is. Just listen to that arrogance. (Paraphrasing, obviously) - "I live in Denmark and I don't need to learn the language, not even to help my own struggling sons education. The Danes needs to be better and more confident at my language and not let their egos be in the way" - "Why are you excluding me?, they guy who have had YEARS!!!! to learn the language, at this Danish school. Why are you not like me and make your life to fit mine, like England did for my wife when we lived there, and all the people around us spoke fluent Danish to accommodate her. " - "I went to Private school and my parents were busy and not very invested in my life" - Well the apple didn't fall far from the tree, Adrian. To me it sounds like you spoke so little with your son you needed professional help to understand what native language he spoke. "I refuse to learn Danish but I cannot understand why my impressional son doesn't adapt the the language well. It can't be my fault, It must be the fault of his teachers. It's not like I have an recording device on my phone, and I can record the meetings and ask my wife for a translation later, so not to take time away from my teachers private life. After all, I am more important than them, so me knowing the full content of the meeting as late as in the car ride home, is too late for me. I cannot figure out how to use the schools Intranet or any other email system to ask the questions I might have later."
We had speach counceling and was told it was better if you spoke english together and mom speaking danish to the kids and you speak english to them as that would better cement the two languages at the same time
Spoken danish and written danish are very different. That is one of the reasons that reading and writing is focused on later when the child has some kind of abstraction ability. It always strikes me that "big language citizens" tend to think that it is harder for them to learn a foreign language than it is for us small ones 😘 I am certain that you "big ones" are as intelligent as us "small ones". Get moving. Learning is a hard task for everyone. You have to work for it on a daily basis!! A small advise: Stop trying to learn the way you did in your exam and test based schools. Try your danish EVERY day and excuse us small ones that we are not used to it. That is why we often try to correct those brave ones trying to learn our language - SORRY!
We follow science, children should preferably be children for as long as possible - it gives them some other advantages along the way, and there they are also better at accepting learning. Yes, it presents some challenges to be an involved parent, there is no requirement to participate, but it does a lot for your children, it is not full-time after all. It is said that they become better people, and I also think that the Danes were once chosen as the happiest people, properly for a reason, perhaps it stems from the earlier years of their lives.
Grundtvig was very important to the way we think Education in Denmark. Everything that they tell us about testing and not learning to be “Human” in schools was something he was very much against. He said you have to be a Human being before a christian. 😢At that time a christian also meant that you were educated and civilized.
No from the old norse language, a language current Danish / Swedish and Norwegian dont really sound like. But something like 600 words in English could be argued to go back to old Norse, for instance Egg / Æg - Knife/ kniv - Window / vindue Though in Swedish window in no way near vindue in Danish, they call it Fønster as i recall. Some marginal Danish dialects, they would actually say a or eh window for a vindue, some Danes could / would have trouble understanding these regional dialects that are sadly more or less gone now. I know i grew up with one in the family, my mothers older sisters husband, his northern Jutland dialect was so far out for us coming from Århus. And they dident live further away than Skive.
You need to learn the abstract math young, and understanding abstract math is a requirement in the natural and technical sciences. Learning it at 18 is difficult
Impulses from different sorts, not just the teacher, but your friends parents, may make you do an exstra effort to learn about reasons to be objective and observating, towards the society you will soon meet, on your own feets.
Kinda sad that you have a show about how it is to live in denmark, and you still cant speak the language. Plus kids in Denmark learn English from a young age, and speak it just as fluently as Danish
@@RobeTrotting Why are you being so utterly rude to anyone who criticises you or disagrees wtih you? I have noticed this in the comment section of several videos.
@weybye91There is a lovely Olde English saying which goes as follows if you don't have anything good or kind to say don't say anything at all. Very interesting as well I have read empathy is big part of Danish parenting and culture and it is truly disheartening that you have not portrayed such characteristics.
It is worth noting that the Danish language is notoriously hard - Also for kids. On average it takes a child 2 years more to be proficient at speaking Danish in Denmark than English in the UK
@@tan89284 👋 Hello I'm curious. Where did you hear this..? This is not what we are told and taught, as pedagogues and language tutors. On the contrary🤔! The best greetings 🙂 Majbritt
I speak Danish fluently. But if I lived in DK I would hesitate to spend a huge amount of time learning it. It's a niche language, to say the least, and most people there speak English very well. I might learn enough to get by, and then focus on a more useful language. These comments would apply equally to Dutch, which I also speak fluently having grown up there.
The absolute worst thing you can do to a kid is not speaking the language where you live, it's been proven over and over again, it's setting them up for failure, but then again, being an emigrant and living in Copenhagen, not exactly helping either.
we are learning English for the purpose of our businesses to communicate with the world outside. Not for you to move here and demand we change our day to day language around you, of course most people will do this out of kindness. But this seems a bit self absorbed.
I am “surprised” that the Danish economy is one of the strongest in the world with all these people who “don’t read at 4”. They must be doing something right to be able to take well care of all unfortunate citizens (as opposed to the US). I live in Greece and the school system here is very strict. The result is that many kids are fed up after high school and do not want to look at a book again for years.
🎧 Listen to Adrian on our podcast What Are You Doing in Denmark here: linktr.ee/robetrotting
And catch Annie on the podcast soon ❤😊
Learn Danish. Please speak it. No one can make all the mistakes that I have made trying to learn and speak a foreign language. If you live in Denmark it really is important that one become fluent in the native language.
And, please know that you might always sound a bit American or British regardless of how hard you try and there is nothing wrong with THAT!
I'm a big fan of Folkeskolen's Law of Purpose § 1, especially part 3:
Folkeskolen must prepare students for participation, co-responsibility, rights and duties in a society with freedom and democracy. The school's work must therefore be characterized by freedom of spirit, equality and democracy.
As a Dane that moved to the US I was blown away at how early US kids start reading and doing homework. That being said, while Danish kids are allowed to be kids for longer and start school much later they seem to catch up fast and by junior high there is no difference in academic achievement.
Look up Agora school in Roermond, Netherlands.
I'm an American who moved to Denmark with my family a few years ago.
While we're happy overall with living in Denmark, I'm actually surprised and appalled at the education system. I don't feel they catch up by middle school at all.
Both my kids are in Gymnasium (high school), and after several years in the Danish system "hoping it would catch up", we eventually moved them to an IB (international bachelorette) school because our kids were so bored they were getting depressed.
Jantelov (no one is allowed to be special) is so pervasive and the teachers' union is so strong that every class teaches to the slowest (and least passionate) students.
There were two very positive aspects to Danish education, however: (1) there is a TON of group work, which is great prep for the real world, and (2) frisk luft (fresh air) is a really big deal, do they got to go out of the school a lot.
@@MikeWilliamson_this_is_mvw To be perfectly honest that was also my experience as a Danish school kid in the 1970s but I was under the impression the system had improved; at least they now acknowledge and talk about helping gifted students in Denmark.
My kids in the US system suffer from burnout not from boredom but from stress. All focus is on the volume of homework and testing. They literally get only 5 minutes to run from class to class and no actual break at all throughout the day. And even in kindergarten they had mountains of homework every day which I found ridiculous. We need to invent a school that combines the best qualities from both systems.
@@MikeWilliamson_this_is_mvw The PISA tests show that Danish students score significantly higher on mathematics and similarly in science and reading to Americans.
Are you sure what you’re experiencing isn’t just that you are originally from a very good school district in the US, so your experience of the American school system isn’t typical for Americans?
@@Lemonz1989maybe combined with a bad school in Denmark.. 😅 as a Dane i can only say that there is a BIG difference in how well public schools do in Denmark, like in all places..
A teacher who has Danish as his or her native language may have a very good level of English and may consider themselves to be fluent. However English would still be a second language. They may have a large vocabulary but they may not have the level of English nor vocabulary to discuss educational issues, particularly to a professional standard. In these circumstances it' seems rather churlish to expect the teacher to discuss your child's education in English rather than their native Danish in Denmark where the child's education is conducted in Danish. If a parent's level of Danish means that they cannot converse adequately in Danish, it would be preferable to use a professional translator until such time as the parent has improved their language skills.
I was thinking something along that line too.. It is also a little spoiled to be able to ask for the conversation to be held in ones own language simply because it’s the modern Lingua Franca. A Danish parent wouldn’t have that luxury in the UK or the USA…
@@berrycarbs anglos have no idea how protected their language is
You are so lucky that so many people are willing to speak your mothertounge with you. It seems a tiny bit entitlet. I know that parent-school meetings are difficult . But your child visits a danish school, it your duty to learn the language, which is spoken there. You are supposed to help with homework. No, it is not easy, but there is only one way to learn - try! Sorry, my english is not that good. I am danish and live in german and french speaking region.
I agree with you, but it's also a little ridiculous if they're also teaching English. Using both should be fine.
I honestly agree!! But it can take time ❤
@@Zhiperserthere are a few English teachers in a school. Most of them aren’t…
As a fellow Brit im a bit embarassed by his entitlement: expecting parent meetings to be held in English so he can understand. Just because English is widely spoken, doesnt mean that all Danes feel equally comfortable speaking it. If you are building a life here in Denmark, then learn the language.
@Zhiperser
As a 27 year old Dane, who pretty good at English and spend a lot of time interacting within the English language, I will still stumble upon a word I didn't know in everyday language.
I wouldn't even dare entering the different niches that found in specific subjects and work environment.
🇬🇧🇩🇰 Thank you all for the interesting aspects of Denmark and Danish info you're posting.
I am a half Dane with a Danish mother & English father. My mother didn't actively teach us Danish & my siblings didn't pick up, nor were they interested, in any Danish. But I was completely different, listening avidly to all the Danish I could get - to my mother on the long phone conversations, when we had Danes for meals or coffee and Danish radio.
I also went to Denmark on my own at 7yrs old (!! this was over 64 yrs ago) to have my tonsils out. For 3 weeks I stayed with a rich aunt and her maids, gardeners & farm workers who talked only Danish to me which set me up with good pronounciation and lots of words.
But I have been hindered ever since by not knowing enough of grammar & sentence construction to talk or read easily. Until I decided 3 years ago to learn seriously with Duolingo online. Since then, I have enjoyed the leaps & bounds, connecting all the bits together. I can now watch films like "Badehotellet" almost without subtitles. It feels wonderful after living outside the Danish language door for so long🤗
Aw, Ann that’s so sweet and really incredible you’re held onto that linguistic link and interest for so long 😃😍
My mother was born and raised in the US. All her kids though were born and raised in the Nordic countries. My dad was Danish. Our home language was English. We lived in Sweden until I was ten then we moved to a Danish speaking area. In Sweden I spoke Swedish with my dad then that gradually changed to Danish. Today, I’m a native speaker of all three languages.
At one point my mother seriously considered moving to the US with all of us. I’m am sooo grateful today that she decided not to do it and that her kids now live, and live well in one of the Nordic countries.
Great to hear. 🌱
10:40 I wonder if English speaking people are a bit spoiled with the language, the assumption is everybody speaks it and certainly spoiled in the Nordics, experience in Spain, France and Germany, is that not everybody can or will speak English with you
@@williamjones4716 Morten P. Meldal, Chemistry, 2022
with a total of 14 nobel from a relative small countries. Quite a lot. So stop being so high on your horse. There is even more from other non English countries. If you cared to look it up.
@@williamjones4716 Absolutely a ridicolous statement, for every dane theres about 11 brits, or over 55 us citizens to win a nobel prize.
@@williamjones4716If supperiority is what you argue, then you are right, america has 1.23 Nobel laurents pr million people, uk 2.04 and denmark 2.37. So educational supperiority in denmark iguess.
Thanks so much for having us on! What a treat!
Our pleasure! You guys were SO wonderful - cannot wait to share the rest of the conversations ❤😊
I just it feels and looks a bit more than entitled when, in middle of the vid, the two foreigners voluntarily moving to and living in Denmark sorta complaining how hard and inconvenient it is when Danish teachers in Danish school in Denmark are a bit lets say pushy or less than enthusiastic about parent of one of the kids theyre responsible for and with whom they have to communicate with on almost daily basis isnt speaking Danish and that those teachers should automatically switch to different language for your convenience to accommodate you.
Like English is modern lingua franca and Denmark is one of most English friendly cultures and countries but like you made decision to live in foreign country and you made decision to have kids in foreign country so what did you expect, like if we have 2023 as was mentioned would they expect teachers to speak Danish with you if you moved to capital city of Western country like London or Washington?
I dont think its those foreigners who are meeting the surprising resistance or the teachers who should put their egos aside and do whats best for kids to paraphrase one of the guests.
I saw a RUclips video once where a woman from another country listed the reasons why she left Denmark and one of the reasons she gave was that Danes spoke Danish. If you move to a country and are surprised that the natives of that country speak their native language, then perhaps you are not quite ready to live abroad.
Thats why we invented jantelov to beat narcissism
As a dane living in Sweden since 47 years, I have kids with a woman from Åland (they speak swedish). I spoke danish with the kids from day one. The mother peak swedish to them and together we spoke swedish. Our oldest kid spoke danish with me and swedish with his mother from early age. The youngest spoke only swedish, but understood danish. When he was about 13 years old he just decided to start speak danish with me. He learned it very fast. Now they are both grown ups. Speak danish with me, swedish with each other when I am not around, and swedish with their mother. Swedish is sure their first language, but they are confident in danish. Not just as fluently bilingual as I am, but close. An extra language is a light burden to carry.
Bringing up kids with the one-parent-one-language philosophy as you... just... the languages are a bit more different from eachother; Cantonese and Danish with English as common.
My daughter picked up Danish as her main language before kindergarten was over, but my younger son isn't the same quick to pick up the languages, so he often default to English (probably because he's figured out that the kindergarten staff also understands English 😄, and the kids from mixed African families often speak English at home)
Anyway, what I can say is that my 9 year old daughter is fluent speaking all 3 languages, and English education to her, here in DK, is more about learning to read and write, as she already has the vocabulary. (Could hope she gets the chance to choose Chinese as 3rd language, though in that case I can't help much with homework)
The new generation of Danes will be a lot more fluent in English... I put a real effort into getting fluent myself, to my kids and their classmates it seems to come much more natural.
At the same time I can only say that their Danish is still very good, despite the mix they grow up in.
To be fair, Danish and Swedish are as close as two languages can be while still calling them two different languages...
@@MikeWilliamson_this_is_mvw Tell that to the Swedes....
Your channel lets me see Danish issues from different perspectives, and I love it ❤ Observation from several angles is they key to learning!
I really like these video formats you have been doing, they are really great 😃 have watched some of your videos during the last year or so, and the way you are developing your channel is really cool! 🙌 thanks for these awesome videos 😃
Thank you so much 😊 really glad to hear you’re enjoying them and seeing a growth - we are really focused on investing back into our channel and improving the content
Dual language children often have more difficulties with reading/speaking in the early years, but they will catch up and have the advantages of speaking several æanguages later on.
The level of English language skills needed for a teacher to do meeting with the parents in English and conveying sensitive topics in a constructive and firm way is quite high.
Counting in the fact that many of the teachers teaching right now might only have had 6-9 years of English education 20-30 years ago. It is quite a big ask.
Even though most Danes are relatively good at conversational English with related vocabulary is a different thing. The hole education of folkeskole teachers is thought in Danish so their English vocabulary in child psychology and teaching methods is understandably limited.
I don’t think they’re expected to have an academic level meeting or defend their thesis - it’s a meeting about someone’s child and the parents can’t hold off their schooling until they’re fluent and know child psychology vocabulary in Danish. School districts in the US are required to have interpreter options for non-English speaking parent conferences - it’s not hard to do.
All Danish schools can arrange a translator, you just have to ask for one. 😊 We do it all the time at my school, we just have to know from the parents that they're attending the meeting, and what languages they need the translator to know. Plus in good time so there's enough time to arrange it.
Also, I know a lot of teachers who don't feel they have good enough English to properly express themselves about their students. Also because we use a lot of terminology when we speak about teaching and problems which can arise in school, terminology that most Danes won't know in English.
@@penny3160 I figured that was probably the case - it's pretty standard in the US. It's surprising that people are so shocked and even upset that his happens.
@@RobeTrotting It is an interesting discussion, and I am not saying that you are 100% wrong, but I would like to ask for thinking about the fact that English might not be the "emotional language" of the teacher ,and therefore having a hard time to convey complicated topics in a second language. I have been speaking English in my work life for 25 years, but still find myself struggling from time to time when n social settings with colleagues. It is not about defending a thesis, just speaking about topics which you are not talking about in English everyday is hard.
But I am also thinking, that why is it that the teacher should speak second language and the parents not? I realize of course that English is more common obviously. How would we think of a non native English speaking parent in the UK or US asking for the teacher to switch to - say - French for a delicate conversation.
@@RobeTrottingthe US don't have a national language, Denmark have, and if you want your child to succeed, you want to take the meeting in Danish, otherwise you will only get the superficial version, if you need an interpreter, then arrange that, but you will still be missing out, and your child will not see you as a person they need to respect, it's already proven,
You are in denmark. So you should really learn Danish ;-) We spend several hours a week, for many years, learning English
Even the Tone Trotting guys can barely speak English, and they have been here for what 5-6 years.
Even Prince Henry could speak better Danish, and his Danish were rather bad.
Even Mary can speak Danish fluently, while these 2 amaricans barely can pronounce Danish words correctly
i live in the us and have cousins that live in denmark, ranging from the ages of 8 years to 10 months. they moved to denmark 2 years ago from the us, and they speak english. the 8 year old goes to a charter school for american kids that speak english and he learns danish there. i think the 6 year old is going to a regular danish school, the 4 year old just started school, and the 10 month olds are in daycare. everyone except the twins ride their bikes to school, its crazy that they aren’t supervised by their parents there, and this isn’t copenhagen or a big city, it’s in the outskirts of billund. i went to denmark to visit them in june-july this year, and it was amazing to be there.
Its fun how kids feels about a language. I used to live in London and was working as a pedagogue for a danish child. Both his parents was danish and we all spoke Danish around him.
I took him to playgroups and of cause he had English friends and when he turned 2,5 years old he started preschool. He wouldn’t speak English to the kids or the teachers and I actually had to stay with him for several month before he was ready to speak English. There was another danish child in this preschool and she was so happy that I understood her because she did not speak english as her parents had just made the move from DK to the UK and the teachers had such a hard time understand her. So I helped for a few month with both the children. But the bottom line was this boy I was working with, even though he grew up with Danish language around him I spoke danish, his parents spoke Danish he got such a thick accent when speaking danish. His English is absolutely brilliant even though it’s a quite flat British you cant really hear where his from ( up north the have a certain accent and if your from London you can easily hear that) but not with this kid. His danish is a real struggle for him and it’s always been difficult to understand his danish even as a 2-3 year old boy that refused to speak english.
should have had a Danish teacher there to talk more about the system aswell. so you could have talked more indebt with the differences. and why they do it this way in Denmark.
Could have been a good addition to the video, since a lot of the focus from the two guests seemed to be more on their experience about speaking danish(even though that's an important angle too)
Dane here. The mother of my kids is from southern Germany and when we started dating, she did not speak Danish. (I spoke and speak German), I asked her to learn the language - also because we would be together with the Danish family and friends often. So, we ended up speaking our mother tongue. She would speak German to me - and I would answer her in Danish. When the kids came, they would speak German to their mother and Danish to me. (We lived in Germany). If the spoke German to me, I would not react - they would have to say it in Danish.
They both became fluent in both languages and are adult now. And they are happy, that we did it this way.
Sgu en god idé :-DD
@@MrSkipperBent Har lige snakket med min yngste i går. Han har sabbatår og sidder ved kassen i et supermarked, hvor der jævnligt kommer danske turister - tit unge, der skal øve sig på tysk. Så han taler tysk til dem...og slutter så af med at sige: Hav en god dag.
Det siges, de ser sjove ud.
Hvad tænker i over efterskoler?
Moved from the US almost a year ago with my 9-year-old and 1-year-old. My husband is Danish and we speak English at home. I want to speak more Danish at home because I'm in language school and it helps my oldest practice what she is learning at school very fast. Now that my little one is in daycare they say to keep encouraging English at home while she will pick up Danish fast in daycare. It's going to be interesting to see how we navigate it all. I love the schools here, they focus more on the kids than standardized testing.
Your kids will pick up Danish, especially the little one, even if you speak English at home. But I suggest you make an effort learning it with your younger child. Spoken Danish is notorious for having some quirks in intonation, gutteral stops and whatnot.
This Danish American transatlantic plane crash of a teacher (who teaches middle school in CPH) was fascinated. Thank you. 😊
I honestly find it very arogant, to move to another country expecting them to speak your language... also... you have lived in this country for multiple years, you should've learned the language by now, at least to an extent where you can attend meetings with your kids teachers. Such a big part of the culture in a country is bound to the language.
I don’t disagree with your entire statement, but there’s more nuance to it than that and it’s really unnecessary and over complicated to learn Danish if you love to Denmark for a number of reasons. It’s also a meeting about your child, so even being able to mostly speak and understand Danish, I’d still want it in English to be able to fully discuss something so important. You’re not going to wait years and years to enroll your kids in school once you’re fluent - which you almost never will be, again for a number of reasons.
Starting school at age 7 is actually rather late by Danish standards, as most children in the børnehaveklasse (grade 0) are 5 or 6.
I think the age 7 reference was about learning to read.
Hear hear Adrian: You are definitely not the only one puzzled by the immense parent involvement. Being a native Dane attending school in the eighties, and now father of 3 kids, I have witnessed this undesirable development. It wasn’t like that back then, and it is too much now.
Cause they are your kids
Talking about being bilingual.
When I was living in Japan I met a Japanese married to Austrian. They were both musician and had two children. When the wife talked with the children she spoke in German. When he spoke with the children he spoke in Japanese, When they were all together they spoke in English (like during dinner),
It was amazing! The children was completely trilingual and they could basically switch language mid sentence without a glitch.
That’s really cool, and typically what third culture kids are recommended :)
Thanks for a great channel with lots of interesting takes on Denmark - always fun to watch how people who didn't grow up here sees the country!
Just a tiny take on the whole Danish in meetings about kids - can see a lot of other comments about it as well. A lot of Danes speak English very well, but it is still tricky for a lot and some people are very self-conscious about it and might feel like they could even come off unprofessional or get misunderstood in a pretty important situation like a parent-school meeting. I'd bet that's why some are pretty hesitant to do so. Just like you guys would probably not want to have an important workmeeting in Danish for the same reasons ☺️ a lot of Danes don't use English all the time or at least not actively - my boyfriend is from Holland so I noticed it even with some of my close, relatively young friends and family who's English is fine, but become very aware of how or what to say when the language swaps.
Someone else said translators are a possibility if asked for in these settings - sounded like the perfect option tbh!
Thanks again for the channel ☺️
Det er "lidt" interessant hvordan folk, som ikke kan dansk, forventer danskere skal tale til dem på deres sprog i Danmark.
Måske en smule mere respekt for stedet, de har bosat sig og en større indsats i dette tilfælde for at lære dansk ville være på sin plads.
Der er mere til at leve i Danmark end, have en dansk kæreste eller/og et job i Danmark.
Der er mere end bare end ens egen sprog eller det specifikke steds sprog, når man bosætter sig et sted i verdenen, men for reelt at kunne forstå stedet/kulturen, er man nødt til at starte med sproget ellers er man altid en fremmed og hører intet sted hjemme.
Hvis jeg som dansker flyttede til UK eller USA og så forventede, at fordi jeg ikke var 100% flydende engelsk talende, så skulle de tale på dansk.
Hmmm, gad vide hvorden det ville gå!
In an American school you would be offered an interpreter. I think you’re right about how it helps you to understand the culture to understand the language, but it’s a different situation to compare learning Danish to learning English - in particular regarding the priority and necessity. You’re comparing the global bridge language to a language spoken by a population half the size of London in a culture where the overwhelming majority of natives also speak English. It’s just not the same scenario.
@@RobeTrotting Beklager jeg ikke udtrykte mig godt nok.
Groft sagt. Bør den herboende befolkning tilpasse sig den fremmede eller bør den fremmede tilpasse sig den herboende befolkning.
Hvad nu hvis det var kinesisk og engelsk, hvis vi skal snakke specifikt sprog og ikke respekten for stedet man vælger at bosætte sig.
Amazing. I loved it all.
The question I missed was; why your guests went for a danish folkeskole rather than an english language prtivate school?
Have to understand that Danish is a hard language to learn, even for Danish children! Reading and writing is not easy, so many mute letters...
I grew up bi-lingual Danish/Canadian, my brother and I have always spoken/flipped back and forth, no specific language for any given occasion.
My children are also bi-lingual, so when they started school, I had to have a heart-to-heart with their respective teachers.
'My children speak Canadian English.
I will not accept, at any point in time, that any of my children come home and tell me, that the teacher says, they are pronouncing the words, wrong!'
It worked and they did great!!
(safe to say, this was 20-40 yrs ago, when English, in Danish schools, was spoken with a British accent) 😉
hello from Hundested 🌸
Not true, Danish is actually one of the easiest European languages to learn.
As a Dane with trilingual kids... I don't really care what branch of English they end up with 🙄 regarding languages, the most important is to understand and be understood.
Linguists regard English as the hardest European language to spell, and Danish is number two (very small languages were not included in the survey, though).
@@tan89284 Not according to people with knowledge on the subject.
nice studio.. you aint just in it for the funs =). its all very well produced
I have two kids 18 and 17 years old. Yes they started 0 class when they were 6 and they read their first words perhaps one year later. But by now they both speak three languages (Danish, English and German). They know world geography, world history and are aware of historical and contemporary political developments in Denmark and around the world, as I'm writing these words. My children are no prodigies at all. Quite average actually compared with their peers. It's true the Danish system is different than other systems but systems should be measured by the results they produce I feel. Cheers
I’m going to Denmark tomorrow, I’m so excited omg
Derek and Mike, I have always loved your channel, but I miss the “hygge” of the recordings in your apartment and walking in the streets of Copenhagen. Will that happen again?
Aw, thank you - I get that, it’s a nice vibe to have a cozier set but turning our flat into a studio adds some stress and it’s nice to separate our living space from our recording.
I’m sure we will film outside and around town again (but that also has some inconvenience too) 😊
I get why you'd want teachers to be able to communicate in English because most teachers speak English. But not all teachers speak English fluently and a lot of nuances can get lost when you're a teacher and want to get a specific point across and you have to use a language that you don't master fully.
Also immigrants from non English speaking countries would never assume that the teacher could just do the meating in Arabic or German. That would actually be pretty nuts to ask your childs teacher.
Right, but a global bridge language that’s taught in the same school seems like a fair ask - and translators should be provided if there’s not a common language that can be used.
In Denmark we speak Danish. Do you Realty mean that a public School must be able to talk in every other language parents may demand? There are international School
I think there's something in between where accomodations can be made - You'd probably agree that when discussing children, it's best if both parents are involved in the conversation - so using an interpreter (American schools do this for example) you can include both parents rather easily. So to answer your question, yes - a public school should make whatever adjustments are necessary to properly communicate to the parents of students. It's not a time to scold someone for their poor Danish skills or leave them out of discussions about their child's development and you can't hold a kid out of school until you're proficient enough in Danish, and international school's aren't for everyone and there are pros and cons to each.
My impression of kids reading is that I'm quite impressed that my 9 year old can already read and write both Danish and English.
Teaching about alphabet and the Danish sounds started in kindergarten already... age 3-5... but of course, those years are not required by law.
But English education starts at 2nd grade. Basically the offspring learns both languages at once, opposed to my own school time when it was English from 4th grade, German by 6th.
I taught myself the BASIC programming language without knowing English properly by age 10.
Pretty sure the kid would have been 6 when he started school, because the rule is they start the year they turn 6.
Starting school at 4 years 😮. For how many hours a day?
Pre-Kindergarten is basically børnehave but there’s some learning like shapes, colors, ABCs etc. It’s a lot of play and childcare but useful to identify learning disabilities for early interventions.
@@RobeTrotting tak 😊 I see you2 all over, when foreningers are studying 🇩🇰♥️
Hvis I havde mødtes i Danmark, og var flyttet til England, ville du så syntes det var ok at hjemme talte I kun Dansk?
Not really a fair comparison though. There's a difference between a global bridge language like English and a micro-language with 5.5 million native speakers. There are other factors for each person's situation that influence their focus on learning the language.
Here in the Faroe Islands, we use the same Danish educational system, but we have our own alphabet, just like the Danes have their. Ours has no C, no Q, and no X and we have no Å, which the Danes use. we have Ð (Edd) and 2 double letters EI, EY and OY. The Danes don't use those either. So for example: No = Nej (Danish) = Nei (Faroese). the Danes use "ej" to make the same sound as our EI letter. it sounds exactly the same, just spelled differently. I started school at 7. I think they have pre-school now which is 5 or 6, not sure. we had Danish as a subject in school in the third grade, so by the age of 9, I started reading Danish and we started reading English in 6th grade. Now it's earlier I think, 4th or 5th grade. That said I knew how to speak English before I learned to read it because of television. all my Saturday morning cartoons were in English, now everything is Danish, the kids today are ruined.
Is it just me feeling it is pretty arrogant to move to another country and expect the country to speak your language just because you dont speak the language of the country you have moved to.
Just like the sons emotional language is English, it could be that the teacher just dont't feel they can express themselves well in English?
I started school at 4. Now, mind you such was mostly painting, art and naps but still was aged four in a school setting.
So I don’t know how the schooling system is today, I graduated in 2016 so a while ago by now
My family had us in kindergarten/daycare from the age of 1, in kindergarten we did begin early reading lessons, not so much writing lessons but learning the alphabet was definitely a thing we did in kindergarten
At age 6 I entered a private school (Helsinge Realskole) where it was very much focused purely on the academic, it should’ve probably been a sign that I had adhd when my teachers complained I struggled to sit still and concentrate, and it should’ve probably been a clue that I’m autistic when I struggled to connect with the fellow students at lunch time 😂
At 10 I decided I had enough of the (I believe it was motivated by a lack of understanding between me and the other students) bullying, which seemed racially motivated but I just think they didn’t understand any better, it wasn’t extreme they just called me different names that was mostly based off my race (Vietnamese)
I entered a different private school (Gribskov Lilleskole) which had just expanded up to the older grades I believe, that school had a focus on the academic aspects but also very much on the social aspects, I still find it hilarious that, during one year we had the same teacher in all our scientific subjects, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and our teacher straight up said fuck it and just renamed all his classes to “Stefan” (the teacher’s name) because “if I want to switch topic to chemistry in the middle of a mathematics class I will do it”
At 16 I attempt high school, and fail hard, I attend 2 different high schools that I drop out of in 2016 and 2017, in late 2018 I get diagnosed with autism and adhd, and I enter the high school Høje Taastrup Gymnasium, which has an ASF program, focused on the diagnosis. I graduated in 2022 from that program, in September of 2023 I enter university studying English
That is my personal experience with schooling in Denmark
I don’t know if it has changed drastically since my time in grade school
My son is now 52, we moved to Denmark in 1972.He read at the age of 4 , he basically taught himself. I was later scolded by the principal for teaching my son to read before starting school!😮
It all depends on the school (and teacher). I taught myself to read before starting school as well at age 4 and read things like The Hobbit and LotR by the time I started school. This was never a problem and I had a teacher that strongly encouraged my literary interests so they kept growing.
There are good and bad teachers everywhere so all we each have are anecdotes, but the data seems to say that the Danish schools on average do just fine academically.
@@kasperstergaard1592 Same but with the English and German languages, which i taught myself from adult educational language programs on the then in the 70ties only Danish TV station.
Something happened in my brain back then, it just gobble up languages and i have a fairly good grasp on 4-5 of them, and a superficial vocabulary in several other languages.
And mind you the traditional school way of learning things absolutely do not work for me, to this day + 4 decades later i still call my 9.5 years of school the biggest trauma in my life.
And i remember most of it, CUZ my brain for some reason it like to store traumas / negative experiences, where as i can not remember much of what i did last week, i vivid recall the day my mother dragged me screaming and crying to preschool, and many many other things from my early childhood as a victim of frequent bullying from other kids and even teachers.
But ! i have forgotten how to do math pretty much i am helpless without a calculator.
I know of several people who learned to read before they started school (sometimes upside down, on account of sitting across the table from older siblings doing homework). I have never heard about them being scolded for it, even if the notorious horrible teacher at a school nearby thought my best friend has learned to book by heart. But she was famous for being a horrible person. (The teacher, not my friend).
When my son attended school in Denmark between 1984 to 86, (På Amager) there was 14 children and two teachers in his class. When we returned to Australia, they put him back one year. As John Lennon sang, " As soon as you are born, they make you feel small by giving you no time instead of it all."
I went to a public school about the same year in Copenhagen NV. We had teacher/student ratio of 1/26 the ratio of 1/7 you describe sounds more like a "lilleskole" or private School
I think the reason some Dane’s would look at you after you’ve been here for years (I’m danish btw) and be like “don’t you speak danish yet 😮” might have something to do with us learning so many other languages. And if we (most of us I hope) go live in another country we’ll do a lot to blend in or at least learn the language fast. But having lives abroad for many years I now see things a little different than most Dane’s. But I guess that’s what often happens. Does that all make sense..? 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah, I think there’s more of an incentive for a Dane to learn English than the other way around though - it’s a global bridge language. Personally, we don’t have Danish partners, family, or a requirement to speak Danish anywhere in our lives. Our friends are largely international so we commonly speak English in groups, and Danes don’t make it easy to converse in Danish as a second language with any hint of an accent - those may seem like all excuses, but it’s also just my situation and I did spend six months doing language classes twice a week for 3 hours per session with homework two other nights per week. Still haven’t met a Dane who would prefer to speak Danish with me.
@@RobeTrotting That's a rather lame excuse. I've been living in Sweden a few years and I certainly didn't need to speak Swedish when I started learning it (I studies in English, my kid went to an international pre-school, my friends were either other international students or parents of my child's pre-school friends and pretty much every Swede speaks great English). I learnded Swedish anyway, without any need for it.
You clearly don't WANT to learn Danish, which is fine, but why don't you simply admit it instead of making excuses?
i know this is late to say just, the notifikantion just came in, but i like to speak to these persons, about what they are talking about, im delexsia and that was not what happen in 80/90, i was just hyperactive, in the doctors eyes back then... i have adhd today
You should try to get a hold of a person that have that topic as a profesion
At 4 in general you ARE NOT ready for academic exelence.. that's cruel and inhumane...
If you have lived many years in DK and haven't learned basic Danish, I would say it is pure laziness. I know, I sound like a horrible person, but I don't see any rational reason not to learn it. Don't say it is so hard because all Danes speak English. Force yourself to speak Danish.
sagen er den at hvis nogle kommer og snakker gebrokken dansk med klare undertoner af engelsk så slår samtlige danskere over i engelsk uanset hvor meget energi der ligges i at prøve at kommunikere på dansk - hvis nogle er dovne er den gængse dansker der nægter at tage sig tid til at snakke dansk... Right? ;-)
I understand and I do speak basic Danish but still grasping more complex topics, it’s tricky! ❤
One thing is to learn the words, then comes pronunciation... but I'd say that English and Danish aren't that far apart... and the brits I know of have accepted their British accent and the fact that they sound like Ole Henriksen, in that way sounding more fluent than those that focus very much on getting our R's correct. And in that context I'd like to mention that Mandarin has much more difference, and I still don't understand tonation... Especially coming from English, you can just read the words as they'd sound in English, and a Danish listener would quickly pick up... because we know how English letters sound.
The real difficulty comes when trying to understand our sayings, puns and so on. Have had colleagues doing cross-lingual pun competitions. And we have The Julekalender that actually takes quite a good level of understanding in both languages to catch all the jokes they built in...
Most Danes I know would struggle if they had mixed Danish with German instead... and I believe it would only be really fun to those living in southern Jutland.
@@annieineventyrlandit’s even hard for us Danes 😂😂😂
That is incredibly rude actually. You learned English because it’s much easier and English speakers are used to all kinds of weird pronunciations and will understand you no matter how bad your English is. If it’s Danish - people just look at you as if you’re an alien or are speaking alien language and ignore you or call someone that speaks English to help you. And I’m a person that picks languages fast, but this just shut my interest. You have to be more encouraging and understanding towards foreigners.
Great video. This was very interesting.
That thumbnail is a piece of art 🤣👌
Mike is in the driver's seat. 👏 👏 Did I get the name right? I get you and Derek confused.
I strongly disagree with Adrian. Kids shouldn't be in school at age 4, they should *play* and have fun while it lasts. They also shouldn't be doing tests and exams, at least before they are teenagers.
"Academic Ability" isn't everything in life.😐
The thing is its the polite thing to do to at least try to speak a little Danish than out right saying to speak English. For those who say its entitled to expect your host country to speak English in a parent meeting, yes and no. When I was growing up my school acknowledged the diversity and translators were available but it wasn't pushed onto parents because those parents didn't grow up speaking English. Danish is difficult and English is easier. My kids are trilingual: dutch, spanish, english and even they prefer to speak English because its just easier while I wish they didn't so much. I think schools should provide translators in an international setting, but also the option of speaking Danish to the parents if they feel comfortable.
What a muppet that Adrian guy is. Just listen to that arrogance. (Paraphrasing, obviously)
- "I live in Denmark and I don't need to learn the language, not even to help my own struggling sons education. The Danes needs to be better and more confident at my language and not let their egos be in the way"
- "Why are you excluding me?, they guy who have had YEARS!!!! to learn the language, at this Danish school. Why are you not like me and make your life to fit mine, like England did for my wife when we lived there, and all the people around us spoke fluent Danish to accommodate her. "
- "I went to Private school and my parents were busy and not very invested in my life"
- Well the apple didn't fall far from the tree, Adrian. To me it sounds like you spoke so little with your son you needed professional help to understand what native language he spoke.
"I refuse to learn Danish but I cannot understand why my impressional son doesn't adapt the the language well. It can't be my fault, It must be the fault of his teachers. It's not like I have an recording device on my phone, and I can record the meetings and ask my wife for a translation later, so not to take time away from my teachers private life. After all, I am more important than them, so me knowing the full content of the meeting as late as in the car ride home, is too late for me. I cannot figure out how to use the schools Intranet or any other email system to ask the questions I might have later."
We had speach counceling and was told it was better if you spoke english together and mom speaking danish to the kids and you speak english to them as that would better cement the two languages at the same time
Spoken danish and written danish are very different. That is one of the reasons that reading and writing is focused on later when the child has some kind of abstraction ability.
It always strikes me that "big language citizens" tend to think that it is harder for them to learn a foreign language than it is for us small ones 😘 I am certain that you "big ones" are as intelligent as us "small ones". Get moving. Learning is a hard task for everyone. You have to work for it on a daily basis!!
A small advise: Stop trying to learn the way you did in your exam and test based schools. Try your danish EVERY day and excuse us small ones that we are not used to it. That is why we often try to correct those brave ones trying to learn our language - SORRY!
We follow science, children should preferably be children for as long as possible - it gives them some other advantages along the way, and there they are also better at accepting learning. Yes, it presents some challenges to be an involved parent, there is no requirement to participate, but it does a lot for your children, it is not full-time after all. It is said that they become better people, and I also think that the Danes were once chosen as the happiest people, properly for a reason, perhaps it stems from the earlier years of their lives.
Grundtvig was very important to the way we think Education in Denmark. Everything that they tell us about testing and not learning to be “Human” in schools was something he was very much against. He said you have to be a Human being before a christian. 😢At that time a christian also meant that you were educated and civilized.
Danish Should be quite easy to learn for an English speaker. English language adopted many words from Danish language.
No from the old norse language, a language current Danish / Swedish and Norwegian dont really sound like.
But something like 600 words in English could be argued to go back to old Norse, for instance Egg / Æg - Knife/ kniv - Window / vindue
Though in Swedish window in no way near vindue in Danish, they call it Fønster as i recall.
Some marginal Danish dialects, they would actually say a or eh window for a vindue, some Danes could / would have trouble understanding these regional dialects that are sadly more or less gone now.
I know i grew up with one in the family, my mothers older sisters husband, his northern Jutland dialect was so far out for us coming from Århus.
And they dident live further away than Skive.
Agora school in Roermond, Netherlands, the school with no classes, classrooms or curriculum
Tak
You need to learn the abstract math young, and understanding abstract math is a requirement in the natural and technical sciences.
Learning it at 18 is difficult
Trust the proces. ❤
Se det er interetsing ❤
Impulses from different sorts, not just the teacher, but your friends parents, may make you do an exstra effort to learn about reasons to be objective and observating, towards the society you will soon meet, on your own feets.
reading and speaking english vs. danish ;) i was better at reading english then danish for many years
Kinda sad that you have a show about how it is to live in denmark, and you still cant speak the language.
Plus kids in Denmark learn English from a young age, and speak it just as fluently as Danish
Kinda sad you think we need any judgement from you AND really sad you think your English so good.
@@RobeTrotting if you don't want to get judged, don't put shit on the internet
@@RobeTrotting Why are you being so utterly rude to anyone who criticises you or disagrees wtih you? I have noticed this in the comment section of several videos.
@weybye91There is a lovely Olde English saying which goes as follows if you don't have anything good or kind to say don't say anything at all. Very interesting as well I have read empathy is big part of Danish parenting and culture and it is truly disheartening that you have not portrayed such characteristics.
@@changeurfuturewithvaughan so, you don't expect people to learn your language, and just speak their own in your country?
It is worth noting that the Danish language is notoriously hard - Also for kids. On average it takes a child 2 years more to be proficient at speaking Danish in Denmark than English in the UK
Not really, Danish has been found to be one of the easiest European languages to learn.
@@tan89284 👋 Hello
I'm curious.
Where did you hear this..?
This is not what we are told and taught, as pedagogues and language tutors. On the contrary🤔!
The best greetings 🙂
Majbritt
I have go on 3 schools☹😢
why would the kids learn danish when they talk it at home???????????????????????????????????????????
Annie’s kids have two non-Danish parents and Adrian’s have one - so it’s not spoken at home per se.
I hate you say Denmark when its only copenhagen 😢 but love your vids 😀
I speak Danish fluently. But if I lived in DK I would hesitate to spend a huge amount of time learning it. It's a niche language, to say the least, and most people there speak English very well. I might learn enough to get by, and then focus on a more useful language. These comments would apply equally to Dutch, which I also speak fluently having grown up there.
The absolute worst thing you can do to a kid is not speaking the language where you live, it's been proven over and over again, it's setting them up for failure, but then again, being an emigrant and living in Copenhagen, not exactly helping either.
we are learning English for the purpose of our businesses to communicate with the world outside. Not for you to move here and demand we change our day to day language around you, of course most people will do this out of kindness. But this seems a bit self absorbed.
Adrian is lying. He wrote a series of novels by the time he was 8.
Men, så så hun så igen, det hun så, så siden ser hun så, det hun så så..
hey red bear , learn danish , you are not in England anymore
I am “surprised” that the Danish economy is one of the strongest in the world with all these people who “don’t read at 4”. They must be doing something right to be able to take well care of all unfortunate citizens (as opposed to the US). I live in Greece and the school system here is very strict. The result is that many kids are fed up after high school and do not want to look at a book again for years.
You’re drinking the kool aid Lars.
@@williamjones4716 well I think if all this superior US education was free you could get rid of MAGA people.
Se det, er i terrsant.
Would you all be as acceptable if it was arabic.
What are you talking about?
Finland has the best schools. So, let's just do what they do. Look it up. Google.