Language in Copenhagen
 

My daughter and I are going from the U.S. to Paris with a 5 hour layover in Copenhagen. I speak English very well, and a little Italian. My daughter speaks both English and French very well. Are we going to have problems in the Copenhagen airport. When they make anouncements are they only in Danish?

Darling English is so widely spoken, its a pity for those of us who want to learn the local language. No matter how fluent we are, if they hear the slightest accent or a variation in intonation, they switch to English as fast as a cat can catch a mouse. Don't worry, they speak English better in Copenhagen that they do in Fort Meyers!

I'm not sure I've ever heard an announcement in Danish at Copenhagen. It's certainly never the first language.

In fact, can anyone prove that anyone in Denmark actually speaks Danish ever?

I think they do speak Danish in Denmark LOL. My neice is going there to school for a year starting this August and on of the requirements is that she learn Danish. She is going to live with a family rather than in a dorm room so she can learn faster. I knew that a lot of people in the Scandanavian countries are fluent in english but I was really surprised that so many speak so well with hardly any accent. Many Swedish people were interviewed after the Tsunami and their english was amazing. Certainly I would have wished to have heard them speak under much different circumstances.

And it seems a lot of Scandinavians speak American accented English - i've heard this come from TV where many shows and movies are not dubbed like in many countries so people constantly hear American spoken. Many other European areas seem to speak a British English as i think many English-language school teaches are schooled in British English. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Anyway Scandinavians speak the best English of any place outside of US-Uk - i can actually understand a lot of them better than many Brits - especially some Scottish types.

Way back in the 60s, a couple of college friends and I were all over Europe on Eurailpass. On a train in Sweden, a Swedish man had heard us talking. He approached and asked, "are you from San Francisco?" Yes, we were, but how did he know? "I recognized your accent!"

I've been in Copenhagen three times and have never encountered anyone - from the age or about 9 on up - who didn;t speak fluent - often perfect - english. And yes, many do have american rather than british, accents.

As far as the airport is concernd - I've never been in a major international airport in which the announcements were not made in at least two languages - the local language and english - and often in several more - depending on the desination of the flight.

On my first visit to Denmark, a very small person (daughter of a friend of my host)walked up to me, curtsied and said, "Hvad hedder du?". (What's your name?)

To which I replied, "I'm sorry, but I don't speak Danish, and I'm sure that you don't understand my English".

To which she replied, "Oh, yes I do. I am very pleased to meet you".

((I))

Ira -

A similar thing happened to us. We were walking down a semi-residential street and small kid (8/9) on a bike called out something as he rode by. I said - sorry, we only speak english. He said - no problem -I forgot my watch and just wanted to know what tine it is. (American accent - not english - perhaps from watcing TV?)

Ira and NYTraveler, those are sweet stories.

And wish our students could at least get the same education in another language.

This reminds me of a funny story when I was in Copenhagen.
Now don't get worried you won't have any problems but here's my story.

I was on some little boat ride at Tivoli Gardens and mine didn't really steer that well. I could tell I was about to collide with another boat and the Danish boy had his arm hanging over the side. I tried to tell him to pull his arm up because the boats were about to collide. He just looked at me and then my boat slammed into his arm.

Ah, the old fake arm hanging out of the boat scam.

How much did you have to pay the kid?

((I))

The American accented English was something that used to confound me until one day my DH tuned into a Norwegian Internet radio station. I walked in and the sound wasn't up high enough so that I could hear what people were saying, but from the cadence I thought he was listening to some American radio station. As I got closer, though, I realized I couldn't understand a word they were saying and my DH said it was Norwegian. After that I started wondering if all Scandinavian languages share a similar "sound" with American English.

You will not have the slightest of problems not knowing Danish in Denmark... just as everyone has said.

My husband and I lived there for 18 months and it was actully difficult for us to practice Danish because all the Danes wanted to use their English on us!

You won't have a problem in the airport... Its very easy to navigate.