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LEARNING DANISH

Five Danish words I now use in English

One of the consequences of learning a foreign language is that some words end up slipping into your everyday English, whether intentionally or subconsciously.

Five Danish words I now use in English
"Kommune" is a lot easier to say than "municipality". Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Getting to a stage where I felt entirely comfortable using the Danish language, regardless of who I was speaking to or the nature of the conversation, was a long process which took a number of years.

Even today, with many years in Denmark under my belt, I still get frustrated when I feel unable to express myself as clearly as I would in English.

But one thing I didn’t expect about becoming a Danish speaker was that I would find myself using Danish words in my everyday English, too.

READ ALSO: The seven stages of learning Danish every foreigner goes through

Sometimes it’s due to laziness or sometimes for conciseness, but I often use these words amongst Danish-speaking friends instead of their English equivalents. 

Kommune 

The local government in Denmark is called a kommune, a word which is most accurately translated as “municipality”.

City municipalities are a common concept in many countries, but in the United Kingdom, where I grew up, the local authority is usually termed the “town council”, “city council”, “district council” or, most commonly in everyday speech, simply “the council”.

This probably why I find the word “municipality” doesn’t roll off the tongue very well and so, when speaking to Danes in English or foreigners who live in Denmark, I skip the proper translation and just go with kommune.

Barsel

The catch-all term for pregnancy leave and parental leave in Danish is barsel.

There are various forms and extensions of this word: barselsorlov refers more directly to the actual time off that you take during parental leave; while barselsdagpenge means the pay you receive from your employer or from the state while off work to take care of your baby.

Barsel can be applied to both mothers and fathers and so is a lot easier to say than either “maternity leave” or “paternity leave”. The gender neutral “parental leave” is used less frequently than barsel is in Danish, and the latter word has fewer syllables and is much easier to say. Which comes in handy when you’re down on sleep and struggling to string more than a few coherent words together.

Gymnasium

A gymnasium is not a gym (which are called fitness center in Danish) but an “upper secondary school”, a further education institution typically attended by young people age 17-19 between elementary school and university.

Like some of the other words in this list, my preference for saying this word (with its Danish pronunciation) when speaking English is that it is the only word that accurately signifies what I’m trying to say, because education systems vary between countries.

If I called gymnasium “sixth form”, it would probably be nonsense to anyone not from the UK. “College” might work but not for people from the United States, who associate the word with university. The normal translation in written language, “upper secondary school”, is too much of a mouthful and also not very clear.

This makes gymnasium by far the best option provided the listener knows what one is and doesn’t mind the clunkiness of a Danish-sounding word in an English sentence.

Børnehave/vuggestue

Denmark’s high standard of childcare provisions mean that it’s very common for small children to start attending daycare before their second birthday.

Initially, this will be at a creche or nursery which caters for the needs of smaller children with naps, nappy (diaper) changes and smaller groups. The is a vuggestue or literally a “cradle room”.

Just before little ones turn three, they leave vuggestue and start at børnehave, the Danish word for “kindergarten”. At børnehave, children are mostly toilet trained, don’t nap and things go at a much faster pace with play and activities that help promote the development of kids aged 3-5.

These words tell the listener not just that a child goes to daycare, but also their age group and the type of nursery they attend, and therefore convey a lot more information than an English translation would be able to.

READ ALSO: Vuggestue or dagpleje? The difference between early Danish childcare options

Kasse

I use this Danish word (often inadvertently) because it’s easier than having to find the right equivalent word in English.  

For example, in English we have separate words for “checkout”, “till”, “paypoint” and “cash register”, but in Danish, the word kasse covers them all. It’s also a slang term for “goal”.

So this is an example of a Danish word being less specific than English while also being short and easy to say. 

It also means “box”, although should be used with caution in this sense because two other words can also mean “box”: æske for a smaller box like a gift box or shoe box; and sometimes the loan word boks.

For this reason, I usually say “box” when I mean “box”, but might find myself saying kasse when talking about paying in a store.

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SCHOOLS

‘A superpower’: How being bilingual can help kids thrive in Danish schools

Being bilingual can help children to prosper academically when they are encouraged at school and at home, an expert told The Local.

'A superpower': How being bilingual can help kids thrive in Danish schools

A recent report in Denmark linked a lack of Danish spoken at home and lower economic status with poorer performance at school, but bilingualism in isolation is an advantage under the right conditions, a specialist in the area told The Local on Friday.

Around 40 percent of school students with immigrant backgrounds were considered to be underperforming in mathematics, reading and science. That compares to 16 percent of students with non-immigrant backgrounds, according to the report “PISA Etnisk 2022”, published this week by research and analysis institute VIVE (National Research and Analysis Center for Welfare).

For all students, regardless of heritage, socioeconomic status was a factor in school performance. In other words, students from strong socioeconomic positions achieve better PISA results on average than those from weaker socioeconomic positions.

The report states that the language spoken at home may also have an effect on school results, with students who speak some Danish at home more likely to achieve better results – although this effect is reduced when socioeconomic status is taken into account.

READ ALSO: Kids who don’t speak Danish at home ‘may find school harder’

However, the report may not identify the difference individual situations can make for parents, an expert in raising bilingual children told The Local.

Bilingual kids given the right encouragement and support at home and school are in fact likely to thrive, said Elisa Sievers, a cultural consultant and founder of Happy Children Denmark. 

Sievers, who noted she had not read the VIVE report specifically, has observed bilingual schools and studied evidence on teaching multilingual children, at the Institute for Minority Education at University College South Denmark. 

Larger studies don’t always look at “the kids’ class or socioeconomics, where they actually come from, how long they’ve been in Denmark or what kind of resources the family has,” she said, adding that a number of different factors, like the languages spoken and whether the parents speak Danish, can create different circumstances contributing to results.

Being bilingual “doesn’t take the academic level of a child down, quite the opposite,” Sievers said. “It’s really about creating a space where children feel seen and feel that all parts of their identity and their language skills are embraced, then the child’s full potential can get out and they can thrive and have better academic results.”

“If a child is not thriving then they won’t perform super well academically either.”

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Difficulties can arise if bilingualism is framed negatively by educators, parents or others, such as “questioning whether [the child] speaks any language perfectly,” Sievers said.

“That will affect the way the child is behaving and the way the child wants to perform and experiment with learning languages in general.”

“If there’s a positive, embracing space where the child can develop and use their language skills in a positive way”, they will be able to thrive, she said.

To create an “embracing” environment for bilingual children, Sievers advocates parents “staying authentic”, meaning each parent being consistent about speaking in their own mother tongue.

“It’s important that while the children are small and learning to speak that parents stick to that, and then they can be more loose later when the child knows the two languages,” she said.

At school, teachers can “make a point of the child having a special skill” by encouraging use of the second language.

An example of this could be asking the child to explain something about their language or background to the rest of the class.

“Seeing the language background, talk about it as something positive and something that is a superpower for the child instead of being a problem,” she said.

Elisa Sievers has a monthly newsletter, with tips for teachers and parents of bilingual and trilingual children.

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