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Hej!
Welcome to the next installment in the 9 reasons to learn... series.
Today I've teamed up with the rather lovely people at Taldansk to give you 9 reasons to
learn Danish.
Are you ready?
Let's go!
FYI, I don't actually speak Danish properly, like, you know, mange tak, tak.
Reason number 1.
Danish is an exotic language.
But we're not talking palm trees and beaches and lovely young coconuts.
Slurp!
We're talking more about the sounds.
Sounds like...this one.
This is the sound that makes a difference between, for example, the word 'hun' and 'hund'
- she and dog.
This rather unusual sound is only found in Danish, which gives the red and white language
its rather unusual yet technically correct title of exotic.
Reason number 2.
World record vowels.
Danish beats all other languages when it comes to vowel sounds.
No less that 42 vowel sounds are produced by these productive speakers.
However, the alphabet has only 9 vowels in it, so this tells us a lot about the different
variations we can pronounce each vowel.
Reason number 3.
If you're watching this you might be partial to learning a few languages, perhaps, so Danish
is a great one.
Not only do you get Danish but it also gives you a real foot in the door if you wanna learn
things like Norwegian and Swedish.
Yes!
Reason number 4.
Fire?
Fear?
Fire?
Fear?
Fire?
Fear of fire...
Danish may not be spoken by the gazillions of people that speak French or Chinese around
the world, but it's still kinda cool.
5 million speakers, roughly the size of a New York suburb, I'm so reliably informed.
And that kinda gives it a bit of an exclusive edge and quite a nice, you know, 'yeah, I
did that' feel to it.
Reason number 5.
The Danes are officially the happiest people on earth.
Who wouldn't wanna talk with the happiest people on earth?
'Nuff said.
Reason number 6.
Tee hee hee!
Danish pastry.
Kind of a broad term.
When you're in Denmark, you're probably not gonna go into a shop and order a Danish pastry.
Instead, you're probably more likely to go in and order one of the specialities of Danish
pastry.
And it's making me hungry just talking about it!
Maybe a Spandauer?
Maybe a Kringle?
I like these words!
Reason number 7.
If you learn Danish, you can impress your friends with your non-translatable words.
Words such as hygge, or hygge, or...it, it's spelt like this.
This just doesn't translate.
But it kind of loosely has the meaning of just a great atmosphere with friends, and
beer, and warm candles, and coziness.
Reason number 8.
Lego!
One of the most powerful brands in the world is Danish.
Imagine, like, how much would you, like, love to work for Lego?
Wouldn't that be the best job ever?
You could be like a Lego designer, and live in Billund in Denmark, and like just make
Lego.
Who wouldn't want that job?!
Reason number 9.
Some exciting advice for beginners - H words.
Taldansk have given me 3 'h words' that they think you can use to get by like, boom, straight
away, just throw 'em around, say them as often as you want, and you'll be golden.
So, the three words are...hej!
Hi, hello, see you later.
Hils, as in 'hils den morg' 'tell your mum I was asking about them'.
Finally, the last one is hyggelig.
Kind of what we talked about earlier with the cozy, the cozy feeling?
That's the one!
So, hej, hils, hyggelig.
Golden.
Are you learning Danish?
Do you want to learn Danish?
Why?
Let me know your reasons in the comments below.
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Så – tak for nu!
Det var hyggeligt!
Hej hej!